You’re under attack. Information overload is imminent. What are you doing to solve it? Are you feeling overwhelmed, feeling down and about to give up?
When you’re feeling like you can take no more, that is the time when you should keep going, because that’s when most people give up.
Even though I have a growing blog, niche websites that make money and everything seems to be going well, my brain is still trying to distract me.
It wants me to go after that new course that just came out. They’re promising me thousands of dollars each month and my brain likes it
It wants everything insignificant. This is the time when I bring it back into reality.
I realize that I would have to work on this new course for at least a year before I would start making any significant money.
Am I prepared to put in that amount of work? Do I FEEL passionate about what they are doing? Do I need more money?
By asking these questions I can turn off the part of my brain that isn’t helping and bring awareness and consciousness back into my life.
I realize that everything is well. I am reminded by my purpose, my goals and my passion. I am heading in the right direction and feeling awesome.
The glimpses of uncertainty, frustration and greed will fade. The first time you become aware of them, they may be large, two-hour long HD movies, but as you learn how your brain works, they start to disappear more and more.
But what if you still feel overwhelmed? What if you don’t really know what to do? The best advice I can give you is to experiment. If that doesn’t suffice, here’s what I’ve learned throughout my short life:
1. Stop Searching for Perfection
It doesn’t matter if you’ve just started with this online stuff or if you’ve been reading about it for several years.
You do not have to know everything in order to start. You will never reach a point where you know the exact steps to take.
You will always be confused. You will always be afraid. This is true for everyone. No one is privileged. We’re all the same.
The thing that differentiates the successful from the unsuccessful is the ability to be okay with all of this.
Being okay with imperfection, fear and worry comes with time. The first time you face fear, it’ll be scary, but as you keep doing it over and over again, it becomes a habit, a powerful habit.
There is no perfect system out there that will make you money, get you subscribers or catapult you to success.
Think about the tools as glasses or cups. They all have the same general purpose: to hold liquid. The tools online are there to help you, but they aren’t the end goal.
There are millions of different ways of drinking water, tea or coffee. Do you really need cups? Could you create your own cup? What about modeling someone who already does it the way you want to?
2. Wield Your True Power
You are not the part of your mind constantly searching, yearning and desiring money, fame and stuff. The part of you that is you is the observer.
Have you ever thought about the fact that you can take a step back and observe your thoughts? Sure, your mind will bring in loops upon loops of thoughts to try and trick you, but ultimately you ARE the observer behind the thoughts.
One of the best analogies I’ve heard is this: When you’re watching a movie, you aren’t the movie, you are the person WATCHING the movie.
What does this have to do with improving productivity and achieving success online?
When you truly realize this, you also realize that your mind doesn’t wield the power you thought it did. You no longer have to listen to everything it has to say.
I have enough money, but my mind wants more. My websites are doing great, but I want more visitors, more success and more of everything.
This is my mind talking. By being aware of my mind, I give myself choices. I don’t have to listen to it. I can let my thoughts pass. If they do not pass, that is fine as well, because even your mind is part of you.
It only wants the best for you. It wants security. It wants to feel good and it wants to be loved. Realize that it isn’t out to hurt you, but to protect you.
Whenever I start getting distracted by a new promise, I realize what my mind is up to and I bring my thoughts back to the present moment.
I remind myself of what is important and assess my current situation. Even if you’re heading in the right direction, your mind will want to go on tangents and avoid the work, because it’s so much easier to dabble and play around.
The next time you hear that small voice in your head act out of fear, realize that it only wants the best for you. Be okay with it and bring your thoughts back to the present moment.
If you’re unsure of your passion, this voice will be stronger than ever, because you will be uncertain. In that case, use it as a reminder that you still need to get clear about what you truly want.
3. Focus
When you realize you’re in control of your thoughts, you can start eliminating what you don’t want and focus on what you do want.
Even as I am writing this article, my mind is constantly wanting to surf, indulge in social media, go get a glass of water, look out the window, think about what I’m going to eat and a hodgepodge of other unrelated things.
Writing, creating products, learning how to succeed online and in general staying focused is hard work. It feels bad, so most people don’t do it. They opt for something easy and settle for the 9-to-5.
I look at doing the important work as a sort of meditation. My mind will wander, but each time I bring it back and focus solely on one task, I feel stronger and feel more focused.
I fail a lot. I get distracted a lot. Sometimes I berate myself for not being perfect, but I remember: no one is perfect. The most successful people in the world deal with the same things as you and I.
Why is it that some people can do this, but not you? It isn’t because of talent. It isn’t because of magical abilities. So why is it?
In my own experience I’ve had a few a-ha moments where I’ve realized that even the most successful people are just humans. The difference is they know what’s important and they get it done.
A big excuse you might hear from yourself or from others is if you could just do this full-time you’d make it. But that’s a big lie, and you know it.
If you have 2 hours to get something done, you tend to be more focused and get it done faster. If you have 6 hours, you tend to coast and fill the whole 6 hours to get the same things done. It’s called Parkinson’s Law, which states: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
Determine the most important tasks for you to make progress and do them. Stay focused and get them done. Everything else is an excuse.
4. Find Your Passion
Your passion is what will keep you going when nothing seems to work.
When I run into obstacles with my blog and business, I overcome them because my purpose is more important than my fears.
I have no choice but to succeed. I could not live with myself if I stopped because of one petty fear that my mind threw at me.
My goal is to help others succeed online and break free from their self-imposed shackles. I do this through this blog right now, but I am completely open to the fact that the platform I use may change.
You never know that will happen. Everything is constantly changing, which is why you have to get comfortable being uncomfortable and use your passion and purpose to fuel you through the tough patches.
Let’s face it, you’ve probably procrastinated on a lot of things that could have brought you closer to your dream life. And so have I, I’m not going to lie to you about that.
I procrastinate all the time, but I always find a way to keep improving my productivity and get things done. If nothing else, I think about my purpose and remind myself that what I am doing is important.
Everything doesn’t have to be logical. My mind is often highly illogical, but we humans aren’t really logical beings. We are run by our emotions, so use them to your advantage.
Imagine you being the most important person on the planet. If you don’t keep on going, everything will go down the drain.
What if three years from now you did something that changed the world? What if it happened because of the failures and frustrations you’re going through now?
5. Find a Mentor
Finding someone who’s successfully doing what you want to do is one of the best ways to quiet your mind and give it some certainty.
I’ve used mentors ever since I made my first money online playing poker. As I started becoming successful, I paid someone $250/hour to critique my game and tell me what I was doing wrong.
From that point on, my whole approach to poker and life changed. I could never go on without a mentor. It’s simply too valuable to pass up on.
Having someone to guide you is priceless. When I started my first niche website, which was a failure, I didn’t have a coach. I somehow missed it and I didn’t follow the instructions, so I wasted two years of my time.
I almost gave up, because I thought that this whole internet thing was a scam. No one can make money doing this. That was my mind talking.
Those who think like this haven’t even tried. They haven’t put in the effort. They haven’t worked hard. I know, because I’ve been there. It’s easy to play the victim and feel sorry for yourself.
After two years I finally realized I wasn’t getting anywhere with my first website, which is when I got a mentor, got serious about following instructions and I worked hard.
The results? It worked. That website is still bringing in income every single month.
6. Redefine Failure
You will fail. You will run into obstacles and you will be frustrated. It’s a part of life. What determines your success is how you use them.
You could feel sorry for yourself and blame other people and things for causing this catastrophic scenario to happen to you.
OR . . .
You could look at what you could improve and take action to implement your newfound knowledge. Ask your mentor what you did wrong. Read, discuss and absorb, but remember to take action.
I owe a lot of my fast success to being okay with making mistakes and failing over and over again. I don’t remember when I embraced this, but I have a feeling it started right around the time I started making money playing poker.
When we’re in school, failing and making mistakes is frowned upon. Every spelling error is highlighted with a red marker, every paper graded.
This makes us afraid to try things and eliminates our childish sense of adventure. It is up to each and every one of us to regain it.
How?
By going out there, failing and seeing that it doesn’t kill you. When you redefine failure, you actually want people to criticize you and give you feedback, because the more constructive criticism you get, the faster you’ll improve.
7. Stop Re-Inventing the Wheel
Everyone is telling you to be remarkable and to stand out, but is that really practical when it comes to making your first $100 online or getting your fist 1,000 subscribers?
There’s no need to re-invent the wheel and try to figure everything out. This goes hand in hand with finding a mentor.
Sometimes you won’t have the money to spend $150-250 per hour on a mentor. What you can do instead is join a training course that resonates with you.
The more you emulate someone who is already successful, the faster you’ll be successful. It’s really that simple.
If you’re not succeeding, you’re doing something wrong, which is when you ask your mentor or the person in charge of the training for feedback.
Improving productivity, getting things done and succeeding online is first about following instructions, modeling someone successful and then experimenting with your own ideas.
It has worked over and over again for me and the people that I’ve taught (discounting the people that don’t take action), so why not for you?
{ 12 comments }
Powerful post Henri!
Seth Godin wrote a book about that called ‘The Dip’. Knowing when something is not worth your time and it is better to quit or knowing when it is right to power through and get through that dip just before you blast off. That is what he talks about.
I know exactly what you mean when you say that you feel like you’re about to give up after seemingly getting little results for a lot of effort, but mostly it is exactly at that point that you are closer to achieving success than you have ever been!
Henri Great tips. For me #1 and 3 are my biggest road blocks sometimes.
Luckily I’m a stubburn Taurus that doesn’t give up lol
Henri, I like your idea of working with your mentor so someone can critique your work. So many times you’re blinded by your own work.
I also like the last tip, which is emulating someone successful. Excellent food for thought.
Hey Henri,
Totally agree with focus. I know passion etc is also very important, but when days I am unguided and unfocused I feel like I can’t get anything done. I do a little of this, and a little of that – and really, end up accomplishing a whole lot of nothing!
Great post. I find that point number 1 holds the truest for me. Sometimes I feel like when I do something it has to be “awesome or nothing”, and I almost dismiss the idea of learning as I go. It’s cool to see someone acknowledge that
Henri,
I like your point about redefining failure. I once heard somebody say it is only failure if I didn’t learn anything from what happened (which, of course, is pretty much never).
I personally think that the only real failure is not trying. If you at least try, then you have not failed. This takes away the stigma that a lot of people have with failure.
And I completely agree that school discourages people from making mistakes which is not good considering this can be a really good way to learn.
Hi Henri,
I particularly like your comments about failure – why do we see failure as a bad thing, instead of a hint to try again but in a different way…
Topi
Perfect timing for me Henri. One thing that really stood out for me is that your brain does all the same things that mine does (in terms of trying to distract you, being worried about perfection etc) even though your are earning money on line and I’m not. A good lesson that we all have that crazy stuff going on but we just need to keep going past it.
Great post, Henri! Just like Jen, it was good timing for me also. I bottomed out the other night. I had finally gotten the courage to start selling on eBay. It was fairly good right at the beginning. I sold a couple of things for decent money. However, it hasn’t been too good since then. Traffic and sales on eBay are slow. Also, eBay has a new fee structure starting in April that takes even more of the seller’s money. They have become way too corporate! So, I figured that, once again, I’m a day late and a dollar short, out of sync, and out of step.
I was at Amazon checking out book prices to see what to charge for my books, and I noticed the list of bestsellers. I saw that Karl Rove was on that list. I was horrified! Here is a man who has ruined so many lives, a man as evil as they come, making even more money. Well, I lost it. I was so angry, I started yelling! My husband was trying to calm me down. We struggle with money problems, and here was this evil man raking in the money! I was cursing God for allowing that!
I’m better now. I’m on a more even keel, but this kind of thing is always in the back of my mind. In the US, the bankers have been rewarded for robbing us blind! The unfairness goes on and on. I mean, there is only so much money available.
I know. I’m blaming other factors for my problems, like you were saying. However, I’m 60 years old, and I don’t have a lot of productive years left. I’m hoping I have as much as 20, but that may not be the case. I have to get it right very soon, or I will have to give up.
I dont know you Mary, but the only thing I can say is to never give up.
Life is a test, dont you want that straight A?
Thanks, Felis! I think I missed out on the A, but a B is okay!
“I mean, there is only so much money available.”
Money isn’t limited. Money is energy and there is an infinite amount of energy. Come to think of it, everything is energy.
If you believe that money is in limited supply, that means that for you to have more, someone else has to have less. That is not true.
If you can find a way to provide value to others, you can create anything you want and so can everyyone else.
Rich
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