Are You Still Dreaming of Success?
I got an email from a friend of mine, Alvin Phang, today that started me thinking about success. I met Alvin nearly 4 years ago when I was in Singapore and took the opportunity of doing an interview with him. In the interview he talks about how he got started online and where he was in his business at the time.
I’ve put a copy of that interview online for you to listen to. Go to http://www.trevor-greenfield.com/alvin/Alvin.zip
The email today was sent out to Alvin’s list and in it Alvin includes some tips and advice around doing research, getting setup and marketing products. Alvin is one of the good guys online and I really rate him. Check out his blog over at http://www.trevor-greenfield.com/alvinsblog. You’ll find lots of useful advice and help there.
Anyway, to get back to the theme of this post and why Alvin’s email got me thinking. He includes a link in the email to a post that he made about his journey from newbie to making a million dollars online, all of the issues that he and his family and wife’s family have gone through over the six years it has taken him to achieve that and how in the process he became a Christian and the difference that has made to him.
Whether you’re a Christian or not or what your views are about Christianity are, it is well worth reading. You’ll find it over on his blog, http://www.trevor-greenfield.com/alvinsblog under the title of; my-million-dollar-journey-god-over-money.
Are You Still Dreaming of Success?
One of the things that struck me about his journey was his desire to make money to the point of it becoming an obsession. He was constantly dreaming about money but he also took action, in lots of different things that, with the exception of Internet Marketing, all failed.
However, Alvin did take action – lots of it, and that is something that many people don’t do. There have been times when I was one of those people. I don’t know about you but I find inspirational stories almost addictive, I love to hear about people who have overcome difficulties to reach their goal.
I spoke last time about the Olympics and many of those athletes overcame difficulties to achieve their Olympic success. We are now just a few days away from the Paralympic games and those athletes have all overcome immense hardship to get to the point of being able to compete in the games. Sadly, the war in Afghanistan is creating more disabled young people both here in the UK and in the US and many of those are finding healing and purpose again through sport.
Dreaming alone won’t make you rich
It’s very easy to get into a cycle of just dreaming about being rich without actually doing something to make it happen. Reading about other people’s success over difficulty is inspirational but it can become just like any addiction. You get a real buzz while you’re reading it and are fired about the same thing happening to you only to fall back into the realization that it isn’t happening and the search for more inspiration.
I’m a firm believer that we become what we think about but without positive action, the thinking will get us nowhere. It’s very easy to spend our time day-dreaming of the time when we’re rich instead of taking action to make it happen.
Because for a lot of you the time you have to spend on building your success is very limited, it is important to make the best use of the time you do have. I’ve found that a setting fixed amount of time for different tasks really helps you focus and achieve a lot more.
One of the biggest time wasters is not having a plan. I try to plan at the end of the day what I’m going to do the next day, or next time I’m going to be working on my business. I’m now able to work on my business every day and try to do a little bit towards it each day. When you have a job to go to as well that’s often difficult to do, having a plan for the next opportunity you have to work on your business is even more important then.
I find Simpleology (http://www.simpleology.com) very useful in keeping me on target. It’s free to use so if you’re struggling with keeping focused and motivated I suggest you give it a try.
Your Daily Plan
I learned a technique several years ago from Jimmy D Brown about scheduling my work in 45 minute chunks. It’s difficult to keep focused on a topic for several hours at a time which is why all lessons in school are less than an hour in length and often 45 minutes.
My plan consists of 4 elements, the 4 elements that need to be progressed regularly if your business is to grow. They are, Offer Development, List Building, Traffic Generation and Small tasks/support.
I allocate 45 minutes to each of these elements with a 10 – 15 minute break in between each. I follow this plan Monday through Thursday. On Friday, I check out some of the interesting emails I’ve received during the week, things that look like they will be useful, office admin tasks, other tasks that don’t logically fit in one of my categories etc.
Part-Time
If you’re running your business part-time around your job or family than just scale down the time you allocate to each element. The key is to do something everyday towards growing your business. Note: reading emails isn’t part of growing your business. I try to scan my emails, save the ones that look interesting to read properly later and delete the rest. I also unsubscribe from lots of emails almost daily.
I mentioned last time the importance of having a mastermind group or coach and that is vitally important to your success. Very few successful people have made it on their own. If you didn’t read my last newsletter I suggest you go back and read it. I’ve posted it on my blog here at http://www.trevor-greenfield.com.
If you’re struggling with anything at the moment, something that you feel is holding you back that if you received help to get past would make a big difference to your progress, email me at trevor@trevor-greenfield.com. I want to hear from you. Tell me something about you, what your goals and dreams are, where you are in your journey towards success and what you would like to see in my newsletter and here on my blog.
This newsletter will also be up on my blog soon so if you want to leave a comment over there I’d be happy to read it. I can only help you if you get in touch and ask so take action now to reinforce your dreams and they will become reality.
