Not Tonight Honey... I’ve Got A Headache!

Get your mind out of the gutter! This thread isn’t about what you think it is. After all, this is a forum about internet marketing and business entrepreneurship right? ;) What I’m talking about here is the ever annoying, unapologetically insatiable virus of PROCRASTINATION! It’s like an insect really, burrowing deep into our subconscious, providing us with justifications for why we shouldn’t be putting our training to use, TAKING ACTION, and ultimately MAKING MONEY!

How many of us start a project with immense enthusiasm? We populate our brains with “IF, THEN EQUATIONS”, opening up our desktop calculators and convincing ourselves that “IF my offer is priced at (a) and I get (b) amount of customers, THEN I will most certainly make (c) worth of profits... Or... IF build a site and drive (a) amount of traffic, and my opt-in page converts at (b) percent, THEN by the end of a month I will have added (c) amount of subscribers to my list. Sound familiar? But guess what? A few days go by... then a few more... until finally, as more and more time begins to accumulate, we get less and less excited about our idea before we finally find ourselves (months later), no different than how/where we started out originally.

The point that I’m trying to make here, is that in order to cure the all-consuming disease of procrastination, we have to recognize these impulses to stall and temporize, and make it a daily habit to push past and suppress them.

In MLM there’s something called “the honeymoon period”. This is a term that is used to describe the first couple of days following your introduction to a new money-making opportunity. The problem with the honeymoon period, much like in our real world marriages, is that once the honeymoon comes to an end, we are suddenly struck with the harsh reality that “making it work” means putting in a lot of time and personal investment. Often times, this doesn’t fit with the sexy appearance that our new business venture once had, and finally we find ourselves completely “divorced” from the idea entirely.

So what do we need to do to prevent this from happening to us in the future? Easy, all we all need to do is simply TRUST our instincts (assuming you already have the proper training). If you’ve done your research and discovered an opportunity in which money can be made... Follow through with it! Don’t give it all of your attention for the first few days, and then jettison it for something new. For some odd reason, many of us who are excellent employees and exceptional managers, are painfully lazy when we're the ones cracking the whip against ourselves. Therefore, pretend like you’re a six-figure executive at a multimillion dollar corporation, and you have been given this task by your boss. If you don’t complete it, you will get fired from your job and thus be unable to provide for your family. Your whole lifestyle would come crashing to the ground faster than you could say (lazy a**).

You see, there needs to be something at stake. We marketers spend a lot of time writing about making money in forums and emails back in fourth within our network of friends and colleagues, but how many of us actually follow through with our “big talk” when nobody’s there to regulate us and the lour of junk reality television is drawing us in. Be honest with yourself. Are you treating this like a real business in which you are the owner, or a hobby about which you just love to talk? When your business is calling your name, begging you to give it some attention, do you conveniently tell it “Not tonight honey, I’ve got a headache”, or do you suck it up (even when it’s no longer fun) and put in the time and effort to make it work?

If you’re someone who takes your business as seriously as you would if you were a top level CEO, then more power to you. You’re no doubt, ahead of the game. But if you are nothing but a “dreamer” who has no intention of giving this your all, with all due respect, you’re just wasting your time... and everyone else's. Try to recognize right now, the kind of marketer that you are and ask yourself, if you continue to do exactly what you’re doing right now, where will you be in 6-12 months? If the answer isn’t satisfying, then I would suggest making some serious changes to yourself and your business IMMEDIATELY. And by the way, if you’re concerned about missing out on your favorite junk prime time television shows, no worries. There is a solution to your problem... and its name... is HULU! ;D

Most people find it easy to fail and hard to find greatness.

But the truth is that most people like to feel like they are making progress when
they are really just making movement.

Those are 2 different things.

Grab a copy of the 4 hour work week and that will change your mind about a lot
of things.

Charles

Great point Charles. I've read many of your posts and always appreciate hearing your feedback. I must say though, that procrastination can be the ultimate killer of progress. At least it has been for me in the past. I use to find myself reading and talking a lot about marketing, but not fully taking the plunge for fear of meeting failure. Now, I've learned that although all of my endeavors may not work out the way I originally intend them to, I'm still moving forward, learning from my mistakes and shortcomings as well as my successes.

Cheers

I was sitting in a restaurant reading the 4 hour Work Week and a woman came up to me to say how it changed her life. Great read.

Unfortunately I think many people look to online marketing as an instant solution to their economic problems or their unhappy jobs. It is an easy trap considering the numerous headlines promising easy money.

Any business requires due dilligence and hard work. Sure, luck helps but you need a sustainable formula and if the basic business concept is sound then work it and spend the time. Ultimately if done properly, some level of success will be the result. However, even when action is taken, most people give up.

Giving up and procrastination are the two behaviors that result in the greatest number of small business failures (especially internet marketing since the investment is nominal).

Thank you for this post JP

Barry

No problem Barry. Truly appreciate your response. I will absolutely take Charles's advice and read the 4 hour work week though. It sounds very intriguing. The way I figure it, my goal is to generate as many passive income streams as possible while providing value and quality to my customers. Usually that requires some extra effort up front, but it's well worth it when, at the end of all the effort, things are operating on autopilot and I can truly have a 4 hour work week. :)

Thank you both for your replies.

I'm going to take a 30 min break grab a sandwhich and watch this show, then I'll get back to work.

Sound familiar JP. I really appreciate your posts. I've been a member of this forum 1 hour and have already read a few of them.

Anyway, the above is my big problem. I take a break..... that just never ends. I think that one of the biggest problems for me is that I've been online for a year spent thousands on ads and programs and what not, and my biggest check so far has been 67$. I used to sit at the computer for 12 hours straight when I started but just got unmotivated.

I do feel though that I can overcome this as soon as I overcome procrastination. Thanks again JP for all the great posts and I'm sure I'll be responding to your posts again.

Daniel