You know, when Dennis asked me to write a guest post for the E1kad blog, I was honored.
See I got my start on E1kad with my freelancing business, and I’m certain that had I not found this forum, my life would have gone in a vastly different direction.
I might even now still be struggling to figure out this “online thing” and still clean vacation homes for a living. Who knows?
However it was no easy task when I first started my journey. Dennis and likely all the “old-timers” will tell you (but Big D especially! Lol) that when I first joined the forum I was all over the map.
I had a billion questions and absolutely zero focus. I had no idea what I was doing, what I wanted to do, or where I was going. None.
I drove Dennis absolutely nuts with PM’s and new threads on topics already covered ad nauseum. The word focus wasn’t even in my vocabulary. Nor were terms like goal setting, direction, and productivity!
Luckily I didn’t get booted out on my rear, and with some not so gentle nudges from Dennis, I slowly learned to focus my attention and pick a plan already.
That plan ended up with me being a ghostwriter. I had met Jenn Dize and realized I had a knack for writing. So I thought hey… if she can do this, maybe I can too!
I then proceeded to move on to pestering her to death (thank you Jenn!) in order to get my fledgling freelance business off the ground. Little did I know the journey wouldn’t stop there.
My business ended up growing very quickly until soon I was earning a full-time income and upping my rates as my skill increased. I branched out into blogging and dabbled in affiliate marketing as well, but my main focus was ghostwriting.
However there were a few hard lessons I had to learn along the way, and still battle with daily. One of those is a ridiculous penchant for procrastination. Some say it stems from laziness, some say it stems from fear… some say it stems from a feeling of overwhelm.
I say who the heck knows, but get a grip on it already!
I think a lot of things contribute to the urge to procrastinate and put things off and it could be a blend of all 3 of the reasons above and then some. It manifests in many different ways, and is a big part of the dreaded “Bright Shiny Object Syndrome” web-preneurs often struggle with.
It is however one of the biggest self-imposed obstacles an entrepreneur faces and at the end of the day it boils down to this:
How bad do you really want to succeed?
It’s not enough to just say you want to reach your dreams. It’s not enough to wish really hard. It’s not enough to write down your dreams everyday or affirm them in the mirror every night. At the end of all that, it’s just a lot of wanting, wishing, hoping and affirming, with no actual DOING.
When you really want to succeed, not only do you want it so badly you can taste it, you want it so badly you’re willing to work like He-Man to get it. That means you take positive action every single day that moves you closer and closer to your goals.
Even on the days you procrastinate so much you feel like a slob, watching Tivo and eating bon-bons on the couch that night… you still take one small action toward your dreams.
What that looks like of course will be different for everyone. Maybe that’s writing just one article, or reading just one new book that will add to your knowledgebase.
Maybe it’s just responding to an email for a quote or installing WP on that domain you’ve been thinking about for 3 weeks. Whatever.
The point is that you just DO SOMETHING that moves you forward. You DO SOMETHING that makes today better than yesterday. You DO SOMETHING that puts you just a hair closer to realizing your dreams. Every little step adds up people.
Does that mean you should give in to your urge to put things off every day? Hell no of course not.
It means that it’s OK to cut yourself a bit of slack and give in to your urge to procrastinate when it’s particularly strong as long as you perform that one small action first.
Everyone has off days, it’s natural.
And you’ll feel a lot better about yourself if you don’t beat yourself up about them. They happen. The trick is to salvage it a bit by taking that one small step forward, and then giving yourself license to start fresh the next day, with renewed vigor and determination.
By taking that one small action you’re building something called momentum. You’re keeping yourself moving forward, whether that’s into a fast failure or a slow success… every step closer is a worthwhile step. Incremental actions add up fast.
Think about it. I’m a writer and one day I’d love to publish a book. So even if I just write 1 page a day for the next 6 months… at the end of the 6 months I’d have 180 pages of that book done. That’s long enough to publish in e-format and be great… and long enough to publish as a physical book and still cover a lot of ground.
And all it took was a page a day. (Hmnn… note to self… begin writing that book first thing tomorrow!)
So my questions for you are what are your goals right now? What are you doing to reach them? And if today is an off day, what small action have you taken today to move you closer to them?
And finally…
How badly do you really want it?
Cori is a wildly hire-able freelance ‘ghost’ as well as the creative brains and dubious brawn behind her blog Big Girl Branding. If you’d like to harness her creative brains and dubious brawn and put it to work for you, just stalk her on Twitter and ask her. I’m “almost” sure she doesn’t bite. Well… like 95% sure.
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