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The Best Piece of Advice for New Bloggers Looking To Make It Big

October 23, 2009 By 5 Comments

I have been lurking around the Problogger.com forum (and posting some) for quite awhile now, and one of the forum members brought up a great question. If you had one piece of advice to give a new blogger looking to make it as a problogger…what would it be?

While there were some pretty good responses to the question, I want to share mine with you and then explain why.

#1 Piece of advice…

Most bloggers fail because the do not take action. You can blog on just about anything you want and be successful if you take action. Instead of spending your time telling everyone what you are going to do…actually do it.

Why do you think bloggers “give away” a lot of their secrets to making money online and growing successful blogs? They are not worried about competition in most cases because they know the vast majority of the readers will move onto another source of “learning” without taking action on the steps they just read.

It is a lot easier to jump from blog to blog or ebook to ebook soaking in all the knowledge. It is hard to take actions on those steps and have the discipline to hold yourself accountable.

And that really is the #1 piece of advice I give new bloggers because it is true.

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I Am The Only One That Stands In The Way

October 16, 2009 By 13 Comments

I am the only one that stands in the way of what I want.

It isn’t my bad luck.
It isn’t people that just don’t understand.
It isn’t that I am so busy that I just don’t have time right now.
It isn’t the competition.
It isn’t that my ideas are bad.

It is procrastination.
It is self doubt.
It is the lack of action.
It is the excuses.
It is me.

No one is going to give me anything.
If I want something bad enough, I have to go get it.
Nothing great comes without sacrifice.
Those that hold their hands out for the freebie..always will be.
Hard work and dedication breeds success.

It is up to me to make my own success.
It is not up to the guy down the street.
This is my journey.
These are my goals.
And this is my life.

I will not stand in my own way.

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I Strive To Become The Man In My Dog's Eyes

October 1, 2009 By Leave a Comment

In life, there are millions of things a day trying to throw us off track. If we really take the time to look, at every corner there are temptations to go astray and give into things that – in the end – are not good for us or the people around us.

This can be simple things like procrastination to one of the 7 deadly sins, so how do we go throughout life making each day better than the last in our quest to be happier, healthier and richer (not just monetarily)?

I Strive To Become The Man In My Dog’s Eyes

Every day, I come home to two happy faces that can make any rough day great. I can be cussing up a storm walking through the garage, but it seems to all be ok once I open the door and there are two Boxers begging for attention (so exciting that their entire rear end is wagging with their tails). Dogs do not see your flaws or have any really sense of time. They live in the moment and remember you as the best thing ever as you make voices and sounds you wouldn’t ever do in public. You are their owner and you are the one that scratches that favorite spot behind their ear, so you are perfect in every way. You make them happy no matter what as you are the purest form of companionship and good in their lives.

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Those Were The Best Years Of My Life

September 28, 2009 By 3 Comments

I hear people make wild comments all the time that I do not agree with. This one in particular, really bugs me down to the core because the individuals that actually subscribe to this idea are happy to be able to let these words enter their cranium and release out of their mouth via new found jubilation. Have you ever heard someone say one of the following lines out loud?

  • Those were the best years of my life.
  • I would give anything to go back to that time in my life.
  • Remember back in (fill in the blank)? It doesn’t get any better than that.

What is this person doing? Are they actually saying that they believe that some past time period in their lives was the best time of their life and that can not be topped? There is a fatal flaw in this way of thinking that will keep the person in question dreaming of past times instead of the future.

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Are You Just Skating By?

September 17, 2009 By 2 Comments

Are you just skating by and taking life as it comes? It is an easy trap to get into as we continue our daily route without a thought in our mind that we could actually shake things up and change our outcomes. A surprising major of people go throughout life on the bleeding edge. They are living week to week, paycheck to paycheck just hoping that someone will realize the greatness that in bodies who they are and reward that with more cash that they can spend faster than they make. When in reality, they are not oozing out greatness…they are doing just enough to get by so they won’t get fired. There no real reward for being extraordinary…just more responsibilities to increase the bottom line for someone else. This creates the “only do enough to get by” mentality that plagues most workers.
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Why I Am Now Wearing A Livestrong Bracelet 24/7

September 4, 2009 By 6 Comments

I have caved in to the peer pressure. My left wrist is now decorated with a yellow Livestrong bracelet so I thought I would take a second to tell you why. Over the weekend – as many of you already know – I participated in a charity road bike ride to benefit the Lance Armstrong Foundation. The $50.00 entry fee went straight to the foundation and other teams and individual riders raised even more money for the cause. It was a great chance to raise money for cancer research and ride the pro course before the guys who can really lay down the speed raced later that after noon.

Now…set aside the fact that raising awareness for cancer research is a great thing in itself. Also set aside that Lance has successfully made the yellow bracelet that features the Livestrong logo a fashion statement that has spread like crazy and some people just like to ride the trendy atmosphere that seems to surround the idea. I wear my Livestrong bracelet for a different reason. I wear my Livestrong bracelet for me.

Why I Wear A Livestrong Bracelet

You are probably thinking…”wow…what a conceded bastard. You wear a Livestrong bracelet for you? Where the hell do you get off making a cancer awareness symbol about you?” or you are just thinking…”ok…whatever”. Either way…let me explain.

I use the memory of cancer survivors and those that fought long and hard with the disease but lost the struggle in the end as motivation to make my life better. We are put at decisions on a daily basis where we can ‘put up or shut up’ and unfortunately for most people in this world…they decide to take the easy road (and most of the time they still don’t shut up). For those that are fighting cancer, they do not have the luxury of picking and choosing. They are fighting a very hard battle that can be won or lost in the matter of days. These fighters also happen to be some of the most giving and honest people I have ever met.

Over the course of my adult life, I have not made things easy on myself. There are many times that I took the the easy road and for a number of years…I chose the destructive road that leads to no where but bad. Coming out of that destructive behavior gives me a look at life that many never get to see. Life…every second of it…is precious and we take that for granted constantly.

Whenever I feel things getting difficult or I find myself whining about things that don’t really matter, I now have an in my face reminder to be happy for what I have and the life I live. There are many people in this world that do not have the same luxuries or ability to just get out and do what they love. I also find myself looking back on past events and being grateful for coming out of the darkness I was living in to find a new life that is rewarding.

I also use the Livestong bracelet as a motivational tool to further expand my ideas and push through the hard times to see success. When others will try to pull you down, you can constantly work harder to achieve the goals you have set for yourself. When you are reminded that this is your one and only life, you are able to compartmentalize the road blocks and push through with the steps it takes to be successful in whatever venture you are pursuing.

There are cancer survivers that have overcome extreme diversity and proved doctors wrong by beating the disease. If they can do something that heroic in life, we have no excuse. We have the ability to come up with a thousand lame excuses that do not hold water, but – when it boils down to it – it is up to us to make the things happen in life that we want and desire. No one is going to hand you a end all cure…you have to work your ass off and go against what is considered normal. You have to be a survivor.

I have been a survivor once in my life already from self inflicted problems. Now…it is time to use the memory of true hero’s as the motivation to make every day of my life better and to truly enjoy the time I have. I wear my Livestrong bracelet as a constant reminder to be a better person and to achieve my goals through the memory of cancer patients that define the word heroic…

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How To Stop Arguing With Yourself – Conquering the Internal Debate

August 13, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Do you ever feel like you are having an internal conversation with yourself that is going nowhere? There is a decision to be made and there is no sense of a resolution in sight as you continually weigh both sides of the issue and argue with yourself in search of an answer. You are in a clone meeting as you battle back and forth with your own thoughts in search of that one answer that is going to solve your needs. Many times, we spend far too much time trying to argue with ourselves and less time trying things out and just seeing what happens!

Resolution Through Action

The situation above is best described as getting stuck. You are getting stuck in your own thoughts instead of getting out of your head and into action. How many great ideas in this world have gotten railroaded thanks to the internal debate that never ended? How many times have you just let things go because you could not make up your mind? What if every great thinker decided that it was just easier to give up during the thought process rather than work it out and test ideas?

You need to ask yourself those questions while you continually think of ideas that need to be put into action. Every minute of every day your mind is working at something. Most of these thoughts end up being fleeting mind wanders or grocery lists, but every now and then we have that glimpse of a great idea that could become a reality. As we continually weigh out the good and bad of our great idea, we are wasting time that could be put into action do due lack of confidence in our abilities or the idea.

Action is the only way you will stop your internal debate and find the answers you are looking for. This testing is essential as you continue to mold your ideas into something that works. As much as we all wish that the perfect formula for success would fall upon our craniums like a beam of light from the sky…that is not reality and that is not going to happen. We have to turn our thoughts and ideas into action and real steps that are taken in the real world outside of the electric firings that equal thoughts in our heads.

It is Time to Get Unstuck

It is time. It is time to get those ideas in your head and covert them into action and testing. Your idea might fail miserably, but at least you tried and learned something for the next round. Not every idea is going to be a massive success that throws you into the life you always dreamed of. It is work, but by taking your thoughts and converting them into action…you are taking one more step towards your dream that most people in this world never take. I am sure that there is at least one person in your life that is full of the best ideas on the planet (that they tell everyone on a regular basis), but their place in society never changes because they do more talking than action. You are going to be different. You are going to take those thoughts and ideas and convert them into action that will see a result.

It is easy to talk about how great you think something is in your head…it is a much different animal to convert the thoughts into action and see the results. You can’t be afraid to fail…and you also can’t be afraid to succeed. Get out of the clone meeting and try something new…

Clone Meeting image by choking sun

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The Ability to Kick Your Own Ass

August 5, 2009 By 2 Comments

What separates a successful business owner or blogger from the failing wannabe? Is it one great idea? Is it luck that just seems to fall on the successful? Is it a load of cash that is backing their mediocre idea?

No…it is not. None of those things create a successful business owner or blogger. They might allow you to fake success for a longer period of time, but…in the end…you will see the same result without one key element. Successful business owners have a unique ability within themselves to kick their own ass.

Why do I want to kick my own ass?

I know…it sounds funny on the surface. Why would I want to the ability to kick my own ass? While the phrase in and of itself is misleading and humorous, the premise behind it is solid and breeds success time and time again. To be successful, you have to be able to force yourself to do things you might not want to, get back on the horse and learn from your failure and fight of the inherent laziness that we find in ourselves to get actual, productive work done.

The easy road is to continue complaining about your job, life and circumstances. The hard part is giving yourself a kick in the ass to change your life and do something about your circumstances to become a do’er and not a victim. You then need the ability to continue kicking your own ass to push forward through diversity and never give up on your goals. If you are unwilling to reach around and push yourself forward, then you will never see success because you will always be the one that stands in your way. It will not be the boss that is not giving you a raise, it won’t be Suzie down the hall that just won’t shut her mouth, it is not the customer that just won’t do what they said they were going to…it will be you and you will be pushing forward despite all of those things that want to hold you back. You will be able to continue pushing forward and being productive because of your unique ability to kick your own ass and do it.

The question is…how many rounds are you will to go with yourself?

Image by ElMarto

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How much time do you waste on unproductive activities?

July 29, 2009 By 3 Comments

As we look into our daily lives, we need to ask ourselves how much time we actually spend being completely unproductive. This is a question that I answer just as bad as you probably do. Are you sitting in front of you computer screen right now with Facebook, a favorite forum and a funny video from a friend all open at once? Do you have thousands of posts and hours logged in on that favorite forum while updating your Facebook status 12 times a day? Let me guess…some worthless TV show is on in the background as you wonder if your favorite dancer is going to make it through the next stage of “Do You Think You Can Dance” (don’t lie…if you are a guy you know your wife/girlfriend/hopefully something soon makes you watch it too!). You continually go through worthless activity motions as the back of your head screams at you to stop what you are doing and start being productive. Instead, laziness sets in and we put off that activity until a later time that never comes…

Throughout our daily lives, we use the excuse that we have been so busy today to condone lazy behavior that takes away from our goal. Now…I am not saying that we are going to be productive 100% of the day and every minute not moving forward is taking a step backward. That kind of mentality runs you into complete burnout and frustration. What I am saying is that we spend an incredible amount of time on activities that add little to no value to our lives because they are easy and mindless. We sit in front of a computer screen and browse for hours on end…we watch TV and movies until our eyes are popping out of our heads…we go through other activites during the day where we consciously think to ourselves…”I really should be doing (insert productive activity here) right now…not this…”

My Challenge to Myself and to You

Here is my challenge to you (and myself). As you go through the next 2 weeks, listen to that voice in your head that can think of something productive over something lazy. Make a solid effort to be more productive in your daily life to achieve the goals you have set but never obtained. By being more productive, you should be happier and more stress free as you go to bed at night with the knowledge that you made this day on this Earth more fulfilling.

Some tips to help you out…

  • Plan Your Downtime – Everyone needs a break, so plan periods of time to relax and let your mind wonder off into whatever magical land you want it to. By scheduling this time (and sticking to that schedule), you will not get burned out or find yourself using more relax time than anticipated.
  • Make Lists – I hate making lists as much as everyone, but they are extremely efficient when it comes to getting tasks done in an organized manner. When you make your list, prioritize activities with levels of importance. This will help you realize what you need to get done right away and what you can do if you get done early.
  • Mentally Prepare Yourself – If you are not on board mentally with being more productive during this period of time, it is not going to happen. You need to change your mindset and prepare for a different way of thinking to help get you through the learning curve.

The goal during this two weeks of mass productivity is to change your lifestyle. Once you get used to being productive, it will become easier with time and by the end…you will have transformed yourself from a lazy media absorber to a productive human being with realized goals. We all want the positive aspects that come to our lives by being more productive, but it is up to us to get off our asses and actually do it.

Time image by Midnight-digital

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VS Commercial – "The Strong Shall Survive" – Battle of the Underdog

July 25, 2009 By 2 Comments

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been following the Tour de France like any other cycling obsessed human on this planet. The HD coverage has come thanks to the people over at VS, and it has been one of the most exciting Tours to date. During the coverage, there have been some fantastic commercials that really get my motivation going. These are not commercials that make me want to go out and by the latest and greatest gear…they are commercials that make me want to push harder in my own life to achieve my dreams.

The following VS commercial has been played over and over again during the Tour coverage, but its message is absolutely perfect for us as bloggers and entrepreneurs. In life, we are always stacking up the odds to success. We might look at the competition and think…”I can’t make it”. This VS commercials reminds us that true come from behind winners do not consider the odds. When the competition starts…the winner is not decided by math and “passion has a funny way of trumping logic”.

As you go onto your next project or continue to push your current, remember that everyone had to start at square one and never under estimate the underdog. Bring your passion into your work and have the desire to do better. With that deadly combination, nothing will stop you. Inspirational messages like this VS commercial keep the blood flowing towards success.

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