Archive for Personal development
Blogging Challenges – Keeping Your Discipline and Avoiding Failure
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So you’ve been blogging for quite some time now and you have been feeling fairly confident that you are well on your way to success. Blogging challenges have been under control and you’ve been working your tootsies off staying ahead of the multitude of tasks associated with running an online business. That great idea you have is starting to look like it may actually work.
Hey, you’ve got it going on right?
The increase in traffic and readership has emboldened your thoughts of success. What a nice place to be along the road to blogging wealth. Your online business model must be on the right track. Perhaps, but this is no time to enjoy the scenery.
If there is but one single lesson to learn about blogging, it would be that you must absolutely avoid distractions at all times. Yes, it is easier said than done but this is a vital skill and discipline that you have to have.
What is it that allowed you to progress to where you are today? Discipline.
The internet is a wonderfully beautiful place and it has more points of interest than you’ll see in a lifetime. It is so easy to become distracted, you can quickly find yourself using your most valued resource (time) inefficiently.
There are a number of distractions that will challenge you regularly and you must constantly evaluate your time.
One of the questions I ask myself continually is, do I have time for that? It makes decision making simple because the answer seldom changes.
Here are a few reminders of blogging challenges that are unhealthy for your business development.
Opportunity knocks
Here’s the thing about opportunities, the ones you don’t find will always find you. There is always some new must have, super hot product being pitched right before your eyes. Many of these are really up and up legitimate products that can do what they claim, if you apply the techniques and learn the skills required.
But do they fit in with your current business plan?
Do you have time for that?
No matter how great the offer, it will do you no good whatsoever if you cannot dedicate the time required to make it work. Plus, you have now allowed yourself to be taken away from your main focus. This is time wasted and time lost, as you can never get it back.
Spread too thin
Surely you’ve heard this term before, it’s when you are trying to do more than you can do effectively, performing at a level far below you capability.
Take the social networking sites for instance. You know you have to get out there and build your brand and gain some respect among the populous, but creating accounts on 20 different sites is just unreasonable.
Do you have time for that?
Whatever amount of time you have will likely be spent on 2 or 3 of the sites, leaving you to look like a slacker on the others.
Another example
I’ve wanted to launch another blog for one of my favorite past times for awhile now (and no I’m not telling you what it is just yet). But the reality is that it would take away from my effort here on The OBB right now, so it will have to wait.
Sure I could go ahead and do that, and likely do a half a$$ job at both because I don’t have time for that at this juncture of my blogging career. There are too many other higher priority matters that require my attention first.
This is not to say that it’s a bad idea to have more than one blog, but if you’re still in the developmental stages or have not gotten your main blog to where you want it to be, keeping your focus there may be the best option.
Stay on track
Some of you may have experienced similar situations where you’ve had to rely on your discipline or even correct your focus. We’ve all been there and some are there now, not realizing that failure awaits if they don’t get back on track.
Avoiding these types of situations always come back to your discipline. Realizing that succeeding in business is more important than allowing yourself to be sidetracked is key.
New bloggers beware, if you want to succeed and build an online business, taking action and being highly disciplined is what will get you there.
Keep blogging!
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Recognizing the Biggest Obstacle to Reaching Your Goals – You
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Throughout the course of a blogging career, there will be numerous obstacles to your potential success. Some will be technical in nature while others will lie within you and must be addressed in order to move forward in a positive way. Yes, YOU may be the biggest obstacle of all.
Some will choose to ignore the warning signs and continue to operate under a cloud of denial, but sooner or later, you’ll have to get to the recognition phase of your life and finally admit that serious reflection and change must come about.
You see, we’re all creatures of habit and many of those habits become second nature and are carried out without as much as a thought about them. But the fact of the matter is this, some of those habits are bad for your own progress and until such time that this is recognized and addressed, the behavior continues.
We are experts at finding excuses and not many of those excuses will lead back to our own doorsteps, but if we are honest with ourselves the list of obstacles will be easy to recognize. Otherwise, we don’t know that we don’t know. 
Failing to recognize our own obstacles and constraints places a ceiling on our overall performance in life. Traits like stubbornness will always be there to block any potential progress.
Let’s face it, you must stop and do a self-examination, make some adjustments and tune-up your natural ability to fall into the trap of thinking that all is well. We’ll surmise that everything is okay because, “I’m doing what I always do”, and that may well be the problem.
We all know that doing the same thing over and over will never produce a different result, so why do we expect that someday things will be different?
If you drive the long way to work every day, your gasoline mileage will never increase, that’s a fact. You must change your route or change the vehicle, but there must be a change of some sort to realize a move toward the positive.
Now let’s return to that self-examination for a moment. Find yourself some “me” time and quietly reflect upon the following questions;
- Do you have a plan for success?
- Does the plan include a system for measuring progress?
- Do you have clarity on your purpose?
- Do you have the skill level required to accomplish your goal?
- Are you managing your time properly?
- Do you have the level of motivation required to see this through?
- Are you so focused on the end game that you’ve overlooked the plan?
- Have you identified some things that you can do better or differently?
- Have you learned anything about reaching your goals besides the fact that you want to get there?
- Have you taken action on what you’ve learned about reaching your goals?
- Have you really been honest in your assessment of yourself?
- What will you do now, the same thing?
These can be tough to answer for many, as everyone is different and has a different outlook on where they are and where they want to be. But most of these questions will fit into any circumstance and be thought provoking in their nature.
Now I don’t want to come off like some expert with regards to personal development, because I am not, but where do you think these questions have come from?
I’ve made my share of blunders along the road of life and had to ask myself many of these on more than one occasion. Life is all about recognizing what’s going on within you and making the necessary adjustments to better position yourself for tomorrow.
Have you taken time to reflect upon your situation and if so, what tips might you offer to advance one’s progress toward their goals?
