Internet Business — Implementation Comes After Planning
Feb 8 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Business
Yes, planning and fine-tuning the “who, what, where, why and how” of your Internet business is vital to its success. But success is unlikely to come knocking on your door anytime soon if you don’t get your feet off the ground and execute that plan of yours.
There are many people out there who are extremely meticulous planners. You know the kind. They’ll draw up a plan so intricate, that it covers every possible detail imaginable, and probably even contains several best and worst-case scenarios plus an odd back-up plan or two. That’s all swell, until they wake up one day a year later and realize they’re still planning while others who started out with them have an up-and-running Internet business—a few of them even a profitable one.
So what’s the catch? The catch is a 15-letter word that we are all very familiar with: procrastination. It’s that torturous battle to get things done on time, or done at all. That e-mail you never get down to answering, that e-book you simply “haven’t had time” to write, that potential client you’ve been meaning to contact. It’s that Internet business plan you still haven’t implemented.
Why do people procrastinate? Is it because they’re lazy or because they lack the will power? Surprisingly, in most cases, it’s neither of those. Procrastination is usually a symptom of being a perfectionist.
Take our meticulous planner for instance: he gets a brilliant idea, he puts incredible effort into outlining his execution plan, but somehow, the plan just never seems good enough. So he puts his thinking cap back on and continues to plan, hoping to do so until the outcome is perfect. By definition, the perfectionist never achieves perfection.
The result is, as I call it, a vicious circle of planning-thinking-planning. He rarely actually executes the plan for fear of not doing it right, or for fear of rejection. He’s afraid of feeling helpless, powerless or disappointed if things don’t go smoothly or straight up. He might even be afraid of getting negative feedback from other people.
To err is human and nobody is perfect. And so, we must learn to forgive ourselves more for our mistakes and learn from them. Get started no matter what—despite those fears. You can always fine-tune at later stages.
Stand up before everyone else. Jump over a hurdle in lightning speed so a thought of “should I or not” doesn’t have a chance to occur. Kick butt fear of rejection by having confidence front and center in your mind. Confidence beats every fear.
One beauty of the Internet is that it is an ever-evolving and versatile environment, where many issues can quickly be resolved. It’s learning curve is steep and you will master many obstacles in a short period of time. Every expert started out as a novice at one point in time.
A good technique to curb procrastination is making a list of your goals and then utilizing The Power Of Deadlines. Also, have a look at Brian Tracy’s short yet powerful video I posted the other Sunday. Giving yourself a pat on the shoulder once in a while would be beneficial too (instead of damaging words and thoughts about yourself.)
But most of all, be brave, understand your fears, and get over them. If you do that, you’re well on your way to starting your very own successful Internet business. Or…
How often do you postpone?
How do you handle perfectionism?
How about fear?
What are your plans for overcoming daily hurdles?
—Marcus Hochstadt
3 CommentsPermalink Tags: action, deadlines, procrastination, progress
First Class Progress, Or The Power Of Deadlines
Jan 10 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Strategies
Many of us, me included, have encountered times in our life where we became slow in getting something done. We are working on a project every day and it seems, somehow, we do not proceed in the way we intended to. What’s the cause? Why is that so?
There are various reasons. One of them is the lack of a deadline.
When you are (or were) an employee your boss usually gives you deadlines (or s/he asks you to give him/her one; pretty much the same.) Miss them and you get into trouble.
In the Internet business world, you are your own boss. Do you set yourself deadlines?
The majority says “no” here; so this issue needs to be addressed.
Do you have a Mentor? Great! Make sure s/he keeps track of your progress by, for example, using a Weekly Action Plan. In that plan, write down your last week’s accomplishments and the goals for the upcoming week. These weekly deadlines, when treated seriously (!), WILL boost your accomplishments every single week. (At least you’ll find yourself finishing the remaining tasks before you submit the report to your Mentor. ;-)
Again, you need to treat it seriously. If you start thinking you don’t have to send anyone anything, well, you’re probably right. And when you’re zealous with a strong discipline you might very well be able to write a Weekly Action Plan to yourself and follow it to a tee. Still, there exist countless people getting stuck in simple tasks. I’m confident they’d get past the hurdles when they’d use and follow such a plan thoroughly.
Been there, done that, and bought the t-shirt. :-)
Don’t have a Mentor yet? Get one! It’s not launched yet, but I’m going to start a Mentoring Program in the future. Meanwhile, either you continue your search and get one NOW, you seek someone else whom you trust and DO follow, or you become your own mentor for now.
Beware… It doesn’t help a single thing when you send this document to your mom, and then once the day arrives where you’re supposed to send the next plan to her you come up with excuses why you couldn’t do this and what kept you from doing that.
Do you get the idea?
Remember, at the end of the day, the work you do is not for someone else; you do it for you and for yourself only. The Weekly Action Plan is just an instrument to push you forward and bring your Internet business to the next level, every single week.
Another method is to increase the pain accompanied with NOT fulfilling a deadline, also known as “away-from motivation.” For instance, “If XYZ is not finished until DDD, I am going to pay $XXX to YYY.” Sound familiar? It should since something like that does happen when you miss sending in your tax return on-time. Why not apply that very powerful method in order to create a First Class Progress in your Internet business?
At least it’s a method that has been proven to work countless times! ;-)
And here’s an advanced technique you could apply to this…
– Specify an amount that would really hurt to pay; preferably that would be twice your monthly earnings.
– Write a letter to someone you’d really HATE sending this huge amount of money to. It should really make you think, “No, not to THAT person!” Exactly that person would be the right one. ;-)
– Send the letter to that person and to at least five others. This is to reinforce the power and urgency that is behind the goal you set yourself and the promise you wrote down in the letter in case you do not fulfill what you’re supposed to do.
The biggest accomplishments often lie in finishing the simplest tasks.
—Marcus Hochstadt
P.S. Wanna know what stands in MY Weekly Action Plan? Well, part of it you are going to find here on this blog next week. ;-)
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