Observing the activities of many people on the Net, I have a
feeling that they all have one common feature, and it is a lack
of discipline. It is mostly spammers but not only - new people
starting on the Net as well.
There is a couple of obvious reasons:
- for some people it is difficult to adopt and maintain
discipline without colleagues, a team or at least a manager
- some people do not even know or realise that discipline is
necessary to achieve success on the Net.
Different forms of discipline are necessary for any behaviour
in a society, and when we talk about success - and not only on
the Net - discipline is vital.
Many people do not have enough information on what to do on
the Net and how, they just catch isolated pieces of information,
do not differentiate between the right and wrong, complete
and incomplete pieces, and just do something. For instance
spammers: they just heard that email is a very powerful means
of marketing, so they send out emails.
Unlike the offline world, on the Net a person is taken out of
his environment of supportive colleagues and everything he does
is up to him only. He is isolated with the information he gets,
the way he processes it, the conclusions he makes, the opinions
he forms, the strategy he adopts, the responsibility is his,
and consequently the success and the failure.
However, the demand on discipline is much higher on the Net.
All of the above requires a very responsible and mature person.
Many people are used to work in a team where everyone gets
only a piece of responsibility if any at all, mostly only
limited decision-making rights and a limited share in success
or failure.
In many cases, especially if such a person comes to the Net
from employment, does not realise much or anything about the
overall conception of a successful company, especially the
´from 9-5´concept is very dangerous for success, and he is
suddenly overwhelmed by the enormous amount of information,
countless opportunities, tens and hundreds of so called gurus
offering and promising all the blue skies and rosy gardens
without doing anything.
It is so attractive and it must be true, so many people say
it !!!
However, the Internet success needs a highly disciplined
person, fully aware of all the dangers, misconcepts, demands,
it needs a new, completely different way of thinking,
especially if you come from employment, you have to live for
your success, not from 9-5, all your time. It may sound
horrendous but your own family could easily become the worst
disruptive element on your way.
You have to develop your exact overall conception, plan and
strategy, full details and stick to it. It consists of
seemingly unimportant items like your working hours. For
instance, many ´gurus´ say that the charm of your Internet
business is in your own working hours, no one forcing you to
work, working 2-5 hours a day and similar nonsense.
Or your friends and family: one day they invite you to a party,
you do not have to get up in the morning, no one forces you
to work, you can skip your work for tomorrow. Or your family
thinks there has been quite enough of your playing on the Net,
and you should do something useful around the house.
These are just tiny but very dangerous and very disruptive
elements, and you have to be very disciplined to fight it.
Because you have to fight it - within you for your new person
and with your beloved ones for your space. Once you believe
in your success, you have to achieve it because you rob you
and your family of your presence, of the time together, of
money you could make elsewhere or of help. And there are more.
So, it is in the name of all of it and your success that you
are strict to yourself. The first thing you should do is to
set firm daily working hours, offline and online, and stick
to it. And not only. For each day, prepare a set of tasks,
and every day before you finish, check whether and how you
completed the set of tasks for the day and set a new one for
the coming day.
Never say: just once, nothing happens if I skip once. Of
course, it happens, all the bad happens: you will see that
nothing really happens for once, and you will say it again,
once is never, twice is a habit - and this is exactly the way
to lose all your discipline, responsibility and all your
dreams.
Similar it is with the countless attractive opportunities.
Most of them are not opportunities at all, just clever tricks
to get you involved, to rob you either of your money or time,
to make you build someone else´s success. Be careful and all
the time think about your own goal, your dreams you want to
achieve and live it all.
In the scope of this article I cannot mention all the dangers
nor all the necessary steps to fight them. Just one more to
close this: and it is the moments that you come to think that
all the Internet is a big scam and hype and you want give up.
Do not give up!
Do not give up: first, you can never say how near or how far
you are from your success and second, you are responsible to
yourself, to your family for all you have spent up to now -
money, time, efforts. Money is always involved, even if you
do not pay anything, you paid for your computer, the energies,
the Internet access, you paid in the form of your time,
devotion, hours of your life that no one can give back to you,
and the list goes on.
You have to consider all these aspects before you start, once
you set on the path, there is no way back - unless you can live
with the word FAILURE till the end of your days. Everyone and
everything will remind you: you in the first place, your family
in the second ... shall I go on?
No, I have an answer for you: DISCIPLINE
**********************************************************
The article may be reprinted or used freely as long as it is
in its entirety incl the resource box below **********************************************************
Irena Whitfield is the webmistress of http://www.thecassiopeia.com/ - Internet
Business Consultants for 3rd Millennium helping people to
achieve their goals on the Net. Subscribe to 'Pathway To Success'
and get special FREE services: http://www.thecassiopeia.com/Subscription.html
