Here is a little video for you about planning and focus. Important elements for your success.
Planning and focus are the keys to being productive. I hope you enjoyed the video about staying focused on the task at hand. I think that so many of us have that problem, it was worth mentioning.
I looked up the name of the software I use that has all the configurable timers. It's called Action Machine Pro. I forgot to mention that it also tracks the timers you set up and their usage so you can create reports and see how much time you are spending on certain tasks.
What steps do you take to make sure you stay focused? I would like to know. Please take a minute and share by leaving a comment so other readers can benefit from your knowledge.
Some time soon, I will talk a little more about the planning process and give you some good resources to help as well. Planning and goal setting was the first module in Alex Jeffreys coaching program and with good reason.
Now, a little off topic. Below is a picture of Camilo Villegas, who won the Honda Classic golf tournament last weekend. That is my son's head in the foreground just before he got his autograph.
Camilo Villegas, winner of the "Honda Classic" signing autographs.
It's good to see celebrities that don't mind taking a little time for the fans. It means so much to the kids. My son couldn't stop talking about it all night. We even bought him a frame so he could put the picture in it along with the autograph.
Filed under Productivity by 
Well, the year has come to an end and I am looking forward to 2010. Not only is this a time for planning the upcoming year, but it's also a time of reflection when we look back at our accomplishments as well as our failures. I mention failures because they are just as important as our accomplishments.
Failures are the way we learn. My mentor, Alex Jeffreys, likes to call it failing forward. The important thing here is that you made the effort and took action. Thomas Edison literally had thousands of failures before he found the correct filament to create a working light bulb.
Determination and tenacity prevailed and the rest is history. But I have found that it's not just enough to to take action. You need to take "intelligent action". This has nothing to do with how smart you are, it's about being focused and sticking to a game plan.
Concentrate on the things that are working for you. Shut out the distractions as much as possible. More than likely you are like me and still work a full time job. Your time is very valuable so must make sure that you are productive with the little time you have.
This was something that I learned this year and it has helped me immensely. I easily tripled my productivity compared to what I was doing before. Have a "to do list" of your most critical action items. Turn off your email, Skype, Messenger, or anything else that might tempt you to deviate from the task at hand.
Then "Get Er Done!"
Of course, this is not easily done if you don't have a clear cut plan of attack. That is why goal setting and planning should be your number one priorities. Not only do you want to plan on a daily level, but you want to plan on a weekly, monthly, and a yearly level.
These will be your New Year's resolutions for 2010. Start big and write down your major goals for 2010 in 4 categories. Personal, Entrepreneurial, Business, and Income. You can later go back and write down what you will need to do to accomplish each goal. Once you do that you will have a huge list of action items that you can begin to add into your weekly and daily schedules.
I am not going to go into detail right now because that could be a novel in itself. I am about to get to the main reason for this post and it's already getting long.
Last year I made a comment on Garry Parkes blog. Garry is a fellow Alex Jeffreys student that has actually gone on to become an employee of Alex's. He was one of the first people in our class to really start taking action and his blog kind of became a gathering place for all the students.
The comment I made was on December 31st, 2008. Garry's post was about setting goals and attaching some kind of accountability to those goals. One of the ways to do this is to publicly announce that you are going to do something. You will then feel compelled to do what you say or you might lose credibility.
So I listed my goals for 2009 for all to see and now it's time to pay the piper and see how well I accomplished my goals. Here is a snippet copied from the comment on Garry's blog. (the annotations in red are the results)
Personal
1. Vacation this year to vist wife’s family in Venezuela. was a great success, I spent 2 weeks there and the wife and kids were there for 6 weeks. I also took a trip to Las Vegas to Alex's work shop and will be returning in 2 weeks to the second one. This time my wife is coming along and we are going to have a couple days set aside just for us.
2. Lose 80lbs. target weight is 250, currently tipping the scales at 330. I have absolutely failed miserably here. I still weigh 330. My wife and I have joined the local gym and I have a good start on this years goal which will remain the same.
Entrepreneurial
1. Create systems for all my tasks and start outsourcing. I don't quite have all the systems created that I want but I have employed the services of a few people and currently have them working on some projects.
2. Find at least 10 serious JV partners. I hosted my own JV Giveaway and created a list of JV partners plus continue to seek out new adswap partners.
Business
1. Build a mailing list of 7300 subscribers. (that’s 20 per day) My list now stands at 6300. I am about 1000 short but that is OK. The last 3 months I have been reserving my weekend adswaps for people just starting out with small lists. If I had not done this, I could have easily surpassed my goal. I just ran the stats for December and I am averaging over 45 new subscribers per day. This number only continues to get bigger so I am very happy with these results.
2. Continue to write for the Profit Pulling Project, re-brand, and distribute. I ended up only writing a couple of articles for Garry's news letter. As much as I would like to, time constraints make it unrealistic for me at this time.
3. Write my ebook series “The Web 2 Whammy” which I will use to build my list and then monetize with a follow up video series. I ended up writing an ebook on JV Giveaways instead. I am giving it away for free to build my list and am monetizing with a OTO and by using integration marketing on my download and thank you pages. I have some big plans for 2010 but will discuss that later.
4. Spend at least 1 hour a day oil rig hopping. 1/2 hour for students and 1/2 hour with Comment Kahuna. Once again I have failed miserably in this respect. I have also been slack when it comes to posting on this blog and my traffic stats reflect this. Time is a big factor but I am not making excuses. This is one thing that I should make time to do.
Income
1. To generate a minimum of $50,000 with my online business this year. I haven't tallied up the exact figures yet but I would say it's between $15,000 and $20,000. Not bad considering I was figuring in a product launch that didn't happen and I only work at this part time. The majority of my income was from affiliate promos and a direct result of my list building efforts. If you build a list, you will make money.
So you see that you will not always reach your goals. That's OK. I do think that you need to make your goals realistic but yet at the same time you have to challenge yourself. Don't be afraid to set your goals high. Make your self accountable!
I would like to help you do that right now. I am challenging you to go out on a limb and post your goals for 2010 right here on my blog. Put them out there for God and everybody to see. If that doesn't motivate you to take action then I don't know what will.
Here are mine for 2010:
Personal
1. Lose 80lbs. target weight is 250, currently tipping the scales at 330.
2. Take family on week long vacation to Disney World
3. Go golfing at least twice a month. (driving range once a week minimum)
Entrepreneurial
1. Put together a team to handle all technical functions of my online business.
2. Become part of a master mind group. (or create one)
3. Begin investing in other income vehicles (stocks, real estate, etc..)
4. Continue to expand my JV base by attending live events.
Business
1. Continue giving list building #1 priority. New target is 30K by end of 2010.
2. Use PLR products to set up an affiliate program designed to build my list.
3. Post on the blog at least once a week. Start incorporating more videos.
4. Start a corporation for tax purposes and to insulate my personal assets.
5. Launch a product.
Income
1. To generate a minimum of $100,000 with my online business this year. This is what I need to do to be able to walk away from my current job and become a full time internet marketer.
Ok there you have it. Now it's your turn! Leave a comment and list your goals for 2010. Let the world be your "accountability buddy".
Filed under Ramblings by
I am getting ready to drive to the airport and catch a plane for Alex Jeffreys workshop in Las Vegas. The event is for the students from his first coaching program that started in November of last year. Once I found out he was having the event, I started saving money and added it to my list of goals for 2009.
I created my list of goals as a direct result of Alex Jeffreys coaching. The first module of the course was all about planning and goal setting which in turn makes you more productive. I set goals in 4 different areas: personal, entrepreneurial, business, and income.
The first goal was to take the wife and kids on a vacation to Venezuela. My wife is from there and has not been home to see her family in 5 years. I am proud to say that the tickets are purchased and we will be departing on June 22nd for 6 weeks of South American fun. This was made possible becuase of the things that I learned from Alex Jeffreys.
One of my business goals is to build an email list of 7500 people. I am now at about 2700 but have not even hosted my JV Giveaway yet. I am hosting one with my fellow students Garry Parkes, Gary Simpson, and Carl Barton that will be taking place within the next week or two. I intend to follow with one of my own and probably several others after that. Once again, Alex Jeffreys is responsible for prompting me to use JV giveaways to build my list.
I set my income goal for the year at $100,000. I know that seems like a lot but I like to set my goals high. I don't think that I will be disappointed if I fall a little short. Even though I am almost halfway through the year and have not made even close to that. I am still optimistic.
You see, most of my plans will not come into fruition for a few months. I have made over $5000 this year, which paid for the plane tickets to Venezuela. This was from affiliate promotions that I sent to my newly built email list and from links in my ebook that I published and gave away for free.
I had the money for Vegas set aside a month or so ago but Murphy's law reared it's ugly head. Any one not familiar with Mr. Murphy? His law states: "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong."
It wasn't just one thing, it was a bunch of things. I won't go into it all because a lot of it is personal and I don't want to bore you more than I already am. Suffice it to say that all of a sudden, I was not going to make it to Vegas. But it's funny how things can work out when you want something bad enough.
If you have never read Napolean Hill's "Think and Grow Rich", then you need to. He talks about the power of auto suggestion. Basically, if you want some thing and truly believe that you can acheive it, you will acheive it. What you think will come to pass, but only if you beleive it will with all your heart and desire.
When I read this part of the book, the first thing that came into my mind was prayer. When some one prays for something to what ever deity that you believe in, it is usually with very strong desire and emotion. If you want something bad enough, you will pray for it every night for a long period of time.
The act of wanting something with such deep emotion transmutes into action on a subconcious level. With out knowing, you will begin to take action that will eventually resolve itself into the very thing that you desired in the first place. That is the power of "prayer" or "auto suggestion" in scientific terms.
Well I guess I wanted it bad enough because
"I'M GOING TO VEGAS BABY"
One of my entrepreneurial goals was build joint venture partnerships. I have created a few so far but hope to "up the stakes" in Las Vegas. There are going to be several other large events taking place at the same time as Alex's. Hopefully I can make some profitable connections while I am there.
That goes without saying that Alex is going to show us step by step how he plans his business and I am sure he has alot more planned for us. All through our coaching program he always surprised and over delivered. I expect this to be more of the same.
Well, I am running out of time. I have a plane to catch at 4:45. I will make some posts from Vegas and let you know what's going on. I am also taking my video cam so I should get some choice footage to share as well.
Filed under Make Money Online, Social Marketing by
