No Time for Success

In the other room there's a Nintendo Wii working. Two young boys play tennis together. In my mind there's a battle around the usefulness of video games to the end user. My main stance is that they are a waste of time.

Slice it any way you want, there are only so many seconds in a day. I'm not going to concentrate on doing everything quickly. People that know me, know that I enjoy the journey. But they also know that I question every activity I do.

Here are four levels of "time". See where you fit:

Level One is merely existing. You just go through the motions because your dream died long ago. This is the hardest level to break out of.

Level Two you are aware of time, but you are not conscious of it. This is the person who spends lots of time surfing the web, watching TV, playing Wii - wasting time that isn't going to help you.

Most everyone is at One or Two.

Level Three is again, aware of time, and you're efficient with it. You work towards being effective. You spend little time with things that don't get you toward your goals.

Level Four is where you are aware of opportunity cost. You spend time doing one activity, but you lose time to do the other activity - so you must choose between the greater of the two.

And it's not only activities, but people, too.

This is tough medicine, but you can't be Mother Theresa. Be careful who you spend time with.

Ok, tough lesson here. But this is what separates the AdSense winners from the losers. Look at every activity you do during the day and log it - keep a journal - and ask yourself - Is this worth my time?

You notice I am not rushing through any of this. That's because when I write about the actual work - most will want to the work without understanding what it takes to make it happen.

What to Do, and When

My sister and her husband just left for Miami Airport. Tonight they fly to Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil, to their work in the jungle. We talked this morning about poverty and crime in big cities. And we made mention of how we see it on TV, but if it's not affecting our street - it just doesn't matter. We're jaded.

The reason for this is we all have so much going on. Have you ever been so busy that at the end of the day you can't really write down what you did - there was just so much on your plate that it all ran together. Busy.

If you are aware that this happens to you, then you are a candidate for the remedy - a more focused life. A book that came out a few years ago had everyone thinking about living a life of purpose. We are here for a reason - so let's find out what that is and then develop a plan to carry that out.

My last post was about why we are here. Find your why and now find your focus to make it happen. Anyone that is at the top of their game will tell you focus is the main reason. High School Musical brought us the chant, "Keep your head in the game." That is so hard to do with all the distractions. We sort through what is more important to us.

After this quick course, I am considering starting another blog that simply gives my opinion on the differing home based business courses - especially AdWords/AdSense related. Since I receive around a dozen a week - that will keep me writing for a while. I am sure you get these, too. And if your here, you've probably purchased a $97 course or so, and then a week later found out there's an even "better" way to get traffic, place ads, make affiliate money... you name it.

That first course you bought started getting a little boring or downright tough, and you see the new course which states it practically "runs itself", so you buy that one.

At the end of the year, you're burned out and tell yourself it is impossible to make money on the Internet. You know, because you've done them all.

I know for a fact that if you would simply keep your head in the game and focus, you would make money - with any one of them.

We're wired this way, and there's no denying it. We want AdSense dollars now! We want fast food, quick fix pills, ultra high speed Internet... You get the picture. We have so much, but we still complain.

Because these things take time - these courses - we don't know which, for us, will work. I've seen so many courses that are just pure junk, and I'm sure you've seen the latest that every affiliate marketer is pushing - a party with the Rich Jerk at the Playboy Mansion. I almost cried when I saw John Reese pushing it. He made the bold statement that his earnings from the Internet were because of Christ (interview with Jeff Walker's Product Launch Formula), so I "thought" that he was a Christian.

Okay, I'm off course here, and I'm talking about being focused - but that one is a burr under my saddle.

To say that all the programs out there work is foolish. They don't. And you'll have to sit through the whole nine yards to find yourself in failure. Knowledge is the only remedy. Who has been there before and can they give me an honest opinion?

Some say focus is two sided: having a good "crap" filter, and then sticking to a method that works - until you're successful. Of course that's not right. Crap filtering is part of good judgment which comes from experience. You're going to have to buy your share of crap and learn quickly to stay alive in this game.

Focus on the task and take it faithfully to fruition. Do this and you will win... provided your system is not... crap.