(Personal) I’m starting to gain the benefits of controlling my bad email habit

Like a lot of us out there, I have a problem with email.

- I get distracted.
- I’m on too many IM lists.
- I get bombarded with way too many offers. Daily.

After all of this I find myself doing email instead of getting some real work done.

I had enough so I went about controlling my bad email habit (link to prior post). It’s a lot like quitting smoking.
At first I did not know what to do once I got online. I kept looking at my inbox waiting for new emails. Pathetic I know, but that’s what happened.

And I’m glad to say I think I have my problem under control. So much so that I can actually close my email entirely when I need to get things done without having an anxiety attack

I encourage everyone reading to make sure that you actually get some work done when you’re online. Most often than not you might realize that you’re not working as much as you think you are.

But what also happened was that I stopped buying into hype. It’s probably because I stopped reading all the hyped up offers I used to get in my mail and after a while I stopped listening to hype. Instead, I started practicing effectiveness. I stopped running in circles and started paying attention to true business building techniques which we’ll cover in a moment.

- I know because the business I’m creating now is different than almost all I’ve done online to this point.
- It’s different because it’s work. There is no magic button.
- It’s different because it won’t make any substantial income for me right now. It grows every month and it is consistent money that will be substantial in about 12 months, it’s just not billions of dollars RIGHT NOW.
- It’s different because I’m building it’s foundation now. A business foundation like I was taught in business school, where the entire business is not based on my efforts. It’s not even based around me. so I can scale it and have others run different parts of it when the time comes for that. I’m building it with the end in mind. I’m building it for the long term.
- It’s different because it feels lonely. It’s like everyone’s in a party dancing and drinking (these are the hyped up emails) and I’m here working. But we all know that no one makes any money with those quick fixes. What’s even more disturbing is that even those offering those quick fixes can’t live off them consistently. You may not know this, but a lot of the people doing those great launches you hear about need to do more and more launches just to keep their business afloat. They’re basically stuck.

Sadly most of us in the IM industry want those quick fixes. And most marketers will gladly sell them to you. There’s hardly anyone teaching true business building. I can think of Rich Schefren and that’s about it in terms of giving you the training you need to build your business. All the rest are teaching you techniques that might work today and might not, and will certainly not build you a complete business.

I’ve started on a real business building path right now, and that all happened when I got fed up with all of the hype and really started to work. Mind you, it’s not real hard work and I am having fun.
But I finally realised that I could keep going on in the IM niche, buying product after product, trying some things and then chasing the next shiny object. And I could do this for years without ever having any major success.
Sure I make money online, but nothing to write home about. This is changing and it all started with closing off my email.

It also started changing once I stepped out of my comfort zone and….. started planning.

I hate planning. I absolutely HATE planning.

But nowadays I will not open my laptop before I know exactly what I want to achieve.
The transformation is amazing and I could not have believed it about myself had you told me, but that’s what I do now – I plan.

Now I’m only a small step of the way to were I want to be. The next thing for me is to follow the advice and do what works for those having extreme success. I can’t say it better than Mike Filsaime which posted this reply on the warrior forum way back in 2007:

SET A GOAL, WRITE IT DOWN, and work with a MENTOR that will keep you accountable.

Some advice I go by.

#1 – NEVER EVER buy a tool or course that

- Will distract you from your current project

- Will send you in a total 180 from what your current goal is.

- That you are NOT ready to use right now.

#2 – Don’t fall for hype. ONLY BUY WHEN…

- you are at a point in your business when you can not go forward without the tool or the information you need.

#3 – Don’t be afraid to pay for information, as long as it is what you need when you need.

#4- Stay off messenger. Use Yahoo and stay invisible. Chat is treading water. You need to swim forward.

#5- Stay out of forums….

Use them as a reward AFTER you complete you work for the day. I post mostly only before I go to bed after I had a chance to get my work done.

#6- Prioritize your work for the next day and write a new to-do list each night before bed and work on it the next day.

Wash…Rinse…Repeat

The first of EVERY month write a 30 day goal based on your current projects and do not get distracted.

Keep your head down and work on your goals and projects and to-do lists.

#7 – Have a 6 month goal and review/modify it every 3 months.

Set your goals on projects etc… not money.

Do not say “I want to make $5000 per month” Rather, say, “I want to complete this ebook, launch the site, have 50 JV partners, and have 500 opt in members in the first 30 days and 50 sales in the first week.”

#8- Form a mastermind with positive people, a INNER CIRCLE of people in your niche, mentors etc. FIRE all of the negative people in your life and focus on associating with “Do’ers” and “Winners”…

Your income is the average of your 4 closest friends. So associate with the people you want to be like.

#9 – Invest in your education when you start to make money.

#10 – When the money comes in, start to outsource so you can leverage your time better and your income will explode. Pay attention to when you are stating to TREAD WATER, if that happens, out source so you can SWIM FORWARD.

Know what your time is worth and never do anything that is not worth “your rate.” Outsource it and concentrate on maximizing “Your Rate” to what you do best

So, tell me – when are you going to close YOUR inbox?