Well, in short, I guess I’m NOT dealing with frustration.
Let me explain.
I am very frustrated right now. I am frustrated because I’ve started this IM Journey and I have taken a few very small steps forward in said Journey, but that’s it. For the past 2 weeks I’ve pretty much been standing in the same spot looking around saying to myself “I wonder when I’ll begin to move again.”
It’s like I’m waiting for Godot.
What I find so frustrating is that I have the DESIRE to do it, but in the last 2 weeks…rarely the time. AND, when there IS time, rarely the energy.
Fortunately, I have the mental capacity to realize that as long as I’m doing nothing, there will be no results. Fortunately, I have not felt my desire to do the work decrease. My schedule has just been all too hectic. It feels like a sick internet marketing Catch-22 in that I want to do the IM thing so I’ll have time to do the things I want to do, but I don’t have the time (at least in the last 2 weeks) to do the IM thing.
Unfortunately, with 2 weeks of down time under my belt, I feel like I’ve lost all my forward momentum and I’m not quite sure where to pick up. Ok…I know WHERE to pick up (keyword research!) but I’m not sure how to begin. I am gonna have to dust off Holly’s ebook (is there edust?) and re-read the keyword research part.
In the mean time, I thought I’d pose a question to all you internet marketers out there who are reading my blog. For those of you who are experienced internet marketers – what processes do you go through in your mind when you have too much to deal with to work on internet marketing? Do you make the time no matter what? Do you allow life to happen and come back at it full force?
For those of you who, like me, are just getting started, what do you find yourself doing? Are you taking things in stride as they come and take the time to work on IM when you can? Do you trudge through your exhaustion when offline life happens and hope for the best?
Anyone notice that I used two literary references in this post? (I promise that wasn’t planned!)
Ok, I guess I AM dealing with frustration. I guess I AM making baby-step progress. If I weren’t, I guess I’d be throwing in the towel…but not yet!
Tags: Frustration, Updates
Tags: Frustration, Updates
October 19th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Not to worry dude! It happens, the main thing is not to give up. You don’t need tons of time to work on this stuff, you just have to have your vision, and never stop working towards it. You may miss some days, life may come at you, but….you can work on it through your downtime.
Carry a notebook throughout the day, to jot down ideas or write on blog posts. Come up with niches you want to explore, it only takes 10 seconds to stop real quick and write something down, a small part.
By the end of the day, you will have some material to work with next time you have a good time slot to work on IM stuff.
Don’t get down man, remember your goal and never stop moving towards it.
Normal Joe´s last blog post..Transform Your Thinking: Creating Your Reality,What’s Really Real
October 20th, 2008 at 12:10 am
I agree with Joe:
“Carry a notebook throughout the day, to jot down ideas or write on blog posts. Come up with niches you want to explore, it only takes 10 seconds to stop real quick and write something down, a small part.”
That’s very useful sometimes – it helps make sure you don’t forget things and also that when you do sit down to work again, you have some idea of what to work on.
Its normal that life gets in the way at times. Sometimes life was really too much for me, to the point where I couldn’t even think of IM. Sometimes IM was the perfect escape!
In any case, just keep plugging away when you have time. You don’t have to force yourself onto the computer when/if the thought is unbearable – its like jogging. If I haven’t jogged for a few years/decades, the only way to start up again is to job 30 seconds today, 35 seconds tomorrow, and so on – until I’m jogging for an hour at a time! (That’s just me, but its an example.)
My point is not do do 30 seconds of IM (its not nearly as painful as jogging!) – my point is not to super-force yourself if you are too distracted by life/tired.
I have usually had the opposite problem though – not wanting to leave my computer!
Anyway, yeah – just re-read the keyword research part and have some fun with it. If you’d like to join me in some areas of my niche, let me know. It might be beneficial as we can guest-post, comment on eachother’s blogs, etc.
Anna´s last blog post..Blog Action Day – Poverty
October 20th, 2008 at 4:42 am
@Joe – I’ve actually been thinking about that lately…that is carrying a notebook around with me so that I can jot down ideas if/when they come to me. That’s definitely a change for me and I’m not so sure I’d use it, but it doesn’t hurt to try, right? I guess the problem isn’t so much the jotting things down as it is remembering to check them later! Oh, how it hurts to be un-organized!
October 20th, 2008 at 4:50 am
@Anna – I wouldn’t want to invade on your niches! I’d end up taking over and blowing you out of the water…LOL – just kidding. I appreciate the offer! I’ll consider it!
You’re right, too, about not super-forcing myself to do this. I did just write a blog about that a couple weeks ago…I guess when I wrote that blog I was talking about one day…now that 2 weeks have passed, I’m feeling anxious – feeling like I’m letting go of this and I DON’T WANT TO LET GO…lol.
Finding a niche is going to be a challenge. I started doing a free IM training a while back that talked about the many ways to get niche ideas…and I took their advice, but felt like I wasn’t going anywhere with actually getting niche ideas that I felt I could work with. I guess the key is not to judge the niche ideas before doing some keyword research on them. The problem was that most of the ideas I came up with were ideas that, while they may be a good niche, were so foreign to me that I didn’t think I would make a good “expert” in that niche.
But…I can’t think about that now…that was then. This is now. And now I need to find a niche to master!
October 20th, 2008 at 5:08 am
You are funny – well you don’t necessarily start as an expert in the subject, you might have to become it.
By the way, interacting with people in similar niches is not always competitive if you are smart.
For example, if I sell carpets and you sell carpet cleaner, we can comment and guest-post on each other’s blogs all we want! We aren’t competition. Ha. Carpets … What an example. Anyway.
Anna´s last blog post..Blog Action Day – Poverty
October 20th, 2008 at 5:42 am
Oh, no! My Kirby days are coming back!
Kirby carpet shampoo has scotch guard in it you know…
no..stop…STOP! lol
October 20th, 2008 at 5:46 am
I’m sorry Dustin – it wasn’t intentional. I dunno why I thought of carpets – I forgot about that Kirby stuff!
Anna´s last blog post..Blog Action Day – Poverty
October 20th, 2008 at 6:30 am
I’ll get over it eventually…
I just have to get rid of this stupid face twitch now…