It’s time for me to break the silence! Oh, wow! It’s been an incredibly busy week for me off-line. I have been getting home later than usual and the whole nine yards, so that’s why I have been inactive. As much as I’ve been pretty irritated by that fact, the truth is that when you’re starting out like me, part of the point is that you’re able to do this in your spare time…which is something I haven’t had much of in the past week.

The next week is looking to be pretty busy for me as well. But…I MIGHT have my evenings to myself, though I’ll be having to get to bed early since I’ll be getting up between 3:15 and 3:30 every day. Oh, how I dread days like that! But, as long as I’m working for someone else, I suppose I need to do what they need me to do, right?

But, this post isn’t going to be completely void of possibly meaningful information. I started reading a book this week (at the suggestion of my boss) called Time Management: Proven Techniques for Making the Most of Your Valuable Time by Marshall J. Cook. (No affiliate link there, guys! – I haven’t gotten that far yet!) Anywho…I’m about 93 pages into this 222 page book (sans index!) and so far, I’ve found it rather enjoyable. I’m surprised by that because I don’t typically like books like that, but it’s surprisingly easy to read and relate to and the information and suggestions make a lot of sense to me.

So far Marshall J. Cook has talked to me (through his pages) about the fact that you can’t find any more time in your day. In order for you to do something new, something old has to be sacrificed. For example, if you want to add exercise into your daily routine, SOMETHING has to be moved out – either that extra 30 minutes of sleep, or that time in front of the TV or whatever else it is that fills up your 24 hours each day. (This isn’t the only thing I’ve read in 93 pages…but it’s what I’m choosing to blog about.)

I guess the timing of starting to read this book is one of the reasons I find it so compelling. As you all know by now, I am “just starting” in Internet marketing. OK, so this blog has been up for a couple of weeks now, but so far I haven’t done anything related to Internet marketing other than what you’ve seen so far. (nope, I haven’t started my keyword research yet, Anna! But I will, I promise!) But one thing I noticed when I got started doing this was that I started watching a significantly smaller amount of television. Hi, I’m Dustin and I’m a TV junkie.

Television allows me to escape from the day and laugh at those people whose lives are written by other people. Unfortunately, it’s not a very good way to spend my time…not a whole lot can be gained by watching hours of TV every week. Now – I’m not saying that sitting in front of the computer instead is the BEST alternative, but at least I’m trying to accomplish something here. The only thing I’m trying to accomplish when I’m in front of the TV is…well…nothing! Since I started this blog I have had my mind actively engaged and have been expanding my social circle. Not only that but I’m working on building a foundation for myself where I can make money online. I have hardly watched much TV at all in the past 2 weeks!

I have got a busy weekend ahead of me. I intend to spend some time today catching up on the blogs I have started reading. Then I plan on reading more of this book and then starting on some keyword research. Pending any other off-line issues and errands that come up, I should start making some actual IM progress this weekend!

Oh, and I know some of you might we waiting to hear about my goals. Just as I haven’t done anything else with my blog, I haven’t done the goal thing yet either. But…while I do think I need to figure out what my goals are. I think I’ll probably start with broad goals and work my way to more finite goals. But whatever I do there, I am going to take some advice I got and not let the act of setting goals (which is difficult for me to do) impede my progress as an internet marketer.

Ok, this is probably going to sound dumb, but I figured I just had to share.

First let me preface this post with my reaction to an article I read on Lifehacker.com – The article is titled “Goal Setting for Skeptics: Why ‘Goal Setting’ Makes you Cringe”. In this article, they talked about why some of us (ME!) have a hard time setting goals. They explain the paradox of choice, fear of failure, and procrastination. Worth a read if your interested. My reaction to reading this article was, “HEY! How’d they get in my head like that???”

I have never been much of a goal oriented person. I hated when they were trying to force me to do goal setting in middle school, never did much goal setting in high school, never needed to set goals in the Army (except to pass the physical fitness tests!) and have skated by without doing much goal setting since. Awful, I know.

As a part of this IM Journey of mine, I decided that it was high time to set some goals. After all, if I don’t set some goals, what am I really working toward? I don’t have those goals set just yet, but I’m pretty seriously considering posting them here for the whole world to see when I finally set them. If I post them here, perhaps I’ll be more likely to strive to achieve them. Perhaps I’ll set all the wrong goals and get a bunch of help from those of you reading in re-focusing my goals. Who knows. What I do know is that I need to have some goals in this business if I want to be successful.

So after all that build up, now for the “this might sound dumb” part. I had mentally set a goal when I got started on this blog. It might sound corny, but what I really wanted to have happen the most was to have four specific people check in on the blog and leave me a comment or two. I really wanted to do that without ASKING them to read it. I wanted them to come to my blog of their own free will because I was posting on their blogs or whatever.

Today, that goal was finished! After only three days, all four people have commented on my blog (which would lead me to believe that they have visited it!)

I know you are probably my only four readers right now, but if all goes well, in the future there will be a whole lot more, so I feel that I ought to at least name the four of you.

You are (in order of appearance), Anna Williams, Normal Joe, Davin Ogden, and Holly Mann!

For the benefit of any future readers who may come across this post, I met all four of these GREAT people on Holly’s blog. As I began to inch toward making my first steps as an Internet Marketer, I decided that these four people were people to know. The fact that each of them has already been a part of my blog makes me feel incredibly blessed! There is an alliance forming there, if you will, called the Honest Marketing Movement and I hope to one day be a proud member myself!

My next goal is to finish Holly’s e-book “Honest Riches” and start implementing her methods. So I’ll let you all know when the next phase begins!