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.

Wow. When I first thought of that title for my post, I just thought of it as a title. But after I actually typed it, it really seemed to have an emotional hook to it!

The fact is I have not made ANY progress since my last blog post. Not one tiny bit. I don’t, however, see this as a negative thing. Do I need to make progress? Yes – I do. But the fact that I haven’t is not evidence of a lack of motivation.

First of all, I took yesterday off from blogging altogether. I didn’t post on my personal blog and I didn’t post on this IM blog. The reason I didn’t was really because of sheer exhaustion. When I jumped into this thing, I jumped in with both feet and just went at it full speed! Besides that, yesterday was a really rough day at work, and by the time I got home I had such a headache that all I wanted to do was lay down and rest. So – that’s what I did.

At first I felt incredibly guilty for doing that. I was thinking to myself that I was letting all my new found IM friends down by not putting the effort into growing yesterday. I felt like I was letting my wife down because she, too, wants to see me fulfill my dreams of being able to do the things I want to do and not be a “slave” to employment. Most of all, I felt like I was letting myself down. I felt like I was taking the night off and that it was all too possible that would be my stopping point. I was able to talk myself into not really believing all of that, but only because I had such a bad headache that I just couldn’t make myself do it.

That turned out to be a good thing! I came home today (I am writing all of my posts at night and publishing them in the morning…) and had more resolve than ever to get in front of my blog and type something…ANYTHING…as long as it could be meaningful. As I thought about what would mean something I decided that sharing my thoughts about my lack of progress could be insightful if someone came across this blog one day who was feeling like they just weren’t moving forward.

If I, as a complete newbie to the IM world, were to offer advice to other newbies getting started, I think I would say two things:

1)When you’re starting out…pace yourself. Don’t burn yourself out so that you begin to hate what you’re doing. So far I’ve had a lot of fun. If I had forced myself to read or blog last night, I think I probably would have just been grumpy and irritated. Sometimes rest can be just as important as progress!

2)Find yourself some good IM friends. Anna, Holly, Joe and Davin barely know me, but they have been INCREDIBLY uplifting and have offered some GREAT encouragement. It’s like Joe said in a comment in one of my posts…with friends like these, I have no choice but to succeed!

My lack of progress yesterday was just me hitting the pause button. I didn’t take any steps backward and I feel refreshed and ready to start moving forward again. I’m looking forward to this weekend because I’ll have some more time to sit down and finish reading Holly’s book and I’ll be able to start formulating my goals and business plans. The good news is I want this so bad I can taste it. I am excited and motivated and can’t wait to start learning and implementing more and more!

I truly hope others enjoy reading this post as much as I enjoyed writing it…but you know what? Even as I was writing this post I realized more and more just how dedicated I have become to this. So if nothing else, this post was great for me!