I am a bit of a self improvement fan – I read as much as I can about it and listen to CD’s on all sorts of subjects from living in the now to the law of attraction, setting goals, positive thinking and everything in between. One of my favorites in this arena is Tony Robbins. Most of you I am sure have heard of him but if you haven’t Tony Robbins is a leader in personal development with numerous books and CDs to his name.
Just before starting this blog post I was listening to a disk from his Personal Power program where Tony talks about the Ultimate Success Formula. He also devotes a whole section of his book – Unlimited Power, to this formula for those of you who may be interested in reading about it in more detail.
As I was listening to it, I figured that this could be applied to blogging just as easily as it applies to other aspects of life. It is a simple process and really we all know it deep down inside but most of us fail to implement it. But since we are just about to hit another new year and I am sure we are all keen and eager to make some worthwhile resolutions, I figure now was the time to get us all in the right frame of mind to make this year a success. And if you have already reached a level of ‘success’ then hopefully this will help to make it even more successful than the last.
What is the Ultimate Success Formula?
The Ultimate Success Formula is made up of 4 steps:
1. Know Your Outcome
This step basically means getting clear about what you want. So setting goals is extremely important here. And believe me, I have seen the power of writing down your goals. Wanda and I use butchers paper when we are planning anything to do with our business. The other day I looked back on some of the old pages and noticed a goal we had set to make $12,000 from Amazon for just one of our websites in November 2009. We had written this some months before when at the time this sort of goal was way out of our league. I remember that Wanda suggested we put down that amount – but I was thinking of something a little more conservative and felt a small knot in my stomach when she mentioned it. But I thought what the hec, let’s just put it down on paper. Well, as any of you who have read our blog post on how much we actually made in that month you will know that we beat that figure and some.
So don’t put off writing down your blogging goals for the year and be bold with it. The best types of goals are those that are a good way beyond what you really think you can accomplish. So if $100 a day is your goal then triple it and make your goal $300 a day. You want that goal to create a knot in your stomach like the $12,ooo goal did for me.
But just writing down your goals isn’t enough. Tony recommends ‘knowing your outcome’ in everyday situations as well. So for instance, if you have an important meeting you need to attend then decide beforehand what you want to happen. Tony suggests engaging all your senses to describe the results you want. As Tony says, this ‘enpowers your brain to create your desire’. This is something I haven’t tried before but I am going to make it my mission this week to try this out in different situations.
2. Get Yourself to Take Action
I must admit that I have difficulty in taking action. It’s not one of my strong points. Fortunately however Wanda is an action person so although I might have the ideas, she is definitely the one that gets things going with our online business. Ideas are useless without some action behind them. But even so, I have made it a goal just recently to take action more often and you know, it’s working. And the reason it’s working is because of something Tony Robbin mentioned in one of his CD’s. What he said was, the difference between those who succeed and those who don’t is that those who succeed take action. This just stuck in my head. I mean just think about it…those who suceed are those who take action…it’s such a simple concept but it is so powerful.
So if you want to get your blog to the level you desire then you need to take action and more specifically, ‘consistent action’. You need to regularly add content, you need to regularly leave blog comments and network, you need to regularly write product reviews and so on. Consistent action is the key to success with anything.
3. Notice What Is Working and What Isn’t
This is where you need to step back and see if what you are doing is getting you closer to your goals. This might mean assessing your progress on a daily, weekly or monthly basis depending on the goal you are trying to achieve.
For instance, if you have a traffic plan for your blog that involves leaving 5 blog comments a day and tweeting 10 times a day then at the end of the month you should stop and see which has resulted in the most traffic. In this way, you can see what is working and whether it is worth continuing the process. If the comments worked well then it would be worthwhile increasing it to 10 comments.
4. If You Aren’t Reaching Your Goal Then Keep Trying Until You Do
What this means is that you keep trying until you succeed. It’s like the baby analogy…if a baby gave up after it’s firt attempt to walk then it would never walk. This is the same with you and your online business. You can choose to give up after the first attempt or the second or even the third…or instead you can keep trying until you do succeed.
We literally could have given up hundreds of times but funnily enough, it never even occurred to us to do so. We got depressed and disappointed many a time and often wondered whether it was even possible to make a decent income online. I even remember us deciding that the only people who made money online were those who taught other people how to make money online. So yes, we could have given up again and again but we never did. For some reason, in the back of our heads we just knew that we had to keep going and we would make it in the end.
So if something isn’t working for you, then change the way you are doing it. There is no point doing the same thing over and over if you aren’t getting results. Focus on what is working for you rather than what isn’t and put all your efforts into it.
Modelling
Tony Robbins finishes up by saying that there is a way of speeding up this entire process and that is through the process of ‘modelling’. in other words, finding someone who is already a success at what you want to do and modelling off them.
This is something we have consistently done in the past even when we didn’t have much money to invest. We saw it as a way of speeding up the process so we have been students of James Martell, Yaro Starak, Kyle and Carson from Wealthy Affiliate and various other gurus through their ebooks and guides. If we only get one really good piece of advice from each of them then we feel it is worth it.
All excellent points but I want to highlight the point ‘consistent action’.
There is too much hype around which states “making money online” is easy. It’s not! Hard work, commitment and consistent action is what it takes and if you start to see a decent return within 6 months, you are doing very well.
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ webuildyourblog.com´s last blog ..I May Have Just Made One Of The Worst Decisions Of My Life! =-.
Definitely agree Andrew. It does take dedication and I think most people give up because ultimately they’re only looking for a quick buck. You really have to love this business otherwise the ‘consistent action’ just doesn’t happen.
Hard work and elbow grease are key to success in the many facets of life. This was a good article for goal setting as well an excellent demonstration on how to write an affiliate post.
Thanks ;)
.-= Ms. Freeman´s last blog ..5 Entrepreneurial Goals for 2010 =-.
You have to put in the work to reap the rewards but a lot of people just expect it all to land in their lap.
Great great tips, Paula :). Amongst them all I think the taking action has really great effect on you because it’s what decides whether you are going to start on a success road or not.
.-= Shirley´s last blog ..Amazon Associates Integrates With Blogger (Google) =-.
I agree Shirley – I think taking action is definitely the most important.
Ahh taking action, yea well, I gotta go with ya there. I really wish I had a “Wanda” also, I may not have wasted so much time ’till now.
I’ve been known as “the idea man” for years in all aspects, but implementation of said ideas…I fall kinda flat to put it nicely.
I’ve also thought of figuring out how to capitalize on the ideas and skipping the second step altogether. lol
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..PLEASE COMMENT – Have You EVER Used The Added Feature Of My Subscribe To Comments Plugin?? =-.
LOL – well that would be the ideal. Time to start outsourcing I think. You hand out the ideas and get someone else to do the work for you.
The main issue I see there is THEFT. Call me paranoid, but “Intellectual Property” laws are shaky at best.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..PLEASE COMMENT – Have You EVER Used The Added Feature Of My Subscribe To Comments Plugin?? =-.
I set goals every year, but I also fine tune my goals throughout the year. I have 3 blogs and I have 5 different goals on each blog to highlight the 5 things I hope to achieve based on what I feel those blogs represent.
Sometimes I know the actions to take to try to achieve the goal; other times I’m not quite as sure. In The Secret it says that if you can see it you can get it, but it might not totally manifest itself the way you thought it might. That part makes me happy because it means I can try something, and if it doesn’t work I can try something else, and by the act of trying something else might pop up that I hadn’t thought about that just might work.
As we all proceed into 2010, I know that I’m going to be successful this year; I just have to figure out how. :-)
.-= Mitch´s last blog ..My Online Goals For 2010, And A Look Back At 2009 =-.
We will be setting our goals for our blogs this week…actually not just for the blogs but the business as a whole. We are going to ‘Think Big’ this year.
I am stuck on this step sometimes: If You Aren’t Reaching Your Goal Then Keep Trying Until You Do!
Naturally, when I can not reach goals, i feel disappointed and quit and then change my goals simpler. T
.-= Tinh@eblogtip.com´s last blog ..FireFox 2010 Calendar [Downloads] =-.
Most people give up on their goals just before they are about to reach them. If it’s a goal worth reaching then it is worth working at until you get it.
Paula,
I must admit to being like you with #2. I seem to be such a creature of habit, but I know that unless I implement new ideas that resonate with me I will never be successful. Having Wanda there to complement your weakness in this area and to give you a nudge is such a great strength.
Thanks for the great advice.
Brad
.-= Brad Harmon´s last blog ..How SMART are Your New Year’s Resolutions? =-.
You’ve hit the nail on the head Brad. Whatever you do in this business has to ‘resonate’ with you otherwise you can never really be a success at it.
Goal setting could definitely make you feet like there’s a knot in your stomach. As much as you want to make goals bigger than what you think you can, but it is the question of “is it achievable?” that would make you feel uneasy. But if you get down to it then it can be achieved. You are indeed right in saying that action should be taken. If you just keep on thinking how to achieve your goals without doing anything, then you won’t achieve anything at all.
Hi Paula, That is a wonderful book, I have heard about that before on Daniel’s blog. Thanks for sharing the ideas on that book.