Day 1 of Self-Imposed Abstinence… (the agony)
OK, so here’s the idea: I’m cutting myself off from all marketing noise.
Why? :: The Concept
This is because I’m constantly being distracted by shiny objects (launches and marketing emails) that take my focus away from the task at hand.
I was thinking: Do Mike Filsaime, Frank Kern, Eben Pagan, Jason Moffatt, Stephen Dean, Russell Brunson and all the other successful names in Internet Marketing allow themselves to be constantly distracted? I doubt it. I doubt they even see these emails.
So for a few weeks at least, I’m getting off everyone’s lists, flouncing facebook and turning off twitter – any avenue that carries an Internet Marketing message gets shut off so I can take a moment, reboot myself and get on with the task in hand (making a recurring income).
Don’t get me wrong: I’m getting back onto those lists after the experiment is over, as the marketing lessons they provide are invaluable! for example; if a sales letter makes me want to buy the product, then why was it so successful?
In a nutshell, I’ve learned all I need to know to make money online, and now I have to wrench myself away from the habit of learning, and apply the skills I now have – would you benefit from the same?
Day 1 :: The Agony
I’ll be honest, it’s not been easy. I find myself dipping in and out of things, then pulling myself back after realising I was slipping.
Luckily I never took part in any of the online forums (dangerously addictive), but over the months have found myself getting on heaps of lists, and getting every message from Mike Filsaime for example about five times in some cases.
That has been the fun part, hitting unsubscribe on all the duplicates and hitting delete on the messages in my inbox without even reading them.
I’ve been a bit stuck with whjat to do with my time, so found myself turning to the only viable alternative: Productive work.
The results? A very productive first day, but a bit of a challenge – it’ll get easier, I’m sure.
Do you think I’m right? Wrong? Let’s hear your comments, and don’t forget to subscribe via RSS to keep up with the latest updates!
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Yeah dude, we do read these things. (Google Alerts Yo).
And bro, getting rid of Facebook and all that shit will do very little to help your distractions. Truth is, you’ll just get distracted with some other stuff like Yo MTV Raps, Brett Michaels “Rock Of Love” or whatever you Brits watch on TV.
Believe it or not, most of the gurus you mentioned also get distracted all the time (maybe Eben excluded).
We are no different then the rest.
In fact, I think one of the qualities of a guru is a total erradict ADHD freak who has troubles focusing. Nearly every successful guy I’ve met in this industry is a scattered nutcase.
While your mentor may have good intentions, it’s doubtful you’ll avoid distractions. You’ll find new ones.
The trick is, turn the distractions into fun and games and actually do something fun and productive with them.
That’s my view.
Best of luck.
J-Mo
Hey J-mo, thanks for the comment!
I’m relieved to hear that you can be a success with:
a) an easily distracted mind
b) heaps of marketing chatter around you all the time.
That’s an interesting tip: turning the distractions into fun and games… I’ll bear that in mind.
You once told me to not bother with Internet Marketing and stick to entertaining people. I thought it was quite brash and almost rude at the time, but after a lot of thought, I think you might be onto something – entertaining is my first love, and I’m exploring monetizing that through Internet Marketing.
cheers,
Tony.
You can completely rid yourself of distractions, but it’d be tough. And ya, less fun.
But I like what you’re doing. It’s a way of clearing the plate and starting over.
Right now, if you think you have bad habits, you probably do. Get in the habit of working instead. Then when the distractions come back, just be conscious of them! You might be able to turn them in to positives if they’re not in excess.
Wow! Two comments from people I read often! I *MUST* be doing something right!!
Thanks for the comment Stephen.
OK, so the thing you and Jason Moffatt agree on is that life is dull without the distractions… hmmm.. maybe I need to schedule my ‘distraction time’… a bit of self-restraint.
My mentor is one of these personal development dudes, who helps achieve required change and is not an Internet Marketing person. The funny thing is, is that he has a couple of sites where he is making money, and yo know how he did it? He simply followed the steps he was told to follow. Hmm strange, that.
I think the ‘clearing out the noise’ approach is not for everyone, but is definitely for me, as it’s the only way I can make the transition from ’someone learning the required skills for successful IM’ to ’someone making money through successful IM’. This is a step where many stumble, I feel, as they are in a deeply embedded habit of learning and not applying the techniques.
I think a ‘reboot’ is a way of shaking myself and getting into a different headspace.
It’s worth mentioning that of course I realise only a complete idiot would have a total disconnect from launches, etc., for an extended period of time, as they would potentially miss out on the latest developments which could make massive changes to their business
(Just to clarify).
Sometime you gotta do what you gotta do. I think we all need to have a time away from time to time.
Great Idea. ? Is it working? Did it do what you needed?
Dave the How To guy
Hi Dave, it’s been an interesting experiment – I’ll make a vid about it sometime soon.
I’m still undecided about it all, so need to collect my thoughts first….
Thanks for commenting!
Tony.