Life’s Little Challenges

I am sure I am like many of you out there, life can get pretty full on at times. I run a small internet based business from home and 2 weeks ago we were lucky enough to get a feature article in one of Australia’s largest newspapers which resulted in a flood of new work. Of course we wanted to maximise the benefit of this free promotion and not disappoint any of our new customers so I have been working 12 hour days 7 days a week for the last couple of weeks. Don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining about all this extra work, its fantastic, we are making great money but this combined with a new 9 week old son (no I’m not getting much sleep!) means that on a daily basis I have not been able to put a lot of time aside for my IM tasks. In fact just getting through the day has had to been a real battle.

The whole time I was thinking “I am getting behind on my Marketing with Alex stuff”. The disciplined process that I  promised myself I would follow had gone out the window. The longer I didn’t do anything the harder it became to do something, even when I had time. I started making really weak excuses for not doing the things that I knew  I should be doing and these were the things that would make a difference. The longer I wallowed in this mind set the harder it got to just “do something”. Anything, I knew I had to take action I just could’t get my mind to commit to it.

I realised that this mind set was not something that was unique to me, that there are probably many other people that just get swallowed by their day to day life and struggle finding the time to pursue there dreams. It made me think that if I can find a way to overcome this feeling, a simple process to follow to get back on track  and give me a safety net so that I knew that even if I did miss a day or too I was still in control and moving towards my goal others would be interested.

So it is in times of need we do some soul searching. What is the best thing to do when you are struggling? Go back to basics!

A little over a year ago now I did Mark Joyners Simpleology 101 and i have just gone back and started it again. I am back on track!

Its a free online program that helps you identify your goals and stay focused. It helps you organise yourself in a manner that actually causes you to believe you can achieve anything you want. It is a 20 day program that takes about 15 minutes a day that will change your habits, help you manage your time and stay on top of the things you need to do. In short you will find yourself achieving a days work in about 2 hours. How does it do this? Its all about focus. I am sure  I am not doing it justice, you really need to have a look for yourself and please give it a go with an open mind. You get free software that allows you to manage a daily target list, catch those dreams on a daily basis – you know the things that you say “wouldn’t it be great if…..!” It has a place you can keep track of all your great ideas or things you know you want to do but don’t have time for now. It helps you identify the things that are holding you back, the things you waste time on as well as the habits that you form that make you powerful.

Now I want to emphasise I don’t make anything if you take advantage of Simpleology 101. It is FREE and it is fantastic. I do however want my blog to be considered to be a place where you can get valuable information. Information that will propel you towards your goals. I also hope you will get to know me and see that I’m a pretty average sort of bloke and realise that if I can achieve my life dream so can you. If you have ever felt the way I’ve been feeling or just know that if you could achieve more in your day you will realise your goals sooner you need to have a look at this http://www.simpleology.com

For anyone that has had a look at my Goals and Planning page you will see that I have a pretty  significant task ahead of me if I am going to achieve my five year goal. I am in the process of doing my back plan so I have a meaningful path to follow. My back plan will virtually guarantee me success.

In simple terms if you are back planning you start out at your destination, living your dream and achieving your goal then you work backwards and write down every logical step that must come before the one above it. Then depending on the magnitude of your  task you will eventually write down the very next thing you need to do to move from where you are now to your goal. We actually use this technique with out realising it every time we go to an appointment, work or anywhere we have to at a certain time. Say work at 8.00am. The night before we estimate the driving time form home to work, identify the things we have to do before we leave i.e. bathe, breakfast, iron clothes etc. We estimate a time for each task and work back to the time we have to set the alarm clock. We know if we follow our plan we are giving ourselves the best chance of achieving our goals.

Check my Goals and Planning page, soon I will have my back plan posted to achieve my goal

I guess where Im heading with this post is that sometimes despite the best planning, burning desire and an unwavering approach life sometimes  gets very complicated and your IM tasks can get pushed down the list, particularly if you are at the stage where you are still working a regular job to pay the bills. It is so important that you don’t use this as an excuse to give up. Don’t get down on yourself for not ticking of all the items on your to do list. Just recognise that life gets like that and you work through your busy periods and get back on the process as soon as you can. When you do have limited time make sure you focus on the things that will make the biggest difference. So when you do your back plan identify the critical tasks and the time frames that you need to achieve these in and when life gets hectic put the time that you do have into those critical jobs.

For me I need Simpleology 101!

Talk soon

Dave Jeffreys

Tweet This Post