What have you learned lately?
Sometimes the truth is bitter...
But it can be bitter-sweet, I've been I guess you can say slacking here at Wealthy Affiliate, but really in my defense I've been busy. I started working as an English teacher here in Indonesia for an International School in Bogor. It has kept me so busy! Every time I come home I just want to spend quality time with my wife and get ready for the next day. Does that make me lazy? I know I could work on my sites on the weekend, but man! I am beat.
So here is what I've learned about myself and why I say that the truth is bitter, but could be bitter-sweet. I've discovered that I always have the time because time is what you make of it. If I decided I want to waste my time and be a slob, then that is what I become. If I decide I want to work my tail off every minute of the day and become a workaholic, then that's what I become.
So I guess it's a matter of finding that right balance between the two, just like Goldilocks and the three bears. To find the one that's just right. I've found a great push of motivation due to the fact that I do not want to be a 9 to 5 type of guy. I have never been, except in my current situation its more like a 4am to 4pm kinda guy. That's right folks I get up at 4am. I get out of the school at 4pm, crazy right!? So yeah I'm beat.
The bitter part to this is I got lazy and it put me in a spot I do not really care to be in due to a financial change. Not that I'm hurting for cash, but I know if I put more effort into my sites and my Marketing, then I will be in the position I want to be in again. So the sweet part would be that I've realized I do not want to live my life waking up so early and for a salary, but instead I want to make my income to my standards.
With that said, I've started writing more and have created a YouTube channel called "Work to not Work" and I've made 2 videos, one being a tutorial on how to join Wealthy Affiliate. The other video is kinda like a promotion for my website and Wealthy Affiliate too. I'm going to make more videos or even possibly another YouTube channel for my product website. This has given me a sense of renewal and woke me up a bit. I will create tutorials for Affiliates to learn how to edit videos or download free software to help them out with marketing and videos for WA members who are not sure how to do certain things.
Over all, I say what have you learned today? I learned that I can come up with new ideas and push forward as to not being stuck in an endless loop.
Why is there bitterness? Because I've become somewhat lazy or just caught up in life to realize I wasn't living.
Why is it sweet? Simply put that I woke up a bit. I was not happy like before and wish to get back to the happy me again!
So all of you out there that are in a mental FUNK, you need to wake up and get back to work! Do not be discouraged in life. Things happen and sometimes we need to step back to leap forward. I wish you all the best and if you have had a similar experience please leave it in the comments below. I hope you all achieve your goals here at WA. I've been a member for just about a year now, and still learn something new. Knowledge is never ending at Wealthy Affiliate.
Your Friend, Aaron G.
Recent Comments
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Thank you for such an awesome post-Aaron because it is also encouraging too. To get us to realize that nothing is impossible as long as we put a mind to it and make this work.
It all goes back to what I have been saying along and that is it takes these key points and that is determination. persistence, passion and now patience.
As long as we have these points everything else comes easy. So yes it can be bitter/sweet or it can be just sweet.
Mary
Thank you Mary,
Yes it does take all of those key points to be successful in this business. Patients is probably the one that is most difficult for people to understand, myself included. But persistence and patients pays off.
Seems like everyone wants a quick fix to their problems or they want instant gratification. However, if it was instant, the gratification would be diminished. Its the work we put in with all the long hours that make us appreciate what we are doing. Knowing we are helping others make their dreams become a reality.
Thank you for you kind words and I wish you all the best.
Aaron. G
You are so very welcome it was my pleasure and I agree with you about the patience, and the instant gratification I forgot about that part.
Everyone lives on the fast track they forget about what it really takes to build a business such as ours or any business for that matter. We have to put in the effort to get something out.
Mary
Hi Aaron. I totally understand the challenges you've faced. I think you're being a bit harsh on yourself when you think you've been a bit lazy. I'd love to do so much more with WA but for the moment I'm stuck for time. Like you, I"m an early starter and late finisher in my current business. But that doesn't stop me chipping away at my WA business. It only has to start earning one days wage and that will be one day I can take off my current business. Jim
Absolutely Jim. I'm going to keep chipping away. We are all our biggest critics tho, am I right? LOL.
I wish you all the best Jim. And thank you.
Aaron G.
HI Aaron,
What you are facing is not unusual for new business owners to face the biggest that i have seen over the years of helping individuals get started is the work/life balance. And this is something different for every single business owner out there each of us have to find the right balance for our lives and our businesses.
Some find out the reality is that they truly do not have the time to properly run and give an online business the attention it needs to be successful, but the grim reality is they could change their schedules around stop doing certain non-productive daily items on their schedule to produce the time to help their business excel
Then we have the lull period every business goes through during the start up period ride it out and life can literary change for you and your business over night.
Keep being creative and trying new things sooner or later you will find some key aspects that just magnetizes people to your website and once you find that you find success. But this is something you have to find, no matter how hard we hope it will come to us, it will not come knocking on your door to find you!.
Keep steady and true it works,
Calvin
Well put Calvin. I totally agree and I'm in the I want to be creative phase of my online journey. :) not sure if you checked out my YouTube channel, but if not please do and let me know what you think. I'm new to the YouTube marketing, but I do think what I want to do with it will help not just myself, but others too.
All the best.
Aaron G.
Well, the post looks great. Writing a post must be just like riding a bike! You haven't lost the touch
The content is really engaging and I've been trying to implement more pictures into my blogs as well.
Thanks for sharing I agree that taking a step back can a lot of the times serve better than wacking away at it.
Doc
Aaron,
I am sorry to hear of the slump you found yourself in,
but it happens to everyone -
I spend 12 to 18 hours doing WA and have been for the
past 5 months today being the first day of month 6 -
yes it is hard there are days that I do not want to work
but then I get bored and open the laptop and next thing
you know it is bedtime 2 am usually for me.
Suffering from insomnia - this extends out to whenever :(
Susan
Hi Aaron,
EFL teaching?Been there, done that.
Have you ever thought about teaching English online?
You can teach 25 hours a week, making over $2000/month.
I'm sure you work at least double the hours for much less money.
Go to eslcafe website, click on International job board and you will find loads of online teaching jobs.
Good luck,
Max
Actually the pay is not a lot less, I work at an international school, so the pay is decent. One of the main reasons I'm going through with it is because of the visa. It allows me to stay longer without having to bounce around from country to country.
The sound of teaching online is somewhat appealing, but to be completely honest its not what I really want to do. Don't get me wrong I do like the fact I'm helping these kids, but I feel like I could be doing more.
So with that said I'm back in the front seat driving my motivation hot rod. Sort of speaking. And finding that fire I once had again. Thank you for your suggestions.
Aaron.G
It's great that you work at an international school.
I like the fact that there will be a lot of time left to do other things like WA,when teaching online.
Online Chinese schools pay at least $20/hr,which is good for most people.
Anyway,I wish you the best.
Max
See more comments
Thanks for asking, friend! Recently, I began to notice that blogging is really a battle and to win it, one must work consistently. I found that consistency is the key to winning the blogging battle.
I recently read an eBook compiled by so many pro bloggers and learned from some of them that posting content every day is not necessary. I also learned from others that it's good to publish content daily. Then, I decided to apply both ideas following the blogging strategies for publishing daily and for not publishing daily.
For the past few weeks that I've been following this up, I've begun to see bright changes in my site traffic, Thanks for the informative post!
Israel Olatunji
Hello Israel,
Thank you for sharing this valuable information. I do believe there needs to be a balance, but I think to earn the extra progress one must go the extra mile. I have decided to put in that extra effort to create more blogs and now create YouTube videos to help illustrate and give visual aid to one's reading.
I believe that giving people not just the information in writing, but also being able to show them a step-by-step process I can gain more momentum. This is going to be my new process for future projects on my website. Tell me what you think.
All the best,
Aaron G.