Avoid the dangers of burnout
You’ve just signed up to WA. You’re incredibly excited and you set to work with enthusiasm to set up your first website and you look forward to your first sales coming in.
You’re impressed by all the training materials and you ask lots of questions in the forums. You don’t find it quite as easy as you thought you would but you're pleased at the amount you’re learning. You spend every spare moment you have on your site, learning SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), writing articles and trying to promote your products.
And then what happens?
A month in – you’re still waiting for your first sale. You’re dead tired trying to combine work, your IM (Internet Marketing) efforts, do all the tasks of normal day to day life and spend enough time with your family and friends. Things aren’t happening quite as quickly as you'd hoped and you’re struggling to stay motivated.
Burning the midnight oil or sacrificing family or social time still doesn’t seem to be paying dividends. And although you’re reluctant to admit it, you can’t understand why your site isn’t making as much money as other people’s. You’re certainly working hard enough....
Sound familiar?
It’s a scenario I’ve witnessed from quite a few new members of WA and I worry when I hear people become demotivated and disillusioned – some almost to the point of burnout.
In my other life outside WA – I work as a Coach and work with people and help them among other things to put strategies in place to set goals, manage their time more effectively and maintain their motivation, so here are my tips for avoiding IM burnout.
There’s nothing revolutionary and some have appeared in other things I’ve written, but I make no apology for repeating them here because they're important..
- Declutter – whether it be your environment or your mind working in a mess or having too much to do will only pile on the stress. Don’t make excuses for not sorting it out.
- Have realistic expectations – If you’re trying to learn IM from scratch, you’re not going to be make 20,000 dollars a month after 30 days. This sort of unrealistic expectation can make you ill when you don’t achieve it.
- Set goals – Okay, not everyone is into goal setting, but you have to something that you’re aiming for. The clearer the goal the more likely you are to achieve it.
- Have an action plan – How can you keep on track if you don’t have some clear actions that you take. Action plans allow you to draw up a whole picture.
- Schedule your IM activities – I know a lot of people work IM round all the other things they have to do, but if you’re committed to making it work – schedule in your time slots and stick to them. If 30 mins a day is all you have – so be it. But if you don’t schedule you’ll not make it a priority and then you’ll be frustrated by your lack of progress.
- Avoid distractions – Distractions come in many different shapes and sizes. It’s up to you to manage them.
- Work hard and work smart – One of the biggest mans from people is their lack of times. So work smart with the time that you have and ensure that you focus on the tasks you have to complete.
- Keep hydrated – In order to concentrate your brain needs water. Ensure that you keep yourself hydrated. Preferably with water and not coffee or soda.
- Know when to stop – If you’ve actually scheduled your time, then you should actually know when you’re stopping. However, there’s a real temptation to keep going for hours on end . This isn’t healthy. Take regular breaks and remember to sleep.
- Expect dips in motivation – No one can keep up the same level of motivation every hour of every day. It’s natural there will be times when you’ll feel frustrated and demotivated. On these occasions – I either swap what I’m doing to something I really want to do for a short while or I break tasks I’m reluctant to complete into manageable chunks. Sometimes – those chunks are only 5 minutes. But lots of 5 minutes will still get tasks done that I’ve felt reluctant to complete.
- Acknowledge your achievements -: It’s very easy to focus on all the tasks you haven’t completed, but it’s counterproductive. I keep a daily log of what I’ve achieved and always look at it at the end of my working day. I might have only written 2 articles on a day when I planned 10 but 2 articles is a positive step forward. Acknowledging the progress you have made will help you to stay motivated.
- Reward yourself - Every time you reach a milestone or a goal reward yourself. It helps with motivation. Just make sure that the reward matches the goal. No three week holiday for writing 5 articles!
If you really want to successful at IM then it’s really important that you take care of yourself and plan for the long term. Don’t be one of those people who gets IM burnout and gives up.
Recent Comments
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Thanks BIS. You made some great points and advices. But one month is nothing. I've spent years before getting results, but the key as I see it is to fail enough times. If you fail enough times, success will come :) Wish I found WA much sooner and I wouldn't have to sthrive for such a long time :)
Thanks for commenting Helle. I have a slightly different view point over the 'success versus failure issue.
Failure
I actually think you have to look at every 'failure as a learning process. Learn what you could have done differently, Accept what you would have done exactly the same - even if it didn't yeild the results you wanted and then move on.
Sucess
I think you have to be very clear to yourself - what your measure of success is. I then also think you have to know whether you have been working specifically, consistently and appropriately towards that success.,Many people 'fail' because they don't have a clear idea of what they're aiming at, what they will do to get there and how to monitor each stage and implement changes if necessary.
Apologies if I sound like I'm preaching, but I know these things to be true from my work as a coach.
Best of luck for your future success.
It's true that being overwhelmed and hitting a wall will happen to most of us here. It happened to me at 3 mos. Most experience it about a month in. You have made some very good points (I have heard them before) and it's nice to see them all organized into a nice neat little package.
Keeping track of your tasks and accomplishments will go a long way toward keeping your motivation up. You can say to yourself, yup, I'm making progress.
Make sure that you don't work in a vacuum. IM is a solitary life. K&
C have created a wonderful chat feature to share your successes and trials. We have all been where you are and are willing to help. But you do need to make your issues known.
Thanks for the post Beverly.
Thanks Craig. You're right it can be a very solitary life and it is good to have contact with others struggling or succeeding with the same things.
I think "waiting for a sale" is the wrong approach and this article is going to hit home for many.
It should be about the creation of something, the creation of a business eventually...but in order to achieve success (and the sales), it takes an ongoing building process.
Taking action is a success and is actually valuable financially...learning new skills makes your more valuable, and so does building something...writing an article, building a site, etc...these all have VALUE.
The minute you take the immediate financial reward out of the picture, the more successful you will actually become.
Thanks Kyle for taking the time to comment. You're absolutely right there are no instant financial rewards and it worries me when I see people thinking there is. You know that they are only setting themselves up for failure and disappointment.
Thanks for the great tips. I am a month in and have learned so much here, but have to admit that I am approaching the "burn-out" stage....think I have to step back a bit and take time to re-evaluate my first site and do some planning,.
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BIS, I am so glad you commented on my blog on day 1 of my WA membership - I connected to you and found this blog, which is exactly what I needed, to keep me focussed and manage my expectations realistically. Of course everyone is excited about their first taste of IM - the potential that is out there and their aspirations for success, but it is also important to keep the momentum going, thank you"
Thank you - I'm so sorry that I didn't reply sooner. I missed that you had commented - I should be more careful about checking. Glad you found it helpful.