Keeping the torch burning…

Not easy to admit but I’ve had a slight wobble recently and haven’t been as consistent as the last five weeks with writing and publishing.

It’s hard when you know your weaknesses so well and they still show up and rear their ugly head. It’s almost like the WA blogs I’ve been writing have been attempts at motivating myself with personal wisdom and advice as much as trying to help others - as I somewhat knew subconsciously that at some point I’d hit the old self doubt hurdle . Just didn’t think it’d be this early in my WA journey!

I came racing out of the blocks certain this was the answer I’d been looking for and finally I’d found my thing, I was going to prove all those who have ever doubted me (as well as myself!) wrong and no matter what it takes, I was in this for the long run!

Then BAM! All of a sudden, out of nowhere it started…

The quiet withdrawal from wanting to write. The hint at boredom of what I’d been smashing through the week before. Once I depressingly acknowledged that my attention and focus was in decline on yet another new project…the objections to cracking on started to surface in my mind….

“what if this doesn’t work?”

“You put all this effort in and no one’s going to read your posts, let alone buy anything from your links!”

“even if they do buy something, you’d need to sell thousands of art related items to make any REAL money, let alone be able to provide for your wife and kid!”

And it goes on and on and ON!

So what do I do? Step back, discouraged and disappointed in myself but with little energy to do anything about it!
I mean rationally I know it’s only been 6 weeks that I’ve been in the game, and to have a website, 22 posts written, published and indexed in Google and an affiliate account with Amazon set up is pretty decent going for someone doing this on the side.
But all of a sudden it all seemed silly and pointless…

So I left it for a day, then two, followed by three and spent more time in the evenings watching vacuous TV with my wife. Knowing this isn’t going to change my life for the better but resolute that I was just enjoying time with my best friend.

Seven solid days have passed since I published my last post, I’ve dropped in the rankings and my fire was whimpering in the wind…

I‘d lost all momentum and desire to write my own content so I thought, well why not try helping someone else out instead. So I headed to Site Comments and offered feedback for the first time.

In that article I read an introduction to affiliate marketing and it reminded me of several facts, the first one that we’re all in this together here at WA and you get out what you put in. This turned things upside down for me and I thought yeah, WA is all about community - it’s one of the things that sold me the Premium membership in the first place.

This article also said it could be a year before you see any real results. This was comforting as I KNOW I haven’t given this a fair chance yet and I’ve just had an emotional response to setting off like a firework on a journey that is most definitely a marathon, not a sprint!

I then realised all the times in my life I’ve started new projects only to get discouraged and let them fall by the wayside and that they had never yielded results or at least the results I desired because I never got passed what I’m currently experiencing.

This is finally my chance to do just that and lay those ghosts of the past to rest!
So with that in mind and a renewed determination to make this work and get through this funk, I march on intent on putting the work in and changing my life for the better.

Favourite quote of the moment:

“Nobody cares, work harder.” :)