Getting Started Is The Hardest Part (For Me)

Photo Credit: 155903229 © Ivan Ushakovskiy | Dreamstime

Well, I'm on Level 4 Lesson 7 of the Online Entrepreneur Course. Unfortunately, I had to skip lesson 5 due to inadvertently being suspended by Twitter. I'm still not quite sure what I did wrong:

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/social-engagement-marketing/...

Anyways, Lesson 7 said to create a blog post or ask a question so here I am creating a blog post.

As I look back on my life I recognize some common themes. One of them is that getting started on anything is often the hardest part for me. Once I start working I'm good, but actually starting the work can be like pulling teeth.

For example, I know I need to write content for my website, but I'll just sit on my phone for hours on ends Reddit. Writing a blog post for my websites benefits me way more than just mindlessly browsing Reddit reading what seems interesting, but my motivation is somewhat lacking to break away from the non-productive task and getting started on the productive task.

I find I do much better if I don't even open my phone at all or if I just browse Wealthy Affiliate instead of Reddit. I guess one of the benefits in being active in the WA community is that it keeps internet/affiliate marketing top of mind and being on WA is a subconscious reminder that I need to work on my websites.

I've tried things like telling myself that I'll work on my websites for one hour a day. I find allocating time each day tends to work better for me than trying to accomplish a specific task. I know that if I spend time each day working on something, then I will eventually finish it.

One example is when I'm studying for professional certifications for my day job I'll dedicate one hour a day to studying. This helps keep me focused and on track. Unfortunately, it also cuts into my time for internet/affiliate marketing, but I do believe these professional certifications have helped me achieve promotions that I might not have gotten without them(or at least the skills and knowledge I obtained while studying for the certifications.)

Interestingly, allocating one hour a day just doesn't seem to work for me with internet/affiliate marketing. It's very easy for me to get side tracked and put off my websites.

I have a long history with myself and I think the main reason is because I reach a point where I'm uncomfortable. Rather than pushing through the discomfort I'll just procrastinate and distract myself until enough time has passed to where I realize just how absurd it is that I'm still stuck at the same spot.

I'm definitely the expert at procrastinating and staying stuck in the same spot. It's probably one of the reasons why it took me until December 2020 to finish Level 2 of the Online Entrepreneur Course:

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/thomaspaul/blog/finishing-up...

Like I mentioned in the above post, it only took me 8 years to finish that Level, lol. I'm proud to announce that I'm moving much quicker through Level 3 and Level 4, so it does seem like I'm learning to handle the discomfort and uncomfortable feelings better.

Finish the Online Entreprenuer Course - I plan on finishing the OEC in its entirety in the next 3 months. It may not happen, but I think I have a great chance of finally finishing it. I'm still not completely sold on sharing stuff on social media, but I'm not going to let it stop me from completing the rest of the course.

Get back into the YouTube groove - Over the past few weeks/months I've seen a lot of WA members share their YouTube successes. I'm going to get back into creating YouTube videos. I created 48 videos between 2011 and 2015 and was earning about $150/month in revenue from the videos.
In case you're wondering, the earning at some point just stopped happening. I'm not sure if it's because they introduced the partner program, and I hadn't reached the partner requirements, or if it's because I stopped producing content.

I'm guessing both of them had something to do with it. If I had kept making videos, then I would have reached partner status and it would have given me more views and traffic.

About half was from ads and the other half was from Amazon commissions from posts on my website that was linked in the video via annotations, which have since been replaced with cards and end screens:

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/leoemery/blog/heads-up-all-y...

Also, one of my videos has over 700,000 views and is approaching 800,000 views and my channel has over 1.3 million views total. I'm pretty proud of that especially since I've been virtually MIA for 7 years on my channel.
I pretty much attribute all of my past YouTube success to Leoemery because his posts about YouTube were what prompted me to start a YouTube channel way back in 2011.

It really makes me wonder why I quit making the videos. I guess after thinking about it, I did leave my job at the time to attend college and then after college I was focused on getting established in my new career field. However, I do regret not continuing to make YouTube videos during that time. I think I could have found time to squeeze it in.

I seriously do wonder where I would have been earnings wise if I had to continued to do what was working.

Continue Writing Content for my Website - I'm still not writing as much content as I would like to, but I'm definitely doing better. If I average one post a week in the next 3 months, then I'll be really happy. If I average more than that, then I'll be ecstatic!

I think wrote more than I intended to and rambled quite a bit. Back to work!

P.S. - Please learn from my failures. If you're uncomfortable with something, then push through the discomfort. You'll have to do it at some point and you might as well save yourself a bunch of time.

P.P.S - If something works, then keep on doing it! You would have to be crazy, like me, to stop doing it!

-Thomas