A couple of months ago, I wrote Plodding Your Way To Success over on my other blog, and while it is geared towards SEO, the same general tenets apply to the broadest spectrum of success. I listed the following:

• Stay focused
• Work, don’t play
• Know what needs to get done
• Actually get something done
• Start a task
• Don’t sweat every tiny detail
• Finish a task

It is easy, when working from home, to put things off. Sometimes we get distracted. Sometimes we get lazy. Sometimes we are just plain scared as we look at the big picture or the mountain of tasks that lay ahead of us. It’s those times that we need to just choose a small task and get it done. Perhaps accomplishing that small task will lead to accomplishing larger tasks. Perhaps it won’t. Either way, at least one thing actually got done. That’s a checkmark on the plus side, and ensures that you are a step closer to success, even if that step is a tiny one.

Be persistent. Don’t stop taking those steps. If you have to take a tiny, little step, because a bigger step just seem too overwhelming, fine. Take the tiny one. Eventually you’ll have the guts to take the bigger one. Of all the things on your to-do list today, isn’t there at least one thing you can actually get done? I’d bet there is.

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This network of contacts will be there if you need support, outsourcing, links, traffic, and any number of other things. Each person in this loosely-defined network has her own strengths and talents, and each person can draw upon others’ strengths to back up her own. You aren’t all in business together. You aren’t partners in any legal sense of the word. But you are all inter-connected and can usually be relied upon to augment each others’ needs on occasion. In some cases, this will be direct trading of services, and in others, it will just be the opportunity to bounce ideas off one another.

In a post about blogging, seo, and traffic, a member of my network of contacts, Eric Enge, says:

…embrace the social aspect of blogging. Relationships build success here. Make contact with the people that can make your blog a success. Deliver plenty of value to these relationships. In the beginning, plan on giving more than you get. You need to build this up slowly, and effectively. Over time, this should allow you to get a significant readership, and lots of relevant traffic.

While he is speaking about a specific subject in this quote (blogging traffic), it really applies to a much broader business sense. You, as a lone, self-employed person, working from your home (in your pajamas), don’t have a large staff to support you. You need people, even in a one-person show. Networking with others provides benefits both to you and those others in a myriad of ways. Don’t neglect the networking aspect just because you work alone. It is a key to your success, so please add the Networking key to your virtual keyring now.

Go on, go out in the online communities of your niche and connect with others. It’s vital to your growth.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2007. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: contacts, Eric Enge, networking, niche communities, online communities, social networks
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In my case, success only came to me once I allowed my positive personality to shine through. In case you haven’t noticed, my main slogan or catch-phrase is You’ll never shine if you don’t glow. This is actually a line from a Smash Mouth song (AllStar), that affected my life several years ago.

That Smash Mouth song was popular on the radio at a dark time of my life. I was clinically depressed, and completely despondent about where I was in life. I’d turned 40, looked around, and wondered where all the years had gone. Why did I not yet own my own home? Why was I still working in lousy office jobs, making lousy money, and having to deal with lousy bosses and co-workers? (For the record, I’ve also worked with some fabulous people over the years, and had a few jobs that paid pretty well).

As I would drive to work each morning, the Smash Mouth song, AllStar, would inevitably play. (Why do radio stations always play the same songs at the same time anyway?) The song was a happy ditty with positive lyrics…and the one line that really hit home with me was “You’ll never shine if you don’t glow”.

I finally realized that as long as I continued to work in lousy office jobs, without attempting to change that situation, I would never experience anything else. Before my life could shine, I had to light some candles within myself until I glowed. The very first thing I did was to start acting happy. I wasn’t happy, but I pretended that I was. I walked around with a smile on my face, even though I was crying inside. Instead of being Ms. Gloom and Doom, I became Ms. Happy Go Lucky.

In a fairly short time, the pretense of being happy turned into the reality of being happy. Just by acting positive, I became positive. And the more positive I became, the happier I became. Once I had this new-found positive attitude, I began to feel as though I could accomplish the things that I wanted. Most importantly, I wanted to own my own home. As it turns out, it was only my own negative attitude that had prevented me from owing a home. I’d simply assumed that no lender would loan me that much money. I was wrong! I discussed my situation with a lender, and they agreed to finance a home loan for me. Had I not changed my attitude, I wouldn’t even have considered applying for a loan.

From that point onward, I’ve strived to apply that positive attitude to every aspect of my life. Believing in myself allowed me to turn my life around and start a completely new career…one that would eventually lead to being self-employed and working from home (in my pajamas).

Life didn’t stop throwing bad situations in front of me. I’ve dealt with quite a few tough situations – as well as the deaths of my parents – in the last few years, but I knew that my spirit would continue to shine throughout, and a positive attitude (even if faked for a brief period of time) would help me achieve whatever goals I set for myself.

A positive attitude alone won’t achieve all your goals. You’ll need to do some planning and some work as well. But if you learn how to light the candles within yourself…turning on the glow…allowing yourself to shine…you’ll be better able to turn that planning and work into success. In fact, I’d strongly advise feeling that glow within yourself before embarking upon self-employment. It will really help get the ball rolling.

Note: I am not a licensed anything. I am not a doctor or a therapist. The advice above is not meant to infer that clinically depressed people should not seek medical help. Your doctor can effectively treat depression, and if you are depressed, you should seek medical help. However, it won’t hurt to also listen to that Smash Mouth song once in a while.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2007. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Happy Go Lucky, Smash Mouth, therapist
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I’ve found it to be extremely important to have a large, diverse set of income streams. Over the years, there have been times when one or more of my income sources have been low or non-existent for that month. If I’d been dependent upon just one or even a few sources of income, I probably wouldn’t have been able to pay the bills during those months.

Summertime, especially, is lean for me. It is absolutely vital that I have multiple sources of income so that if any of them suffer during any one period of time, the combined total of the rest will pull me through.

It doesn’t matter if an advertising source or affiliate program only made you $50 this month, as long as there are lots of other sources bringing in money for the month. Every source will dry up at times, so you want to make sure you have plenty of other income streams to make up for the lean ones.

We’ll discuss various potential sources for income streams at a later date, but for now, just add the Diversity Key to your Making A Living Online virtual keyring so that you don’t get yourself in a jam in the future.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2007. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: advertising source, diversity, income streams, sources of income
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