Changing Your Habits by Renee Corbett

We all have goals. Yet sometimes it seems no matter how many times we write them down, no matter how many times we visualize the goal, we still never seem to make any progress.

Why?

It could be as simple as changing your habits. The reason is simple but we all know that changing habits can be very difficult. Here are some tips to help change bad habits and create new ones.

Let's talk about your brain.

In the last 20 years many studies have been done on the brain, and the results have been incredible.

Many studies talk about the conscious and the unconscious brain. According to the book, The Answer, "The conscious brain is the part of the brain that thinks and reasons, the part through which you exercise your free will" and the unconscious brain "is where the great bulk of perception happens: it is where your habits reside, where your accomplishments and achievements take root."

What I glean from that is that habits happen unconsciously, you just do them because that is what you have been doing for a long time. Have you ever completed a task and then thought how did that get done? It just happens because your brain is used to doing that task or habit daily.

What does this mean for you and for you wanting to get rid of some old habits or create new ones? It means you have to beware of your brain. Your brain remembers the way you have done things for a very long time. To change the habit, you must be consciously aware of the old way of doing things, and the new way you want to do things.

Be Consciously Aware

Let's take an example. If you decide you need to make sure you get 7 hours of sleep each night, you consciously need to make the effort to go to bed at 11:00 PM if you have to be up at 6:00 AM. If you do not think about this habit you want to achieve, your brain will let the old sleep patterns take over. It takes your brain anywhere from 27 to 31 days to adapt to a new habit.

At the very least for the next 4 weeks you will need to tell yourself to go to bed at 11 pm. After awhile this will become an unconscious and natural habit that your brain will adapt and just tell your body at 11 pm, "We are tired and need to go to bed."

Changing habits is no easy task. It takes thought, effort and perseverance. For instance, when I worked for a computer retailer, I was expected to check my e-mail every hour, on the hour, for the latest communications from corporate. I worked there for 5 years, so when I left there it was the hardest habit to break. Checking my Yahoo! e-mail account once an hour was taking me away from what I needed to be focused on.

The very strange part is that I felt like something was missing if I did not check the e-mail; I felt like I was going to get in trouble for missing a very important email. I had to retrain my brain that it was no longer required and that it was a very bad habit. No one needs to look at e-mail once an hour, but it took a good 30 days for my brain to get it. So you see, consciously I got it, but it took my unconscious brain a lot longer to completely understand.

Write It Down

We may have the best intentions, we know we can achieve these goals; we write them down on paper or a "to do" list. We write it down and then continue to live this day like we did yesterday. To make this goal more real, you need to see it all day long. You need to physically be able to look at the goal throughout the day. Then you need to begin to take action on that goal everyday. This is where you need to retrain your brain.

When you are looking at the goal every day and taking steps toward the goal, your brain begins to see the pattern. The unconscious brain finally gets it, this is the direction you are now moving in.

Here's the simple thing you should do right now. Write down the goal you want to achieve in the next year. Then begin taking action. You will be amazed at your brain and its power in helping you to achieve your goals and dreams.

In summary, changing your habits for more productivity is easier than you realize. All you need to do is:

• Retrain your brain


• Be aware of what you are doing


• Write down your goals

Extracted from StomperNet SEO Intelligence Report, October 21, 2011.

How to Focus in 3 Easy Steps: A Lesson in Theory of Constraints by Dr. Lisa Lang

If you're a "typical" Internet marketer you probably suffer from information overload! There are so many offers and opportunities that come your way...and many of them are GREAT!

On top of that, you're an entrepreneur...therefore you tend to come up with great ideas of your own.

Combine these two things together...and you probably suffer from what many other internet marketers suffer from. It's a disease known as "shiny penny syndrome". You may know the symptoms. Something sounds like a great opportunity so you sign up and start learning about it.

Then ANOTHER great opportunity comes up. So you buy the program, even though you're half way through the first program. You think you can do both at once. While running your current business.

And then a potential JV opportunity presents itself. And you're afraid if you let it go, this will be the "big thing" that you missed out on...so you jump on board.

And now you are juggling WAY too many things, and aren't productive at ANY of them. It's time to stop the madness!

People often ask me to summarize Theory of Constraints. And in one word, it's FOCUS. Buying more Internet Marketing products is NOT the answer!

The project that's going to make you the most money in the least amount of time is the first thing you should be focused on.

You Need a Process to Determine Where You Should Focus

How to focus in 3 easy steps:

1. Determine the revenue potential for each project.

This is an estimate, of course, since you haven't done the project yet. How much potential revenue do you think would result if you completed the project?

Include all income you will be collecting as a result of the project, even shipping.

Don't worry if you don't have perfect information. We just need a ballpark number or "close enough for hand grenades" number. And because you will have an estimate for each of your projects, we are just looking for them to be relative to each other.

2. Determine the cost to generate the revenue of each project.

Costs are those that you would incur as a result of the project. Example project costs:

• New hosting fees (don't count fees you are already paying);


• Other new recurring fees like email hosting, but again, don't count fees you are already paying;


• Sub-contracted help from rent-a-coder, freelancer, or some such outsourced labor. What part of the project will you be off-loading? You can look at bids on other similar projects to give you an idea of cost;


• Affiliate payments. What percent will your affiliates be getting?;


• Expert costs if you are paying a expert for their material;


• Material publications and shipping costs if you are selling physical products;


• And so on...

Do not include any costs that you are currently paying and will continue to pay whether you do the project or not.

3. Determine how much of YOUR time it will take to complete each project to start generating revenue.

"YOUR" is emphasized because we are not counting outsourced time. Outsourcing is a way to LEVERAGE your time.

Theory of Constraints has been getting some play in the Internet Marketing circles lately. And the reason is because it works.

You are the constraint of your business and this question is: How much of the constraint (YOUR time) will each project use?

The idea is to maximize the use of your constraint to generate the most income. So you can prioritize your projects based on the (Revenue - Costs)/Your Time.

Maximize the Use of Your Constraint (Your Time)!

The project that generates the highest Throughput (Revenue - Costs) per hour of your time should be your highest priority project—the one thing that you are focusing on.

Your constraint is the thing that limits your ability to make more money now as well as in the future.

I find that for most entrepreneurs, the constraint is their time and attention.

So for us to maximize our potential, we need to focus and work on those things that generate the most amount of Throughput for the least amount of our time and attention.

This also means that when you outsource, you are better leveraging the constraint (YOU). You are making money, but using less of your time and attention.

To the extent that you can outsource—do it!

We typically do this exercise and separate projects into 2 types—short term and long term. That's because the goal is to maximize profits now as well as in the future.

Then we typically select one short-term and one long-term project to work on.

This means that you have 2 projects you can work on, but that's it. We want to eliminate much of the multi-tasking your doing.

The key is to...Focus on Finishing!

It is far better to finish a project that will start generating income (or get you closer to that) than to start another project.

We generate no income when we start a project. We start generating income when we finish!

Now that you know which single project you should be focused on...

Do NOT work on or start any other projects until you finish that one project!

When you finish the short-term project (or it's not what you thought and your decide to stop), you can start another short-term project.

And when you finish the long-term project, you can start the next one.

How much is it worth to actually finish a project on your list?

It's common to find that some projects will return several THOUSAND dollars an hour for your time.

It's also common to find that you have prioritized incorrectly—that you are working on some things that you shouldn't be.

One client was beating himself up for not working on a book. Well when we did this analysis, we discovered that the book was NOT at the top of either the short term list or the long term list.

How much energy and attention do you spend beating yourself up or feeling guilty about what's not getting done?

What if the thing you feel guilty about should NOT be worked on right now? How could you better spend that energy and what results could you achieve?

What if you knew the one short-term and the one long-term project you should be focused on with your 10 hours per week?

Here's the point: You've spent a LONG time directing your time, money and attention to what you know. Now it's time to FOCUS. You know enough, for now.

How to Focus in 3 Easy Steps:

1. Determine the revenue potential for each project.
2. Determine the cost to generate the revenue of each project
3. Determine how much of YOUR time it will take to complete each project to start generating revenue.

Extracted from StomperNet SEO Intelligence Report, July 22, 2011.