MindThe Beginner

In this third blogpost in a about being unhappy with the current situation I’m giving you the exact way I’m going to change my life in the course of 1000 hours. In the previous blogpost we identified three main topics that need to be addressed in order to make a significant change. These were;

1. Building an online income
2. Adopting a proper daily schedule
3. Becoming as mobile as possible

Three things that when you look at them seem very simple, but have a lot of “voeten in de aarde” (Dutch, literal translation: Feet in the dirt) meaning that there is more to them than meets the eye. For each of these three we’ll have a look at the details according to this list:

• Be specific: what do you want?
• How do you know when you’ve completed it?
• What do you need to do to make it happen?
• How realistic are your ideas?
• What is the time frame in which you want to do it
• Why do you want to do this, what is your inspiration

Building an online income

There are many ways of generating an online income, two that come to mind are blogging and minisites as Glen writes about in his Cloud Living. Both these tactics revolve around selling either your own, or other people’s stuff though affiliate links of which you just saw a perfect example.

A more in depth program is presented by Corbett Barr over at the affiliate beginners course taking you on what I consider the smallest possible steps towards the goal of setting up an affiliate minisite which should be able to earn you $100 a month within a few months. That’s just one minisite, you’ll have to build a bunch of them, spreading your income over several sources. And who knows, you might find something brilliant that will make more than that $100 a month. Getting lucky is part of the game.

I enrolled in Corbett’s program and will do everything he says, down to the letter.
Although I know most things he writes about already, it’s a perfect guide to make sure I don’t miss a step. In a nutshell the steps in his program are:

1. Introducing Affiliate Marketing
2. Finding Opportunities
3. Creating your site
4. Generating Traffic
5. Advanced topics + scaling up

Each step is explained in a few pages, and if that’s not enough you can always mail, or comment directly on the pages. All included, a very nice package to get started.

Besides Working with Corbett I plan to scrutinize Cloud Living again and see if there is anything there that I missed.

Combing these two resources should prove to be more than enough information to get started. But if even this is not enough and you really want to know all there is about Internet Marketing go take a look over at Warriorforum. One of the biggest (if not the biggest) forums on Internet Marketing. Watch out for information paralysis though. There is so much info there that you could keep reading about SEO or niche finding for years without ever applying what you read.

Be specific: what do you want?

An online income through affiliate sales of more than $500 a month

How do you know when you’ve completed it?

A monthly income report that shows an income of $500 in a time frame of one month. Three months in a row.

What do you need to do to make it happen?

Enough minisites that make enough affiliatesales. Set up up according to the beginner’s course.

How realistic are your ideas?

Perfectly realistic. If you set up a minisite and get traffic there, there are known percentages for sales. (1% of visitors is a sale) Find a product with a commission of $5 and make 20 sales a month, a commission of $10 and 10 sales a month. Set up enough sites that all trickle in a little income and you have a nice snowball.

What is the time frame in which you want to do it

Setting up the first site will be done right around new years day. Each site after that will take less time, but let’s say 2 months per site, for 5 sites I’ll be done by the summer of 2011, perhaps faster.

Why do you want to do this, what is your inspiration

An online income will free up time that I now spend in a regular part-time job. It will also allow for a bit more freedom in my budget to have new experiences. It will also prove to myself that it really is possible for me to earn a living through the Internet and make it possible to be as mobile as possible.

Adopting a proper daily schedule

A proper daily schedule, what exactly is that supposed to mean. Routine is a powerful thing, especially when you combine it with highly effective habits/ways of doing things. There are a few things in my mind that I want to build in to my daily schedule, the three biggest are Meditating twice a day, Getting up early and Studying.

Meditation is something that I’ve been doing, but not regularly enough for my taste. At the moment I must admit that I meditate roughly every other evening, and find that my focus is clearly affected by this. Although I do practice T’ai Chi which is considered meditation in motion it’s not enough for me. I want to intensify my meditation practice to twice a day. Reasons for this are actually quite simple: I enjoy meditating, it makes me feel good and my focus improves.

Getting up early is my second big thing. At the moment I’m not getting up routinely. One day I might be up and about at 6:30 am, other days I’m asleep till 9, even 10am because I went to bed well after midnight. You can imagine what effect this has on a daily routine.
There isn’t one

If I’m to fundamentally change my life, I can only do that one day at a time. How can you change a life if you can’t even change a single day. A daily schedule in which activities have a designated time slot will certainly help in getting those things done. Altering your life is hard work after all, so you’d better punch in on time!

I haven’t planned my weekends other than that I don’t want to get up after 9:30 every again for as long as I live. It’s such a waste of time to sleep in. Only if some freak incident causes total sleep deprivation will this rule be broken. On the other end it’s a bit harder. What is a good time to go to bed? Somewhere before midnight seems the best idea. Again, for the weekends I’m not going to be to harsh on myself.

The daily plan for weekdays however is going to be rather interesting and comes down to the following table:

This schedule is what I’ll be working with and although I’m not going to enforce it to the second I am going to make sure that I get up on time, meditate and go to bed on time. A few variations that will be in there are my Aikido lessons on Wednesday from 16:00 till 17:30 and T’ai chi lessons on Thursday from 20:15 till 21:30. Aside from that there are a few hours each week I’ll be working during study hours but that has all been factored in, leaving enough time to study successfully.
The variable slot is there to check mail, do some housekeeping, read a book or whatever floats my boat on that particular day.

Be specific: what do you want?

I want to adopt the above daily schedule on week days.

How do you know when you’ve completed it?

I don’t have tangible proof but will know what time I got up, if I did everything on the schedule and went to bed on time. If I keep this daily route for four consecutive weeks I think it’s safe to say that it’s now my new schedule

What do you need to do to make it happen?

Overall I’d have to say I need to overcome my fear of failing. It paralyzes me into doing nothing so at least I won’t fail at what it is I’m supposed to be doing. On a more practical level I’ll have to do all the things on the list, in the time slots I’ve allocated them to.

How realistic are your ideas?

Getting up early is no problem at all, as long as it’s a habit. I used to get up at 6 am for 5 years in a row. But that was because I had to to be in class on time. These days I don’t have such a hard motivation that forces me to get up. I need to motivate myself and that’s one tough cookie. As for all the other points on the list, it’s what I consider to be perfectly reasonable and realistic.

What is the time frame in which you want to do it

I’m going to start as of the publishing of this blogpost. That is, I’m going to wake up on time the next day and start right there and then.

Why do you want to do this, what is your inspiration

My motivation is that I’m spending to much time doing nothing to change my life. I’m not taking control of the moment and just watching as it slipped through my fingers. It’s a horrible feeling. Also, I have a lot of things to do each day and if I don’t plan properly I’ll get in to all sorts of trouble.

Becoming as mobile as possible

Mobility is a two piece goal I have. On the one had there is the very simple concept of mobility: I want some way to move around. My preference here is a black K75s (Think black). I’m keeping a constant lookout for one that falls inside my budget. So far I’ve seen only one that fit perfectly but I wasn’t quick enough.

The second part of mobility is getting rid of just about everything I own and perhaps replacing some things that could be better at what they do. A very simple example is getting rid of a Gillette Mach 3 razer in favor of a double edge safety razer to save on absurdly expensive replacement blades. The still isn’t complete. I’m finding it hard to get rid of things that were expensive but I can’t find a buyer for. There are a few items that are really hard to get rid of because of some feeling of “I have to keep this because a loved one gave it to me”. Something I’ll have to deal with sooner or later if I’m ever going to be mobile. I’ll have to stop asking if it’s okay and just focus on my priorities. It’s my life and my property after all.

Be specific: what do you want?

I want to get rid of just about everything I own so it will be easy for me to pack it all on a motorcycle and tour Europe. This is excluding some items I still need while at home like a bed, a desk and chair, the basics.

How do you know when you’ve completed it?

Again a tough one to specify exactly but a good one will be being able to write my possessions including the basics on a list containing no more than 100 items. It’s the classic 100 things challenge. The motorcycle part is very easy to know. I’ll post a picture of me riding it as soon as I found one and bought it.

What do you need to do to make it happen?

Some way to get round the problem I have with getting rid of a few things and accepting that there are things here nobody will buy so I’ll just have to throw away. As for the motorcycle, just one person offering the bike I want.

How realistic are your ideas?

I owned a motorcycle before, I have the money, now all I need is the offer. And it’s completely possible to live with 100 things or less. Even as a student. Owning both a laptop and desktop is a bit of decadence I’ll keep for now but other than that, a lot can go without me actually missing it. It’s perfectly realistic.

What is the time frame in which you want to do it

Deadline for the motorcycle is May 6th (Batavierenrace, I want to help with the logistics and traffic regulation again and need a motorcycle for that.) Getting rod of all the crap that is cluttering my life is an ongoing process. I have no clear idea as to how long it will take so let’s say that the deadline will be the same as my last minisite: summer of 2011.

Why do you want to do this, what is your inspiration

I feel burdened by all the stuff I own, It’s just gathering dust and it prevents me from moving around easily. I also keep finding new things that I somehow own that I didn’t know I have, those got to go too. It’s clutter, but sometimes with emotional bonds. Getting rid of them will be calming. As for the motorcycle, you won’t understand that inspiration until you actually take a ride on one.

The bottom line

A long blogbost again, but with a bottom line. Everything is in place to change my life. The only thing that can hold me back is… me. If I don’t find the motivation to do this, If I keep procrastinating, I’m screwed. And it’s my own life that I will mess up! Actually quite motivational now that I read this. It’s in my hands now, it’s all up to me.

Don’t press start to begin, you’ve already started…

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