Become more effective by taking things more personally

How many times have you been told that you should not take things personally? How many times have you been told that at the end of the day, things don't really matter? Our world is a product of forces we can't control. There's just something out there that's far bigger than us and there's really no point in trying.

Well, if you come across this type of thinking, please understand that the moment you believe them is the moment you rob yourself of personal power. The reason why so many people struggle with success is because they haven't taken their life more personally.

They have an impersonal viewpoint in their life. They look at themselves as pieces of plastic on the surface of a raging sea. They really don't have any control over where they're going. They definitely don't give themselves a sense of control over the way things are turning out in their lives.

They feel that they're just a passenger in the long car journey of their personal lives. This really is too bad because if you think about it, if you want to go to where you want to go, you should at least bother to position yourself in the driver's seat. You should at least take the effort to try to turn that steering wheel to the direction you want your life to go.

Sadly, too many of us have simply given up. Too many of us have simply said  that there's really nothing they can do so they take a very impersonal view of their lives. Instead, they focus on the small stuff.

They focus on what's on YouTube. They focus on garbage in social media. They come up with a million and one reasons to take their minds off the things that truly matter.

If you want to turn your life around and achieve the kind of reality you think is essentially cut off from you, you have to step up. You have to say to yourself that you are the owner of your life. You are responsible for your life.

Nobody will take that responsibility. Everybody's got enough problems of their own. Sure you may come across people in your romantic life who would say to you that you complete them. You would come across people who would say to you that you give them meaning.

But ultimately, they have to take care of #1. They have to take care of themselves first. You can't rely on those people to do something that you should be doing for yourself. This involves self love and self respect.

How can you love others when you can't even love yourself? How can you expect others to do something for you that you won't do for yourself?

This is why it's really important to take ownership of your life. Make it personal. If you're struggling in any area of your life, it is worth your time to focus on that area. It is worth your time to put in the time, effort and energy to figure out what's going on so you can get better results.

This is not going to go away by itself. This is not going to go away anytime soon if you don't put in the right amount of time and focus. You have to do it. Take ownership today.

If this idea makes sense to you, click here for a practical guide on how you can take full ownership of your life. Be in the driver's seat of your life instead of constantly being the person last to know.

Personal pride can push your personal effectiveness upward and out

Usually, when people talk about pride, they often frame it in negative terms. As the old saying goes, we shouldn't be proud because pride comes before the fall. How many times have you heard of people celebrating the bad karma of somebody who is very arrogant or prideful?

It's not unusual for most people to view pride in negative terms. They think of somebody unreasonable, someone who's a bully or somebody who's basically a jerk. But believe it or not, pride can actually make you a better person.

I'm not talking about the sensitive, touchy kind of pride where you take offense when you feel when people don't give you the respect that you think you deserve. I'm not talking about that kind of pride. That kind of pride is worthless in my opinion.

Instead, the pride that I'm talking about involves pride in your work. It involves the connection between the things that you choose to do with your time and who you are as a person. This definition of pride connects the dots between the output that you produce and the value system that you use to produce it.

Make no mistake. Everything external about you is a reflection of your internal truths. The way you dress, your haircut, the way you talk, the way you carry yourself and yes, most importantly, the quality of your work are reflections of your values as a person.

If you take pride in the work you do, it's going to show. You're not going to show up to work late. You're not going to put in very little effort. You're not just going to waste your time at work just enough to collect a paycheck. Instead, you're going to do whatever it takes or however long it takes to produce maximum value in the lives of people depending on you. Why would you do this?

Well, you understand  that this is a reflection of who you are as a person. That whatever output you produce with your efforts is a reflection of your quality as a person. That is real pride. If you use that kind of pride, you become a more effective person across the board.

You not only become more knowledgeable. You become more authoritative, efficient and yes, more effective. This is how you earn more money. This is how you command greater respect. This is how you live a more substantive and substantial life. It is all based on the concept of pride.

It's kind of like having a personal brand. When you buy a bag and it has a Hermes logo on it, you have certain expectations. You know full well that chances are high that that bag is not going to fall apart the moment you buy it. Chances are it's going to be of the utmost quality and reliability. After all, it has the Hermes brand.

Well, look at your personal pride as your personal brand. When people see your work product, they see your brand. When people see how you talk and how you treat other people and how you carry yourself, they see your personal brand. That is the pride that I'm talking about.

Personal pride can help you become a more effective and successful person. It doesn't matter what you're struggling with in the here and now. Use the power of personal pride to take things to a whole other level.

To get some practical tips on how to do this, click below

Use the power of emotional ownership to get more stuff done

I remember the first time I worked in corporate America. I was hanging out with people who were simply there because they had nothing better to do after college. They looked at their first corporate job as some sort of “holding tack” for graduate school, getting married, or professional school.

As you can well imagine, these people that I worked with really did not take their work all that seriously. This should be clear that if you don't take whatever it is you're doing seriously, you have no business expecting to get rewarded to do what you're supposed to do.

That's precisely what happened. Most of my friend did not get promoted. In fact, a lot of them never managed to get a pay raise. Still, this did not prevent them from complaining about their lack of success. They're quick and eager to point the finger to things and people out of their control.

They convinced themselves that maybe their boss simply had it in for them. Maybe they were just in the wrong industry and there's something wrong with their situation.

This really is quite sad because what I saw with my coworkers is pretty much a microcosm of how most people look at their lives. We refuse to take ownership of our decisions. We refuse to see the connection between our choices and the lives that we are living.

Make no mistake, your life is a choice. How much money you make, what you look like, where you live, the size of the car you drive, the brand of the car you drive, the amount of respect you get, all of those are choices.

When you make a choice and you take action on those choices, things begin to change. That's how life works. That's how reality plays out. Unfortunately, a lot of people turn a blind eye to this. They're too quick and eager to blame everything and anything outside of themselves for whatever is going on in their lives.

Little do they know that they can't control these other people. It's hard enough to change yourself, can you imagine trying to change other people? If you want to achieve great things with your life, use the power of emotional ownership.

How do you do this? Well, please understand that everyday, you're supposed to produce results. Those results are judgments of your character. Get emotional over that fact. If you feel that you're not getting paid enough, well, this means that you have to take emotional ownership. This means that you have to produce more work of a higher quality at a faster rate.

This means that you have to network better. This means that you have to go the extra mile. If you still don't get paid what you think you should be paid, at least you learned enough skills for you to take to your next job and the next job after that.

Eventually, somebody will reward you because you know that your work is an expression or reflection of who you are. It's a reflection of your values, character and everything and anything that is fundamental about you.

If you look at your work life from this perspective, it's only a matter of time until you achieve the victory you are capable of achieving.

Give yourself the gift of a sense of urgency

Do you find yourself struggling in certain areas of your life? Do you find yourself lacking motivation when it comes to certain big projects that you'd like to pursue? If you're like most people, you know what you should be doing to take your life to the next level. In fact, these things should not be a mystery to you.

This is not rocket science. If you were to ask most people, they know what they need to be doing or working on so their life can dramatically improve. Still, for whatever reason, they're not doing what they're supposed to do.

They have a clear idea. In fact, a lot of people even have a plan or a series of action that they need to take to achieve big victories with their lives. Still, the vast majority of people have not decided to go down that road. Most people would rather take care of the small things or the daily trivialities of life before they tackle serious issues. What's going on?

Well, it's not because people are dumb. It's not lack of intelligence that pushes people to behave this way. It's also not laziness. The problem is every single day, there will always be opportunities to do other things.

If you're not careful and you're not set on a particular plan of action, your whole day can be filled up with side issues, side projects and stuff that came up at the last minute.

Now, this happens everyday. Can you imagine it taking up weeks, months or even years? This is precisely why most people are unable to achieve the big victories or reach the big goals that they have set for themselves.

Again, it has nothing to do with intrinsic capacity like intelligence or emotional awareness. Instead, they simply rob themselves of a sense of urgency. If you don't have a sense of urgency, everything is of equal value. You end up chasing your tail and achieving very little as far as your big goals are concerned.

So, how do you give yourself the gift of a sense of urgency? You only need to do one thing: set a deadline. When you set a realistic deadline for doing certain things or achieving certain things, you light the fire under your feet.

You tell yourself, “By this date, I am going to take action. By this date, I'm going to make the necessary sacrifices and I'm going to line up everything so I take action in a certain sequence to produce a certain result.”

That's how you gain a sense of urgency because at that point, you're focused. At that point, you have stopped playing around. Things no longer look equal in your eyes because now, you have a priority. You see how this works?

To learn about the practical steps that you need to take to give yourself the amazing gift of a sense of urgency, click here. This simple trick can do wonders for your personal effectiveness and ability to achieve great things with your life.

Don't give yourself so much time you constantly run out of time

When you're setting deadlines for yourself, make sure you select the right deadline. You have to understand the reason why deadlines exist in the first place. They're not just about putting some chronological restraints on a particular project.

While there's a lot of value to that, there's something more to deadlines that strict, time-based parameters. The main reason why deadlines work is because they force people to take action before a certain time passes.

In other words, they push people to do things that they normally would not do. Let's face it, people being people would rather kick the can down the road, or better yet, don't do what they're supposed to do at all.

That's the basic truth about the human condition. Doesn't matter where you come from, doesn't matter how much education you have. This is true for all people.

With everything else being equal, we'd rather not do anything that is outside of our comfort zone. We'd rather do things that we're accustomed to. This is why big projects often terrify us.

We know what we're supposed to do. We know how much good achieving these things will have in our lives, but we can't quite get ourselves to do it. How come? We're scared of change.

We're afraid that we might have to give up certain things. We're afraid of putting in all this time, effort and energy only to come up short. The last thing that most people want for themselves or their families is to try really hard only to come up short and fail.

This is why they give themselves all sorts of excuses and deadlines terrify people. Well, here's the problem. When you set a deadline that is so far out into the future, you're just setting yourself up for disappointment.

Sure, from time to time, you are able to do things right on time or even well ahead of schedule. But let's get serious here. How often does that happen? In fact, if your like most people, you can probably count that with one hand.

When we set a deadline far into the future, the rest of our lives catch up. There's all sorts of duties, obligations and responsibilities competing for our time. This is why we run out of time constantly because if you set up a deadline long into the future, there will be all sorts of new stuff taking up your schedule.

If you're not careful, by the time the deadline comes, you're just as unprepared as if you had set up the deadline to a much earlier date. You see how this works?

So, don't give yourself so much time that you constantly run out of time. Instead, set up a realistic deadline so as to maximize the value of the deadline. In other words, the deadline should motivate you to action. It should get you to take action right on time. That's how you set the proper deadline.

Of course, you shouldn't set the deadline so close that it scares you. In fact, it can be so scary and intimidating that you end up paralyzed.

To learn how to tap the power of proper scheduling to maximize your personal effectiveness and efficiency, click here.

Why You Should Consider Creating an Online Course For Your Business

There are a wide variety of marketing methods at your disposal, such as blogging, video marketing, email marketing, Amazon FBA, SEO, and more. But an online course can be as profitable as any of them, possibly even more so. And they can be easy to create if you already have an eBook or educational material at hand. There are plenty of valid reasons to consider an online course for your business.

Return on Investment

Online courses can deliver a very impressive return on investment if they are done properly. Once you have the course created and uploaded to a site such as Udemy, then there is not much else to do aside from promoting the product. Ideally, the product will have been promoted before it is released. Online courses can be sold over and over and can deliver an income for years without much additional enhancement. However, it should be noted that creating a course is a little more difficult than it appears at first glance.

They Are Increasing in Popularity

More and more people are turning towards online courses to receive their education compared to other methods. Online courses are far cheaper and often contain a wealth of information that cannot be obtained anywhere else. While the online course niche is becoming saturated, there is still a lack of high-quality courses that deliver original content not available anywhere else. If you can give this to your target audience, then your online course will be a massive success. If you find yourself giving the same advice over and over again, then a course is a good way to streamline your efforts.

Build Authority and Credibility

If you do sell a course effectively, then you will have a built a reputation as an expert in the field. Even if it does not sell that well, creating your own online course is going to be a massive boost to your brand. As your business grows, you will be able to point your customers towards your course.  You can use the course as an upsell or as a downsell with associated products and services. In many ways, it can be like having two separate kinds of business. While there can be considerable work involved in creating an online course for your business, it is definitely worth it.

How to Maintain Passion While Building an Online Business

If you don’t maintain passion, then your business is not going to last very long. When running an online business more passion is necessary for success, especially if you are working on a blog. You will need far more passion compared to other business models as the responsibility is all on you and you can’t rely on anybody else to get the job done.

Change Things Up

Every successful business has innovated its way to success. It is not possible to succeed while keeping the same business model all the way through. Being willing to change the business will have two main advantages. First, it could deliver a positive return on investment and bring more traffic to your site. Second, it will actually stimulate your passion. You can get creative with how you expand your business. Building an online business can be fun and creative, though most people can lose their passion and let the business get the better of them.

Have a Clear Focus

You started the business for a reason. And that reason was the fulfillment of a specific desire, most likely a figure sum or a house on a tropical island. Keep focusing on this vision and it can get you through the tough times when passion levels are low. Review your goals regularly and constantly visualize where you want to end up in the future. If you keep working on basic mundane tasks instead of looking at the big dreams, then you will never move from away from the daily struggle.

Relax, Outsource, and Automate

One of the main reasons that online business owners lose their passion is that they get bogged down in difficult issues including workflow management. There is an easy way to deal with this common problem. You should use freelancers and automation tools to do the boring tasks for you, such as email marketing or social media posting. This means that you are free to focus on the aspects of a business that you are really passionate about. Consider that other people might be passionate about the things that you hate, and are willing to do them for a good price. You should also remember to take frequent rest and vacations. There is no point in working too hard, as you will just burn yourself out over the long-term. Everybody needs rest, regardless of their goals or enthusiasm levels.

Shortcuts to Working Less and Earning More

In the 21st century, there is no shortage of ways to optimize earning while minimizing expenditure. There are many options available to online business owners. “Work smarter, not harder” is the mantra of many successful entrepreneurs, and it has a very specific application to online businesses.

Automate Your Workload

One of the best shortcuts to free up your time is to make use of automation tools. You can automate your social media posting and reputation monitoring, link building and analysis, meetings and appointments, marketing efforts, email lists, sales, and customer support. If you find yourself stressed out over the amount of work you have to do, consider that there is an automation tool available for it.

Outsource

Every person has unique strengths and weaknesses. There are some things you are going to hate doing, and some things that you will enjoy. This means that you can hire people to do the things that they love to do, but you hate. Freelancers and outsourcing agencies are available and they can massively assist in reducing your workload.

Hire a Virtual Assistant

A virtual assistant is a low-cost freelancer that completes all the jobs you need to get done such as data entry, meeting scheduling, emails and so on. You can hire them on an hourly basis to complete simple tasks. Finding the right one might take a while, but it can definitely turn out to be a shortcut to success in the long-term.

Collaborations and Networking

Connecting with people in your field is a quick route to growing your business. You can promote each other’s products and services. By leveraging the power of multiple platforms, you will be able to grow far faster compared to doing it alone. You can also network with people face to face. There is a growing number of digital nomad hubs across the globe, and you might find a group of them living near you.

Schedule Some Down Time

Rest and relaxation are vital and are a necessity to ensure success. One of the reasons you are creating an online business is to enjoy the benefits that it has to offer, such as flexibility and enjoyment. So make sure you take at least one day a week where you don’t do anything work-related. You can them come back to work on Monday morning completely refreshed and will see things from a clear perspective. Working too hard will not benefit you or your brand.

How to Scale Your Online Business Successfully

Most people have no idea as to how to scale their online business. There is a big gap between a startup and a medium-sized business. Scaling is an art that needs to be done carefully. Acquiring the wrong partner or business deal can have severe consequences. But scaling does not have to be expensive and there are many free and organic methods of scaling an online company. Online businesses have an advantage in that scaling the infrastructure often only requires a new hosting plan for a web site.

Outsource

Most solopreneurs think that scaling involves acquisitions or significant partnerships. But scale can be on a much smaller level. If you hire a virtual assistant to complete the tasks that you don’t want to do, such as social media or email marketing, then you have effectively scaled. You will now be freed up to do more of what you love to do and can expand the business in whatever direction you see fit. There are many freelancers available on sites such as Upwork who can deliver high-quality work for a very reasonable price. As you build a network of reliable freelancers, you only pay them for specific tasks that need to be done.

Collaboration

A good way to scale is to collaborate with people in your industry. Solopreneurs often fail to see the value of joining forces with other people in the same sector, often preferring to do everything by themselves. But establishing a network of associates within a particular field is ideal for long-term success and effective scaling. They might have skills that you do not possess or have a different way of looking at things. You can link to each other's sites and perhaps even form your own company down the line.

Automation

Automation is another great way to scale your business. You can use an automation tool to complete tasks such as social media posting, email marketing, customer support, search engine optimization, and sales. Automation is one of the best ways to increase your output and it can free up your time to focus on the things that really matter. For example, Hootsuite and Buffer are among the better automation tools available in terms of social media management. You can see how your brand is doing across a large variety of social media platforms on one easy dashboard.

How To Outsource Your Way to Financial Freedom

Outsourcing has become an important trend in the last decade. While it is not an easy shortcut to the top, it is definitely something that all freelancers and online business owners need to take on board. The benefits are numerous and there are low-cost outsourcing agencies available that can deliver high-quality work with a quick turnaround.

Get Clear About What You Want

The first step to outsourcing is to get clear about what you need to get done. This means that you need to identify what you are good at and what needs to be outsourced, as well as what you are willing to pay to get the task completed. This will make it easier to communicate with outsourcing agents as there will be fewer communication difficulties. This will also mean that you can outsource what you hate doing and do more of what you love to do.

Outsource the Most Important Things First

There are most likely tasks that you really need to do but are afraid that you are not competent enough to do them properly. This leads to procrastination. Many first time bloggers can put off sales and marketing because they don’t know how to do them effectively. This is a huge mistake. There are many companies and freelancers who are excellent are marketing and sales. There are also paid advertising options available as well as alternative marketing methods. But because so many people are afraid of marketing, they don’t do it. So outsource these tasks to people who specialize in them. Your revenue will increase as you focus on what you are good at.

Establish a Network of Long-Term Relationships

Freelancers are great at doing a variety of tasks, from customer support to SEO to content creation. But sometimes there are communication difficulties and the freelancer is not a good fit for the role. This can waste considerable resources. Interviewing and hiring freelancers takes time, and you will also have to bring them up to speed on job specifications. Even if the freelancer has a good rating, they may not be able to complete the job for various reasons. This is why it is important to build relationships with freelancers so you can hire them on an ad hoc basis as needed. You know the quality of their work and that they can be relied on to complete it within the specified time period.