moving forward but too slowly

OK so I have sold a hat on zazzle to someone in AUS and got a larger amount of money - £1.30, previous sale to someone in the US only yielded 0.79p; so quite a significant difference, I have found a few bits of money on the way and home from work (2p and 1p) on separate occasions and lastly I have created quite a few more products on zazzle as it appears to have started to yield some income, yesterday I sold a newly designed mug and also got a referral fee - I think because I directed them to my zazzle shop so gained a whopping £1.12 for the mug and £2.09 for the referral, so I didn't make the March target of £64 on 15/3/2010, but at least I am now above the February target of £32 - see leader board to the left.

Over the weekend I created a number of zazzle products based on Indian English - hope this isn't seen as a bad thing, I have been working with some offshore partners and some fun phrases have come up, that I thought over people would appreciate!

today's target - 4 days over £30

Thinking about the double your challenge and my lack of activity of the last 3 or 4 months, I guess the key for me at the moment is 2 things that equate to the same principle.

The challenge or any other endeavour can only really be achieved by consistent daily motivated action towards your end goal, it's probably so obvious that I missed it, the outcome of daily action is self fulfilling momentum, I.e. if you are consistently moving forward all the time, it's difficult to not reach or surpass your initial goal, and the investment of time and energy gives you a platform for further action.

So time and management of it becomes or paramount importance, so what have I been upto, that was more important than the challenge to myself and others over 6 months ago?

Well 2 things have come into my life that I wasn't expecting in the slightest

1. I became addicted to singing, last year I went on a free 7 week voice training course, run by a local barbershop chorus, I became immediately engrossed, they just happen to be one of the top ten UK chorus's, I went through the course and gave a performance to friends and family at the end, I was completely hooked, I have since passed my audition and joined the chorus and am now an official barbershop'er. The time commitment for this is around 3 hours singing on a Thursday night, then as we are training a big conference in may some weekend sessions, plus once I have learned the full repertoire, which can take a couple of years, there are the numerous 'sing-outs' and charity events that the chorus attends.
2. In a daze 'cause I found god! I know it sounds glib, but it's true, I have been on the under current of a spiritual journey for the last few years now, and am going to get Christened in May along with my children. the reverend that is going to christen me recommended I go on an Alpha course to explore my faith fully, this is currently going on and taking up Tuesday nights (7:30 - 10pm) plus one Saturday morning in the near future, I have also attended church a few times but this is trick as I normally look after the children at the weekend to give me wife a bit of a break. Also I have started a plan to read the bible within 1 year, so this is taking up the majority of my train journeys.

To some extent these are simply excuses, but what it means is I have had very little to no time to focus on the challenge; and if I am to carry on pursuing monthly and the yearly targets this is precisely the point where I have to have consistent focus and daily action.

Not very impressed and don't think it can be done

Went to a Christmas party last night and was chatting with one of the managers from work who is intrigued by my challenge.

Every time she sees me, she asks how much am I up to now, and whenever I say an amount she is always unimpressed. In her own words "I like results" and "getting from £1 to £18 isn't particularly impressive."

But basically last night was saying how she didn't think I would be able to go from 2k to 4k in the last month and would probably find the last few months difficult too. Although no wager was placed - we shook on a bet - that I wouldn't reach my 1 year target, I confidently took the bet - I will go to £4k...

I think the point is - doubling your money at any amount is not impressive... IT'S INCREDIBLE!

For anyone that normally has any form of job that isn't about growing something for themselves is but swapping a large majority of their time directly for a value of money placed upon either justly or unjustly (over or under valuing your time) - is a system of exchange - you help build a better company in exchange for your time and an amount of money. Doubling comes from a completely different mind set or paradigm.

The difficultly of an amount is purely within the realms of how hard do you think something is. Much like when Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile, a great achievement in itself, the first man recorded to break through a perceived human limit, no one could quite achieve it before he did it - I wonder how many it can't be done conversations happened before that point in time, 10, 100, 1000, 1 million?? But shortly after a number of people did it. What happened? Why did people that couldn't do it previously start to think that they could just because someone else had.

It is the easiest thing in the world to nay say, it takes no energy from the speaker, when people around you make attempts to move out of where you currently are vacating together, what does that to the naysayer, that there is something wrong with where they are, that's obviously preposterous, and would required energy to consider let alone attempt something like that for yourself. It's far easier to say nay - It can't be done! Then if for any reason the person expending all the energy and learning all the lessons fails, again with no effort they can say those reassuring words "I told you so!" - It's beautiful!. Robert Kiyosaki in one of his Rich Dad Poor Dad books talks about the "Hawaiian Black Crabs" - described in more detail in the link.

I love naysayers, why? because it means you have got something right, you are not stagnant, you are challenging people around you by challenging yourself and taking some action.

Like the runners following Roger Bannister: Are there examples of people/companies that make £2000 in one month, examples of people/companies that make £500,000 in one month, 5 million per month - all a resounding - Yes - absolutely!

Yes it can and will be done by not just me but many others doublers also!

Google Adsense Payments

Just checked and I have now received payment of £9.58 from Google Adsense advertising for the first 3 months (Sept - Nov 2009) from the hopefully reasonably subtly blog Ads, I have decided to include this in my challenge total as it is directly related.

I have entered it as a transaction - this puts me at the top of the Leaderboard, ahead of "Essex Girl" and means I am still around 1 month ahead of target, my own initial acceleration appears to have been eaten up by time, need to take more actions to move forward...

The Importance of Time Management

OK so as I was saying in big money little money post; it may be a good idea to to create as many e = buying and selling events as is possible, but maybe you need to look beyond the current months challenge.

I think the key to achieving the larger goals, is to be a 'swot' and front load as much doubling of your money as possible; this creates more e's later on when the target seem further and further away.

Brian Tracy - a great author, in his book Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time: Easy Read Comfort Edition talks about doing the things that need to be done, especially the items that aren't fun or just down right nasty; get them out of the way and move on, sometimes on a daily basis; it's the best way to keep moving forward; and to be in the continual habit of constantly moving forward. The items you are not looking forward to are the ones that are all too easy to procrastinate on...

I have been thinking about the idea of moving the doubling forward; what affectively this does is allows me/us to stay in a comfort zone for longer; within the same context - same type/sizes of products (do more of the same, just more often and as quickly as possible). There is definitely something to be said for doing something well and sticking to it... hmmm...

I need to do another round of shortbread this week! didn't get around to it last week.

Maybe I'll force myself to not do the same thing/product each month to keep learning and looking out for new opportunities as the targets grow