PaulNorwine.com

“You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” -Rabindranath Tagore

If you are reading this, chances are you are either already running your own online business and are looking to take it to the next level or you haven’t yet started a business but are very much interested in doing so. Either way, we all struggle from time to time trying to figure out exactly how to get the ball rolling. So what’s the absolute FIRST step you need to take to start a successful online business?

Just jump off the cliff and get started…Listen, we all want to improve our current life situations. We all have aspirations and goals, values and dreams. We all have “big ideas” as to where we would like to see ourselves in the future. But most of us continually struggle with actually turning those dreams into reality. Building a successful online business is no different.

Maybe you have an idea that you are excited and passionate about but you don’t have a clue as to where to start. Maybe you have experienced some minor success in adding people to your list but are unclear as to how to monetize that list. Maybe you have studied and learned some great concepts that are sure to take your business to the next level but haven’t yet implemented them because you’re not sure which tips and strategies will be the most conducive to your success. Or maybe you are merely waiting for the “perfect time.” If any of this sounds familiar than you’re not alone; but if you don’t stop procrastinating and don’t get off your ass to do something about your current situation your dreams will be just that for the rest of your life…dreams.

So how do you begin to transform your dreams into reality? How do you go about building a successful online business? It’s as easy as (but a lot safer than) jumping off a cliff. You JUST DO IT! Yes, Nike’s slogan has become a bit played out over the years…but that certainly doesn’t mean the message is not applicable to your current situation. Every successful person, regardless of the industry, will tell whoever is listening that the reason they are more successful than the average Joe is because they TOOK ACTION. They visualized what they wanted and then they got STARTED.

I can already picture some of you saying, “No shit, Paul. Get started?…great advice, asshole. How about you give me something tangible that I can actually apply? How about you lay out exactly what steps I need in order to get started.”

I can’t. I won’t. Everybody’s situation is different. Everybody’s path is different. But the point is, picture exactly what you want and GO GET IT. Make it happen.

Who gives a shit that you don’t know the first thing about developing a loyal list of followers who will eagerly pay you money for information and content that you develop? None of the gurus knew how to either when they got started. BUT THEY GOT STARTED. They visualized the end-game and started to move their feet. Sure, they spent time developing a plan. But, unlike most people, they had the discipline to APPLY what they planned and they learned from their mistakes. They failed time and time again…but they failed FORWARD and kept moving. Each dream, each project started as an idea. And they didn’t KNOW how to make it a reality until they put one foot in front of the other and made it happen.

My mentor, Alex Jeffreys, has beaten me over the head with the statement, “don’t worry about getting it perfect, just get it going.” And I am glad he beats me over the head with this advice. Because sometimes I get too involved with the planning stage. Sometimes I get overwhelmed when I get wrapped up in the HOW to do something as opposed to actually DOING that something. But when I focus on the end-game, when I picture in my mind the exact outcome I desire, and then I actually go out and do something about it, I stop worrying about HOW I am going to do it and I JUST DO IT. Not knowing what I am doing at the time is just a minor obstacle that I have to get through. I don’t stress over the hurdles I know I will have to jump over – I just get off my ass and start moving forward. There is always time to cost-correct or modify and change any errors you make along the way. It’s better to fail forward than to succeed at a standstill.

It’s mind boggling how much I accomplish when I have this mindset of just getting it going. And it’s equally amazing to me to notice how stressed out, worthless, and ineffective I become when I let go of this mindset and get bogged down with the “HOW am I going to do it?”

So let’s do a little exercise. You are going to tell me what you want and I am going to tell you how to get it. Here we go:

YOU: “Paul, I can tell by your blog posts that you are an incredibly wise and sage man. If Buddha and Confucius were to mate and have offspring I think you would be the result. I want to buy a boat but I want to pay cash for it and not use credit. How can I do this?”

ME: “Get off your ass, grasshoppa, and just get started. Make it happen.”

YOU: “But I make minimum wage, work 14 hour days, and have $10,000 in credit card debt. How can I possibly afford a boat you jerk?”

ME: “Get off your ass, grasshoppa, and just get started. Make it happen.”

YOU: “I hate you. You suck donkey-balls.”

ME: “Get off your ass, grasshoppa, and just get started. Make it happen.”

Okay, you get the point. We don’t always need to know exactly how we are going to get where we want to go, we just need to know where we want to end up and then get going. And though I mentioned above that I cannot and will not lay out the exact steps needed to build a successful online business, I will help point you in the right direction.

First, become completely clear about what you want to accomplish. Not just in terms of money but in terms of what that money will afford you. For those of you who read my last post, “Rich Schefren Called Me Out…but I Stepped Up to the Challenge,” you will know how important this part of the process is. If you aren’t clear on what you want (and I mean dead-clear), you will continue to float like a ship that has set sail with no destination. How can you GET what you want if you don’t KNOW what you want?

The method I used to “get clear” was simple. I pictured what my “ideal life” in five years would be like. I pretended I was watching a movie in which I was the main character and the plot was my ideal life in five years. When you do this exercise (at least when I did it), you may think it a little lame. But then I got into it. I started to picture, down to every last detail, exactly what I wanted in five years. From the view and location of my dream home, to my cars, to my golf game, to my relationship with my soon-to-be-wife and kids. Picture it all. And write down what you see. Once you have it down on paper, turn it into a story. It doesn’t have to be a long story. Just long enough and detailed enough that if anyone else were to read it, they would (1) know exactly what you wanted in five years and (2) be intrigued enough to want to read more. Once you have the story, read it at least once a week. Imagine your life in 5 years but view it as an outsider…like it’s someone else’s life. Because, in five years, it WILL be someone else’s life…it will be the new you.

Secondly, if you haven’t already started a blog, do so now. Right now, right this minute. Get it going. It doesn’t have to be perfect. A blog is not the only (or even the best) way to make money online. But it’s a start and gets you headed in the right direction. Everything else will fall into place and you will follow suit. Don’t stress if you don’t know the first thing about setting up a blog. Neither did I…but I made the decision to get a blog up and running and made it happen.

Getting started and taking action for me was seeking out the help of a blogging expert who is a fellow Alex Jeffreys’ student by the name of Matt Wolfe (http://www.matthewwolfe.com/). Not only was he able to get my blog up and running in a matter of days, Matt was able to set it up to my exact design specifications. Now, some of you may think this blog design needs work…and it does. But it was my first go at a blog and Matt Wolfe was able to whip up exactly what I wanted and I can’t thank him enough.

If you need to get your blog up online, or if you need to learn more about the coolest widgets or how to do something specific with your blog, Matt is the guy who can help you. Lucky for us, he has a series of videos (Wordpress Classroom) that explain in great detail how to do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING with your wordpress blog. Best of all, as I can attest, the videos are extremely easy to follow and are even short in duration (each video ranges between two and ten minutes). Even if you are a techno-phobe or code-phobe, Matt’s videos do an amazing job of walking you through each process step-by-step and you will have the know-how and tools to blog like the best.

So GO! Get going. It doesn’t need to be perfect…it just needs to get started. Whatever you are looking to do, get off your ass and get moving!

And I would love to know how it goes – drop me a comment if this post has helped you get those feet moving. Or, considering the extreme length of this post, if you started to nod off, drop a comment and let me know how I was able to help you have a great nap Until next time….

Paul

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