How to Stop Being Lazy and Become Motivated

Most of us will go through a period (or multiple periods) in our lives where we are just damn lazy bastards and with internet marketing this is really hurting yourself.  The IM forums are filled with threads asking “How can I stop being lazy?” or “What do you do to get motivated” or “How can I change from being lazy to being motivated”.  This is a great question and there is no ‘one size fits all’ answer but there are different tips which may hit home and actually help bring about a positive change in yourself.

The problem with being lazy is that it is easy.  A lot of times being lazy is fun (playing video games or watching movies).  But in the end the effect of your laziness is that your time will be wasted and you will have nothing to show for it.  Being lazy for a week turns into being lazy for a month turns into being lazy for a year or years.  And while you’re being lazy there are people out there working hard and becoming successful.  That should really be you.

JUST SAY NO

The first trick to stopping your lazy streak is to just say no.  Say no to all those things you are doing which aren’t helping you accomplish your goals.  If you waste time playing video games than you need to just say no to playing video games.  If you have free time, instead of picking up that controller just sit there.  Sit there on your ass and be bored.  It is very hard to go straight from lazy to motivated.  It is much easier to take a few steps along the way.  The first step is boredom.  Boredom is a motivator.  Nobody likes being bored.  Lazy was fun, bored is boring.  Cut out every lazy, time wasting, unproductive thing in your life.  It may be hard but it is possible.  You just need to say no.

When you wake up in the morning make a list for the day of things you want to accomplish, try for three realistic things.  Next, take those three things and divide them into steps that you need to take to accomplish them.  If you wake up and say you want to make $20,000 today at the end of the day you will have failed, you’ll be frustrated and angry, maybe a little depressed, and tomorrow you’ll give up and go right back to lazy.  Here’s a look at an example of setting goals and setting steps for 1 day:

A.  Find a Profitable Niche to Go Into

1.  Do keyword research to determine search volumes

2.  Take keywords that looked good and analyze the competition in the search engines

3.  Pick the niche and buy an Exact Match Domain (EMD) or something similar from a registrar like Godaddy.

B.  Create a Website for the Niche

1.  Put up WordPress on the domain you bought

2.  Install all the plugins that you will need for this site.  Get them set up properly.

3.  Do any basic layout work that you want done to make your site display as you’d like it to.

C.  Get Content Up On Your Site

1.  Write 5 articles about one subtopic of this niche

2.  Write 5 article about a different subtopic of this niche

3.  Write 5 articles about a third subtopic of this niche

 

By creating these goals it will help you stay focused.  You can write down or print out your list and when you accomplished something you can cross it off the list.  It may sound basic, or silly, or dumb, but doing this will help you feel a sense of accomplishment and people like to feel like they are accomplishing things.  This will help you in your fight against being lazy.  And at the end of the day you will have a brand new site created, in a niche that was researched, with a site layout you like, with the proper plugins installed, and with 15 pages of original content.  WOW>   The alternative (if you were lazy) is that you watched 3 movies and grew dumber and poorer.  When you go to bed at night which one do you want to look back on as how you spent your day?

The next day you can build upon the first day’s success.

A.  Write more articles

B.   Research best way to monetize site and add this into your site

C.   Start to build backlinks

At the end of a week you will actually be the owner of a website that is well on its way to earning you money.  This should help motivate you.  When you see your first dollar roll in from the site you get another sense of accomplishment.  Accomplishing things can become a drug.  A healthy drug.  You’ll want to accomplish more and more.  You will gain motivation (ideally) as a result of your accomplishments.

Some people may need a reward in the beginning to help them accomplish a goal or accomplish one of the steps of a goal.  Set up a reward system for yourself.

Example: After I accomplish a goal I will give myself a 1 hour break.

                    After I accomplish a step I’ll take a 5 minute cigarette break

                    After I accomplish all my goals for the day I’ll get to watch a movie.

 

Whatever rewards will keep you focused and motivated to accomplish the steps and goals at hand.  Eventually you won’t need rewards but in the beginning you may need to entice yourself with something.

And for you out there who lack time management skills you may need to get yourself a timer.  If you start at 9:00 a.m. and it is 4:00 p.m. and you still haven’t accomplished your first goal you are not tracking very well.  If you have time challenges you should write down a reasonable amount of time needed to accomplish each step.  Get a timer and hold to it.  It will help you focus on accomplishing what you want to accomplish in the amount of time you want to accomplish it in.

What Do You Want To Buy/Do With Your Earnings?

Now some people like to take another path to gaining motivation.  They like to print out a picture of their dream car and pin it up next to their computer.  Or a picture of bikini clad girls.  Or a huge mansion.  Or whatever.  If this works for you then do it!  There is no right or wrong way to get motivated.  Whatever works for you is the right way for you.  But I caution you to start out with items that are achievable.  If you are starting out I would put a picture of something in the $500 range, maybe an iPad because this is something reasonable.  You will gain and even increase your motivation by achieving success in getting what you were going for.

Where Will You Be in a Month From Now?

If you continue on your path of laziness where will you be in a month from now?  What will you have accomplished in a month?  Would the future you look back and be happy with how you spent your time?  I’m sure all of us look back about something or multiple things and say “I regret…”.  Don’t let laziness be a regret for you.  You may fail at internet marketing, but if you try at least you have the chance to succeed.  If you are lazy you have no chance to succeed.  Remember, find your motivation, set realistic goals, keep to your timeline, and remove distractions.

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Comments

  1. I’ve read so many motivational posts and saw so many motivational DVD’s but in the end, the thing that matters is if you are motivated enough into taking action

    Nice post there.

    PS:1 question : what plugin do you use for your sidebar : popular, latest, comments ( or if it’s theme related, what plugin do you know that can do that ) ?

    Zerocoolflo from BHW

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