The end of the year is approaching so I am looking backwards and forwards as I do every year. As I am sure many of you do too. One conclusion I have to draw from this year that I will take into the next is how I have squandered my time. Squandered might be too strong a word, but I must say I have kicked myself over wasted time and missed opportunities. Perhaps this is familiar: Tinkering with social media sites with little to no payoff Projects started but not pushed through to … [Read more...]

Much as we would all like to have magic wands that put us instantly right where we want to be, in the perfect situation, surrounded by the right people, in reality we have to work towards it. I read a lot of biographies and find that the majority of so-called overnight sensations take many years of preparation and hard work to pay off. How do you make sure the work you are doing is helping towards your goals? The first task of course is to have goals. What outcome would you like to see? I … [Read more...]

Yesterday we moved house and today I am still without a broadband connection or even telephone line. Luckily I have my trusty PDA and 3G otherwise you wouldn't be hearing from me today. This whole week has shown me I need to be more prepared for off-days but another thought struck me related to bloggers income. People often say that blogging is a passive form of income, but is it really? If you are not familiar with the term, "passive income" refers to earning streams that do not require … [Read more...]

As I write this I have my family falling ill with a sickness bug all around me. This week we move house. I have work to deliver for a project today and another ongoing project kick-off happening in parallel. On top of all that I have my usual day to day tasks. It's not going to take much for this house of cards to fall is it? Now I am going to have to get that project work delivered and rapidly put a lot of posts into draft because there is a good chance that I am going to catch that bug … [Read more...]

The other day I wrote about how you can swap services to get help rather than think you have to pay people all the time. This morning I read Jacks My worst nightmare post and it made me realize how they are very related. Rather than write the post I was going to I had to address this point. First let's take a look at his post ... Every IT person I've ever met has at least one nightmare story about being roped into fixing somebody's home PC/network/broadband and everything going wrong.You can … [Read more...]

I just looked through my domain name accounts. There are over 30 unused domains in there. What on earth was I thinking? The problem is I know I will have yet another "brilliant" idea soon and do the self same thing. Get inspired, find a perfect domain name (or maybe not perfect), then sit on it for when I have time to develop it. Do you find yourself doing the same thing? What do you do to make sure you follow through on ideas? Share in the comments ... … [Read more...]

Are you a "Jack of all trades?". Very few of us are. It's rare indeed to find someone with all the skills required to do well in this game. Just check out the jobs and roles I listed in my blogging hats post. There are a lot of things involved in blogging, online marketing, and business in general where it is just better to get help than to struggle on your own. It's easy if you have a big bag of cash lying around. You can just hire the best in each skill and supervise. What if you have … [Read more...]

Well? What do you want? Sometimes when I work with my coaching clients, one of the things we have to do is really discuss what their actual goals are. Not what they think their goals are, what they really are. It's important because once you get going on a project you don't want to be distracted, or worse taken off on tangents, because what you are working towards is at odds with your actual goals. Here is one example. A business is there to make money, right? Seems obvious. Have you … [Read more...]

What would you do if you knew you could not fail? What goes through your mind, what are the words you tell yourself? How do you feel about yourself? Quietly think that over to yourself right now. Many people I speak to are constantly limiting their own performance through self doubt, lack of self respect and by choosing to believe the worst from others. See if any of these thoughts are familiar: I will try but I will likely fail I am clumsy I am bad at ______. I can't do … [Read more...]

One thing I like to collect in my swipe file is quotes. Quotes make you look more intelligent than you really are because you can borrow someone elses smarts and make it look like they are agreeing with you ;) I saw these positive quotes in a comment over at the Dilbert Blog last year and just dug them out again. "Whether you think you can or can't, either way you are right." - Henry Ford "Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions." - Albert … [Read more...]