Discipline is a skill

Willpower is a state of mind

Dedication is unrelenting motivation

Together they can be your greatest ally or your worst enemy. It’s how they are balanced that creates the harmony required for success

Have you ever been told that you can do anything if you only try hard enough? While I love this statement I find it’s greatly lacking in its completeness. I can do anything??? I’d love to be able to shoot webbing from my wrists only I seem to be having trouble finding a genetically altered, radioactive spider to bite me. It’s a great concept but I think the statement should be something like this. To obtain your goal a perfect balance between discipline, willpower, and dedication must be obtained. Not enough, and your failure is inevitable, too much and your goals will be lost. Being captain of the procrastinators all star team I often find myself distracted with so many other things that it starts to become difficult to keep on track. This starts from a lack of discipline and the thought that I’ll do it later. However as I’ve often found out, when later starts knocking on the door I rarely answer it. I know that I lack discipline but I’m the only one to blame. When you take responsibility for your own self, your own being you are able to make a change. It’s not easy to admit defeat but starting from the bottom is better than ending at the top.

The next part is willpower. As I’ve found out from numerous failed diets, burned out exercise routines, and eating more garbage than Oscar the Grouch I can honestly say that I have the willpower of a goldfish. Not the swimming kind, but the cheesy bite size cracker ones. However with a little mental fortitude and some dedication to the goal this can be changed. Willpower can be strengthened a lot like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it becomes. This strength comes from knowing that the goal is not the end, but one step closer to where you want to be. If you knew you had 2 more miles to run to the finish line would it be easier than not knowing how many were left? The concept of “One at a time” really holds true in this form. You can always push yourself for one more, but you can’t always push yourself for two more; do it once then do it again. This is what I love about willpower, the second instrument that only fails when you do.

Getting yourself motivated to do something is very commendable. Continuing to stay motivated even after the initial feeling has worn off is dedication. Everyone has started a project only to fall short towards the end. For some reason or another things start to go wrong, the project falls apart and they give up. Sound familiar? Failing is a part of learning, you can’t be expected to do everything right every time. The tricky thing about dedication is that when you get to that failing point, a dedicated individual would keep running with it until the project completely collapsed and a priest read it the last rights. This is where the balance becomes crucial. You must know when to say stop, and when to say go, and only you know truly when that point is. Stay dedicated to the overall path you are on, but know when to get off. You think every invention Thomas Edison came up with was a winner? You think Thomas Jefferson became president without sincere dedication? And George Jefferson would have never moved on up to the East Side without Weezie! It just goes to show that being dedicated can help accomplish your goals but too much can drive you to the ground.

The balance between these things isn’t easy. Since starting my blog this month I’ve been trying to balance them out to find the perfect combination. Everyone is different though, what works for me may not work for you. All you can do is try, and if you fail try again. You have the power. You are responsible. You create your own destiny. Now get out there and show them who’s boss!

If you are like me you are advertising all the time and never even realizing it. How many times have you seen a movie only to tell all of your friends “They have to go see it”? Eaten at a restaurant that was so impressive that you always recommend dinner there?  Or even went somewhere you thought was lame only to find out it was so much fun you had to go back? Word of mouth advertising is one of the most effective forms of advertising. Now I know what you’re thinking…I am like you, I do that all the time! With that in mind maybe you’d like to open yourself up to this thought. If you love a service, and love to advertise them, why not make a little money doing it? This is Affiliate Advertising at it’s best.

Turning your unintentional ads into cold hard cash

Every family has someone they go to for advice, someone they can go to when they need some direction. It could be your parents, a sibling, or even that strange uncle that smells like vodka, cigarettes, and old carpet and starts every story with “When I was your age…”. Whoever it may be that you turn to one thing’s for sure, you usually take their advice to heart. What does this ramble have to do with your blog? Your readers turn to you when looking for suggestions on what would help them succeed with their own ideas, especially when they are first starting out. They know that you know more than them and have been successful so far. I know you think I just dropped onto the internet knowing everything about making money online but you’re wrong, I didn’t. I had to start out like everyone else researching, reading, testing until I finally felt comfortable enough to deploy my ideas and to then to write about it for you to read.

The best part about affiliate advertising is that you actually do get paid for your word of mouth advertising. When you suggest a service, site, or product the affiliate will pay you for your referral. All you have to do is set up an account with them, place a link on your blog or site using the affiliate id link they give you and voila! Cash for referrals. This technique allows you to easily make money and feel great about the products you are recommending.

Keeping the faith

Your readers are your lifeblood. The more traffic you get the more money you will make. This means that anything you recommend to your readers must be worth it, and must be something that you feel will help them. You could just become one huge affiliate sell-out and load up your blog with every affiliate program out there but making a quick buck won’t help you in the long run. After all you are the product. You are the thing people are coming back for and it’s you that they subscribe to. Sell yourself first, and rely on advertising and affiliates for the income. Just be true to your readers, don’t sell out and you’ll see you will find success.

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