You’re trying too much aren’t you? Trying to accomplish too many projects and tasks at once; too many ideas and directions to go. You’re like the runner at the start line trying to run in all directions at once. It’s exhausting you mentally and physically and the frustration builds daily as you look at one more idea on the Internet, one more product that might be “the thing” you’re in need of.

You know what you need to do. In fact, you know hundreds of things you need to do. That’s not the problem. Deep down you know what you need to be doing and not doing in order to succeed, but somehow you are still sitting there going around in circles and feeling more and more frustrated by the day. Why is this? Why the lack of action and progress even when realizing full well that this type of behavior will not get you to where you want to be.

There are many reasons of course, and if you were to stop and think for a bit and were to type out your answers, you’d quickly uncover enough reasons to get you started back on the course of progress. Actually, I suggest you do take time out from your currently entrenched routine and consciously focus on this for a few minutes. If you prefer typing, you can do this while typing in your word processor, or if you prefer pen and paper, you could take a notebook out to somewhere where you could think and focus; perhaps somewhere where you don’t often go so that the experience will be refreshing.

Maintaining perspective is one of the most important things you can do to ensure overall long term progress toward the success goals you’ve set for yourself. This perspective is easily lost when we maintain the same routine and visit the same places, people, and things. Have you ever noticed how energized you feel after getting away for a few days from home? You come back perhaps tired from the trip, but you feel exhilarated and not bound by your typical surroundings. In fact, you probably feel like your typical environs are somewhat stagnant and stale and in need of a refresh.

This is a positive sign that your excursion was beneficial to your perspective and necessary to reenergize you and bring back your emotional “buy-in” to your long term goals. If you had merely sat in place in your usual spot doing the same thing, you probably would have spent many more hours there and not progressed much if at all. But having gotten away for a bit helped you to reset and reengage your end vision while temporarily forgetting the intermediate tasks; thereby letting you come back to the table fresh and able to immediately see the next steps you must take. This is what makes it possible for you to then make quick progress; quicker than if you had not taken that perspective break.

Once refreshed and having gained some perspective you can then begin consciously deciding on what you will focus on. You must come to a couple of mental decisions at this point:

1. You can only go as fast as YOU can go. E.g. you can only do so many things at once and in a finite period of time. If you try to exceed your personal capabilities you will only end up with a few predictable results. More than likely you’ll end up with many or all tasks being completed in a poor manner. You’ll be frustrated and tired. Or worst of all possible outcomes, you’ll be out of balance in life and burned out. These are not the desired end results you desire.

2. Decide now that trying to do too much is the recipe for substandard results and failure and that a conscious decision to select only those goals and activities that matter most and can be done best are what you will personally handle. If there are other necessary tasks required that you are not best at or that would burn you out trying to accomplish, that you will outsource them so you can focus on your core strengths.

Once you’ve narrowed down to these few tasks and set these decisions in your mind, reinforce the decision with the belief that “less is more”. E.g. quality of results is much more important than quantity of results. Focusing on a few key tasks and doing them well is much more rewarding and inspiring than spreading yourself thin and taking too many actions that bear results close to zero. Build deep as they say not wide.

Trying to do it all will ensure you have none.

© Copyright 2006 David Marcotte all rights reserved

Dave Marcotte runs http://www.fastresponsemarketing.com , a marketing company designed to uncover and share the most efficient and effective methods to market and profit online. Be sure to stop by and share your insights while he shares with you new and insightful strategies related to Internet and viral marketing. Results are what count!

By Dave Marcotte

I’ve been bogged down of late. Probably just like you. I’ve been working on multiple projects and multiple tasks and completely unfocused for months, my mind a maze of unfinished and un-begun tasks. In fact, I have so many tasks I know I need to do that I hardly begin any it seems for fear of not starting others. Is this the logic of the successful? I think not. So today I decided to take stock of my behavior and really reflect on what is important to me and my results.

I’ve been wanting to create a business plan for months. One where I delineate exactly what is necessary to success based on my daily copious reading on the topic of Internet marketing and business results. I’ve felt the drain and dizziness of being unfocused for months now and the lingering frustration and funk of weeks without progress. Enough is enough! So out comes my trusty computerized notepad database in which I dump any and all errata related to this crazy thing we call “online business”.

I begin by writing a few cliché catch phrases like “Begin with the end in mind”, and “Division of labor is key to success”. Whatever key concepts I believe are essential to success. Phrases that concisely define those nuggets of wisdom I know yet allow to be forgotten in the daily actions and motions of the day. I write them in the hopes that they’ll somehow float to the top of my awareness and remain there after the session is over and somehow this will magically ensure my success.

I know this isn’t necessarily the case however, as I’ve done this futile exercise over and over again for years with nary a positive outcome in sight. But here I go again because this always seems to be the first soothing step I take whenever I feel the need to “get organized” and “take action” yet again.

I’m somehow hoping today will be different than all the times before. That somehow today I will think clearer, and stronger, and jot down some magical formula that has eluded me until today; some kind of epiphany so simple and elegant that all my past struggles will somehow seem comical in their limited and childish ways of toil. That today will be a new day. A new day of ease, flow, and grace that’ll take me to swift and concise successful action unlike any other time before. Ah, the dream. It feels good, very good. How I hunger for that insight and incentive to rally me into an ecstasy of gliding action. Off I go! Knocking down barriers and making things happen with ease and style. I am success in action and nothing can stop me!

Well,… that’s the hope. The reality is that each day brings with it its own confusion, frustration, and most days — little progress. So for a spell I get reorganized, refocused, and reenergized and start out on that invigorated path once again only to hit that molasses like stagnation of frustration and lack of results soon thereafter. Why? Why! I think I’m smarter than that. Am I not?

Now, I know success isn’t necessarily easy or fast as envisaged above. But based on my daily practices I’m beginning to think I’m more than a little leaning towards the ‘lack of progress’ sides most days and perhaps even going backwards. There must be some philosophical reasoning I have engrained in my mind and daily behaviors that keeps me in this cycle of short bursts of clarity and enthusiasm and long glides of stagnation and even perhaps retrogression overall. What is it that causes this lethargic cycle?

The very next thing I typed was “Singletasking vs. Multitasking”. Singletasking…, is that even a word? Well, I know what I mean by it. The basic concept is a proven one in business and scientific circles. One of such primitive and fundamental axiomatic importance it is almost laughable anyone would discuss it, never mind disobey it daily in their lives. But I believe I may be a victim of it at by own hands. And perhaps you are too.

The idea can best be illustrated in relation to multitasking on computers where too many simultaneous processes causes the system to bog down and delay outcomes to a much greater magnitude than if the same processes had been run sequentially. I’ve thought about this many times and each time come up with the same answer. E.g. if it holds true for a computer then it must also hold true for me. And I know it does. I’ve never been able to do two tasks as fast or as well concurrently as I can when focusing on one at a time. It’s just a basic law of nature.

So why do I disobey it daily to my own frustration, failure, and perhaps even peril? There must be a reason.

Pondering on this question immediately brings up many possible reasons, and most likely accurate ones, that I avoid daily acknowledging such as:

1. Focusing on only one thing is boring.

2. Choosing one to focus on makes me uneasy. What if something else is more important or urgent?

3. Doing one thing would mean I’d have to get something done which equates with work! I couldn’t do that!

4. Only doing one thing is rather ’simple minded’. If I were to do one thing, I’d have to block out all my wonderful ideas for the duration and that wouldn’t be as pleasurable.

5. I want to do them ALL now! Just one isn’t enough!

And a dozen or two more I’m sure if I wanted to keep at it. If you’ve got some more of you’re own, I’d love to hear them, so drop me a line. But the point is that regardless of how many ‘reasons’ I may have for trying to multitask, I know based on simple physics and past observable results that I do things better and faster when I do one thing at a time. And I’ll bet you do too.

This is the basic idea behind the assembly line, the industrial revolution, and specialization; the more complex the task the more it needs to be divided up into different sub tasks and assigned to different resources to carry out. So if you’re trying to wear all hats, then perhaps that’s the problem. It seems to be mine. This reinforces the idea of playing to your strengths and outsourcing your weaknesses or dislikes.

So for at least a week (and longer if I’m smart), I’m going to do myself a favor and pursue this concept in action and see what kind of results I get. The only problem I immediately foresee is in deciding what to focus on first and in what order. This is perhaps the second roadblock I’ve always had in maintaining a single-tasking work ethic, but I’ll not let that stop me this time.

Expect some ideas on that barrier in my next article…

Dave Marcotte runs http://www.fastresponsemarketing.com , a marketing company designed to uncover and share the most efficient and effective methods to market and profit online. Be sure to stop by and share your insights while he shares with you new and insightful strategies related to Internet and viral marketing. Results are what count!

Have you been sitting there right at the cusp of taking action on a particular project but still haven’t gotten started? How long has it been since you originally had the kernel of that new idea spring forth up until this point? Has it been a few hours, days, weeks or longer?

If you’re like most people, it’s been longer — much longer. In fact, most people never get over the hump of beginning. Even those of us who are involved in product production periodically have the procrastination problem when it comes to certain aspects of our business.

What is it that makes us delay? We know we shouldn’t. We know that sitting around or avoiding the task at hand will not lead to the desired results we seek. There must be something going on with our thinking that isn’t quite right. What might this thing be?

One of the key reasons for procrastination is the deep down belief that the task we’re about to undertake will not succeed. After all, if we believed that it would succeed, wouldn’t we be incredibly motivated to take action? I believe we would. I think we all do take action when we know the outcome will be successful.

Take an example: If I know that I can earn X amount each day by just going to my job, and this is pretty much guaranteed even if putting in the minimum, will I continue to go to my job? Yes, more than likely. This is the dreaded “Not uncomfortable enough to change” syndrome. But I keep doing it because I’ve proven to myself from experience that it works; at least it works satisfactorily enough.

We also get caught up in the “Preparation Syndrome”. We’ve all heard of it, and some of us have different names for it, such as: Analysis of paralysis; thinking too much; or overanalyzing, etc. But it is a daily rut many land in despite their objective knowledge of its reality and the benefit of staying away from it. Once again, why is this?

Knowledge is an interesting distinction in itself, but most people do not separate knowledge from action adequately enough. Simply having the knowledge of facts has proven insufficient to achieve results throughout history. The sooner we all convince ourselves that simply having knowledge is adequate to obtain results, the sooner we each as individuals will be able to move on to the next logical conclusion and increase our chances of success.

So I say, “Knowledge is NOT power”. I’ve decided this for myself long ago. Perhaps you have now also done the same.

So what is it? What is “knowledge”? Simply, it is a prerequisite to power and results.

So our next logical conclusion leads us to one we’ve probably already heard many times. “Knowledge is power when acted upon”. Much closer to reality by far I’d say. The only problem is it leaves a lot of room for interpretation of what action is. In fact, most failures in business and life are in the area of “how” we acted once we’ve decided to finally act.

Once again, most people don’t act. They never even begin. Those who do only do so for a little while and in a half hearted manner at that. Then fewer still who do actually act consistently for long enough to see some results may not be acting in a manner that will ultimately bring results.

This is exciting news! This distinction is actually meant to encourage you to understand that if you wish to see results long term, the first step on that journey is to get over that first hump of beginning as soon as possible. The sooner you do, the sooner you will begin to inculcate the habit of action and can move on to the second phase of consistency. Most individuals will still not be acting in effective ways for lack of experience, but this is fine! This is a time period when creating the habit and skills are more important than the actual results of that action.

And this is the exciting message here within. Get over that hump. Learn to build at least one habit that will benefit you long term and will eventually bring true rewards. Pick something and begin. Then continue. You’ll enjoy the progress you can naturally make each day much more than trying to continue thinking and planning and not making progress. I can assure you of that.

There is of course much ground to cover with regards to what I alluded to before concerning people still not acting in a manner that brings results, but we all bring results in accord with our level of expertise, and sitting and thinking ‘about’ something is not the same as doing and learning from the activity.

Start now. You’ll be over your hump as soon as you do.

© Copyright 2006 David Marcotte all rights reserved

Dave Marcotte runs http://www.fastresponsemarketing.com, a marketing company designed to uncover and share the most efficient and effective methods to market and profit online. Be sure to stop by and share your insights while he shares with you new and insightful strategies related to Internet and viral marketing. Results are what count!

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