Kimanzi Constable's Blog, page 51

Keep Your Dream Simple (Part 4)

There’s a lot of information out there about starting your online business, I mean a whole lot. When I’m working with someone, one of the biggest frustrations is where to start?

Sometimes the advice is even confusing and contradictory. My goal with this series is to pull the curtain back, to simplify the process. To help you figure out where to start and how to do this without going nuts.

When I started three years ago, I thought I would go nuts, I had a wicked case of information overload! I want to speak to those just like me. Those that have a family and responsibilities and want to do this without ruining their life or hurting their families.

In the first three posts we talked about the basics: figuring out who you’re talking to and what you’re talking about. Then, how to put together a good foundation, a solid website, your second home Today, we’ll move forward.

Grow your online business

Once you have your foundation set, it’s time to build upon that foundation. You spent time and a lot of effort to put something nice together, something that will help your specific target audience with the pains they face.

Now it’s time to honor that effort with people actually seeing what you’ve done. Since this is a website, you must have some traffic to be successful. If you’re just starting out, start simple.

Ask some friends or family members to share a link to your website on their social media pages. This should get you a couple of clicks. There will be a temptation for you to constantly share your work on your social media profiles, don’t do it!

I mean, you will share from time to time but the more you can limit it the better. People generally ignore self-promotion, think about it. Gary Vaynerchuk writes about this in his new book. He says, give, give, give, then sell, it’s a better strategy.

Even as you build a bigger platform, try to limit self-promotion, if you’re putting out great content, your audience will promote for you. If you aren’t new, get more traffic through guest posting.

Guest posting has been talked about a lot and a lot of people do it because it works. If you don’t have that big of an audience, the fastest way to build one is to get exposed to a larger one. This guest post I did for Michael Hyatt literally put my website on the map.

Great and effective guest posting

For you to get the most out of guest posting, guest post on websites that are speaking to your target audience. When I started out, I guest posted everywhere and got some results. A guest post is a guest post, you’re getting exposed to a new audience.

When you guest post for websites speaking directly to your audience, the results are incredible. You’re speaking directly to those that are interested in what you’re saying, these are your people. You’re here to help them and if you can make that clear, they will respond.

To get the most out of guest posting, have a plan. If you’re launching a product, service or just your online business, try to schedule out your guest post in intervals. To have a guest post accepted you’re going to have to send them out early, some websites have posts already scheduled well in advance.

I get asked how to land guest posts on large websites? Let the content speak for itself. Ideally you would already follow the blog, one of the best ways to write and land a guest post is in the style of the blogger. Get a feel for how they write, how their audience responds.

Then write a post in that style, for that audience. Put the post in the body of an email and send it to the blogger or their assistant, bloggers generally hate attachments. Write a killer byline, with three quality links. Really think about where you want to send people: your about page, a social media link and a cool thing you’re doing right now is a good formula.

I plan on writing an entire post on guest posting, so I’ll end here. I’m covering a lot of basics in this series but my hope is that you’re getting great value. I’m committed to you living out your dream by the end of 2014, your online business will support you.

Have you ever guest posted? What were the results? 

 

Keep Your Dream Simple (Part 3)

Here we are in post three in our series on the basics of creating a freedom based online business, on the side without ruining your family. The goal is to take this month, give you a few basics and maybe even make you think through your thing a little more. 2014 is coming fast and my goal is to help as many people as possible make their dreams a reality by the end of 2014.

How’s it going? Change anything up? One thing that I’ll talk about a little later is testing. I shared some good stuff with my email subscribers this past weekend (be sure to sign up for exclusive content), testing has changed my business. It’s cool to see and hear great ideas but they might not work for you. The best way to figure out what works is to test out any new ideas.

Before we go on, let’s cover a few more things about the basics of a good website:

The side bar

The side bar is a very important, valuable piece of real estate. This is usually a place that most websites go over board, I was in this same boat. I used to think this is a place to advertise all my products and services.

Now, I only want the most important things on the side bar. This will take a lot of thinking through for you, what are the most important three to four things you can put in your side bar?

Definitely have some social media links, have your one signature product or service, your best content (most popular posts) and maybe one other super important thing. If you choose to run ads, then ads but personally I’m not a fan of ads, I would prefer to advertise my own stuff versus someone else’s. This however is your choice and your website, do what’s right for you and more importantly, your audience.

The side bar is a place to get people’s attention and guide them to where you want them to go next. If it’s a service or product, make the description brief but intriguing, if you’re offering a free gift with a purchase throw the word FREE in there to grab attention:

The theme of this series is keeping it simple, so do that, you want your side bar to compliment, not distract.

Website pages

Have you ever been to a website that had a ton of pages? It’s like “where do I even start?” Yeah, that used to be me too. Keep the number of pages to a minimum if you can, combine (where it makes sense) and make each page super valuable.

Here’s an idea: Home page- This could be where you blog rests or just be a landing page that gives a brief description and has an email sign up.

Blog- If your blog isn’t on your home page. About- we talked about this last post. Start here- maybe? Some websites use this page to start new readers on some of the valuable first few posts that would make the most sense to a new reader.

Products/Services- You can combine these and make your services products or keep them separate. On this or these pages, let people know who you are, where you came from and what you’re offering.

Bonus/Book page- If you’re offering bonuses for a book or product, you can set up a password protected page and throw the goodies on that page.

If you have a book, set up a page to let people know what it’s all about and any free goodies. Again, set up the pages that make the most sense to your message and your target audience. Test what works and doesn’t, that way you’re basing your decisions on real information.

Well, that will do it for the basics of a good website, next post we’re moving forward. I’ve been thinking about my website for a while and maybe even changing things, a good friend of mine asked me if my website was working and converting. I thought about it and took his point: keep it simple

My website works, it converts and generates income, what more could I want? If you have something that works for you and your audience, don’t keep taking up valuable time (since you’re doing this on the side) tinkering around with your website too much. If it works, focus on adding value and creating great content.

What’s working for you right now? What would you like to change? 

Less Is More

As 2014 approaches, I’m planning/setting goals. I have gone back and worth with goal setting. For as long as I can remember, my only goal was to survive. In 2011 I started chasing my dream, this year was the first full year where my dream supported me.

This year I had goals, big goals and many goals. In 2012 I decided to try the approach Leo at Zen Habits recommends and went with no goals, that didn’t work at all for me. For 2014 I’ll be taking a combination of both years/ways.

One tactic that has really helped me with goal setting is a theme or word for the year. I write this word and theme on a board in my office, I look at it everyday and all the plans I make have to revolve around this theme.

My theme/word for 2014 is LESS. Thinking long and hard about this has made me realize (for me) less will lead to more. For the last, who knows how many years, I’ve taken on way too much. I had tons of goals and compounded that with taking on way too much other “life stuff.”

This year I want LESS! Less clutter, less busyness, less stress, less doing things just to be doing them. Less of agreeing to do things that I really don’t want to do. Less of saying yes to things that I don’t really have time for.

If I had a second theme/word it would compliment the first: focus. Have less stuff but focus better on those important things that remain. I want to really master the concept of being fully present, stop giving into the distractions. This will mean getting rid of a bunch of junk, this will mean saying no a lot more but less will lead to more!

Life is already crazy enough

I don’t need to tell you this, sometimes life makes you want to scream with all the chaos. Piling on too much “stuff” makes it worse. Less is my theme but think if it can work for you. Could taking on less and focusing on what’s important help you?

I wanted to take a little break in our series to really challenge you to think through 2014. If you have been chasing a dream for a while, I really want this coming year to be the year you make your dream your reality.

This will take a lot of things but one thing that will really help you is proper planning, we have to stop “winging it.” Since we’re talking about something online, do you have a content plan? Do you have a social media plan? What’s your marketing plan?

Keep it simple, take on less, and have a plan, this can be your blueprint to do this. What are your goals for 2014? Can less be more for you?

Keep Your Dream Simple (Part 2)

It’s very easy to confuse even a good thing by making it too complicated. In the last post I told you all about how I over-complicated my online dream. I thought I could do a lot of things and hoped one of them stuck.

One of the main points in my book is “take the first steps.” I talk about putting your toe in the water of your dream and started small and simple. After the 100 different things I tried, I had to go back to the beginning and focus on one at a time.

This series is meant to prep you for 2014 and give you a few tools to get ready to make your dream a reality by the end of 2014. In the last post we talked about clearly knowing your target audience and keeping your website clear, simple and distraction free.

The basics of a good website

So, I’ve said to keep it simple but what else? The most important thing on your website is your about page. After your homepage, your about page will be the most visited page on your website.

About page

Your about page should be personal, it should be in the first person. People are smart enough to realize that you wrote the description, so when it’s in the third person, people get a little turned off. People come to your website to really connect with you, not some mystical, far off person.

To make your about page even more personal and entertaining, throw a video on it. A lot of people really enjoy clicking on a short video and really getting to know you. Plus, by hosting that video through YouTube, you can build upon another platform.

Your about page should be fresh and current, I would say update it at least every six months. Things change, maybe even directions change, so keep that page up to date with what’s going on in your life and dream. Try not to make this page a novel, keep it straight to the point.

If you’ve done your job and your target audience is reading, put the cherry on top of the cake by adding an email sign up box at the end of your info. If they’ve read all the way through, they’re a hot lead, so have your email sign up there. You can get even slicker and have one right in the middle of your about page, it really increases the sign ups. Here’s one of mine:

Keep in mind we’re keeping it simple and building something, one person at a time.

 

Email sign up 

After your about page, your email sign up should be a super high priority. It’s a little frustrating to get emails these days, so when someone does sign up to get updates from your website, they’re interested and could be more someday.

Your email sign up should be front and center, one of the first things people see. Let them know exactly what they’ll get from your website. One of the best ways to get sign ups and add value to your audience is to offer something free. A free report, a PDF of the top 10 things…., a free video, something that’s relevant to your target audience. This is the first thing you see when you come to my website:

Notice the email sign up? Notice the two free gifts? I have a short video and if my target audience is digging the message, my email sign up is right there with two FREE gifts. Since switching my website at the beginning of this year, I’ve had over 5,000 email sign ups this year versus 297 last year. The results will speak for themselves!

Your goal should be to make your free stuff better than most people’s paid stuff. To get the most bang for your buck, sign up with and email service provider: MailChimp, Aweber, Infusionsoft among others. I won’t get into too much of this now, we’ll get into what you can do with an email service provider later.

If you want your dream to support you, the money will be in the list. Those who sign up are your most interested audience members, so when you do have something to sell, as long as it’s relevant, they’ll be the most likely to buy it.

Your homework

I want to keep it simple, so I’ll end it here. Your homework is to look through your about page, make sure it’s relevant, up to date, straight to the point and has at least one email sign up. If you’re not signed up for email service provider, you should definitely think about getting one.

Also, is your email sign up front and center on your website? Do you offer a free sign up gift? If you’ve done all of this already, make sure all your stuff is relevant to your target audience.

Have you made any money from your online dream? If yes, what is generating income for you? 

 

Keep Your Dream Simple

Have you ever felt like doing more would equal better results? Yeah, I’ve been there to and tried it only to get mixed results.

Three years ago I took action on my dream and quickly realized that if my online dream would support me, I would need to have A LOT of income streams. I had so many doubts and fears, especially the thought of leaving a steady paycheck for the uncertainty of sporadic income.

As I researched all this online stuff, it felt like the information was backing up my theory, do a bunch of stuff and hope something works. I think a lot of people who chase their online dreams do the same thing but after some trial and error, I think there’s a better approach.

As we think about 2014 and our goals, I want to get back into the basics of creating a freedom based, online business, on the side and with a family. As I’ve said, my goal is for at least 10 people to become completely supported by their online business by the end of 2014.

Before we hit the ground running in 2014, I thought I’d go over some prep work to get ready. I’ll be talking about all the stuff I wish I knew when I started, it would have gotten me to freedom quicker.

No matter what your topic is and how you plan on making money from it, keeping it simple will be easier and keep your stress level down. I titled this series this way for a reason, I’ll talk about a lot of things with goal of keeping everything simple

Who’s your target market?

Before you can do anything online with your dream, you have to get clear about who you’re talk to and what you’re talking about. In case you missed it, I made a video all about the importance of your target market and some general information about it.

Watch the video, I know it will clear some things up. One of the biggest reasons most websites blend in with the millions of other websites is the lack of clarity. What makes your website/dream special? What is your unique spin that you could add that makes it your thing?

The more specific you get, the better. I mean really laser in and get as specific as possible. I started this website talking about chasing your dreams, this year I got even more specific and started speaking to family men who have a day job but want to start an online business with a topic they’re passionate about. Also, how they can do this on the side without ruining their family.

Since getting more specific, I lost 1,2000 email subscribers but increased my income online from $2,900 to over $6,000 a month. Once you get specific, you see where to focus your time and what you can do to help a specific community.

Once you have this figured out, the things you talk about, the communities you get involved in, the things you create to sell, will be specific to that audience. Those people will buy and join because it’s relevant to them.

The 10 second test

Are you clear about who you’re talking to? Let’s put this to the test. If I came to your website, would I understand who your target audience is? Would I understand this in 10 seconds? That’s about how long it takes for people to decide whether or not they’ll spend anytime on your website.

You have 10 seconds, if you’re clear, those who you’re talking to will respond immediately. Those who your website is not for will leave, which will save them and you a bunch of time later. Would you pass the 10 second test?

If you want a little help with this, be sure to join my free project #DreamYear. Let’s bring this back to the theme of our series, when it comes to your target audience, keep it simple. You don’t have to be Michael Hyatt over night (if that’s who your audience is). Instead, figure out who they are and reach out to them one at a time. This will take time.

Keep your website simple

Your website is your home base, it’s the place where you’ll send everybody. If you want to speak someday, all your products, all the information you wish to share with the world, will all happen on your website.

When people come to your website, you don’t want them to be confused or distracted with too much going on. We’ll get into some specifics in a bit but the simpler you keep it, the better.

What do you want people to do when they first come to your dream? Is that happening? What do you want them to watch, what do you want them to read and in what order? The less clutter you can have the better. People love Zen Habits for this very reason.

I think this will be a good point to end on. Next post we’ll pick up with the basics of a good website, what you should and must have to make money. Think about what we’ve talked about today and even ask others if your website and message are clear.

I’m super excited for you, this will be your year! How are you keeping your dream simple

I Don’t Have Enough Time To Work on My Dream

Man, life is just way to busy. When I finally decided to chase my dream I ran into a big problem: time. I had a full-time job, a wife and three kids, trying to lose weight, church, and a bunch of other stuff.

You’re busy too and if you’re reading this blog, you’re probably are chasing a dream. So how can you get it all done without losing your mind? We’ll get into that in a bit.

Time is one resource we’ll never get back, that’s what makes it so important. Plus, we’re not guaranteed anything, none of us know when it’s our time. If you want to be successful, if you’re going to make your dream a reality in 2014, you have to get your time figured out.

Cut out the distractions

Look, there are some distractions you can’t avoid, like your kids. However, there are plenty of distractions you can cut out and reclaim a little bit of time. As I’m writing this post, I’m fighting the urge to check Facebook, I can see the notifications on my phone.

That brings up a good point: turn off the notifications, I’m serious! Our mind tells us that if we turn updates or notifications off, we’ll miss something important. Let’s get real, how many important messages have you received on social media? Turn off the notifications and pick specific blocks of time to check all the updates.

Trust me, you’ll be ok and you won’t miss too much but more than that, you’ll gain back valuable time that might have been wasted by getting distracted. Checking a simple social media update could set you back more than the time, it could help you lose direction.

Besides notification, how about that ringing cell phone? How about that TV show? How about that loud noise outside? Distractions come in many forms and they all lead to the same result: less productivity. Cut them out and avoid them when you can, the results will surprise you.

A simple test

I really want to see you succeed, so let’s get specific. Over the next week, let’s make a significant effort to cut out distractions. As you work on your online business this week, turn off your phone, turn off any notifications on your computer, get into a quite area and just work.

You don’t need to do this for eight hours, try this for 30 minutes, that’s it. Take an uninterrupted 30 minutes to focus and work, if you like the results, increase the time to an hour. That’s not too bad right? I’m guessing you’re going to get a lot more accomplished.

Make time where you can

I know you’re busy, you’ve got a family. If it seems like you don’t have a single minute to spare, you’re going to have to get creative. That means waking up an hour earlier or going to bed an hour later.

It might mean squeezing an hour here and there between things but if you can find that little bit of time, you can get this thing done in 2014. The key is making that time as uninterrupted as possible.

Sneak in those hours, try to get at least four hours a week working on your dream and in a month, send me an email (kconstable29@gmail.com) to let me know about the progress you’re making.

This website is for you, the family person chasing that dream on the side, I get what you’re going through. As you read this you’re thinking: “I can’t spare that four hours” but if there’s a will, there’s a way.

Can you make extra time by cutting out your TV time? I find that we watch more TV than we realize or want to admit. I know how nice it is to veg out and enjoy your shows but you’ve got a dream and that dream will require short-term sacrifice.

Whatever that sacrifice is that you need to make in your life, be honest and make that sacrifice for a little bit of time. Don’t focus on what you’re giving up, focus on what you’ll gain when you’re fully supported by your dream. Then you’ll have a lot of time give in to any distractions

How do you make time for your dream? What distractions come up for you? 

Who Is Your Target Market?

When I started seriously chasing my dream three years ago I was clueless. I spent the first two years doing a bunch of stuff that I thought would make money but didn’t pan out. My goal was always to have my online dream support me but getting there seemed impossible.

There was so much good advice online, so many good blogs I read everyday. I got so many ideas and went down so many roads, I even made a little money. In the end, it wasn’t a business until this year.

This year I simplified, this year I got focused and got some solid, step by step advice. I now make $6,500 a month on my online business and I’m finally making progress. Things didn’t make sense until I got clarity and that’s exactly what I want to do for you with the #DreamYear project.

I wrote about #DreamYear and one of my main New Year’s resolutions, to help at least 10 people become fully supported by their online dreams by the end of next year. The only reason I’m bringing it up again is because I’m closing new membership December 31st. To join it’s 100% completely FREE and so far has been super inspiring.

The people who have joined are doing some amazing things related to their dream, it’s a great sharing community (right everyone ). In #DreamYear we have homework every two weeks that helps clarify the path. I made a little video giving out the next assignment.

The video also talks about the most important thing you need to know to make your online dream a reality: I talk about knowing your target market. I think there’s some good value in the video:



2014 is almost here and my sincere hope is that you get serious and make your dream your reality.

P.S. There’s only 2 spots left in my coaching program at a 50% off discount, I’d love to work with you!

What To Expect From Your Dream In 2014 (Part 2)

Things are starting to get real. I mean, you plan for something for so long and then when it’s here, it hits you like a ton of bricks. I’ll get into all this in a bit but before then, what’s been up with you? Are you excited for 2014?

Three years ago my family made a lot of decisions. One of the major ones was moving to Hawaii. It’s seemed like it has taken forever but the Hawaii move is really coming true, this past weekend we bought my ticket.

I leave on February 18th to go and set everything up for our family. I come back March 11th to finish last-minute stuff in Wisconsin, our family then leaves for Paia, Maui on April 8th. (The picture is my ticket)

Getting to this point has been very hard (we talked about this in the last post), there have been so many ups and downs, so many negatives voices telling us it wasn’t possible.

This entire “chase your dreams” journey has brought us to incredible highs and heart-breaking lows but it has all been worth it. Now, here we are at the point of true freedom and in 2014 we’re taking the next big steps. What has this journey taught me?

Doubts and fears

No matter how well you plan, even when you experience success, you’ll still fight doubt and fear. Those doubts and fears make or break a lot of dream chasers. Here’s the thing, the only way doubt and fear win is if you let them.

You have the power to choose whether you’ll listen to your doubts and fears or believe in yourself and your dream. What will you choose? Isn’t it time you chose yourself?

Anger and stress

You’re going to get mad, probably a lot this year. When things don’t go as planned, when unexpected hiccups come up, very frustrating moments. This will lead to stress, I talked about this a few posts ago.

When you’re faced with anger and stress, don’t hold it all inside. Speak to someone, pray and meditate. Just vent somehow, get it off your chest and mind. Again, realize that you have the power to win, you don’t have to let anger and stress win.

Expect to win

I have personally talked to many who read this blog and I’m convinced many of you will make your dreams a reality. What you can and should expect in 2014 is to finally make your dream a reality.

It all comes down to what you believe and what actions you take as a result of that belief. Making your dream a reality won’t be easy but it’s totally possible. Many before you have done it, as we sit here and talk, many are doing it.

As 2013 comes to an end, do you have a plan for 2014? If you don’t, take these last few weeks and put that plan together. Talk that plan through, join a mastermind, start one. Use these weeks, get real serious and you’ll win, period!

If you need a little help or direction

I’ve been truly blessed to work with so many amazing people. For those that take action, they’ve been able to see results in their dreams. For those that are hustling, they’ve been able to generate income in the first month. It’s super inspiring to see.

If you need a little help, maybe a little direction on how to chase your dream with a day and family, I’m here for just that. I currently have a little break in my schedule and want to work with a few more people.

I have 5 open spots for my Results Coaching Program (it’s called results for a reason), they will be on a first come, first serve basis. If you’re interested or want to learn more, email me at kconstable29@me.com to reserve your spot. If you’re unsure, take advantage of the free 30 minute consultation.

I’m really committed to this, so I’m offering a 50% discount on all my coaching packages. If you’re one of the 5 people, I look forward to going over the top to help you make your dream your reality (at a discounted rate)! You can also breaking each package up into 3 payments

What dream are you working on in 2014 and do you believe it’s possible? (Be honest)

What To Expect From Your Dream In 2014

Here we are at the end of 2013 and I realized something, I wasn’t prepared for this year. So many plans, so many different (and dead-end) roads I went down. I did a lot of “things” this year but few of them counted towards my dream and goals.

We live in the information age, which is good but can be distracting. If you have a passion for something, get on the internet and you’ll get millions of sites to explore. There are great blogs that we read everyday and almost everyday there are new and great ideas. I started this year with plans but got distracted by the all the great ideas.

Now 2014 is coming quick and I want to be better prepared and help you properly prepare, especially for those who joined #DreamYear and are working on making a dream a reality by the end of 2014.

I’d like to take the next couple of posts to talk about some things that will come up as you chase a dream in 2014 and a few lessons I’ve learned from failing too many times. Since my goal has been to get more specific, this advice will specifically be for those who have a day job but want to create a freedom based business that has some online component.

This is going to be hard, require a lot of patience and sacrifices

Duh, right? If you’re serious about making your dream a reality sooner, it’s going to require a lot of sacrifice and hard work. It’s going to mean giving up things you like, don’t worry, just for a little while.

It’s going to mean fighting doubts and fears, your negative voices and the negative voices of others. Realizing this will be hard means telling yourself that this is just a part of the process and you’re going through this for a better reason.

You have to have a tremendous amount of patience because things won’t happen immediately, which is what our human nature wants. When you start or have started that blog and only have 20 people viewing it a day, when you’ve only sold eight copies of your book.

During all these though times, you need patience and have to work even harder than you thought was humanly possible. You have to calm down, figure out what you can do better, and put a plan in place. After crying for two weeks when my book flopped, I got back up and hit the ground running, you’ll need to do the same.

The wrong mindset

You have to change your mindset, this is easier said than done, right? Your dream will never become a reality if you don’t believe it. When you don’t have the right mindset, the actions you take related to your dream will show that unbelief.

With the wrong mindset it will be easier to make excuses and delay taking action. Unbelief in yourself will make those excuses sound reasonable. In order for you to take the drastic steps you need to make your dream a reality, you have to “see it,” you have to just “feel it.”

There’s so much great information about the power of visualization and it’s not all “pie in the sky.” In my book I talk about this. If your goal is to lose weight, buy yourself a smaller shirt, if your goal is to move, keep some pictures of that place somewhere where you can see them everyday.

People trying to hold you back

I’ve had so many friends who meant well when giving me advice but it was advice that if listened to, would have held me back. People do mean well but sometimes just don’t have the right mindset.

If you’re going to do this next year, you have to be totally focused and ready to politely smile when someone tries to hold you back. There will even be people who are outright negative, they will give you the one hundred reasons why things will never work out. Just smile and keep positing forward.

You’re not going to have enough money

Boy, isn’t this the truth. If you’re reading this, you probably have a day job, kids and a bunch of bills. Starting a freedom based online business doesn’t cost an arm and a leg but it still costs money that’s not easily parted with.

If you don’t have a bunch of disposable cash, you’re going to have to start smaller. If you can find a way to spare $5, you can start your website and start your online business, seriously!

I have written several posts and will write some more but starting your online business is easier than you think. One of my main goals this year is to pull the curtain back and show you how to start making money.

Well, we’ve come to the end of part one, next post we will get a little more specific. My hope is to see at least 10 people take action and make those dreams their reality.

What issues have come up for you as you’ve chased your dream?  

Your Dream is Too Stressful

You would think that once you get to the point of freedom, the point where your dream is fully supporting you, that life would be good, right? Before we get into that, how’s life? I’ve been spending the last few weeks really thinking about 2014 and my goals, I hope you are too.

If you have been chasing your dream for any period of time, you know it can be a stressful journey. Heck, life in general can be stressful. Here’s the thing, the stress can make or break you and too often it breaks us.

As you’re thinking about those big goals/dreams that you want to make a reality in 2014, you have to deal with the whole stress issue and have a solid game plan to keep it from breaking you.

The beginning of this year was the first time I experienced true freedom, man was that a stressful month. It was super exciting to sit back and realize I could do whatever I want, I only had to answer to myself (and my wife .

That excitement quickly faded the first day the mailman delivered the monthly bills. The stress came on big time, would I make enough income to pay these bills every month? This lead to some stressful conversations with my wife about money.

I’m suppose to be an “expert” and have the right mindset but that month the stress won big time. Here we are at the end of the year and things are better but the stress is still hiding, waiting for the right opportunity. In this post I’d like to give you a few things to think about related to stress.

Limit your exposure to it

One of the best ways to deal with stress is to avoid it when you can. Why do we constantly expose ourselves to situations we know will be stressful? If you’re having a bad day and can put off getting involved in a stressful situation, put that off.

If there’s an activity that always stresses you out, do you really need it in your life? For a long time I was a people pleaser, I didn’t want to offend anyone or cause any ripples. It took a while to realize that no matter what, you can’t please everyone.

Since this blog talks about creating freedom and independence online, realize that everyone will not respond to your message and you’ll probably even get a few haters. Don’t grace them with your time by responding, just keep spreading those powerful messages.

Figure out the best ways to deal with it

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while then you’ve read some of my thoughts on this. Listen to some music, stop and take a timeout, talk it through with someone you’re close to.

The biggest mistake can be holding it all inside, when you do, you’ll just end up exploding one day. Figure out what works for you and take action when you’re confronted with stress.

Realize stress will always be there

Stress is a part of life but it doesn’t have to defeat you. Limit your exposure, deal with it when it comes up but don’t let it defeat you.

As you plan out 2014, be sure to include a plan to deal with all the stresses that will come and try to derail your dream.

What is one stress you have related to your dream? How do you deal with stress?

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