Motivation to Start Your Day

Friday, June 18th, 2010

posted by MarkLing

59 Comments

Motivation to Start Your Day

Hi Everyone,

I was listening to sports talk on my way back into my office after playing a game of squash and one of the marathon runners was saying that his coach told him:

"Whenever you feel too tired to go out and train, just get off the couch and run the first 500 meters, then if you're still too tired, go back home and rest"

I have heard that kind of advice before, but I really needed to hear it again right then as I thought about my squash game and how I've been struggling to make myself get back on my treadmill lately - as my game needs more fitness!

Then I thought about my affilobuds here and how I'm always trying to motivate people to get things done and stick to their plan and I thought to myself,... man... this marathon training example is a really good analogy!

Half the battle with doing anything on a regular basis to achieve a goal is to get your butt off the couch and spend 5 minutes working your plan, whether that be building your next affiliate site, or training to run a marathon.

I'll repeat that, half the battle is getting off the couch. If you can make a start at whatever you're doing, whether that be training for a marathon or working on your affiliate site, you'll probably find if you can do it for 5 minutes, the rest of the hour, and beyond, will not be all that difficult to keep going.

That's not all the good advice that got shared on that radio interview...

Next the conversation turned to cancer, the marathon runner said he was motivated to keep going with his running because his father died of cancer at the age of 53 and he wanted to keep healthy to live a long life.

He said "It's funny how, if someone was to put a gun to your head, and say you have 10 seconds to tell me why I shouldn't shoot you... you'd say something like: 'I'll give you my house, my car, my bank account, whatever you want'

Yet people don't seem to be able to keep motivated to make sure they don't die younger than they should through mistreatment of their body."

Wow, I thought, that's a really good point. It's so easy to continue living life as though there are no consequences, but there are. I could live 10 years longer, or even more, if I take care of myself now. That's 10 more years with my son and future children ... possibly even longer.

... I have that chance right now.

Ok I should mention before I carry on this post that cancer is not necessarily self inflicted, that's not the point in what I'm sharing about the marathon runner's story, but poor health, or difficult situations that people find themselves in are often self inflicted.

Here's another example from my own life... I'm not the grade I wished I was in Squash right now, that is self inflicted, I'm working my butt off right now, I have a coach, I train hard and I will get there ... but I do believe it is noone else's fault but mine for not being there right now. So I sure as heck am going to make sure I will be where I want to be within the next 2 years and possibly sooner.

Ok, how does this apply to making money online then?

The point is make the most of your life, make a commitment to your physical health, and your financial, relationship and mental health. Set a sustainable plan for yourself and stick to it, for good.

By sustainable I mean, if you think 5 hours a day is not sustainable in affiliate marketing, or 1 hour a day at the gym isn't sustainable as a fitness goal, then look at what you definitely can do. e.g. 30 mins a day on an exercise bike, or 1 hour a day at affiliate marketing (not counting reading emails or posting on forums, I mean taking action).

I hope you found this blog post inspiring, this really has been a bit of a brain dump and the english might not be my finest, but the sentiment is there. I'm interested in your comments!

All the best,

Mark Ling

p.s. You may also wish to check out Aletta's blog post from yesterday, she raises some interesting points in her final rant for a while :) Note: I don't agree with the headline as such, I think it should have read something like "Why it's not wise to assume all your visitors are operating at full capacity" or something like that, but anyway, the actual article itself had a lot of good points.



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View all 59 comments (Currently displaying latest 20)

By Pablo Edwards at 3:25 27 Jun 2010

Great advice, it amazing what you can accomplish when you just start doing something small. I see this in so many aspects of my business and in my personal life.

By John at 8:32 28 Jun 2010

Hi Mark,

Thanks for sharing your advice. I'm glad I did the first step but right now I'm really having trouble. I'm stuck at reviewing the product which is taking me a lot of time to create a an article. I don't even know how to do a product review. I hope you could help me out here Mark.

By Khairul Hazwan at 7:21 29 Jun 2010

Thanks for the great motivation Mark.

I totally agree with you. The main important thing is we get our-self to take action. Take small steps. Make it a habit each and every day to achieve our goals. Short-term and long-term.

Thanks again Mark for the advice.

By suzytino at 16:17 29 Jun 2010

Another thing that works for me is "just begin where you are" (thanks FlyLady). Often we think about how bad it is that we waited so long to, couldn't get off the couch, didn't have time etc. etc. And those thoughts can prevent us from starting. That's when the simple "just begin where you are" makes sense, because once you take a step - even if it's a baby one - the rest is easier.
Thanks for a great post!

By feedwolf at 15:16 30 Jun 2010

This is my first post on this blog, and I think you nailed it. I especially loved the gun apology, I have never thought of it this way. I will be coming back for more!

By Martha Jones at 12:43 2 Jul 2010

"I'll repeat that, half the battle is getting off the couch"

You can say that again. In the early days of my career it used to be a regular "battle" for me :D When you don't have a strong motivation and purpose to get off the couch, you won't, and that is exactly what I lacked at that time.

Martha

By 10000month at 7:00 4 Jul 2010

This is a very motivational post. Often at times we do things that unconsciously harm ourselves and we don't know it until we starting suffering from the consequences.

Randy

By Julio Manes at 4:32 7 Jul 2010

I agree that getting off the couch is tough sometimes. Especially with Internet Marketing because you do some work and don't always see the results right away. Sometimes it can take weeks before you know if what you are doing worked or not. You have to trust that you are doing the right things and that can be a de-motivator. The first check is the motivator though:)

By henryfadl at 9:23 10 Jul 2010

Thank you Mark for the inspiring story. We really need to remind each-other and ourselves first to realize what to do effectively and carry on holding our agenda to face & experience of what's coming and make sure that we are on track.

King Regards
Henry,

By janaaroma at 19:42 11 Jul 2010

Hi Mark,
Thanks for the great motivation .
Kind regards to all,
Janina R.

By mediaboy at 19:49 11 Jul 2010

Another thing you can do is just to get rid of the couch!

As for sitting at the PC all day - try standing. Seriously. Get yourself a standing-up table. Much more comfortable. Try it. You even burn a few more calories standing than you do sitting on your butt all day!

By nhungpth at 8:52 20 Jul 2010

thank you for your mail
I see that it is difficult to sign in with many mail I received
I don't know what site I have to logn in

By online roulette at 10:05 22 Jul 2010

Hey, ok, I get it, I guess - but does this really work?

By filmy porno at 14:52 26 Jul 2010

I thought it was going to be some boring old post, but I'm glad I visited. I will post a link to this site on my blog. I am sure my visitors will find that very useful.

By Aidan83 at 8:04 28 Jul 2010

Great post Mark, I've been away from the blog for a long time so it's nice to come back and read a motivational post like this one!

By AndrewP at 10:14 30 Jul 2010

A post like this always empowers and says:"You Can Do it!" I know i should have been on a different level in my affiliate things, well i the one to be blamed no one else. Its the daily decisions what we makes who we are. Looks like its a common thing and everyone has their own struggles. So to read this is encouraging and should others keep wanting to get up and DO STUFF for 5 mins.

By RICHARDLITZINGER at 4:03 2 Aug 2010

I think your message is great, Mark. I just joined and know I can devote 5 hrs a day to my business, at a minimum. Keep the ideas and the products coming! PotPieGirl alerted me to your program :)

By monty60 at 5:38 3 Aug 2010

Yes "IF IT IS TO BE THEN ITS UP TO ME "
You can read an listen to all you want but the above is what it boils down to

By hsoftware at 22:16 3 Aug 2010

Setting a sustainable plan, this is what I am working on now. I need to learn how to divide my day up into proper proportion.. I Gotta break those bad habits!

Forgive my ignorance, but what is squash? I suppose I could Google it .... or maybe I can learn it and become a squash-a-holic.

Ben

By jetro3060 at 4:45 10 Aug 2010

I just joined Affiliorama a month ago and i am learing the content of it. I appreciate it Mark.

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