Tag Archives: Marathon

Guest post

I don’t want to continue my post from yesterday today as I just don’t feel like it. So maybe tomorrow… And no, I don’t intent to procrastinate, I just don’t feel like it.

And the main reason is that I was reading some stuff from Scott Dinsmore who started Live Your Legend. And I notice there are some similarities and some differences between him, his goals, his dreams, his thinking, his site, or actually sites and me. And I guess the main difference is that he wants to help people, from his heart. And I just want to be successful, live my own life, have fun. And yes, of course I also want to help people, but it seems not in the same way as other (successful?) people. As it seems they are doing it by heart, as a definite purpose, and I do it for my own benefit. I just want to be happy and I believe I need success for it, I need to be successful to be happy, or maybe to be free.

And right now I kind of stopped, as I don’t know how to continue. As I wanted to talk about marketing, the marketing of Inspiration for Success, marketing through guest posts. Or actually a guest post to Zen Habits. As I read that that made the site of Scott Dinsmore take off, a guest post on Zen Habits. And/or guest posts to other large and famous sites of other bloggers. And I am getting scared now as I just read in a flash searching for that page, that guest post, that Leo Babauta wrote ten guest posts a month or something when he just started, next to the stuff he wrote for his own site. As that’s not what I have in mind. I am not a writer like Scott Dinsmore or Leo Babauta wanting to write stuff to help people. If it would help people anyhow. So maybe that’s the issue here, maybe I need to define better what I want. As if I’m doing something I don’t want, I’m not passionate about, it will never work.

So let’s brainstorm:

Originally I wanted Inspiration for Success to be a site, a project, to inspire people, especially people who had or have no one inspiring them. And yes, I still want that.
Next to that I want to program, like building the plugins I needed for this site, the one for SEO and the one for sending the daily quotes.
Then I wanted traffic, mainly to know that I am doing something useful, that people read my stuff. Or use my plugins.
And yes, related to that, I want to be famous, I want people to know me, which would confirm I achieved something. This confirmation would mean I am successful, which I don’t consider myself right now.
And finally I want financial success as that would mean financial freedom and that would mean freedom to do the things I want to do in life, like traveling.

And I guess that’s about it. That’s all.

Ah, yes, I also want to just work, do work that suits me, that makes me happy and that also makes other people happy. That is even a phrase in my desire document. And that is a major thing for me, as most of my life I did the work I liked, but nobody seemed to appreciate it, at least not in the end.

So how bad do I want all of that? Well, pretty bad, as I spend most of my time on it, even more than I like as I hardly make time for pleasure and friends. But there are some major hurdles that I was never able to surpass and the main hurdle is that I can’t seem to keep people, inspire people, build a team or something. So I’m doing most of the things, the work alone, and I realize more and more that that is not effective.

But then again, it seems Leo Babauta and Scott Dinsmore and many other famous bloggers also started alone. And sometimes still do most things alone. And it seems that Leo Babauta is pretty successful in my terms as he seems to have achieved financial success with his blog, but if I read most of his posts he is still struggling with many things similar to me (and you?). Ah, yes, you may have noticed, I am pretty jealous of him. And also of the many other (successful) bloggers with many followers.

But while writing the last I may not have to be jealous, as I am not a blogger in the way they are. It is not my thing to write posts, good posts, good content to inspire people, advise them or something. Yes, my thing is writing every day, but that is more to have learned and now have a ‘good’ habit, nothing more, nothing less. And to write software, programs, maybe plugins, which is also what I did, including my stuff to handle the top inspirational sites and top motivational sites overviews. And yes, I still want to extend that with stuff to connect people, the two categories of people I have in mind: people who want to inspire other people and people who want or need inspiration from other people.

So well, the idea that comes into my mind is to just ask Scott Dinsmore and Leo Babauta if they are willing to help me with the things I want. As yes, I guess I have quite some stuff to give also, like my overview of inspirational sites and this whole site with a lot of content. So maybe I should stop focusing on the things I don’t have or am not good at, like connecting to people or working with people and things like writing guest posts.

Let’s just ask.

Self help

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I am still thinking how I could make this site, this project more useful, more useful for myself and more useful for you. And yesterday while working on the Top Inspirational Sites page I was a bit in doubt what to do, I was asking myself if I had made an error. And the doubt crept in because the traffic to the site went down a bit. And being an internet marketer and looking for success (=a lot of traffic to the site, a lot of people reading my stuff) I was thinking if it has been a good idea to focus on the page Top Inspirational Sites. As that was kind of a reaction to the traffic, to the page that is and was the most popular page on the site. And yes, as far as I remember one of the goals of this site is to point people the way to inspiration, also through work that other people have done. Or maybe mainly through work that other people have done. As over time I also realize more that everything is being built on top of other things, can only be done because other things have been done, because investments have been made.

But sometimes I go back to the origin of the site, the reason for the site, the choice for something like inspiring people, the choice for inspiration. As I have never felt being inspired by other people, especially my dad. And I believe that has affected my life in a very negative way. So going to the origin of the site I often get the idea in mind of connecting people, of connecting people who can and want to inspire to people who want or need to be inspired. But then I always end up that I don’t have enough resources available to make this happen. As until now I have not been able to build a team, to inspire or motivate people to help me, really do some work for the site, like I do, like I have done.

And then I go back to my weakness or weaknesses, where my main weakness seems to be ‘people’, connecting to people, inspiring people, motivating people, doing things for people, serve people. As somehow people always leave me behind; or I leave them behind of course. So it feels I always end up alone and it seems that is very typical for me, although of course I know everybody is or feels alone every now and then.

And looking at the traffic to the site, the site is apparently not good enough yet, at least if I compare it to the stories I hear about other bloggers, other (self help?) site builders. But of course there are two sides to that, as I know how hard it is to get traffic to a site. And having significantly more than 1,000 visitors and more than 2,000 page views per month still means about 1,000 people visit the site, see the stuff I mostly made and wrote. And yes, of course I know it’s stable, as the site is being built very consistently, growing very consistently, even with the inspirational tools I built, even though they are not really being used yet. And yes, I also know that once it does take off, it will take off with a speed that will be higher than I could have ever imagined. That even scares me and while writing right now I know that will happen. As if I keep writing and building I am adding value and one day people who need that value, like the stuff I have been doing, have been working on, will find the site and use the tools.

So maybe, analyzing right now where to go and what to do with Inspiration for Success, it may be actually a good thing that the site is not that popular yet. As I may first need to work on my people skills to have a team ready when the site is really taking off, really doing what it was and is designed for: connecting and inspiring people, for success, to be successful. As I now know I will be with this site, with this project.

Home safe

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It seems I still miss the passion or determination part of things as right now I just feel tired and want to stop, enjoy, go to bed and not write here, especially as Id don’t have or feel any inspiration about writing an inspiring post here.

And still, while thinking about the above, re-reading the above paragraph, this is not fully true. As somehow I still want to write inspiring stuff, still want Inspiration for Success the thing I had in mind when I started it. But somehow I don’t know how, somehow I don’t know how to get through this dip.

So what is the main issue here and, maybe more important, how to deal with it. I think the main issue here is something like running a marathon, at least that is the sample that comes in my mind. And I am in the middle and have long forgotten how it all started and why I wanted to run it and a finish line is nowhere in sight. And maybe more important, I seem to have lost the idea of where the finish line even is. And on the way I lost my team and also my supporters are nowhere to be seen or heard. So pretty lonely out here, even though somehow I feel the need to continue, even though I have lost all sight and all feeling about where this is going.

So is this what Seth Godin calls The Dip? And yes, I bought the book, read the book, but I can’t find it at the moment, even though it came in my mind quite a lot of times recently. And I know it says something about not quitting when you feel like quitting. But I don’t feel like quitting, I just feel like this is somehow going nowhere, even though I know deep down that it is going somewhere as e.g. the number of visits go up constantly a bit and the number of pages goes up constantly and, contrary to the Dutch site, seem to be all being indexed by Google. So I am making progress and it is going somewhere, except I’m not sure if it is going where I wanted it to go and how I wanted it to go.

And yes, maybe that is where the answer is, that I kind of lost contact with the original goal or goals of the site. Like inspiring people for success. Or more exactly, giving people a real life success coach, whether in person or in the form of (the content of) this site.

And next to these goals also giving some kind of real time report of my road to success, writing while I am not yet successful so people who are in a similar situation as I am at the time of writing an item, would be given hope or inspiration to continue on their road to success. But the problem is that I didn’t really achieve the success or successes I am looking for, things like fame and money and things like that, the goals I intended to write about and the goals I still intend to achieve.

And yes, I achieved quite some successes, like writing every day, like making my bed every day, like sending a daily inspirational quote every day, like changing my attitude, my mindset into a more positive attitude and mindset. But the ‘I am there’, the ‘this is what it was all about’ is still not there and even nowhere to be seen. And one of my major concerns or weaknesses, I still do this all alone, still do this again alone. As I tried to create a team, a Master Mind group, as I considered that one of my biggest weaknesses, something like team building, being a team leader, being a team member, working in a team. And I still didn’t solve that, at least not in this site, with this project. and also not in my main business, my web development and internet marketing business.

And I still feel tired and some kind of lost, like most of my life, like during most of my career, even though I have learned a lot and even though I know many answers. But until now just living a joyful life has not become reality, the basic thing I think I have been looking for all my life. And I know it can be done as I see some people, or maybe even most people, do that. Just live their life, without the amount of suffering I feel.

And strange, while writing this somehow I feel answers are coming closer, success is coming closer. As somehow I changed something, the last two years. As I know I gained an awful lot of self confidence for example. And this writing has given me an awful lot of analyzing power. As e.g. while writing this post I can somehow feel all the stuff I wrote before and somehow learn from it, learn from my experience in a better way than if I hadn’t written it down here, in public, in this site/blog.

So is this an inspiring post? I am not sure. But it does bring me closer to the thing or the things I have been looking for, searching for all my life. And yes, indeed, things like holidays without worries, things like feeling rich, being rich, yes, with money. Things like having an expensive car like the Pajero I have in mind, and being able to drive it without worry. And having parties in the house an being able to just invite guests without having to ask them to pay.

So maybe, going back to how I started this post, I just have to continue going, ‘running’, like a marathon. And looking to other parts of this post, maybe I should redefine or visualize better or again where I want to go, what would be the exact end goal, what would make me happy and make me feel like I reached what I wanted to reach.

And yes, going back to you, maybe you should ask yourself what marathon you are running. And if you are still on track, if you still know where you are going, what finish you were planning to reach.

As somehow I guess we all have some kind of finish in mind that would make us happy. And maybe that finish is just much closer by than we think, as we just had forgotten how that finish looked like and where it was.

Another day has passed

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Another day has passed and it is late again. And yes, I did some useful things for Inspiration for Success lately, even today, as e.g. I changed the categories into tags in my personal blog. And I think last Saturday I added two sites to the page about top inspirational sites. And just now I added a paragraph about not so inspirational sites on that page, even though after writing it I realized it was kind of a negative paragraph and I try to avoid negative things.

But right now, with this post, with my daily post, I am still confused and a bit lost how to continue with it. As I want it to be inspirational and not some kind of complaining diary, even though while writing this that is kind of the origin of my daily writing of a post in this site. As I wanted to take you with me on my journey to success, so you would know how I got there, through all my struggles and doubts and such. I wanted you to find my site, my writing based on what I am going through, or was going through, as when you read this of course today and my current situation are past history.

So where do I stand with this, with my journey towards success? In my feeling not that good, as I still don’t have money, my business is still not doing well and my relationship could also still be better. But on the other hand, ‘only’ two years have passed since my deepest down in life, since I had the feeling I had nothing left, no relationship, no money, no friends, no place to stay, no nothing. But even though in a more material way I didn’t make any progress, in a spiritual way I did. As somehow my mindset changed and somehow I developed self confidence. And I am wore aware of my negativity, my negative thoughts and feelings, meaning I have developed awareness of those things and that means again that I can change them, control them. As indeed, the start with those things is awareness, as of course if you’re not aware of how negative your thoughts are and how negative (or positive) thoughts influence or even define your life, you can’t make changes.

So yes, I made quite some progress. But still, if I compare myself with Justin Bieber or Leonar DiCaprio or Steven Spielberg(?!) or many other people who became famous or rich at a relative young age, then I am far behind. Ah, and of course I forget people like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. And I guess these people are exceptions, just being fortunate enough to be somehow priviliged being born at the right time, being at the right place at the right time with the right skills and meeting the right people and such.

And don’t get me wrong, this is not contrary to the Principles of Success I am writing about. As these principles say that you somehow can create your own break, meet your own right people and be in the right place at the right time. Except for the average person that may take a little longer than for those famous people who did something very fast or at very young age. It may take up to twenty or thirty years for the bigger kinds of dreams and successes and this figure is mentioned by Napoleon Hill himself, but also e.g. by Seth Godin.

So well, I guess there is hope, for you as well as for me, if you did not achieve the success you are looking for yet. Even though once I was taught ‘there is no hope’, which I guess is very true. Again, confirmed by Napoleon Hill and many, most or all successful people. As Napoleon Hill states that ‘there is no such thing like something for nothing’ and most famous and successful work or have worked very hard to get where they are. And no, I don’t believe in ‘hard work’. On the contrary, as there were periods in my life where I worked very hard and very long. And it did bring me money, quite a bit, but certainly no lasting success.

So right now I believe more in doing what you love and following your heart. And then the ‘work’ goes by itself.

So listen to your heart first, if you didn’t do that yet.

Post inspiration

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Well, not really inspired to write a post right now. But I did work on the page Top Inspirational Sites, as that was something I planned for today, to add at least two inspirational sites on that page. And I did. And the main reason for that was that that page is the most popular page on this site. So it seems there is some demand for lists or evaluation of inspirational and motivational sites. So maybe that would be a breakthrough for this site, like also making some kind of ranking system based on the opinion of users. Something like a voting system. Should not be that difficult to program, but somehow I am also a bit tired of programming for this site, as nobody seems to be using the inspirational tools I have developed a while ago.

But yes, success seems also to have something to do with persistence and doing things you don’t like or something. So maybe I’ll work on some kind of voting system for inspirational and motivational sites. Yes, maybe just plan it.