Pushing yourself to the limit, beating the odds and doing unbelievable achievements. That's sports. That's Athletics. But you know, what the athletes are doing on track, isn't that far from Internet business and blogging and I'll tell why in a moment...
Impossible is Nothing
I've been quiet blogging-wise for this week, mainly because of the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics 2009 being held in Berlin. I'm a sports fanatic and championships always get me thrilled -- especially with super-humans like Usain Bolt getting closer to 19 seconds in the 200 meter dash, which is beyond my comprehension.
Between 1979 and 1996, the 200 m world record (19.72s) was held by Italian Pietro Mennea for 17 years.. There were not many who ran under 20 secs for years, and at the time many (me included) thought that the 19.72 record was unbreakable.
But then came the legendary Michael Johnson. Atlanta Olympics 1996, because of time different I had to wake at the middle of the night to watch the games, which I did, and couldn't believe my eyes when Michael Johnson stopped the clock at 19.32s for a new 200 metre world record. 0.4 seconds faster than the unbeatable record of Mennea!
Johnson's time was so amazing, that it was clear that the record would stand for a very long time, as the record seemed unbeatable. But as we know, and as Adidas has stated as their slogan, Impossible is Nothing...
Now Usain Bolt has crushed that record, not once, but twice. Now the record stands at 19.19 secs, and I honestly believe Bolt can run 200 meters under 19 seconds...
What Does All This Have to Do with Blogging?
First of all, if you're not a sports fan and couldn't care less about Athletics, I'm happy you read this far. But training hard and working towards your targets is exactly what Internet business and pro-blogging is all about, isn't it?
What's there to learn from sports and athletics? Quite a bit, but to begin let's look at these four lessons...
- Have a plan
- Have a target
- Work hard
- Believe
1. Have a plan
Competing in any sports is about careful planning. Every athlete has a thought-out plan and schedule they've created with their coach, based on the main competitions of the season.
Shouldn't an Internet business and a blogger work like this too? If you don't have a plan how you want to build your blog and Internet business, how do you know what you should do and when to do it? Are you going on with a feeling, making things up as you go?
Do you think Usain Bolt manages to do what he's doing (= running faster than anyone else in the world) without a plan. Do you think he wakes up in the morning and then starts to think whether or not he should train today and what that training would be?
Like-wise, the most successful Internet businesses didn't pop-up by an accident. The people behind the most successful blogs started out with a plan, or at least formed that plan at some point of their career to really boost their success. And that's what you should do -- plan out your Internet business -- it can be an editorial calendar for your blog, Internet business plan, a education plan for yourself, etc.
The plan doesn't have to be huge, it doesn't have to lay out your whole (business) life. But at least make sure you know what you blog is about (if you are building a blog that is) and have a plan: Start small, but plan big.
2. Have a target
Athletes have targets. They might target to make in to the finals in the World Champs. They might want to break their record this season. They might set a target to break the world record in 3 years and plan their yearly schedules and training based on that.
Have you set targets for your blog? Are you building your business towards clear targets? If not, why do you do what you do? What is the purpose of the things you do? -- If you don't have targets, you're running blind. You're wandering in the forest with no idea where you should be heading and you run towards anything that catches your attention, or away from it.
You must build your business, blog, marketing, and everything related with the end in mind.
- Set yourself targets to work to towards.
- Break the targets into short-term goals. Yearly, monthly, weekly, daily.
- Have something to "achieve" every day
This kind of approach will keep you focused, enable you to actually achieve anything and daily goals will keep you motivated, as you see yourself going forward.
3. Work hard
No progress is made without hard work. No world records are broken without years of training. The world-class athletes work towards their targets, according to the plan they've laid out every week, every day -- and you should do the same.
Don't spend too much time planning. Or to be more precise, don't get stuck on planning and setting targets. That is called (day-)dreaming. Dreaming and wishing that something would happen might make you feel great for a moment and dreaming big is very important for success, BUT dreaming won't take you anywhere.
Remember to break your targets into smaller parts, goals and even further into actionable tasks. If you've set out a target that feels impossible to achieve, break it down into smaller parts. Getting 100 new readers for your blog is a great target, but it's kinda hard as an actionable task. If you're blog is new, you gotta get it indexed by Google first. Have a blog already -- Maybe write a killer post that might attract new readers: research, plan the content, write a great headline (based on a quick keyword research), write the first draft, refine the post, publish, promote, etc.
You have to TAKE ACTION. You have to work hard to achieve the targets you've set for yourself. And never stop taking actions, always go for the next step. Put your best anti-procrastination tips into use and kick the best getting things done -principles into work here. Continuing with the sports analogies and slogans: Just DO it!
4. Believe
If an athlete does not believe she can make it to the finals, she never will.
If you don't believe you can achieve something, you won't.
It's simple as that, BUT only believing doesn't get you anywhere and you must be realistic.
BELIEVE that you can achieve whatever you want if YOU make it happen.
You won't break the world record in 200 metres if you keep laying in bed all day and you most certainly won't build an Internet business sitting on your couch watching the Athletics World Championships, but you know what, with all the above, you also gotta give yourself a break too and relax every now and then...
With that -- excuse me, I gotta go back watching today's events from the world champs!
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