Here is Why You're Not Successful in IM

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If you want to learn marketing, if you want to make money online, why aren't you focusing on that?

If your focus is on finding fault with how other marketers conduct their business, what will that result in? We get that all the time here, and all that leads to is finding more things to find fault with. Creating your own little black clouds of self-pity aren't going to take you where you want to go.

What you focus on expands.

Those aren't my words. Self-made millionaire T Harv Eker wrote that in Secrets of the Millionaire Mind.

If your focus is on how EZA, or Facebook, or Squidoo is doing you wrong, guess what you get? More things to complain about because more things will go wrong, or you'll perceive things that way, which makes it your reality just the same.

What you focus on expands.

If you compare yourself to someone else in IM, disparaging over how far ahead of you they are, guess what you get? A continuing gap between you and them. If you believe others are just lucky and you're not, you'll keep having a lack of luck.

What you focus on expands.

If you focus on what you lack, what do you get? More of what you focus on...more lack! If you're not making money and that's your goal, why are you focusing on things that aren't going to help you reach your goal?

We also get a lot of what I'd call "socializing" type questions here. Those are questions designed to start a discussion but which are not likely to evoke responses that are useful to doing business. When you learn to ask better questions, you'll get back better information.

What you focus on expands - but it goes deeper than what our conscious mind envisions. What we really look for is often determined by what lies deep in our subconscious. It lies in our long-term attitudes and patterns of behavior.

I'm not going deep into psychology here, but I will say that any significant change we want in our external world often means making a change in our attitudes and ways of habitual thinking.

If we keep thinking like we've always thought, and keep doing what we've always done, we'll get the same results over and over. It's foolish to walk the down the same path every day and expect to come out in a different place. If you want different results than your getting, you have to do something different.

I like how Jim Rohn put it, "If you want more than you have, become more than you are."

One more psychological point: If you see rich people or successful people as bad, then you will self-sabotage your efforts at becoming rich and successful.

Why?

Because deep down most of us want to be and believe we are a good person, but by equating rich with being bad, your subconscious desire to be good will win out and overrule your conscious desire to be rich in order to eliminate the internal conflict. Guru bashing is a dangerous game, not to them, but to your own wealth.

Not making it? Take note of what you've been focusing on and you'll likely discover why you're not making it, because what you focus on expands.

Next, look at what distracts you from keeping your focus on your goal and you'll discover where you need to make changes. Here are some common things that go wrong:

- too much television
- too much random surfing on the net
- too much game playing
- too much partying
- too much negative thinking (you ever met a rich, happy pessimist?)
- lack of self-discipline
- lack of clearly defined goals
- lack of self-motivation
- lack of self-worth/self-esteem/self-respect
- laziness in thought and action
- anything that veers you off course

When you learn to better focus your thinking and actions toward a worthwhile goal, you'll start to realize the results you want. Be grateful for any positive results no matter how meager they may be, for what you focus on expands.

What are you focusing on?
#main internet marketing discussion forum #successful
  • Wise words.. not much to add really so I won't.
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    • Coming from someone who very often imparts wise words for the benefit of others here, I appreciate the compliment.

      On the other hand, if it doesn't leave much room for discussion, it will probably be a thread that dies fast.
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  • Good post, tough advice but alot of us need to hear it
  • I have seen a lot of of "This is why you suck" type threads over the years. Most people who start those threads themselves, have no clue. This thread however is the ONLY one on this topic that has weight to stand on.

    Good Job writing that out Dennis.
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    • Excellent message. Excellent motivation.
    • What is funny is I am actually running tests on "This is why xyz formula sucks" in ezine and it is creating a huge click thru rate compared to other "Here is What You Should Do" articles. I don't get it. Do people strive on negative? Do they learn more from it? Think about Webpages that suck concept. Good design thru knowing what not to do.

      I personally cant stand articles like it but hey, the numbers don't lie!
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    • Visualization is very powerful. Our subconscious wants details to create it and help make it happen. Things become more clear as well.
  • Brilliant post Dennis, Simple concept, I think a lot of people new to the internet marketing world overlook the importance of FOCUSING.
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    • I think most of us realize the importance of focus.
      The important question for many is HOW to focus?

      It's easy to point out the disease, it's an altogether different thing to cure it.

      For many, including me in the past, focus doesn't just come automatically. It takes a lot of internal work to build it up.
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  • Great post Dennis! It makes me take inventory of things!
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    • Best post this year, Dennis. It will take a lot to top that.

      I'm printing this one out to post right next to my computer.

      Tina
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  • Bam! You hit the nail on the head.

    Most people are so limited by their subconscious beliefs whether they realize it or not that it completely hinders their ability to succeed.

    The truth is that most people are brought up to believe that those who make or have a lot of money are bad in some sense (rich snobs for example). So there is an inner conflict between "wanting" to become rich and the subconscious belief that if/when you become rich the you will become the "bad".

    So failure is inevitable until you can learn to clear all that nonsense garbage that your parents and other unfulfilled people have driven into your brain throughout your entire life.

    Only then can you take action and will that action get you to where you want to get in life.
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  • So that is what I'm doing wrong....
  • Nice post, Dennis. You have to believe it before it happens. Thank you.
  • Dennis

    Great post.
    reminds me of FOCUS
    that is Follow One Course Until Success

    thanks
  • I'm just gonna say thanks because this is such a great post that I can't think of anything else to say.

    And for me, that's saying a lot.
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    • That's a very generous comment, Tina. Thank you.

      LOL - it is, and for that I had to thank you.
  • I feel fortunate to run into this post in the morning.
    Thank you so much!
  • Very well said!
  • Great post Dennis !
  • Fantastic post Dennis. I was going to make a very similar post today, but now there's no need because you've made a great point succinctly. As I continue to learn and grow wiser, I've come to believe that mindset plays an enormous part, not just in monetary success, but in fulfillment as well.

    Our brain can be our best friend or our worst enemy. I talk to quite a few Warriors over the phone and the ones that don't make money don't have the right focus and they also don't focus their efforts on things that produce income (selling, conversions, targeted traffic generation, creating a back-end funnel, etc.).

    I myself didn't make any money in this business until I stopped whining and complaining, took 100% accountability of all my failures and successes, turned off the TV, began actively learning what actually makes money, stopped hanging around negative people and began networking with like-minded, action-minded people, and continually made adjustments until I made it work. Simple formula but it allowed me to quit my job 9 years ago.

    You're dead on with your post. But I guarantee you, the people that really need to read it won't heed it, because they're still looking for that "magic system" or that new CPA offer that's going to make them rich.

    RoD
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  • Rod, you made a lot of excellent points in those few paragraphs. As you have proven to yourself and illustrated here for others, the choices we make, make all the difference.

    I'm guessing many of the choices you made weren't easy for you at the time. Giving up comfortable habits and giving up friendships, even negative ones, seldom is easy.

    There's one choice you made that you didn't mention that I want to point out for others...you made a choice that success was to become your new priority.

    That's what most people don't do, they don't prioritize what is most important to them, therefore what is easiest, quickest, and most comfortable usually is what gets done.

    Great post, Rod. Thanks for adding it.
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    • Exactly right. It became such a priority that I broke up with the negative, unsupportive girlfriend at the time, even though we had dated for 5 years. I made a commitment to not turn on the television until I had achieved 3 months of consistent earnings over $1,000 (I didn't watch TV for many, many months). I still have my television, but these days I watch mostly sports, movies, and documentaries on it. I seldom watch TV these days. But that's my lifestyle now.

      I'd rather spend social time with friends and family. I'd rather travel the world and meet new people and have new experiences. I haven't watched TV in weeks, though I did catch some of the final four games (wasn't the final outstanding???). I'd rather be coaching students in the niches I'm involved with and expanding our business operations globally. There are 101 other things that I'd rather do than watch television, which is probably why it's rarely on.

      Michael Hiles also makes a very good point in that there's a lot of inaccurate information in marketing forums like this one where people run with bad information. Just the other day someone posted that "list building is overrated". Any marketer who knows how to build lists knows nothing could be further from the truth. Then there are people who say PPC doesn't work while others consider it the holy grail to profits. Opinions are like left ear lobs, everyone's got one.

      People just simply need to point their reticular activating system in the right direction. That's a good start.

      RoD
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  • What you focus on, expands... I like that.

    It kind of reminds me of what Einstein said about compound interest. Once something gains momentum, it takes on a life of its own.

    Once you overcome that inner inertia and focus, you can do anything.
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    • It's funny you should mention Einstein, Emily.
      The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking.
      - Albert Einstein
      That's another way of saying what I wrote earlier, "If we keep thinking like we've always thought, and keep doing what we've always done, we'll get the same results over and over. It's foolish to walk the down the same path every day and expect to come out in a different place."

      I learn from the best.
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  • So does this mean that I have to take my new LCD back to bestbuy lol.

    I think you're absolutely right, my personal problem was understanding exactly where I was going wrong and fixing it.

    I would get overwhelmed looking at a failure instead of analyzing each step, picking out what wasn't working and finding solutions to that particular problem. Once I figured out that process I was instantly more successful.
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    • I've got a nice LCD from Best Buy too. It was my "reward" for achieving a goal. I don't watch it much, maybe once a month I'll plop down in front of the TV (or once a week during football season), but it's nice to have.

      The trouble for some people is that the TV is constant companion, a kind of consolation for not getting what they want out of life. I'm all for a little entertainment, but the Council for Research Excellence, formed by the Nielsen Company, conducted a study that found that the average adult was exposed to a little over 5 hours of TV every day.

      That's 1,825 hours of television in a year! Can you imagine how much more successful a lot of those people would be if they spent even half that time trying to better themselves?

      Another way to look at it is that they have watched television 24-hours a day for a little over 76 days each year; or, out of a 10 year period they've spend 2 years and thirty days doing nothing but watching TV.

      That's not how I want to spend my life, being brainwashed by television. Dr. John Nelson has called television a public health problem. I could go on about the pitfalls of television, but that's not really the focus of this thread. It is, however, one of the reasons a lot of people never achieve the success they want. They place more value on being entertained than on achievement.
  • Great thread, really don't have anything significant to add either
  • Hi Dennis,

    Excellent post.

    Haha I am guilty of committing some of the "Crime" that I should not be doing :p

    Great reminder on the importance of being Focus and doing productive work

    Zack
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    • This thread is so good it could be turned into a "short report" and sold!
  • The only caveat is that there's a lot of outright nonsensical BS that gets promulgated on WF, and without countering it to a degree, less experienced marketers have shown their propensity to adopt said offal as some sort of gospel. We would all be remiss as participants in this community if we don't share in the efforts to counter the blatant falsehoods and self-serving misdirections.
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  • Excellent post.
    There's some Law of Attraction going on here.

    I see it in another forum I visit. This mummy was super afraid of her family passing germs to her baby, that she totally bans them from visiting her even if one stays with another with some disease that isn't that contagious. She really went all out to avoid that, but right now, she is stuck at home for 3 weeks because someone with a really contagious disease came into contact with her and her baby.
    That's really focusing on the negative thing.

    I totally agree with the television thing. I am a super couch potato, often going beyond that 5 hours a day TV. However, I've just moved elsewhere where I can't watch my favourite programs, and guess what, I made MORE money in 2 months than in 2 years I've been dabbling in IM.

    There are people that I come into contact with, for an affiliate program I'm with, that constantly think that they are going to be scammed out. They asked a lot of questions, and don't take action, while I saw the opportunity and grabbed it.
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  • Great post Dennis your words really resonate with me.

    I wish I could express myself as articulately as yourself.

    But no truer words have been spoken and I agree with you wholeheartedly.

    The subconscious mind does not know the difference between imagination and reality.

    So whatever you choose to impose on it - will become so.
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  • Ka-Boom!!!

    That was Dennis going supersonic with such a good post. Thanks for sharing Dennis. Timely post for many and a great reminder for the rest of us. I have installed some subliminal software on my computer. Its really helpful for affirmations and feeding the subconscious the right "food."

    Persistence is a payday

    Simo
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  • This is indeed a tough advice and yet this is the REAL THING! People aiming for success should be aware that they are actually making themselves by merely thinking and the way they think negatively (either within self or unto others), still, it deeply affects one's personality to be applying everything worse as it has been thought. The only secret to gaining success is thinking you already are successful and at the same time DOING THINGS that'll make everything happen the positive way.

    Once that's done, interruptions will never get its way to darken minds again.
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  • Are there a couple things which could be added to this list? Perhaps.

    Is it a brilliant post? Certainly!

    Many thanks!
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    • Just like others, I feel this is top notch post i seen this year.

      Very nice Post
  • Great post. Procrastination and wasting time is a big reason why many are not successful online. We should all be like Nike and Just Do It!
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  • Thanks for such a great post, I've been lurking around this forum for the past few weeks and your definitely one of the people I've seen that always posts good, relevant information.

    What I'm trying to say is that I always stop to read what you write when I'm looking at a thread!
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    • I'm new to this particular forum but love the feel here, so far.

      Loved your post - Vibrational alignment is a good thing !
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    • Dennis,

      This post is an example to me of something that will serve people well on the forum and in life - discernment.

      It's the only thread I've read in full this week. Nothing else I saw merited the same allocation of time.

      Posts by people like you, ExRat, Michael Hiles, Paul Myers, Alexa Smith, Amy Brown, globalpro, Josh Anderson, Rebecca Hagel, LMC (and others) act as my "discernment filters" - a shorthand clue about which threads have something of interest.

      I pretty much ignore the 'thanks' count as well unless some of the people on my 'hot' list are there. Of course this means I'll miss some good info along the way. Tough titty. Time is too precious to worry about that.

      Martin
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    • Dave, my answer to that is, not so much. At least, not the way the law of attraction is being taught by most people these days. The way I see the LOA being taught makes it sound like wishful thinking and waiting for the universe to make magic happen.

      I think it's more like, you know how, when you buy a different car, suddenly you start seeing that model all over the place? I think it's more like that. If you focus on the negative crap you get more negative crap because that's what is in your mind. However, if you look for what is uplifting, and useful, and beneficial to you, you'll find those things because that's where your mind is at. Make sense?

      Good post. Adding value to your customers' lives is something I emphasized in this thread. As Zig Ziglar says, "You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want."

      I like the idea of your 10 challenge. T Harv Eker, who I mentioned in the OP as having written, "What you focus on expands," offers a challenge at his seminars that I think would do us all a lot of good to take up. He challenges people not to complain for a week. Not out loud, not to yourself in your head. That will be a real challenge to many.

      The idea, he says, is to get you back to neutral so you can move forward to success. Successful people don't waste time on unproductive activities like complaining, they are goal orientated and use their energy to move toward those goals, not to whine about what has passed.
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  • really fantastic post. Nothing to add really
  • GOALS
    ACTION
    FOCUS

    That's THE Secret!

    Thanks for the great post. Well said!
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  • dbren I agree, but how many people actually set a goal, a real goal I mean. One they have written down and not just imagined in their head, it doesn't have the same affect.

    People take action but let's be honest their action is really procrastination. They do not do the things that move their business forward but stay in their "learning comfort zone" buying product after product, jumping from one thing to the next. STOP choose one marketing method and go for it, what have you got to lose?

    If setting goals is a problem then why not start by setting yourself a to do list each day. Write it down and tick each item off when you have done it. You will be amazed how much you get done and the result your business moves forward as if by magic.
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    • I just thought I'd point out that you can train your mind and the way you focus it.

      Meditation is a good place to start.

      I also don't like calling it the Law of Attraction because it also seems to much like wishful thinking. But there is a lot of hard mainstream science to back up the benefits of being positive and imagining positive results.

      I'd also point out that one of the worst things about TV is not only that it sucks up your time but also that it brainwashes you.

      Read up on Mirror Neurons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_neuron

      ...and then consider the consequences of watching, for example, sit-coms about lovable losers, who never quite seem to grow beyond their mediocrity.
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  • I would like to say nice post. Keep up the good work.
  • I agree. Focus and mindfulness will get you amazing results.
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  • @Rod

    Thanks for the tip on mediation. That sounds really good.

    Another great book related to this thread is The Winners Bible (no aff link). The big hint here is Amazon categorizes the book under "Personal Health"

    Here's the home website if you want to learn more: The Winners Bible

    And a 60 minutes documentary discussing what he does and some of his clients including Lewis Hamilton (Formula 1 Driver).

    http://www.3news.co.nz/Winning-Ways/...1/Default.aspx

    I own this book and love what Dr Spackman teaches.

    Cheers,

    Simo
  • Like I say, We get what we expect!
  • The power of FOCUS... It's kind of like doing your taxes... You have to SHUT OUT everything else... and concentrate on ONE main issue at hand; your taxes.

    Same thing with whatever goal you're trying to accomplish, whether it's writing your own ebook, making a website, blog, etc... SHUT OUT everything else -- even the Warrior forum, ha-ha -- and FOCUS on the issue at hand!

    ~ JIM
  • That was inspiring and inspired by your post I will frame a good question (may not be that good for all).

    What do you do online?
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    • Make money.

      Seriously, I'm into a lot of things. You can follow the links in my sig file if you want to get a glimpse into some of the ways I make money online. I'm not going to lay out a laundry list here, it could be construed as self-promotion and get the thread deleted.

      PS - I'm glad you were inspired by my post. Thanks for letting me know.
  • good reminder
  • Wise words. I think I publish it to my blog. I'll make sure to give the proper attribution.

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  • 101

    If you want to learn marketing, if you want to make money online, why aren't you focusing on that? If your focus is on finding fault with how other marketers conduct their business, what will that result in? We get that all the time here, and all that leads to is finding more things to find fault with. Creating your own little black clouds of self-pity aren't going to take you where you want to go.