We all make mistakes when we first start out in the online industry. Unfortunately for me, I’ve made them all. It took me a lot longer to unravel all the pieces of the puzzle that this amazing industry has to offer. But once you do learn, you can turn around and teach others. Since I made so many mistakes, I thought I would share with you the most common mistakes made by newcomers. This may take awhile to get through them all so please be patient..
Mistake #1
Personal Development Comes First
Personal development is crucial. You will only succeed as far as your mind will take you. As children we all grow up with preconceived notions about life, money, success, things our peers taught us. We don’t know any better so we remember what our parents taught us and believe what they say. Little did we know that what we have been taught over the years isn’t necessarily the only way. It’s just the only way we were taught.
Personal development allows us to change our mindset so that we can take out the information we have been holding onto for years and put new information in. It doesn’t happen overnight because changing old thought patterns may take years. It’s an ongoing process but one worth the time.
The #1 mistake most newcomers make is they don’t take the time to dive into personal development first before trying their hand at an online business. I have learned that if you don’t change the way you think about things, you will continue to have doubt, no confidence, question yourself all the time, so many things that creep in until you learn how to change the dialog going on in your head.
You can start by reading books about other successful people and see how they think and what drives them toward success. You can read books on marketing, leadership, personal growth, etc. Or you can listen to audios and CDs with the same information. You can listen to them while you get ready in the morning or while you are driving in the car.
Write down your goals and dreams, things you want to achieve in this lifetime. You wouldn’t go to the grocery store without your list of items you need, right? You always come home and realize you forgot this or that and then have to turn around and go back. It’s chaos. So why don’t we write down what we want out of life? Most people just want to fly by the seat of their pants. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Ouch!
If you decide that you want a mansion some day, go shopping now for homes. Go through the models and envision yourself living there one day. Or maybe you want a fancy car but know you can’t afford it right now. Go down to the dealership and sit behind the wheel. Have someone take a photo of you so you can remember that moment and what it felt like. This is how you train your subconscious mind to acquire the things you want. It can’t tell the different between what is real and what isn’t.
I also highly recommend you read “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind” by T. Harv Eker. In an earlier post I described how this book helps you understand your money blueprint so you can change it. You can’t consider being a millionaire someday unless you know how they think. This book is exceptional in helping you understand how to accomplish that.
Another great book is, “A Happy Pocket Full of Money” by David Cameron Gikandi. This book helps you understand how the mind works and how you can start changing your thought patterns. I found the book to be so interesting and I had a lot of aha moments.
These are just a few things you can do in order to start on your personal development journey. We don’t have to continue being who we always have been just because we don’t know how to do anything differently. It’s time to start learning that you can be and do anything you want in this world. You just need to know how to start.
Okay, stay tuned for my next post where I will share more common mistakes newcomers make. See you then…
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Adrienne,
Personal development is a must for a blogger, however, reaching the necessary level might pose difficulties for most people
Let’s be fair, reading a book won’t make you better, you have to really want it. This reminds me of when i quit smoking. Auch!
Martin recently posted..Student Grants and Loans for CDL School
Twitter: adriennesmith40
July 18, 2011 at 10:25 PM
Personal development is a must for anyone Martin no matter what they do. If you don’t have enough faith in yourself that you can do this, you will easily quit and never look back. When you believe in yourself, you realize that this is just another obstacle and you will soon conquer this one as well.
Congratulations on giving up smoking. I’ve heard that’s very hard to do so my hats off to you my friend.
Adrienne
It only took me around 5 years of “work” to manage to quit smoking, Adrienne, but i had a good example, my father quit after smoking two packs a day for 35 years.
I envy people that never picked up smoking.
Martin recently posted..How to Become a CDL Instructor
Twitter: adriennesmith40
July 19, 2011 at 8:58 PM
Wow, that’s a long time but at least you quit and that’s all that matters. I tried it when I was young and thought it was disgusting. I don’t do things that I don’t enjoy. Glad I didn’t too!
You’re right, Adrienne. Personal development makes a difference in our overall thought process. I find that planning beforehand helps, giving me an idea of what I’d like to accomplish in the long-run. It’s like a road map when we’re on a trip, for example…keeping us from losing our way.
Thanks for the note that the subconscious mind “can’t tell the difference between what is real and what isn’t.” I’ve never thought of it this way.
Great tips! Have a fantastic day!
Allyson Stewart recently posted..How to Use Web Templates
Twitter: adriennesmith40
July 21, 2011 at 10:17 AM
Hi Allyson,
Welcome my friend and thank you for stopping by this post.
I learned coming into this that personal development is key to your overall success. Like you just stated that the subconscious mind “can’t tell the difference between what is real and what isn’t.” When you continue to sabotage yourself with all those doubts, your subconscious mind thinks that’s the way it is so that’s what you’ll continue to get. But if you continue to think that you are successful, you have plenty of business, plenty of money coming in, your subconscious mind is only going to hear that and will eventually figure out a way to make that all happen. That’s how life works. It’s such a beautiful thing.
Thank you for your comment, glad I was able to help you understand that. I definitely will have a fantastic day and you do the same. See you again soon.
Phew!
I read the title and just had to check. BECAUSE I am new to all of this blogging stuff but learning quickly and PD is certainly not something I’m shying away from. I know I have a lot to learn.
How many of these have you got?
take care & best wishes,
Alan
Alan | Life’s Too Good recently posted..How To Create A 100% Free Website In Less Than 3 Minutes
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 6, 2011 at 12:10 PM
Well Alan, welcome to my blog and welcome to blogging. I have a feeling you’ll learn a lot while you are here. I do enjoy helping others make their time online a lot easier.
How many of these posts do I have? Is that what you are asking? The Most Common Mistakes post, there are seven total. You can easily find them all by going to the Archives tab.
Hope that was helpful!
Hi Adrienne,
thanks for stopping by my blog too & for your kind comments!
with the how many you’ve got comment I was being a little tongue in cheek (i.e. along the lines of so far I know I didn’t make Mistake #1… ) but I will check out how many more you’ve got, if a little nervous about tarnishing my 100% record
oooh – I’m getting an XML error from your commentluv plugin – any idea what that’s about – if not FYI… there’s an XML error in your commentluv plugin (it says: XML error: Invalid document end at line 41, column 1)
which is a shame because I just posted a great new article (not that that’s why I was replying again
… I wanted to answer your question)
a bientot,
Alan
Twitter: adriennesmith40
December 6, 2011 at 3:41 PM
Hey Alan,
My pleasure, I always like to pop over and see what my new blogging friends have going.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you as you read those other posts. One thing is for sure, you are on the right road to educating yourself so I have a feeling all will be well with the world.
Thanks for letting me know. I just checked it out and I use a dummy address to test my plug-in and it worked just fine for me. I have no idea why it gave you that message. I’m sorry about that. Doesn’t that always figure? Right when you want your latest post to be viewed you get that. But don’t worry, if my readers like your comment they’ll head on over and check out your place. They are really good about that. We can’t help ourselves, what can I say.
Thanks Alan for the comment and for your patience. Really appreciate that!