There are four big reasons why this true. First of all, you'll be learning. I have learned far more from moving than I have from sitting still. Even when I fail, I get something out of it simply because I choose to see it as an opportunity to learn. For example, when I first started online, I was trying to make a particular business model work for me. It was a complete flop. It just didn't work at all (it had to do with a sort of franchise opportunity with physical products). I had to give up on it when it became obvious that it wasn't going to work. But along the way, I learned all sorts of skills I still use today on different things. All because I kept moving forward.
And here's a more recent example...
You've probably noticed that lots of people are promoting junky products and using a ton of hype to do it. That has made it MUCH harder for legit affiliate marketers like me to get good results from promotions for truly excellent products (such as TrafficWave). Now, on the one hand, I'm bothered by the fact that some folks are sort of ruining it for everybody. On the other hand, I've had a great opportunity to educate myself on why hype ruins trust. And I've been able to come up with some pretty exciting plans for how to avoid it entirely in my business, which makes me feel jazzed about the future. Frustration is part of living, but if you turn that into a learning opportunity, it's a way to move yourself forward instead of wallowing in disappointment.
Second, you'll find more opportunities. Nothing helps you stay positive like finding new ways to succeed. And there's no better way to find those than moving! I can understand if you feel down in the dumps. We've all been there. But if you keep moving, always trying to improve and learn and do new things, I'll almost guarantee that you'll find new opportunities all over the place. This has happened in my own business more than once. I remember a time when I created my own product. It was a great viral ebook on a topic I'm sure everybody would be interested in...but very few people were. I didn't know why nobody wanted it (it was a free ebook, too), but that's how it went. I was pretty angry about it for awhile, but then I thought about what happened. My promotion didn't work, but I still had a great product that would give me more opportunities. Not too long after that, I ended up promoting somebody else's related product, and my ebook was a perfect fit as a bonus item. That's another opportunity I never would have found if I hadn't kept moving.
Third, you'll stay motivated (one of THE keys to online success). My TrafficWave Team Members send me email all the time to say that they're stuck. They feel like a failure. They're sick of struggling. I'm sure you've felt that way. I've felt that way myself, and I know it's awful. When you feel that way, it's very easy to stop moving, give up and quit. It's natural to pull inside your shell and stagnate when your excitement is gone. Here's the weird part... that's also the best time to move. It almost doesn't matter what you do when you start feeling that way:
* You can finish the project you put down a few weeks ago, just to do it
* You can reach out to some friends for advice
* You can try something brand new that you wanted to try, but were too busy to do it
It's those times when your motivation is extremely low that you're most likely to find new interests, new skills and new opportunities. At least that's always been true for me. It's also a chance to analyze what you're doing. I've definitely seen this in my own business. I remember a time last year when I was working so much that I felt almost sick. It was non-stop crazy, and it got to the point where I dreaded working every day. That's rare for me, because I usually love what I do. But it all just got to be too much. My motivation was completely shot. That's when I took a step back to really ponder why I felt terrible and hated what I used to love. In the end, I realized I had committed to helping so many people with their ads, autoresponder letters and such that all the fun had gone out of it for me! Here's the lesson I learned: I was so busy that I didn't have any room to move in ways that were helping me improve, either personally or professionally. Remember, that's what productive motion is about, not just flailing around (although sometimes, doing ANYTHING can help get you going, like I mentioned before). So I decide to change some things. I intentionally scaled my business back for a while, so I could breathe a bit. For one thing, I started taking breaks and 'stopped to smell the roses' once in a while. I admit, it wasn't easy because I'm the type that feels there's always something that I should be doing right now! But when I did it, I discovered that I started loving what I was doing again. Then the motivation came back, and my results have been great.
Fourth, you'll attract other movers. Honestly, this has been the most exciting part of my business - making new contacts. When I first started, I didn't interact with other marketers much. I was a little nervous about it, so I kept to myself. That was a huge mistake. I cut myself off from a ton of opportunities that way. Then a few years later, I met several people who knew a lot more than me about list-building and traffic generation (among other things). They didn't know much me, and I didn't know much about them, but we decided that we would start moving together on a few projects that involved TrafficWave. Not all of those projects succeeded, but a couple of them took off like rockets. In a way, we helped each other make our reputations... all because we decided to keep moving, even though we weren't "experts" on much of anything. Since then, we've all gone on to bigger and better things. We learn. We're creative. We're constantly exploring new things. There's no reason in the world that you can't start moving like that in your own business. It's a choice, really. One of the realities I hope you're learning about Internet business is that it IS a business. It takes some discipline to succeed. It's not an overnight thing. But moving can help get you there. Highly successful people move. They rarely stop, unless it's on purpose to analyze what they're doing. Most of the time, they're striving to improve, striving to learn and striving to experience new things. If you do that, your chances of success will go way, way up.
All the best in 2011 and beyond ~Juli Lopez
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