As many of you know, I like to set goals for myself, as I believe they are the key to being successful in this industry. However, most people set goals the wrong way, and as a result the vast majority do not achieve their goals.
Every blogger has an end goal (whatever it is). Generally this is usually something big and takes a little time to achieve. Let’s say your goal is to have a blog that allows you to earn enough money to quit your job and when you meet that goal you will reward yourself with a new car or a long vacation.
You focus all your efforts on achieving this goal. Time passes, and you feel frustrated, because you are not closer to the goal than you were six months ago. When this all started, it was a lot of fun. However, it has now become a must. What went wrong?
The important thing is not the destination, the important thing is the trip
While it’s great to keep your end goal in mind, you need to remember that every now and then you need to stop and smell the roses along the way. Most bloggers have an end goal where they want to get to, but they don’t have the map that will allow them to get there. It’s probably a very good idea to aim to blog for a living, but doing so requires having a concrete plan of action to get there. Without a plan, your goal is nothing more than a simple dream.
When you reach your final goal, you will probably discover that this was not the important thing. The important thing is the journey traveled to reach this goal. This trip is where you really learn and gain experience. You have probably all heard stories of people who have won the lottery, and after a few years they have lost all their money. They had success and money on top of them, but they never made the journey, and as a result, they were never prepared for it. This also applies to blogging. If you go down the street and someone gives you a blog so that you can earn $ 10,000 per month, it is very likely that you will earn zero dollars per year. That is why it is necessary for you to travel this journey.
Reward Your Successes, No Matter How Small They Are
One of the ways I like to keep all of this fun is to remember that success is accumulated success. It really doesn’t matter how small this success is, it should be celebrated. What I do is have a bunch of little goals that aim to achieve my ultimate goal. I don’t just celebrate achieving my ultimate goal. Instead, I celebrate every little goal I achieve. This makes it more fun, and it keeps me motivated to keep going.
If you are a new blogger just starting out, a list of small goals would be something like this.
- Register a domain name
- Buy a web hosting plan (Hosting)
- Install WordPress
- Write at least one article per week
- Start an email list
- Get 500 subscribers
- Get accepted by an ad network
- Win the first $ 100 Dollars
- [Introduce alrededor de 50 pequeños objetivos mas aquí]
- Leave the job
Now, you probably think that registering a domain name or installing WordPress is not a great goal, but personally I think it is an achievement that should be rewarded. The point is, you must reward the achievement of every little goal. This reward should be proportional to the objective, that is, you should not reward yourself with a new car when for example you are accepted in an ad network (I tried once … and it really was not a good thing)
For example, you can take your family out for pizza night when you earn your first $ 100. When you earn your first $ 1000, take your family out for a good meal. My reward usually involves my family, as I consider them to be the most important thing in life. I’d rather share each success than live it alone.
As the goals get bigger and bigger, so should the rewards. Because the rewards are getting bigger and bigger, and because each small goal makes your final goal more feasible, you will be much more motivated to keep working on your web project. In this way everything will be much more fun and dynamic, than simply trying to reach the final goal. You will succeed little by little, like climbing a kind of ladder. And as logic indicates, it is impossible to reach the last rung, without going through the lower rungs.
This second semester has just begun. It is time to define your goals and plan the journey to achieve them. Remember, “The destination is not the important thing, the important thing is the trip”.