Develop A Clear Vision - Start With The End In Mind

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I’ve only just started this blog about a week and a half ago, but since I’ve already made a few posts, I thought I would introduce myself a little more. I got into affiliate marketing about around the same time I got into Personal Development. It was actually during a “low” point for me. I had just entered in college, and many of my dreams and aspirations either faded away as I didn’t really have the passion anymore, or I felt the opportunity for them had already gone by. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and the thought of working for someone else the rest of my life until retirement, just wasn’t my cup of tea. I actually had some brief thoughts of suicide that I would shake off, they weren’t even really my own conscious thoughts as much as they were random flashes, random visions of my attempting it. So obviously with all this in mind, my grades really weren’t a priority for me. But I had no idea what I wanted, so without any real goals, I would act in a pretty random manner doing whatever I felt like with no reason behind it. Instead of doing homework, I would play poker on my computer at first. Well sometime around the same time that I realized that I needed to make some serious changes in the way I think, act, and behave, I also realized that I didn’t have to accept working for someone else, and I got bored of poker, and although I went from zero to a thousand, there were some serious downswings, and I just couldn’t handle it, and it was actually worse than a job in a lot of ways because if you stopped the income stopped, but if you continued, sometimes you would lose money out of your pocket, and working harder didn’t always pay off. So I discovered poker’s affiliate programs, and had a bunch of small changes over a period of time that ended up dramatically changing the way I looked at things, which lead to me looking for passive income, and towards Personal Development.

One story that I really resonated with, around that time, was Steve Pavlina’s story about how he went from someone that had been caught and sent to jail for stealing, to realizing that he needed to turn his life around. In one of his podcasts, he stated that he decided although he might not have been strong enough at that moment, he at least had the realization that if he worked at it, he could some day have the ability to turn his life around.

Not only did I feel that I wasn’t living the life I wanted, I too wanted to change my life around, feeling that I wasn’t good enough, but realizing that I could. Not only did I realize this in my financial life, but in my personal life as well. I became almost desperate for something better, I even looked towards hypnosis, subliminal messages, and anything I could find.

So I would download everything I could on personal development. Brian Tracy, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Tony Robbins, Jay Abraham and Richard Bandler to name a few. I eventually got an ipod that I would wear every day for hours and hours, I would literally eat and sleep with my ipod on, listening to anything related to self development.

Like Steve Pavlina, I was able to turn something very negative, into something very positive, through a strong desire to change myself for the better.

I don’t know if I’m even on his level as a blogger, or as far as personal development oes, but I don’t need to compare myself with others either.

Anyways, I’m sure although many of you enjoy reading about this, there is a connection to affiliate marketing.

Because, Steve Pavlina, is a computer programmer, and has one of the best blogs on the internet. That’s not just my personal opinion, that’s based on the fact that according to a few sources, his blog is in the top 10 for annual dollars earned.

In other words, he knows how to make a buck or two, so if you want to not only make money online, but build a business, when he talks, you should listen.

In his recent post Personal Branding he introduces Personal branding, and notes that every single time you interact with someone in some way, you’re branding yourself whether you realize it or not. He then talks about asking for feedback and using it to your advantage.

[quote]Once you’ve gotten yourself assigned a few adjectives in someone else’s mind, it can be very difficult to change that. So just make the best of the adjectives you’ve been assigned. When you learn how others see you, you can “play back at them” by acknowledging their expectations. Instead of trying to fight your own branding, roll with it and turn it into a strength. This actually helps you reconnect your external brand with your internal one. [/quote]

Although it’s good to “role with the punches’ rather then fight what people think, or try to manipulate their thoughts, you don’t want to have to deal with a bunch of negative expectations. With this in mind, it’s important to realize that once people start perceiving you a certain way, it’s going to be very difficult to change it. Which is yet another of many reasons why you should start with the end in mind. Before you even start an online business, you should have a clear vision of exactly how you want everything to go. Start with your exit plan first.

Once you have that clear vision, you need to determine exactly what you need to do to get there. The idea is to become the person that you want others to perceive you as, and then from there, start your business.

So many other people make it up as they go, but that is not a recipe for success, nor is doing as others do. You may occasionally get lucky and find success by being spontaneous, and taking chances is certainly better than not taking one, but sometimes just a little planning can make all the difference in the world.

When you start with the end in mind, you won’t find a reason to do anything other than to keep working smart and hard. As long as you still have that clear vision, and you know exactly WHY you want success, you will always have a source of motivation.

You can completely change your behavior without being hypocritical, different, or approval seeking of others. We all have an “ideal” self, someone who we think we are capable of being. When we receive feedback that differs from the person we want to be, then we know. But you don’t want to be doing this after the public already has one perception of you. If that occurs, the best solution is a change of environment. Online it’s easy to do, simply create a new blog with a new look, and a new target audience. If you want to, you can even get a new name. However if the public has a negative viewpoint or perception of you, but you still feel that the actions you’ve taken are consistant with the person you want to be, or if you feel they are attacking something about yourself that you truely are, then the only problem is, they haven’t been able to see it from a positive perspective. This is where turning a perceived weakness into a strength, without changing your character comes into play.

You see, my whole life changed for the better, when I realized I didn’t like where I thought things were going. I truly believe that those random suicidal thoughts were the beliefs and ideas I had about my “end”, and a very possible end had I continued to think, act, talk, and feel, the same way, and do the same things I had been doing.

But it is not only a necessary strategy to have in your personal life in order to succeed consistently, but it is also a necessary strategy to have in your business life, in order to succeed in business.

Whether it’s for Personal Branding and for your overall business plan, or for your goal setting, and overall life plans, it is absolutely essential that you develop and maintain that clear vision, and always start with a clear vision of your ideal “end” in mind.

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