Small Steps to Big Outcomes

I know a lot of people are struggling with their lives at the moment. Finances are tight and this can have an impact on relationships, personal fulfilment and health and leads to frustration and stress. You dread each coming month and worry about how you’ll pay your bills with maxed out credit cards and you even struggle to pay the minimum monthly payment while mortgages or the rent is always behind.

I have met people who openly admit they are in hot water. They say they are not happy and want to make more money. They need to make more because it’s only going to get tougher and yet they do nothing. They resist change.

Some people stay busy to avoid thinking of their plight. Others are so time poor from a lack of planning that they avoid changing or have a reason not to change. (Check out this link on time planning/project management. I highly recommend it.) Others just don’t have the belief that they can change. They think it’s too hard to make money. Others might find it easy but not them.

Their belief systems are at the core of why they do not make the change.

I might be obsessed with what I do. Long hours are the norm. I have the entrepreneurial bug and am always reading, researching and feeding my mind with the mental nutrition I need to keep me focused on what I want to get done.

There’s also a trick I learned a while back.

We all resist change. It is hard wired into our brains.

It doesn’t matter if it’s positive or negative change, we have an instinctive avoidance mechanism inbuilt. It’s part of our adrenaline fueled fight or flight response. We prefer the relative calm of another neurotransmitter called dopamine flooding our brains from just doing what we feel comfortable doing. So how can we use this relaxing brain chemical and avoid the adrenaline challenge?

Well let’s think of a goal of $100,000 a year in income from our home based, part time business. Who can see how to get there in a big giant leap?

What if, on the other hand, we broke it down to such as small first step that it was almost boring to do. There are no chemicals released in our brain to stimulate either, our higher-thinking neocortex or our primitive fight or flight driven reptilian mid-brain. We just cruise and follow the Nike “Just do it” path. We trick out brains, fool ourselves so that the change goes un-noticed and yet things will shift.

We make a micro-commitment towards our goal.

What if we plan things just a little. Think of your best, most productive time of day. For some, it’s the wee hours. Getting up at 3, 4 or 5am is easy and the brain is in high gear. This may not be positive because for myself, I know the 3am sweat is often my reptilian amygdala going wild and I wake up worrying about cashflow, yesterday’s outstanding tasks, future challenges – all the usual business things that seem bigger and darker at 3am than in reality. However, getting up quashes these concerns and I find the next few hours as my ideal working time.

You might be better at night once the tasks of the day are behind you and in the quiet of the late hours you are better burning the midnight oil. Other people may find different time blocks but whatever, find it and allocate this period to making micro-commitments.

Now the next task is to plan this allocated time in 15 minute lots. You might set aside an hour a day during your Peak Performance Time (PPT) and set 3 simple, unchallenging tasks: Learn. Plan. Take Action.

You might invest 15 minutes in learning activities (take notes as you learn as this helps cement information, new ideas and concepts and makes it your own). This learning block may also inspire you with a theme to move into your next PPT slot. I read a few selected blogs such as Ray Higdon’s blog, Daily Reckoning and you might subscribe to my blog for my insights and observations. Follow the link and fill in the form in the top right hand corner of any page.

The next PPT block might be the balance of the hour (but stick with 15 minute increments for tasks if you can) and here is where you take tiny steps to make giant advances.

Work out a list of people to call with your opportunity. Write out a way of introducing the solution you offer and practice it out loud so you own it and it feels comfortable. Read over this blog for a few ideas on an approach. The really powerful thing about network marketing is that is can be a business you work with people you already know and like.

This might be all you do for a few days. Learn. Plan and Act.

If you are OK with it, jump in and ring your upline with a few names and numbers and see if you can have your sponsor made the pitches to your leads. See how they go about it and if their method suits you.

Another way is for you to make the initial calls to see who in your network is likely to join you in your business venture. Ask if they are open to a side project part-time and something that won’t interfere with what they are doing now but could generate some serious income. This might be all you ask before relying on the 3-way call and passing your lead over to your upline.

Another micro-commitment might be to work on retail sales. Simple tasks might be a signature file for your emails which promotes your product. This is a good place to link to your MLSP affiliate account. A series of entries in your Facebook page with your story of how you benefited from your product and with links to your retail eCommerce store. If your product is a consumable, you might take it to your workplace and have your workmates ask about it. If you can afford to advertise, you might learn how to do this for a platform of your choice eg LinkedIn or Facebook and work on getting this happening. You might join Unittus and search for like minded contacts, uTap them and begin building relationships. Build a WordPress website and begin to establish yourself as a brand and an authority.

The list is endless.

Learn. Plan. Take Action.

Create leads, sell some product, interact with your upline and start to move towards your $100,000 goal incrementally.

Subscribe to our Mailing List: