A Superior Life: What You Put In Is What You Get Out

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What would you rather have:

Principle 1: Ten of the best movies in the world that you can only watch 10 minutes of

OR

Principle 2: One really good movie that you can watch from start to finish

The answer to the above example is most likely the latter.

When it comes to work and most things in life, I have noticed that many people apply Principle 1. They attempt to do so many things at the same time, and the result is a poor effort spread amongst all of these things. Simply put, they are “a jack of all trades but a master of none.”

I have been guilty of this, too — specifically, when it came to my internet marketing journey. When I started, I knew nothing about making money online, and I spent hours and hours reading and learning new things. Every time I read of something new that seemed like a good way to make money online, I would start that project. After a few months I was working on about 10 different things, and it was just impossible to keep up. The result was that none of those 10 projects even came close to being finished after all those hours and days of work I had put in.

Whether it be the amount of business ideas you start, the sports you play, the languages you learn or the people you date, I think it is not a good idea to bite off more than you can chew.

One Step At a Time (or Two)

The best way is to focus on one or two of the projects you are most passionate about. If you need to sit down and make a list of all the ideas and then choose the best one you want to follow through with, then do that.

Once you choose your two projects you want to work on, take all your other ideas and projects and put them on hold. Do not necessarily discard them, rather just write them down in an ‘Idea Notebook’ and stop putting any further effort into them.

The reason why I say you must only choose 1 or 2 projects to focus your attention is that you can keep going for much longer. You will be able to keep motivated. You will see progress. Above all, your quality of work will be much better and that will produce the results that you are looking for. When you pour your heart and soul into something, people will notice. If you dilute yourself and spread yourself too thin (by working on too many projects at once), people will notice this, too, and they will not be impressed.

What You Put In Is What You Get Out

Another common mistaken belief is that by starting many projects at once, things will take care of themselves.

“I just started 10 new websites, it will be a matter of a few weeks, and I’ll be making enough money to do nothing all day.”

Initially, you may indeed get lucky and have success. However, if you then take the attitude that you can sit back and do nothing, you will more often than not end up with nothing. What you put in is what you get out.

If you put in the hours and the hard work, then you can expect your hard work to pay off, and the rewards at the end will be good.

Is There an Easy Way?

Honestly? NO. There is no easy road to success. You have to work for it every step of the way. (It is possible that you get really lucky, but you cannot rely on this luck.)

Every successful person that I know has spent incredible time and effort to get to where they are today. We see a successful person, and we see in what state they are today. We do not see the hundreds of times they failed, the nights they stayed up working, the weekends where they were not able to go out because they were working.

Just Do It

Like I already mentioned, there is no easy way to success. Once you realize this, you will see that there is no point in procrastinating. The only way to reap the rewards at the end is to start working right now.

Just do it. Make the decision to start and see it through to the end. Do not rely on results for your motivation to keep going. Initially it may SEEM that you are putting in much more effort than the rewards you are getting out. This may take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years. Think of it as a steam train that needs to get up to speed. First, there is a lot of resistance, the engines work at full capacity only to get the train from standstill into a slow forward motion (overcoming the inertia). After time, the train will be up to speed and will require much less energy to keep going. It can even speed up all by itself if it is going downhill.

Work Hard, Play Hard

I am a big fan of “Work hard, Play hard,” and first things must always come first:

Work needs to be done — maybe days, weeks or months of it. Once everything is running smoothly, you will be able to live on your terms, exactly the way you want to. (For some, this may mean being able to sleep all day, go to the beach, take vacations, or spend time with family.)

There is often a choice between working hard to be able to ‘play hard’ later on (which may initially require some sacrifices of time and freedom) and spending a life of mediocrity with constant work and no real freedom to play the way you want.

The choice is up to you. I prefer the first one.