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Kickstart Today
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Friday Jan 5th, 2007: Issue #759
Kickstart Today is published three times each week for
opted-in subscribers only. Publisher: Martin Avis. Your
comments are always welcome – to respond to anything you
read here, please click ‘Reply’
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Greetings!
After my little brush with hospital we are going through
it all again with poor Delia now. We’ve been in and out a
couple of times this week and she is now scheduled for a
small operation on Monday. Thank goodness for medical
insurance – it got her in front of a competent consultant
who immediately spotted something on her scans that the
regular hospital doctors had been missing for months.
And instead of an 18-month wait to be treated, she will,
hopefully, be sorted out right away.
Of course, with all this medical stuff going on (I’m still
feeling sub-100% too) all my plans for writing this week
have gone out of the window.
However, one of my New Year’s Revolutions is to stop
stressing about the stuff I can’t get done and concentrate
on the stuff I can get done.
I don’t know about you, but I find that worrying about the
things that are on the to-do list and not getting done
simply poisons the rest of the things I do – so I don’t
even focus properly on things I am working on. That
silliness has to stop.
* * *
Whatever country you live in, it is almost certain that
you, like me, despair about the supposed intelligence of
the people who we elect to lead us. Especially those petty
bureaucrats who measure their own success by the number of
new ‘initiatives’ they introduce rather than worrying
about the effectiveness of them.
Here in London, for example, we’ve started 2007 with a
glorious example of bureaucratic double-thinking.
A few years ago the problem of traffic congestion in
London was tackled by the introduction of a fixed charge
for people to drive into London. The argument was that
charging motorists to drive into the city would raise
money to improve public transport, which in turn would
encourage more people to use the buses and underground
services.
Not many people believed for a moment that the congestion
charge money would really be used for such ‘public
transport’ measures, but when politicians speak we have to
go along with them. After all, they were elected, weren’t
they?
Here’s the irony. 2007 has dawned with the news that fares
on public transport in London are being raised to obscene
levels – in part, they say, to deter people from using
public transport because congestion is too high!
Come on. We all know that congestion charges, public
transport fares, and every other way that petty
politicians can think up to suck money out of our pockets
is just another way of introducing taxation.
I’d move to another country, but I’m sure that it’s just
as bad where you are.
* * *
Have you put your name down to be kept advised of future
Internet marketer’s London Lunches yet?
If not, and a long, leisurely lunch in London in the
company of Internet marketers of all levels appeals, then
please pop on over to http://www.london-lunch.com
If you have signed up but haven’t yet clicked the link in
the confirmation email, please be aware that you won’t
receive any emails about the next lunch until you do!
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An Inspirational Thought
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This one makes a net,
This one stands and wishes.
Would you like to bet
Which one gets the fishes?
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Who do you know who would love Kickstart Today?
Don’t keep it to yourself – send them to
http://www.kickstartdaily.com today!
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The Quote of the Day
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Giosue Borsi said,
“When I talked, no one listened to me. But as soon as I
acted I became persuasive, and I no longer find anyone
incredulous.”
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Today’s Power Thought
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On Wednesday I talked about the need to a personal
revolution if you really want to see significant change in
your life.
The most revolutionary thing is the decision to start
taking action rather than thinking or talking about it.
I can’t count the number of emails I get from people
telling me, in complete earnestness, that they plan to
start their online business ’sometime in the future’ or
intend to buy or read or do something ‘when the time is
right.’
They are being honest – they really do have good
intentions – but the fact is that 99% of them will never
reach that ’sometime in the future’ point and won’t
believe the time is right.
So what am I saying? Should we all take action regardless
of whether we are ready or not? Should we spend our lives
jumping without thought? Is action the only thing that
matters?
Of course not. But I must admit that I, along with most
other people who write about personal development, am
guilty of focusing on the action without spending time
explaining the process. It is shorthand, but not
particularly helpful.
It is all too easy to confuse action with activity.
Taking action is a decision. Either you do or you don’t.
And like most decisions it should be reached after
assessing the facts. Action that is backed up by
information is deliberate, definite and determined. It is
application. Action that is taken blindly is mere
movement for the sake of itself: uncoordinated activity.
Action drives you from point A to point B to point C.
Activity just fusses around without a route.
Understanding the process of taking action is critical to
your success. Effective action begins several step earlier
than most people realize. It begins with the decision to
learn what you need to do. And that means reading books,
watching videos and listening to other successful people
is not the time-wasting drain that many would try to tell
you. It is a vital part of ensuring that when you move
from the information phase to the effective ‘doing’ phase
you will be concentrating your energies and resources on
precisely the right spots.
We all hear (and sometimes even say ourselves) “I’ve got
information overload” as if that is an excuse to not do
anything with the information that has been gathered.
What is wrong with this statement is the implication that
too much information is somehow a bad thing. It isn’t.
What is bad is ineffective research.
If you have a goal to achieve something, and start to read
up on your subject, you are preparing the ground for
effective action. But if, like a magpie attracted to the
latest shiny new thing, you allow your information
gathering to be diverted off on random tangents, of course
you’ll get overloaded.
To take a common example, if you want to build AdSense
websites, then by all means read all the best ebooks on
the subject. See how successful people are tackling the
problem. Read form posts that expand on the ideas. Maybe
buy templates that are proven to work. All that is focused
preparation.
But don’t fool yourself that reading the latest book on
blogging, or the hot new report on MySpace or the [add
your own diversion] will do anything to get your AdSense
project off the ground right now.
Certainly all those tangential things may help in the long
term, but they are just confusions until your primary
objective is at least begun.
The same thing applies to anything you ‘plan’ to do. Make
sure you planning is on-target.
Then, even when you are still in the information-gathering
phase of taking action, make sure you set yourself a
definite date for starting the action proper.
Information gathering can be addictive, so you have to set
a cut-off deadline before you even begin!
If you have a goal, your really must start taking action
right now – by initiating your own vital learning process
and by setting a time when the learning will become
secondary to the physical work.
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Fascinating Facts
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More than 99.9% of all the animal species that have ever
lived on earth were extinct before the coming of man.
Camel hair brushes are made from squirrel hair.
Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only
have about ten.