Blogging about business

I created this blog, largely to talk about my business.  Updates, specials, and information is what it’s supposed to contain.  However, I find myself insecure in writing about my business, so I find other things to distract me and write about.  No more of that!  I have a little more personal blog, and will now focus primarily on my business here.  Hopefully others will find it interesting and informative.  Maybe even a little funny, we’ll see 🙂

With that being said…here’s my first ‘real business’ post.

A little over a year ago, I quit my job to stay at home with my kids.  I had my business then, and was supposed to be working on it…and I thought I was.  But I really wasn’t.  I was doing a lot of busywork, without actually being productive.  I find myself falling into that trap often.  I want to be better, to create a real, lasting income for my family….but I procrastinate, and I spend too much time on things that aren’t really going to move me forward.

A couple months ago, my team (the Free to Relax team) decided to have a ‘promotion challenge’.  This is for those who want to move their business forward, no excuses.  Just do what it takes, everyday.  If you didn’t do it yesterday, that’s ok because today is a new day.  It’s not about where you are coming from, only where you are going that matters.

I often find myself dwelling on what I didn’t do yesterday, and allowing it to overwhelm me, which in turn, causes me to procrastinate.  It is my personality, that when I am overwhelmed I will just procrastinate.  This is a horrible, horrible cycle, and if I let it, it will consume me.  I have to let go of what I didn’t get done yesterday, and start new today.

Tracking is something that is important in network marketing.  Why?  Because it allows you to see where you truly are.  I can say that I spent 5 hours today on my business, but accomplished nothing, and cannot figure out why.  If I track it, I KNOW exactly why I didn’t get anything accomplished.  It is about being accountable and having no one and nothing else to ‘blame’.  There is a reason I’m not as successful as I could be…and it’s me.  It’s not my company, it’s not the product, it’s not my upline.  It’s me.

I understand that I need to track to see where my business is, and isn’t working for me.  Do I do it?  Nope.  Why?  Because it scares me.  It scares me to see where I’m actually ‘failing’ (in my own mind, of course).  It also overwhelms me….thus leading to procrastination.  I made a goal the week before last to listen to a team-specific training call on tracking.  I got about half way through it, and had to leave the house to attend an event at a friends house, and never turned it on again.  This disappoints me.  It makes me feel like I failed.  When, in fact, I did not.  I simply delayed my success.  Because I didn’t take the time to learn to track, does that mean I won’t ever do it?  No.  Does it mean that I might as well throw in the towel, because I’ll never be successful?  No.  It means that now I am nearly 2 weeks longer to earning the success that I want.  That’s ok.  It’s not about where I was a week ago, or even tonight, it matters where I am going.  And I am going to be successful.  I will listen to the training call tomorrow, and I will start tracking immediately.  I will be accountable for the time and actions responsible for making me successful.  I will be accountable.