Dealing with overwhelm snd baby steps for the affiliate marketer can help you gain the clarity you need to operate from a more empowered place of being-ness.
One of the main problems with affiliate marketing is overwhelm. Once you get into a state of overwhelm, very little happens. You think about all the things you need to do in your affiliate business all at once. As you do this, you become more and more frustrated, worrying that you can’t possibly do any of it.
The result is that nothing gets done. How can you possibly move forwards when your mind is filled with a tonne of actions and you’re emotionally overloaded? You simply can’t operate from such a state of stress and confusion.
A simple strategy to take care of overwhelm is to start writing stuff down. But rather than write down everything you “have” to do, start with writing down your intention for your affiliate business over the next 5-10 years.
Then write down your goal/intention for the next 1-3 years, followed by your goal for the next 6 months. It might look something like this:
Income goals for affiliate business:
5-10 years – I am earning $10,000 a month+ in my affiliate business
1-3 years – I am earning between $1,000 and $3,000 a month from my affiliate business
Next 6 months – I am earning between $500 and $1000 a month from my affiliate business.
Dealing With Overwhelm And Baby Steps For The Affiliate Marketer
The state of overwhelm is pretty destructive if you’re an affiliate marketer. Overwhelm comes to us all and what happens is that we overload our mind and body with too many “what ifs”.
As emotion joins the thought, we start to feel stress and this triggers our fight or flight response. Now we are in a state of emotional frustration and stress. As we think of what we “must” do, now, today, but can’t because of our state, we get more worried and frustrated that we’re wasting our time.
More adrenalin hits our system and the more we think we should desperately do “something” the more stressed we become. It’s the opposite of what we want. Nothing gets done and we sink into a frenzy of bad decisions which lead nowhere or get frustrated and do nothing!
Protecting Your State Of Mind – Eliminate Distractions
Your state of mind is pretty important piece of the jigsaw when you’re working for yourself. Even in a distraction free environment, we are creatures of habit and there’s much to distract us. Social media platforms are engineered to suck our time and attention. We can be triggered and sent into a downward spiral from a simple news headline or an email message too!
So to think and act clearly, you need to create an environment which supports that aim. Have a look around you right now and ask yourself whether your environment is helping you achieve that aim. How many distractions trigger you on a daily basis and lead you away from working on your business?
Start to make a list of distractions as they happen during your typical day. Each time you notice one, ask yourself whether you can eliminate it for the next day. To focus fully on your business, you must create an environment which allows that focus. The opposite of focus is distraction, so clear away the distractions and make your work environment one which is conducive to a clear focused way of thinking.
Dealing With Overwhelm And Baby Steps For The Affiliate Marketer – Micro Commitments
When you lay out all of the things you think you “must” do all at once, the result will always be overwhelm. Instead, take a look at your “next 6 months” goal and break it down into small, easily achievable steps. One of them could simply be to clean your desktop/workstation of distractions.
A micro commitment is a commitment so small that you can easily create a regular habit out of it. Then, over time it becomes the standard. Brushing your teeth is an example! When you don’t have anything built up as a habit, which you do every single day, you’re much more likely to get overwhelmed when you come to work on your business.
So a good first step in removing overwhelm is to create a mini or micro habit you can “install” into your day. When you start feeling overwhelm, you simply focus on your daily routine. A simple pattern of behaviour for me is to write a blog post every day. By itself it’s not going to make a huge impact, but that habit of doing it gets me moving forwards, even if it’s only by the tiniest increment.
As Stephen Guise points out in his book Mini Habits, once you’re in motion, it’s much easier to stay in motion. A rolling stone gathers no moss as the saying goes!
Rest And Exercise
Getting the right rest and exercise is another often overlooked necessity for the online business owner. I thought I could live a hedonistic lifestyle and still have success with an affiliate business. I was wrong! Alcohol, lack of good sleep and poor nutrition will all have an effect on your ability to keep a clear head and get the clarity of thought you so desperately need as an affiliate marketer.
So if you’re pushing the envelope and trying to build a business without looking after yourself, it’s going to have a detrimental affect on your ability to focus and think clearly.
Lack of sleep particularly will affect your ability to feel good and make good decisions.
Summary
There’s lot of reasons why we can feel overwhelmed when we try anything new. The key is to recognise when it’s happening and get clarity on your intention. Break longer term goals into tiny baby steps which you can start right now and accomplish fairly quickly. Make sure you define what you want clearly for the months and years ahead as this can give you the clarity you need.
Clear your workspace and eliminate distractions. Create a pattern you can follow every day to get you into the right state of mind and moving forwards, however slowly and incrementally. Make sure you look after yourself. In particular make sure you sleep enough, avoid alcohol and get enough exercise and eat good nutritious food. What you put in you get out and if you’re looking for a clear headspace it means taking care of your health.
A baby step towards your long term goal could be something as small as cleaning your work station so your are more distraction free. It might be to remove your social media from your mobile phone to clear more headspace for your business. Make a list of the things which distract you every time you set yourself up to work on your business. Then eliminate them one at a time so you have a clear space and time set aside to specifically work on your online business distraction free.
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