Steps to Success in Life

Here is an article I read from Readbud. I took the liberty to post it here because I found the topic very relevant.
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Fact: Success is something of which we all want more.

Fact: Most people believe that success is difficult.

Fact: They're wrong - it's not!

Success isn't really that difficult. There is a significant portion of the population here in North America, that actually want and need success to be hard! Why? So they then have a built-in excuse when things don't go their way! Pretty sad situation, to say the least.

For those of you who are serious about having more, doing more, giving more and being more, success is achievable with some understanding of what to do, some discipline around planning and execution of those plans and belief that you can achieve your desires.

The Truth About Success

The first thing to remember about success is that it is a process – nothing more, nothing less. There is really no magic to it and it's not reserved only for a select few people. As such, success really has nothing to do with luck, coincidence or fate. It really comes down to understanding the steps in the process and then executing on those steps.

There are basically six key areas to higher achievement. Some people will tell you there are four while others may tell you there are eight. One thing for certain though, is that irrespective of the number of steps the experts talk about, they all originate from the same roots.

From my perspective then, here are the six key steps:

1. Making the decision

2. Clarity - developing the Vision

3. Focus – having a plan

4. Commitment – understanding the price and having the willingness to pay that price

5. Belief – believing in yourself and those around you

6. Taking action – practice Ready, Fire, Aim…

Making the Decision

If success is a process with a number of defined steps, then it is just like any other process. So, what is the first step in any process?

Making a decision to do something – this is the first step. We all know that nothing moves until someone makes a decision. The first action is always in making the decision to proceed. This is a fundamental step, which most people overlook.

So, make the decision to move forward. Commit your decision to paper, just to bring it into focus. Then, go for it!

Clarity

Having clarity of purpose and a clear picture of what you desire, is probably the single most important factor in achievement. Why is Clarity so important?

Without clarity, you send a very garbled message out to the Universe. We know that the Law of Attraction says that we will attract what we focus on, so if we don't have clarity, we will attract confusion.

Consider the following analogy:

You are going on a cruise, but when the ship sets sail, you discover it has no rudder. What happens? One of 3 things will occur:

1. You will sail along until you collide with an immovable object, after which you will sink to the bottom

2. You will run aground and become hopelessly stuck in the mud

3. You will drift aimlessly until you arrive back at the original dock

Trying to go through life without clarity is similar to sailing a rudder-less ship – no good thing can or will happen!

The sad thing is the majority of people have no clue about what they truly want. They have no clarity. When asked the question, responses will be superficial at best, and at worst, will be what someone else wants for them.

So how do we get clarity? Simply by asking ourselves lots of questions: What do I really want? What does success look like to me? Why do I want a particular thing? How will this achievement change my life? How can I use this success to make a difference for others?

Introspection is the trick. Understand what you want, why you want it and what it will do for you. This is a critical factor, and as such, is probably the most difficult step. For this reason, most people never complete this aspect – then wonder why life is so difficult!

Once you have a clear understanding of what you want, it is critical that you engage in goal setting – specifically setting SMART goals.

SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Sensitive - S-M-A-R-T. Knowing what you want and setting SMART goals as mileposts on your quest cannot help but give you clarity!

Focus

Focus is having the unwavering attention to complete what you set out to do. There are a million distractions in every facet of our lives. Telephones and e-mail, clients and managers, spouses and kids, TV, newspapers and radio – the distractions are everywhere and endless. Everyone wants a piece of us and the result can be totally overwhelming


So, how can we stay on course with all the distractions in our lives? Willpower is a good start, but it's very difficult to stay on track simply through willpower.

The best way is to develop and follow a plan. Start with your goals in mind and then work backwards to develop the plan. What steps are required to get you to the goals? Make the plan as detailed as possible. Try to visualize and then plan for, every possible setback. Commit the plan to paper and then keep it with you at all times. Review it regularly and ensure that every step takes you closer to your Vision and Goals. If the plan doesn't support the vision then change it!

Along with your plans, you should consider developing an action orientation that will keep you motivated to move forward at all times. This requires a little self-discipline, but is a crucial component to achievement of any kind. Before starting any new activity, ask yourself if that activity will move you closer to your goals. If the answer is no, you may want to reconsider doing it at that time.

I coach my clients to practice the 3 D's – Defer, Delegate or Delete. Can the particular activity be done later? Defer it! Can it be done by someone else? Delegate it! Does it need to be done at all? If not, consider deleting it! Posing these questions will help to keep you focused on what is truly important!

Commitment

Commitment is something that comes from understanding that everything has its price and then having the willingness to pay that price. This is important because nobody wants to put significant effort into something, only to find out after the fact that the price was too high.

The price is something not necessarily defined as financial. It could be time, effort, sacrifice, money or perhaps, something else. The point is that we must be fully aware of the price and be willing to pay it, if we want to have success.

Belief

This is perhaps the single biggest obstacle that all of us must overcome in order to be successful.

We all carry a lot of baggage, thanks to our upbringing. The majority of people carry with them, an entire series of self-limiting beliefs that will absolutely stop, and hold them back from, success. Things like "I'm not good enough", "I'm not smart enough", "I'm not lucky enough", and the worst, "I'm not worthy" are but a few of the self-limiting beliefs I have encountered. We carry them with us like rocks in a knapsack, and then use them to sabotage our success. So, how twisted is that?!?!

The old expression is absolutely true – whether you think you can or you can't, you're right!

One of the main areas that I work on with my clients is shedding these non-supportive beliefs and replacing them with beliefs that will help them to accomplish their desires.

It is truly amazing the damage that we, as parents, can inflict on our children. So why do we do it? For the most part, we don't do it intentionally or with malice. In the majority of cases, the cause is a well-meaning but unskilled or un-thinking parent, who says the wrong thing at the wrong time, and the message sticks – as simple as that!

And it's not just parents that are the cause - teachers, friends, clergy members or anyone else that has influence in a child's life can be a contributor to these self-limiting beliefs!

The bottom line is that we must shed the bad and replace with good beliefs.

Taking Action

"Nothing changes until something moves" – this is the battle cry of author and journalist Robert Ringer. And he is absolutely correct. Not all of the decision-making, clarity, planning, focus and belief in the world, will get you to where you want to be, without taking action!

Action – putting your plans into play – that is what will get you to the destination. Don't get caught in the paralysis of analysis, or in the conundrum of Ready, Aim, Aim, Aim, Aim…

Get the oars in the water and start rowing. Execution is the single biggest factor in achievement, so the faster and better your execution, the quicker you will get to the goals!

Conclusion

So, there you have it; the six steps that will help you to the fabled land of achievement and success! You now have the opportunity to push ahead and reach your potential. No more excuses - make the commitment to take action TODAY!

Figure out what you want, put a plan together to achieve it, understand the cost, believe in yourself then go and get it!

Source: http://www.readbud.com/Articles/Motivation/Success-Steps-For-Your-Personal-Or-Business-Life
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Make Money Online By Reading and Rating Articles

I just recently stumbled upon an opportunity that allows me to make money online while I learn by reading articles and rating them on topics that I personally choose.

Clixsense and The Money Making Opportunity
Since I joined clixsense, I have been wondering if the $10 annual fee was worth it. I thought I would be able to get back the investment within a weeks time. I discovered that the flood of ads was only at the beginning, now they are coming just in trickles- 1-5 ads a day. I began wondering if it's still worth my time. But still I persisted.

Today I realized that there is more to clixsense than just clicking ads and making a few cents a day. It was through an ad in clixsense that I discovered the money making opportunity I am talking about here; and it's free.

Readbud
In one of the ads in clixsense, I came upon readbud.

If you like reading, or one who is often hungry for knowledge and information especially practical information, I highly recommend Readbud. You will not only enjoy reading and learning, but also get paid by doing so. You, of course, can choose the topics to read about. Wouldn't that be great?

Readbud pays better, too. I just read 3 short articles awhile ago and have earned $0.19 cents. Not bad really. It's actually great for me because I also learned something new from those articles. Besides I will not be talking about readbud here if I thought otherwise.

Readbud allows you to redeem your earnings once you have reach its minimum threshold. You can opt to be paid via paypal. (See my previous article on how to get a paypal account.)



To learn more about readbud and what it offers, just click here. Don't forget to share with me your experience with readbud here in the "comments" link below.

The Importance of PAYPAL

Anybody who wants to do business using the internet must have a Paypal account.

Why? Because paypal is one of the most secure way of paying and receiving payment online. It makes your online business transaction convenient for you.

If you intend to do both buying and selling or receiving payments over the internet I suggest you create a business account with paypal. It's free. All you need is a valid email account and a credit card that you will need to enroll yourself for a business account. Just follow the instructions as prompted to create your free account.

AFFILIATE MARKETING AND SOME OTHER TIPS ON MAKING MONEY ONLINE

Over the last 6 months I have been trying to figure out how to make money online. These are the things that I have learned...

There is no quick rich scheme to making money online. If you want to make real money online, you have to work on it, give your time, effort and some money (for tools and resources). Sure there are free ways to earn, but even then, you won't earn enough to satisfy you and you'll want more. Thus, there is a need to somehow spend. Of course there are ways to spend wisely and therefore keep it to the minimum.

To succeed online, you have to learn as much as possible about internet marketing and all the related stuff. Your time is definitely a great investment in this endeavor. You'll have to read. learn from others who have done the business ahead of you especially those who are considered leaders in the industry.

There are a lot of scams in the internet. There are many out there who are just after your money and would not care if the products or services they are offering you will actually help you make money online or not. So if you are interested on something- product and services alike, make sure to google it for reviews and what other users may have to say about the product or service. Don't just buy immediately. Be prudent to check out what others have to say about the product or service. Look for honest to goodness reviews.

The best way to earn online and make real money fast is to sell something. Sell a product, service or even just an idea.

The internet is a vast virtual market. It covers the whole wide world! Just imagine even if you're able to capture even just 1% of that whole market.

But what can you sell now?

If you already have an existing brick and mortar business, you can start from that. Check eBay and see what people are buying and also selling there, and you'll have an idea what to may sell.

But what about if you really don't have anything to sell. That's not a problem. This is where affiliate marketing comes in.

What is AFFILIATE MARKETING?

Affiliate marketing is when you sell somebody else's product or services online and you get commission whenever you make a sale. This route to making money online is great for beginners who usually do not yet have their own products.

As an affiliate, you don't need to create a product or service. You don't need to set up a website or make a salespage. Not yet for now.

As an affiliate, all you have to do is drive traffic to the website of the product or service you are selling. When the sale is made, you get commission.

You can for example affiliate yourself with clickbank. Clickbank offers a wide array of digital products from different sellers which you can sell and earn commission from. Clickbank affiliation is free.

Or you might want to be an associate (it still means affiliate) of amazon.com. Amazon sells not only digital products but also a lot lot more.



Another great affiliate program I've found is Low Stress Income. Like clickbank it is also free. But if you wish to fast track your learning you can download the LSI guide for a minimal fee.

Those are just among the sample affiliate programs that you can join.
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Tip:
When you land in a webpage, and you like their product/service and want to be an affiliate, just check on the small prints usually found at the bottom of the page. Look for the keyword affiliate and click on it. If they have an affiliate program it will open to a new window where you can find information on how to be their affiliate. Just follow the instructions and make sure you read the agreement.
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Once you have chosen whom to affiliate with, it's time for you to drive traffic to their websites using the respective unique links they have given you. Your unique links will ensure that every lead that ended in sale will be credited to you.

So go try it now!

AN HONEST REVIEW OF GDI and/or WS DOMAINS

In my quest to make money online I dared to make some investments here and there just to learn more on the different systems available online.

My general practice is to go for those make money online systems that are free or will only entail me a minimal investment of money for me to start earning something online.

Thus, when I stumbled on the ads for GDI or Global Domains International Inc. which distributes the .ws domains worldwide and they were offering a 7 day Free trial, I decided to give it a try. Besides there was an assurance from the Team from whom the ad I came upon that they will give me the step by step instruction on how to make the most of the system so i can start earning residual income.

GDI offers .ws domain names and web hosting. To sign up with GDI means that I maintain a website and/or engage their webhosting for a monthly fee of US $10. In order for me to make money online and better yet earn a residual income from GDI it is preferred that I use my ws website to promote the GDI business and promote it so that I will earn a commission for every successful referral that I make.

Since GDI espouses multi-level marketing strategy, I as a customer may also receive commission from the referral of those whom I referred and those they will subsequently refer themselves into the business. Moreover, GDI also gives bonuses to those who are able to refer 10 or more in a week's time.

As I mentioned earlier, I took the 7 day free trial and immediately went to implement the step by step guide given to me by my upline.

I paid some campaign ads with Yahoo and did some ads using some free marketing network. I was able to get 2 sign ups within 6 days.

But it was not the result I expected.

On the 6th day of my trial, I decided to end my account with GDI. My foremost reason being- I do not have the financial capability to sustain the monthly fee and the advertising expenses until I get the business to make money enough for it to pay for itself. I estimated it will probably take me around 3-6 months to achieve this.

Thus, I tried to cancel my account online. But unfortunately I discovered through the instructions given on the GDI Homepage website that cancellation should only be done over the phone for security reason.

I immediately called GDI long distance but nobody picked up the phone. Consequently, I wrote an email through the support team regarding my cancellation request.

The GDI support promptly responded and gave me the option to call them again or be called at my convenient time. Thus, I gave them my contact numbers and my preferred time.

I would say, GDI is really professional about their business because they did call me to verify the intent of my email.

Given the chance to do the GDI business when I am more financially capable, I think I'll do it again. It's just unfortunate that my current earning currency is not in US dollars.

Yeah, maybe next time.

Is it for you? If you can spend $10 and a bit more for marketing every month for 3-6 months, why not give it a try. But I don't have any guarantees that you'll earn. It depends on how much you are able to convince others to also sign up and join you in this make money online scheme.