Helicopters are noisy beasts. Especially when you’re trying to make a video!
The other day while on Sydney Harbour I did a quick video using the Sydney Marathon as a backdrop. My niece and great-nephew were running (he’s only 7 so they didn’t do the whole marathon!).
The metaphor of running a race is well applied to internet marketing or running a business online.
The question is, are you running against others or yourself? Are you comparing your performance to yourself for a Personal Best or comparing your performance against others and often feel you’re coming up short?
When you work alone it’s easy to compare yourself to others and feel inferior. “They” seem to get much more done than you. “They” seem to write so much better than you, or create videos much better than you, or have a website that looks better than yours, or do better at affiliate marketing or run more sites or …. fill in your own comparator!
Truth is, we as individuals are much better at things than some, and much worse at things than some. So comparing does nothing for our psyche when it is emotionally laden.
Next time you want to compare yourself to others, look past the ‘better than’ and focus on the ‘what can I learn from what they’re doing?’. That approach will lead to incremental improvements over time, if they are relevant for you.
Better yet, keep track of your own performance over time. Note what you’ve achieved and worked on at the end of each day. Log it somewhere. Look at that at the end of the week and glow in your progress then learn what you can do next week to improve. Take time each week to check out your metrics on Klout and Google Analytics. Look at the measures that mean something to your business model. Not e them each week and see where there have been improvements. Don’t be disheartened if the numbers go down – that may be explainable. Just work on the trend over time.
Keep in mind that you do need to be competitive but use your competitors to spur your own growth. In solopreneurdom, the biggest race is against yourself. And you have total control over winning that one!
image source http://pixabay.com/en/jog-jogger-run-race-sport-feet-365538/
Normal programming will resume tomorrow with Product Creation Part 2.
Oh wow, this one is a biggie for sure. It is really hard not to compare yourself to others, but it doesn’t get you anywhere if you dwell on it. Great job on this. Very nice to put a face to a name . 🙂
Thanks, Crystal. Appreciate your commenting.
I used to compare myself to others all the time. It was really getting me down and I started feeling like a failure. It was my husband who pointed it out that I was doing it all wrong when he looked over my account books. He noted that my income was increasing each year. It may not have been to the point where others were at, but at least it was increasing.
Yep, comparing will do that to you. Great to have a ‘voice of reason’ nearby to help us see a better reality!
Hi Mel,
Fantastic to put a face and fabulous accent to the name.
It is so difficult not to compare ourselves with others but as you say, it is imortant to remember that we are running our own race, whether it is a fast sprint or a marathon.
I am definitely taking part in a mega marathon. Been training for it for years. lol 🙂
You look to be running a pretty steady race, Victoria. Hang in there 🙂
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