Mindset

Case Study: How To Read 30 Books In 30 Days

September 19, 2017 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

After my first year of college, I decided to do something different over the summer—read a lot of books.

I used a portion of my Monthly Performance Reports to put my reading lists on full display. While I normally read 5-10 books in a given month, the summer days allowed that reading list to morph into 30 books every month.

I didn’t take time off from my business during this time. In fact, I dramatically increased the amount of books I read while preparing to lead a Content Marketing Success Summit, one of the biggest projects of my life up to that point.

In this blog post, I’ll share my story so you can reap the benefits of reading 30 books every month without feeling overwhelmed by work, your personal life, or anything else.

#1: Have The Books On Hand

Before I began my 30-book per month reading journey, I knew I needed to have all of the books readily accessible. So, to put it bluntly, I went on a bargain buying spree.

I knew that by the time I finished reading any given book it would be filled with notes and underlines, so I didn’t mind buying used books (as long as they didn’t have any underlining or highlighting included).

My adventure began on eBay where some people are desperate to part ways with their books. Because the bulk lots included anywhere from 10-20 books per order, I bought books at a rate from $1 to $4 per book depending on who was selling them.

And all of these books were LEGIT, not aged books that are no longer relevant. In fact, I published several books before social media taught me the marketing tactics that work today (often overlooked in the new age of digital marketing).

If you prefer to read books on a device, you’re all set. You can buy all of your books in a few clicks. I prefer reading paperback editions, which is why I decided to purchase books in bulk on eBay.

Buy in bulk

The only problem with book lots is that you don’t get to choose the books on offer; I have multiple copies of the same books because they were a part of a bulk order.

But eventually I learned about Thrift Books, which help you avoid that problem as well as enjoy a wider range of choices and ridiculous bargains.

You may think it’s not worth going through the trouble to find book bargains, but if you want to read 30 books per month, that’s 360 books every year.

In a worst case scenario, saving an average of $10 per book (very possible with book lots and Thrift Books) results in a savings of $3,600 every year!

Don’t Read Word-For-Word

Once you have assembled all of your books, it’s time to read them. But don’t read them in the traditional word-for-word style. Sure, you’ll absorb all of the material if you do, but it will take a longer period of time before you move onto the next book.

When I read books, I skim through them for the most pertinent information. If there’s a section that explains how to create a Twitter account, for example, I skip it because I already have a Twitter account. There’s no need to waste time reading things that you already know.

Similarly, when I buy a productivity book I skip through familiar tips like setting deadlines, 3-Year Plans, and how to set SMART goals. Unless the author shares these common tactics with a very different flavor, I skip to the next part of the book.

Skip Entire Chapters

Not only should you skip over things you already know, you should also get into the habit of skipping portions, or even chapters, of books containing information you don’t want to learn. For instance, I don’t want to learn much about Vine because Vine is a dead social network.

And yet, many of these books have entire chapters dedicated to Vine. Some books are dedicated entirely to the social network. Just remember that information that was once relevant may be outdated today.

You can also skip chapters outlining tasks you don’t want to perform. For instance, I’ll skip a chapter in a podcasting book about editing episodes because I already have a trustworthy freelancer who edits my podcast episodes.

Skipping that chapter allows me to move to the next chapter sooner and, ultimately, to a new book.

Write In Your Book

For a long time I resisted writing in my books, especially signed copies. While I rarely write in books, I often underline with a pencil.

Underlining important points in each of your books makes the re-reading process easier. After all, you have a plan to re-read the best books, right?

At the beginning of each month, I go through my favorite books from the previous month. I skim through what I underlined, and brainstorm ideas. I commit a few hours of one day to this task.

Underlining important text makes this process much faster as I can literally skip hundreds of pages of content. I only focus on what I’d underlined previously because my past self regarded only those points as important.

A Technicality On Book Length

One thing to remember when reading 30 books in 30 days is that book length matters. It’s much easier to read 30 books that average 200 pages than to read 30 books that average 600 pages.

When dozens of books are delivered to me in one day, I start by reading the shorter books first. It’s likely a good thing that I read Tools Of Titans before I began taking my reading goal seriously.

I like reading the shorter books first because finishing a shorter book gives me the dopamine rush to start reading (and finishing) another book.

Get a string of small wins, and it won’t be long before you can read the occasional 400-600 page book with ease.

It It’s Not Scheduled, It Won’t Happen

If you want reading to become a habit, you must schedule it into your day. I schedule at least one hour of reading time every day.

You should also choose one day a week to dedicate entirely to reading books, no professional work. I designate Fridays as my reading days. And even though I spend several hours reading books on Fridays, it doesn’t feel rigorous. Why? Because Fridays feel like a day off from work.

It’s important to find what works for you, but don’t forget that if it’s not scheduled, it won’t happen.

Turn Your TV And Surfing Time Into Reading Time

Professional work can take up hours of your day, but so can TV and internet surfing. You need to eliminate digital surfing from your life because you’re simply watching life happen instead of making life happen. Spectators watch, superstars perform.

The average American watches 32 hours of television every week. If we all switched from digital surfing to reading self-development books, the world would truly be a better place.

The next time you want to watch a marathon, the last episode of a series, or reruns, crack open a book instead. Repeat the process with other bad habits, and with greater intensity, and you’ll have no problem reading 30 books in 30 days.

In Conclusion

Reading 30 books every 30 days will dramatically expand your knowledge and open the door to a variety of possibilities. Reading all of these books requires a mindset shift and the elimination of bad habits. And, of course, the 30+ books you’ll need on hand before you get started.

What are your thoughts on reading 30 books every day? Have any good book recommendations for us? Please share how you plan to implement this habit into your own life. Sound off in the comments section below.

How To Play More Offense For Your Business

August 8, 2017 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

The more offense you play for your business, the more successful you will become. All of the top entrepreneurs dedicate a portion of their time each day to play offense.

Playing offense does not mean writing the next blog post. It doesn’t mean engaging with your audience, creating videos, or doing anything else associated with being in your business.

Playing more offense involves you taking an aerial view of your entire business and asking yourself important questions. Is this working? What should I be focusing on? What small changes can I make that would yield dramatic results? How do I grow this?

This offense results in more directed action with a clearer path to victory. Instead of constantly creating content and marketing yourself, you now have more specific aims that you believe will create the most impact.

You may feel like you’re already on the right path, but taking 30 minutes to conduct that aerial view every day will open the door to old opportunities and platforms that can still lead to great results.

Write Down Everything That Constitutes Your Business

This is a one-time, time extensive task. You’ll occasionally go through this list as your business continues to grow. However, you need to take this step before you can truly play offense. Here are just some of the parts of my business:

Virtual Summits
Blog Posts
Guest Posts
Training Courses
Free Videos
Books
Public Speaking
Breakthrough Success Podcast
Coaching
Redistribution

Sometimes I focus so much of my time, attention, and energy on my virtual summits that I forget about other areas. When I took the aerial view, I rediscovered that I needed to pump out more content for my readers (plus, I LOVE writing content, and realized that I’d separated myself from my biggest passion for too long).

I also rediscovered my podcast outros need major updates. I didn’t see any traction from my previous outros because I mainly promoted my Udemy courses, but now I’m promoting more stuff on my site and a few tools which I use and am an affiliate for.

I also rediscovered that I could get more exposure by writing more guest posts and getting interviewed on more podcasts.

Discovering and doing are two different things, and if your schedule is constantly filled with in-business work, you never find the time to take that aerial view and ask yourself, “What should I really be doing?”

Then you need to rediscover and start implementing instead of letting these important tasks continue to remain unattended.

Writing down all of this information is so important because with tens of thousands of thoughts running through out minds every day, it’s easy to forget.

Start Delegating More Of Your Tasks

Delegating your tasks to others will open up hours of extra time. My freelancers are critical to my success because they subtract various tasks from my day. Over the long-term, I can easily see having a team of hundreds of freelancers, but I’m not there yet.

Some people may be interested in delegation but haven’t started yet. If that’s you, my friend Nick Loper from Side Hustle Nation has some great advice for you.

The two main ingredients you need to get started delegating are a log of where you’re spending your time and a well-documented process.

The time log will tell you where the biggest opportunities for outsourcing lie. What’s sucking up the most of your day? Is that something you HAVE to do, or could someone else reasonably handle it with a little training?

Next, you’ll want to have clear process documentation and instructions. This is like your recipe for completing the task, and the more detailed the better. Don’t leave anything to chance here, even though you probably take for granted some of the steps, especially if you’ve been doing the task yourself for any length of time.

How I normally create the process documentation is I take a screen capture video of myself doing the job and talking through the steps. Then I write out the steps in a Google Doc so I can share both a visual and written version with my assistant.

Delegating more of your tasks will also give you more time to play offense. Take some time to think about some of the important parts of your business, how you can take action, and then just do it.

Checking on your freelancers is part of playing offense because you want to make sure they have work, and more importantly, that your freelancers are effectively getting their jobs done. You should have more 10-15 minute meetings fill up your schedule to ensure that you and your freelancers are both on the same page. These meetings do take up some time, but they work like a charm for keeping everyone on track.

In Conclusion

I thought of ways that I could extend this blog post beyond my usual 1,000 word marker, but I decided against it. Playing offense for your business simply comes down to…

Taking the aerial view of your brand
Discovering/rediscovering what you need to do for the optimal impact
Start taking action

I could have said it in several different ways, but that’s the premise to working on offense. Taking action just comes down to putting the tasks on your schedule. If a task isn’t on the schedule, it doesn’t get done. If it’s on the schedule, it has a much higher probability of getting done.

What are your thoughts on playing offense for your business? Do you have any tips for us? Have a question? Sound off in the comments section below.

How To Gain Expertise In Anything

April 11, 2016 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

The moment you stop learning is the moment when you start falling behind. Learning more about your niche allows you to provide more value to your audience so they are sure to stick with your products and services.

In this video, I discuss how you can gain expertise in any niche. While these methods can be used to gain expertise from a business standpoint, they can be used to gain expertise in anything that you do in your professional life or your personal life.

If you like this video, then I would love it if you subscribed to my YouTube channel and spread the word.

[Tweet “How To Gain Expertise In Anything.”]

The Top 5 Distractions And How To Stop Them

April 8, 2016 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

The Top 5 Distractions And How To Avoid Them — Distractions are numerous. Here’s how to avoid them.

Tell me if this sounds familiar.

You have a list of goals in front of you. Accomplishing these goals is important to you. However, for some odd reason, those goals don’t get accomplished. Either some of the goals or none of them get accomplished.

What happened? Maybe you tried to bite more than you could chew. But deep down, you know that’s not what happened.

It’s very clear what happened. Most people get distracted, and enough distractions will result in a checklist without the checkmarks.

Once we get distracted for the slightest amount of time, it takes us some time to get back on track. Shifting from a distraction back to your work isn’t just a physical shift. It is also a mental shift.

You have to mentally re-prepare yourself for getting your goals done each time you get distracted.

Getting distracted too many times will result in a lot of lost time based on how long it takes for you to get back to the work from a physical standpoint (i.e. looking at the blog post you are writing) and from a mental standpoint (having the mindset necessary for writing an epic blog post).

Distractions can get bothersome. The worst part is that few people realize the impact of distractions until it’s too late. One distraction doesn’t seem to take much time out of the day.

But a string of distractions stretched over a long period of time can be disastrous for your productivity.

The next thing you know, it’s the end of the day, and you are far behind from accomplishing your goals for the day.

The moment you take steps to eliminate some of the distractions from your life is the moment you will become more productive.

Of course, it’s impossible to eliminate all distractions. We can’t work 24/7, every day of the year. However, it is possible for you to use your time as productively as possible to accomplish your goals and have a lot of extra time for the good ol’ work-life balance.

You use your time more productively by eliminating the distractions around you that can be eliminated. In this blog post, you’ll learn the five distractions that can be dramatically reduced so you can become more productive.

#1: Surfing The Web

The web has granted us many gifts. The web gave us social media, the ability to expand business in a way like never before, hilarious memes, and a whole lot more.

I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t on the web for an entire day. It just has so much to offer. The problem with so many options is that it is easy to get distracted.

Going on Twitter to interact with your audience can suddenly end with you scrolling through the trending topics. You went on YouTube to upload a video, and you log out of your account after watching 10 Jimmy Fallon videos.

The web provides us with so many opportunities, but almost all of those opportunities are also next to a sea of distractions.

Developing willpower is one possible tip, but it doesn’t dive deep enough into this distraction. Here’s the secret to avoiding this distraction.

When you work, you must disconnect from the Wi-Fi.

When I write my blog posts, I make it a point to disconnect from the Wi-Fi, remove my iPhone from the room, and quit my Safari and Mail icons. That way, the only thing I am thinking about is writing the blog post. More specifically, it’s the only work I am doing.

With that said, there is some work that requires Wi-Fi. Content research, watching training course videos, and scheduling blog posts are just some of the tasks that require Wi-Fi.

Some of those tasks can be outsourced to freelancers. Outsourcing some of your workload will allow you to save time that can be repurposed towards bigger opportunities.

However, some of the work just can’t be outsourced. For that type of work, my recommendation is to write down your daily goals on a sticky note. I always keep a sticky note like this right next to my computer.

Any moment you find yourself getting distracted, look at that sticky note. It will remind you that there’s still work to do. Then you won’t find yourself getting distracted for as long.

#2: Social Media

Social media is a special type of web surfing since it’s critical for a lot of businesses. However, social media is a double-edged sword. While it is critical for business, it can also eat up too much of your time.

Writing the sticky note will help you when you fall off track. However, why fall off track in the first place?

When I interact with my social media audiences, I rarely interact with them on the actual social networks. Instead of interacting with people through Twitter, I usually interact with my Twitter audience from HootSuite.

The HootSuite dashboard comes with all of the tweeting capabilities. The HootSuite dashboard doesn’t contain as much information as Twitter’s dashboard.

That’s actually a good thing.

On the HootSuite dashboard, I don’t see any tweets that could distract me. More importantly (for me), I don’t see any of the trending topics.

So instead of going through the trending topics after I interact with my audience, I move onto the next task.

You need to find a way to spend as little time as possible on the actual social network. Use a social media tool instead.

Remember this. All social networks are designed to keep you on their sites for as long as possible. Social media tools are simply designed for you to get the work done.

#3: TV

The average American watches 32 hours of television every week. Imagine all of the cool things you could do with that extra time.

I used to be on that same boat. Every day when I got home from school, I would do my homework. Then, the rest of the day was filled with a combination of TV, internet surfing, and video games.

Productivity wasn’t a natural talent of mine. Natural talents don’t exist. Every “natural talent” is simply a skill that got developed over a long period of time.

But when I started blogging, I fell in love with it. Blogging became my hobby, and when I figured out I could make money from it, blogging became my business. Then it expanded from there.

When I first started blogging, I had to find extra time for myself to write the blog posts. Little did I know it at the time, but this is when I discovered how valuable time is, from a minute by minute standpoint.

A minute you spend doing one activity is a minute that you can’t spend doing any other activity. If I watch TV for one minute, then that is one minute in which my upcoming blog post remains unwritten.

I think of spending time in the same way that I think of spending money. Spend both of them carelessly, and the results won’t be pretty. Spend them effectively and you get the results.

The moment I valued my time to this level, I stopped falling for the traps. I stopped watching the re-runs because I was bored. Now with a blog and a business, I always had something to do. And I enjoyed the work. That’s the important part—a strong source of motivation to get off the couch.

Now I only watch two hours of TV every week. Any new episode of The Big Bang Theory or Super Girl is a can’t miss. I actually schedule podcast interviews accordingly to make sure I don’t miss any of those episodes.

I don’t watch much TV which is why it’s a big deal when I actually watch some of it.

Then there’s 30 minutes of miscellaneous. Sometimes I’ll watch a sports game, but since my Red Sox aren’t on the New York channels, I mostly stay up-to-date via MLB’s website.

But maybe you still want to watch a lot of TV the moment you turn it on. If this is you, then you must enlist the help of a trustworthy family member that you won’t get mad at.

Have that member of the family member hide the TV remote, or better yet, put the TV remote in a location where you cannot access it.

Without a TV remote, there’s no point in turning on the TV. What happens then? The goals get done.

#4: Music

Music and I will never go out of style. While some songs can put you in the right mindset for pursuing certain types of work (i.e. Rocky music for workouts), listening to too much music will distract you when you are working.

Take, for instance, a Taylor Swift song. The moment I hear one of her songs play, I stop what I am doing to listen to it. Sometimes I sing to the song, but often I just stop what I am doing and listen.

Soon enough, I have listened to dozens of songs to find my blog post still unwritten.

I feel great when I listen to my favorite songs, but listening to too many songs results in no work getting done.

Luckily, there is an in-between route otherwise known as the Pomodoro technique. It is a famous productivity tactic that involves you working on ONE thing for 25 minutes and then taking a five minute break. This gets repeated again and again. However, on the fourth Pomodoro, some people recommend taking a 15 minute break instead of a five minute break.

During that five minute break, you can choose to listen to one of your favorite songs. However, only choose one song. We all have that one song that after listening to it, we can produce meaningful work for 25 straight, undistracted minutes.

Don’t go on a music marathon, but also don’t deny yourself of your favorite song.

#5: Your Thoughts

I’m starting off this part by saying we always think. You can’t fully eliminate thoughts from your life.

However, there are certain thoughts in your head that will distract you. The chances of that happening are greatly reduced if you do work that you love doing.

When you love the work that you do, then you are less likely to wander within your mind—thinking about the baseball game you are going to this week or the last concert you attended.

To be truly locked into your work is to be within the moment. Sometimes, our thoughts take us away from that. Bad thoughts sometimes enter our minds, and the negative feelings harm our productivity.

When bad thoughts emerge, you need a quick counter. I think one of the greatest things people deprive themselves of is self-worth. We often look at the target without looking back at the starting point.

We are so focused on what we have to do that we fail to notice what we have already accomplished.

Anytime a bad thought comes up, simply remind yourself of some of the things you have accomplished up to this point. Then you won’t feel as bad, and you’ll be able to continue working without those negative thoughts plaguing your work ethic.

In Conclusion

Distractions are among us. They hurt our ability to accomplish our goals. The way we respond to the distractions around us ultimately determine what type of impact they have on us.

What distractions eat up most of your time? Do you have any tips for conquering distractions? Sound off in the comments section below.

Leverage Your Time Better With A Productivity Pie

When fewer distractions enter your work flow, you have more time to put towards your goals. The next step is to identify the goals that will allow you to achieve the results you are looking for. That’s where the Productivity Pie comes in.

To get access, all you have to do is enter your email address.

Discover How I Use A Productivity Pie To Turbocharge My Productivity

We value your privacy and would never spam you

What To Do When You Get Discouraged

December 7, 2015 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Is it worth it?

When I started out, I found myself asking myself this question too often. My confidence wasn’t what it is now.

Was it worth it to start a blog and put in that much effort? Is all of the time I am spending on Twitter amounting to anything? Does my age put me at a disadvantage?

The transition from hobby to business was stressful in the short-term. In the long-term, it was a great decision.

Regardless of what I got discouraged about, I knew it was essential to shake off the discouragement as quickly as possible.

It’s easier said than done. But the doing part isn’t as hard as most people think. It usually takes me 5-10 minutes to shake off any discouragement.

I’m not a superhuman. I just know my ideal response to discouragement. Creating responses to challenges makes it easier for you to conquer those challenges.

Once I shake off the discouragement, I go back to my work feeling more reinvigorated than ever.

The way I respond to any type of discouragement can be replicated by any individual. Here’s my three step process:

#1: Listen To Motivational Songs

Music plays a big role in our culture. It’s also played a big role in cultures that existed thousands of years before our current culture.

One truth about music is that some of the songs we listen to impact the way we feel. Some songs automatically make us feel happy while other songs automatically make us feel sad.

Listen to the songs that make you feel motivated. Put an entire playlist together if you have to. The right songs can give you enough motivation for you to shake off the discouragement.

Certain songs are guaranteed to motivate you based on the way you interpret them. These are the songs you need to listen to the most.

There is one song that I always listen to when I feel discouraged. The song I choose to listen to doesn’t matter for the purposes of this blog post (but I promise it’s clean).

The way I interpret the song may be different from how you would interpret the song, so you may not get as motivated by it.

Anyway, there is a song you’ve heard for years that holds a deep meaning in your heart. That’s the song you need to listen to…not the song that I listen to.

#2: Take Some Type Of Action

Every type of motivation you receive is just temporary motivation. It eventually fades away and must then be replaced with another form of motivation.

Idle around after listening to the song, and then that song loses its effectiveness.

Listening to the song is meant to provide you with motivation to take action. Regardless of how significant or minuscule your action looks, take action.

If you are in the middle of writing a book, and you take a break to listen to your favorite song, make it a point to write more content for your book.

Regardless of whether the song motivates you to write an extra 500 words or an extra 5,000 words, you need to take some form of action.

Taking a small action will make you feel better about the task ahead of you. Back when I would get discouraged from doing videos, I would listen to a motivational song.

Then I would go back to creating videos. Each time I listened to the motivational song, I made more progress.

#3: Plan For Next Time

You’ll have to write more words for that book the following day. You will have to put in the work tomorrow just as you did today.

At this stage of the three step process, your motivation is at a high point. When your motivation is at a high point, you do everything you can while your motivation is at its high point.

After I take some type of action, I plan out how I will take my next action. The night before, I will always identify what I must do the following day.

That way, I’m not thinking about what I must do. I already know what I must do.

The more prepared you are for what lay ahead, the more motivated you will feel to tackle the big challenges. Then, discouragement gets washed away.

Continue To Believe

This three step process helps you shake off discouragement. We get discouraged during challenging situations. This discouragement happens to be a part of the hero’s cycle.

It’s natural to feel discouraged in the middle of a challenge. The people we admire felt discouraged at some point in their lives.

They wondered if what they were doing was worth it. They wondered if they could fulfill their dreams. They wondered if they could.

It turns out they could. And we can. The amount of belief you have for yourself determines how far you go in life.

We are all like Ferraris. We have potential to do great things in our lives. Not believing in yourself is like hoping the Ferrari with an empty tank will provide an epic driving experience.

The Ferrari can provide an epic driving experience. Without any gas, it’s no better than a used car from the 1990s.

Choose to believe in yourself throughout your journey. You’ll be glad you did.

In Conclusion

Discouragement hinders our progress. It makes us doubt and wonder if what we are doing is worth the effort.

The way to beat discouragement is with overwhelming motivation. Motivation isn’t challenging to acquire. Listening to the right songs is a quick way to get an instant boost in motivation.

With that instant boost in motivation, you can then take more action and plan out how you will take even more action in the future.

Motivation will take you far, but motivation isn’t permanent. We must motivate ourselves throughout the day (and often in the simplest ways imaginable) to be our best.

What are your thoughts about this three step process? Do you have any other tips to beat discouragement? Sound off in the comments section below.

5 Reasons Why Most People Don’t Make Enough Money

November 20, 2015 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Money. It’s something that we think about. Some of us think about it too often, but we all think about it one way or the other. Many people aspire to earn full-time incomes and have financial independence.

Sure enough, not everyone earns a full-time income. And not all of the people who make a full-time income do so with a smile. Making a full-time income by doing what you love to do involves putting in the work. However, there are common pitfalls that prevent most people from making enough money. Here are the big five:

#1: They Only Want The Money For The Sake Of Having It

Don’t think about having money for the sake of having money. Instead, think of what the money you are after would give you. Think about the financial independence, the ability to buy more things, and the ability to use your money to make the world a better place.

Most people don’t establish a strong WHY for making the money. Making money for the sake of making it isn’t good enough. Financial independence is a start, but you can dig deeper. What would financial independence allow you to do that you can’t do now?

The deeper you go, the more fuel you will add to the fire. Soon enough, you will approach your work with more motivation than before.

#2: Money Is At The Forefront Of Everything

The moment you put money at the forefront of everything else is the moment you don’t get as much of it. Some people in the desperate scramble to make revenue may create subpar products and charge high prices for them. They want the money immediately, so quantity and high prices seem like the logical option—at least on the surface.

Providing value is more important than having a quantity of products. Building the relationship between you and your customers in which you focus on helping the customer is more valuable than building the relationship just for the sake of making money.

If you only engage with your audience to get their dollar bills, then they will catch on. If you engage with your audience because you actually care for them, then the people in your audience will be more likely to buy your products.

#3: Doubt

It is too common for people who aren’t making money to doubt themselves. They blame their lack of expertise and/or certain circumstances that prevent them from making money. Blaming in this regard results in you staying in the pit of despair for a longer period of time.

Doubting yourself will hinder your progress and keep you in that pit longer. The only way to get out of that pit is by climbing out of it. Just ask The Dark Knight.

#4: They Aren’t Putting In The Right Work

Whether willing or unwilling, the people who don’t make enough money often are not putting in enough productive work. We are good at putting in work, but productive work is a different story.

Most people like to believe that all work is productive. However, that is not the case. Certain work that you do is just busy work that takes time out of your day. As my social media audience grew larger, continuing the growth became busy work. My social media audience was growing but my income was not changing.

As a result, I focused all of my attention on Twitter and eventually outsourced most of the activity on all of my social networks.

Now I focus more of my time on creating and marketing my training courses.

In our constantly busy lives, we put in a lot of work. Creating the distinction between busy work and productive work allows you to identify where you need to spend your time.

Spending time on one activity means sacrificing some of the time you could have spent on another activity. This is the economic concept of an opportunity cost. You could be losing out on the opportunity of a lifetime because you are not utilizing your time wisely.

Sometimes, we know what we must do to move forward, but we don’t find the time to make it happen in our schedules. Don’t be that person.

#5: Exploration Without Commitment

If your strategy is to pursue shiny object after shiny object, then prepare for disappointment. Many people fall prey to shiny object syndrome in which they do a lot of exploration but don’t commit to anything.

It’s like shopping at Macy’s for two hours without buying any clothing. It’s like spending two hours looking for the best trails in your area but then not running on any of those trails. Basically, it’s a waste of time.

You need to do some exploration to find the right opportunity for you. However, you must also drop the anchor when you find an opportunity that appeals to you.

You don’t have to drop the anchor many times, but you have to drop it eventually. I don’t drop the anchor often. The first time I truly dropped the anchor was when I decided to focus most of my time on Twitter. Over 250,000 followers later, I am happy that I temporarily ditched all of my other social media accounts.

In Conclusion

For better or for worse, we think about money. If we could earn a dollar every time we thought of money, some of us would be millionaires just for that.

We want money, but in order to get what we are looking for, our thinking pattern must change. Instead of making money just for the sake of making money, go deep and ask yourself what the money would do for you.

As you go deep and motivate yourself to make more money, remind yourself that money is a good servant but a bad master. Don’t let the thought of making money become the forefront of everything that you will do. Your work will be less enjoyable and you will think more about what you don’t have than what you actually have. When we focus on what we do not have, we get discouraged.

Making money does require putting in the work, but it also requires approaching money-making with a different perspective from the traditional one.

Which of these reasons resonates with you the most? Did I miss any reasons why people don’t make enough money? Have any tips to share? Sound off in the comments section below.