Persistence or Obsession…
admin | October 15, 2008… in internet marketing.
I have been plugging away at internet marketing for a few months now with plenty of successes and failures along the way. I’m still here and it is all just a matter of sticking with it and doing more of what I’m doing.
I often feared that I had become obsessed with all this stuff. I have begun to realize though, that obsession is very easily confused with persistence. It is pretty obvious which one is intended to mean something positive and which one is negative. Check out the dictionary definition of them though:
Persist: To hold firmly and steadfastly to a purpose, state, or undertaking despite obstacles, warnings, or setbacks.
Obsess: To preoccupy the mind of excessively. To have the mind excessively preoccupied with a single emotion or topic.
The key word here is excess; the key question is… how do you gauge excess?
To be perfectly honest, I would imagine that the majority of people do not have either of these things. It appears that the majority fail at continuing with IM for that very reason. One thing that has to be said for success is that it is better to be obsessive than to be lapse. It is best, however, to be balanced.
I work full time on the internet and that is how I make my living. This does mean that I could be exposed to problems related to being obsessed. I believe that there are signs that you are overworking yourself and I will come onto that shortly.
Because working in any form of marketing can be frustrating it is important to know when to stop and take a break. A big problem arises in that you can do a great deal of work and receive nothing in return. When this happens it tends to make you go into overdrive and attempt to make up for the deficit by working yourself to the bone; or into carpel tunnel syndrome (or any of the other conditions associated with sitting hunched in front of a keyboard or computer screen.)
It is unwise to write an article which presents a problem without a solution to it, (hey, a little tip to budding article writers… maybe that is obvious; then again, maybe not), therefore I will therefore go about this in a methodical manner and present some answers.
I believe that there are many indicators of stress through obsessive internet work (or any other work for that matter). If you don’t recognize these then your efforts will actually become counter productive, let alone ineffective.
This is really directed towards serious internet marketers; the ones who have realised that they can actually make money… not the ones who quit because they had convinced them self from the start that they could not achieve any success.
Obvious signs of excessive work are:
- Frustration and irritability
- Feelings of negativity or futility
- Lack of concentration
- Making mistakes
Take a break before you blow a fuse…
I really have found myself getting wound up to the point of hysteria sometimes. When it gets to this point you really must take a break. Sometimes I have found that taking a break for a whole day is more beneficial than not taking a break at all. I have heard of people having to take weeks off due to the level of stress that they had built up. That is hardly any good for any type of business building but it is a reality.
When people work in a job they are usually given certain allocated break times and there is good reason for that. Because of the nature my employment trade I have actually had jobs in which I had flexi break times. In other words; it was up to me when I took breaks. As I look back I can remember doing the same thing with regards working for too long at a time. I worked in maintenance of automated production lines and on stand alone units. I often got to a point where I would make mistakes or miss something critical due to not taking regular breaks.
It may be true that when you are “on a roll” as such, you do tend to get progressively better as the day draws on. It is important, however, to recognise that you can still overdo it.
I have a rule of thumb by which I go by and it is very simple. I even keep a word doc displayed on my desktop with the title “never forget the meaning of life”. I don’t actually think that life has a meaning as such… that’s the wrong terminology, however, the point is:
Life should be enjoyable. If you are not enjoying yourself then you are doing something wrong. There are many people who actually believe that work should be unpleasant, or a burden. I beg to differ! Life should be fun and enjoyable regardless of whether you are at work or play.
Those who persist will be rewarded; those who obsess will sully their efforts…
… Any comments welcome 
| 2.4 |
October 16th, 2008 at 9:05 am
Inspirational and insightful. I subscribe to the idea that I should ‘blog to live’ and not ‘live to blog’. It took me years to understand that life is too short not to do what we love.
I’m loving your writing style. Impressed! May I just assume that this isn’t your first blog?
Yan
October 17th, 2008 at 3:48 am
I have just written a comment on your blog… You must have a third eye! I was actually reading through your own blog and thinking “Gosh this is interesting stuff” you commented on mine before I got round to commenting on yours.
I have written a bit on blogs before but never actually socialized with the blogging community. In other words, it was more of a practice kind of thing. Now I am going at it full pelt… well; not exactly full pelt but it soon will be.
October 17th, 2008 at 8:34 am
Oh I think I do have a third eye but never really got used to using it at will…;) I guess we all do, don’t we?
Glad to be part of your blog too and looking forward to seeing more of you. Oh ya, just in case you aren’t in the know, thoushallblog.com is one of the friendliest blog on the planet…
Till then…
Yan
Blog for Beginners’s last blog post..The Art of Writing Catchy Articles
October 19th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Funny I regularly think about persistence but rarely think about obsession. Hopefully this is because of the habit of positive thinking!
However I did find a similar relationship between arrogance and confidence. The former is very negative and the latter is very positive. Just like persistence and obsession their is a fine line between the two, yet a world of difference.
Ned Carey
Investing in real estate’s last blog post..Lessons from Warren Buffett on Real Estate
October 20th, 2008 at 3:01 am
Good point about arrogance and confidence Ned. They are very similar and I believe that many would declare that they are one; when really, they are the other!
February 27th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
You seem to be very knowledgable on this subject. I appreciate the information.
March 8th, 2009 at 12:51 am
Lol…where can I get more funny movies?
March 10th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Very nice information. Thanks for this.
March 11th, 2009 at 9:48 am
Thanks guys - will resume this blog soon… Needed to catch up on some loose ends.
March 23rd, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Hiya, i have come across your blog a few times when doing research. I own a similar one and i was just wondering if you get a ton of spam? If so how do you control it, is there any plugin or something you can suggest? I get so much it’s driving me insane. I’m so frustrated by it i had to turn my comments off which i don’t want to do because i love peoples input. Also do you get strange jibberish URL’s in the spam that don’t even work or the domains are not even registered? Seems pointless (and odd) and i can’t work out why they do it. Thanks
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:22 pm
Hiya, i have seen your site when searching a few weeks ago and i really love the design! I just bought a new 3 character domain (cost me a packet) for a niche review blog, and i was wondering if your design is a free or paid one? I’m new to Wordpress and about to set it up, and i would really like to get something with a similar look to yours. Any ideas where i could download or buy something similar? Thanks for your help!
March 30th, 2009 at 6:56 am
Hello, i guess this is as good of a place as any to post and let you know. I went to subscribe to your RSS feed, and when i clicked it i got an error that said “Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_CONSTANT_ENCAPSED_STRING” followed by other gibberish that scrolled off the screen. I had to force the page to stop loading because it locked up my browser. Cheers, Mick.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Thanks for the interesting article. The post was professionally written and I feel like the author has extensive knowledge in the subject. Thank you.
April 1st, 2009 at 3:25 am
What is captcha code?, pls provide me captcha code codes or plugin, Thanks in advance.
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:43 am
Captcha code? Sorry no idea… I am actually making this Blog entirely Nutritioon based now (which is what it should have been in the first place). I am sure you will come across the “Captcha code” with a Google search.
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:47 am
Thank you Peter Smith. I am now moving these types of Posts to my new Blog at http://nate.zhuno.com.
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:51 am
Oh dear, I have done all these comments in the wrong order! I need to check out that feed thing then Auto Mick… that sounds weird.
April 3rd, 2009 at 4:22 am
found your site on del.icio.us today and really liked it.. i bookmarked it and will be back to check it out some more later ..
April 4th, 2009 at 2:53 am
Hello. Great job. I did not expect this on a Wednesday. This is a great story. Thanks!
April 5th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Keep working ,great job!
April 5th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
I just love your weblog! Very nice post! Still you can do many things to improve it.
April 8th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
What is captcha code?, pls provide me captcha code codes or plugin, Thanks in advance.
April 17th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
You are a very smart person!
April 21st, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Super-Duper site! I am loving it!! Will come back again - taking you feeds also, Thanks.