Online Business Tips, Planning Your Success

Many years ago I had the privilege of meeting a old man named Oscar. Oscar at that time was in his mid seventies but he looked and moved like a much younger man. Oscar’s passion was growing landscaping plants. His entire back yard was row after row of plants. These plants all varied in type and size from very small baby plants to mature plants ready to fill a blank space in some ones landscape. Oscar even had plants growing in his window wells. He used his window wells to start his cuttings. Magically getting roots to grow on pieces of plants severed from their momma plant. Oscar was quite the nurseryman and people from all around knew they could depend on him for high quality plants for their landscapes.

Each night right before sundown Oscar would go out and stand on his back porch and gaze out over his rows of plants. Some nights he would stand there for close to an hour gazing out over the plants. Other nights he was out and back in a flash. The neighbors of course took notice of this kinda bizarre habit of Oscars and commented on the possibility that Oscar could be getting a little bit senile. Growing concerned mostly from the now advanced rumors that the old man had gone completely nuts one of the neighbors ventured over one night. That night Oscar was having one of his longer gazing sessions. As the neighbor approached, Oscar did not take notice he just continued gazing over his plants his attention focused to one corner of his backyard nursery. Finally after a few minutes of watching Oscar gaze and not wanting to startle the old man the neighbor very quietly almost whispered his name. Oscar just continued gazing and said ” I wondered if you were gonna say something or if you were just here to look”. Finally breaking his gaze Oscar asked ” What can I do for you this fine evening”? The neighbor a little bit taken back by Oscars obvious clarity stammered a bit and finally just said “Oh I saw you standing out here and just wondered what you were doing. Oscar just smiled and said ” I do this every night, I come out here and plan what I am going to do tomorrow”. “That way I wake up every day knowing exactly what I need to do for these plants”.

A recent webinar reminded me of this story. Rich Schefren was talking about the importance of planning for the success of an Internet marketing business. Though the webinar he talked about keeping a journal, and how the majority of very successful people keep a daily journal. He explained the importance of setting a goal. Explaining that just setting a financial goal was not enough. The goal had to be something that could be visualized in your mind. The house you were going to buy with the money. The vacation you were going to take. The lifestyle you were going to have when the goal was attained. He then talked about how make a plan to make that goal happen. Breaking it all down into time periods that finally lead to what you needed to do every day to reach that goal. This reminded me of what Oscar had said almost thirty years ago. “Plan for tomorrow today” Know exactly what you have to do tomorrow to get you to your goal.

The average person just takes on life as it happens. Most are content to live their lives this way. Going to work everyday, collecting a paycheck every week and enjoying the things they can afford to enjoy. They are successful at being average and are happy to live their life that way. The very successful take on life in a different way. Always setting goals, always planning, and knowing exactly what they need to do to meet their goals. The successful person is rarely content to just let life happen. They make it happen.

Alex Jeffreys once said ” A fool with a plan will always beat a genius without a plan. If you are struggling with your Internet Marketing business maybe it is time to get organized, get focused and make a plan of action to achieve your goal. At the very least you should always take a lesson from Oscar and “plan for tomorrow today” which is another quote from Alex.