In this article I want to discuss the internet marketing lifestyle and specifically what it means to me and how anyone can achieve it.
There is a lot of hype about making vast sums of money from internet marketing – some do but many don’t. In fact the failure rate in internet marketing is high at around 95% and it may be that many aspiring internet marketers simply set their sights too high initially and get demoralised.
The first goal should be to cover one of your bills – if you can make say £100 a month to cover, say, your gas bill you can start to scale things up from there.
The first dollar or pound is always the hardest to make but when you can get something working, even if only in a small way, you can begin to build from there.
I was reminded of this last year when I was visiting some allotments and I came a cross an old lady working on a sizeable plot of land which was immaculately neat. She had meticulously dug over the whole plot and planted out all her vegetables in neat rows.
Given her age – she said she was 74 – I asked her how she had created such a beautiful plot because I knew that digging such a large plot alone would be a considerable physical effort, even for someone many years younger and physically stronger.
She said ‘I just do a little bit at a time every day.’
I took that advice to heart with my own vegetable plot. Previous to talking to her, I would always blitz my vegetable plot and inevitably half kill myself in the process which made me more reluctant to return for another session. This year I have dug over my plot – which is quite large – in 5 easy one hour sessions. The whole process is so much more enjoyable.
A simple change in working habits is all it takes! If you don’t kill yourself in the process, it so much easier to get started on the next working session.
So it is with internet marketing. Even though there is a lot to learn, if you take the approach of ‘little and often’ you can soon pick up the necessary skills and enjoy the process at the same time.
Also, by lowering your initial goals, you will be motivated to return because they will be more easily achievable.
Once you have achieved that initial goal of covering one of your bills, you can set your goals a little higher – replacing your current salary. Don’t make the mistake of aiming too high.
What Would It Take To Ditch Your Job?
Calculate what you would need to hand in your notice to your employer. In my own case £1,500 per month is quite sufficient because I have no mortgage.
Can I live like a lord on £1,500 per month? – the answer is no. But I CAN live a life of freedom.
I don’t use an alarm clock any longer to wake me up – I wake up when I am fully rested, usually at around 6.30 a.m. but it varies with the light – later in winter and earlier in summer.
When I am walking down my road with our dog in the morning it gives me great pleasure to walk past all the cars stuck in a queue trying to cross the bridge into town in the morning rush hour.
I often wonder what the occupants of those cars are thinking when the see me breezing past them with not a care in the world every morning – I can’t tell you how good it feels not having to conform to someone else’s timetable.
I walk around the River Avon drinking in the silence and watching the simple rhythms of nature – money cannot buy the profound sense of bliss this gives me. When I had a job, I simply couldn’t slow down enough to truly enjoy my life.
Generally, I return home to start work by around 8.30 a.m. and finish at around 12.30 a.m. for lunch. I return to work at 2 p.m. or, alternatively, I often go off and do some DIY or gardening before walking my dog again at around 4.30 p.m. before returning for supper.
One of the surprising discoveries I made about leaving a proper job is that it costs a lot of money to go to work.
If you add up the cost of commuting in both time and money, the cost of lunches and work wear etc (not to mention work social events – which I never really enjoyed-) you will be surprised how much you can trim off your monthly costs by working from home and also how much time you can save for more enjoyable activities.
The Internet Marketing Lifestyle = Stress-less Living
The other thing I want to mention is stress… or the lack of it, since I left a job. I found it stressful to conform to other peoples timetables, deadlines, goals and expectations.
One thing I have learnt is that physical manifestations of success like fancy cars and houses come with a large price tag in terms of the impact on your life i.e. doing things you don’t enjoy, stress and a terrible impact on your peace of mind.
Both my dog and I are totally chilled – in fact my dog is currently lying on my office sofa with her legs on the air dozing in complete luxury. I think we can learn from this attitude to life.
I used to worry about many things, including lack of money. Now I don’t because I have learnt that in the present moment, for 99.9% of the time, I have enough to live a good life and for the unexpected 0.1% something always turns up to fill the gap.
Live In The Moment
Living in the moment is the real key to living a good life and Eckhart Tolle is an excellent teacher of this art – I recommend that you find him on YouTube. It really is the key to living a good life with total peace of mind.
Slow down enough to really savour life and you will never return to your former work life no matter how short of money you are. Physical possessions and money are not the goal – living a good life can be easily achieved without them.
In one of my lean months, I remember my brother-in-law saying that he could get me a consulting job with a local car manufacturer paying £6,000 per month.
I think he was surprised by my reply when I told him that I would rather live in a box than to take a job like that and I really meant it.
It perhaps surprised me too that I was so passionate with my reply because I well remember how frightened I was by the prospect of leaving my well paid corporate job in 2001. I suffered headaches with the stress of it prior to leaving and my wife suffered too because she was so tense that she had a frozen shoulder.
It is amazing how the fantasy horrors that your mind dreams up seem so real and yet they are all an illusion. These fantasies are what keep most people rooted to a job they really hate.
I recently visited my former employer and was surprised to meet two girls who were there when I left. They were totally demoralised and just going through the motions of their job waiting for the day when they could get a voluntary redundancy package. What a sad waste of life.
Don’t let that be you.
If it is, I recommend that you take some time out to design the ideal life for YOU and then work on ‘a little bit at a time every day‘ to achieve your ideal lifestyle. Set low and achievable goals to start with and once you get something working, scale up from there.
There is no need to leave the comfort and safety of your job until you get something working to replace it.
Work out what you need to replace your job and go for it and you too can achieve the internet marketing lifestyle, if you desire it! Take it from me (and the little old lady), a little and often is the key to achieving this without undue stress or worry. Please opt in to my list if you enjoyed this article so I can help you make the transition to a life of freedom and peace of mind.