Force yourself to think long term

[Jessi]

• Renew your domain for 10 years, so you tell yourself that this is for the long run.
  
• Invest $1000 on a design for your website, so you tell yourself that if you stop working on it you’ll lose that money.
  
• Once your online business starts making some decent money consider quitting your day job, so you tell yourself that now your websites need to pay your bills.
  

While I don't personally want to do any of the above at the moment, I do think doing some things like this can really kick a person's butt into gear. Sometimes, we just need a little motivation or something that corners us into really working hard. These could certainly do the trick for some.

Edited May 17, 2012 by Thomas
Fixed BB Code.

[Thomas]

I must say that it is a very interesting idea. Although I must say as I am currently in education I would want to finish all my education.

 

If i was ever in a position online where I could attempt to start living off the funds then I would still want to be in education.

[psufootball]

Except if you don't have some extra money stored away and run into a bit of bad luck then bad results are guaranteed to follow...

[Jessi]

The point isn't to completely screw yourself. It's to push the limits so you're somewhat forced to work your hardest instead of just seeing it as a hobby or a "whatever" sort of thing.

[Victor Leigh]

I have a better way to force myself to think long term.

 

1. Get a wife.

2. Have a child.

3. If Number 2 doesn't work, go back to Number 1 and repeat.

 

I am not kidding. During the years that my children were growing up, I was making something like ten times what I am making now.

 

Children are both a motivation and a compulsion. When you work hard and you can get the money to buy something for your children, the joy you see on their faces makes you want to work harder.

 

On top of that, children cannot be put on hold. They will grow with every passing second and you have no choice but to keep on increasing your income to catch up with their growing cost of upkeep.

[ljepilo]

Why would we want to force ourselves to think long term if we don't want that ?

[Thomas]

Interesting idea Victor Leigh if only all of us could just have kids to start thinking long term.

 

After reading this post yesterday I have actually started to think long term. My latest purchase a VOIP server I have bought for 12 months. That should give me the drive.

[Jessi]

Why would we want to force ourselves to think long term if we don't want that ?

 

Then don't....but most of us would kinda like to make money with what we're doing.

[ljepilo]

Then don't....but most of us would kinda like to make money with what we're doing.

I would like to make money on long term,but thinking long term is just way too hard for me lol.

[SpikeTheLobster]

I would like to make money on long term,but thinking long term is just way too hard for me lol.

 

You don't have to think long-term... you just have to NOT think short-term.

 

Excellent quote from one of those dodgy self-help people goes like this: "It's amazing how little you can achieve in a week... and how much you can achieve in a year." You can replace "week" and "year" with any two time periods, pretty much.

 

The trick with earning - especially online earning - is to not stop. I can almost guarantee that all the people who say it's impossible have switched and changed between ideas, started blogs and abandoned them, set things up and walked away, joined schemes and dropped out... they've never stuck to anything.

 

At the start of this year, I made the decision to stick with stuff (and invested a couple of thousand dollars in sites, which is a GREAT incentive). It's now May and I've just passed the AdSense cashout point. Nothing remarkable but already things are looking better than when I was dithering around doing a bit of this and a bit of that. Yes, the income's dropped to almost nothing compared to when I was actively freelancing but it's constantly growing and it's ALL MINE and all residual.

 

All being achieved by simply NOT thinking "I'm bored of this, I think I'll do something different."

[Jessi]

You don't have to think long-term... you just have to NOT think short-term.

 

Excellent quote from one of those dodgy self-help people goes like this: "It's amazing how little you can achieve in a week... and how much you can achieve in a year." You can replace "week" and "year" with any two time periods, pretty much.

 

Exactly! Even if you don't want to think about having the same site for 10 years, you can at least think in a slightly longer term of "a year," for example. Anything that sets you up to actually put effort in instead of tossing it aside like a random hobby that means nothing.

 

The trick with earning - especially online earning - is to not stop.

 

Oh so true.... /sighs

[Hardison]

The benefits of thinking long term are great, but they can also increase the tendency to procrastinate. I do like the idea of renewing a domain for longer than one year. Ten years seems a bit too much for me right now, but I can realistic see registering 3 to 5 years at a time. This would definitely force me to make a commitment.

 

I think I'll pass on getting a husband and having children. That's too much of a commitment for me.