This post was most recently updated on August 6th, 2016
Wherever you’re at with your online business, you must focus daily on Getting To The Next Level.
You see, if you’re not stretching to reach the next level, then you’re shrinking into complacency.
I’ve seen many entrepreneurs come online to set the world on fire.
I’ve had them as students and coaching clients.
I’ve known them as peers and associates.
One thing I’ve seen repeatedly is that those who keep burning with desire for getting to the next level are the ones who succeed.
Those who are content with the gains they’ve made, and decide to just coast along doing the same thing every day, are the ones who never get far, or collapse altogether.
Playing On A Level Field
Everybody wants to play on a level field.
They want things fair and equitable so that everyone does well, and we all congratulate each other in our abundant success.
The very concept of success, though, requires that we abandon the mythical “level field.”
There can be no success unless there is failure.
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The periods that we stand still on a motionless, “level field” are few, and they don’t last but for a moment.
Most of the time, we are either striving to do better, or acquiescing into ordinariness.
When we’re not striving to be excellent, we are accepting being average.
There are level fields, but most of the time we are either climbing mountains or descending into pits of failure.
Rinse and Repeat
I think part of the problem is that we are always told to do something that works really well, then “rinse and repeat.”
In other words, get good at something, then do it over and over again, ad nauseum.
This will increase our success through the sheer virtue of repeating a “proven tactic.”
Now, I’ll admit, there are certain things we need to do in our business that must be done repetitively.
Every day, we need to work to get subscribers.
But we don’t need to use the same method day in and day out.
At some point, it gets old.
We need to take our business to a new level by finding better ways to pull people onto our email list.
It might require something as simple as a new squeeze page, or a new software program.
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It might be as complex as understanding the evolving nature of internet marketing, why the old methods we used are no longer as effective, and how new ones have the potential to improve our rate of conversion.
The rinse and repeat works only as long as we have no need for getting to the next level.
Familiarity
Another thing that blocks us from getting to the next level is that we are prone to doing familiar things.
Doing what we know, and perhaps what has worked well in the past, puts us into a comfort zone.
We can write a blog post, syndicate it to Facebook and Twitter, reply to our comments, and visit our commenters on their blogs.
Doing this repeatedly will start to drive an increasing amount of traffic to our blog.
But doing it more and more, over and over again will start to have diminishing returns over time.
One reason is that we’ll tend to go to get the same visitors repeatedly, as we will tend to visit a regular blog roll that we’ve earmarked for the implementation of this strategy.
While we can get very comfortable by repeating a tactic that we’re familiar with, and maybe even enjoy, the search engine bots see this activity as repetitive and therefore of less page rank value than if were were continually getting unique visits from a growing range of followers.
This is just one little example of how familiarity, while comfortable, usually reaches a point at which it is not going to be helping us improve our business. It might not even be sufficient for us to maintain it on that mythical “level field.”
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Don’t forget that one of the big reasons you probably became an online entrepreneur to begin with, was to avoid the world of routine work, a 9 to 5 job, largely because it kept us in comfort while robbing us of adventure and creative thrust.
You escaped that once, don’t let yourself slide back into it within the confines of your own online business.
Comfort is always ordinary and average, and it leads to stagnation.
Strive to challenge yourself, embracing discomfort and rising to next level that is entirely extraordinary, above average and leads to growth and expansion.
Getting To The Next Level
Those who will excel are those who refuse to slide into the ordinary. Whatever once ignited their zeal to get out of the world of the ordinary, must continually keep those fires burning.
These are the people who will stretch their limits, break through whatever boundaries make them ordinary, and always seek excellence in everything they do.
They will never be complacent, satisfied or content with their achievement.
Nor will they shrink from their failures, many of which every great success will endure.
Now, let’s take one brief moment to talk about “getting to the next level” might actually look like.
Let’s take blogging for an example, here.
Say you’re a blogger but you don’t know how to build an email list.
Learning how to integrate an opt-in form on your sidebar would help you to start building an email list.
This would be an example of “getting to the next level.”
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Let’s say you have an opt-in form on your sidebar and you’ve been very slowly building an email list with it. But it’s not enough, and it’s not fast enough.
Learning to create a more compelling lead magnet (the free thing people get in exchange for joining your email list), could be another example of “getting to the next level.”
Let’s say you’ve got a great lead magnet, and you’re pulling subscribers onto your list, but they’re not converting into buyers once they get there.
Learning how to use content upgrades on your blog will improve your conversion rate.
Learning to create a better email sequence for people who sign up would also improve that rate.
Redirecting new subscribers instantly to a special offer would also improve that rate.
All these things are examples of “getting to the next level” using just this one tiny example.
If you don’t know how to do these things, make it your business to learn how, or hire a good coach who can help you out.
Let nothing stand in your way.
That’s the way to move from ordinary to a high level of success and achievement.
Are you desirous of getting to the next level?
Or are you still trying to establish a baseline foundation for your business, one from which you hope to build on more aggressively in the near future?
Are you anxious to move beyond your comfort zone, or are you content in seeking a plateau that would allow you to simply do the same things you’re doing now.
I’d like to hear your comments below.
And if you’re looking for someone to help you get to the next level in your business, do let me know either in the comments below, or by using my private contact form.
-Donna
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