You’ve got to fall before you hit the bottom, and sometimes that fall can be a hell of a ride.
A week ago I purchased a book. It was only 132 pages short. It took me 8 hours to finish it but reading it was like being punched in the face by Mike Tyson
That book totally blew my mind.
I’ve read that book 3 times in 5 day’s, and every damn time it punched me again. Hard. But I love that book, and I hope you’ll get it (you can find it on ebay) and read it, get punched and beaten. You can thank me later :)
The model this book proposes is the model of the amateur and the professional.
The thesis of this book is that what ails you and me has nothing to do with being sick or being wrong. What ails us is that we are living our lives as amateurs.
My name is Dimitry and I celebrated my 35th birthday this year. I’ve born in old good USSR, grew up in Israel and now I live in Canada with my amazing girlfriend Anna.
Here we are :)
And here's my story...
I’ve always been very curious and ambitious person, can’t even count all the great ideas and breakthroughs :). Making money online, being able to run the online business and become location independent was always my wettest dream.
I’ve started new projects, made my commitments but always it’s either a new shiny object appeared and took all of my attention or some other kinds of distractions occurred in my life.
I started on the journey of becoming full time digital information marketer on October 1st, 2011.
My goal was to establish an online business, that at the beginning makes 100$ a day net profit from selling information products as affiliate, and I had to make it in 6 month. It was perfect timing, I quit my job at that time and had all the time and financial backup.
It wasn’t easy though, I had ( and still have) lots of weaknesses: poor english, lack of writing skills, technical weaknesses ( HTML and WORDPRESS were words from another universe for me ) but I kept learning and working every damn day, and after 3 months of hard work I made significant progress.
Still remember my first conversion :))))
First 30$ commission I made. It was such a great feeling to see how something you worked on for months actually works... then was another one and another one and more... I made around 800$ in total.
It was less then I spent on traffic but money wasn't even an issue at that point :)
My copy writing actually worked, I just had to make it profitable by adjusting the traffic and continue to write and to get better on it.
I was very close to success, now I know that most of people dropped out in much earlier stages
But then something happened, something personal in my life. It took all of my power and attention… again.
Yep, that personal thing was my excuse... I had more than one… :) the more time passed the more excuses I had why I am not doing what I am suppose to do to achieve my goal.
This short video frames EVERYTHING
Distractions.
Displacement activities
I allowed to those distractions to take me off the course,
to take me off the course after the most difficult part of the way is almost passed,
to take me off the course for the 4 damn years!!!
I lived my life as an amateur
When we’re living as amateurs, we’re running away from our calling -- meaning our work, our destiny, the obligation to become our truest and highest selves
Turning pro is free, but it’s not easy.
It’s not without cost.
When we turn pro, we give up a life with which we may have become extremely comfortable.
Turning pro is free, but it demands sacrifice.
The Life of Amateur vs Pro
An amateur checks email, Facebook, and Twitter first thing in the morning. The professional avoids them at all cost (until her most important work is done).
A pro shows up in the morning, sits down, and gets busy. An amateur sleeps in, or gets up early but has other things to do before the work.
A pro works.
An amateur tweets.
An amateur constantly seeking out new shiny objects before art can be created, value delivered and money generated.
A professional understands that he already knows enough to move forward, because momentum is the lifeblood of any creative endeavor. It’s where magic happens.
An amateur is stopped by their fears, lives for the opinion of others, is easily distracted, seeks instant gratification, lacks self-compassion, seeks permission, and will be ready tomorrow.
The difference between an amateur and a professional is in their habits. An amateur has amateur habits. A professional has professional habits.
A pro creates habits to enable success in the daily battle against Resistance.
An amateur shows up on occasion. A professional shows up every f-cking day.
A professional recognizes that sources of distraction are toxic rocket fuel for Resistance.
An amateur treats the deal she made with herself as a negotiable contract. A professional abides by the terms of the contract.
Reading this far, you KNOW whether you’re an amateur or a pro.
Turning pro is a DECISION.
It’s a decision to move from one list to the other. Just a decision… Just like losing weight or quitting smoking. It only takes deciding, then doing the hard work.
Steven Pressfield, the author of the book, claims that, as a pro, most days you win the daily battle with Resistance. You kick its ass. You show up and get to work
But some days you lose the battle. You succumb to procrastination, or perfectionism, or self-doubt. And you get beaten to shit. It’s painful and frustrating, but you know, as a professional, getting your ass handed to you is only temporary.
Now I know that to defeat Resistance, to not operate like an amateur, I enlist the self-strengthening habits of routine, consistency, discipline, and a constant striving to “level up” my game, to get better, to ship value worth shipping.
IF YOU’RE STILL reading this page, you’re probably a lot like me. You’re a writer or an artist or an entrepreneur who’s trying to figure out:
- how to GET BETTER at creating, delivering and capturing value.
- how to GET BETTER at behaving and operating more as a professional (and less like an amateur).
Turning Pro is About Deciding That It’s Time To Put On Your BIG BOY Pants And Do The Work.
Steemit
As an amateur I made the decision to do what’s needed to become a professional. Even though it’s hard. And even though the seas are filled with Somali pirates.
At the same day I made that decision, I discovered Steemit.
Is it a sign? A sign for an amateur that he shouldn’t go it alone? Going it alone may give to Resistance a better chances to win some days—so amateur would rather be surrounded with peers.
Or is it a sign for stepping out of the comfort zone of anonymity, hopefully inspire others to take seriously whatever they do, being of value to others who might benefit from my experience along the way?
I don’t know it yet. I'm not that kind of person who is trying to find a mystery in everything around but the fact that you actually getting paid on the spot for creating value will definitely contribute for my daily battle against Resistance so the timing is kinda good :)
In a meanwhile I’m starting to get busy... Really busy...