Yes, I must admit it: I try to do too much.
As a result, I tend to spread myself too thin and take on more tasks than I can accomplish in the time I have.
Maybe you are like me, at least to some degree.
I'm not extraordinarily bad at anything I try, and I'm not extraordinarily good at anything, either. As a result, I do lots of different things to see what works best.
It's not that I don't have a good attention span. I can sit here for hours working on a project, if I find it interesting.
I don't have any problem saying "no" to anyone who tries to pull me in a direction I don't want to go.
It's just that I like learning new things and exploring new ways to promote myself and others on the Internet, and that's like chasing a finishing line that keeps moving forward, just slightly faster than I can run.
It's not such a problem when things are going smoothly, but it can be a huge problem when things start going wrong.
I just went through more than a year like that.
At the end of 2005, I had lots of blogs and websites that were working for me, night and day.
Then, I had several websites and blogs hacked. Literally, overnight, they ceased to function and became an obstacle to moving ahead.
In December 2005, I had a problem with Blogger.com. I was writing two dozen blogs there, and one morning I found that their new software had identified me as a splogger (spam blogger) because I started a new blog devoted closely to one topic. The next thing I knew, I wasn't able to post to my blogs. I would contact support and one person would whitelist my account and a couple of days latter another would blacklist me.
I never understood why.
But, I just didn't have the time nor patience to put up with that nonsense, so I spent most of the following year finding the best blogging platforms for me to use.
I closed most of my blogs and now concentrate on three or four.
I repaired the hacked websites and deleted the ones I couldn't fix and rebuilt them.
During the middle of last year, I encountered another round of hacking on my sites.
I had one blog that I couldn't upgrade, for some reason. I couldn't repair one of my hacked blogs.
As the year progressed, I was running in circles trying to fix things rather than focusing on marketing and helping others.
Finally, in January, 2007, I realized I was on a treadmill leading to nowhere.
So, I spent a couple of weeks looking at all I was doing and made the difficult decision to close down and delete everything that was distracting me from my main marketing efforts.
I closed about 50 websites, blogs, and forums and deleted most of them.
I just finished moving 21 websites from three different accounts onto a new server at
HostGator.com.
Why HostGator? Because they offer lots of storage and bandwidth at a very good price. Their servers are fast and they keep the software updated. I have had very good results when I contact their support - the responses have been quick and accurate. That's what I want from a hosting service.
I initially tested them by hosting
Murphy NC Business and
21st Century Articles.
Because of my good experiences with HostGator and my less-than-stellar experiences with my other hosting services, I decided to move most of my remaining sites to one of their servers. It has taken about a week, and has been easier than I expected. Even my very large sites with multiple scripts have transferred well. I've been able to correct broken scripts, update blog scripts, and more - things that were frustrating me because my previous hosts didn't offer the latest updates or the support staff did not fix problems when needed.
As a result of all this work over the last few months, my life is suddenly much easier and less stressful.
All my blogs are updated to the newest scripts. Now, I can concentrate on writing for them rather than behind-the-scenes maintenance.
I don't like having all my sites on one server - this is a single source of failure, but I'm willing to take the chance because it makes my life easier.
Actually, this isn't a single source of failure, because I still have a couple of blogs, forums, and one website hosted elsewhere.
The point of relating these experiences is that I tried to do too much, I spread myself too thin, and when problems occured, they weren't a mere distraction that could be solved in a few minutes or hours. They became huge obstacles that dragged on for months and sapped my enthusiasm and creativity.
Having worked around these problems, I now feel much better and look forward to passing along things I've learned.
It would have been easy to quit, but that would not have gotten me to where I want to be. So, I made difficult decisions, shut down sites I liked (but weren't taking me closer to my goals), and now I've reached a place where I'm productive, again.
I'll probably continue to try new things and maybe I'll spread myself too thin now and then, but I'm going to keep my eyes on my goal. If something isn't taking me closer to achieving my goals, I'll change or drop it and keep moving forward.
How about you?
What do you do when you encounter obstacles?
I'll enjoy reading your comments.
Act on your dream!
JD
-- Edited by JohnDilbeck at 12:56, 2007-04-20
