Evolution not revolution

I have to say I’m a little on the stiff side today.

The reason for this is that I ran in the Birmingham Half Marathon yesterday…

…13.1 miles and a bloody great hill for the last few miles.

I finally completed the course in 1 hour 42 minutes, which I was absolutely over the moon about.

(The little dumpy asthmatic 9 year old me who never bettered last but one place in the school cross country was absolutely agog!).

So what has this got to do with your success online?

Well, my success online has big parallels to my success in my running shoes.

The phrase evolution rather than revolution comes to mind.

When I stared running I did about 5km (3 miles) and at less than electric pace.

I then went to 4miles, and then 5 and then 6…etc, etc…you get the picture.

The same happened online.

My list got to 10 subscribers, and then it hit three figures, and then four…etc, etc

…I made my first online sale and I was over the moon, then I made a couple, then I started to regularly making 1 sale a week, then 2 and then 3…etc, etc…you get the picture.

Yes there were things I picked up on the journey that saw a bit of an acceleration in what I was doing…

…The way I swung my arms for example in the running, or the fact I needed a product of my own online.

However it was more about consistently doing the right stuff.

About creating new ‘norms’

Now a 8 or 9 mile run is just something I do regularly and with little thought.

Now I expect to see sales come in most days of the week and income every time I send a mail.

These things almost creep up on you without you even noticing.

These are my ‘norms’ at the moment, however if you’d asked me 3 or 4 years ago, if they were possible, I would have laughed in your face.

Of course in both these worlds, there were times were things seemed to go in reverse for a time.

This year I had issues with my Achilles (which I still have to manage carefully now), which had me not running at all for the best part of a month.

This year I also had a serious issue with hackers playing havoc with my sites, which took me forever to sort out all the issues…

…this was a time where my sales and income dwindled significantly for the best part of a month.

Despite feeling pretty shitty about both of these at the time, I carried on doing the right things.

…and now I and am making more money than ever online and running further and faster than ever.

Am I satisfied with my present norm?

Of course not 🙂

There are already plans afoot to go for the full 26 miles of a marathon next year…

…and to build my business even further to enable my wife to ‘retire’ from work.

Currently these goals are in the ‘hopeful’ stage…

…the stage between ‘laughing in your face’ and ‘expected’ (ie my new ‘norm’).

So in terms of you and your journey, even if your end goal seems a million light years away at the moment, this is just because it hasn’t become your norm yet.

Keep doing the right thing consistently and your ‘norm’ will change.

But don’t necessarily expect to ‘see’ it change.

Remember for most of us, it is a matter of evolution and not revolution.