The first video was easy-peasy lemon-squeezey and you’re busting to get started. In just thirty days you’ll be well on the road to the future that you want!

Won’t you?

Thirty days is a surprisingly long time to stick at something, especially so if things don’t always go to plan.

Here’s one way of improving your chances for success, I hope that you find it useful.

Step One: Decide what success looks like.

Visualise where you want to be in thirty days and picture it in your mind.  Think in terms of “I will be..”, not “I want to be..”

Are you staring proudly at your first $1 commission cheque?

Are you composing an e-mail to your list of 1,000+ subscribers, or tweeting to your 9 billionth follower about just how great your latest product is?

Perhaps you’re simply closing your browser on day thirty-one, jubilant that you’ve finally seen something through (This was mine from 30DC 2008, and it really was awesome!)

Write your goal down somewhere and re-read it often.  Each time your read it imagine just how great it’s going to feel!

Why not comment on this post and share your goal with others?

Step Two: Clear your decks.

Invariably doing something new means not doing something old, unless you’re fortunate enough to have a ton of free time.

Work out what you can live without for just the next thirty days.  Cut television out completely if you can – you’ll be amazed at how much extra time you can free up.

How much time can you realistically commit to per day?  Be realistic about it.

Better to commit to an hour per day and succeed than feel guilty that you’re not hitting your four hour target.

Step Three: Create a to-do list for tomorrow.

Grab your favourite planning tools (mine are a chewed up HB pencil and notebook) and set aside an hour now to decide what you need to do tomorrow.

At this early stage you may not really know what’s next, that’s fine!  Your list for tomorrow can be as simple as:

1. Watch todays video
2. Update my to-do list

The important thing is that you have a plan to follow.

Step Four: Review your to-do list.

At the end of the day, review your list.

Remove things from your list that aren’t going to take you closer to your goal and add the things that will.

Examine anything that you intended to complete today, but didn’t.  Don’t beat yourself up, just work out what held you back and commit to a way to make progress on it tomorrow.

Example problem:

Didn’t setup Google Analytics because don’t understand how to add the tracking code to my blog.

Possible Solution:

Post on the 30dc forums and ask for help.

Update your list to include these new tasks, and decide upon your tasks for tomorrow.

Finish by highlighting the ONE task on your list that you WILL complete tomorrow, no matter what.

Step Five: Complete at least ONE thing from your list EVERY DAY that takes you closer to your goal.

This is it, this is the difference between success and failure.

Ignore the rest of this post if you like, but complete ONE thing from your list EVERY DAY that takes you closer to your goal.

If you do, you’ll get there.  It may take a week, a month, a year, but you’ll get there.

Good luck!