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Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

Ha! It's probably my favorite book. :)

http://www.imlivin.com/wp-content/up...r-Workweek.jpg

It changed how I did business online.

And whenever I need new ideas I can pick it up and within a few minutes of reading.. the ideas just flood in..

I strongly recommend.

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

My competitors make me motivated when i start losing wish of working hard.Seeing they make good money and selling more than me gives me an ambition and makes me stronger so i take a step to do something better than them to be one step ahead of them.Competitors always good to have to sharpen your trading skills.

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

Fantastic thread! I've worked soley online more than 10 years now and I've always been vunerable to the ebbs & flows of motivation, dependant on personal pressures and levels of success online at any given moment. I wish I had more to add to this thread but for now, at least, I'm just gunna try and steal some of your suggestions!

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

As cliche as it sounds, exercising first thing in the morning really keeps me focused and motivated for the day. Exercising 45 minutes to an hour a day, bringing the heart rate up and gets you sweating a bit.

Also chasing Pokemon while I jog around the neighborhood is a good relaxer.. Lol.

http://www.instagram.com/p/BIEMT1GD0jd/

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

Aspkin your goal is to have a pokemon named after you...

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

I don't know if I should laugh or cry, Bigboss.

But I agree with the exercising part- I wake up and make myself a cup of tea, sit in my garden for a minute and "wake up" and once I've drank my tea I spend about 20 minutes just stretching and doing some ****ty version of Yoga- I've never done yoga, but I'd like to think that my stretching is similar to it!

Just to get the body moving, you know, just to crack some joints and get the body moving. Few kettlebell swings just to loosen up and perhaps a bit of a jumprope IF I'm awake enough. Most days I'm not.


People drink coffee, tea and redbull to "wake up" and get going, but never focus on the physical side of how they feel- Body itself needs to be feeling good also, its super important.


Oh, once all of that is done I usually have a seriously cold shower and hate myself for it. I do a bit of breathing excercises and then I'm ready to take on the world.
**** Rocky, I've got that ancient samurai mindset going.:amen:

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

Also, one of the cool things I did this summer myself was change my selling category.

The category that I sell in, I'm pretty good at- I have suppliers, I make steady money and I keep it ticking over without major problems.
After a while, it gets kind of boring- There is not that much excitement involved anymore and it felt like a real job.... I hate real jobs.

SO, what I decided was to find myself a hobby that I can profit from and so I decided to sell on Etsy.
Handmade goods, everything made from scratch and all original ideas.
Totally different from my eBay selling ways, as I make everything myself and its totally different market and a product.

Instead of trying to find suppliers who sell me something for THE lowest, I now need suppliers who can provide me with BEST raw materials.

Instead of trying to compete with competition prices, I now need to create my own pricing system.

Instead of trying to process(Clean, check for condition, take photo, create listing) 20-60 unique items a day to get everything up ASAP, I now focus on ONE item at a time and make sure that I represent myself as well as I can.

Instead of having "those Monday mornings" after weekend sales, where I need to send invoices and pack/ship 80 items, I now pack couple of things from weekend sales and write personal note to each buyer on a "thank you" card.


I still have my eBay business ticking over nicely, it hasn't gone anywhere but starting Etsy has really given me something different to work on and what started off just as a hobby, is not generating me profit and whats most important: It doesn't feel like a job. It feels more personal, more rewarding and because I do it all myself I feel that I can take my "brand" further than I would be able in eBay- The ceiling is a lot higher when I do something myself, rather than just re-sell on eBay like many others.

For me it wasn't about money, it was about change and somehow I'm now making quite a bit of money doing it as well!
Change is always good, change brings new ideas. If you put yourself in new situations as a person, you can only grow- Keep pushing yourself and set yourself up to fail, only to learn how to come out of these situations and learn as you go along. Don't be afraid to try something new- New is scary because its the unknown.

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

i don't get why everyone is saying money shouldn't be a motivator. when my sons mom left me it was because my business at the time wasn't making **** and she was making 50k a year at her job and he mom would tell her daily that i wasn't good enough for her. well she got married to a coworker so i made myself a goal of making more money than both of them combined. 2nd year of online sales and i pretty much did it between ebay sales and private sales on paypal. made me feel good. plus taking my current girlfriend and her daughters to Disneyland 2 times within a year was very rewarding. might sound shallow but to me money is the only motivator, but then again i make my own products and i am pretty selfless with my income. as long as my woman and her girls are taken care of i am happy. we are expecting a baby boy in December and ive been banned from paypal for 2 weeks now with no income and 3k locked up for 6 months.

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

Selling on Ebay and Amazon changed my life, no matter how much sh*t they give me, they still enabled me to live a location independent lifestyle. In fact I would say it's one of the best location independent gigs out there.

As I spend time in cheap countries, as long as that foreign currency is coming in then it's happy days.

Now, that office job I had in London... i lost motivation as soon as I sat down in the morning

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

Travel coupled with the foreign currency is nicely explored by you sax4 :thumb:

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

I definitely agree with you sax4. I pretty much live overseas for the same reasoning you've mentioned.

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

Where do you live now sax4? Ubaida?

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

I spend a lot of my time in Eastern Europe

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

Most of my time in Jordan.

A dollar goes far in a third world country.

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

Do you guys sell on to American markets or are you selling in the country you reside in? Ubaida, Jordan safe? Being near Iraq, Syria, etc.

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

US eBay is where I sell with a trusted friend/partner to ship for me. I don't think there is even eBay here.
Jordan is pretty safe but crazy when I pause and think about how close war is.
I live/lived in NC, it weird to think war would be as close as Virginia. However, live goes on.

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

not in America ;-)

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

Tell me about it.

I used to pay rent around 1k for an apt which is on the low end. My living expenses for my whole family is 1k including $200 for rent.

I definitely miss things in the states when I'm here and vice versa. But overall, I think its worth sacrificing those things for less stress and minimal bills.

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

Good to get away time to time

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

Nice bump rsot :heh:

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

Learn more go to school play more, all that energy you amass will renew your vigour and shake off the stress that comes with the monotony of ebay trading. Yes, part of your frustration is originating from repeating the same souless task over and over again. Also try to find fulfillment in the fulfillement of your customers. Atleas that keeps me going

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

I think you should always mix things up, change things. If you keep doing the same thing over and over again, it doesn't matter when, but you will get bored eventually. However when you do multiple things at the same time. You'll find it's harder to get bored very quickly.

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

Depends where you are.. some places are nicer than others.

Coming back from India about a week ago, I would not recommend it for location independent work. :)

Thailand is pretty nice with good Internet though.

Come to think about it I actually save money traveling (cost of living is so much lower in east asian countries *mostly).

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

Was in Sri Lanka recently, fantastic country, internet also sucks, although I had a few good connections in some places

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

I've been sooo disappointed by TH... so corrupted and it seems like milking the white-man is the official sport there.

But yeah cheap like hell and such good food !

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

I set goals, like say I was to visit X country. I will surround myself with videos, pictures, stories of what goes on in X country and it will motivate the hell out of me to raise the funds to go.

I just got back from Thailand, ill be going again in 2 months. For me, just going is enough motivation for me to work my balls off to be able to enjoy visits their multiple times a year.

Really? I just got back from Pattaya. I cant say I had 1 issue with ANYBODY or ANYTHING, including the police. Maybe I was lucky, but then again.. People who rent bikes in foreign countries with no license wonder why they get conned by the old bill?

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

wow, reading this I need to travel outside the US more. I've only been to Spain, Russia, Germany, Italy, Mexico and the Caribbean. I really want to visit South African, Brazil, and Australia next...

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

Where do you guys find your living accom and get to know if it is a safe neighbourhood and so forth, abroad, I used to travel lower rent when younger but have an aversion to dodgier people as I get older......

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

My main goal for selling is simply taking care of my parents and making their life easier as they stuck by me all my life. After that, paying the bills and my hobby spending is all I really got going on. I'm a pretty chill person with this. I enjoy the stuff I make/sell and can enjoy my geeky hobbies while doing so.

Oh, and thanks for the tip on the 4-hour workweek book Aspkin. I have a copy waiting at the library. Some fresh ideas and motivation is welcome!

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

Airbnb is decent, although expensive.

I like to rent monthly apartments, I will message them and ask what is their lowest price.

For daily apartment rentals I tend to use booking.com, very straightforward, prices a little high also

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

I just love eBay b/c I can buy and sell things that I am interested in and become a bit of an expert in the products. I also have extra money to spend and not have to touch my paycheck from work.

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

Hi Aspkin,

What happened to the Six Figure Boss?

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

I believe he said it was being being updated. He's always busy with many projects so he took it off the market for the time being while he works on an upgraded and updated version.

If I'm misquoting you Aspkin I do apologize.

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

making money, buy car buy house, lol....

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

Do it up proper.

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

I suffer from anxiety and depression so loosing motivation is something that happens to me often. The way I snap myself out of it is by "firing myself up." I remind myself that I can't afford to give up, it simply is not an option for me. The world is a competitive place and for me to survive I cannot allow myself to not do anything. Time is money, and the more time I waste is potential money I could have earned.

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

Fueled by sheer hate for eBay I'm really motivated to have a perfect account with no limits or ties to anything of the past, being a millionaire and locating my mail order bride at some point.

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

I usually start off by getting butt naked in my living room and getting a jar of maple syrup and rub it all over my body and my nipples. I then get a dozen Hmong dwarves from the Malaysian forest to lick off the maple syrup from both my nipples and buttcrack while i sit and get completely aroused while watching the womens ice skating competition in my super ghetto run down home.:au:

works.........everytime.....

https://i0.wp.com/gifrific.com/wp-co...rman.gif?ssl=1

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

Women figure skaters proudly thank you for the support :thumb:

Re: How to Stay Motivated
 

A thousand hamsters groaned. Trite post time again.

:pound: