The other day I was some combination of amused and blown away by Pat Flynn’s recent post called A Day in the Life of Pat. I didn’t really realize how interested I would be in understanding what Pat’s day to day life was like, but upon reflection I realize that I often find myself comparing my business to businesses like Pat’s.

Let me just say up front that I think this is a terrible idea. You should really never spend much time comparing your business to other people’s businesses because circumstances can just be so different and talents vary. The best thing for you to do is to compare your business with what you want your business to be and work to achieve those goals.

The truth is that comparing your business to other people too often can be extremely demotivating because the people that you tend to look up are people that are wildly successful, like Pat.

But I Digress.  Pat's Post Was Interesting.

The reason the blog post was illuminating for me was that I often wonder what it would be like to be working on my internet business full time. As you know, I have a full time job in a very large electronics company and I work on my internet business at night. Very late at night.  Pat, on the other hand, has a full time job working on his internet business - but as it turns out he also works on his internet business at night, which I find quite humorous.

What follows is a mix between what my typical day is and what I would like my typical day to be. What I mean by that is often times I start my day out with the best of intentions only to find out that my schedule is being disrupted by something that is outside of my control. This is pretty normal in a life with four kids, a wife, a dog, a cat, four fish, two turtles, and various other responsibilities that require my attention.

However, I do think it’s pretty interesting to understand the difference between part time internet business and full time internet business. So, I’ve decided to go ahead and create a post that mirrors what Pat created.

My typical day actually varies a lot - but here is a snapshot of a recent day that was pretty normal.

5:00 AM – Typically I’ll get up at 5:00 AM so that I can have a few minutes to myself before my day begins. Like Pat, I make coffee out of my one cup Keurig coffee maker and slug a cup down before I get rolling. Usually I’ll hop in the shower and get ready and be completely dressed and ready for work by 5:45.

5:45 AM – I go upstairs and wake up my two oldest daughters because they go to school pretty far away from my house. That usually takes me about 15 minutes to get them up and running and going, so usually I’m back downstairs by 6:00 AM.

6:00 AM – I try to spend a few minutes on the computer checking social media and doing other things related to my internet business. A lot of times I’ll be logging into forums and responding to blog comments or posting messages on Twitter. I also check my gmail at this time to make sure that no craziness happened over night that needs to be dealt with immediately.  Lately, this has been getting totally interrupted by Zachary.  He gets up really early (today he got up at 5:17) and wants to play.  When faced with a choice between play and work, I choose play.

6:45 AM – I load the kids in the car and we head out for the 30 minute car ride to school. Sometimes we stop to get a bite to eat at Chik-fil-a. The kids are usually dropped off in front of their school by 7:20 AM. At that point I point my car towards my day job and pop in my latest favorite podcast.

7:30 AM – I’m on my way to work by 7:30 every morning and listening to one of the many podcasts that I love, which of course includes Pat’s Smart Passive Income Podcast, the Podcast Answer Man Podcast, The Internet Business Mastery Podcast and various other assorted podcasts that I spend time listening to during my commute.  Right now the Dallas Maverics are making a playoff run, so I also spend some time listening to sports talk radio.

I’ll also often use the time in the car to make phone calls. 7:30 in the morning is the perfect time to call my grandmother. She’s almost 90 years now and lives down in Houston. I don’t know how much longer she’ll be around, so every minute I can spend with her on the phone is a great minute.

8:00 AM – I’m parking my car in the parking garage at my office and I’m ready to start my day. I usually spend the first few minutes of the day looking over my calendar, checking in with my boss’s administrative assistant and doing other organizational tasks trying to get a handle on the day.  I usually have an excellent plan for the day by 8:30, and the plan has almost always totally gone to hell by 9:15

During a typical work day I’ll have three to five one hour long meetings, some longer and some shorter, that I need to attend and contribute to. Often times I’ll spend time preparing for meetings and going to meetings. As a manger, that describes a significant portion of my duties at my day job.  I am a meeting guy (and an email guy).  Whoo hoo!

12:00 Noon – Ready for lunch! If it’s a busy day I’ll eat at my desk and check in on my social media accounts and check my internet business email. Outside of that, I avoid working on any of my internet business related activities while I’m at work. I’m very careful not to use my company’s time and resources to support the growth of my internet business.

As an aside, I think this is a very important idea that internet business people need to consider. Don’t abuse any opportunities that you have to start a part time business while working for a regular employer.  As they say in Ghostbusters, "Don't Cross the Beams!".

1:00 PM – Back at it, more meetings and work until 5:00 PM when I try to head for the door.

5:00 PM – Commute home. There’s quite a bit of traffic in Dallas, but I’m usually home by 5:45, sometimes 6:00 PM if I’m running a little late.

Between 6:00 – 8:00 PM I’m busy bathing children, playing games, eating dinner with the family and doing homework with the kids. Sometimes my wife and I will sit with the kids while they eat dinner and save our own dinner for after the kids have gone to bed.   Feeding Morgan is quite a challenge these days, as she is learning to climb out of the highchair.

Between 8:00 – 10:00 PM I try to spend a little time with wife talking about her day, eating a snack and watching TV. My wife is particularly fond of The Bachelor and Dancing with the Stars, so sometimes I get stuck watching those television shows. Don’t tell anyone.

10:00 PM – I’m ready to go to work on my internet business. If I have any energy left I’ll make it until Midnight, sometimes 1:00 AM. Occasionally I’ll make it later, but I can’t stay up to late because the whole thing starts over again at 5:00 in the morning.

Work On Your Business Every Day

My goal from an internet business standpoint in this schedule is to work two hours per day on my internet business. Sometimes that’s really hard to achieve because by 10:00 PM I’m totally wiped out, but I still do my best to make that happen.

The best way to do that is to avoid the temptation to plop myself on the couch at 10:00 PM and watch the latest episode of NCIS, CSI, Law and Order or one of the other shows that I really like. I particularly like the new Hawaii 5-0 because when I was a kid I used to watch Hawaii 5-0 with my dad, so it has nostalgic appeal in addition to the fact that I think it’s a pretty cool TV show.

Now, this is just a typical schedule and I’ll tell you, almost every day it seems like there’s something that blows it apart. I’ll have a lunch meeting that keeps me from checking in my social media accounts during lunch, or the girls will need their math homework checked and I won’t get to it the night before.  So, I’ll end up having to do it in the morning and I won’t be able to get my email checked in the morning before I go to work.  Sometimes Paula and I will go out on a date on a Tuesday night and we won’t get home until 11:00 PM and I won’t feel like working on my internet business so I’ll just go to sleep (this problem is somehow related to Mexican Food and Tequila).

There’s lots of ways that this schedule gets blown up, but in the end I still try to maintain the target of working on my internet business two hours per day.

I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into my life. It’s a busy one, but I love it.

Have a great day.

People talk about the magic of positive thinking like it is some mystical secret sauce that you can pour on your life to make everything OK. In my experience, nothing could be further from the truth. You cannot just think happy thoughts and have expect success in life and business without work.

However, Positive Thinking is an absolutely critical tool in your Internet Business toolbox. As you know, it takes many tools to be successful on line. If hard work is a hammer, and outsourcing is a power saw, I like to think of Positive Thinking at tape measure. The tape measure does not actually do any work, but it makes sure that the work that you do is according to plan. The tape measure makes sure that things fit together properly.

I am a big believer in the power of positive thinking in life as a tool to keep you focused and motivated -- but I am not an expert. So, I have invited Steve Thomas from Life Change For You to drop by and help us understand how positive thinking can help us in life and in business.  As a favor to me, Steve was willing to share his Tips for Positive Thinking in Internet Business.

Steve has worked in the world of self help and self improvement for over two decades. He has a BA in Business Organization and a Masters of Divinity degree. He is a public speaker and motivator, does a little personal coaching, has a website designed to help people change their lives. He even teaches yoga and meditation in his spare time.

The following article is a guest contribution by Steve.

Will positive thinking help in your internet business as well as in life?

Positive thinking has been around for a very long time. Some might argue that is has always been here in one form or other. We all know that positive thinking helps us in our day to day lives, but will it help you in your internet business. Let me try to convince you that it will.

A quick definition

When I say positive thinking, I don’t mean some Pollyanna way of looking at the world; as if nothing bad ever happens. I don’t know who really lives in that world, but it isn’t me and I doubt it is you.

My definition of positive thinking is looking at situations that come up in our lives and thinking about them in a positive way so that positive results happen. What if your blog completely disappears (it happened to me) how can you make the most of it and if not profit by it, at least learn from it.

Positive thinking as self defense.

I mentioned one scenario of what might happen. If you have been in the world of online marketing for any time at all you know that there is no end to the problems that can come up. Positive thinking and a positive attitude helps you to overcome those problems.

Just this morning I was supposed to record and interview with another online marketer for my podcast. The interview didn’t happen. No one was there when I called. The positive that came from that is that I was able to write this post today instead of tomorrow as I thought I would have to.

What is your biggest challenge? How can you turn it around to make something positive come of it? Are you not where you want to be in business? Why not and what can you do about it?

Positive thinking as a planning tool.

Even when things are going wonderfully, positive thinking can help. Where is it you want to go? Do you want to make a six figure income even if right now you are barely above poverty level? Becoming discouraged when you look at all you have to do to get there will not help. Thinking that you will never learn all you need to learn and that html is from hell itself is not going to take you to your goal.

A positive attitude, thinking positively about what needs to be done will have you plugging away at all that needs to be done and you will be nearing your goal much faster than weeping in your cup. You will believe in yourself or at least believe that those who have gone before know a thing or two and you can learn from them.

Both life and business are not as complicated as we sometimes tell ourselves. It takes a bit of courage and a positive attitude. It takes putting one foot in front of the other until you get where you want to go.

Regards,

Steve

Thanks, Steve!

I recommend that you stop by Life Change For You and learn how to change your life from being what you don’t want to the life you desire.

Have a great day.

photo credit: Melody Campbell

So here is something a little (but not totally) off topic for you.

I get a lot of questions about what I do for a day job.  It's complicated and boring to most people, really.  I think it is really cool.  Basically I work on semiconductor microelectronic research and development.

As it happens, I've also been talking some on this blog recently about the value of partnerships and how they can make the difference in business.

So, I thought you guys might enjoy my presentation on the Silicon Industry Initiative website regarding collaboration in the semiconductor industry.  It's a little bit on the dry side, but gives a peek into my life outside of internet marketing.

Hope you have a great day.

Mark

This is a little off topic for this blog, but I love cool tech stuff, and this is really cool.  I know a lot of you out there are geeks a heart, and we all love to get the best price when we shop.

If this describes you too, you gotta check this out.

Some graduates from my Alma Mater (Texas A&M University) are up for a neat award, and I was hoping some of you would take a minute to vote.

This guy (Rylan Barnes) started up a company that makes software for your mobile phone (think iPhone, Android/G1 etc).  Their first application is out, and it is a killer app!  Totally practical and useful (and really cool).

The app is called ShopSavvy and it uses the camera in your phone to scan the barcode of any product and finds the best prices online and at nearby, local stores!

Check out the company here: biggu.com

Anyway, they've been nominated for the 2008 Crunchies! This is a big deal. It's like winning an Oscar but for a tech startup company. This is only a nomination, though, so they need your vote!

Vote here: http://crunchies2008.techcrunch.com/votes/?nominee_id=85&category_id=16

They are up against some big Silicon Valley competition (like Google) so please spread the word. Blog it, twitter it, tell your facebook friends! Vote every day! They'll take all the help they can get.

Thanks!

Regards,

Mark