But it can be one of the most crucial factors when determining how productive you’ll be in life. For instance, if your goal is to succeed in any way with an online business, having the right discipline will inevitably be the deciding factor that makes or breaks you.

Self-discipline is basically everything. You either take action to make things happen for you or you don’t. It’s as simple as that. There is no in-between thinking.

It’s your ideas-your creativity-your time and effort

When working for someone else, you typically follow a schedule or routine. You get up every morning, have something to eat, prepare yourself, and rush to work. Upon arriving at work your daily routine is filled with certain assignments and tasks that need to done.

However, if you fall behind or become distracted and fail to complete these tasks, negative complications could result. You could easily be given a warning, reprimanded or even fired. Fortunately, though, there’s a human emotion called fear that often rescues us from facing many of these situations. It generally provides a level of motivation (and can even spark your creativity) that helps keep us in line with many of those things that need to be done.

Self-discipline comes from results and outside sources

When you work online as an online marketer, you’re in charge, you make the decisions and you take action. Nobody else tells you what to do. The rules and tasks of your business are set forth by you. That’s one of the benefits of being an entrepreneur, freedom. Of course, you still need some kind of schedule, plan and basic routine for yourself and your online business.

Let’s face it, even though you have an online business, it’s still a business and certain obligations, tasks, routines and goals need to be met and accomplished. If you fail to get these things done, it could end up costing you in the long run. That’s why it’s important to have some kind of plan, not just an idea, but a direction, something that you will follow and maintain.

You may not have a boss that’s constantly reminding you to get things done, but just remember, it still requires a great deal of commitment. Besides that, if you’re not following through and getting things done, you’ll eventually run into a number of issues and negative outcomes, especially if you’re not watching your progress and results.

Focus

If you intend to make money online, your goal should be selling more products versus that of buying. For simplicity sake, the idea is to become somewhat of a producer and not a consumer. A huge mistake that many beginning internet marketers make is buying up every new product that is promoted.

Sure, some products can be useful in learning new techniques and methods. There’s no arguing that. Yet, many individuals will do more buying instead of taking action. If that’s the case, incorporate more discipline to help you take action on the products you buy. Without any kind of discipline, you’ll eventually end up spending more of your hard-earned money that you probably don’t have on many products that you don’t need.

Within the internet marketing sphere this is often referred to as – SOS. It’s the shiny object syndrome. It’s where online marketers chase all the new products that are being introduced and promoted. All the new ideas or the new tools that are going to make you or anyone else rich. Unfortunately, it’s just another way to describe lack of focus.

What if you made the decision not to purchase any additional products, at least until you’ve had a chance to work with the ones that you’ve already acquired. Just remember, that means no more additional purchases until you’re caught up. Now, if you’re the sort of person that just gives in or is easily tempted by some offers, it usually spells your lack of discipline and basically requires more focus and attention.

Your level of focus

Online marketing can often be challenging, overwhelming, and most of all time consuming. This is especially true for many people starting out. A lot of the professed gurus within the industry will have you believing that everything is push button simple. Yet-

• how many of them began their online journey without a clue?
• How many of them started out making mistakes?
• How many of them tried to do everything on their own?

What many of them don’t fully explain are the available resources they now have. The ability to hire or contract with outside sources that can help them complete their tasks. It’s also important to add that they utilize a variety of systems that help to maintain proper functioning of their operations.

To be at this level could take time, at least for many people. Beginning online marketers will often spend countless hours staring at their computer screen, and to what end.

Yes, discipline is a key factor that will help you to remain focused. But more importantly, it will make sure that you are setting aside time to do other things in your life. Think about it, your relationships, friendships, and your personal time. These all matter and are crucial if you expect to be successful online.

You shouldn’t spend time trying to reinvent the wheel. While many online marketers are busy building a business, so many more are continuously complaining of not being able to complete projects. When in fact, if they’d just focus on what they are doing and spend more time being productive, they would soon discover how much more was getting done, and in less time.

Once again, think of all the things that keep you from being more productive. Constant interruptions and distractions can vary from needless browsing, email, cell phone, social media, and friends. You’d be shocked at all the things you can get done if you simply put forth the attention. If you are working, work. Don’t just sit and blindly waste your time.

By now you should understand that self-discipline can be a powerful skill, especially when involved with online marketing. More importantly, it’s how your online business can reach new levels simply by following it.