"Almost all of those eBooks about making money online have one solution in common. In order to succeed online, you have to create and sell your own information products.That is it in a nutshell.Write your own eBooks and sell them.Best of all, get OTHERS to sell them." (email from Paula Brett, Mon, Apr 12, 2010.Paula is the wonderful Helpdesk person for those doing John Thornhill's Masterclass - something I strongly recommend you do.Finding a product has been by biggest anxiety and 'discourage-er' in my online marketing efforts.All the ramifications are mind-blowing.One I tried was reviewing and recommending various guitar courses.Using PPC I even got on page 1 of Google.No sales.Best keywords for Do-It-Yourself? No sales.Etc.Now I have thought of 'it' - I am an expert when it comes to knowing how it feels to be anxious, so my 'it' is "Anxiety".Having decided the material just keeps leaping out at me.It is the same as when somebody says have you seen the new red Volkswagen - suddenly there are new red Volkswagens everywhere.I communicated my plan to my fellow Masterclass students.The encouraging comments and actual material I can use (the anxieties of Masterclass-ers) just keep coming.Next there was an interesting article in the Brisbane Courier Mail entitled "Anxiety can serve us well" (April 6, 2010).Since the Courier Mail is a Rupert Murdoch paper the article may have appeared in London, New York and Moscow too for all I know.Since I thought it a good article I will discuss it here.The author is Barton Goldsmith.There was no further information on Barton in the paper, but, in the Google age I soon found the following.."Dr Barton Goldsmith is a California-based marriage and family therapist and the author of Emotional Fitness at Work.".He begins by saying "Many people think they should live anxiety-free.Not so.Anxiety is part of the human condition.".He goes on to cover the following ideas..It is important to remember (anxiety-creating) challenges lead to growth and development as human beings.(My thought. I guess we were all anxious about leaving our mothers on our first day of school.If we had not met and overcome this anxiety I suppose we would remain emotional 5-year-olds).Anxiety lets us know when something is not quite right for us.(Bit tricky, this one.When is it 'not quite right' and when are we just 'chickening out').The trick is to learn to use anxiety in positive ways.The first thing is to imagine what the payoff will be when you surmount this challenge.(This relates to what Dr.Dyer has been saying in his book "Excuses Begone!).Feeling excited/scared can be fun.Think of dates when you were young or going on certain rides in a fun park.This is definitely anxiety most of us enjoy.But if we are anxious pretty much the whole time it is a different story and we should do something about it.(My problem for most of my adult life, but definitely not something we were encouraged to 'do something about'.The family doctor would just tell you to get on with life, which I guess is pretty good advice anyway, but it would have been nice to have been given a few strategies for doing this).Your confidence can be shaken to the core and you can be blinded by fear.Dr Goldsmith says one of the best tools for dealing with this is to imagine the worst, then the best, then imagine what is most likely to happen and hold onto that thought.When anxiety strikes remember that you have dealt with similar occurrences before and that you have the tools to get through this one.Sit down, take a few deep breaths and think through what is worrying you.Chances are you already have the answers you need and when you calm down you will see them.(When I think one of my chief anxieties in life - not enough money - I can see that nothing really bad has happened because of lack of money.I have never been hungry, never lost my house, etc.So what has been the use of my anxiety?).Really we should almost embrace anxiety, I guess, because without it life would be flat and meaningless and boring.Embracing it in the right way is the trick, I am sure.We need the right strategies.And since some people say they do not suffer much from anxiety what can we learn from these and experts such as Dr Wayne Dyer? Plenty.He has seven questions for ridding ourselves of an excuse-ridden (and anxious) life.I thoroughly recommend you read the book because an in-depth look at his seven questions is beyond the scope of this essay.However, here are the questions..1) Is it true? He suggests the vast majority of the thoughts that run through our minds each day are untrue (especially those we use to make excuses).He gives ways of riding ourselves of these thoughts.2) Where did the excuses come from? He says we should identify the source of our excuses and cut ourselves off from it.3) What is the payoff? We find we get some kind of payoff from using these excuses, such as not 'really' failing.We need to eliminate it.4) What would my life look like if I could not use these excuses? This one is fairly self-explanatory, I think.5) Can I create a rational reason for change? He gives four criteria. (i) it must make sense; (ii) It must be doable (iii) It must allow you to feel good.(iv) It must be aligned with the callings of your soul.6) Can I access universal cooperation in shedding old habits? Dr Dyer says the 'Cardinal Virtues' that come from God are..A) Reverence for life.B) Natural sincerity.C) Gentleness.D) Supportiveness.We need to strive to make these part of our being.7) Having 'made it' how do I continuously reinforce this new way of being? Again, self-explanatory, I think.Of course I can only give you the barest bones on what Dr Dyer has to say.I really do recommend you buy his books for yourself.The two I have read (and am reading) are available from Amazon and you can find them on my blog.I will have my book ready by the end of June on how to deal with your anxiety.I intend to then turn it into a video and set up a membership site (since I think anxiety is a lifelong affair, 'treatment' needs to be ongoing).You can check on progress by going to my blog address.Of course, there are a million books and articles on anxiety and how to deal with it.Will mine be any different or better?Yes - it will be my relationship with the reader, and that will be unique.Paul.
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