Picture @Invest NOW
Listen to the Podcast.
I have been playing with the idea of maybe doing a drop shipping business for some time now, but I just cannot get myself to do it. Now, I do want to thank some of you that have reached out to me with other opportunities, it is amazing what is out there. Now the opportunities that I read about on other blogs, were amazing and make sense. Now, I say this because I have done several businesses over the past thirty years, like a vending machine route, flipping notes, day Trading futures, and so on. Some I am still running while some I have had to drop out of. Moneywise is nothing to write home about, and more than likely the reason for that is the time I must dedicate to the businesses or opportunities. That brings me to my post and possibly the reason – may be an excuse – of why I cannot commit to a drop shipping business or another opportunity, let us see what you think.
I know I sound like I am procrastinating, and maybe my writings sound like a lot of excuses because there are 24 hours in a day and we normally only need 6-8 hours of sleep – I get maybe 4 or 5. So, if I sleep say 6 hours, that would leave me with 18 hours in a day to dedicate to something, whether it is day trading futures or other markets, running a drop shipping business, affiliate marketing, creating content for a blog, a YouTube channel, or a podcast. The thing us I also have a job and a family which I am sure we can all relate, takes quite a bit of time from our days. The goal for me and I am sure it is for many people is to quick the 9-5 job (some of us work more) and dedicate more time to our families. I mean i do enjoy working, the coworkers, the interaction, but I think a lot of the time I am overlooked for certain positions, and even though I don’t mind making other people look good, I would like the opportunity to make a company/business look good.
I am going to put some numbers out there regarding schedules and family life; these numbers reflect my life. So, if there are 24 hours in a day, and I sleep say 6 of those hours, it leaves me with 18 hours. Of those 18 hours, I need 9 hours each day to work my regular job, sometimes more, but I will stick with 9 hours, which leaves me 9 hours for a day. There are a lot of things that happen to me, but I am sure many of you can relate. I have to deal with homework, dinner, house maintenance like cleaning after dinner and picking up clutter around the house. Here is rough breakdown of my daily routine.
- I wake up at 5 am getting ready for work; usually, 40 minutes to get ready and 15 minutes for a commute (includes either coffee, a little news, or reading
- I work my normal job from 6 am to 3 pm
- Drive home about 15 minutes
- Home at 3:15 or so, help with my wife’s business until 4 pm (Yesterday it went to 4:20)
- Homework time depends on the amount of homework, usually an hour which means homework help is over at 5 pm
- 5 pm two things could happen; I try and get in a workout or I write for my blog – sometimes both
- 6 pm to 6:30 is open
- Dinner at 6:30
- Dinner is over 7:15 or so; we like to eat together and the kids usually talk about their day
- 7:15 to 7:45 clean the kitchen put away any leftovers.
- 7:45 to 8:00 pm get my daughter’s lunch ready for school the next day and clean up
- 8:00 to 11:00 pm is open
- I go to sleep at 11:00 pm, which gives me 6 hours of sleep
Now, I have 30 minutes at 6:00 pm, plus 3 hours at 8:00 pm, which gives me 3 hours and a half to dedicate to something other than my job and family, but wait I do have a spouse, and even though we don’t get along all that well (most marriages are the same), we do try and talk and share the day’s event, that usually happens just before dinner or after I prep my daughter’s lunch. So let me take away 30 minutes for interaction with my spouse – it sounds funny I know. Now you and I know that a lot of things could happen in a day that will throw off any schedule. Like my daughter’s eye appointment that lasted from 4 to 5:30, of course, other things can happen, maybe you ran out of milk and someone has to run to the market to buy some, kid forgot they had a school project and needs supplies, the possibilities are endless and cannot be predicted – so let’s say you lose maybe an hour from the craziness that could happen each day. That would leave me with 2 hours each day to dedicate to something – right.
Wait, what about me, my mental health, my time, can I get a break from the computer, from all the craziness, the deadlines at work, the drama at home, the mental pressure I have, yes, of course, we all need some time to ourselves – let us assume 1 hour each day whether you take it in the morning or throughout the day, but one hour to your self. That leaves me with one hour each day to dedicate to something, but the catch is that one hour may not be at the right time. For instance, I was trading futures and usually, the best time to trade is maybe in the morning, maybe at a certain time but during the day, so as you can see even though my trading was doing well, I had to compete with my regular job and of course as in one of my post the trading platform was not treating me right on months 3-5.
So that one hour that I could dedicate might be great for a business, but nothing guarantees it will be at the same time each day. If I start a drop shipping business, what if I don’t get to that customer’s complaint until almost a day later, it would not look good for my store. We can all find time within our day, but that time might not be exactly at the same time each day and with having a regular job and family, things can get a little more complicated. Now, I know that people are taking these opportunities making them happen every day and succeeding. I know it can be done, for example, college for me, I was working a full-time job, had a family, and I had to find hours throughout a day to do homework, prepare presentations, and so on. The thing is I do have a side business, small, generating passive income all on their own, but I have not been able to scale them to the point where I can quit my 9-5 job. Maybe I need to dedicate my one hour to scaling those businesses – just not sure, you see today’s opportunities overshadow what I have, and I think about jumping on these new opportunities but like I said maybe I need to scale the one I have now, but I do not know. I think time is not really on my side.
There was an article I read about procrastination, and it talks about two types of procrastination, active and passive. “If you postpone doing something, and you choose another duty instead, it’s active procrastination. But if you stop working on your task and do nothing instead, it’s passive type, and it gives you nothing but time wasting” (Lale Byquist, December 29, 2016. 7 Reasons Why Procrastination Can Be Good At Times). It further talks about how active procrastination is ok – it is an interesting read.
Like I said I believe my procrastination on jumping on board with either a drop shipping business, affiliate marketing, or other opportunities is simply the time I have available to dedicate to something; and if that time will be at the same time each day – maybe that should not matter. I think a did a lot of blabbing, but I appreciate you taking the time to stop by and like always I leave you with this thought, “Procrastination is not necessarily a bad thing, I believe if you learn to deal with whatever is holding you back, you can move forward eventually – it is ok, you are not alone”.