Failure begins with a constant cycle of reading, learning, and soaking in more and more information. It can be overwhelming. Many people fall into this sort of Internet fog. It’s a very frustrating place to be. You can’t see where you’re going, your lost, confused and not making any headway.

How do we navigate through this fog?

The worst offender of Internet fog is our email box. We surf the Internet looking for solutions. We find newsletters and ezines that promise answers, yet what we mostly seem to derive from our email newsletters is a way to drain time out of our lives.

The truth is, there is a lot of trash on the Internet. An abundance of ideas are quickly, and sometimes recklessly developed into reports and ebooks and sold as the newest and best way to build your business, create traffic, and make money.

I personally know of one man who wrote just such an ebook. It sold to a lot of people who really believed that he had earned hundreds of thousands of dollars following his own advice.

Little did they know that this was his first ebook and they were in fact, his guinea pigs. On the brighter side, there are a few excellent reports and ebooks with proven results. These can help advise how to build a business, increase traffic, and make money online.

So, why are we failing to succeed? Is it because the idea or solution that we have chosen is bad? Or, are we failing to succeed because we are so inundated with information that we don’t know where to begin, therefore we never really ever get started?

I was listening to an audio interview with a highly successful Internet businessman, let’s call him, Joe. Joe said that in the beginning he spent over $10,000 on reports, ebooks, and software. He spent a lot of time and money to build his business. Despite this, his business was failing.

Was it the products he purchased? Or was it how he used them?

Joe admitted that, in the beginning, his problem was that he failed to set goals for himself. He needed to make a change. He began to set daily, weekly and even yearly goals. Everyday he would create a to-do list. Joe faithfully followed that list. With conscientious effort it was not long before he became a very well known and successful online entrepreneur.

Internet fog can creep up on us if we do not create and stick to a goal. Just opening up our email can steal our time and keep us from our goals. Surfing online can steal more of our time, and again, keep us from our goals.

Anything can keep you from success. If you do not create a plan of action and stay completely focused on your goals you will never succeed.

So, if you truly want to succeed online, you need to take decisive action. Decide what your goal is. Make sure you keep it simple at first. Here’s a small sample of what I do to stay focused. Perhaps it will help you too.

Every morning I have several things to do before I open my email. Email is distracting. I know that it is a time stealer. It can keep me away from my business for hours. So, I have to be self-disciplined.

I create a to-do list every day. I complete that list before opening my email.

Therefore, email is last on my to-do list.

I created short term as well as long-term goals for myself. I have a goal of writing one article per week for a year. This is the first thing on my list that must get done. It’s a simple goal and one that is attainable. By doing this I don’t feel defeated by setting impossible goals for myself.

One of our greatest problems in this age of technology is that we expect instant gratification. If we don’t get it NOW we give up way too easily. Success does not happen overnight.

No matter what those enticing headlines claim, it takes hard work and discipline. If you want to build a business online, you need to create a game plan and stick to the same plan for a long time, perhaps even a year.

Whatever you do, make sure you set your goals. Otherwise, you will drift into that Internet fog. It will be impossible to navigate through it and achieve your goals.

As a side note, I want to say that my profits began to really grow when I started implementing my daily to-do list.

What's on your to-do list?