An AHA Moment

I have been laid up with an injured foot for the last couple of days. During this time I have been reading the stack of books I have purchased over the last couple of months — Think And Grow Rich, The Secret, Change Your Thoughts Change your life,  the list goes on and on. I have come to the conclusion that this injury is Gods way of allowing me the time I require to develop some much needed clarity.

While reading Think and Grow Rich I suddenly had an aha moment that, for me, validated everything I am doing to achieve my definate major purpose. My mind suddenly started replaying all of my lifes desires from the time I was a teenager. This is my attempt to verbalize all that was being played out in my minds eye.

In Think And Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill instructs people to write out a statement of how they will give back once they have received their definate major purpose. Before I share what I wrote down you have to understand some of the desires I have had during my life. When I was a teenager, the first thing I ever wanted to be was a psychologist. Because of events in my life that I didn’t understand, I began to research the human mind and world spiritual systems. This research actually lasted intensely from the time I was 13 until age 21. It continues to this day but those years were strictly devoted to understanding the “why” of life. I wanted to understand my own life and help others discover the “why’s” in their lives.

In my 20’s I shifted to focusing primarily on spiritual understanding. I left mainstream psychology for a while and focused on world religion and philosophy. I made a trip to the India in search of enlightenment. My desire during these years was to help others find the peace and contentment that I was experiencing myself.

During my 30’s I again moved back into psychology, returning to college to complete my BA and continue on to graduate school. I obtained my BA in psychology but, along the way realized that there was so much more to truly understanding people than just the mind. I was gently tugged into a second major in cultural anthropology. I began to read a lot of Margaret Mead’s work in psychological anthropology or how different cultures understand human behavior.  I began to appreciate anthropologies understanding of psychology and changed my graduate study plans from psychology to anthropology — looking at the psychospiritual aspects of culture.

I have to make a special note here that one of my underlying desires has always been to help teenagers understand life better and make wise choices. For this reason, while in graduate school I took a job at a boys group home. Most of the boys were either sex offenders or gang members (keep in mind these were children ages 10-18). These boys touched my heart in ways that no one else ever had. While working this job I decided that these were the children I wanted to work with and was led into special education.

I spent a few months working at a school for severely emotionally disturbed children (again, psychology and helping children maximize their potential was a key ingredient during this time). After a few months I was offered a job as a special education teacher for a local school district. I spent a few years there before deciding to get my credential in regular education. This is the only decision in this stream of decisions that seems a bit out of line to me. Yes, I’m still working with children, and the children I eventually end up with are in much greater need than my special ed kids but the move was not a pleasant one.

At this point, I took a couple of years off to play mommy. When my daughter was about a year and a half I decided to go back to graduate school and complete my training in Marriage and Family therapy. My thoughts kept returning to the boys at the group home. I had also done a lot of research on the issues facing adopted children. I adopted my daughter at birth and was saddened to realize that even children adopted at birth have attachment and loss issues (I’ve seen some of these in my daughter even though she has a good relationship with her birth mother). Anyway, my goal when entering the Marriage and Family Therapy program was to work with children in the foster care system as well as counseling adopted children and their families. I never quite finished this program as many of the issues faced by children in our foster care system were so horrendous that all I could do was cry. It was devastating to me that I couldn’t even truly “help” these kids let alone solve their problems. The fact that they were stuck in situations beyond my control to remedy was just soul crushing to me. It led me back to my origional teen question of “why.” Why these seemingly innocent children?

I soon found my way into a home business. I didn’t even think about how this might be related to all the other events in my life (but I see the connection now).

OK. Fast forward to today… As I was reading Think And Grow Rich and completing some of the exercises I answered the question “How will you give back” as follows:

1. I will teach others to have the life of their dreams; to be all that they desire to be (kind of what psychologists or life coaches do).

2. I will give abundantly to childrens charaties.

3. I will help children coming of age in the foster care system to be successful – in life and in business.

After writing these down and returning to my book I was shown how all the desires of my life are wrapped up in my desire for an extremely successful home business. Everything I have ever thought about doing, all that I have wanted to give, it is all still my goal. The vehicle for accomplishing all my desires has been given to me. I am now applying all the secrets I have been taught to create all that I have ever dreamed.

WOW!

 

Poppit! Stress Buster

A Little Levity

Poppit! Stress Buster

Big Thinking Precedes Big Achievement

Thursday, April 24, 2008

BIG THINKING PRECEDES BIG ACHIEVEMENT
High achievement always takes place
in the framework of high expectation.
You’ll always hit what you aim for in the long run.
So why not aim high?

Have the courage to follow your dreams.
It’s the first step towards attaining your destiny.

If you can dream it, you can do it.
If you don’t have a dream,
how are you going to make it come true?

In order to succeed beyond your wildest expectations,
you need some wild expectations.

 Copyright 2008 www.yourdailymotivation.com
Reproduce freely but maintain Copyright notice.

The Power To Create

“The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird sleeps in the egg; and in the highest vision of the soul, a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities…”        –James Allen

Our “waking angel” is our unlimited capacity for creating. Sometimes we feel a “fluttering” desire; a vision of the life we were destined to lead. Instead of letting it pass, latch onto that vision and explore into it’s depths. What are you really destined to do and to be? What is your vision of the “ideal” you?

As I began to reconnect with these questions in my own life I realized that I first needed to balance all aspects of my life. I drew a circle and separated it into four quadrants. Each quadrant represents a core value in my life. My quadrants are family, spirituality, business, and community/contribution. In choosing these quadrants, I kept in mind my vision of the ideal me or my ideal life. I envision an extremely successful business, being 100% available for my daughter, being able to show my daughter the world and how other people live, teaching her the importance of helping others – especially through childrens outreach projects – and doing all of this within the context of having a spiritual, well balanced life.

In order to begin creating our dream/vision, we have to first bring our thoughts and habits in line with our dreams. Catch those negative or limiting thoughts and change them to thoughts of possability, or potential. Remember, you get what you think about whether you want it or not so think thoughts that are in line with your dream.

Since you are the co-creator of your dream, know beyond a shadow of a doubt that your dream is on it’s way and do everything in your power to help it arrive. The position of co-creator implies action. What actions are you going to take to create your dream?

For me, creating my dream seems to be pretty simple. I have developed the following guidelines:

Love – Laugh – Dream – Work – Give – Be

Love like a child (unconditionally)

Laugh like a child (uninhibitedly)

Dream like a child (with no boundaries)

Work so you can

Give to a child and allow them to

Be all that they can be.

 

 Children are my inspiration (one of them anyway). It is my intention to help as many children live a happy, healthy life as possible. One project I support is Smile Train. You can find information at www.smiletrain.org

Good Advice from Robert Kiyosaki

I found these tips in todays online issue of Success Magazine. They are worth sharing for those of you who do not subscribe. To subscribe visit www.successmagazine.com

Rich Dad’s 8 Core Values for Success
Robert Kiyosaki, author of the best-selling Rich Dad, Poor Dad series, shares tips for getting ahead in business.

1. Find equal opportunities. Don’t be a victim of the survival-of-the-fittest technique. Make yourself marketable.
2. Get a life-changing business education. Feed your mental, emotional, physical and spiritual needs. No, this doesn’t necessarily mean sitting in a college classroom. Get an education from life.
3. Latch onto friends who will pull you up, not push you down. Protect yourself from negative influences.
4. Find value in your network. The more people you can meet in business, the better.
5. Develop your most important business skill. Communicate, communicate and communicate.
6. Be a leader. Influence others by being a great teacher.
7. Don’t work just for money. Work to build wealth, not money. Invest.
8. Live your dreams. First of all, make sure you have dreams. Then make them a reality. You can be a successful businessperson and still make your dreams come true.

These are all wonderful suggestions that can all be summed up by the advice, “find a good mentor.” I have been fortunate enough in my life to have found several. I extend a heart felt “thank you” to each and every one of you.

Having Trouble Holding Onto Recruits?

We all know that network marketing is about recruiting. However, statistics show that 97% of new recruits quit within the first year. What do we, as team leaders, need to do to hold onto our recruits?

 

Many people looking to make money from home are under the impression that it is possible to make a large amount of money with very little effort or time on their part. A lot of MLM companies play to these desires promising quick, easy money. When the money doesn’t magically appear, people are disillusioned and quit.

 

How do we prevent the loss of new recruits? First, we need to make sure we are acting like team leaders; experts in our industry and on our products or services. We need to be able to offer our team training, support and motivation to see them through the rough times. They need to know we are there to help them succeed. They need to know we care about their success. After all, their success is our success.

 

Second, be honest about what is required to succeed in the network marketing industry. Each recruit must make a committment to their success and doing whatever it takes to achieve their goal. Let them know it takes work, time, commitment, and yes, even some money. Like all things in life, one has to work to make money. However, the possibilities of achieving their lifestyle and financial dreams is much greater than with a traditional job. Let your team members know that magic things can happen in network marketing but they must work hard to find the magic.

 

Third, develop a training system that will teach recruits how to succeed. Help your recruits find immediate success. Even small successes will keep people motivated. Not only should we be teaching about our product but we should also be teaching how to market online and offline, teach how to prospect and close over the phone. We should also have resources in place to help our team build web sites and set up auto-responders. It is also a good idea to have a reading list with a variety of motivational books that are available.

 

Lastly, building a business is as much about personal development as business development. We must be willing to help our team become the best they can be, both personally and as business owners as we continue to grow as well.

Do You Feel The Need To “Do It All”?

Sometimes as working mothers we can feel a little overwhelmed. We have families to care for, a house to take care of, a business to run, as well as finding the time to take care of ourselves.

One of the most common questions I’m asked is, “How do you do it all?”

Most of the time it’s because I follow a system and use good time management skills. As business moms we need to develop a system for both business and family – one that can eventually run on autopilot so we can focus on the task at hand.

For example, I was able to cut down on work time by implementing just a few simple strategies:

• Group related tasks – Every week I write 5 articles for 3 different companies. Instead of writing 15 completely different articles, I now write only 5 articles and do relatively simple modifications for each company.
• Focus first on the tasks that build your business and ultimately, your bottom line – Since I am in sales, I do my presentations early in the morning, right after I drop my daughter at school. My first 2 hours are for connecting with others face to face. My next 2 hours are for connecting with people on-line whether through social networking or advertising. My next 2 hours are for everything that makes the first 4 hours possible.
• Make time for me – This is very important. Schedule time for rejuvenation, for exercise, for whatever makes you feel good.
• Make time for self improvement – What are others in your field doing? Do they have ideas or strategies that you could incorporate. Don’t forget your spiritual side. Are you connecting with God or nature in some way? We can learn a lot from spending time in nature (but that is another topic).

I know. We see the phrase “make time” and think, “Where? There are only 24 hours in a day? Where do I find the extra time?” But I promise you, the time is there if you just implement, and stick to , a system.

Another key is to set priorities. You have to realize that some things either don’t NEED to be done or can be delegated to others. Let go of those things. You have more important things to do. Make a list of your top 5-10 things that absolutely must be done today. Put them in order of importance. Begin, and do not waver from your assigned tasks.

Another thing I have done is to include my daughter in my business. One of my businesses is a candle business. My daughter loves candles and tells everyone she knows about them. She works with me at craft fairs and farmers markets, she helps me put together information packets, she passes out fliers. It makes her feel important and grown up to work with mommy. When possible, include your family in your business.

Don’t allow yourself to be weighed down by stress and overload. Set up a system that works for you. Focus on what is important, set goals, and try to include your family in your work whenever possible. You’d be surprised how much your kids like to “work”.

Traveling this journey with you…