Posts Tagged ‘Personal Success’

If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it.  If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place.

~Nora Robertsw

You gain strength, experience and confidence by every experience where you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you cannot do.

~Eleanor Roosevelt

My son is 14 years old is a handsome (of course),  fun loving, easy going teenager but he’s small in stature and often times mistaken as a middle schooler.  And worse when he’s with his brother, many believe he’s the younger instead of the older.

“I’m so tired of this.  I feel like people see me as this little kid who is just kinda hanging around.  I don’t feel like a teenager because I don’t look like everyone else, I don’t think like a lot of my other friends think. I am going to look back over my teenage years and feel like I completely missed out on so much fun.”

These were just a few sentiments my son shared with me that afternoon as tears strolled down his face.

As he spoke I heard the phrases -  I don’t feel like, I don’t look like, I am not, I am going to miss out…

And as I sat and listened to him intently I understood that what he was really saying was “I’m not enough!”

And boy did that strike a chord.

I find this issue of being enough is an underlying issue that we all face at different times in our lives. We all want to feel a sense of belonging, and sense of worthiness.  Sometimes we feel it and sometimes we don’t.

In business this issue of worthiness is a real one.  Because if you don’t feel worthy, you won’t feel empowered. And if you don’t feel empowered you won’t inspire. And if you’re not inspiring others, then you are not sharing your message and greatest gifts with the world!

If this is you today I declare today that you ARE enough.

I left my son with three thoughts, that also applies to you as a business owner:

• Feeling like you are enough starts on the inside and manifest on the outside; no one validates your worth but you.

• Start manifesting what you desire by celebrating who you are — all of it  (accomplishments, achievements, joys, mishaps, failures, and trials).  Don’t expect others to embrace or accept you for who you are,  when you’re not comfortable in your own skin.

• If you want to attract more friends (or clients), be more attractive (or client attractive) by exuding confidence.  No one wants to be around someone (or hire someone) who appears desperate or clingy.

Consider these four strategies to reaffirm your worth:

Find the right circle of influence.  Although there are times you feel good about who you are on the inside, your ego and conscious still needs reinforcements, reminders, and validation.

Who are your biggest fans?  Seek ongoing support and encouragement from those who lift you up instead of drag you down. This will undoubtedly be your base of support that will carry you through the life of your business.

Stop comparison despair.   There’s always going to be someone who is ahead of building their business or more successful than you — more money, more clients, more brand recognition, etc.  Get over it!   It’s a fact of life and business!

It’s important to aspire to be more.  But keep that desire in check so that it doesn’t become later develop into jealousy or manifest into a lack of self confidence in your abilities.

Instead use it as a motivator and fuel to keep your passion for what you love to do alive and take your business to new found levels of success.  Take note of where you are relative to when you first started.  Anticipate you will get to where you want go and stay the course.

Positive self talk. Nothing is more powerful than affirmations.  Take time to speak aloud and into existence who you are, who you are becoming, what is and what will be. And then seal the deal with unshakeable faith and believe that all things are possible.

Take action. It’s hard to celebrate wins if you aren’t taking action on your most important goals.  Without it, you cannot measure success or create new benchmarks to move to the next level.

Fear of failure is one of the reasons you are getting in your own way.  Use the tips above to combat fear and stop it dead in its tracks from achieving all that you desire for your life and business.

Sometimes as a business start up you don’t know what you don’t know.  As a result it may be difficult to take the next step.

It’s helpful when you are among a network or community of likeminded individuals to share and exchange ideas.  It’s also imperative to enlist mentors and invest in coaches and consultants who can give you the perspective you may be missing.

Often times, the cost of such services are prohibitive for new solopreneurs…until today.

You can hire your own team of business consultants to provide the guidance and perspective you are probably seeking for a little less than $2/day.  You may be wondering how.  Click here to learn more.

But sometimes when leading busy multi-tasking lives it’s not long before our greatest life ambitions get shoved aside, delayed, or put on hold unintentionally.  When this happens what you desire most in your heart doesn’t come to full fruition; it remains merely an intention that is waiting to unfold. 

Typically a consistent focus is all that you need in order to keep your eyes on the prize.  To the extent you can be reminded on a daily basis of the things you value and want to achieve most in your life and the business, the less likely distractions or set backs will prevail.  

Ladies, if you can see it, you can achieve it!

The use of visuals reminders are simple,  powerful means to continuously aspire toward the big picture.  They can help you overcome challenges and move forward each day toward achieving the life you truly desire.

Not to mention when you know you’re continuously moving forward along your life’s path as a rising solopreneur, you can’t help to feel an amazing sense of confidence, peace, and purpose that is all consuming and the sole motivation you need to stay the course as a business owner.

Here are some simple ways to use visuals on a daily basis to make your vision, goals, and plans stay ever present:

1. Use post-it notes.  This simple method puts your goals and motivators at the forefront.   Buy colorful sticky notes and fun colored pens, and commit your goals to paper. Stick these notes in the places where  you can see and think about them often.

-For ex:  your bathroom mirror, your headboard, the refrigerator door, on your favorite coffee mug, car visor, or right on the bottom of your computer monitor.  Any place that you’re likely to glance throughout the day is a good destination for a motivating, goal-setting note.

-Make your notes specific, “I want to eat right this week to keep my energy levels elevated and get more things done.” or broad but motivating, “Focus, organize, prioritize.”   These simple basic visuals will encourage you to function at peak throughout the day.

2. Make note cards. Buy a stack of white note cards and commit a goal or aspiration to each one. Decorate them, write notes on them, and otherwise customize them to suit your needs. Keep them in your pocket, purse, or brief case and refer to them daily as a means of staying laser focused, driven, and self motivated. 

- When you refer to the same note cards on a daily basis, a habit forms. It is said that it takes 21 days of repeating a task to be ingrained in you. Check your note cards daily until it becomes a habit.

3. Create visual mind maps. This tool will help you organize your goals in a highly visual way. Create a mind map on a large sheet of poster board. Designate an area for each long-term goal, and add an image and a small amount of text. Create a cloud of medium and long-term goals around each long-term goal, with lines connecting them to the long-term focus.

-Use images, colors, words, and other meaningful visuals to decorate your poster. Draw your own graphics, clip pictures from magazines, or download images from the internet to create a colorful – and visually appealing – goal-oriented mind map.

-Put time and effort into the creation of your visual mind map, and then put it in a prominent high traffic place in your home.  Don’t forget to take a picture of it using your cell phone and carry the image with you while on-the-go.   This visual will help you keep your short, medium, and long term goals in mind and will consistently remind you of what you want to be focusing on – week to week, day to day.

Visual reminders are extremely beneficial in keeping your eyes on the prize at all times. 

Which one of these tactics will you commit to using daily in 2011 to achieve your heart’s desires? 

What else would you add to this list?

You are a talented women and possess many skills.  It’s a wonder each day how you are able to manage the multiple roles in your life…and do it so well.  

However when it comes to your role as an entrepreneur, it requires a different level of personal management and effectiveness. 

Remember you are the soul of your business.   This means as soloprofessional, you must “bring it” in order to maintain momentum in your business building efforts.

How you process internally affects greatly your output. 

The better you are at functioning at your peak, the more you will be able to give back to your business and operate efficiently.

Here are 8 ways to boost your personal effectiveness:

1. Maintain high energy levels.  Keep close watch and monitor how different energy levels affect your performance throughout the day.  Make consistent strides to eliminate energy drainers and replace it will energy gainers.

2. Lose the “No it all” attitude.  Maintain a positive expectation for every action and move with great expectation that good will come forth.  Always look for the best of every situation and an opportunity in every problem.

3. Make plans.  Write your plans with defined steps that lead to specific  major objectives.  Visualize the process for each initiative or new project from beginning to end.  Work to integrate the steps of your plans into your schedule every day.

4. Stop putting out fires everyday.  Instead live your life based on what’s important vs. most urgent.  Focus your attention on the role you can influence the most at any moment in time.

5. Invite helping hands.  Delegate as much as possible and communicate clear expectations of how you want things done.  Remember to show appreciation and give credit where credit is due.

6. Get Organized.  Create a separate filing or e-folder for each new person or task to find information quickly and easily.  Get rid of clutter.  Resist the habit of setting things down;  instead put things away where they belong.

7. Optimize.  Make every minute of your day count.  Learn how to say “no” so that you create space for what really matters to you and allow you to focus on becoming your personal best.  Make it easier on yourself by simplifying life. 

8. Make it happen.  Stop getting ready to get ready, spinning your wheels and going no where fast.  Take immediate action and stop procrastinating and overthinking small stuff.  Break down complex tasks in bite sized pieces and get going.

The work of your business is endless and time is limited.  Tuning up your personal effectiveness is just one component of maintaining momentum of your business.

Learn more during teleclass, 5 Strategies For How To Launch While You Work,  August 31, 9:00-10:00pm, EST