Sunday, October 28, 2007

Goals, Goals, Goals

Lately, I've been immersing myself in the study of goals and prosperity. I've been listening to audios, watching films, reading ebooks and paper books, following forums on the subject... just about anything I can get my hands on.

I'm doing all this in preparation for the upcoming teleclass that Yvonne Weld and I will be teaching at the VA Revolution this Friday. One year ago, on November 1st I did a teleclass on Goal Setting for the VA Revolution members. I talked about the importance of writing down your goals. Once again the system of writing down goals has proven to work for me. I'm amazed at how many goals I actually reached. Goals that I wrote down last November 1st... some of those I didn't even believe were possible (those were my big goals - thinking out of the box kind of goals).

I'm so excited to be teaching this class again and to be working on my new goals for the upcoming year!!!

“A full 97 percent of adults have no written goals. When you make out a list of 10 goals that you want to accomplish in the next 12 months, you move yourself into the top 3 percent of people living and working today. By the simple discipline of committing your goals to paper, you join the elite.” - Brian Tracy


Have you written down your goals? Are they written in a positive, present and affirming statement or are they just a wish list?

I'm going to stop drinking soda. (wish)
I put healthy things in my body. (affirming statement)

I'm going to write a book. (wish)
I write for at least 15 minutes everyday. (affirming statement)

I want to make $5000 a month. (wish)
I earn $5000 a month. (affirming statement)

I will blog three times a week. (wish)
I blog three times a week. (affirming statement)

Thursday, October 25, 2007

I Love Technology

Sometimes I just love technology. Today is one of those days. I just read on The Information Week blog that on Twitter news outlets and others are listing up to the minute blurbs about what is going on with the fires.
Google Maps is keeping the maps updated as to where the fires are and what areas are being evacuated.


View Larger Map

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Emergency Plans

Although I live in Northern California, the fires of Southern California are still affecting me. All of my living relatives and many of my friends live in Southern California. So far everyone is okay and they are dealing the best they can with the air quality. Some of my relatives have been evacuated but their homes are still standing.

My family and friends are lucky, some others are not. I encourage you to donate to the Red Cross and read more about what they are are doing to help the victims.

This horrible fire is reminding me to really think about my emergency plan. Do you have one for your house? Do you have one for your business?

I'm going to take some time this week to review my business manual and make sure all the information is up to date.

My heart goes out to all those in Southern California.

Monday, October 22, 2007

What Are You Doing to Create a Thriving Business?

“That will never happen to me!” is a cliché many of us apply to a number of topics in our lives, yet many of us subconsciously take precautions to protect ourselves from unforeseen possibilities. We buy home insurance in case of theft or fire, we buy life insurance to protect our families in the event of our death and we buy car insurance in case we are in a car accident. Some of us even buy business insurance to protect our company. The problem is many of us overlook the biggest “insurance” we should be investing our time and money in from the beginning. The “insurance” provided by creating a thriving business. What does it mean to create a thriving business?

The first step to creating a thriving business is preparing an operational manual that will ensure that your business can survive any hurdle including business growth, owner absenteeism and even owner death. Most business owners never stop to consider what might happen if they were injured, sick or worse. By taking a precautionary role in your business and considering things such as: “What if it happened to me?”; “What if my spouse, child or parent was sick tomorrow – could I dedicate the time to their recovery?”

These are all things we think we won’t have to worry about, but what if? Step back for a minute and think about how your business would change if you needed to take the time to dedicate to a personal problem. Perhaps in the short term it wouldn’t change much, but what about if you needed to step back for an extended period of time? What would happen then?

The success of many of today’s small businesses hinges on the expertise and skills of the owner. What happens to the business though should the owner become ill or die? In many cases a family member steps in out of a feeling of obligation, but often they lack the skills necessary to allow the business to truly thrive. They don’t have the same dedication, determination or passion to see the business succeed as you did. In many cases, a promise to maintain a family business is made with the thought of “I won’t ever have to worry about that” in the back of the family member’s mind. After all, no one thinks it will ever happen to them.

By creating an operational manual that outlines every facet of your business operations including pertinent company information and a full description of how daily tasks are carried out, your business could easily continue uninterrupted without fear things were not being handled in the same manner you, as business owner, would expect. Family members could easily hire someone to handle the business operations with your Operations Manual with the confidence of knowing things were being handled as you would handle them.

Step back for a minute and think about what it means for you to truly create a thriving business. Just like plants need essential tools to survive, so does your business. The ingredients may be different but providing them is no less important. Plants need water, sun and dirt in order to grow vigorously and healthily. Your business needs a successful team leader, a needed product or service and a plan in order to be successful and profitable. Most businesses only have two of those important ingredients and are missing the most important ingredient. If you leave instructions for watering your plants, shouldn’t you leave instructions for running your business?

About the Author
Yvonne Weld is the author of The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Thriving Business and is the owner of ABLE Virtual Assistant Services. For more information about The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Thriving Business and how you can protect your business from unexpected absences due to injury, sickness or even death, visit the Web site at www.thrivingbusinessmanual.com.
This article may not be copied unless in its entirety and the author’s bio is attached.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Gratitude Calls

I have a client who does something called "gratitude calls". She randomly calls me just to say thank you and tell me how much she appreciates what I am doing for her. This makes my day! Can you imagine a world where everyone did gratitude calls?

Gratitude calls could be placed to your clients, your employees, your parents, your children, your friends, your neighbors, your child's teacher, your mail carrier, your doctor, the list goes on and on.

I challenge my readers to start making at least one gratitude call a week. I'd love to hear how it goes. If you are one of those people that avoid the phone how about a gratitude note? You know the good old fashioned pen and paper kind of thing that you put in the mail box?

Thank you for reading my blog!

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Success

“If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world
but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.”

- Anna Quindlen

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Revolutionary Goal Setting

Recently, I've been spending a lot of time reading about goal setting to get myself pumped up for a webinar I am leading at the VA Revolution, on November 2nd, 2007. Yvonne Weld and I will be presenting a workshop on Revolutionary Goal Setting. This is a follow up from the Goal Setting workshop I did last year on November 1st. During that call we came up with the idea to do a follow up call one year later to check in to see how far we have come along.

Did you know if you write your goals down they are much more likely to happen?

Do you ever dare to dream big? Do you know what you want? Do you know how many clients you want to work with? How much money you want to make? How much quality time you'd like to spend with your family each week? Where you want to go on your next vacation?

"It doesn't matter where you are coming from; all that really matters is where you are going. And where you are going is solely determined by yourself and your own thoughts" - Brian Tracy

"You become what you think about most of the time." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you have a goal that says, “I am going to go to the gym 3 times a week…” change that into the present… your subconscious mind will just keep thinking I am going and never get there. Change the wording to say, “I go to the gym at least 3 times a week.”

Or if you have a goal that says I want to write for an hour everyday… change it to say, “I write for an hour everyday”.

Tell yourself you are already doing it. It is amazing how your actions will try to keep up with your thoughts. If you are saying, I am a loser and can never get anything done over and over in your head… guess what? You are a loser and you are never going to get anything done! What you think about comes about… so pay close attention to those thoughts going on in your head and make sure they are thoughts that are taking you in the right direction.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Adopt a Rat?

Have you heard about what the rats are up to now? They are saving lives. Check out www.herorat.org. What a cool idea and a creative website. CJ Hayden (author of Get Clients Now! - one of my favorite books to read over and over) talks more about these hero land-mine detecting rats in her blog.