Power Of Intention – First Steps To Success

What are your intentions this year? If you could write the script (and you can, ya know?) for how this year would turn out, what would it include? There are many choices and I can share from personal experience, that too many choices can stop you in your tracks and put a halt on your progress. So take a minute to pause and then ask the question of what your intentions are for this year as many times as it takes before you get a few solid and clear answers.

Have you ever read something or heard something that you never paid a lot of attention to and then out of no where (or so it seems) you hear that idea over and over again? That is what happened with me around the word ‘intentions’. Sure, I know the word, I’ve read about it here or there, but in the last few weeks I have seen and heard about it more than I can count. No, not because it is a new year and the conversations are usually the same, but because I was present to it and I have been called out to look at it more closely.

So I stopped, took a look and will continue to do so in the weeks and months that are ahead. I wanted to put the idea out there for you to take a look at the word intention and what it means to you, but more so, I wanted to check in and see if you are being called to look more closely at something. A word, an idea, a business model, a relationship? Turns out there are signs and clues all around us if we pause long enough to recognize them instead of ignore them.

I have been a bit stuck. My head has been spinning with ideas about what big things I want to accomplish and what big goals I should and should not make a priority. I was looking for the first steps to success, seems normal, right? So here is what happened as a result of looking at the word intention more closely. I took all my ideas (oh, SO many!!) and made a new list called “The BIG 3”. I wrote down 3 priority projects and also listed out in what ways I could measure that I was making progress with each.

Intentions can be inspiring! Intentions can pull you in and help you focus on what matters most to you so that you can get out of your head and start taking action to make some bigger (or not so big) things happen!! How about you? What are your first steps to success this year?  Your thoughts?

Taking Action – Do Things Differently

It is a New Year and we are off to a strong start. You may be excited about what 2012 holds for you, and you also may be thinking about doing things a bit differently in the New Year in order to end up with some different results.

If you are serious about success then YOU need to Continue reading »

Focus On What Works – Keep Moving Forward

It can be so easy to get stuck with inaction. So many choices that you can stop dead in your tracks and lose momentum. You probably get and see great ideas and opportunities all around you. But, too much information is the quickest path to halting your progress. If this is something you can relate with it is a sign that you have lost your focus. You are running around more then you need to and nothing is getting accomplished.

Focus is about knowing exactly what you want and having a clear and decisive plan to get there. If you are not moving forward full throttle, it could mean that you are not as sure about what you want to accomplish as you thought. With the clarity of knowing what you want to create, you can work toward Continue reading »

Fear Of Failure -OR- The Price Of Success?

What is it exactly that stops people from taking action? I get this question all the time. I have been there myself, in a place where I have been stuck and not making progress. Although there are many small reason that sound pretty good, one reason stands out above all else. Fear is the reason to blame 9 out of 10 times when someone does not take action. It can be fear of success or fear of failure, but either way, fear is at the top of the list when it comes to people holding themselves back from taking the action that will help them achieve the success or Continue reading »

Build A Community – Job One

As empire builders (aka: entrepreneurs) we have several responsibilities and action habits to attend to. I know I sure do, how about you? I was talking with a client and realized that we go round and round about different topics that all seem important. The secret of success though, is knowing at any given time what exactly is job one? As we grow through different stages of building out our empire, we will change our focus a number of times, but job one will, more than likely, remain a consistent focus. What is job one, it is building a list of prospects and customers who know you, like you, trust you, and want to stay on top of what you have to offer. (they give you permission to Continue reading »

My Overwhelm Rescue Kit

No matter who you are, how together you are (or others think you are), or how organized your plan is… overwhelm can still pay you a visit. I know this very well from personal experience. I am known as the “productivity princess” to many and the “queen of getting it all done” to others. I am about to take off my crown and keep it real for a minute. I am in need of an overwhelm rescue kit at this very minute, so I thought I’d step back, take a few deep breaths and create one right now. Others may find this valuable, I know I can’t be alone, so I wanted to share this process with you as I figure out in real time.

Step 1: Make a list of every little thing that is running through your mind, big and small, loud and soft. Things like; I didn’t call to reserve a hotel room for my trip this weekend, I promised to Continue reading »

Need Motivation – Just Get It Done

At any given time we can each list a number of things that need to be done. I have found that the reason it stays on the list longer than necessary is motivation. How about you? When you know there is something you need to do, what holds you back from taking action on it and moving forward as soon as possible. Make a list right now, what are the things you know you need to do but you have been putting off? After you have gotten it all down on paper, choose one, to start with, that you want to complete and Continue reading »

Small Business Success – Self Care For Entrepreneurs

Small business success starts with self-care. In the back of our minds we all know how important it is to put ourselves first and take care of our sanity and bodies, but we don’t always take action on that. If we lose our peace of mind or feel unhealthy our business will stop being as fruitful as it can be. We may have good intentions of putting ourselves first, but we sometimes forget and then all of our goals and responsibilities take precedence and before we know it we start taking shortcuts in our self care to maintain the growth and drive of our business.

Maybe your exercise has gotten much shorter (or stopped), you don’t know when the last time you ate a really healthy home cooked meal, and your friends and family are starting to Continue reading »

An Ideal Lifestyle – Moving Forward With Action

When you see people who are living a life that you would like to have for yourself, what thoughts come to mind. For me it is a series of questions. What do they have that I don’t have? What are they doing that I need to learn or emulate? What will it take for me to create that outcome for myself? If we want to accomplish something, particularly something that has been accomplished before, we have a great opportunity to look around and witness plenty of examples that is can be done. This is encouraging, right?

I think of business a lot like the movie and entertainment business. In the movies, actors play a part. They read the details of the character they are going to play and they start to formulate the characteristics and the mindset so they can Continue reading »

Working On The Run – Be More Productive

I travel a lot and have become pretty good at taking my business on the road and working from wherever I happen to be. This past week I was away for 10 days and certain things were essential to my success. Here are a few things that I have picked up that have really made a difference for me in terms of how productive I was able to be while away from my ‘home’ office. It takes some forward thinking and planning, but if you are organized at home with what your work schedule looks like, then taking it on the road can be a breeze.

1. Have a list of your current projects and the deadlines for each and every milestone that make up those projects. How many plates are in the air for you when you Continue reading »

Laptop Lifestyle – How To Pull It All Together

Having a home based business has many perks; you get to set your own work hours, you can avoid leaving the house during high traffic times and you can pick up and take your ‘office’ with you to any destination that you can imagine (as long as there is an Internet connection). Maybe you haven’t thought much about it, but you are able to enjoy a laptop lifestyle and keep your business more productive and running smoothly as you travel. What do you need to make it work?  Different circumstances take different ideas. Here is how you can pull it all together and create your own business in a box (as I call it).

A big thing to consider is how long you will be gone. There are a few ways to create a laptop lifestyle for yourself. One is that you may choose to Continue reading »

Business Success Tips – What To Focus On

Do you ever feel out of control? (If you say, “what’s that?”, we need to talk!) What if one day you wake up and don’t know what you have been meaning to accomplish, if you aren’t real clear about where you are going with your business, or why it even matters. Well I was asked this question yesterday and I woke up thinking about it. We are entrepreneurs for many reasons and we need to embrace and work with all of those reasons.

To start with the personal reasons, there are things such as we want to make a difference, help others, live our potential, feel fulfilled, contribute to our community, enriching the lives of others, leverage our skill set, and make our family or loved ones proud. Then there are the concrete reasons which include Continue reading »

Business Success Tips – Keep Taking Action!

June marks the half way point of the year. This is a great month to step back and take a look at the bigger picture and get clear that you are on track and making the progress you need to in order to end the year as you envisioned back on January 1rst. What are your goals and what is it that you most want to accomplish? This is an important ritual for any entrepreneur who has their sights set on success. Take this month to step back and take a serious look at where you are and where you want to be.

By the end of the month you need to Continue reading »

Accelerate Your Business – Focus On Today

What would it take to accelerate your business in the next 30 days? Read that question again and really think about the answer. List as many ideas and resources that you can think of. If your life depended on it (or the life of someone you care deeply about), what are you capable of pulling off in a 30 day period of time that will absolutely transform your business and take you to a whole new level. Can you imagine what that would look like? If you could have that kind of breakthrough, how would that make you feel?

Here are a few ideas that came to mind when I think about Continue reading »

What To Do When You’re Not Doing What You Need To Do!

Do you have something you really want to accomplish, but you wake up and start your day by doing something completely unrelated? Do you wake up and instead open your email or you log into your favorite social media account, why? Is you mind going 100 miles a minutes with all the things that you could be doing, and most of them are not associated with your next deadline? Why is it that you have a big goal in front of you and yet find yourself avoiding it?

Avoiding what we know we need to do is something that every person who is human experiences. That is the good news, you are not alone! It has been called self-sabotage, avoidance , fear and many other things. I think that those are valid observations, but I also think Continue reading »