One of the characteristics that distinguishes the successful in life and business from their less successful counterparts is their bent for action. Successful people tend to take more, better and smarter actions. But most of all they act now rather than at some wished-for point in time. A couple of recent examples brought this point home in a powerful way.

I was talking with someone a couple weeks ago who was in a state of overwhelm. She had hired an assistant to help her enter her contacts into a Palm Pilot. And while that was a very positive first step, she still had no idea how to operate her handheld device. Without asking what she was waiting for, I simply said to her, “Let’s get you up and running on it right now.” Fifteen minutes later she was delighted to have learned 90% of what she would need to make use of this time-saving tool. The key ingredient? You guessed it: action.

A client told me about an experience she had recently when she hired a personal assistant to help her organize papers and files at home. She also happened to mention to the woman that she wanted to reorganize her clothes closet. The assistant’s response: “Let’s do it now.” And an hour later, my client was thrilled to have her closet neatly organized. Once again, the difference was action.

Several times a year I offer a four-hour planning workshop called Best Year Yet(R), which gives participants an opportunity to create a one-year goal plan for their lives and businesses.* Consistently the participants walk out of the program fired up and ready to make great things happen. Yet that enthusiasm quickly fades unless they take some action in short order to start moving ahead on the goals they set. I offer all participants a free one-hour coaching session (valued at about $175) following the workshop. Less than 20% take advantage of it, but not surprisingly, the 20% who take that action are the same 20% who actually report back later that they are having (or have had) their best year ever. Why? Because they got in action.

Have you been waiting for something to change in order for you to get in action on a dream, goal or project? Maybe it’s better weather. Maybe you’re waiting until you “feel like it.” Maybe you think there is something else you need to do to “get ready” to get in action. At the end of the day, it’s action that separates the great from the good, the good from the mediocre and the mediocre from the failure. It’s action, consistently taken toward whatever you dream of, that turns dreams into reality.

In his book One Small Step Can Change Your Life, author Robert Maurer, devotes one entire chapter to “taking small actions.” Everything from weight loss and exercise to saving money or kicking a bad habit like smoking begin with one small step, repeated enough times to build confidence, competence and momentum.

This week I invite you to get in action. Take a step on that project you’ve been procrastinating on. Remove 10 pieces of paper from your desk. Return a phone call you’re avoiding. Eliminate something you no longer need, use or want. Enroll in the class you’ve promised yourself you’ll take. Start an exercise program by walking up a flight or stairs or parking at the back of the parking lot. The size of the action doesn’t matter. Taking it does. What are you waiting for?

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Quote of the Week
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“When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur. When you improve conditioning a little each day, eventually you have a big improvement in conditioning. Not tomorrow, not the next day, but eventually a big gain is made. Don’t look for the big, quick improvement. See the small improvements one day at a time. That’s the only way it happens–and when it happens, it lasts.”

~~John Wooden
Award-winning UCLA basketball coach

Betty Mahalik has been coaching small business owners, independent professionals and leaders who want to achieve more but stress less, since 1996. Her background includes several years in the broadcasting and public relations fields prior to starting her own firm in 1987. She is an accomplished public speaker and corporate trainer specializing in communications, goal-setting and leveraging your strengths. Since 2001, she has written a weekly motivational message, free to subscribers, titled Monday Morning Coach.

A thought is an energy. Energy always wants to manifest itself.

Energy can not be stocked or blocked. It will get out anyway. If
you do something to prevent your energy from flowing, it will
find another way to express itself. If you do not follow your
own energy, your intuition, if you swim against the stream of
your own flow, energy will express itself in sickness,
tiredness, depression, skin diseases, temper tantrums,
agressiveness and other not so pleasant things. So why not
follow the road where your energy takes you? This is your road,
your way!

Do you know the song “I did it my way”? Well, if you do things
your way, if you dare being yourself, you will feel the energy.

As long as you try to be somebody else to please your parents,
peers, husband, wife, boss, children, neighbours or whatever,
your energy will be stuck. Ok, you say, but won’t I become
selfish, an outlaw, a social disaster by following my own road?
No! You will become yourself. That is freedom : to be yourself.

See the world like a big wardrobe. Everybody has his own
costume. There is only one that fits you perfectly. As long as
you try to be someone else, you are walking around with a
costume that is either too small or too big for you. You don’t
feel comfortable in it. And what else is, you “stole” a costume
that belongs to someone else! That means you are not at the
right place doing the right thing with the right people! You
took someone else’s place, someone else’s costume!

How can you know if you are at the right place, doing the right
thing with the right people? There is a very simple criterion to
find out : the questions stop in your mind! This spinning
machine in your head that was torturing you for years has just
stopped by itself! You can feel it : you feel good, everything
is “right”, your talents are asked for and you have the greatest
pleasure to offer them to the those around you. Everything falls
at his place. Questions vanish and make place for peace.

As long as you torture yourself with all these questions, it
means you still didn’t find your right spot on earth. You are
doing an activity that somebody else should be doing. And your
“job” is getting done by someone else who is not at his right
place either! You see? It’s like a puzzle : if everyone is at
his right place doing the thing he knows the best, everyone
would be at peace, filled with energy and health, and everyone
would live in wealth.

Go searching for your right place. The moment you stop being
harassed by so many questions and you feel your energy flowing
in your veins, you know this is it! You are on your road, your
road to freedom. This IS freedom!

Look for it, go for it!

Whether you’ve been in business for yourself for a day or a decade, you remember that sweet feeling of freedom when you first thought, “I’m going to do this on my own. I’m going to go into business for myself.”

The heady exhilaration of that moment was followed by other, not necessarily good, feelings. After the initial dream, you found out you had to learn about things like tax codes and office equipment, outsourcing and expenses. The result was often less than inspiring.

So how do you keep that burst of enthusiasm alive past the honeymoon stage of self employment? First, you can learn all the information necessary to make sure you’re approaching self-employment from an informed and ready state. This can help you break free of the isolation, frustration and overwhelm that being self employed can generate.

But that’s not all you need. Information alone is not the answer. If it was, we’d all be thin, Zen-master millionaires. We are flooded in information. We’re drowning in it. What we need is the right information, sense in the chaos. AND we need to know what to do about it once we have it.

There are concrete, logical steps you need to learn to be successfully self-employed or to coach self-employed people. That’s the easy part, the “info-dump” we’ve come to rely on to solve our problems. But in addition to that, and perhaps more powerfully, it is based also on the idea that having the right information will not guarantee success. Have you ever known what to do and still not done it?

The fact is that there are powerful forces within you tugging you away from the success you want. They’re at work every time you organize your desk when you’re supposed to be making follow-up calls. They’re there when you rewrite the text to your website a hundred times instead of unleashing it on the world. They are your constant companion, causing the fluttery feeling in your stomach when you think of getting up to speak or think of contacting that influential person in your field with whom you’d love to do some work.

So how do you combat the dream-killers of frustration, isolation and overwhelm, plus the paralyzing conflicting intentions that keep you from being your highest self?

It starts with being very present to your body. In the West, we are taught that the body is a thing that carts around our brains, not the sentient, integral part of out being that it truly is. So instead of listening carefully to its messages, we mask them, medicate them and deny them. It’s one of the causes of the epidemics of illness we see in our society.

Your body doesn’t lie to you, and if you listen to it, it will guide you, even in business. Business IS personal, after all, and never more than when you are in business for yourself. Your body will give you all sorts of valuable business information in the form of intuition and guidance. Use it.

Secondly, you can learn the valuable lesson that fear does not equal “don’t proceed.” Being in business for yourself can be confronting in a big way. You will need to address issues like, “Am I good enough?” “Who am I to be doing this work?” “What if I fail?” Much of the conflict and inaction in self employment comes from trying to avoid these questions. Instead, feel the fear, listen to it, understand it, thank it for coming. Be with it. This is a process and not a gap-stop solution, so at first you may find that it’s difficult to do. Stick with it. The key to freedom from overwhelm and paralyzing fear is to feel things fully, to allow “I’m not good enough,” to live alongside, “Yes I am.” You are both. After you accept the yin and yang of it, only then are you truly free to move on.

Thirdly, frustration arises from trying to force outcomes and seeking validation outside yourself, navigating via others’ approval. The quickest way to business failure is to not know exactly what you offer and the value that it holds for others. Many businesses have failed trying to figure out “what people are buying” rather than what they offer that’s unique. Of course, a key component of success in solo business is offering services that are appealing and topical, but done well this is a process that starts from within and not outside yourself.

The third dream killer, isolation, comes from the illusion that we’re separate from others. In self employment it can particularly feel that way since we are alone so much of the time. You can combat isolation in a variety of ways, like finding communities of like-minded people, reaching out to collaborate with others and being very open to the experience of others’ influence on you, such as by R&Ding your ideas, collaborating and finding strategic partners to leverage your efforts.

Self employment is a big idea and a big task. It requires gathering up a lot of knowledge that you don’t necessarily intuitively have. But more than a series of great big projects, self employment is truly a road to self transformation, the process by which you learn to dream bigger, own that you have deep mastery of your experience and profoundly impact the world. Through self employment, you can uniquely express what you’ve been put on this Earth to say.

About The Author

Maria E. Andreu, speaker, writer and success coach, heads up the Self Employment System, a thriving community with resources, forums, learning clubs and mentor groups to help the self employed learn all the information they need to thrive and combat the dream-killers of isolation, frustration and overwhelm. To learn more and find free resources, articles and information, visit www.theselfemploymentsystem.com

maria@coachville.com

Workweek: an opportunity for discovering and shaping; the place where the self meets the world.

Regardless of what business we are in, what projects we are working on or what interests we have in the world - we are all in the business of relationship building. In business we are always cultivating relationships with employees, with prospective clients, with colleagues. In our personal lives the place of relationship is often more obvious and more central. And our deeper relationship with ourselves is at the core of how we manage and grow each of those other relationships and therefore our lives.

At every moment in our professional and personal lives we are faced with decisions - one after another that create and move along the landscape of our lives. What criteria do you use to make good decisions, what benchmarks do you employ to measure your decision making process? The issue of relationships and decision-making are closely allied. If we are in close, clear contact with our own beings, our wisdom, our intuitive faculties- the decisions we make have more likelihood of keeping us moving along a path that is in integrity with our values and real goals. When we allow the rush of events to disconnect us from this deeper well of understanding and vision - all that we do suffers. I hear over and over again from clients how there isn’t the time, how the bottom-line is what must determine their choices and often their direction. I am not immune to the pressures and demands of the world we all live in. But if we are to, in some way, affect the world positively and develop a life that is worth living we must find some time to allow for the growth and development of that which will give us the foundation, creativity and energy to make moment-to-moment sound decisions.

How do you cultivate this essential connection or relationship with yourself? What nourishes it? For me sometimes in a busy work environment it is the presence of beauty or the kind and friendly relationship I have developed with my colleagues. My daily habits of mind and inspiring walk contribute to this. Sometimes it is taking the time to stop and allow silence to be present so I can sense the next move. I know that when I do this my decisions are more balanced. Each of us must look to ourselves, to mentors and teachers to cultivate even simple practices that we can integrate into our day.

When we are able to do this - to maintain a stronger connection to that core in us there is a sense of our own strength and power that then comes forward in our relationships and choices. Of course our decision making takes into account facts, weighing of potential outcomes, the history of the issue at hand. But if you are making a decision the context in which it is made is really the state you are in, your thoughts, your clarity, and your connection to a deeper well of being. These influence directly your perceptions, understanding, openness to options and solutions, and the flow of your creative juices. We must call on our own deeper understanding and vision to inform our choices.

Usually when we have cultivated this more essential connection it is easier to see or sense what is needed in the situation. We more easily feel our own power to stand firm in the face of conflicting opinions or forces. We can keep a perspective that serves the situation and begins to move it along in some creative and hopefully affirmative way.

The word “Choices” itself gives us clues to the components of good decision-making. I believe that good choices are ones that bring about more ability, more freedom for ourselves and others and ones that allow for continued growth in the situation. Here is a way of looking at your daily choices and seeing how they are or are not contributing to this.

C: Creative A good choice calls on your creativity, your interest in finding solutions that may have been hidden. They actual feel good in your body because you can feel the energy of your creativity being engaged. This in itself is satisfying.

H: Healthy Faced with a decision you can always look at what is the healthiest route both for yourself, for those involved and perhaps even for the future. Healthy native cultures often make decisions based on the impact they may have for generations to come. We have lost that long-range vision and often make short-term decisions that are detrimental to the entire situation further down the road.

O: Open- Opportunities - Objective Does the decision keep you open to possibilities? Does it bring in a larger field of opportunities? Are you able to make it in an objective as opposed to an emotionally reactive state?

I: Inspire Inspiration is usually the outcome of a good decision. Even if the solution is difficult or the next steps hazardous you know that you are doing the best thing possible in the situation. Once more that in itself adds to your self-esteem and raises the energy available in the situation or system.

C: Connections Isolation of some sort is often the by-product of questionable decisions. Whether that isolation is from others, our own selves or our talents and abilities. But when we maintain those basic connections we can more safely navigate the new and unknown territory that some choices bring.

E: Empower At then end of the day do your choices leave you feeling empowered - the author of your own decisions or do you feel caught in a web of confusion. If the later is true it is time to stand back and begin to take a larger view of the issues at hand.

S: Soul Finally choices that both utilize your connection to your soul and serve to support that bond are those that will bear the richest fruit.

Ask yourself - does this choice call on creativity - does it lead to healthy actions that support an open attitude and opportunities that lead to inspiration of some kind - empowering you and others to maintain the soul- the energy - the heart and guidance available in each moment. Choices such as these create energy - not drain it- they feel good to us and at the end of the day we can rest easy knowing that regardless of outcome we have done the best that we can.

We are the authors of our lives and our business. Although we are each within a larger field of forces, history and pressures each of us has at our disposal creative wisdom, connection and creativity that help us navigate the sometimes-chaotic landscape of each day.

“Feel the truth of what you are and at the same moment act. Risk yourself for what you know is right and true.” Fredrick Douglas, escaped slave from an Independence Day speech

Copyright 2004 ConnieButler.biz All rights reserved.

About The Author

Connie Butler is a personal and professional coach working with individuals and groups to clarify their greatest vision and cultivate its successful realization - moving them past their growth frontier into new territory. She is available for personal or professional coaching, seminars and can be reached at 305-534-1119 or mailto:connie@conniebutler.biz. Ms. Butler is a published author and radio personality.

connie@conniebutler.biz

Most of the time whenever we need to make an important business decision we turn to what is convenient or comfortable. Why is it that we never seem to want to venture out and try new things. Is it the fact that we know what to expect when using our current vendor(s), even if they aren’t the best at what they do?

I believe that it’s human nature to keep doing the same things over and over, using the same resources over and over, giving the same effort over and over.

Answer these 2 questions.

1.) When you shower, do you always wash in the same order?

2.) When you go on vacation, do you stay in the same place as

last time or at least near it?

What if there was a better way of doing these things? of staying in better places? of operating a business?

Well, I think there is.

We have to be willing to try new and different things. Just because it’s different to us, doesn’t mean that it won’t work.

An example. I’ve been consulting for a company that is launching a new concept for companies to save money on printing and office supplies by making them a member of a large buying group. Some companies saw the savings they could obtain, but wouldn’t try it because it wasn’t familiar to them. They didn’t want to learn a new way of buying, so they didn’t sign up. The companies that were willing to venture out and try this new model were successful! They started saving hundreds and thousands of dollars immediately. All because they were willing to get outside of their comfort zone.

My advice is this:

Be Bold, Be Willing, and Go For It!

Ken Hamilton is a consultant for One Source GPO in Franklin, TN. He can be reached at 888-591-7722 or ken@onesourceinc.net

It’s not everyday you get a chance to spend many hours in the presence of minds like Mark Victor Hansen (Co-creator of the Chicken Soup for The Soul Series) and Robert Allen (best selling author of Creating Wealth, Nothing Down and One Minute Millionaire). I must admit from the start that I was on a mission to learn as much as I could from these guys and the other phenomenal speakers at this special long weekend in Orlando, Florida.

Several minutes in Mark and Bob’s company were enough to reconfirm to me that these guys not only make an amazingly entertaining two man show but also happen to be two of the biggest thinkers and entrepreneurial geniuses of this century. Let me explain what I mean. Imagine you have an idea, for example, an idea for a product, a program or a book. Listening to them you begin to realize that you haven’t even begun to think big enough. Your head literally explodes with inspired energy, as well as that you come up with one, two, maybe half a dozen other ideas, too! It’s a dream factory where your mind wakes up and comes to life with many wonderful possibilities.

Sound too good to be true? Well that’s not all, there is more! Not only do Mark and Bob teach you how to think big (and I mean BIG!), but also they inspire you to give back. Their philosophy in life is to become successful at whatever you choose so that you can give back to the world and those less fortunate. This is something that I definitely buy into.

During their talk, Mark and Bob asked me quite a few profound questions, the type that really change you life. I want to share these with you in the hope that they can help you improve your life, too:

What are your main challenges to overcome this year? At work? At home?

What are you going to manifest this year?

What is your life purpose? Write this in seven words or less.

What two new ideas can you contribute every week to improve work, family life and your relationships?

What is your life movie? Is it something people will want to watch?

What is your guidance system in life?

What are your three big simply must do ideas this year?
What is holding you back?

Also, I would like to share the following 15 questions. Try and answer them as completely as possible:

1.My heart’s desire is…

2.In six months I will have …

3.I want to earn … annually.

4.I want…of residual income monthly.

5.My ideal relationship is…

6.My perfect car is…

7.My homes have…rooms/bedrooms/closets/garages.

8.To be fit I am going to…

9.The sales goal I will hit is…

10.The skills I am learning include …

11.My perfect assistant does…

12.My charities of choice are…

13.I am learning…

14.My outrageous goal is…

15.The legacy I want to leave is…

Good luck with these amazing questions! Lastly, I will leave you with two inspirational quotes by Mark and Bob that I took away with me:

“Thoughts to change your life are just that until you act upon them.”
“The size of the question you ask determines the size of your result.”

Alexandra Watson has helped countless women create happy and fulfilling lives through her happiness system. She has developed a fool-proof, easy-to-follow seven step system to happiness that any woman can use and see results fast. John Gray, author of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus calls Alexandra’s book The Happiness System for Women ‘a vibrant and exciting journey to the center of your soul’. Alexandra has featured internationally on TV, radio and in many publications. She can be contacted by email on: HappinessAuthor@aol.com or visit her website at http://www.AlexandraWatson.com

Hopes and dreams come in all sizes and shapes. You can journal and make collage boards of all the “things” you want in your life but you still have to have the major ingredient of action to make them reality. If changing the geographic location of where you live seems too major, start with making where you are now more livable.

Are you still keeping those bedrooms intact for the children to come home? Get up and clear the room. Turn it into your private space. Take out the easel and the paints and throw down a tarp and begin to let the air out of this mid life crisis. Color it any color you want. Frame and put your own paintings, drawings or creations on the walls. There is no one to criticize you. Actually, most of your friends will either be jealous or copy your every move.

If you have been drooling over the upgrades of homes in magazines or on the cable channels, you don’t need to keep waiting. Have garage sales and give the children their favorite memory items and go out browsing and shopping until just the right item catches your eye. All the wonderful, cheerful colors available to tempt you and delight you in your decorating adventures are waiting to share your space. Friends ooh and ah over your newly found inner expression and can’t wait to see what’s next.
If white carpeting or purple walls have always intrigued you then I would say, “go for it”. What are you waiting for?

The generation before us hung onto everything. We spent a lot of years incorporating the family’s hand me downs with a blend of our own choices. We sometimes landed very near our family of origin. Sometimes in the same neighborhoods. The generation we raised does not stick around. A majority of them move to other states and countries. It becomes too expensive to take used articles with them especially when they prefer new personally chosen items. Thus we fill our attics, basements and garages with all the things just in case they might want them. More for the garage sale and or the Good Will. Remember that one person’s trash is another’s treasure. Make room and lighten your life. The accumulation is out of control and it is a heavy burden to carry. Once it’s gone, you won’t even remember you had it or it will become a memory that brings a smile. It’s your space to have, hold and to do with whatever you want. So, let some of the accumulation go and move in something that makes you enjoy life more.

How much older do you think you need to be before you have what you want?

Marge Pickering Picone is the founder of http://www.aging-baby-boomer-guide.com