Ever wish that you could have the lifestyle of someone you truly admire? Perhaps it’s the lifestyle of the “rich and famous” like a movie star, or a singer? How do you think people would react if one day you decided to start acting like a “diva extraordinaire,” or a megastar actor? My guess is that your family might want to have you admitted for observation. Would the ramification be any less serious if you instead decided to imitate your next door neighbor or business mentor? Perhaps, your family and friends would not rush you to a facility, but I’ll bet they’ll still be quite puzzled. Unfortunately this type of behavior occurs all the time. Someone realizes that they don’t have what they want, so they look at the people who do and decide to copy their actions expecting to achieve the desired result. Alas, they frequently find themselves disappointed.
Jeanette was a typical go-getter who wanted it all. Mother to three children, owner of a thriving consulting firm to Fortune 500 companies, chairman of her industry association and wife to a successful doctor. Jeanette had goals, dreams and visions of a billion dollar company but there was just one problem.
Jeanette was chronically exhausted and couldn’t grow her business to the next level.
Her days started around 5:30 am and ended around midnight. Between client meetings, homework and school activities for the kids, and fitting in time to balance her check book, Jeanette barely had time to shower and brush her teeth, let alone eat a balanced meal or exercise. She was desperately trying to balance all of her priorities but always ended up feeling torn, depressed and like a failure. Inevitably, some area of her life was crashing and burning.
Having spent 4 days exhibiting my best selling book at Book Expo. America it’s been a very interesting, energizing yet exhausting couple of weeks which is also the reason there was no copy for the blog last week.
The one thing that came across very clearly from talking to the dozens of people who stopped at the booth, is that women are still not totally OK with making themselves number One.
Well, I started off 2008 very excited and pumped about the new year, new plans…new possibilities. I kicked off the New Year with a Business Planning Retreat with my friend and collegue, Wendy Watkins of PassionFruit People Growers. We went to the beautiful mountains in North Carolina and holed up in a luxury timber home - spoiled ourselves while we marianted, planned, brainstormed, calendarized, blew up, and blew out plans for 2008. Talk about coming back and being revved to go!
Well, my intention was that I would be writing you a blog entry about our retreat, what we did, how we did it, etc…and give you some ideas and inspiration for your own.
I heard it again this week. I’m sorry I failed. Mistakes are not failures they are some of the best learning experiences we can have. They propel us forward and push us into new avenues of awareness.
Be grateful for mistakes, whether negative or positive there’s always something to learn. Each will empower you and allow you to grow much more into who you want to be and how you want your business to be perceived.
Magnetism is a wonderful thing. We often hear that someone “has a magnetic personality”, or that they are “full of magnetism”, even that opposites attract “like magnets”. Why the fascination with magnetism? Perhaps because the term magnetism implies that the opportunity exists for something to be drawn to you easily and effortlessly. What if that thing is success, fame, or how about money?
One of the most important things I’ve discovered over the years is to give myself time off to think if I’m feeling stuck or overwhelmed.
Do something outside of the office that will clear your head. Go for a walk, sit in the park and do some deep breathing, take your dog for a run if you have one, anything that will get you out of the office space for a while.
Take an hour or two if necessary – or even a whole day if you’ve been working overtime. Nothing will fall apart and you will feel more focused and relaxed and able to get back to what you were doing with a much clearer mind.
As entrepreneurs and business owners, we make a serious of choices every day that can make or break our success. As a business coach for many years now, I’ve learned that it’s often not even the big things that have the greatest impact…
It’s the small, almost unconscious decisions we make that can influence the shape our life takes.
The other day one of the Success Connections team coaches, Therese Skelly, said, “I was just talking to one of the Gold Plus members about how you take time off for self-care.”
Last week, I had one of my usual Mondays. I got up, ate breakfast, meditated, went to work out, went to an appointment, had a nice long lunch with my honey out by the lake, ran a couple of errands, came home, took the dog for a long walk in the hills, read another chapter of
This week I am really delighted to share that I am on creative retreat…at the ocean!
A few months back I realized that my boys were going skiing with their dad for spring break and my husband was going to be traveling this week. I didn’t really want to be home alone all week. Well, I woke up one morning around 5 am wondering, “What would my future self….my inner audaciously successful & savvy business woman…my future self in 3 years do?”
I knew instantly. She would find a beautiful place to visit, nurture herself, and spend some chunks of time finally getting to some of those creative writing projects like revising my web page for the Joyful Business Guide and putting the final details together for my new Platinum coaching program. And, of course, it would have to be by the beach!
