So you have a big dream or goal that you want to attain. You have mapped out what you need to do to achieve it and are ready to begin your journey. At first things are going well and you are doing all the things that you have mapped out to do in order to reach your goal. Its exciting because you have embarked on a new journey and all will be well.
Let's fast forward a bit. Things have been going okay, but the journey has become a bit mundane as you continue on the path toward your dream. The things that need to be done in order to reach your goal have become routine and the next thing that you know, you look at your tasks for the day and say I don't feel like doing that today. Every once in awhile its okay to take a break as long as you get right back on task the next day.
More often than not that one day break turns into more or you get back on task only to take another break days later. How do you expect to make your goals I you stop doing what it takes to get there?
Dreams don't work unless you do and you can't expect to continue to have the level of success you are experiencing if you slack off on the work it takes to have that success.
So what do you do when you reach that point? Its time to go back to your why. Why did you start your journey to begin with. Is that why still relevant? If not what has changed and is there another reason for you to go after your dream? Once you reconnect with your why it is much easier to get back on track. As you reaffirm your commitment to your dream your enthusiasm for the project will return.
Now that you are back on track it might be a good idea to set benchmarks along the way to the big goal. As you hit each of these mini goals find a way to reward yourself for reaching them. It doesn't have to be anything big, it just needs to be something that will keep you excited about showing up everyday to do the tasks necessary to reach your dreams.
What ever it takes find a way to evaluate your effort so that you are able to maintain an effort level that will get you to your goal. You may even want to push just a little harder as you get closer to each benchmark. Keep yourself excited. Show up or your dream everyday and pretty soon you will reach your desired result.
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Monday, September 18, 2017
Eliminating Stinking Thinking
When it comes to achievement and success we are our own worst enemy. Our thoughts are a powerful force in our lives. If we want to succeed we need to believe wholeheartedly that we will. There is no room for doubt or fear.
So how do we change our thought process to one of belief from one of doubt? What we believe is revealed through our thoughts, words and deeds. If you truly believe that you will succeed your thoughts will focus on what is past the obstacles. Our word will reflect a can do attitude and our actions will align with what we think and say.
Likewise if we think that we believe but still have doubt we will still battle thoughts of I will never get this. Our words will be full of I am not or I can't and our actions will be difficult because we fear the results.
It is simple and complicated at the same time. First you must identify the negative thoughts. Once that is done you have to stop the thought in its tracks. You may even find that at first you will need to tell yourself to stop out loud. The next step is to replace that negative thought immediately with a positive one.
If you do not stop the negative thought at once you may find that you speak the negative thought out loud. If that happens you need to stop yourself and then replace the negative wording with positive wording.
More often than not that negative attitude will affect how you go about taking the actions you need to do in order to succeed. You may need to do the whole fake it until you make it thing. You know the activity that you need to do in order to reach your goals. Just get out and do them.
As you work on this three prong attack on stinking thinking you will eventually find that the negative thoughts, words and action will decline. The rate this will happen is affected by two factors. The 1st one is how vigilant you are on monitoring those negative thoughts, words and deeds and the 2nd is how ingrained those negative thoughts, words and deeds are.
So as you can see the formula for how to eliminate stinking thinking is pretty simple. Identify the negative thought processes, words and actions. Stop them in their tracks and replace them with the positive.
The steps may be simple, but our thought processes are not. Our brains are a complex computer that are filled with all sorts of data and the way that we see the world is directly related to that data that is stored in the archives that we do not access readily. You have to make a great deal of effort to deal with those things stored in those archives, better known as your sub conscious mind, and it will take time to replace the processes created by those archives.
Don't expect overnight success with eliminating stinking thinking. In the end if it is important enough for you than you will stick with the process until you have achieved the change in outlook. For some it will only take a short time. For others it may take years and for even others it may be a constant battle due to biological factors. It takes a lot of work, but in the end it will be worth it as you find yourself not only being able to meet your goals, but may find life easier to live in the face of difficulty.
So how do we change our thought process to one of belief from one of doubt? What we believe is revealed through our thoughts, words and deeds. If you truly believe that you will succeed your thoughts will focus on what is past the obstacles. Our word will reflect a can do attitude and our actions will align with what we think and say.
Likewise if we think that we believe but still have doubt we will still battle thoughts of I will never get this. Our words will be full of I am not or I can't and our actions will be difficult because we fear the results.
It is simple and complicated at the same time. First you must identify the negative thoughts. Once that is done you have to stop the thought in its tracks. You may even find that at first you will need to tell yourself to stop out loud. The next step is to replace that negative thought immediately with a positive one.
If you do not stop the negative thought at once you may find that you speak the negative thought out loud. If that happens you need to stop yourself and then replace the negative wording with positive wording.
More often than not that negative attitude will affect how you go about taking the actions you need to do in order to succeed. You may need to do the whole fake it until you make it thing. You know the activity that you need to do in order to reach your goals. Just get out and do them.
As you work on this three prong attack on stinking thinking you will eventually find that the negative thoughts, words and action will decline. The rate this will happen is affected by two factors. The 1st one is how vigilant you are on monitoring those negative thoughts, words and deeds and the 2nd is how ingrained those negative thoughts, words and deeds are.
So as you can see the formula for how to eliminate stinking thinking is pretty simple. Identify the negative thought processes, words and actions. Stop them in their tracks and replace them with the positive.
The steps may be simple, but our thought processes are not. Our brains are a complex computer that are filled with all sorts of data and the way that we see the world is directly related to that data that is stored in the archives that we do not access readily. You have to make a great deal of effort to deal with those things stored in those archives, better known as your sub conscious mind, and it will take time to replace the processes created by those archives.
Don't expect overnight success with eliminating stinking thinking. In the end if it is important enough for you than you will stick with the process until you have achieved the change in outlook. For some it will only take a short time. For others it may take years and for even others it may be a constant battle due to biological factors. It takes a lot of work, but in the end it will be worth it as you find yourself not only being able to meet your goals, but may find life easier to live in the face of difficulty.
Thursday, September 14, 2017
Sometimes a step back is needed to go forward
Earlier this week my computer got a virus. Even with my anti virus protection this virus hit my computer. Computer viruses can do anything from slow your computer down, to sending personal information such as credit card and bank account information to a 3rd party or even make it impossible for your computer to work..
It took me a full day to run virus scans and then ultimately reset my computer in order to get rid of the virus. That meant that I was unable to use my computer effectively during that time. In the past I have relied on someone else to fix computer problems for me, but I am working on a path toward self sufficiency and wanted to try to fix it myself. I learned that I could learn how to do new things with technology and that I wasn't hopeless when it came to computers.
Sometimes in our businesses and our lives things happen and we have to take a step back. We may need to take the time to access the situation, discover issues and work towards fixing them. During this time you may feel like you are going backwards instead of going in the direction that you want to go.
If you want to shoot an arrow forward you first must pull it back. If you want to chop a tree down effectively you must first make sure your ax is sharp.
Sometimes the best thing you can do for your life is to take that step or two back. You may even discover that you need to change direction. This time is not a time of failure, but time to reflect on where you have been and focus on making sure what you are doing is going to help you to reach your goals. If what you are doing is not going to help you reach your goals then something needs to change.
You may find that you may need to reach out to someone for coaching or encouragement. You may realize that you are doing okay and just need to recharge and rejuvenate. You may realize that the actions that you thought you needed to take were not working and you need a new plan altogether.
Any way you look at it taking a time out to reevaluate, rest and look ahead to the future is a valuable part of working towards achieving your dreams.
It took me a full day to run virus scans and then ultimately reset my computer in order to get rid of the virus. That meant that I was unable to use my computer effectively during that time. In the past I have relied on someone else to fix computer problems for me, but I am working on a path toward self sufficiency and wanted to try to fix it myself. I learned that I could learn how to do new things with technology and that I wasn't hopeless when it came to computers.
Sometimes in our businesses and our lives things happen and we have to take a step back. We may need to take the time to access the situation, discover issues and work towards fixing them. During this time you may feel like you are going backwards instead of going in the direction that you want to go.
If you want to shoot an arrow forward you first must pull it back. If you want to chop a tree down effectively you must first make sure your ax is sharp.
Sometimes the best thing you can do for your life is to take that step or two back. You may even discover that you need to change direction. This time is not a time of failure, but time to reflect on where you have been and focus on making sure what you are doing is going to help you to reach your goals. If what you are doing is not going to help you reach your goals then something needs to change.
You may find that you may need to reach out to someone for coaching or encouragement. You may realize that you are doing okay and just need to recharge and rejuvenate. You may realize that the actions that you thought you needed to take were not working and you need a new plan altogether.
Any way you look at it taking a time out to reevaluate, rest and look ahead to the future is a valuable part of working towards achieving your dreams.
Tuesday, September 12, 2017
Affirmations, Do they really work?
I was first introduced to affirmations when I was in my teens. I pretty much thought that they were a load of hogwash. It wasn't until about a year and a half ago that I started to take a look at them again.
I grew up in a pretty negative environment. As a result my own thinking was pretty negative. At the first sign of trouble the thoughts would spiral and I soon had the future looking as grim as possible. Is it any wonder that I kept quitting the direct marketing industry?
So about a year and a half ago I decided to make a change. I recognized my negative mindset for what it was. I wanted it to change because I wanted to be happier. I began to read books about positive mindset and one of the things that was recommended were positive affirmation. Even though they didn't work for me before I decided to give the a try again.
I started with some pretty simple ones and I said them in front of the mirror twice a day. The first step was saying them like I believed that they would work. After awhile the way that I looked at things actually changed. What I was doing was working.
Once my mindset began to change I created new affirmations that dealt with my business. I found that the things that I wanted to happen in my business were not happening, but I was more confident that they actually would and began to take set-backs in stride instead of being devastated by them.
I continue to read books and fine tune the affirmations that I use. In fact I just wrote some new ones yesterday. One of the ones I wrote out was one I had started using the previous week. It reads I am attracting financial abundance, money flows easily and quickly to me. Would you believe that the very next day I was at Wal-Mart getting some workout gear and some things for dinner. I was walking down the isle and some promotional people from Capital One walked by and handed me a $25 gift card.
Coincidence or the affirmation beginning to work? I will let you decide.
Here is what I know. When it comes to changing your attitude and internal dialog positive affirmations really do work. By using positive affirmations you may not magically see an increase in your business, but you may find that the work required in order to grow your business becomes easier as you gain confidence and train your mind to change your attitude about the work tasks required.
As a result of this new attitude and confidence you will see an increase in your business.
I grew up in a pretty negative environment. As a result my own thinking was pretty negative. At the first sign of trouble the thoughts would spiral and I soon had the future looking as grim as possible. Is it any wonder that I kept quitting the direct marketing industry?
So about a year and a half ago I decided to make a change. I recognized my negative mindset for what it was. I wanted it to change because I wanted to be happier. I began to read books about positive mindset and one of the things that was recommended were positive affirmation. Even though they didn't work for me before I decided to give the a try again.
I started with some pretty simple ones and I said them in front of the mirror twice a day. The first step was saying them like I believed that they would work. After awhile the way that I looked at things actually changed. What I was doing was working.
Once my mindset began to change I created new affirmations that dealt with my business. I found that the things that I wanted to happen in my business were not happening, but I was more confident that they actually would and began to take set-backs in stride instead of being devastated by them.
I continue to read books and fine tune the affirmations that I use. In fact I just wrote some new ones yesterday. One of the ones I wrote out was one I had started using the previous week. It reads I am attracting financial abundance, money flows easily and quickly to me. Would you believe that the very next day I was at Wal-Mart getting some workout gear and some things for dinner. I was walking down the isle and some promotional people from Capital One walked by and handed me a $25 gift card.
Coincidence or the affirmation beginning to work? I will let you decide.
Here is what I know. When it comes to changing your attitude and internal dialog positive affirmations really do work. By using positive affirmations you may not magically see an increase in your business, but you may find that the work required in order to grow your business becomes easier as you gain confidence and train your mind to change your attitude about the work tasks required.
As a result of this new attitude and confidence you will see an increase in your business.
Monday, September 11, 2017
Ignorance does not relieve us of responsibility.
I want to tell you something. I made a big mistake. I had added an AdSense account to this blog in hopes of making a little money without requiring people to pay for subscription. Through my own ignorance I did something that caused AdSense to cancel my account. I didn't mean to violate their rules and I should have known that what I was doing violated the rules.
There is a process to appeal the decision, but I will not be going through it. I did what caused them to cancel my account. There are consequences to breaking rules. Even though I didn't realize I was breaking the rules at the time, the information about those rules is readily available and I just didn't look at them.
Ignorance of laws and rules is no excuse for breaking them. It is not a reason to escape consequences either.
When we are first starting off in business we make a lot of mistakes. This is normal and part of the learning process. As we make these mistakes we may find ourselves offending people unintentionally or even upsetting a customer. Even though those mistakes may be made out of ignorance or lack of experience that does not relieve ourselves of the responsibility for those mistakes.
What do you do when you find yourself in this situation? It goes a long way to approach the person and acknowledge the mistake immediately and then take the necessary steps to remedy the situation. If you make excuses and try to pawn off the responsibility by saying you didn't know something then the person involved will not only not be happy with the results, but will most likely lose all respect for you as well.
If you want to maintain your personal as well as your businesses integrity you must accept the responsibility for your actions regardless of the situation that caused them.
In the short run you may find yourself doing a lot of backtracking or fixing situations caused by mistakes, but in the long run you will find that you create a lot of trust and respect from those who have been involved in those actions.
There is a process to appeal the decision, but I will not be going through it. I did what caused them to cancel my account. There are consequences to breaking rules. Even though I didn't realize I was breaking the rules at the time, the information about those rules is readily available and I just didn't look at them.
Ignorance of laws and rules is no excuse for breaking them. It is not a reason to escape consequences either.
When we are first starting off in business we make a lot of mistakes. This is normal and part of the learning process. As we make these mistakes we may find ourselves offending people unintentionally or even upsetting a customer. Even though those mistakes may be made out of ignorance or lack of experience that does not relieve ourselves of the responsibility for those mistakes.
What do you do when you find yourself in this situation? It goes a long way to approach the person and acknowledge the mistake immediately and then take the necessary steps to remedy the situation. If you make excuses and try to pawn off the responsibility by saying you didn't know something then the person involved will not only not be happy with the results, but will most likely lose all respect for you as well.
If you want to maintain your personal as well as your businesses integrity you must accept the responsibility for your actions regardless of the situation that caused them.
In the short run you may find yourself doing a lot of backtracking or fixing situations caused by mistakes, but in the long run you will find that you create a lot of trust and respect from those who have been involved in those actions.
Friday, September 8, 2017
Book Review: She means Business
I just finished She Means Business by Carrie Green. She is the founder of the Female Entrepreneur Association. This book is a part of her education and marketing branch for this group.
In her book Carrie talks about her entrepreneurial journey and the snags she hit along the way. She gives encouragement and has stories about other female entrepreneurs as well. There is plenty of great advice with free online resource to go along with it.
I thought that this book was great. Carrie is from the UK and as I live in the US I was able to see that no matter where we live we all face the same challenges in building a business.
At the end of this book there is a 28 day She Means Business Challenge. I think that it is a great way to get very clear about, your vision, your audience and what you need to do to lay a foundation for your own business.
I think it is such a great idea that I will be doing a Facebook group for the 28 day challenge. If you want to join this group please find me on Facebook. I go by Tricia Bushman Stubbs. I will begin the challenge on September 25th.
If you know of others who might be interested in doing this challenge please share this and of course subscribe to my blog if you find this kind of information helpful.
Thursday, September 7, 2017
Getting real and getting over myself
I have a confession to make. With all my new schedules and activity, I am not really spending my time as effectively as I could. Its time to be honest with myself and check my reality.
Here it goes, I have effectively scheduled my day. I have my morning routine, school time for my daughter, time to do chores, time to do my business and time for free time. These are all clearly scheduled. For the most part I am doing well, but when it comes to my business time, not so much. I have scheduled 2 hours to do my businesses during the day 5 days a week. I am only using maybe an hour of that.
What am I doing with my time and what am I not doing? I am actively posting on Facebook and in all my groups. I am trying to develop relationships with others by posting and commenting on others posts. I am also working to support my Referral and Mastermind group by interacting with those posts. Here is what I am not doing. I am not actively reaching out to new people to grow my Facebook friends list and I am not reaching out to new people about my businesses.
How do I expect to grow my businesses if I am not talking to people about them? Its time to have a daily list of those things that I need to be doing during that 2 hour time frame that includes actively calling and approaching people about my business.
I am allowing fear and paralysis to block my progress.
I need to find a way to get over those blocks that I am putting on myself. I am my biggest enemy to my success.
All the reading and positive affirmations will get me nowhere fast if I am not doing the activity to back them up.
Do you see yourself in this situation? Would you like an accountability partner that will put your feet to the fire?
Contact me and maybe we can help each other out.
Here it goes, I have effectively scheduled my day. I have my morning routine, school time for my daughter, time to do chores, time to do my business and time for free time. These are all clearly scheduled. For the most part I am doing well, but when it comes to my business time, not so much. I have scheduled 2 hours to do my businesses during the day 5 days a week. I am only using maybe an hour of that.
What am I doing with my time and what am I not doing? I am actively posting on Facebook and in all my groups. I am trying to develop relationships with others by posting and commenting on others posts. I am also working to support my Referral and Mastermind group by interacting with those posts. Here is what I am not doing. I am not actively reaching out to new people to grow my Facebook friends list and I am not reaching out to new people about my businesses.
How do I expect to grow my businesses if I am not talking to people about them? Its time to have a daily list of those things that I need to be doing during that 2 hour time frame that includes actively calling and approaching people about my business.
I am allowing fear and paralysis to block my progress.
I need to find a way to get over those blocks that I am putting on myself. I am my biggest enemy to my success.
All the reading and positive affirmations will get me nowhere fast if I am not doing the activity to back them up.
Do you see yourself in this situation? Would you like an accountability partner that will put your feet to the fire?
Contact me and maybe we can help each other out.
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