Are you piling on the bull?

June 23, 2016 By

Did I get your attention? I hope so, that was my intent.

Pile of booksAnd so the next question is, are you? Piling on the bullsh*t that is. Making excuses, having “reasons” for not getting things done? Telling yourself you’ll get to it later and then later never comes? You have probably read other posts from me regarding excuses, and it’s a theme that continues to plague people, but why?

Reasons

Many reasons, self-doubt, fear, worry, and concern which all point to f-e-a-r! Fear of success, fear of failure, fear of what other people will think, will say and more things than I can name in this one blog post. The interesting thing is most people won’t say they are afraid of something specific, fear shows up in very interesting ways.

Fear can show up in ways such as piling too much on yourself to do. If you have big to-do lists and a jammed packed schedule you’ll never get to anything and that actually keeps you safe. However, when you have too much to do, it’s almost impossible to finish any one thing.

Ask yourself are you keeping yourself (because make no mistake, it is you that is doing this) so busy because you absolutely have to do these things or are they holding you back from achieving what it is you want? Be completely honest with your answer here because often we think we have to do things or should do things when we really don’t.

“Do not plan for ventures before finishing what’s at hand.” — Euripides

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What to do

And if you find that you are doing things that you really don’t have to do (or at least do right now) ask yourself what you are a avoiding, it’s a great question because if you ask what you are afraid of more than likely you won’t be able to answer that question -it’s too big and elusive.

By asking yourself what you are avoiding, you’ll be able to reach what it is that you are afraid of in a roundabout way. When one of my clients asked this question of herself she realized that she was afraid of saying no to others both in business and in life. So by keeping herself so busy she never had to say ‘no’ since she had other things she could cite as her reasons why she couldn’t do something.

Here’s the trick, learn to say no and feel good about it. That’s a whole blog for another day (we’ll get to that soon). Right now, take a look at where you are piling on the bullsh*t on yourself and then you can look at how to let it go.

Come on over to my Facebook page and share your experiences and any tips you have used to eliminate your stress.

 

Filed Under: Empowerment, Personal Development, Reaching Goals, Self Worth Tagged With: , , ,

Do you know when is when?

June 16, 2016 By

I had two conversations recently that gave me food for thought.  One day a friend said to me “I can’t help myself, I keep taking things on and it’s stressing me out.”  Then right after that, a client said “I have a hard time saying ‘no’ to everything and I’m totally stressed.”

My first thought was “Oh good, I’m not alone!” because I do the same thing.  My second thought was “Oh dear, there are others who don’t know when to say ‘when’, too.”  So I have decided to share my story with you so that if you are challenged by taking on too much too, maybe you’ll take something away from my experience to make your life better.

I have this habit of pushing myself a little too far. It shows up in ways like (and you may have the same issues):

  • putting too many to dos on my to do list
  • taking too many business-building classes
  • saying yes way too many times

When I do this I’m always in a mode of rushing around trying to get things done.  Of course, because there is too much to get done nothing ever feels like it’s coming to an end.

I recently finished learning how to be better at social media, but wanted to learn Instagram, so I signed up for a class for that. Then I saw an ad for a class to grow my email list and that is of interest to me as well, so I signed up.  Next I stumbled across an Ed2Go class for online businesses and thought this course would fill in the missing pieces that I felt I needed – so yes, I signed on for that one, too.

Now three classes isn’t really a lot (or so I think, you may think otherwise; it’s all in the perception) but that’s if you haven’t another thing you are doing … and in my case that isn’t so.

I run two businesses — my coaching business and my fitness business.  Plus, I am part of a group coaching program (where, yes, I’m learning in that as well) and I’m also in a private program that has group components, too.  So honestly, adding on even one of the classes above (and if I’m really being honest all of them) wasn’t in my best interest.

Can you guess what happened to me? If you guessed that I had stressed myself out beyond measure, you would be correct. Now let me tell you that it’s a negative self-sabotaging pattern that leads me to defeat not victory.

Can you relate?

I’m ambitious, I like to get things done, and I like to be constantly moving forward.  Yet what I’ve done with this pattern is make myself come screeching to a halt.

And that’s when I realized that I need to know when is when – when enough is enough, when too much is too much.  So I have decided that once all of these courses are complete, the new boundary for myself is to only take ONE course and be enrolled in ONE program at a time.

Truth be told, I don’t know how I’ll do with that (I’ll let you know though), because it’s such a different behavior and way of being for me.  However, I’m game to see how my life changes because of it!  

I wanted to share my story so that you can see you aren’t alone and you can do something about it.  Stay tuned to next month’s article where I’ll give you several tips to break your patterns and start recognizing when is when.

Your turn!  Hop on over to https://www.fb.com/KimRavidaCoaching/ and share your experience, what you have done to overcome the do-itis or what you’d like to know about recognizing when is when.

And of course, if you’d like to keep it private you are welcome to email me personally at kim@kimravida.com to share.

Filed Under: Business Mastery, Empowerment, Personal Development, Self Worth Tagged With: , , , ,

Want results, set a powerful intention.

June 9, 2016 By

When it comes to results, there is more to it than laying out goals. It’s about setting powerful intentions.

What is your intention?

How many times have you said or even heard “It wasn’t my intention to do that.” For the most part those words are uttered after something happened that either didn’t go well or wasn’t something that you wanted.

Create Your Future

When that happens usually it is because there was no aforethought. It’s usually a dive in and get going. Kind of like driving blind, you just get going and hope for the best. Well that isn’t any way to get results.

 

Setting an intention means to have a purpose, an aim, to have meaning. Yes, it is important to quantify your results. Writing down I will make $10,000 by June 30, is a powerful goal and adding a powerful intention in terms of purpose to go along with that means that you will see results.

Let’s take a look at setting an intention for the $10,000 by June 30.

Goal:

  • To make $10,000 by June 30 (quantifiable)

Intention:

  • I will show up for my business in a confident and assertive way.
  • I will hold myself as powerful no matter what.
  • I will take powerful actions:
    • To speak to 10 previous clients about working together again.
    • To follow up with potential clients to make an offer to work together now.
    • To track and keep all income and expenses up to date.

As you can see, there are some intentions that are focused on your way of being and then there are intentions that are focused on actions. The things you will do that will help you attain your result.  Each one is an important part of the result equation, to have one without the other results in less than what you want out of your goal.

The best way to be productive, purposeful and profitable is to:

  • Set specific intentions
  • Write down your specifci intentions
  • Review daily
  • Take consistent action

Here is the beauty of setting goals with powerful intentions, you immediately set yourself up for success. You will know exactly what it is you will do in order to work toward your goal throughout the time frame you have given yourself.

So many people let themselves down by choosing general goals without intentions, when they don’t reach them they feel like they have failed. When you set those powerful intentions, write them down, review them daily, and take consistent action you have no choice but to succeed.

Even if let’s say, you did not make $10,000 by the end of June, but you took specific action daily, you have won. Can you see that failure is not an option?

The other thing that happens when you set and follow your intentions is that you give yourself some insight into what perhaps didn’t (and of course, what did) work  so that you can easily course correct. The ultimate end result here is to continuously stay on target by taking action,  reviewing the results that come out of taking action and course correcting accordingly.

Are you ready? Good! I’m excited to hear how it goes for you. Email me your goals and intentions at kim@kimravida.com along with the time frame you set for yourself. I’ll be here to support you in any way during your goal time and after the time frame is over, you’ll be able to write again to share your results!

Here is a resource for you if you are truly interested in reaching your goal, it’s called the Freedom Journal. Click here to go to the website and order your own copy.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Empowerment, Personal Development, Reaching Goals, Structure Tagged With: , , ,

How connected are you to your money?

June 2, 2016 By

Is money an important aspect of empowering yourself?

If you said yes, then you are connected to your money.  Whoohoo, more than likely you are in the green and doing well with your business.  More than likely you are making a lot of money and feeling great about yourself. Congratulations!

Now I say more than likely because sometimes while you may feel that money is an important aspect of empowering yourself, there are things inside you that speak to the contrary. When that happens, you aren’t connected to your money in a strong enough way. It means that you may be struggling to make ends meet, pay the bills and earn the income you desire.

Connect with money

When you are not connected to money there are many challenges you face. A few that show up are:

  • Lack of financial independence
  • Not feeling empowered with money
  • Feeling overwhelmed with basic financial details

Let’s take a look at each one a little more closely and then learn what you can do to empower yourself to be strongly connected to your money.

Lack of financial independence.

You may blindly trust the handling of financial details to others. You may be happy when someone else is making financial decisions for you.

If you are lacking financial independence you in essence give your power over to someone else. You avoid making decisions that you need to make, you choose to ignore certain steps that you need to take and it’s a place where you may be letting others run the show rather than you. This gives you less than stellar results making you feel like you have let yourself down.

Not feeling empowered with money.

You can easily allow others to make you feel disempowered or inadequate about money. When you aren’t connected to your money, it’s hard to be empowered with it. You can be taken advantage of financially. This shows up when you negotiate your fees and walking away feeling as if you got the short end of the deal or that you didn’t get what you are worth. It shows up by you spending too much for products and services for your own business and in your life. And it shows up by you not taking steps to ensure your financial security.

Feeling overwhelmed with basic financial details.

You may wish you didn’t have to think about making or managing money.  You may avoid facing your own money situation, hoping it will improve on it’s own. You may pay your bills late or even forgo certain services that you need to have for your business. You may have a hard time balancing your checkbook, or not even keeping one. When this happens you may cause a lot of financial stress for yourself and your loved ones.

If you see yourself in any of the above, first let me tell you that you are in a great place! Awareness is everything. Next you can begin to create a stronger connection to your money.  It’s never too late to start!

“When you connect with your money, you connect with yourself” –Kim Ravida

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Creating a connection to your money.

Ask yourself the following questions:

  1. If you were solely responsible for your money management, what are 8 financial details you need to know?
  2. What are 3 qualities you appreciate in the people who have assisted you financially, and in what specific ways would your life change if you adopted these qualities for yourself?
  3. What beliefs would you have to acknowledge and transform in order to empower yourself to be independent financially?

Take a few moment to sit and ponder the questions and then journal them in a notebook. From there what one step are you willing to take right now?

I’d like to offer you an empowering money mindset as a take-way today.  It is:

“The more comfortable I get with money, the more I empower myself.” Say it outloud 3 times and notice how you feel. Then write it down and use it as your new money mindset.

If you are game to empower yourself, why not empower others, jump over to my Facebook page and share the one step you are willing to take right now to empower yourself and by doing so you’ll empower others..

Filed Under: Empowerment, Money Habits, net worth Tagged With: , ,

Just What The Heck Are You Waiting For?

May 12, 2016 By

Recently I was on a group training call and my coach (I work with her privately too) said to me something that was sweet to my ears.  She said: “Kim, you always show up.” I was the only one who did. Because I showed up, I was able to have additional coaching as if it were a private 1/1 session. I walked away with new knowledge and a plan about how I can take my business to a new level that I wouldn’t have gotten had I not shown up.

Question mark

Why was I so happy to hear her say that? Well…I never used to show up! I used to be that person who would say I wanted to do something then not do it, I’d sign up for programs and classes and either not show up (hey, I was busy) or show up but not do the work (I was busy, remember)! I hate to admit it but it is true. I let myself down all the time.

I’d say I wanted to do x, y and z and then I wouldn’t do it. I’d let other things get in my way, other people, other priorities (other people’s priorities), you name it, I did it.

One day though it hit me (think 2×4 across the head — ouch), I was only letting myself down and that was no longer ok with me. It definitely had something to do with the dwindling bank account and wondering how I was going to pay my bills for my business and live my life but it also had something to do with seeing other people be successful in business.

I stopped and asked myself what they were doing differently than I – lots of things I know, but one thing that I kept seeing is that they weren’t waiting for anything, they just kept showing up and so I decided that’s what I’d do.

To this day, I’m constantly in awe of the way people let themselves down. Let’s take business. Are you someone who signed up for things, a program, a coach, a class yet don’t get the results you want?

If you said yes, ask yourself if you are showing up and by showing up I don’t mean to the class/call, etc. I mean fully, participating, doing the homework, the next actions, asking questions.

And if you aren’t, keep in mind that when you don’t show up you simply cannot get the results you want.

“Want results? Ya gotta show up.” –Kim Ravida

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As someone wanting to be successful in your business, tell me:

  • Why would you let other things constantly get in your way if you are serious about getting results?
  • Why if you sign up for a program that would help you and that you paid for, wouldn’t you make it a top priority to show up?
  • Why would you sabotage yourself that way?

The funky thing is that when people do this they complain or are pissed off that they aren’t getting (or didn’t get) the results they wanted and will blame others. Come on, if you don’t want to show up for whatever reason, that’s on you. I show up because I’m all about being at the cause of change and my success (and because one 2×4 across the head was enough for me to get it).

What will it take for you to get it?

I’d love to hear your comments on this, pop over to my Facebook page and answer me this: what the heck are you waiting for?

Feel free to share as much or as little as you’d like! And if you want to share privately, I’d love that too. Email me at kim@kimravida.com

Filed Under: Business Mastery, Empowerment, Personal Development, Reaching Goals Tagged With: , , ,

It’s all about the plan

May 5, 2016 By

Do you remember when you were younger and getting together with your friends you’d ask “hey, so what’s the plan?” And usually there wasn’t one but you’d all come up with something.

It’s not a bad strategy when you are a teenager but it’s a terrible one if you are a business owner. No plan, no success. I should know, I spent a lot of time doing things with no real plan. Oh sure, I thought I had a plan, I would do a little social media, blogging, networking and other business building tasks but that was only because that was what I thought I should do because others either said to do it or were doing it. (Gee, as I write this I’m realizing I wasn’t that far removed from what goes on in high school.)

Then one day it hit me, I wasn’t getting where I wanted to go because I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t have a step by step plan of the things I would do that would bring me what I wanted. When I think of the elite athletes and successful business owners and businesses each one had a plan that laid out what to do first, second and so on.

I realized that building a business was much like building a brick and mortar building. There are separate contributions from many areas and they all need to fit together as one. And to do that, each has to be executed precisely in coordination. In some cases, in order to reach a goal there are certain pieces that need to be done before others.

Once I realized this, that everything comes together to make the whole the results start happening. Oh and another thing I learned was that I wasn’t necessarily the best person for all of the jobs. In order to reach my goals I needed to delegate, sometimes delete and always be open to course correcting.

Now, to this day, before I do anything in my business I either get out a checklist (if it’s something I’ve already done) or I create a step by step plan (and turn that into a checklist) so that I always know what to do and when to do it. This helps me reach my end result faster and with a lot less stress.

It’s become a game of sorts, I love to plan so I get to do what I love and then I love to see results of that plan, so by taking the steps in between (the meat of the matter so to speak), I work my plan and see my results!

“He who fails to plan is planning to fail” …Winston Churchill

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Where are you failing to plan? And more importantly, what do you want to do so that you succeed? As Winston Churchill said, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. I know you don’t want that. So hop on over to my Facebook page and tell me your tips for planning or what one step you will commit to after reading this.

 

Filed Under: Business Mastery, Empowerment, Reaching Goals, Structure Tagged With: , ,

Are you disappointing yourself?

April 28, 2016 By

It’s an interesting thing we do. We disappoint ourselves all the time. Are you thinking “no I don’t” right now?

Let me ask you, have you said to yourself “I’ll do that today” (whatever “that” is)? And then do you end up NOT doing it? Or even making an excuse as to why you didn’t do it or weren’t able to do it? Well, that’s disappointing yourself.

A disappointed monster in front of a wooden signage

Your true self knows that you are lying to avoid the disappointment of saying you didn’t do it or didn’t do what you said you’d do so you are truly only hurting yourself. Why do we do it? (Yes, I’ve done it too.) Well, to feel successful, we want to look good and so we tend to say things that aren’t necessarily accurate even to ourselves.

But that’s where we end up disappointing ourselves and it’s a downward spiral from there. So then, I’d like to offer you a couple of ways in which you can start to be honest with yourself.

  1.  Write down everything you plan to do. This will give you a touch point to refer to so that you remember what you told yourself you were going to do so you can go and do it.
  2. Cross it off ONLY when you complete it. This may seem silly but this action will show you without a doubt what you did get done. You must be honest (no futzing/fibbing) though and not cross things off if you did not do it.
Be true to and with yourself and you will never let yourself down – Kim Ravida

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By doing these two steps you’ll be able to truly and honestly see yourself in the best light, and you’ll be in the best light! You’ll be on the road to trustworthiness with yourself. The days of disappointing yourself will be over and you’ll find you are more successful as well as happy!

Your turn, how can you see using the above steps to move from disappointing yourself to seeing yourself shine? Hop over to my Facebook page to share.

 

Filed Under: Empowerment, Personal Development, Reaching Goals, Self Worth Tagged With: , , , , ,

Yes, there are some things you should do when it comes to your health & fitness

April 14, 2016 By

I know, you probably don’t want to be told what you should be doing. I get that. However, what if it were something that would add to your business and your life success? Would you be open to listening? Being healthy & fit is an important component for you to have in your business.

Health & fitness is another one of my specialties.  I’m a huge advocate of being healthy and fit. It helps us stay focused, gives us more energy and even brain power. Recently a client came to one of her sessions asking for “help getting healthier”. I’m qualified to help her with this too as I am a Certified Personal Trainer and have many years of both personal and professional experience and success in this arena.

A lot of people struggle with their health when they have their own business. True, it can be a challenge to run a business and be healthy but it isn’t impossible. Often, we talk about setting aside time for business related tasks and appointments so we can use time here as it pertains to your health & fitness.  Here are a few to get your started:

happy

  • Make time for movement. Take a short walk, get up and stretch, go up and down a couple of flights of stairs a few times. Simple movement will bring oxygen into your body and will give you a boost in energy and mood.
  • Make time to plan, shop for and eat healthy meals. Plan and shop for what you will eat for the week, this will cut down on you just grabbing something unhealthy. When you know what you’ll be eating it is easier to just eat it.
  • Make time for sleep. Yes, sleep plays a hugely important role to your health & fitness. Just think about the time you didn’t get enough sleep and how hard it was for you to do the simplest tasks the next day, enough said!

That’s it, very simple “shoulds” right? Yes, absolutely. I’ll expand on them in later blog posts but for now, contemplate how it is you will fit these key three into your life so that you have optimal health & fitness!

As Nike says: “Just Do It!”

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I’d love for you to share your experience with your own health & fitness. Feel free to post a comment here.

If you would like to set up a free Strategic Plan of Action Call to get clear on how you can bring more health & fitness into your life, simply email me at kim@kimravida.com with the subject line of I want to be fit and I’ll email you back to get set up!

Filed Under: Business Mastery, Empowerment, Health & Fitness, Personal Development, Reaching Goals, Wellness Tagged With: , , , ,

Are you negatively or positively motivated?

April 7, 2016 By

There are two types of people in the world. Negative and positive. Which one are you?

Negative people say things like “I don’t want …” and positive people say “I want …” Let me give you an example.

Let’s take health & fitness. The negative person will say things such as:

  • I don’t want to be fat.
  • I don’t want to eat rabbit food.
  • I don’t want to go to the gym.

The positive person will say things such as:

  • I want to look healthy.
  • I want to eat nutritious foods that make me feel great.
  • I want to exercise and add movement to my life.
Positive people say “I want…”

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Can you see the difference? Yes, sometimes you do need to know what it is you don’t want so that you can know what you do want, however, if you constantly are saying I don’t want…well, my friend, then that is exactly what you will be getting.

Quote - Success =

Now don’t despair if you are saying to yourself, “oh gosh, I’m so that don’t person” – I was too,  how else do you think I can help you. Simply take a look at what it is you are saying that you don’t want and turn it around to what you do want. You may feel free to use the examples I gave above.

One thing I have found that helps more people be more successful is to share what it is you do want, so find a trusted friend or if you’d like I’d be honored if you shared what you want with me. Reply here to this blog or email me privately at kim@kimravida.com.

If you find you would like some additional support in getting clear on what you do want and/or help getting there, I have opened my schedule up to offer you a FREE Strategic Plan of Action Strategy Session where you’ll be able to lay out exactly what you want and what you will do to get it. Email me privately at kim@kimravida.com, put in the subject line SPA and I’ll be in touch with you to schedule your session!

You have nothing to lose and everything to gain, clarity, insight and action steps to having exactly what it is you want. And not to worry, if you are still in the place of “I don’t want…” you’ll definitely walk away knowing what you do want!

Filed Under: Empowerment, Personal Development, Reaching Goals Tagged With: ,

Are you a vacation-taker?

March 29, 2016 By

A vacation-taker is someone who takes a vacation. Is that you?

I never was.  Most of my early working years was spent well, working. Why would I want to go on vacation?

Good thing I know better now. I didn’t grow up with my family going on vacations so I didn’t know any better. We always stayed home. My dad taught elementary school so he was off the whole summer. There was a few trips here and there but nothing major.

I just saw an interesting infographic on stats and facts about vacation travel from 2015 and couldn’t agree more with their facts.

Quote - The time to relax is when you don't have time for it. Sydney J. Harris

Vacations allow us to unwind, recharge and best of all have a fresh perspective on our lives when we return. Yet many solopreneurs and small business owners forgo taking any time off from their business let alone vacation. It’s an interesting mindset to say the least and one that will not have you coming out ahead.

No, more work is not what you need to create business success. You truly need to put the smart phone/laptop/electronics down and step away from the business in order to create business success.

In order to create business success you sometimes you need to step away from the business.

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I could write so much more here but I’ll end with if you haven’t taken time off in the last year, it is time for you to do so. In order for you to optimally work in and on your business you need to have a fresh mind, open space to think, health and wellness (think mind, body and spirit).

So your action item it to get out your calendar and choose right now when you will be taking time off and where you will go! Here is a hint: go somewhere where the cell service is spotty that way you can truly disengage. Take a few moments now and take this action step then pop on over to share with me where you are going at kim@kimravida.com.

 

Filed Under: Business Mastery, Empowerment, Personal Development Tagged With: , ,
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