Do you get into CRAP?

Thinking, tired or ill with headache business womanI’m curious. Do you get into a lot of CRAP? And what about experiencing The “BIG O”?

If you’re thinking right now “Has she lost it?” you can relax, they aren’t what you think. If you were thinking, “Holy cow, this is going to be interesting!”… you’re right. Keep reading.

As I see it, the BIG O for business owners is Overwhelm. Overwhelm causes a lot of stress, struggle and frustration; “a lot of tears and fears” as my mentor is known to say.

I’ve been there. I’ve had a lot of tears and a lot of fears and it was usually when it came to making money in my business. I didn’t know how or what to do and I shed a lot of tears trying to figure it out.

A lot of small business owners and entrepreneurs have the same problem. Sadly they often aren’t able to solve it for themselves. The BIG O leads to tears and fears, which leads to more BIG O, which then leads to what I call a lot of CRAP in business and in life. The BIG O, as you can see, leads to a lot of not-so-good things!

Now, when I say CRAP, this is exactly what I mean:

• Chaos

• Resistance

• Anxiety

• Procrastination

And when you are experiencing a whole lot of CRAP, it generally leads you to NOTHING — as in no clients, no money, no peace of mind, no freedom and certainly no happiness and joy!

One way to eliminate the BIG O, and therefore get out of CRAP, is to get very clear on what it is you are doing.

Instead, you want to get into creating what I like to call Business Mastery where you truly are the master of your business, you are moving along at a comfortable pace, getting things done and seeing amazing results.

Here are several things for you to get clear on:

• What is your big why?

• Why are you in business?

• What is your business’s purpose?

• What is the impact that you want to make with your business?

This knowledge is key to getting yourself out of overwhelm and into Business Mastery. You’ve heard the saying (you’ve probably heard me say it too) “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.” When you have a crystal clear view of what you want, you will be able to identify with it, and from there you’ll be able to make it happen. Think about this: what you identify with, you become.

So why not identify with being masterful at business? Have a clear understanding of what you need to do to reach your goals of creating the business you want — one that makes great money!

If you haven’t answered the questions above, take 30 minutes to give it some thought.

Now, if you would like to have some help, I have an amazing opportunity open for you. It’s my 2016 Prosperous Business Mastery Group Mastermind Program. Click here for more information or feel free to reach out to me to set up a time to talk.

The Secret to Success

I refuse to quit message, handwriting with chalk on blackboard, lifestyle change conceptDo you love secrets?  I used to as a kid; it was so awesome to hear “I’m just telling you this and no one else.” How thrilling it was to be the keeper of the secret!  However, I soon realized there were others who knew the same secret… so it wasn’t much of a secret, was it?

Then, how can I tell you the secret of success and still have it be a secret?  Doesn’t really make any sense, right?  Well, okay, the secret really isn’t a secret.  BUT it is something that if you do it, you will have success!  And if you don’t, you will continue to have stress, frustration and overwhelm, not to mention much unhappiness and feeling bad about yourself.  So what is this secret to success?

Drum roll, please.  The secret to success is to change your perspective.  Yes, change your perspective.  Easy, right?  Well, not so fast.  If it were, we’d actually do it.  If change were easy – well, we’d all have so much joy, happiness and success all of the time.  So what makes changing our perspective so challenging?  That’s easy to answer: it is all in the word ‘change’.  We need to alter, amend or adjust what we are thinking, doing and saying.  And oftentimes we aren’t clear on that and so we say “I hate change.”  And because we ‘hate’ change, we won’t do it. 

Notice that last phrase “won’t do it” – it has such a limiting feel, doesn’t it?  Picture a child stamping his/her foot – they normally don’t say “I won’t”, they just say “NO!” It’s the same thing when you say ‘won’t’.  Hmmm.  Ringing any bells?  ‘Can’t’ is a word that shows up, too.  Do you ever hear yourself saying “I can’t” either out loud or inside your head?  So my friend, when you find yourself in that ‘won’t’ and ‘can’t’ place, that’s a good time for the perspective change to come in.

Think of a time where you were trying to get something done and you kept coming up against obstacle after obstacle and finally you said “Never mind, I give up.”  What happened?  Did you suddenly have a bright idea of how to get what you wanted?  More often than not, the answer is yes.  I know because it happens to me and to my clients, so I’m not just making things up here.  It’s because you decided (without you even knowing) to have a perspective change – you gave up.  But what you really did was release the expectation to the outcome you had going on in your head.

See, when we change the way we look at things, no matter how small, the things we look at change.  Dr. Wayne Dyer says that all the time and he’s right.

So the secret is easy, right?  Change your perspective and change your life.  Yet so many people resist it because they are used to behaving in a certain way, even if it isn’t consciously.  We self-sabotage all the time and think we have no control over anything that happens to us.  But we do, we do!  Change is NOT hard.  Change is easy.  It is what we tell yourself about change that makes it hard.  We make up all of these stories in our head about this and that, and rarely do they come true.  All that does is hold us firmly rooted in stress, frustration and overwhelm that leads to unhappiness.  Give this secret a try and shift your perspective to something that is more pleasing to you and will bring you the happiness you want.

What’s one thing right now that you can change your perspective on?  Maybe it’s something you have been saying “I can’t” about or stomping your foot saying “NO, I won’t”.  Where can you have a slight perspective shift that will take you from stress, frustration and overwhelm to joy, peace and ease?  Go on, I know once you do it you will feel so much better!

When you do, feel free to comment below and let me know what the shift did for you and how much better you feel!

Do you like your box?

Woman in red in box.jpgI just came back from a trip to Aruba.  I’ve been there before and love it so much, I’ll go again.  I’ve stayed at the same hotel the past five times but this trip I was at a different hotel.  That’s because my regular hotel — the one I liked and felt comfortable at — closed!  Oh the horrors!  So I put on my big girl pants and embarked on a trip that felt “normal” and comfortable but would be different.

It occurred to me that the same ole same ole, while it is comforting, can work to my disadvantage by keeping me in a comfort zone — aka a box!  I hate being in the box.  But I like my box!  Yet it also means that I’m not living my life and seeing and doing new things!  How did this happen?  Well, for one, I was happy at the hotel I stayed at.  I knew the people and what I’d get, and I liked that.  AND guess what?  That is a good thing.  Just like I create the “know, like and trust factor” for my clients.  Once they get to know me, they like me and then they trust me and stay with me, investing in themselves and getting great results and support.

So then how is this different?  It isn’t really.  My hotel created an experience that I really enjoyed and, truth be told, if it was still open I’d have stayed there this time!  I was happy there, I liked it there and I got what I wanted there.  Just like my clients stay with me.

What I noticed was that the idea of the change was something I didn’t like.  It was because I had to stay at a different hotel; it wasn’t my choice.  I hate that!  Don’t you?  Yup, there it is!  It’s the fact that I didn’t have control of the change.  I had to do it.

Thinking about this though, I see that there is value in having to make a change in your life.  It means that you must come out of your box and do something different.  I know from experience that there is such growth and happiness in coming out of the box and doing something new.

I have a few tips for you as you either choose change (i.e. get out of your box) for yourself or find yourself in a situation such as mine:

  1. There are no mistakes.  If you embrace it, you will soon see that no matter what it is that changes for you, there are opportunities for you to see something different, experience something new and become a more diverse individual.
  2. Every experience is an opportunity for a new beginning.  If you look at change as an opportunity then it no longer is a negative experience.  This viewpoint gives you the chance to behave differently and have an amazing outcome.  It becomes positive and increases the likelihood of having it turnout even better than you imagined.
  3. Embrace change.  Fighting it creates stress and frustration.  Embracing change gives you peace of mind.  And as mentioned above, the opportunity for having an outcome better than you imagined is possible when you embrace change.

In case you are wondering, I had a fabulous time.  I met amazing people whom we wouldn’t have met if we had been at the other hotel.  I got out of my comfort zone and had to navigate the new hotel.  My eyes were fresh, I was more alert and reminded that when I get out of my box, my world is so much more exciting and so much more fun!  Since I’m all about having fun, it’s a great reminder!

Let me ask you this: if you were to let go and trust that things will work out exactly as they are supposed to, wouldn’t you feel more relaxed?  Wouldn’t you be open and receptive to what comes to you?  I think you would.  I’d love to hear your experiences, please feel free to write me personally or post your comments below!

Who Said Changing Was Hard?

Truthfully, it doesn’t have to be hard.  Change can mean many things – alter, modify, transform, adjust, or amend.  Not such scary words right?  Yet why does the possibility of change scare so many people?  I’m finding that my clients are not afraid of change, but they are afraid of the possibility to change.  Ah, so it’s really resistance!  It’s the thinking that precedes the actual change that freaks them out and often leads to applying the brakes on their lives with such force that they leave skid marks as they come to a screeching halt in their progress.

Granted some changes that happen to us are extremely unexpected.  Some changes we expect yet when they happen we often find ourselves shocked.  Some changes we even set out to create for ourselves.  In all cases it really is about how we deal with the change(s) that occur or that we create.

Let’s talk about the ones we want to create for ourselves.  Often times what makes change hard is that resistance piece.  Yes, even if we really want to change, we are resistant to it.  Why?  Well, there are many reasons but one very big and important one is that as humans we very much like to have things stay the same because we feel safe, we feel comfortable and we know and like that.  It is the unknown that makes us think twice (or more) about making that change we said we wanted to create.

Recently a client kept telling me she really wanted to change her eating habits.  We created strategies and action steps for her and she’d do great for about a week or so.  Then she’d email me saying she “fell off the wagon and began eating poorly again, like I always do.”   I asked her two questions:  “How important is it to you to change your eating habits and why is it important?”  Her answers ended up being the key as to why she kept “falling off the wagon”.  Once she knew her answers, she was able to let go of the resistance and begin to get a solid grip on her wagon and not fall off.

If you find that you want to create lasting change but just haven’t gotten there yet, ask yourself those same questions.  After you have your answers, follow my suggestions below to move forward once you know why you feel resistance:

  1. Ask yourself “What can I do differently right now?”
  2. Create a plan of action – list several first steps you can easily take.
  3. Write down your action steps and put end dates on them to keep you moving forward.
  4. Trust yourself that you know exactly what to do.

Change really isn’t so hard.  I know, I’ve been there personally as well as helped others move through change so that they reach their goals.  If you find that you are just not there yet, my 30 Days to Success Program is a great starting point.  Email or call me to get started!

As always, I love to hear from you – what is one big take away and what one small step will you take on your road to change?  I can’t wait to hear what you have to say below!