I know I only blogged a day ago, and did state that I wouldn’t press on about goals etc.  (In that blog.)  Well, Jack Canfield’s email to me today was so straightforward and essential that I had to share it with you.  Full credit to Jack – I am merely sharing his information.

Decide What You Want for Yourself in 2010
by Jack Canfield

In order to get what you want, you must first decide what you want.

Most people really foul up at this crucial first step because they simply can’t see how it’s possible to get what they want — so they don’t even let themselves want it.

What scientists now know about how the brain works is that you must first decide the ‘WHAT’ before your brain can figure out the ‘HOW’.

Once you lock-in your desires, your mind and the universe can step in.

Are you ready to get started?

STEP 1: Decide to Dream BIG and Be Willing to Dream BIG Dreams

Big dreams not only inspire you, but they also compel others to want to play big, too. Don’t think you should only dream big during economic heydays. Dream big every day, especially during tough times.

As soon as you commit to a big dream and really go after it, your subconscious creative mind will come up with big ideas to make it happen. You’ll start attracting the people, resources, and opportunities you need into your life to make your dreams come true.

STEP 2: Set Goals That Will Stretch You

Another value in giving yourself permission to go after the big dreams is that big dreams require you to grow in order to achieve them. In fact, in the long run, this is the greatest benefit you will receive from pursuing your dreams — not so much the outer trappings of fulfilling the dream (an expensive car, impressive house, loads of money and philanthropic opportunities), but who you become in the process.

As I’ve seen many times over, the outer symbols of success can all be easily lost. Houses burn down, companies go bankrupt, relationships end, cars get old, bodies age and fame wanes, but who you are, what you have learned, and the new skills you have developed never go away. These are the true prizes of success.

STEP 3: Service to Others

As you pinpoint what you want to go after, think about how you can be of service to others. When your dreams include this element, you’ll find yourself speeding along the path to accomplishing that goal. People want to be part of something that makes a difference.

STEP 4: Turn Your Dreams into Goals and Objectives

Once you are clear about what you want, you must turn each item into a measurable goal. By measurable, I mean measurable in space and time, how much and by when. Don’t just say that you want to lose weight, for instance. Be specific, push yourself to higher limits, and set dates. Say something like, “I want to lose 50 pounds by summer and participate in my community’s 10K for charity by the 4th of July.”

Similarly, your boss, your friends, your spouse, your brain — God, the Universe — can’t figure out what you want unless you specifically tell them what it is.

What do you want — exactly — and when do you want it by?

Step 5: Write Your Goals Down

Write your goals down in detail, and read your list of goals every day. This will keep your subconscious mind focused on what you want. For an even more powerful approach, close your eyes and focus on each goal and ask yourself, “What is one thing I could do today to move toward the achievement of this goal?” Write down your answers and take those actions.

I recommend writing down a minimum of 3 goals in each of the following 7 areas:

1. Financial Goals
2. Career/Business Goals
3. Free Time/Family Time
4. Health/Appearance Goals
5. Relationship Goals
6. Personal Growth
7. Making a Difference/Contribution

If you want help getting started, I have some handy worksheets and even more guidance for you that models this formula, including examples. Click here to access this FREE Audio Training and Action Guide to start creating all that you deserve in your life!

© 2010 Jack Canfield

Need someone to keep you motivated, boost your enthusiasm and help you achieve your goals?

My methods are largely based on Jack Canfield’s and Wayne Dyer’s teachings and if desired, utilise EFT and Feng Shui as methods to quickly clear and work on energy blockages within your mind, body and environment.

Need a hand to balance working from home with your children and chores? Maybe you need some fresh guidance to get your business on track.   Feel free to contact me for more information. Take advantage of a free 20 minute consult.

Ph: +61 7 3102 3533
Skype: lisacplunkett
Email: info@workathomeandparent.com

I went to an information evening last night and really enjoyed getting out, meeting people, actually a highlight was speaking with adults!!!  But I didn’t realise how much I missed it, until I was in the midst of it.

Funnily enough this morning, I open my emails and another WAHM I connect with was saying something along a similar vein.

I wasn’t feeling isolated or lonely, nor deprived of social interaction – until I actually had some.  Cyberspace is a friendly place to work, and the comfort of my own home is very convenient, but there is something to getting frocked up, putting on a face and meeting real, live, breathing adults that really reminded me how much I enjoy socialising and networking “in the flesh”.  What’s more,  I had a room over about 150 people – right there in front of me, interested in business, making money, improving themselves and their situation.  There were a large number I could learn from and conversely, a large number that could learn from me.

There is something inspiring about reading a person’s facial expression, seeing their body language and the easy flow of conversation over a coffee or glass of wine.

I know networking and getting out into the real wide world is very important in any business, you shouldn’t just rely solely on the net, but without a partner to babysit and not wanting to impose too regularly on friends and family, I have been a bit slack in that department.

Last night and the little reminder message this morning were just a kind reminder from the universe that I need to continue to interact with real people, not only for my business, but for me, as a woman and individual.  It’s good to chat to people, get a different (and sometimes more honest) perspective to bring you back to reality and remember that all we do in our little online and home office worlds manifests in the outside world as well.

We have to remember that we are more than just a robot, feeding the family and working on the computer when we have spare time.  We have to get out and have fun and do something outside of being glued to the screen all day.

There is a huge client base in your local suburb, just waiting for you to tap into it as well.

I guess I’m just saying, it’s easy to forget the real world sometimes as we can get quite encapsulated in our little routine and work at home environment.

ACTION

Don’t forget “real” people.  Attend local Chamber of Commerce Groups or other groups of interest to keep up your social life or extend your business network.  There is a large market still not online that we shouldn’t forget.

Join a group just for fun – nothing to do with business but to get you some external stimulation and friendships that can be a great relief from working at home and balancing the children.

Need someone to keep you motivated, boost your enthusiasm and help you achieve your goals?  Need a hand to balance working from home with your children and chores? Maybe you need some fresh guidance to get your business on track.   Feel free to contact me for more information. Take advantage of a free 20 minute consult.

Ph: +61 7 3102 3533

Skype: lisacplunkett
Email: info@workathomeandparent.com

Wow – another BIG LESSON!!

Sometimes they come in thick and fast.

I was speaking with my mentor this morning about my Humanity Unites Brilliance blog.  I was telling him how displeased I was with a couple of the posts – I felt the quality wasn’t what I would like and whilst not inauthentic, they just didn’t feel right.

Interestingly enough there are some posts on there that I really really like and thoroughly enjoyed posting.   ALL of the information there gets me excited, what other HUB members are up to – the incredible impact they are having through their actions across the world.  Seeing the results in the people they are helping, the figures – actual dollar representation of impact HUB has created in only 2 years – over $1.5 million in humanitarian impact.  YAY! That is just from the monthly memberships, excluding projects, donations, fundraisers and the Global shop.  Enough said – this is not a pitch for why HUB is so dear to my heart.

What came of all this was that in weeks gone by, I had been quite busy and had just pinched snippets from my weekly newsletters and had not had the opportunity to rework and add myself to the content as I would ordinarily. (Yes, we all get our inspiration from somewhere and it’s just how we put it together that makes it good, bad or ugly).

It was clear by reading the Blog that there was nothing really of myself, especially in the last post – but I had felt it more important to blog something rather than just leaving it for a few more days (we all know how putting something off can often mean it gets left out altogether).  How does that resonate with you?  Would you prefer to risk leaving something out altogether and breaking continuity over providing something to your valued clients that is less than worthy and clearly not in tune with your own soul purpose?  My coach pointed out that my regular readers would find it obvious that I had either slipped or  think that the work was not mine.

He asked me point blank: “Are you speaking your internal truth through your blog?  The answer was, unfortunately, “No”.  Yes, the information was all about my passion, it was all relevant, but it was not from my point of view or interest and was not in my own words from my own heart.    I didn’t feel I was being honest in the post, it was just empty advertising.

Yes, we are all one collective consciousness, and we are all often delivering the same message  – it is the voice and the vibration that changes.  That is why one person can deliver a message a number of times but it takes another person – maybe to only deliver it once before it resonates with the recipient.

Be authentic, be yourself.  Yes, you may need to research your content and yes, you may be passing on stories about others and snippets from other sources – but you still need to deliver it in your own voice.  You will only truly be happy with your work when it is truly your own.  Your readers will not be able to get to know you and develop a sense of trust and ultimately a relationship if they can’t see or experience the real you.

Moral to this story:

I stated in my last blog that “Consistent efforts will reap consistent results.  Running hot and cold with your efforts will result in delayed results.”

But, Quality will outshine Quantity any day.  If you’ve got a block, or short of time – look at other ways around the issue.  Don’t post something you are not really happy with.  Be completely lazy and post someone else’s article – with full permission and credit to them if it is more important to have something.  At least it is a piece of quality information your clients will benefit from and appreciate.  If you’re running out of time for the tasks essential to your business – such as blogging – go back to your timetable and your charts and assess why you didn’t have that time in the first place.  But skip that blog if you have to.

ACTION

Be true to yourself and your clients.  Always be sure you are speaking your internal truth in anything you write and publish.

If it’s time that is causing your poor effort – go back to your timetable and find out where you’re out of balance.

Need someone to keep you motivated, boost your enthusiasm and help you achieve your goals?  Maybe you need some fresh guidance to get your business on track.   Feel free to contact me for more information. Take advantage of a free 20 minute consult.

Ph: +61 7 3102 3533
Skype: lisacplunkett
Email: info@workathomeandparent.com

World Renowned Author and Business Woman Elinor Stutz wrote this article for one of her publications this week.  Thanks to Elinor for the great article and Thanks to Malathy Drew of Heart-Centered Networking and the Whispering Energy Collaboration for bringing it to my attention.

————————————–
Based upon my own recent experience, I wanted to ask each of you, Are you familiar with the power of collaboration?

Before you enter into any type of business agreement you must know your own rules for conducting business. Where do you draw the line in the sand and say “No, this business isn’t worth it.”?

After you develop your rules, find others who similarly approach business and offer services that complement yours. Interview several until you find the right fit for a collaborative effort. By combining forces, you attract each other’s clientele as well as new prospects who are attracted to your new combined effort.

Imagine finding a select group of people who approach business in a similar manner and who complement one another. Now add teaching classes on your specialty within the group to bring everyone up to speed. You soon have a very savvy group to interact with as a sounding board and as a marketing team.

The right group will become a magnetic power of attraction reaching markets far and wide helping you to increase business.

I am fortunate to have found Whispering Energy, aptly named. Our combined energy has attracted much attention for us as individuals and served us as a whole. We each believe being in business is meant to serve your clients and communities at large.

Final advice comes from my book, Nice Girls DO Get the Sale: Realationship Building That Gets Results:

1. Plan quiet time to think about your business
2. Think B-I-G
3. Listen to your intuition

In closing, work to make it a Smooth Sale!
Elinor Stutz
http://www.smoothsale.net

Nancy Matthews of the Womens Prosperity Network posed the question today:

What success habits do you have?

She wrote:

“Mixing it Up! Success leaves clues – as does failure. What success habits do you have? Each morning I read – materials to grow my mind and my business. In that quiet space new ideas emerge that continue to move me forward. How about you?”

Something to think about…

I had a client this week that was really out of whack.  He’d lost his vision and gotten way off track.

What do you do when your get up and go has got up and gone, you’re thinking this is just too hard and you really don’t know how you are going to do it?

Everything is a trauma, nothing is going right, your computer is not working blablabla.

I personally have overcome trauma, overcome  grief, disadvantage and lack of finance.  I don’t say that to bignote myself, but like all of us, we’ve all had our setbacks and honestly, some things you wouldn’t credit a person could emotionally survive.

And yet, we come through…  You know, once things are going wrong and there have been  some hiccups where things are slowing you down, it’s very hard to get going again.  If you lose momentum, it is terribly difficult to regain it.

But you must!!!

First of all you need address  why you are thinking this is too hard and is this really true?  What has happened to shift you from forward to slow, stop or reverse…  I

Look behind your thoughts and feelings.  How can you disect this and change this from negative to positive.  Don’t just throw around some empty affirmations.  I am a believer in affirnmations, but you need to believe in the actual affirmation for it to work.   I cannot tell myself I am Elle MacPherson,  it is not realistic to me so therefore I can’t trick myself into believing it – you must be authentic.  You really need to look into this and find the positive, seek genuine ways to discredit your negative slump.

Get a hold of your schedule (no doubt there will be a week or more of tasks now that you are behind in).  Take some baby steps,  break it down.  Treat yourself like a fragile child if needs be.  Set tiny tasks and reward yourself.  Before you know it, you’ll have completed some of the tasks and you’ll feel that ball start to roll again.

Time management is fantastic but if your motivation is gone, your time management, schedule and everything else can go out the window.  Your schedule gets thrown out.  You can be distracted, look at other things, it doesn’t matter what your plan is, you won’t look at it.   It doesn’t always start through a lack on your behalf.  This is the single largest danger of working at home with children – things happen and you have to stop work to attend to them.  A week with feverish children, sleep deprivation and an untidy house can very easily snowball.

You need to do whatever you can to get you back on track.  It might be another person to check in with each week / fortnight whatever – your accountability partner, having a coach in place.  You need to have measures in place to keep a check on yourself.  If you don’t have any of these, you need to do everything you can to get that “zing” back.

Remember your goals, remember why you are doing this, remember your desired income, your ideal client, remember your children – you don’t want to go back into the workplace.   No work equals no income.

Do some meditation, an energy workshop, whatever you need to do to boost yourself back up.  It doesn’t matter what it is – get your picture / vision board out and look at it, have it in front of you and get your passion back.  This is what you wanted to do – you started it and you need to keep it going.

Moral to this Story:

This happens to all of us!!  Sometimes it sneaks up and we’re in the midst of a slump without even realising it.  Just know that you can overcome it and get back on track.

ACTION:

Have a very clear vision.  Put together a vision board, have some tools ready, just in case you find yourself in a slump.

Full article following this week with more tips and tricks.

You may say “I have certain things that need to be done, why not just go with the flow and get them done”.

It does sound simple when put like that.  The problem is however, that in a life that is based at one location and involves a number of people (including children), things quickly change.  Emergencies happen, children get sick, someone pops in and it is all too easy to lose track of where you were and what still needs to be done.  In my case, the children were both sick last week and not at all interested in either sleeping or entertaining themselves.  It was constant cuddles all round.  By having my plan, I was able to very quickly prioritise what couldn’t be postponed, and simply had to wait until I’d gotten them all off to sleep at night, then burned some midnight oil.  I work on three plans.  My “Big Picture” my goals and dreams, goal income, goal lifestyle etc.  Then I have my main timeplan.  What I need to plan to do to meet my business and home needs.  Lastly my micro plan, each and every little thing that needs to happen to run my business and run my home on a daily basis.

By having a plan your home and business will run more smoothly.  Nobody is invincible; in fact I have the worst memory in the world.  So, I plan around my memory, I plan with the view that I will forget something.  By having an itemised to do list, nothing gets forgotten.  I’m also a terrible procrastinator.  Being organised ensures that I have time enough for the good things and my children are guaranteed of quality fun time with their mom and don’t suffer living in a pigsty or with me constantly at the computer when they need me.  It is quite difficult to get into a routine, if you are not used to it.  Children function well with routine and actually require it and it helps with their development, learning boundaries and the responsibilities of the real world.  Trust me, it is well worth the effort.  All of your family members and your business clients will reap the rewards.

It’s very easy to neglect certain chores in favour of those that are easier or more pleasant and whilst this may not be a problem at the time, with so much going on, one tiny thing overlooked can become a very large issue later on.  You can also be left with a very tight deadline and far too much to try and squeeze into your timeframe.

It is absolutely true – a stitch in time saves nine.  Make sure you have a calendar – hang it where everyone can see it.  I must admit – at this stage it is only useful to me, neither of my children is old enough to read, but I have a color for each of us, and every single appointment is on that calendar.   Set up your daily plan. For this I have a book – you can even buy them now with each page printed up as a “to do” list.  So – the appointments and main events all go on the calendar for everyone to see, then I break it down into a more detailed to do list for each day.

I keep a white board in the kitchen, if something pops into my head, no matter what it is, an idea, something for the shopping list (very handy) or something I need to do – onto the whiteboard with it.  It’s also fantastic when someone rings if the children have stolen all of the pens….

Plan your day.  Try to have it prepared the day before so that you can get your head around what you’ll need to be on top of for the next day.  Read your to-do list the night before, this gives you a jump start when you wake up in the morning. You’ll be surprised at how much more smoothly things run by planning.

AND…..  The biggest plan of all – plan to change your plan!!!

Moral to this story:

A little organisation goes a long way.  Being organised and planning each day is not going to take the fun out of everything or become a cumbersome chore.  It will ensure the smooth running of your family and business and ensure that everyone has enough time allocated to keep them happy.  It will also ensure that you have a little time – just for you!

ACTION:

Get a calendar.  Start planning your day.  Start using a “to-do” list.  Print these up yourself – you can then get exactly the size you want.  Word and Publisher have a number of simple templates as well.  That will help you schedule in a fashion that gives the main time to the things that you feel are most important to you.

What was to be my blog (last week…) was about my big lesson.  “You can’t do everything on your own – get a team.”

If I’d stuck to my timetable and not tried to do something I shouldn’t, I would not have had so many wasted hours that were unprofitable.  I would also have posted this blog last week!!

Don’t try and do everything yourself.  Yes, you can save money but sometimes your time is more valuable.  Praise yourself for what you can do and forget the rest.  You’ll only beat yourself up when you can’t get the desired result doing something outside of your skill set.  It’s fun for a challenge sometimes, but this is business and you can have fun later.

I’m hopeless. (One of those things I need to work on in my personal improvement arena is my perfectionism and the resulting need to do everything myself – I need to relinquish control).   Like many others, I’m also trying to save money, there have been a few very big ticket items come in around the home in the last little while and I need to be a little careful.

So, I’ve been running around willy nilly in the last few weeks thinking I am superwoman.  It has messed up my own timeplan and wasted many hours.  I also have to remember that things don’t need to be perfect, so long as they do the trick (still in a neat and professional manner) it is more important to take action that to wait.  Trust me, it is true.  Studies show that perfectionists are more likely to be underachievers because nothing is ever good enough so they wait for it to be perfect and never actually take action.  Now you know my weakspot.  It also leads to procrastination (but I’ll talk about that another time).

It is enough to be Mom, Dad, partner, boss, secretary, taxi driver, cleaner etc. etc. without having to be master of professions outside your core skill set.  If the activity is not directly related to what you do to create income or to caring for your family – get someone else to do it.  None of us can be a pro at everything.  I specialise in some fantastic things, but need to remember when I do not specialise, to stop penny pinching or being a control freak and get someone that knows what they are doing in to help.

We all need help and it is nothing to be ashamed about or worried about.    Learn to work with others, delegate and give up a little.  In the long run with the right people doing the right tasks the end result is much better.

P.S.  I’m not talking about a huge staff, especially if you are a one woman/ man show.  Just have the right people and resources available so you can get help, pose a question and get advice when you need it.  Tweet your query… Post it on Facebook…  You’ll be surprised at who is out there and will be delighted to help you.

Moral to this story:
Get a team (friends, associates, paid service providers).  You can’t do everything yourself.  Something as simple as getting a neighbour’s teenager to mow the lawn for a few dollars can save you a couple of hours per fortnight that can be better spent in another way.  Getting someone else to build your website will give you hours free to make real headway on your articles, product or direct marketing. (I should heed my own advice – lol)

ACTION:
Think about it a little – see what you can delegate to someone else – business or personal and give yourself some time for something more important.

Can you be a professional and have vegemite on your pants, a baby on your lap drinking a bottle, a 2yo running around while writing an article with pen and paper because it’s unsafe to use a computer in the vicinity of the kids?

The answer is YES!!

[Dear Lord, that is exactly what I was doing when I drafted this.]

I have just enjoyed a blissful hour while my 2 little treasures had a sleep.  As all good things come to an end, so did their sleep.

So, now I sit, 3mth old Georgia on my lap while I feed her a bottle, Joshua is on the couch with a sandwich (half of which is smeared up my right leg – i.e. the vegemite) and I write longhand leaning on a Dr Zeus book.

I am a huge advocate for separating the “work” from the “family” but when they are this small, it can be quite difficult and deadlines still need to be met.   I know to an outsider, it may not look like I have it all “together”.  If you scratch below the surface however, you will see that sometimes some multitasking goes a very long way.

Whilst others may not see the virtue and some days you wish for a suit and somewhere else to go, remember, your “face” is on the internet – nobody needs to know that you’re not in a suit and heels or tie and that sometimes you have to feed the baby while you put together your proposal.

That, is the huge trick.  Promote a professional image and make sure that your finished work is top of the line, no one need ever know how it got that way.

I just had a whole hour to myself and rehashed my blog site, responded to a pile of correspondence, finished designing my Twitter backdrop and had a quick chat with a client.

My biggest tip is to do everything you can to make sure your presentation is neat and tidy and ACCURATE.  We have a multitude of tools at our fingertips – use them!!  Put some pictures on your page, plan the layouts of your documents or pages, make sure that they look professional.   Add visual interest, it really doesn’t take long.  If you’re struggling in a program – use the HELP function.  You will be given step by step instructions on how to do what you want to do.  Spell-check  and read your work.  I cannot stress that enough –  spell-check everything and read it to be sure, spell-check misses things too.   Use Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, get some exciting vocabulary.   The results of your efforts – that  is what the world sees – not your stained track pants or your dirty dishes.

That, my friends, is the beauty of the internet.

You will feel some days like you’re getting nothing done.  Stick with it, you will find your own system of what works just for you.  When that day comes, you’ll be sitting there smiling – grinning even with your child’s food stuck to you, toys spread all over the floor, baby on your lap, feeling absolutely wonderful about who you are, where you are, what you are doing and how you got there.