What happens when we set our sights on something magnificent?

It may seem unlikely but it is our true nature. It may seem ridiculous but it is our heart’s purpose.

It may be entirely unsupported.

This wonderful story by Arnold Lobel came to my mind. I want to share it.

The Camel had her heart set on becoming a ballet dancer.

“To make every movement a thing of grace and beauty”, said the Camel. “That is my one and only desire.”

Again and again she practiced her pirouettes, her releves and her arabesques. She repeated the five basic positions a hundred times each day. She worked for long months under the hot desert sun. Her feet were blistered and her body ached, but not once did she think of stopping.

At last the Camel said, “Now I am a dancer.” She announced a recital and danced before an invited group of camel friends and critics. When her dance was over, she made a deep bow.

There was no applause.

“I must tell you frankly,” said a member of the audience, “as a critic and a spokesman for this group, that you are lumpy and humpy. You are baggy and bumpy. You are, like the rest of us, simply a camel. You are NOT and never will be a ballet dancer!”

Chuckling and laughing the audience moved away across the sand.

“How very wrong they are!” said the Camel. “I have worked hard. There can be no doubt that I am a splendid dancer. I will dance and dance just for myself.”

That is what she did. It gave her many years of pleasure.

Are you showing up with your heart and soul following the path of your true nature?

About the Author:

Lisa Bloom is a highly professional and accomplished Storyteller, Professional Certified Coach (ICF) and Training & Development Expert with more than 20 years experience working in public and private sectors, high-tech and financial services environments. Lisa trains Story Coaches and helps entrepreneurs de-stress the marketing, build their business with confidence by finding their success story.

Article Contributed by Dr. Joey Faucette

What do you believe about your business?

Your business beliefs are the core values of your “how” in leading your relationships and managing the details. Have you ever taken four minutes and written them down?

Make sure you include these three things you gotta believe about your business:

Business Pace

When my daughter ran distance races, she trained her body to build endurance by putting in the necessary miles daily. She also exercised her mind to learn course management.

She discovered in her first races that adrenaline would push her out hard and fast from the start and carry her for a while. If she kept up that pace, she often led, but when she approached the finish, she had no energy left and fell way back. The only result that counts is when you cross the finish line.

She discovered how to pace herself, starting strong, settling into a comfortable, economical pace, with enough reserve for a powerful finish kick. Such a pace allowed her to compete and succeed.

Your business has a pace. Adjusting your intensity to reflect it is a key to Work Positive success. You run sprints one way. Maybe that’s your 4Q. You run 5K’s an entirely different way. That might be your 1Q.

You gotta believe that your business has a pace and rhythm all its own. Adjust your intensity accordingly and train for it.

Balance People and Tasks

You can focus your business efforts on people—employees, vendors, and customers—but when you do, you lose sight of your company goals.

You can focus your energy on accomplishing tasks—your goals and action plan—but when you do, you forget that its people who accomplish those tasks.

My grandmother gave me a chocolate bunny every spring for Easter. Some years, I bit into it to find only air inside. Other years, it was marshmallow. My favorite years were those when I discovered chocolate through and through.

Balancing people and tasks means you lead your business consistently—through and through. You lead people to accomplish tasks and focus on tasks for people to achieve.

You gotta believe that your business succeeds when you balance people and tasks.

Beyond the Obvious

You’re staring at your P&L and balance sheets for 2011 about now. What do you believe happened in 2011 in your business?

A pair of sisters enjoyed shopping in a Goodwill shop in Virginia. One of them saw a pearl necklace, found it attractive, and since it was only $.69, bought it, believing that it was just costume jewelry.

Wearing it back home in Arizona, a friend commented on how beautiful it was and encouraged her to get it appraised. She did and discovered that it was worth a little more than the $.69 purchase price.

Like $50,000 more.

As you look back on 2011 and forward into 2012, you gotta believe beyond the obvious. Believe that at least some of your investments in adjusting your business pace will pay off this year. Believe that by balancing people and tasks you will discover unimagined value.

You gotta believe in your business in 2012!

About the Author:

Best-selling author, speaker, and coach Dr. Joey Faucette shares how all of us working together create a more positive world this week. Adapted from his #1 Amazon best-seller, Work Positive in a Negative World.

Article Contributed by Dr. Joey Faucette

At times we allow the negative noise of the flat economy to drown out any positive, on-key music in our businesses. Soon the negative noise has an effect on you. You become filled with:

• Fears about finances—“The bank called. Surely they’re not calling in my note.”
• Suspicions about an employee—“He sure talks about our competition a lot.”
• Mistrust of a vendor—“She says she’s doing me a special favor with this contract, but…”

What’s a business owner to do?

One cold winter’s night, I was sitting in my favorite recliner at home, trying to have a conversation with my wife. She was seated in the chair next to me with only a lamp table between us.

Suddenly I realized that I was yelling to be heard. I listened around the room for a moment and discovered why. First, the TV was on, blaring through our speaker system. It had to be on loud enough to be heard over the fan that was blowing hot air from the gas logs. Because the gas logs were on and dry out the air, we were running a humidifier with its fan blowing. Throw in a couple of daughters talking, and it’s no wonder I was yelling.

So I got up out of my recliner and turned off the humidifier, turned back the fan blowing hot air from the gas logs, turned down the TV, and said, “Shhh” to our daughters. Then I sat back down, smiled at my wife, and said, “There, that’s better. Where were we?”

You can do the same with regard to your business.

First, identify the negative noises. Do what I did—analyze the room. Pick out the negative noises. What are they—news reports? An employee? A friend? You’ll know them when you hear them. Pay attention to your own irritability, or nausea, or headaches, or negative attitude that increases after you’re exposed to them.

Second, cut them down or off. Just like I did, you’ll have to get up from where you are and move towards where you want to be. You can choose to turn off the morning TV news—push media—and instead go online and select only those stories you choose to read or watch—pull media. You can confront your employee about that negative attitude. You can limit your exposure to your sky-is-falling friend. Get up and cut them off.

Third, focus on the positive. I returned to my recliner and my conversation with my wife. I chose to listen to her instead of the noise. Pick one positive dynamic in your business and listen to it. A customer’s testimonial letter. An employee’s thank you. A positive third quarter. Fix your thoughts on these on-key musical selections instead of the negativity that a flat economy sings.

Choose these three ways to make your business sing on-key despite the flat economy and watch your profits crescendo!

About the Author

Dr. Joey Faucette is an international speaker, business coach, and best-selling author of the #1 Amazon business book, Work Positive in a Negative World: Redefine Your Reality and Achieve Your Business Dreams. He has taught business professionals this life-transforming process for over two decades, leading individuals in organizations of every size to achieve amazing results. He is the founder of Listen to Life, a company that coaches people to redefine their reality and fulfill their business dreams. He is the host of the syndicated radio show, Listen to Life. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org, connect with him on LinkedIn, follow him on Twitter @DrJoey, and become a Facebook fan at Work Positive.

“Great moments are born from great opportunities,” said the late Herb Brooks, one of the world’s most famous hockey coaches.

Brooks certainly seized opportunity during his career.  He agreed to coach the 1980 U.S. Olympic team that beat the “unbeatable” Soviet Union in Lake Placid, New York during the famous “Miracle on Ice” game on the way to winning the gold medal.  It was a modern-day “David vs. Goliath” matchup. Many coaches would refuse such an overwhelmingly difficult job.  In fact, several did.

But Brooks saw opportunity in the monumental challenge of leading a bunch of young, amateur, college all-stars against the essentially professional players of the Soviet Union and other European hockey powers.

That opportunity paid off, to say the least.

Whether you’re talking about sports, business or any other subject matter, seeking, finding and capitalizing on opportunity are among the most important things a professional must do.

There’s one big problem with opportunity, however.  It is often hard to find and even harder to harness.

“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations,” said Charles Swindoll, an American religious author.

I agree wholeheartedly with Swindoll’s characterization.  The best opportunities are often hidden.  They are often located in places we least expect to find them and are presented by people we least expect to provide them.

That reminds me of the old story that sales managers like to share with their young trainees: “On his way back from a three-day fishing trip, a multi-millionaire visits the showroom of an upscale, luxury car dealer.  The salespersons, seeing an unshaven, disheveled, poorly dressed man, essentially ignore him.  Offended, the multi-millionaire buys a top-of-the-line model the next day from a direct competitor.”  There are a lot of ways to tell that classic missed-sales-opportunity story, but they all sound something like that.

If opportunity is so important to our success, and so difficult to find and recognize, we need to focus more of our energy on it.  Unless you’re naturally good at it, finding and capitalizing on opportunity needs to be a deliberate focus:

Open your eyes and ears - we can no longer afford to be indifferent, or even worse, oblivious to the world around us.  Be on the lookout for ideas that could lead to new opportunities.  Even more important than eyes and ears, keep your mind open too.  Many of us miss opportunities, because they don’t fit into our pre-existing paradigms.

Remember that all people count - sometimes we get so obsessed with the “right” people, we miss out on valuable opportunities from people, who on the surface, can do seemingly nothing for us.

Fight through the fear - one of the biggest reasons we miss out on extraordinary opportunities is because we are too afraid to leap.  Herb Brooks wasn’t too afraid to leap; we shouldn’t be either.

Let your creative juices flow – the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Albert Szent-Gyorgi once said, “Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.”  The more creative you are, the more opportunity you will discover.  See the world in a different way, and doing things like nobody else, and just watch the opportunities that manifest.

Take risks - As the old saying goes, “nothing risked, nothing gained.”  Unless you take a chance and do something new, you’ll keep running into the same old opportunities.

Work really hard - “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work,” said the great inventor Thomas Edison.

Set meaningful goals - make those goals specific too.  The more you clarify what you really want, the quicker you will recognize it when it shows up.

Find quiet time - many people have found great opportunities, because they prayed for them or spent time meditating about them.  Such activity creates focus in your mind, and a focused mind is a powerful mind.

Believe - visualize success and tell yourself that good things will come.  A positive mind is more receptive to hidden opportunity.

Prepare - as the old Boy Scout motto says, “be prepared.”  You never know when the perfect opportunity will open up.  If you’re not prepared, you might not act on it quickly enough.  In his autobiography, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said he believes in “relentless preparation.”  He constantly prepares for crisis, so he will perform properly.  Same thing applies to opportunity.

About the Author:   

Jeff Beals is an award-winning author, who helps professionals do more business and have a greater impact on the world through effective sales, marketing and personal branding techniques. As a professional speaker, he delivers energetic and humorous keynote speeches and workshops to audiences worldwide. You can learn more and follow his “Business Motivation Blog” at JeffBeals.com.

Study after study in which we say “Thank you” to our customers reveals that they both spend more money with us and tell their friends about the exceptional service and products we deliver. Volumes of books chronicle how employee productivity zooms skyward when appreciation is expressed. (The best of which I’ve read recently is Shawn Achor’s The Happiness Advantage.) Vendors go the extra mile to extend credit and deliver “just in time” when they hear gratitude regularly.

But you’re already doing more with less and the last thing you want is another item on your to-do list. So what are the most effective and efficient ways for you to express gratitude to these important players in your business’ success?

Here are my three great ways to give thanks from your business. Think of them as the profitability keys of “thank you”:

Handwritten Notes to Customers

Handwritten notes are the most powerful expression of “Thank you” today. They are intimate, authentic, and sincere.

When everyone else is emailing and texting, tweeting and posting, the three minutes you take pen, not pixel, in hand and write “I know you could buy (your products and services) from lots of other stores. Thank you for choosing to do business with us. Sincerely…” connect you with your customers so tightly that they spend more with you and tell their friends about your exceptional care.

Yes, three minutes. I timed myself.

You are memorable for the right reasons when you say “Thank you” with a handwritten note to your customers.

Donations for Employees

“Thank you” to employees equals giving a raise for some business owners. Do it as you can, but you see more productivity and increased morale when you do something that speaks into the employee’s life like giving an end-of-year gift to the employee’s favorite charity. If your mother died of breast cancer and your boss gives a donation in her memory, that says “Thank you” in a vastly more personal way.

Another opportunity to consider besides memory donations is an honorary gift. For instance, an employee has an autistic child. Give a donation to the school he attends or to an Autism Society. Such an expression of gratitude deepens your employee’s commitment to the company thus increasing productivity and your profitability.

Lifestyle Gifts to Vendors

When your vendor calls on you, I’m sure your conversation includes family, sports, and other lifestyle topics.

Maybe he says something about a new grandchild. Say “Thank you” by going to Amazon and sending a copy of a children’s book like “Goodnight Moon” or “Love You Forever.” Attach a note to it. Get your associate to do it.

Or, perhaps your supplier is from St. Louis, loves the Cardinals, and the two of you discussed the World Series. Send her a replica Albert Pujols jersey…while they last.

Something personal makes you a stand-out client worthy of your vendor going the extra mile for you when you need product overnight or credit extended.

Your business can say “Thank you” efficiently—without a great deal of effort—and effectively—increasing your bottom line.

Who knew giving thanks was so profitable?

About the Author:

Dr. Joey Faucette is an international speaker, business coach, and best-selling author of the #1 Amazon book Work Positive in a Negative World: Redefine Your Reality and Achieve Your Business Dreams. Get your free chapter excerpts at www.WorkPositiveBook.com. Follow him on Twitter @DrJoey.

This is the final article in a 3-part series based on my recent teleclass, Why your past success is hurting your future success – 3 reasons that your business is not making BIG money – YET! There is nothing so heartbreaking as seeing your dream business – that you’ve put your heart and soul into – falling to the ground like a big broken kite!  If you could separate yourself from the equation, it wouldn’t be so bad, but if you’re anything like me, your business is your baby!  So here’s the third reason, and I know this one well:

Reason #3 – You are not used to failure feeling so personal. When things are going great, all is right with the world.  But when it’s not going well, let’s face it – it’s embarrassing!  Your business is a reflection of you, and it’s hard to accept setbacks, rejection, or criticism. This is the point when people give up and get a j-o-b rather than admit their weaknesses.  So here’s the third and final principle, and it is by far the one that helped me the most to triple my income over the past two years:

Divine Juice Principle #3 – You must use failure to catapult your success. There is a lot of good that can come from failure – believe me!  It leads to a phenomenon that I call the “entrepreneurial wormhole”.  Believe it or not, many businesses actually are born because of some type of struggle or pain.  And through that experience, the business owner learned!  They either decided to use that pain to help other people, or they realized that they had a gift in a certain area, and wanted to share it with others.  Or, they found something that helped them and then wanted to pass it on.

Failure has a purpose!  Of course when you’re in it, it sucks.  But once you’re out the other side of the wormhole, that knowledge catapults your business.  And here’s the rub – when you invest in yourself, and in your business, you often experience another version of your wormhole.  It doesn’t make sense, but you’re birthing the next level of your work – and it hurts!  But if you don’t take those risks, it could be the death of your business.  Investing in that help, working with my mentor, and having faith in myself – that’s what got me out of my wormhole.  I could never have offered the high level content of the Inner Circle had I not made a high level investment in myself, and had I not experienced and received that kind of support.  Yes, failure feels personal – because you’re not used to this level of frustration!  But in order to always move forward, you have to have people around you – peers, friends, a mentor or mastermind group – to help you get through that wormhole.

So here’s your homework for today – list your “failures” and what you learned from them.  Give them the credit they deserve.  Maybe it was a struggle, or a setback, but in your heart it became pervasive enough to affect your ability to take risks.  Doing this exercise may help prevent another wormhole!  And it will make what you’ve gone through – or going through – make sense.  I have a saying that we share in the Inner Circle – “Leap and the cliff disappears.”  When you decide to love your career, to have a peaceful and prosperous business, the cliff disappears.

About the Author:

Lisa Cherney, a.k.a. the Juicy Marketing Expert, founded Conscious Marketing 12 years ago to help small business owners find their authentic marketing voice, attract their ideal clients and increase their sales. Following her own Stand Out & Be Juicy program, which centers on owning your unique self and laser-focus marketing, Lisa has tripled her income while working
part-time.

Prior to Conscious Marketing, Lisa worked with many Fortune 500 companies, including AT&T, Lipton, Nissan, Blue Cross and Equal. She is a highly sought after speaker and often shares the stage with experts such as Jack Assaraf (The Secret), Jack Canfield and Jill Lublin. Learn more about Lisa at www.consciousmarketing.com or call 887-771-0156.

There are six distinct Perceptual Styles that characterize the ways the different people see the world. On the surface, some of these styles look more creative than others—but creativity is not a Perceptual Style quality, it’s a human quality.

Often, when we hear the word ‘creativity’ we think of artists and art in the broadest sense of the word—painting, sculpture, composing, writing, etc. But creativity is not limited to the artistic field, and entrepreneurs and other professionals do themselves a great disservice when they dismiss the notion that they have natural creative abilities.

One definition of creativity reads:

the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations

Using this definition we can find creativity in each of the six Perceptual Styles:

1.   Activity shuns repetition and routine and will create new ways to accomplish everyday tasks in order to keep them interesting. Rather than giving up on a project, the individual with the Activity Perceptual Style will approach it in multiple ways, trying different solutions until they find one that works for them.

2.    Adjustments creates complex systems that reflect the intricate and interconnected nature of their perceptual experience. Individuals with this Perceptual Style see the natural world around them as an elegant sort of clockwork. Therefore, their creative solutions will reflect and highlight unique ways of connecting systems that appear to others to have no connection at all.

3.    Flow also sees complexity, but within in the realm of human relationships. Individuals with the Flow Style create extraordinarily multifaceted communities that creatively build relationships, bonding others together using unusual and inexplicable common interests.

4.    Goals is a master at creating tactics that directly address the issues and problems at hand. Individuals with this Style have a form of creativity that is driven by their ability to turn mundane everyday tasks into an exciting form of competition.  With startling focus, they cut through all that is superfluous and drive to the heart of what needs to be done with relentless energy and endurance.

5.    Methods has an unusual form of creativity: reducing organization and regulation to new levels of simplicity. Individuals with this Style take what many see as the opposite of creativity—routine, stability, categorization, and predictable sequences—to a level beyond mere order, creating truly optimized systems. Their creativity lies in their ability to see through the complexity and chaos and make it intelligible to all.

6.    Vision creates images of possible futures that stir the passion and imagination of others. Individuals characterized by this Perceptual Style use their high energy to persuade others to join them and to draw out the best in each person by finding creative ways to challenge them. This style of creativity lies in the ability to see and make use of the best that others have to offer.

This list is by no means exhaustive or comprehensive. It is merely an exercise to demonstrate the different approaches to creativity that characterize each of the six Perceptual Styles. It may be true that you cannot paint a picture or compose a symphony, but broaden the meaning of the word and you’ll discover that you’re using your creativity every day in your business.

About the Author:

Lynda-Ross Vega: A partner at Vega Behavioral Consulting, Ltd., Lynda-Ross specializes in helping entrepreneurs and coaches build dynamite teams and systems that WORK. She is co-creator of Perceptual Style Theory, a revolutionary psychological assessment system that teaches people how to unleash their deepest potentials for success. For free information on how to succeed as an entrepreneur or coach, create a thriving business and build your bottom line doing more of what you love, visit www.yourtalentadvantage.com

I did a lot of things over the past few years to grow and expand my business, including working for the lifestyle I want, defining my ideal clients and taking care of my physical and mental health.

Part of my mental healthcare included maintaining a positive mindset and it really made a huge difference. It cleared my head and allowed me to really focus on my business. Here are the four things I did to create a constant source of positive energy.

1.    No News!
My first rule was no news, no radio and no reading the newspaper. That meant not flipping on the radio in the car. It meant not turning on the TV – even for two seconds – because it seemed like I’d always hear bad news. It’s amazing how I always manage to hear about the top news items anyway.

2.    Positive Programs and Music
I made sure that I had a lot of positive audio programs and music. This can be any kind of spiritual teacher, guru, coach, leader or author who resonates with you. Buy their audio books or seminars and put them in your iPod or on your computer; rent them from the library and listen to the CDs in your car. Positive, uplifting music is good too. I, myself, like music that includes chanting, affirmations and stuff that’s just fun and fancy-free. We all have music that puts us in a good mood – so use whatever works for you.

3.    Positive People
I decided I only wanted positive people around me. That meant I needed to not hang out with some of my family and friends. I worked hard to avoid energy vampires – those people who are so negative they just suck the life right out of you. To be honest, for a while I went into kind of a little cocoon. I needed to reconnect with my family and myself and be very purposeful about who I was spending my time with. Also, I attended retreats and conferences that were in a positive, spiritual realm. If that doesn’t work for you, find something related to a hobby. For example, if you’re into genealogy or you’re a stamp collector – whatever gives you energy – put yourself in those environments.

4.    Community Connection
I made sure I was connected to community. This is a really big one because we tend to isolate ourselves. As entrepreneurs with our own businesses – most of us in our own homes – it’s very easy to isolate. So, find some likeminded groups, like a book club, spiritual group or volunteer activity, and attend regularly.

Taking care of oneself physically and mentally – and keeping a positive mindset – is a great way to keep yourself in the game. You’ll be amazed at the renewed motivation you have for doing the things that are not your core passion, but will make your business grow. Working from a cup overflowing helps you float through cold calls, accounting, filing, networking or any other activity that is critical to success but not always top on your list. Once the negativity is gone and you’ve got positive energy on your side, anything is possible.

About the Author:

Lisa Cherney is a Marketing Intuitive and President & Founder of Conscious Marketing™.  Lisa has helped thousands of business owners tap into their intuition and market their businesses from the ‘Inside Out’. For 15 years she worked at Fortune 500 companies and top advertising agencies.

Lisa tells her story in her co-authored book “Inspiration to Realization,” available at www.ConsciousMarketing.com. Conscious Marketing also offers workshops and coaching. Visit her website for more details or call 887-771-0156.

Article Contributed by

Few issues bring out the worst in relationships and couples like money. Whether you’re rolling in the dough or struggling to make ends met, money is the number one reason couples fight.

When people enter into a romantic relationship, they bring a portfolio of emotions, hopes, fears, strengths and weakness – all of which have been shaped by our past. But it’s very seldom that we address the portfolio of emotions we bring to money and finances, and so it usually becomes the 600-pound gorilla in the relationship.

Here are a few tips to help you address your 600-pound gorilla:

1. Love and money have absolutely nothing to do with each other. Money is an emotionally-loaded issue for couples because each person brings their own set of values, beliefs and attitudes about money to their relationship – most of which have been formed by the time we are 12 years old. Conflicting values and attitudes about money are at the core of financial conflict in relationships. (Notice I didn’t mention a word about love).

2. Most people don’t really know how their views about money have been shaped. We tend to know we are either a “spender” or a “saver” – but most people couldn’t tell you for sure how they got that way. So it becomes quite a daunting task to build a financial life that blends both partner’s hopes and dreams for today and the future!

3. Money fights are rooted in what money symbolizes for each person in the relationship. Does money represent emotional security, control or power for you? Do you know what money symbolizes for your partner? You must know this information so you can begin to bridge the difference between what money symbolizes for you as a couple. And there will be plenty of differences to bridge since you grew up in two different homes, which, in all likelihood, valued money differently. Doing this will go an incredibly long way in helping to end, or at the very least de-fuse, your money fights.

4. Money fights have to do with each partner’s perception that the other does not respect their feelings when it comes to financial decision-making. In other words, you or your partner feel disrespected or ignored by the other when a financial decision is made that you either disagree with or would not make.

The key to reducing or eliminating money fights is to shift your mindset about money. Once you have done that, you are now in a position to shift your view of money as an emotion or power tool and treat it for what it really is – a commodity. If you can take all the emotions away from money and view it as any other commodity, (which it is) you
will no longer view money in relation to power and control in your relationship. Once you have done this, you will be well on your way to stopping the money fights in your relationship!

About the Author:

During the past 25 years, renowned relationship expert Dr. Patty Ann Tublin has helped hundreds of people rekindle romance and reignite passion in their relationships. The solutions in her Relationship Toolbox™ help couples re-build romance so intimacy inside and outside the bedroom can flourish. Through her successful 25-year marriage and her experience of raising 4 children, Dr. Patty Ann has earned an international reputation for saving relationships. To reignite your flames of passion, visit her site at www.drpattyann.com.