Category: Work Life

This is an article based on my recent virtual workshop, “Why Your Dream Business is Not Making BIG money (Yet) – 3 Steps to Build a Full-Time Business on Part Time Hours”.  And wouldn’t we all just love to have more time to ourselves?  Imagine being able to do what you want to do, when you want to do it, without taking a cut in income.  When I made the decision to approach my business this way, I had a very strong motivation – I was determined to work only three days a week, so I could spend the other four being a mom to my little girl.  But this was a very conscious effort, and I’m going to share with you three of the steps that it took to get me there, and the steps you can take to get yourself in the zone of peace and prosperity as well.

Step 1 – Make your days count with high impact business-building activities. And this to me was the most important step.  I had to ask myself, on a daily and sometimes hourly basis, “What am I doing now that should be delegated or dropped in order for me to work part-time?”  What can go… what must go so that I can accomplish this?

First, figure out what days and hours would work best for you in order to have your ideal lifestyle.  Once you decide the part-time hours you want, block that time off.  These are your new, dedicated work hours, and your productivity becomes magnified during these hours.  Get rid of all non-service delivery tasks, for example writing copy for ads, scheduling meetings, checking your emails, networking, working on your e-zine, even sales activity.  And when you work from home, like I did, you have to resist the urge to start cleaning the house, make shopping lists, and start dinner.

You will need to develop what I call a “delegation consciousness”.  In every moment of every day, ask yourself, “should I be doing this?”  I’ll give you an example of how this worked for me, and it was life-changing.  I have an e-zine that I send out to my list, and I decided to hire a virtual assistant team to take charge of the process for me, because I was spending way too much time on it.  By delegating my e-zine maintenance, that put into place a circumstance that allowed me to have a team already in place when the floodgates opened and business started pouring in.  I was ready for it.  I needed to push against my fears that I should do it myself and that I couldn’t afford to outsource this.  And it felt great when I let go of it.

Are you making proclamations that don’t really apply to the person you are now?  Maybe you’ve caught yourself being sucked into something you know isn’t the best use of your time, and you swear you’re not going to get caught up in it again.  But the next time it comes up, there you go.  We go to business events, read books, attend networking meetings, make cold calls… and this is ok to do once you’ve gotten your part-time hours under control.  But for now, get rid of anything that is not essential to you right now.  This is going to be extreme, you will be cutting back to bare minimums.  But don’t just cut back, be very conscious of what you are bringing in to your business, as well.

Solutions only have the opportunity to present themselves when you make a decision.  You’ll find many things that can wait if you really want to work part-time.  What is the benefit of working part-time?  Only you can answer that for yourself.  For me, it re-energized me, and gave purpose to everything I did with my business, and allowed me to live the life I’d only dreamed of.

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.

Article Contributed by Jeff Beals

Nearly 300 years ago, a British physician, preacher and intellectual by the name of Thomas Fuller said, “Health is not valued till sickness comes.”

Such sage historical wisdom still holds true today. Those who hope to achieve the highest heights in the 21st Century economy need to take care of something as simple as personal health. Making a commitment to healthy living is a prerequisite for success. But it’s not only physical health that matters.

Those who enjoy long-term success realize that their personal lives must be in order. That means you should care for your mental, physical, emotional, spiritual and financial health as much as the health of your career.

It is very difficult to be successful at work when your personal life is a mess. If your marriage is dysfunctional, it’s hard to focus on high-level career achievement. If you lack a set of core beliefs, you may not be able to create philosophy of life that guides you to some great achievement. If you are barely keeping your financial head above water, you don’t have the financial ability to take on entrepreneurial endeavors. Whatever the problem, you will be more successful in all facets of life if you take care of things at home.

A good attitude does wonders for your success. Think positive thoughts and constantly reinforce yourself in your own mind. As Norman Vincent Peale taught us in his famous book, The Power of Positive Thinking, you can cause successful outcomes by forcing yourself to be optimistic.

After you adopt a positive attitude, there are several other things you can do that will make you a healthier person.

If you have a faith, I recommend you practice it. Believing in and answering to a higher power has an amazing affect on career success. Prayer, meditation or whatever you choose to call it, purges the toxins from your mind and gives you strength and confidence.

After faith comes family. No matter how ambitious you are, your family should be one of your highest priorities. Do whatever it takes to protect your familial relationships. If things ever get really tough, you want to be able to depend on those who share your blood. Stick up for your family members and look out for their interests. In the long run you will be far richer if family comes before career.

Close friends are almost as important as family. A long-time friend who truly understands you is worth his or her weight in gold. Put the important people in your life on a pedestal and make them your priority. If you go out of your way to put people first, you will have more business opportunities than you can handle.

Because family and friends are so important, you should adopt an attitude of acceptance. Let them be who they are and enjoy them in spite of all their flaws and weaknesses. Forgive them any time they wrong you. Bite your tongue, when you feel like saying something hurtful to a friend or family member. These relationships are so important, that it’s foolish to put them at risk over some temporary passion.

While relationship-building contributes to career success, so does physical health. You don’t have to be an obsessive gym rat, but being in shape and consuming the right nutrition gives you more energy and stamina.

Keep your home life organized. Make sure your house is generally clean and tidy. Have a good system for organizing your bills and other important papers. Develop systems and routines for the simple, daily things. If you run a tight ship at home, you will have time for important things. After all, it’s awfully hard to conquer the world if you’re constantly misplacing your car keys.

Hobbies and recreation are also parts of a healthy life. Having enjoyable stimulation outside work recharges your battery and contributes to creative thinking. Just don’t go too hog wild with your hobbies. Some people get so deeply involved in hobbies that they hurt their job performance and drain their bank accounts.

Speaking of bank accounts, personal financial discipline is part of a healthy lifestyle. Just as you need to get your body in shape, you need to shape up your financial condition as well. A long time ago, philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.”

There has always been a portion of the population that has chosen to live on the edge of the financial abyss, recklessly spending all they have, investing little or nothing. Unfortunately, that portion of the population has been growing rapidly, and it’s becoming quite a problem.

Living a financially reckless life will eventually catch up with you and hurt your career. If you have no savings, you have no “go-to-hell-money,” the power to walk away from a job or a client when you’re not happy. A lot of financial debt can prevent you from taking some lower paying job that might actually make you happier. For every minute you spend worrying and fretting about how you will make ends meet, you are taking away time from your grander goals.

It sounds so elementary, but it’s worth a reminder. Live a balanced and healthful life in order to reach the top.

That said, let’s end with one disclaimer: don’t be obsessive-compulsive in your quest for a healthy lifestyle, because as comedian Redd Foxx said, “Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.”

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 http://www.JeffBeals.com.

Article Contributed by Lynda-Ross Vega

If you are like most people, every January you make a few New Year’s Resolutions: “This is the year I am going to. . . lose that extra 10 pounds, finally get organized, stop watching so much television, etc., etc.” But if you are like most people, by the time you get to mid-February (or even earlier) all of your good intentions, dedication, and will power have succumbed to the relentless force of your daily routine.

Likewise, every year there are articles from various sources telling what you need to do to do to stick to your resolutions, or why they’re so hard to keep. These articles focus on discipline or the lack thereof, habit formation, (i.e., it takes 21 days to turn a new behavior into a habit), will power and how to get it, changing your environment to support the change you want—the list goes on and on.

All of these articles suggest that you need to grow, develop, strengthen, or adopt some behavior that doesn’t come naturally to you. This isn’t the only way to approach meaningful change. In fact, the number one reason why most New Year’s Resolutions fail is that they are set up in a way that requires behavior that is not supported by your Perceptual Style.

Consider the resolution to ‘finally get organized.’ The first step of setting up almost any conventional system of organization is to fill in your calendar, set your goals, create your plan, etc.—but for many people, trying to achieve those simple steps is what keeps them in limbo.

The fact is, there are only a few Perceptual Styles that can actually use one of these step-by-step organization methods, and those are the types that most likely already somewhat organized!

When we choose a system, approach, or method that does not draw on our inherent natural skills and talents, we are setting ourselves up for failure. As with all intended changes in behavior, New Year’s Resolutions most always fail when they involve set prescriptions or hard and fast rules about ‘how to.’ If the method you choose sounds like work, it probably will be.  But if it sounds easy, or like fun, it will probably be a fit for you.

For instance, an Activity person might dread spring cleaning, but love clearing out space in time for a spring gathering or party. A Visions person might dread a day-by-day checklist for launching a new business, but love doing something everyday for the new business, based on opportunities as they present themselves.

So if you really want to make some lasting and meaningful changes in your life, take the time to discover your inherent Perceptual Style and the natural repertoire of skills that derive from it. When you do, you’ll be able to make resolutions (whatever they are) that work with who you are and how you really operate, and even pick resolutions that allow you to further develop your natural potential. You never know, you just might change your life!

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.ACIforCoaches.com and www.ACIforEntrepreneurs.com.

Article Contributed by Dr. Patty Ann Tublin

Did you make a New Year’s Resolution? If you did, have you stuck with it? Or has it already gone by the wayside? If you didn’t, is this because you don’t believe in them? Or did you just forget to make one? If you haven’t made one or it’s been neglected, there’s no reason why you can’t make a new resolution dedicated to your relationship.

Let’s make 2011 the best year ever for your relationship. Here are three great ways to get your relationship in shape:

1. Prioritize your relationship.
The most important thing you must do is NOT take your loved ones for granted. Human nature being what it is, we tend to take the things we have and the ones we love for granted. This is the kiss of death for your relationship.

So prioritize your relationship in 2011! It sounds so simple and easy to do, and it is, if you do it! Have you noticed how life has a way of getting in the way of your relationship? We are all guilty of this. Our job, the bills, the kids, the shopping, the cooking, the cleaning, even our favorite TV show finds a way of creeping up on us and taking away all our “free” time, including the time we have to spend with our partner. Try really hard not to allow this to happen to your relationship.

Life seems to have taken on such a hectic pace. Slow it down – it’s easy if you try and spend quality time with the one you love. If you have to schedule time together, do it. Do whatever it takes to make your relationship your #1 priority in 2011.

2. Bring back the romance
Bring back the romance your relationship was built on. Remember how you used to flirt with each other with your eyes? Bring that back and rekindle the romance. Send little love notes to each other throughout the week. With modern technology there are a million ways to do this, such as email, IMing, text messaging, bbm, etc. Or bring home a rose to your partner for no reason at all! Bringing back the romance in your relationship is a sure fire way to heat things up in 2011!

3. Speak politely to your partner; say “please” and “thank-you”
Everything you need to know about manners you learned in kindergarten. As I mentioned earlier, we tend to take our loved ones for granted and this includes forgetting our manners when we speak with them. Civility goes a long way to enhance the quality of your relationship. Try it – your partner will like it. Trust me.

Resolve to focus on your relationship this year and don’t take your partner for granted. If you follow these three easy, simple, and effective tips you’ll be on your way to making 2011 the best year ever 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.