We all have to make choices every day over which direction to go.

• We have the regular routes we follow including those we can do with our eyes closed – to the bathroom or our child’s room in the middle of the night.
• There are short journeys in our local area – to school, work, shops or other local amenities.
• Than there are those journeys we make less frequently, but are still familiar, perhaps to visit a relative or friend.
• Finally there are those which we have never taken before.

How do we choose which route to take?

For most journeys there is more than one way we can go – we all know about avoiding certain routes at peak times and if it is your local area you will know the shortcuts.

What about if you are in a less familiar area?  You are sitting in a queue of traffic and you see lots of cars turning down a side road.  Do you follow them because they seem to know where they are going, or do you remain in the traffic queue because you don’t know where the route will bring you out?

We all have different ways of dealing with these situations.  We may just stay on the main roads and follow the signs.  But what happens when the signposts are missing or the place you want to go suddenly disappears off the signs (and we’ve all been there)?

In these days of satnav we can punch in our current position and where we want to go and then just follow the directions.  But we’ve all seen or experienced ending up in a dead end, the wrong place, or huge lorries down narrow roads unable to turn around.

We can look at a map and plan which we to go, either in advance through one of the route planners or by looking at the map ourselves; or as we go along, making decisions based on what we have just experienced.

Our journey online can be much like this.  I’m sure that you’ve probably guessed which way I am going with this so I won’t give the analogies to every journey.

I personally don’t use a satnav – I suppose that I want to feel more in control of what I am doing.  However it often gives us confidence to know that someone is giving us directions, especially if they know what they are doing.  Unfortunately, we know what can happen if we blindly follow and get led astray – it can be difficult to turn around.

The nice thing about maps (and I love them – was brought up on them and don’t like to go anywhere without one) is that there is more than one way to get somewhere.

Sometimes we want to take the motorway because we have to get somewhere quickly or have a deadline to make.

Sometimes we have a bit more time and can take things more slowly because we want to admire the view.

And sometimes we find something interesting on that map that we just have to go and investigate – it might or might not be worthwhile, but it all adds to our experience.

But in the end, no matter which road we take, as long as we know where we want to end up, we should enjoy the journey, learn from our experiences and be friendly to those we meet along the way.  We never know when we may be able to help and support each other.

And I think there should be plenty of that going on – ever notice how many people avoid looking you in the eye when you approach each other on a path…?

So each of us needs to find the way that works for us at a particular time.  It can and should change if we feel that we are going in a direction that is not right for us at that time.

Do you know what it is that you are trying to achieve online – your initial or subsequent destination?

What do you need to do to get there and what can you use to help you along the way?

Let’s make some decisions, find out route and start moving forward.

As the proverb says:

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

When we are trying to get going, particularly with a new venture, we often want to spend all our time working on that venture. This is really commendable, but it is also very important to make sure that the blinkers don’t come down and we fail to see what is going on around us.

I have been working very hard recently. At the end of the school year there is always plenty to do: paperwork to complete, books and work to tidy up and then to start to think about and prepare for the next academic year.

Add to that my own children finishing for the summer break – one finished a while ago so we are now awaiting the results of his GCSE exams at the end of August. They have their own activities to look forward to and prepare for and this can all take a toll on our own sanity and health.

One of the most important things we can do is to make sure that we take a little time for ourselves – some ‘me’ time.

This can be done in many ways and each of us knows what helps us the best. It might be something as simple as sitting down with a book, listening to music, going for a walk, having a relaxing bath. We should try to do this on a regular, if not daily basis.

Perhaps, even more importantly, particularly during these difficult economic times, we also need to take a more extended break if possible.

Now, I know that many will say “I can’t afford it” (financially or timewise), but that can put us onto a rocky road.

Even if we cannot physically go away on holiday, it is possible to have some time when we do things that we perhaps we wouldn’t normally do, to help us refresh our batteries and give us the ability to continue with our work.

A few days doing things we enjoy can make such a difference to our mood and well-being. For me it has been walking, visiting National Trust properties (houses, gardens, lansdscapes, coast) and generally living my life at a much slower pace.

What have you done recently to give yourself a boost?

Look at the place where you live with the eyes of someone visiting. Go to your local Tourist Information point and take leaflets about places to visit and things to do – many of them are free or low cost.

Take time for ourselves. Give ourselves the feel-good boost we need. Don’t feel guilty about not doing our work (it will still be there later). Build our dreams – find out what is important to us and what we really want.

There’s a good reason why, in the event of an emergency on an aeroplane, adults are told to put on their own oxygen masks before they put them on to their children.

We cannot drive ourselves to the position where we have no oxygen left to help ourselves or others.

We are all important. Let’s take care of ourselves too.

It’s amazing how nearly a month has gone by since my last post.

I am trying hard to be consistent, but the end of term is always busy for teachers and at the end of the year there is lots of paperwork to complete.

However, alongside all my offline duties I have also been busy online. My last post was about the new coaching course – Internet Business CodeX- set up by my friends Garry Parkes and Gary Simpson.

I joined this coaching along with my husband and we are now busy getting to know the other members of the course. I can already see that even though I have been working on my online business for over two and a half years, I still have lots to learn, but most importantly, to put into practice.

This is something that I know I have not been very good at. I am great at learning and really enjoy exercising the grey matter, however on a practical level I often become stuck, almost afraid to try something out. I know that “there are no mistakes, only learning opportunities” and I am determined to prove that right by getting off my backside and doing something about it.

So back to the course.

Much of it so far is information I already know because I have been around for a while. However, it is always good to have a refresher, not only because things can and do change quickly in this fast-moving world of the internet, but also I often find that I have missed out on something, which might be quite small, but could make a difference to what I am doing.

So, I intend writing here about my continuing journey to find a system of working that is right for me.

• It has to be completely ethical – one of my main reasons for procrastination so far has been because I have been uncomfortable with many of the suggested ways of making a living online.

• It has to be one that I can fit in around an already incredibly busy life – I’m happy to give up some things if I can work on my business, but there is still so much else that needs to be done on a regular basis and won’t happen if I have shut myself away in front of my computer!

• Most of all it has to be enjoyable – it shouldn’t be too much like work, though of course there will always be those things that have to be done that we are not so keen on

.

How does the Internet Business Codex course fit into this?

Well so far I have found:

• 2 really helpful, honest and knowledgeable mentors in the ’2 Gs’.

• A set of well-structured, well-written and easily understandable webinars, Question & Answer sessions, videos, written information and helpful websites and tools.

• Most importantly, an active and friendly forum for members where no question is too silly to ask, but everyone is really helping one another and we can all learn from the experience and knowledge of the other members. I’ve learnt lots already.

As you can tell, I am really pleased to be involved in this course and can highly recommend it.

Although it is currently closed to new members, it is possible for you to access the blog which was begun before the course opened initially and continues to be a source of information.

Even better, if you sign up on the waiting list, you will get a weekly series of useful tips by email (and they really are useful, not just a quick sentence), so that you can learn about the type of information you get as a member.

Yes, any links here are my affiliate links, but then again I am proud to be associated with this excellent training and would highly recommend it to you. You won’t be disappointed.

If you have a look at this, please do come back and let me know what you think about it or feel free to ask me any questions that you may have.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Hilary

A couple of days ago I found out that two of the people I met on Alex Jeffreys’ 1st mentoring course are starting their own course in the next few days.

I am really excited about this. Garry Parkes and Gary Simpson are two of the most honest and ethical people you could hope to meet in this often seedy and dishonest world of Internet Marketing.

As well as learning from Alex on MWA 1.0, many of the students also formed their own support networks and the two Gar(r)ys and I were part of the same one. Garry Parkes has also worked directly for Alex Jeffreys so I know without hesitation that I can highly recommend these guys and the mentoring course they have produced.

It will be launched this Tuesday 28th June, but they are currently giving you access to a really informative, no-nonsense, no-hype video and the first of three special reports.

I have already seen the video and 1st report and they are excellent. You don’t even need to opt in to get the 1st report, but I highly recommend that you do as you will then be able to receive the next two. You can join as an inaugural member of the IBCX which will give you a spot in one of the most innovative and comprehensive coaching and mentoring courses around.

They have spent over 15 months preparing for this course so I know that it will be top quality.

IBCX is a three month interactive hands-on course with webinars, Q and A sessions, highly-detailed instructive videos, PDFs and a host of innovative ideas and surprises that will allow you to learn fast and make money.

During the launch of IBCX you will be able to win some great prizes too – including a free membership. This will be explained to everyone who registers their interest.

I have used many of the written products that the Gar(r)ys have produced in the two and a half years I have know them (I’ve even contributed to a couple of them). I would never recommend something that is not of the highest quality, so you can be really confident about this. You may also remember that I use and recommended Gary Simpson’s Action Planner as my Busy Person’s Tool #1.

Remember that these guys have also been mentored by Alex Jeffreys, have a huge amount of experience themselves and do not tolerate dishonesty, hype or ‘push-button’ rubbish.

I’m really looking forward to all of the information they are giving out freely.

If you missed out on Alex Jeffreys’ opportunity to become part of his Inner Circle, then I really would urge you to sign up for IBCX now. I have – and won one of the prizes, simply because I asked.

I ‘Took Action’. Will you?

Let me know what you think about their information after you have signed up. I’d really love to hear.

Hilary

P.S. The links here are my affiliate links, just so that you are aware – but this lets you know how highly I rate and trust these guys.

I’ve just got started again with my online business and already things are trying to pull me off track.

Since my last post I have spent two days away from home on a maths course (and I’m not a natural mathematician), our boiler has packed up so we have no hot water and I’ve been trying to organise tests and mark work for my learners.

Alongside the usual household chores you could say that I have been busy and could easily start to feel discouraged.

But I have used my timer, filled in the Action Planner that I mentioned in my last post and, most importantly had a phone call with my accountability partner.

I met Malika at Alex Jeffreys Instant Profit Seminar and found that we live less than 40 miles away from each other. We seemed to have a good rapport straight away and as the weekend went on we got to know one another better.

One of the important things that we agreed to do was to contact each other on Sunday, one week after we left the seminar, to see how we were getting on with our plans.

Yesterday evening we talked for about 15 minutes to see what we had achieved during the previous week – was it what we said we would do (the answer for both of us was ‘yes’) and to set targets for the next week.

I have determined that I will set myself no more than three major goals each week.

For this week it is to:

1. Put my short, medium and long term goals down in writing. I know that these will change and adapt as I move forward, but I have to start somewhere. I shall talk more about goal setting later.

2. To post and reply to comments on my own blog and to visit and leave comments on other blogs where hopefully I can learn some new things.

3. To begin preparation of my first giveaway item – ebook, report etc.

The reason I have kept my weekly goals to three?

It is so easy to become overwhelmed – that’s what happened to me last time.

If I keep the momentum going, I will keep moving forwards and hopefully the pace will eventually increase. In the meantime an hour’s good work a day on my task in hand will pay dividends.

And if you haven’t already done it – get yourself an accountability partner. Already I feel the difference, knowing that I have one person who will be there to encourage, congratulate or give me a kick when it is needed.

It’s working for me – make this your Tool #2.

Let me know what works for you when you need to get work done.

I probably know lots of the excuses in the book of Why I Haven’t Got Things Done.

I’m a working mum with two teenagers, two hourly paid teaching jobs in different places (with a supply job during the holidays in yet another direction), preparation and marking for 20 individual students and two very different adult classes, a small MLM home business, an elderly relative living nearby … etc etc.

I know that I am not the only one in this situation, but sometimes – oh it is so difficult to find the time or motivation to get going and just do something!

Although I knew what the answer would be when I asked the question “what can I do when I am so busy?”, Alex Jeffreys’ reply was “work smart for an hour each day”.

I suppose that I didn’t want to hear it, but I realised that I knew this was true and now is the time to act on it. So I’ve set my timer for an hour, closed the door and am concentrating on the matter in hand.

So after restarting this blog yesterday I took out a copy of Gary Simpson’s Time in Motion Action Planner and began filling in the details for yesterday.

Gary is another of the students from Alex Jeffreys’ first coaching course and always gives so much great value. He is working on other things at the moment, but if you go over to his blog and scroll about half way down the page, you will find a place to download this Action Planner. I would highly recommend it as Tool #1 in overcoming the excuse making.

But you have to use it!

I am and I’ll let you know how it helps me. Please tell me what you need to help you move forward too – I would love to hear.

I’ve not posted on my blog for 18 months. This is not what I wanted but I suppose that “real life” has got in the way.

But I’m back now – with a new vision…

What’s changed? I still have “real life” getting in the way.

I spent this weekend in the company of about 200 other enthusiastic people at the Instant Profit Seminar run by Alex Jeffreys

Alex Jeffreys and Hilary

Hilary and Dean Holland

For those who don’t know, I was on Alex Jeffreys’ first coaching course in November 2008 along with Dean Holland. I tried to follow what Alex taught us (and I learned a great deal from him), but found that eventually I stopped blogging and working at being online and other things took over.

However this weekend has given me the boost to get moving again. After all, if Dean Holland was able to build a successful business, why can’t I?

Now I have lots of reasons (excuses) why I haven’t built my business, and I will share those with you in future posts.

For now, though, I have returned with new enthusiasm.

I’d love you to come along with me, so that we can share the journey, the highs and the lows, the successes and those things which haven’t worked so well. After all – we can help each other and that’s one of the best things we can do.

So if you feel too busy, too tired, don’t know what you want or have to do to move forward in this wonderful world called the internet, let me know what you are thinking by leaving a comment below.

I look forward to receiving and answering all your comments and together we can rock!

The past couple of months have been busy but frustrating for me and this has been characterized by the problems I have had getting this blog post written. I’ve tried starting several times, but have found it difficult to get into the right frame of mind, or I have started and then needed to do one of the many household things a mum has to do.

But are these just excuses?

They probably are. I just haven’t had the umph in me to really get going. It’s there in the mind, but not in practice.

It probably hasn’t helped that I have been ill. At the beginning of November I suffered a recurrence of the post-viral fatigue that kept me off work for an extended period three years ago. Although this time my symptoms are not quite as severe, it has still been enough to mean that I have not been at work for a month and the doctor has signed me off work until the start of the new term.

One of the main problems I have found has been the ability to concentrate for any period of time as it often leaves me feeling extremely light headed. The doctors have said that the best way to recover is through rest.

This has left me thinking about how I can move forward in small blocks of time.

For several years I have subscribed to Flylady. It began as a site to help get your home decluttered, but has grown to be much more than that.

One of Flylady’s sayings is “You can do anything for 15 minutes – except whine!”. I have that posted up on the wall over the computer, so I see it regularly. Although I have taken some of the ideas on board and tried to do the things that she suggests, I have not been particularly disciplined with it. Perhaps that is why I am still living with lots of clutter around me!

That is also true for working online.

Time and time again I have read that you must have goals, be disciplined, put in regular effort etc etc. My head knows that, but I so often find excuses and don’t carry through with what I had intended to do. Yet once we actually start those jobs which we think will take us a really long time, they take a lot less time than we expected.

So why do we do this to ourselves?

For my own part I know that I am not as disciplined as I should be with my time management. I use the excuse that as a mum I have so many other calls on my time and energy which often change at the last minute. I don’t have the luxury of being able to put everything else on one side whilst I concentrate on writing a blog post or article, working on our online business etc.

For example as I write this I have washing in the washing machine, Christmas letters and cards to write (it’s the last posting date to USA, Australia and New Zealand today and I haven’t written any cards, letters etc!) as well as the 101 other things I have to do to keep the household running smoothly. Yet I know that I have used this as an excuse and even a small change in the ACTION I take on a regular basis will make a huge difference.

It is a year since I began my coaching with Alex Jeffreys who is giving away free places on his next coaching course. One of the first things that he taught us was to make our plans and to be disciplined in keeping to them. I’ve done this in my head, but have I done it in practice? Not really and that is where I have come unstuck.

A couple of nights ago I clicked on the links in my blogroll to the other blogs set up by Alex’s students a year ago. I was saddened, but not really surprised to find many of those blogs where the domain had lapsed. For several others the last post on the blog had been at the beginning of 2009.

I was more heartened to see those where they were not posting on the original subject of the blog – i.e. the list building that we were learning with Alex Jeffreys and that particular type of internet marketing – but they had found a new route to take and were using the blog for their new line of business.

One or two blogs were still providing the useful and entertaining content that I have become accustomed to over the past 12 months.

It is not my role to speculate about why this has happened – it is merely an observation; but as for me, I have not been as consistent in posting as I should have been. My blog is metamorphosing (very slowly!) into a new area, but I am still here!

Added to all of this I have been working together with my husband Richard on our new enterprises. We attended the Entrepreneurs Bootcamp run by Andrew Reynolds at the O2 Arena in London at the beginning of October and we signed up to Brett McFall’s Warp Speed programme.

The good thing about this is that we have begun to work together on this enterprise. We have different skills and if we put them together we can cover more areas. At the moment we are not as accomplished with this as we could be but by practising a little each day we can improve.

Isn’t this what life and business is about?

I had intended to write about our new enterprises in this post, but I think my musings have gone on for long enough now. I’ll start a new post about what we are doing and save it for later publication – now that would be a first! But in the meantime if you want to have a quick peek at what we are doing you can look at our Eminently Ebooks site or at our Positive Lifestyle Choices site. We’d be interested to know what you think about them.

So what are your ideas on this matter? Is it just because we are all human and have so much to do that we don’t dedicate the time we need to if we say that we want to have our own online business? Or are there other factors that stop us in our tracks?

I’d be really interested to have your feedback and comments on this.

As you may know by now, I have a passion to help young people become financially well educated and some while ago I met another entrepreneur on the internet who is also passionate about helping kids with their money.

Let me introduce her:

“Amanda van der Gulik is a homeschooling momepreneur and very savvy young woman who is giving away a terrific e-book called, “Allowance Secrets: To Give Or Not To Give?”, which will help you make up your mind on whether or not to give your kids an allowance.

She has spent months compiling over 200 pages of valuable and helpful information about the financial repercussions of giving your children an allowance, or not.”

Amanda knew that I shared the same vision, although I am focussing more on teenagers upwards and she asked me to write a chapter for her “Allowance Secrets” ebook.

I was extremely flattered to be asked as I am still just getting involved in this area, but I wrote my chapter and I have since had the opportunity to look at this ebook myself.

It is an amazing and thought provoking collection of ideas and suggestions about allowances. Most importantly the overall idea behind the book is that there is no right or wrong answer to this question and that parents should make their own decision about what suits them best.

This is a really useful book which is broken down into various sections so that you can look at the one that suits your own ideas and read what each author has to say, but you can also look at the other sections and have the information to weigh up for yourself.

With the amount of work that has gone into this ebook I am surprised that Amanda has decided to give it away, but she, like me, is passionate about getting this information out to those who need it. By not charging for it she can make sure that those who will benefit from it can have access to it.

I applaud what she has done and I would definitely recommend that you download a copy for yourself or for someone you know who has children or grandchildren – or might be planning to have children!

Here is what Amanda has to say about the book itself – I thought that I would let her own words speak for themselves:

Kids Allowances

People seem to ask the same questions about kids allowances again and again.

“Should I give my child an allowance?”

“How much should I give my child as an allowance?”

“When should I start giving my child an allowance?”

“Will an allowance ruin my child’s entrepreneurial spirit?”

Allowances are a very touchy subject and it really comes down to each individual’s personal strategies for financial education for their child. Teaching children about money can be very difficult and confusing for the parent as well.

Most of us were raised with the value that “money is evil”, or “you don’t need to have money to be happy.” But have you had a good look around you lately? Can you find me a family who are in a lot of bad debt that are not stressing about their finances? Maybe money doesn’t make you happy but not having money will make you a lot more unhappy, I can tell you that for sure.

Just imagine, you have a recurring income of more than $10,000/month. How would that feel? Would you feel stress-free because you are now able to pay off all of your expenses and thereby not create any bad debt? How will you feel when you have money left over at the end of every month instead of living paycheck to paycheck?

What if you were financially able to give away 10% of your income, every month, without even noticing the financial impact? What would you give it to? Who would you like to help? How would it feel to be able to help others in need with the extra money that you are earning without even feeling the financial impact? It would be a pretty awesome feeling right?

So how does this tie into the topic of allowances?

Some people suggest that allowances are a way to teach their children about money. Others suggest that allowances gives their kids the chance to learn to handle money without losing their shirt.

Here are some of my own suggestions on the topic to get your financial juices flowing.

Maybe when we give our child an allowance it might start to create the feeling of entitlement in our child?

What if by giving our child an allowance we were actually hindering their financially creative minds?

Would they be so used to just getting money that they wouldn’t even bother to come up with creative new ways to earn their own money?

And what about pride of ownership that comes when we are finally able to acquire our dreams by our own means instead of just as a gift from someone else?

These are just a few of the topics discussed in Allowance Secrets.

Allowance Secrets is the ultimate Guide to allowances. Over 20 experts have contributed to this project.

I would love to hear your feedback about this book. Was it useful to you? Did you learn something new? Did it make you change your ideas about allowances? Was anything missing that you would like to see?

I can then pass this feedback on to Amanda so that together we can all help to get the best information out to as many parents and grandparents as possible. After all these will be our future business leader, bankers, politicians etc!

Money, Money, Money, Must be funny, In a rich man’s world…

I grew up listening to Abba and given their recent popularity again, I often have these words in my head.

Many of us would say that we would like to live in a rich man’s world, but would we be equipped to do so? Would we know how to cope with the responsibility of the money or would we be like many lottery winners who within quite a short time find themselves falling back out of that world with a bump?

Financial education is vitally important to us all, whether we have very little money or a great deal.

But how do we obtain that information? Most of us probably get a great deal of what we know about money and our attitudes towards it from our parents, but given the way that the world has changed so rapidly is this always the best form of education?

I have been reading a report from September 2004 by the Financial Services Authority entitled Young people (18-24) and their financial information needs. Now I know that this might not sound the most riveting of reports to read, but I have found some really eye-opening snippets of information like although the majority of people did not like the idea of debt, many did not consider 0% credit cards and balance transfers or student loans to be debt, especially if they were able to keep up with the payments!

Thankfully when I asked my own son this question, he was able to see that this was still debt, whether you were paying interest on it or not.

In their general attitudes to money, all respondents felt that money was an essential part of life, and as a necessity to be able to do the things they wanted to do. Most saw money in terms of spending power and the empowerment it gave them, with the ability to display material wealth.

As many of you know I work with young people age 16+ and have spoken to many of them about their attitudes towards money. In addition to having a somewhat negative attitude towards what information about money is available, most of them are not interested in it, except in how they can get more money now.

I also have two teenagers of my own and I want to be able to help them to grow into financially educated young people who are able to make and manage their own money responsibly.

Over the past few months, this has become my passion, to be able to get this information out to young people in a way which is meaningful, relevant and will keep their attention so that they can learn now, instead of the hard way later in their lives.

I have spent a great deal of my available time reading lots of information from classic literature about wealth to up to date sites with information for children and young people.

From my research so far I can see that there are some excellent resources available for the younger children to begin teaching them young about money and I will add them to a new resources page as soon as I have the time. I have also found some useful information aimed at students going to university, but I feel that there is something lacking in between and for those who are perhaps working as an apprentice, earning a lower wage than their friends who are working in the local burger place.

My aim is to bring together a collection of resources to reach these young people, which can be used interactively both on the internet, individually or with others or can be used in an educational environment. In this way I can combine my skills and experience as a teacher and a mother with my ever growing experience in the Internet world.

In the near future I will begin work on transforming my blog into the valuable resource I would like it to become. Please bear with me whilst this happens.

In the meantime so that I can make it as relevant as possible, I would like your help and that of any young people you know.

I already have several ideas from earlier posts both on this blog and elsewhere, but I would really like your comments about:

What is the most important thing you (or a young person) would like to know about money?

What sort of resources would you like to see? Would you like links to other resources all in one place?

Are there any areas that you are struggling to understand or to get information about?

What is your attitude towards money? Is this typical of that of your friends? Do you feel peer pressure to conform where money is concerned?

How do you think this information could best be presented – on the internet, in the home, in the classroom?

Would you like to see the information available through interactive workshops with others, or access the infomation alone?

Would you like the information to all be freely accessible, or do you think some could be presented through a members’ area?

Would you be prepared to pay to access that information?

If so, how much? For a one-off set of information? For a monthly site?

Would you like a physical product? Videos, games, worksheets etc or would you be happy to download it all?

And any other information that you think would be useful?

Although I am aiming at the age group of probably 14 to 20, this is not restrictive. Please ask any young people you know what they think about this and either ask them to leave the information themselves or leave a comment for me yourself.

I really do want to provide a growing resource that will adapt to various situations and circumstances and provide at least some young people with the information that they so desperately need to grow into financially aware adults.

I look forward to all of your comments and thanks for your help with this.