Thank  you for your efforts with me a while ago……  I thought it would be good to let you know progress so far!

Since I did the work with you I have been very busy with projects. I’ve brought out four training DVD’s on Reflexology that are rising up the charts on Amazon, started writing distance learning courses, written another book “Reflexology for Babies and Children” and started to be invited to lecture abroad - so huge thanks for your comment of “view yourself as an expert”!  I still find that hard but it has been important at times when I panic before audiences!  My last teaching engagement was to the pediatric intensive care nurses and licensed massage therapists in the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital (world’s no 3 children’s hospital).  I was  in the US for two weeks and never through that would happen - paid to have fun and make new friends!

Thank you for your input a while ago - still living by it!

Best Wishes

Sue Ricks

Cert Ed., MAR, MBRCP, CP AMT. MICHT
Sue Ricks School of Complementary Therapies
Sue’s Blog

Because I realise that without zest - for my life, for my topic, for my work - I couldn’t have got past about C in any alphabet.   You simply can’t force yourself to put the work in, can you?   Yes, we often have to struggle past a little creative resistance to a project, a little rebellion to working on a sunny Saturday afternoon when a deadline zooms, but speaking as the most disciplined person I have ever met, I don’t think its possible to achieve anything very much without an innate zest for the project.

Are you feeling the zest for your business?   Yes?   Hooray!   Do more!

No?   Stop it forthwith, do something else.   End of.   C’est simple!

Zest: keen, hearty pleasure or appreciation, interest, flavour, charm, gusto and relish.   I will accept nothing less for your business and the life it facilitates.

Normally I go into what we can do about this; for today I am content to say that we might just sit with it for a while and explore what it means.   Let’s not rush to fix “the problem” before we have sat and savoured the asset.

Well done for being you!  Pat yourself on the back, celebrate your unique wonderfulness, enjoy your greatness and individuality.   Hug yourself with your specialness.

I know.   It’s not nice is it, being quite so full of ourselves?   But I feel we often take for granted or don’t even believe in how great we are, we gloss over it, rush past it or simply just don’t know.   One of the great joys of my coaching work has been to almost instantly fall in love with most of my clients, noticing their strengths and capacities and brilliance long before they do.   I believe in them WAY beyond what they can, and then some.   I see the diamond, while they see the sh*t in which its covered.  

I seek to breathe into them just some of my appreciation, in a way which enables them to put their shoulders back and stand tall.   I like to have them believe themselves capable of what I know they can do, and then go off and do it - often to their huge surprise and delight.   What a great job!   What fabulous work!   How lucky am I?

Thank you, Darling clients, for just being You.   You are unique and special and perfect just exactly as you are.   EFT and Louise Hay would have us love and accept ourselves just exactly as we are and its a given that in so doing, I feel that about you too.   Honest, I do.

What do you most love, accept, appreciate and take for granted about you, the finest asset of your business?   And how can being more of that make up for any teeny tiny thing you feel you might just lack?

She said that I always, or often, I appear to go the extra mile for others.   Although I knew this about myself, it was way down in the depths of my consciousness and now I am grateful to have it higher up in my awareness.   Because now I can choose.   Do I want to go the extra mile for that person, for that opportunity, for that business, for that deal?   Or am I doing it as a habit, because I always do it?   Because I’ve always done it?

She also said that I appear to complain about it sometimes, and although I wasn’t aware that I did this in that way, it was interesting to explore what that means to me.   It means there is some thoughtless behaviour going on, either in going the distance, or in doing it when I dont necessarily want to.

I am going to write something along the top of my computer screen, because that’s where I do most of my work, which reminds me to make sure I want to go the extra mile before I commit to something, because I know I am not a woman who does things half-heartedly.   I also know I dont want to resent others because I couldnt say no to them.   Don’t be surprised if I say no a lot for a while, that’s the other experiment I am conducting.

I love all these experiments - X can be for Xperiment too!

Do I want to be known for going the extra mile?   Yes, I think I do.  It may even be the title of my auto-biography…once I have worked out how to do it for the worthy and deserving cause, not just because someone asked.   Good learning this week.   And any week with good learning in it is also a good week.

Some of this I actively engage in and study, e.g. EFT (emotional freedom techniques) and some comes unbidden to me.

But the nub of it is what you believe in works.   I believe in EFT so it works, you believe in something else so that works for you.   Or not if you are a non-believer.   But you’ve got to believe in something, right?

The overwhelming body of evidence which just makes me dig deeper and deeper into the metaphysical sides of life comes from being able to observe my own thoughts and feelings and how they connect to what happens in my life, especially with manifestation.   But an even easier spot is what happens when I work with clients and all the “miracles” they phone up and tell me about.   If I had a fiver for every call which begins with “you’ll never guess what happened!”, I’d be a multi-millionaire a lot sooner than I’m going to be anyway.

My best and favouritest of all time is teaching people to throw the dice when we play Cashflow.   The response to this is quite extreme, usually disbelieving because we all know that throwing a dice is random, a game of chance.   Or is it?   At our Money Gym Cashflow evenings, I always suggest that folks might like to focus on where they are going on the board and throw what they need to get there.   Some (most) look at me like I am a mad woman, others are prepared to experiment, still others become expert at this.   They have their own systems - going into a trance, visualising the result they want, zoning out everything else.   No matter their route, so long as they believe it works.   And it does work, the demonstrate that.

Women are known for being into this stuff, from reading tea-leaves onwards.   But when I teach businessmen to do it, I know I’ve cracked it.   Other sceptics look on, knowing they will never be able to make a dice work like that.   Those who can know they can and so they do.   Its a wonder to behold and I, for one, will never get tired of watching it.   And it always makes us squeal with delight too!

Do you believe in Magic?   I do.   It happens all day long every day in my life and the lives of my clients, we are happy and grateful for it, we ask for it, we expect it, we are delighted by it, we intend it, we manifest it and we are all as mad as a box of frogs.  Or are we?

A visionboard can only be a representation the things you want, but hidden in there is the way you want to feel.   My own visionboard is covered in turqoise, the colour of the water on holiday either in the pool or the sea.   The feelings I get when I look at this are warmth (sunshine), cool and refreshing (water), peaceful (I’m on holiday) and free (from the demands of  my “normal”  life) for a short while.   This is my definition of peace, the pursuit of which is my main goal all the time.   I achieve that in lots of little ways every day as well as in big ways, like a month off in the Caribbean already booked for December 2009, and in the meditating on the ultimate goal of months of that at a time in my sunshiny tax-free haven which, right now, is closer than ever.

And when I look at the turqoise pictures I am straight there, without having to go through that thinking, explaining and re-connecting.   So it’s a shortcut to my desires and its often subliminal and ever-present.

I also remember that it was THE most enormous fun to make and that sort of nonsense isnt usually my thing - you know Blue Peter, collage, sticky backed plastic etc.   So, go on… let yourself go and have fun, create your vision, design your future.   These days you can even do it on the desktop of your computer.  

What inspires you on your own journey?

“Some good current examples of products with a clear USP are:

• Head & Shoulders: “You get rid of dandruff”
• Olay: “You get younger-looking skin”

Some unique propositions that were pioneers when they were introduced:

• Domino’s Pizza: “You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less — or it’s free.”
• FedEx: “When your package absolutely, positively has to get there overnight”
• M&M’s: “The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand”
• Wonder Bread: “Wonder Bread Helps Build Strong Bodies 12 Ways”

They are clear and memorable.   It’s probably quite difficult to work our what your own USP is, so something I often recommend to clients is that they ask clients and colleagues to reflect back to you what you are appreciated for.   Likely as not there’s a common thread which you can weave into what you want to be known for, which can then become a brand standard to which you can nail your colours and by which measure your performance.

What’s your USP?

Do you “manage” your time (don’t make me laugh) or are you always short of it?   Have you ever analysed what you spend your time on?   I was an accountant for more than twenty years and we had to fill out timesheets to account, by client, for what we had worked on hour by hour during every working day.   As I write that sentence, the scales fall from my eyes, as I realise what a brilliant discipline that is.   I am not used to analysing my own processes, but it explains how I can pack so much in, that’s years of training not to be inefficient with your employer or client’s time and money.

Do you think you could face up to that harsh reality?   If so, there are a couple of little web applications you may enjoy and a book recommendation or two.

First, the web - Rescuetime.com which I have used and liked and a recommendation from a trusted colleague is Toggl.com

Second, the books - one of my favourite new ways of looking at time is documented by Timothy Ferris in his Four Hour Workweek and an older favourite is Mark Forster’s Do It Tomorrow.  

One of those resources will definitely work for you.

And you know that biggest thief of your time and mine - as proved definitely at my house by Rescuetime?   No surprises here: email.   Shut it down except 1-3 times a day/week, and get some bloody work done!

I realise as I write this piece that I am now, I am reconciled - happy, even - about becoming and being successful.  

I have been driving for it throughout my career and I was happy with the quest for it, although I don’t suppose I expressed it exactly like that.   I just knew I was driven to achieve, to prove something.   And now I realise it was a drive to become successful.  

Although not uber-successful by other’s standards, I realise that by my own I am content.   And who can say more than that?   How fortunate am I?

Now, how can I help you achieve the success you deserve?   What is it that you want?   What would constitute success for you?   My main area of expertise is around business success and wealth creation and although I don’t do much 1-2-1 coaching any more, I do do lots of advice about how to be wealthier and if you are not afraid to put your stick in the sand and stand up and say “I want to be better off” then I am the woman (or one of them) to point you in the right direction?

• A pension within 10 years, however late you start
• Living within your means, saving and investing
• Understanding investment opportunities, loving to learn about new ones, and making investment choices which are right for the entrepreneur you are.
• Investing in property, often without a mortgage
• Getting out of debt

If financial success is your desire, or your measure, then let me know how I can help - please ask your questions here or email me if they are too private.

He says there are four sorts of wealth - financial (see more later), intellectual, physical/emotional and spiritual.

My work in the Money Gym mainly concerns financial and Frank’s definition is as follows:

The Merchant: Financial Wealth

It is unlikely that we will live peacefully in this culture unless we seriously address questions of money – how we make it, how much we make, how we manage it, how we keep ahead of inflation, etc. The Merchant part of our lives includes money, our work or career, financial management and planning, as well as our competency in the world. We often identify with this aspect of our lives believing that is all there is.   The central question we need to answer regarding financial wealth is, “How much?” The quality we need to cultivate in this area is integrity.

What do you think?   Is Frank onto something there?   I think he is actually but I am happy to have a debate about it here.   Do leave a comment, or take it up with Frank!