Infopreneur

Self Esteem

2012-11-04T01:21:00.001-07:00

Good self esteem is important because it helps you to hold your head high and feel proud of yourself and what you can do. It gives you the courage to try new things and the power to believe in yourself. It lets you respect yourself, even when you make mistakes, and when you respect yourself, other people usually respect you too. It also helps you to make good choices about your mind and body. If you think you are important, you'll be more likely to make good choices. If you have good self esteem you know that you're smart enough to make your own decisions. You value your safety, your feelings, your health - your whole self! Good self esteem helps you know that every part of you is worth caring for and protecting.

Low Self Esteem

When you have low self esteem you tend to view life in a very negative way which makes everything seem hopeless, pointless, too much effort. You see yourself as being worthless, think other people are better than you, have difficulty in saying what you really feel and want. You lack confidence and find it difficult to stand up for yourself or be assertive and consequently find that often people will take advantage of you and treat you badly. This in turn may make you feel depressed. There may be any number of reasons why you may have low self esteem. It could be abuse you have suffered as a child, or as an adult, you may have had a breakdown in a relationship, been involved in a violent relationship, been bullied, lost your job, be suffering from ill health - there are all sorts of things which can affect a person's self esteem. You may find that you have not been able to talk about some of the difficult things which have happened to you; you may not have received any support and be trying to cope on your own. You may have been in a situation where you felt another person had control over you - you felt powerless to do anything about it - you may have felt used - all these things can lead to a person having low self esteem. You may not feel valued as a person, may not feel loved and wanted, may not have much affection, you may not feel cared about. You may feel that nobody is there to listen to you; you may feel isolated, alone and unsupported.

Boosting Your Self-Esteem

When your self esteem is high you view life in a positive way, you feel confident, you enjoy life, you see difficulties as challenges, you are able to be assertive and say what you want and feel and you don't allow other people to treat you badly and take advantage of you. You are able to stand up for yourself, believe in yourself and believe that you are worth just as much as anyone else. Of course it's OK to have ups and downs in your feelings, but having low self-esteem isn't OK. Feeling like you're not important can make you sad and can keep you from trying new things. It can keep you from making friends or damage how you do at work. It's important to know you're worth a lot.

If you think you might have low self-esteem, here are a few things that you can try to increase your self-esteem:

• When you hear negative comments in your head, mentally tell yourself to stop. The critical voice inside you will soon lose its power.

• Write a list of all the things that you like about yourself, what your strengths are, remind yourself of the things you do well, of compliments others have paid you, of small goals you have achieved

• Put post it notes on your cupboards with positive sayings like ‘I am doing okay’; ‘Today is good day’; ‘I always do the best I can and that is good enough’. Your mind will unconsciously absorb the message.

• Remember that your body is your own, no matter what shape, size, or color it is

• Remember that there are things about yourself you can't change - such as skin color and shoe size - and you should accept and love these things because they are part of you

• Remind yourself of things about your body that are okay

• Give yourself three compliments every day. Don't just say, "I'm so great." Be specific about something good about yourself, like, “l was a good friend to Jill today" or "I did better on that test than I thought I would."

• While you're at it, before you go to bed every night, list three things in your day that really made you happy.

• By focusing on the good things you do and all your great qualities, you learn to love and accept yourself, and that's the main ingredient for strong self-esteem. Even If you've got room for improvement (and who doesn't?), realizing that you're valuable and important helps your self-esteem to shine.

How to develop trust in a relationship

2012-04-14T07:23:00.000-07:00

When distrust, arises in a relationship there are many factors which can be causing it. Unless we understand where these feelings are coming from, it becomes easy to act out, blame the partner and put all kinds of unhealthy demands upon them. We can even believe that they are cheating when they are not.

When feelings of distrust arise, some begin to create more and more restrictions upon the partner, demand more information and make them feel closed in. This often can be the beginning of the end. In all relationships every individual needs time alone, time with friends and of course time together.

When we take away a person's individuality and freedom to grow, sooner or later the individual feels trapped. Not only does this destroy your partner's trust and good feelings about themselves, but they can easily grow to feel that there is no way to ever make you secure and happy.

The best way to develop trust is to take a moment to first understand some basic laws of healthy relationships, and what love truly means.

Loving another person does not mean possessing them, or having them there to make you feel better about yourself. This is not loving or respectful of who they are. Instead we are turning them into an object, who exists to meet our needs. We are then, not loving, but using that person.

We all must develop basic trust in our partners and ourselves from within. If a partner is truly not deserving of trust, then tracking their behavior and restriction their lives will not help at all. In fact, it usually makes matters worse. The person simply goes underground, or finds other ways to sabotage the relationship, in order to gain their freedom.

Some individuals are filled with distrust because they never resolve past hurts about being cheated on in former relationships. They then project this hurt and insecurity upon the partner they are with now. A current relationship cannot take away old wounds. Each person must take time and responsibility to work through what happened and the feelings they were left with as a result of it. Sooner or later they must realize that their partner is different and their situation is a new one as well.

If one requires that their present partner take away the pain they are feeling, they are looking in the wrong direction. No matter how loving a person is, no matter how solid the relationship, they cannot take away pain and confusion that exists within oneself. Each person must face their feelings and work them through on their own.

There are many ways to build self-esteem and to feel safe once again. Just as we work out in a gym each day, we need to work on ourselves emotionally to build the strength we need to combat fear and negativity. One exercise that can be used is - to consciously look for the good - both in your partner and yourself. Whenever you find yourself dwelling upon negativities step back, take a deep breath, and consciously choose to focus upon what is good and right in both of you. This will create calm, balance and positivity.

Doing this exercise, becoming calm and positive will not cause you to gloss over reality, but to be able to be focused and even better aware of what's going on. Needless to say, in cases where the partner does not deserve to be trusted, when there is clear evidence of wrong doing, if you are calm and positive, you will then be able to make healthier, constructive choices for yourself.

Enhancing your happiness

2012-02-26T11:06:00.001-08:00

Your personal happiness is very important as it allows you to feel fantastic on the inside which is then reflected on the outside allowing you to be confident, creative and get all of the recognition you deserve in your home and working life. One of the ways you can improve and enhance your personal happiness is by working on all of the things in your life or things you would like to add to your life that make you happy. The best way to do this is by making a list and then one by one enhancing the happiness that you get from each one.

Personal Connections – this includes the connections and relationships you have with your family members, your friends, your children and even your work colleagues. Every connection requires work on your part in order to acquire positive feedback from them which then makes you happy! Relationships can always do with some extra input to make things happier for both sides, so take a look at each relationship and work out what extra things you can put into each one to increase the overall happiness within them.

Confidence – Increasing your confidence will improve your own personal happiness. There are several ways that you can do this which include updating your wardrobe as what you wear will make you feel more confident and extrovert. Another way is to look into the mirror each day in the morning and tell yourself that you are a wonderful person and that you deserve to be happy, by doing this you are placing into your subconscious a seed which over time will blossom into a full thought. This thought will always be there in the back ground making you feel complete happiness in yourself and will leave you feeling very confident. This technique needs to be repeated every day and once you adapt your thinking to this new way of thinking you will respect yourself even more!

Prune the bad things in your life – By looking at all of the things in your life you are unhappy with will allow you to see what you can change. This can take some courage but the best way to do this is to just do it, be decisive and go for it! You may look at your list and recognize how unhappy you are with your current job, it may be stifling your creative thinking, not give you the respect you deserve for all of the input you put into your job or give you any recognition for your ideas or money that you bring into the company. All of these things can damage your personalhappiness stifling it and reducing the potential you deserve. Begin by looking for a new job, you may decide to change your career completely and try something new that you have always fancied trying but have never had the guts to do. Others will look for a new job that is within the same level of pay they are currently getting or a higher paid job, remember through it all even though it may be hard to adapt to this new way of thinking but you deserve this!

Achieving your goal

2012-02-19T11:07:00.000-08:00

It's impossible to achieve any goal if you are familiar with goal setting, so I have decided to spend the first section of this article to talk about How to Set Goals and in the second section I will be talking about How to Achieve Any Goal. Setting goals in your life in order to achieve something greater than yourself has benefits, and by learning how to set goals you will be able to achieve so much more than you first thought. There are lots of different reasons for creating life goals and one of the most important reasons for setting out goals for yourself is that it will give you a real sense of achievement once you break those barriers!

Goal Differences – One of the main things that you have to decide is whether the goal you have in mind is actually something you want to do not something you think sounds great and you should have. When we set out our plans and our dreams we need to be able to tell the difference between wanting a dream to come true and wishing beyond the stars, because there is a very big difference! Think things through and be prepared to have to work hard to get what you want because things will not be handed on a plate to you.

Variation Goals – This refers to the six key areas of your life: Family and Home, Financial and Career, Physical and Health, Social, Emotional Well-being and Religion. Each of these key areas need to be looked into a goals set where you need them to be in each one if at all. In some areas of your life you may find that you do not at this time need any further self-improvement but in others you may find there are several goals to be looked into and a plan drawn up.

Visualize – It takes more than just writing your goals down, to plan them and create further dreams from them, it also takes visualization. When you write down your goal really imagine it fully, visualize it happening and by doing this on a regular basis you can train your subconscious to make choices without you even realizing that will bring you nearer to your goal. The subconscious is a very powerful tool so keep a copy of your dreams, your plan and your aspirations in a clear and defined space like the front of the refrigerator or near your front door. This way you will see it always and be reminded, this then reinforces your thought patterns to create a positive and happy atmosphere.

SMART – This is another fantastic technique used by people all over the world which shows you how to set goals. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. By living to these rules you can manage to ensure that all of the individual goals that you set through your life are attainable and are not so farfetched that you spend your entire life searching for them.

How to Achieve Any Goal.

Having looked at how to set goals, now let look at how to achieve these goals. Success is something we all want and being successful means having to put some action into your ideas about your goals rather than remaining a dreamer and thinking of grandeur and never realizing it. Goal setting can be a relatively easy thing to do. For those who have done it, they have taken the time to be realistic and ensured that their goals are attainable. Some have even failed, sound familiar? If so, why does this happen? All too often people really want something, but once they begin their journey stop far too quickly. Giving up is the main reason for this due to the fact that they do not see enough change or progress as soon as they think they should; without any real progress at the click of a finger most people will instantly give up! Now here are some tips to help you on the road to success in your goal setting:

Visualize – Goal setting is not just about thinking about what you want, it is about really feeling it, seeing, hearing and even in some instances smelling your goal in a way you could almost touch it! By visualizing on a regular basis everything that your goal setting has achieved you will always be one step further to achieving your dreams and not giving up!

Inspiration – Taking inspiration from your idols is something we do as children growing up and now that we are adults there is nothing wrong with doing the same. Choose people that you admire and people who have the type of lifestyle you want. By taking inspiration from these people we can see that what we want to achieve is actually very tangible and with hard work and visualization we can also achieve.

Plan – Regardless of where you go in life even if it is for a short drive you have to plan ahead. Looking to the future you will also have to plan in order to get where you want to go. Guiding yourself and reaching your ultimate success is improved by having an actual plan to follow. It also helps when you are feeling low to look at your plan and realize that you do not need to feel discouraged, you are on the right track! Things just take time.

Mini Goals – When you make your plans for your goals, and know where and how you are going to get somewhere, it is a good idea to set yourself mini goals. Mini goals break up a bigger goal and give you more incentive to keep going until you reach your ultimate goal. For example, if all of your goal setting was to achieve weight loss then you would take the weight that you need to loose and set four mini goals to achieve it. If you need to lose 40 pounds and you went at this goal and only lost 2-3 pounds a week, you may feel that your goal is unattainable and give up. To prevent this you set yourself mini goals where you lose 10 pounds before you celebrate in some way and then begin the next mini goal of 10 pounds. Everything still takes the same amount of time, but you will feel as if you are getting there a whole lot quicker!

Developing self confidence

2012-02-11T09:20:00.001-08:00

Self-confidence is something that most of us feel that we need to build up, in fact more than 3 in 5 people have self-confidence issues. In order for you to be able to address this you will need to go on a journey of personal growth where you will experience what it is like to build yourself. Improving your self-confidence permanently is no easy task and anyone who says that it is, is hugely misinformed and is only offering you a “quick fix”.

People who are have confidence in themselves experience a significant growth in their personal development and achieve more in both their professional and personal lives. By feeling confident you will be more popular and you will also notice that you are able to get more things done and on time. The reason for all of these things is the fact that when you have no self-confidence you tend to shy away from people, holding back your true personality so that you do not fulfill your potential. People with confidence issues have trouble focusing, keeping things in order, completing menial tasks and even find themselves feeling some form of depression. There are many self-help options you can use in order to shake off all of the things that have been holding you back and becoming the person you deserve to be. Follow these important beginners steps:

Take a look at your wardrobe – This may sound weird but what you wear actually affects your mood which has been scientifically proven to make a significant impression on your self-esteem. Dark colors, although will make you look slimmer; will bring down your mood. Try teaming up one black item, either a skirt or pants with something more colorful on top. For men just changing you’re “at home clothes” and choosing a few new ties will make all the difference. Tailoring is a big “Yes!” for men and women and a properly tailored suit or trouser, skirt or pants individual item can create a wide range of looks. It all depends on what you are looking for; for creating curves, hiding lumps and bumps, creating the appearance of an ample derriere can all be achieve with the right tailoring. Choosing a patterned, block color or striped top can really lift your mood and improve your self-esteem.

Posture and speed of walking: How you stand is very important, those who have bags of confidence walk tall and proud no matter whether they are having a good or bad day. The speed at which they walk is also a factor due to the fact they have a high self-esteem, they are Confident and feel like they have a purpose in life and are ready to take on the world, they have somewhere, regardless where it is, that is important to be. By adopting this attitude and walking tall with your head held high this self-improvement technique will instantly lift your mood and make you feel important again. This technique in conjunction with other self-improvement techniques has been scientifically proven to improve your self-confidence by around twenty-five percent!

Read more: http://www.infobarrel.com/How_to_Develop_Self_Confidence#ixzz1m5wASelf-confidence is something that most of us feel that we need to build up, in fact more than 3 in 5 people have self-confidence issues. In order for you to be able to address this you will need to go on a journey of personal growth where you will experience what it is like to build yourself. Improving your self-confidence permanently is no easy task and anyone who says that it is, is hugely misinformed and is only offering you a “quick fix”.

People who are have confidence in themselves experience a significant growth in their personal development and achieve more in both their professional and personal lives. By feeling confident you will be more popular and you will also notice that you are able to get more things done and on time. The reason for all of these things is the fact that when you have no self-confidence you tend to shy away from people, holding back your true personality so that you do not fulfill your potential. People with confidence issues have trouble focusing, keeping things in order, completing menial tasks and even find themselves feeling some form of depression. There are many self-help options you can use in order to shake off all of the things that have been holding you back and becoming the person you deserve to be. Follow these important beginners steps:

Take a look at your wardrobe – This may sound weird but what you wear actually affects your mood which has been scientifically proven to make a significant impression on your self-esteem. Dark colors, although will make you look slimmer; will bring down your mood. Try teaming up one black item, either a skirt or pants with something more colorful on top. For men just changing you’re “at home clothes” and choosing a few new ties will make all the difference. Tailoring is a big “Yes!” for men and women and a properly tailored suit or trouser, skirt or pants individual item can create a wide range of looks. It all depends on what you are looking for; for creating curves, hiding lumps and bumps, creating the appearance of an ample derriere can all be achieve with the right tailoring. Choosing a patterned, block color or striped top can really lift your mood and improve your self-esteem.

Posture and speed of walking: How you stand is very important, those who have bags of confidence walk tall and proud no matter whether they are having a good or bad day. The speed at which they walk is also a factor due to the fact they have a high self-esteem, they are Confident and feel like they have a purpose in life and are ready to take on the world, they have somewhere, regardless where it is, that is important to be. By adopting this attitude and walking tall with your head held high this self-improvement technique will instantly lift your mood and make you feel important again. This technique in conjunction with other self-improvement techniques has been scientifically proven to improve your self-confidence by around twenty-five percent!

How to handle Anxiety

2012-02-11T05:30:00.000-08:00

From time to time we all worry about things but for others worrying about certain things can become more of an issue and turns into anxiety. Anxiety can be caused by a wide variety of things and affects everyone in different ways. Overcoming your personal anxiety issues may require special attention via your doctor but there are some things that you can try first to improve your self-esteem.

Here are the top tips on how to battle your inner demons, reduce your fear and improve upon your self-esteem:

Try to relax- now this may sound harder to do than it is to say it but everyone can become their own expert in no time at all! Taking time out to sit in your pajamas in front of the TV or computer is not the type of relaxation we are talking about! Neither is having a glass of wine or a beer, taking drugs or even smoking. What we are talking about here is true relaxation: yoga, deep breathing, exercise, meditation and even simple things like going for a walk in the park. All of these things will allow you to clear your mind, separate all of the things you have swirling round and sort them into the relevant piles so that you are able to deal with each problem that causes anxiety. This way you are able to take full advantage of these proven and calming techniques.

Sleep – Sleep is hugely under rated and most people do not get enough sleep each night due to anxiety, restlessness, stress and worry. Far too many people leave work and take their worries with them. Parents worry about their children and others feel stressed out by other things in their lives. All of this stress can easily turn into anxiety which will keep you from sleeping well and/or sleeping enough. Using the above technique of relaxing will ready you to enjoy a decent night’s sleep. Ensuring that you eat well and making sure that you stop drinking caffeine several hours before you intend on going to sleep will help you to keep your mind quiet. Exercise will also help to improve the amount of oxygen that your cells receive allowing you to enjoy a well rested night’s sleep.

Social life: For people who have anxiety problems they will often find that they have alienated themselves away from both their friends and their family members as they have dug themselves into a hole of which they seldom want to come out of! For those who want change and desire to learn the techniques that can help them conquer anxiety issues one of the first steps is to initiate contact with those whom you care the most about. True friends will understand if you explain to them your distance and will stand by you as well as help you to beat anxiety. Family members will do the same which will flood you with love, warmth and happiness which are wonderful things that will help you to get over your anxiety.

The Ant and its Philosophy

2011-06-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

Today is just about encouragement.
There is a lot that can be learnt fromthe ant.Observe an ant and learn to adopt in your life and organise your schedule. Ants overcome life-threatening obstacles in this vast world.

If you observe an ant, you can learn a lot. Whatever obstacles you place in front of an ant, it is so flexible that either it goes around it, under it or above it. Flexibility is a great quality in an ant.

An ant never quits and it is focused on its goal. It has the attitude of ‘Winners never quit; Quitters never win’.

When it is summer, it plans for winter- Tremendous planning ability.

When it is winter, it waits patiently for summer- Patience.

At any given point of time, it does all that is possible; it is holistic in whatever it does, however small it is, never invalidates its strengths - Commitment to do its best.

It operates in a TEAM- Team is Together Empowering to Achieve More.

Ants have the humility to follow the leader- Humility is strength; not weakness.

United they build an ant-hill - an engineering feat where even cooling effect is taken care of, inside an ant-hill - Team and Team Intelligence.

Ants, while moving in a chain, have perfect co-ordination to send feedback to the ants following them about the path they are treading on. This communication chain has perfect networking Communication Chain.

Further, an ant implies flexibility, planning, patience. It teaches you to enjoy each moment and consider every incident as joyous and totally rejoice in the present rather than desiring that one or some of your joyous moments be permanent.

There is ALWAYS a WAY

2011-06-10T13:45:00.000-07:00

Akin Olusada

First Aboak Nig Ltd

08033467555

God is Able

I felt like encouraging you today and that is
why I am sending this note across.

You know, there are times in your life when
it seems as if everything is turning sideways
and you just feel like giving up.

You try so many things and they just seem
not to work out.

The levels of your debts are piling up fast
and you don't know what to do.

Here is a lesson from the little ANT.

Have you ever studied an ANT before when
it faces an obstacle?

It doesn't ever give up because it has been
programmed into his mind that there is always
a way out.

It would try climbing over the obstacle, It
would try going under sideways, anyhow until
it finds a way.

This is the attitude of the super successful.

It should be your own attitude too starting
from today.

Make up your mind to fix your life and you
will see that there is a lot of light at the
end of the tunnel.

It is POSSIBLE to live the kind of life you
want to live despite the numerous obstacles
on the way.

I WISH you SUCCESS!

Food for thought

2011-04-14T15:44:00.000-07:00

I just gpt back form a long journey and decided to check my mails before going to sleep. I opened my email and this particular story was of much interest. I would love to share the story as well.

A young lady was waiting for her flight in the boarding room of a big airport.
As she would need to wait many hours, she decided tobuy a book to spend her time.
She also bought a packet of cookies.
She sat down in an armchair, in the VIP room of the airport, to rest and read in peace.
Beside the armchair where the packet of cookies lay, a man sat down in the next seat,
opened his magazine and started reading.
When she took out the first cookie, the man took one also.
She felt irritated but said nothing.
She just thought: "What a nerve!
If I was in the mood I would punch him for daring!"
For each cookie she took, the man took one too.
This was infuriating her but she didn't want to cause a scene.
When only one cookie remained, she thought: "ah... What would this abusive man do now?"
Then, the man, taking the last cookie,divided it into half, giving herone half.
Ah! That was too much! She was much too angry now!
Ina huff, she insulted the man, took her book, her things and stormed to the boarding place.
When she sat down in her seat, inside the plane, she looked into her bag to take her eyeglasses, and, to her surprise,
her packet of cookies was there, untouched, unopened!
She felt so ashamed!! She realized that she was wrong... She had forgottenthat her cookies were kept in her bag.
The man had divided his cookies with her, without feeling angered or bitter.
...while she had been very angry, thinking that she was dividing her cookies with him.
And now there was no chance to explain herself...nor to apologize."

There are 4 things that you cannot recover.
The stone...
...after the throw!
The word...
...after it's said!
The occasion...
... after the loss!
The time...
...after it's gone!

Be careful the way you treat people u hardly know, don't be rude.

God bless you.

A career development plan

2011-03-28T14:23:00.000-07:00

An architect first draws up a plan before ever starting to build a house. The engineer designs the car before the actual construction. Right?
So virtually any worthwhile achievement must have a plan even if sketchy at first. The purpose of the guide is to show you the way so you don’t blindly thrash around making mistakes and making no progress generally.
If you earnestly seek to reach the pinnacle of your career then you will be aiding your cause with a sound career development plan.
It doesn’t matter whether you are still unemployed now. It is even better to have a career plan once you get out of school. The plan shows where you want to be 3, 5, 10 and 20 years later. What targets are you setting for yourself? Are you aiming to head a telecom firm or are you content with achieving the position of a middle level manager in a public service parastatal. It helps to have an end aim.

That Jim Ovia rose from a low starting position in Zenith Bank to become the CEO in about a decade was not by chance. He wouldn’t have been there if he didn’t want to and plan to be there. People who rise to positions of Directors in public service do not just get there. They had their ambitions and they worked towards it.

Determine today the height you want to attain in your career and begin each day to learn or do something that takes you closer to your goal

YOU ATTRACT THE THINGS YOU GIVE A GREAT DEAL OF THOUGHT TO.

2011-03-17T11:49:00.000-07:00

This is one day you don't want to forget at all. Talking about what I wrote up there in the subject line I want you to please read it again, it says YOU ATTRACT THE THINGS YOU GIVE A GREAT DEAL OF THOUGHT TO.
If this is true like I know it then telling you that this is one of the secrets to success should make you begin to change your thoughts right? If you begin today to think of only what you want you will get more of it , the ultimate goal is for you to achieve what you want and in this case wealth, so what you now do for me if not for yourself is to be thinking about what you want and not what you don't want.
So if you give a great deal of thought to lack, you attract lack, if you give a great deal of thought to injustice, you attract more injustice.
I want you to be successful. In my years of experience of wealth creation I have come to realize that I achieve only what I think about, and what I am thinking of now as I write is that you become successful, so follow me and think the same and you will surely become successful.

I have always thought of being successful even when I did not have any money, I have always seen myself at the back of a chauffeur driven limousine and that is true , all these thoughts are beginning to take shape in my life because I follow the rules one of which is to think of only what I want. You see many people don't know it but because they have financial problems they stick to thinking about the problems and truly speaking what they are attracting is more of financial problems. Live above your problems whether financial or health or anything else. Even in the midst of lack think wealth, it is difficult but affirming it to yourself will help you a lot.
People tend to think of their problems all the time, and I leave you with one word right now, think of SUCCESS ,see you soon

Leadership Strategies

2011-03-12T06:11:00.000-08:00

Think back to school days. Were you in the "in crowd" or an outsider?

Remember ball tossing in the school playground? Were you ever the one who stood there like a dork as the ball was passed from hand to hand, yet never yours? Or were you the leader of the pack who, without saying a word, had everyone in sync and decided who would or would not be left out?

Certainly that is a far cry from being an entrepreneur and managing people constructively in your adult life. Or is it so far away from the way you treat employees and customers? Sure, we all have our favorites. The question is - does everyone have to know who they are? Are they the ones who always catch the ball? And what happens when you leave out those who may be shy or reticent to play the way you think they should?

Of course, there is the final option to fire the less spectacular players. Yet, the cost of replacement is huge in ramp up time and lost productivity. Maybe the newest research in neuroscience can help you find a better way to help employees who need to be part of the ball throwing and catching game at work.

Did you now your brain is like radar? It wants friends. You want friends. You and your brain want to be in the "in crowd." Why? It feels better!

Naomi Eisenberger, a brain researcher at the University of California at Los Angeles has shown through some ball throwing exercises that those who are excluded show activity in the region of the brain that indicates pain involvement. Being excluded causes pain.

Anyone who has been in that unpleasant situation knows that is the case. No, it may not be the kind of pain that you would scream an "OMG, that hurts" about. It is more like a feeling of suffering and anguish.

Now this type of research is showing that the human brain is a social organ and is profoundly shaped by social interaction. As a leader and business owner, this is vital information that can give you clues as to why there is so much upset about being excluded. IT HURTS!

Teach your employees about the brain in a clear and simple way, or just give them a copy of this article. It is your responsibility as a leader to train all your employees in best practices. Inclusion rather than exclusion is a must. Here is what to do:

Always make sure that those who need to be at a meeting are invited on the same email with date, time and place clearly stated. Make sure they are asked to respond with a response date in a clear place. If they do not either you or someone you appoint needs to find out why they have not let you know about the meeting.
Have information available to hand out to all participants and better yet, if not too unwieldy, have their names printed on the info packets when they come in
Make sure everyone participates in the meeting. If someone is quiet, ask them an open ended question as a way to bring them into the team. Don't let anyone just sit and not speak. Make that a rule at all meetings.

The best way to keep continued inclusion is to start each meeting with a process we call "Getting Current".

In our Total Leadership Connections program, we practice this process to get it perfect. Those who have taken it back to their work settings wonder how they ever led a meeting without it.

It takes but a few minutes and is a full proof way to have all hands on deck for the rest of the meeting. Have each person simply offer a few sentences about where they are in life. No long treatise, merely something along the lines of having seen a good movie, or enjoying the success or sadness of a favorite sports team winning or losing. It could be about a kid home with a cold or a relative coming to stay. It is not so much about the specifics of what is said, it is more about creating an environment of inclusion. Remember, the more you include your employees, the less chance there is for that awful feeling of being the one who never gets the ball tossed to them, feeling excluded and then spending time stuffing down the pain, sucking it up and not being in the loop of creative and productive thinking.

Wealth Creation

2011-03-06T15:57:00.000-08:00

Most people are interested in creating wealth, for some it is a dream that will never be fulfilled, for others it is a way of life.

Wouldn't it be great to never have to worry about money again, to know that your efforts have produced enough income to cover any unseen emergencies, to have holidays whenever you wanted, and to be financially save safe in your retirement, this is what we all strive for both if we are employed or if we are self employed.

However even if we are fortunate to be able to create wealth during our lifetime we do not necessarily have the knowledge to be able to keep it. There are many scams on the Internet that promise to create wealth and make you millions, when they are just that - scams to relieve people of their hard earned cash they have built through working hard and saving hard as well.

You must learn which are good investments and which are bad investments which are to be avoided. You must learn to manage your money yourself instead of entrusting it to someone else. Be aware of impulse buying remember some of the savviest people are also the most frugal and very careful who they entrust their money to.

When thinking of creating wealth, it should not be a numerical goal, but rather a secure financial goal that will ultimately allow you the freedom to live the lifestyle you desire and make your life become more stress free.

Stress Management

2011-03-05T22:33:00.001-08:00

If you want to significantly lessen stress then you will find it easier to do so if you find the right fun pastimes to assist you to get your mind off the predicament that's troubling you. Even if having fun does not eliminate the cause of the problem totally, distracting your mind from it for a brief period of time will calm you down and help you recover your self-control before facing the problem again.

Allow Your Mind to Have Some Fun:

You need to redirect stress into something more constructive and fun. Find games that require your mind to think. One game that needs a lot of thinking to win is Chess. Chess is an excellent way to prevent you from constantly worrying about the problem and to concentrate more on how to win your partner. Also try playing word or number games that allow your analytical mind to operate. Try games like scrabble, Sudoku, crossword, and similar things. These games will assist you to avert your mind from stress to assist you to attain a feeling of relaxation.

Participate in Sports:

A good stress management practice is to participate in sports. Most people would concur that a pleasant session of basketball or squash with your friends will assist you to relax. This will aid you to centre your mind into winning, particularly if you turn it into a contest. Think of this as a way out for your anger or frustration with work and focus it in a positive way instead of expressing it at work.

Combat Stress at the Gym:

If you want to direct all your stress to something beneficial and let go of it in one go then you may want to attempt managing it down at the gym. Stress influences you physically, mentally, and emotionally and so it would make sense to tackle these three parts in one go.

Remember you will need to direct your mind and energy to finishing the workout schedule. This way, you won't have time to think about your problems at work or at home; just concentrate on getting your body in shape for an improved you. A very important advantage of going to the gym is the strengthening of your heart from the consequences of stress. Heart attack and stroke are health disorders usually connected with stress. Good Luck!

What you need most- HOPE

2011-03-05T20:36:00.000-08:00

I have two very awesome friends who are not always up to being positive these days.

Who could blame them? You listen to news, you read the articles, you hear the political trash being talked, and you know when you’re being lied to.

So do my friends.

One of them is a nurse, and she has decades of experience to offer, yet she is not a desirable prospect to doctors in private practice or any hospital. She’s been out of work for over a year now, and feels, in her own words, “like a bum.”

That’s guilt talking, the rhetoric and guilt trips layed on anyone taking entitlements or benefits from the government, whether it be unemployment or Social Security and Medicare. Idiots like Rush Limbaugh talk that kind of crap, and it never once worked on me. I know what a guilt trip is. Rush so unabashedly says things, and has for years now, like “You’ve got to pull yourself up by your own boot straps.”

He’s an idiot, all right.

My friend is not a bum. She is, in fact, a victim.

She’s a victim of the Bush Administration’s crash of 2008. The economy went south, you know it, I know it. But not all of us get to see what it’s done to people firsthand. My friend has been so close to being homeless along with her two children that she literally was shutting down in shock and serious bouts of depression. You don’t know what it’s like to have to worry about being homeless in New York City? You’re lucky, but she does have to worry.

Time after time she’s applied for work, and it is a myth that nurses will never be out of work; they’re trained with such valuable skills that they are indispensible. The truth is so far from that, it makes me sick. And it hasn’t stopped young women and men from taking nursing in college, either, and the job market is flooded with educated nurses younger and older.

But in these times, it is the younger ones, the ones with little or no experience, who get the jobs, since they, of course, will collect a considerably smaller paycheck. If an employer can fill a position cheaper with one person than with another, that’s what will go down. They’re even using excuses on my friend like, “Your credit is bad.”

Bad credit, my ass. You ever stayed unemployed a year and still had good credit?

If you said yes, you had help; my friend has none. Of course her credit is shot by now. But what the hell does credit have to do with getting hired?

So while they play with numbers in Washington, you see, there are real people out there, still suffering–it ain’t over yet.

And my friend… is one of them.

On the odd occasion when we speak, I do my best to be a shoulder, an ear, to let her vent, but at the end of the call, that’s all I’ve been. I cannot help her and it’s frustrating. It’s heartbreaking. Because when we lose hope, we’re almost finished. God never seemed so far away, and having faith, and praying for the help you need, for the miracle you need, is too much effort and seems futile anyway.

My other friend is one of the most awesome people I’ve ever known, and I’ve known her long enough to have been aware, even if I wasn’t around to see it, of some of the things she’s gone through since we lost contact a good while back. She honestly went through a hell on Earth, and people gave up on her. Like she needed them anyway.

Point is, she really went close to the bottom, and to be honest, I never even thought I would see her again.

My God did she ever stage a comeback, and it was one worthy of any movie. This is the type of rebound that, in an actual movie, would give you goosebumps and make you cry. She’s got a faith in God that was partly responsible, but the rest was all her, just guts and raw strength of will. I could not be more happy for her, or more proud, but of course, that doesn’t mean everything is perfect, because we all know that’s not in the cards for any of us.

This amazing woman gets so depressed that it shows despite her trying hard not let it be seen. So I’m going to mention here that, as a friend, she was always so fun to be around, and always made me laugh, and that she is a wonderful mother. That part cannot be understated; any woman can be a mother, and almost any woman can be ”Mom.” But she is a Mommy too, and her young son proves it by being absolutely full of life and happiness and wide-eyed wonder at all he sees. I once spent a few glorious minutes with him watching airplanes on approach to the airport, and each one got an excited response as he watched until it vanished behind the tree line. No child who acts like that has “just a mother.” He has a bona-fide mommy. She’s allowed him to live and breathe, and hasn’t snuffed out his innocence nor started him on the path to cynicism, which a lot of parents seem to think is their first duty in child raising.

I wonder today if these two awesome women, my friends, know how much they have contributed to others, one by always being a giver, a worker of light, and a healer as well as a fantastic friend and mother, and one by staging an absolutely stunning comeback on a long journey towards God and the real purpose for her being alive.

I wonder too, if either of them know, if they have any idea, how inspirational they have been to me, and, I’m certain, many others.

My own turning point came after my third suicide attempt failed and landed me in an ER on a respirator. My daughter got a phone call she swears she doesn’t remember, saying that I was on life support and unable to make any decisions.

She may not have remembered, but I did, and I swore she would never get another call like that again. This time a doctor said, “I want you to go to Springfield this time because if you try it again, you will kill yourself.”

So I went. There was a strip search in front of a male nurse before I was allowed to go to my new bed, and the guy was sharp, he knew his business. He looked me in the eyes and said, “I can tell you’re going to make it. I can see it in your eyes; you’re tired of the bullshit.”

And he was right. I was.

But it has not been easy, and at times I’ve suffered torment and pain and thought again about just pitching it all in.

John Wayne once said that “courage is being scared to death to do something but saddling up anyway.”

That’s exactly what my two friends prove to me and, in so doing, inspire me. One day at a time, because any more than that is too much, they keep on going. Our missions in our lives may be different, but we all have the same thing, the thing we all need:

Hope.

Hope that the reason we’re here won’t be forgotten, hope that we will make a difference, hope that life won’t always be so hard, and days may come where we’re even happy. We know we cannot have happiness all the time, but it won’t stop us from looking forward to the times we can.

And we have hope that we will be loved, and that people will value our friendship, and we won’t be alone. Because we know that when all hope is gone, there is no reason to carry on. That’s when we just give up. None of us are ever going to give up again.

What the world needs most?

You got it: Hope. We’re all fine when we have it, and when it fades on us, we get on shaky ground very fast. If we don’t watch it, the World’s problems add to our own and create a burden we can never in a million years shoulder. So the economy is rotten, and we get lied to about it. The wars are killing people every day. Terrorism is a constant threat, illness can come upon us at any time, and some of us live with illness every day, knowing that full recovery may not be possible.

So what? We all need hope that those things can end or be overcome, and once it’s ours, we have to hold it fast and never let it go.

I have a third friend. This one’s a man, a very good man, who tasks me to discuss things he feels strongly about, which is a rare gift. Enemies love to do that, but not in a constructive way. This friend hopes to be a good influence on me, and yet he already was. His own comeback story is also amazing, having enlisted in the Air Force, becoming a captain, and finally falling to a foe worse than people give it credit for: Mental illness. In fact, the same diagnosis as myself. He lost everything, his career, his wife… just like me.

He came back, fighting like hell to live, to once again make a difference in the world. He got married again to a wonderful, amazing woman who steadfastly refuses to let his illness be an excuse to turn away from him or to allow him to turn away from her, because he’s tried that, telling her he knows she suffers with his bouts. Truer love cannot exist. They are a team, partners, and he is making it today, living and contributing his talents and earning a living. Don’t even think that he never thought of giving up and taking the easy way out. Of course he did. So has the first friend I told you about in this post, as I’m sure my other friend must have done also.

Humans are scrappers, and giving up is honestly a last resort, so know that things may be bad, but you will always have another way. Be like my friends, keep what we all need close to you, for without hope, we are impotent against the World.

I pray you’ll take to heart what my friends’ stories show. I hope you will never give it up, and that no matter what is hurting or frightening you, that you don’t forget that we’re all in this together, and perhaps not putting so much effort into fighting, we should learn to love and lean on each other, and when someone makes a dramatic comeback, I hope you’ll remember that anyone can do it, even you.

Easy Common Sense Steps to Reduce Your Energy Bills Without Giving Up Your Gadgets

2010-12-25T05:37:00.000-08:00

Often when we get the electric bill in our mailbox our heart skips a beat because we know that the amount will shock us. No matter how much we prepare, and if you are like me you put that bill to the side and think about how high it will be. Every month as we grumble about how expensive it is we forget to think about the actual steps we need to take to effect a chance. Here are a few easy steps to effect a lasting change in the amount of your electric bill.

Step one: You must get the cooperation of all your family members in your quest to save electricity. If you show them how easy it is you will ensure their cooperation. You can also give them concrete tips on saving electricity like turning off the lights as they leave the room and turning off all the appliances including video games when not watching. You can offer incentives if their changes have resulted in savings.

Step two: Sometimes we leave lights on without thinking of the ramifications. Some of the often forgotten lights are exterior home lights and night lights. Some lights are needed but consider replacing exterior flood lights with motion detector lights and only put night lights in the rooms that they are actually needed. Taking these small steps can result in long-term savings by reducing usage.

Step three: The easiest thing to do without disrupting your whole household is to replace all the incandescent bulbs present in your home with compact fluorescent light or those CFL bulbs. These bulbs use less electricity give our the same or if not more light.

Step four: It's well worth it to spend the money for the new energy saver gadgets that are sold in the local hardware stores. They will monitor you total household usage and make it easy for you to adjust your usage as needed.

Step five: We usually assume that the our high electricity bill is due to the number of electrical gadgets we have but many times its dependent on the way they are used. We should only wash clothes when we have a full loan, wash dishes when the dishwasher is full or just wash by hand, and we can turn off as many electrical gadgets when they are not being used.

Step six: Lastly, the best way to reduce or even eliminate your electricity bill is to generate your own energy at home using free, renewable energy sources. In this way we can save energy, take care of the environment all the while putting thousands back into our pockets. We can reduce our dependence on our electric company and use renewable wind, sun, etc at a reasonable price.

Your Friendships Will Determine Your 2011

2010-12-04T06:30:00.000-08:00

I once read: “A friend is someone who understands
your past, believes in your future, and accepts you
just the way you are.”

However I have come to terms also with the fact that,
our friendship alliance either make or mar us and people
change either we like it or not. (Sometimes through our
doing but mostly through no fault of ours)

A good friend today may become your worst nightmare
tomorrow either for reasons that can range from the choice
of person you marry, your success, your accomplishments,
your societal upward movement and a lot of varied reasons.
(call it bad bele.. or whatever)

It is your responsibility to access your friendships regularly
and do a re-categorisation as required to help you move at
the greatest possible speed you can think of.

To do this, you need to understand that there are 5 types
of friends you can have:

Plus Friends (+)
Minus Friends (-)
Multiplication Friends (x)
Division Friends (/)
Neutral Friends

And those names are explicit. You might argue that a friend
who divides your life isn’t really a friend but an enemy and
should be off the list but that’s where you are wrong because
most times, THEY are friends!

Think of Jonah (bible students). He was on the ship and
everything went upside down. Guess what, the cause of the
trouble himself was asleep!

The worst kind of friends you can have are the minuses and
divisions and it is not difficult to identify them. They are
friends that EACH time you have contact with them something
happens, and something is taken from you. I mean, you just
experience a loss… strictly speaking they are BAD
news.

Plus and Multiplication friends do just that. Think back all
through 2010 and remember those moments when you needed yam
desperately and someone walked in carrying it. Or think of those
moments when you needed to make a decision AND a friend called
in, chatted with you and gave you the solution without ever
knowing. Or those friends who are always there to point out to
you that you are about to make a silly move and who
hinder you from walking to shame.

Yes, those are the great friends! They motivate you, believe
in your dreams, accept your person, are genuinely interested
in your success, rejoice with your achievements EVEN when they
are yet to attain same, are those who pull you up when they
are ahead.. they are just GREAT men and women around your life!

Neutral friends are friends who neither do you harm of
add anything to you. They are just there. You may hang out
and all but in truth, they are just neutral.

Now, today’s exercise.

Fireup your text editor (MS word) and list all your friends.
Everyone of them you can remember in the next 5minutes.
They are probably the ones that matter and ask yourself
this question:

In 2010 what kind of friends has (So and So) been to me?
Put either a +, - , /, x or an N to signify neutral in front
of your list.

At the end of the exercise, evaluate the ratio and try to
find out which type of friend is the greatest in your life
and here is something I can conclude about your life by looking
at the list.

1. Your life is a mess or going to be a living hell VERY soon
if more of the people you call friends are minuses or
divisions because you aren’t going anywhere!

2. You are happy and progressing faster than you ever imagined
because your friends are progressive people who believe in you,
share your dreams and are happy about your success. They are
positives! Pluses and multiplications.

AND that is not all.

Run through that list again and for each of your friends ask the
question:

“What kind of a friend am I to these people” be honest.

Now, in 2011 you need to build quality relationships. Drop off
friends who are taking you nowhere and start forming new alliances.
If you wish to be finan cially free, start seeking people who
have the same thinking. If you want to become a landlord, move
with people who thirst for same. Want to have a great relationship,
step out of friendships where all of you in the same clique
have damaged relationships and seek out people with healthy
relationships so they can challenge and motivate you.

If your future in 2011 matters to you, you will take this seriously
because you cannot continue to live your life the very same way
and expect a different result!

Success is never a union of liabilities!

TIP:
If you need N50k now now. Can you get 5 friends to borrow you
N10k each for a week? If no, I am guessing that you are in an association
of people who are either constantly broke, live on borrowed funds, or
are jobless. Its time to change your associations. Please permit the
example, I am only trying to make a point since I have discovered in
the last 8years that people understand examples better when you
attach monetary values. This example can be applied to every area
of your life.

If you have a martial issue now, can you get 5 friends who don't have
one who can talk sense into you? If you were to suddenly pick up a
vice habit, are there 5 friends who don't have that vice who can talk
sense to you etc

Ways to be indispensable in your job

2010-11-19T12:04:00.000-08:00

You want to make yourself indispensable at job? You want to duck the tide of lay offs during the time of recession? We are passing through hard times and instead of hiring, firing has become the norm for companies. So How to protect your job at this time? How to make yourself indispensable? Try to follow some simple steps.

Take Account of Your Strengths and Weaknesses: Making yourself indispensable at job requires you to make some analysis of yourself, your strengths and weaknesses. Taking stock of your strengths and weaknesses will help you narrowing down your area of expertise. And you will know for sure where you can excel and others can notice you too. Devise two plans for yourself, long term and short term.

Look for Broader Picture: If you are working for a company, make some changes in your attitude too. Instead of seeing things from a narrow perspective try to take into account the overall picture of your company. That will help you in taking right decision for the company. It will increase your understating and you can come out with right kind of solutions to your problems.

Update Your Knowledge Base: You are responsible for your career advancement. No one else come to do so during recession time. Develop your knowledge base that might prove beneficial for your company. Take part time courses to update your skills and knowledge base.

Develop Problem Solving Skills: Every company requires this skill. Normally employees fret and fume over problems or suggest ways how this problem can’t be solved. But instead going for this self indulgence, try to gather materials regarding the area you are working in. Read how other companies have faced similar problems and how they solved it. This will enrich your problem solving skills and you might find completely new solutions to the problems your company is facing.

Suggest Ways to Cut Down Expenses: This is an endearing quality of employees. Every company wants to minimize expenses and maximize profits. If you know of some ways to cut down expenses don’t keep it to yourself. Suggest it during meetings and give it in written to the concerned person.

Don’t Encroach on Others Rights: While enriching your knowledge base and self improvement you should not send out signals that you are out to do two peoples job. This will create negative feeling for you among your peers and rumor mongers can unleash their full force against you. Instead of sending feelers that you can do others jobs too, try filling the gaps that nobody is looking at or even aware that these shortcomings. If you deals with data, try to arrange it in such manner that even non-technical person can be able to find out what he is looking for. If you deal with recruitment, find out the efficient pool of candidates in less expensive manner.

Good Salesmanship: This need is required by everyone, be it an artist, self employed entrepreneurs or the president of a country. Don’t expect that you keep on providing excellent services and others will naturally take notice of you. You have to show the results of your hard work to the concerned persons. If your policies resulted in cost savings prepare a balance sheet and show it to the concerned person.

Be Good at What Your Boss is Weak At: Think of your boss’s weaknesses. He/she might be good at something but not at other things. Pay attention to his weaknesses and try to do that work yourself. Your boss might not be good at writing proposals but he might be good at pointing what is lacking in a proposal. To speed up the work, you can draw the first copy of the proposal and your boss will finalize it by pointing out what else should be incorporated in the existing copy. That will save time of the both.

Develop a Brand for the Company You Work: It doesn’t mean that you take over your brand manager. It simply means be your company’s spokesperson whenever the need arises. But your superiors too should know of your efforts.

Making yourself indispensable at the job is not difficult at all. You have to keep your eyes and ears open. You have the knack to sense opportunity and making the most of it.

How volunteering can land you a job

2010-11-16T23:32:00.000-08:00

When you volunteer your time, you open yourself to a plethora of job opportunities. If you are currently unemployed, you might ask, "If I cannot find a paying job, why would I use my time to work for free?" You'd have a very valid question, and this article will help you to see why working for "free" may pay you more for your time than you thought possible. There are many reasons people volunteer their time. Some people are retired and enjoy spending time sharing their expertise with the community in their spare time. Other people have a very strong passion for some issue, whether it is poverty, the environment, civil rights, or some other issue personal to them, so they spend time working toward improving the conditions affecting their cause. Working for some goal in that way is incredibly gratifying in itself; however, there are ways you can work toward a passion while gaining some powerful benefits outside of improving the lives of others.

* Gaining New Skills: Volunteering is a great way to acquire experience that your past jobs or internships did not provide. Examples could be: Organizing a fundraiser to gain project management skills or coordinating a project for leadership and management skills.

By volunteering your time for an agency or a group, you can not only gain valuable work experience, but you can inherit important points of contacts as well as a reputation for the good things you do in your community. Aside from gaining those benefits which can help you acquire a good job, you may be able to learn what you need to learn so that you can launch your own business. The contacts you make and the knowledge you gain from your volunteer work will expose you to key concepts of many types of businesses.

* Make Networking Contacts: You never know who you might meet while volunteering. In fact, almost 43% of volunteers have at least a bachelor’s degree—so there is a good chance you will meet a professional while volunteering. If you volunteer at places related to your target career, you may meet people who are working in jobs similar to the one you want.

If you have a specialty, whether it is music, art, writing, or a more technical specialty such as computer programming, you can volunteer to teach a class for one day a week with your local Adult and Community Education Center. Those centers are usually part of the public school system, and they generally offer paid positions, but they sometimes solicit for volunteer teachers. By volunteering your time, you can show that you are adept at teaching the skill, and you can show that you are an asset to the center as an instructor. You might gain a paid position with the center, but you will also connect your skills to the community. A future employer can see that you taught a class on a subject and may hire you if that subject is in any way significant toward the skills needed to perform the job you are seeking.

* Emphasize your ambition: Volunteering shows you have a sense of civic responsibility and that you have a charitable side. Employers are looking for future employees that have passion and involvement with the community.

* Add New Experience: Be sure to include your responsibilities on your résumé. Mention duties, accomplishments, results, and awards just as you would for employment. Be sure to include the organization name and dates.

Volunteer experience is also professional experience. List the organization and dates, and instead of using the title "volunteer," use your responsibilities as a title -- "project coordinator" or "instructor." Mention your accomplishments, results, or awards like any other job, without being misleading.

Using your time to gain new skills and help your community -- either while looking for employment or while working -- highlights your willingness to jump in, learn new things, and do more.

* Gain Self-worth and Confidence: Volunteering can help you impact the lives of others. There are opportunities to tutor, plan events, coordinate programs, etc. Volunteering will give you the feeling that you have made your community a little better.

2010-11-16T23:29:00.001-08:00

2010-11-16T23:28:00.001-08:00

Starting your own business. Is it the answer?

2010-11-16T05:46:00.000-08:00

Have you given starting you own business a thought? Have you thought of leaving your present job for you own personal business? Whether starting your own business is something you have always dreamed of or it is one option after an unexpected layoff or after a long period of job search, there are several points to consider before striking out on your own.
A new business is like a new baby. Starting your own business is like giving birth to a new baby and taking care of your baby. A baby is very tender therefore you need to take adequate care of the baby. Taking care of a baby in the real sense can lead to a lot changes in your lifestyle. For example : you many stop keeping late night or maybe stop smoking at home or stop seeing a number of friends .The same principle applies to your business start-up . Your new “baby” requires constant attention and will keep you up at night. But with your commitment, time and energy, it will grow and hopefully make you proud.
Being an entrepreneur does not mean success You may be very passionate about being a business owner, but take a minute, putting your passion aside, ask your self these questions:

Do people want my product or service?
Take an unbiased opinion poll of what your supposed market thinks about your product or service. Do people really need what you are about doing. Can the product or service drive the market? What is the future of the business? Will it die off soon?

Do you have the interest and ability to constantly market it to new consumers?
Interest without ability won’t work and vice-versa, with the ability and interest, your business will grow. Your start-up and your business skills must carry it to success.

Do I have entrepreneurship traits?
Not everyone is an entrepreneur If you cannot live with uncertainty, you cannot make a good entrepreneur. If you can’t control people or be a good team lead then starting up a business is not for you. If you possess the traits listed below, you can live in uncertainty:
You are not sure of your pay at the end of the month. Your income depends on your effort and “fate”
You can delay gratification: starting a business may mean investing “all” or nearly all you have in the business. This may leave you broke for a period of time.
You are persistent: You do not give up easily. You can try doing the same thing, different ways many times, even if it is not smooth.
You can bounce back after disappointment
If disappointment does not deter you from doing what you want to do ,then you can make an entrepreneur.
You can find creative solution to problems
You are in good health-Running your own business can be exerting. It is not advisable for people with ailments that worsen under immense stress to run their own business because the success and failure of the business depends on “you.”
You have an optimistic mindset.
Entrepreneurs need stamina to persevere in the face of setbacks and failures they will inevitably face. Be honest you can live the life of a not -yet -successful business person.
The boss cleans the trash.
Working for yourself can be liberating – no boss to answer to or office gossip to listen to .But there is no receptionist to screen your calls or attend to people, no cleaning service to tidy up your office and no messenger to run errands.
New entrepreneurs often neglect to prepare their minds for the unwanted roles they must take on to keep their business up and running. If your ego cannot handle these stuffs, you may have problems adjusting.
It is going to cost you.
Starting a business can be a huge financial drain until you become profitable. Think seriously about whether you have enough money saved to survive without an income for one or two years. Not only will you be spending money on this new venture, but you will also be spending a great deal of time on it. If you do not have support and encouragement from the important people in your life (wife, parents, siblings,etc), your starting may be a lonely, uphill battle.

How To Become A Successful Project Manager

2010-11-16T02:31:00.001-08:00

To be a successful project manager you must wear multiple hats and be able to switch the quickly. Successful project managers are people who are driven to succeed at all costs and never lose sight of the big picture. To deliver a project, on time, on budget with a high quality product.

Successful project managers need to learn many skills if they do not already have them. If you want to be a successful project manager learn to be a good manager, a good negotiator, a good leader, someone who can easily adapt to inevitable changes and make the right decision on the spot.

Most of all understand successful project managers are not superhuman. Maintain your drive and focus, but do not allow a project to become an obsession that consumes you.

There are many traits that make a good project manager. Having these to start with is almost essential. Project management is one of the most challenging roles one can take on. There are many things you need to know, but here are ten skills that will help you to become a successful project manager.

Manage Your Time Well: Project managers always have demands on their time. Time management skills are essential to succeed as a project manager. You will find yourself pulled in all directions, sometimes all at one time. You must know how to effectively schedule your time and prioritize your action items. Don’t forget to schedule in some time for the unexpected because they will happen and having time blocked out allows you to deal with them.

Learn to Effectively Use Project Management Tools: There are a vast number of project management tools available today. They can be an enormous aid to a project manager that can mean the difference between a project succeeding or failing. You should learn to effectively use these tools. Not just learn them, but become a master of them.

Learn to Anticipate Problems: Project management does not come with a crystal ball, but there are times when you will wish it did. Instead you must be diligent in overseeing all aspects of the project looking for issues before they become problems. Don’t want until an important piece of equipment is overdue before you check with the vendor. Check in often with every vendor, contributor and team member to be sure they are still on time and on track.

Be Effective at Conducting Meetings: Meetings are a necessary evil that comes with project management. To be a successful project manager you must learn how to hold effective and productive meetings. Don’t let meetings wander off the topic, you do not have time to waste. Control the meeting, effectively relay or collect the needed information and move on.

Become an Effective Decision Maker: As a project manager you must make decisions all the time and they always have to be the right one. To complicate matters you do not have the luxury of spending much time to make a decision. Sometimes they must be made on the spot. Team members look to you for yes or no, not let me get back to you. While you should never make an uninformed decision, the better honed your decision-making skills the easier your job will be and the more successful you will be at it.

Be Receptive to New Ideas: A “know-it-all” does not make a good project manager. Even though you are expected to know it all, there is no way you can. You rely on your team members, other project managers and anyone else who can help you out. When issues arise and it is time for new approaches or new directions, trust in the people you surround yourself with. This is a good reason you need to surround yourself with a talented and diverse team.

Keep the Focus on Quality Not Milestones: Too often project managers get caught up in reaching their milestones as if they were the determination whether the project fails or succeeds. Milestones are important, but the true test of the success of a project is the quality of the product it produces. It does not good to cut corners to reach milestones if you produce a poor quality product. Quality, quality, quality. The rest will speak for itself.

Address Issues Right Away: Issues always arise, unknown, out of the blue and you have to deal with them. You may have two team members fighting about how an important part of the project should be done that is putting the project at risk. Step in right away, tell them this is how it will be done and be specific so everyone understands. Leave an issue lying around too long and it will grow large enough to derail your entire project.

Roll With The Punches: Things will go wrong. Vendors will fail to delivery hardware when they promise. Programmers will fail to delivery software to the proper specifications. A successful project manager must have a sense of composure during times like these. It even helps to have a sense of humor, though at times it may be hard to find. What you cannot do is allow issues to consume you to the point you lose sleep and do not take care of yourself. If this happens it is a warning sign that you need to deal with.

You Are a Project Manager, Not a Project Micro-Manager: In the same way you can not be a “know-it-all” and must rely on your team for support, you cannot be a “do-it-all” and try to do all the tasks yourself. Your job is to manage the project and focus on the big picture. Delegate tasks to your team and let them do their job. Follow-up, but don’t helicopter each team member to be sure they are doing the job right.

How to become a great marketer

2010-11-16T02:29:00.001-08:00

Marketing is a process of understanding consumers and devising ways of providing goods or services based on the demands of the consumers. Marketing is one of the most important aspects of corporate strategy, the end result for which is efficient revenue generation for the firm. The marketing process of an organization aims at getting out a message to the segment that the company is targeting, regarding the product or service that it is offering to these customers.

Good marketing is not all about spending money on advertising, or offering free products as a promotional offer. There are many critical steps involved in efficient marketing. First of them is to know the target market, through a process called Market Research. By researching, the firm identifies the demographics and requirements of the society, who might become potential customers. The Firm has to apply the dynamics of Segmentation, Positioning and Targeting, once the research has been performed. A good marketing strategy cannot be developed by a firm without doing proper groundwork on its potential customers.

Every business (small, medium or large) needs marketing. A product or a service needs to be marketed to be sold. Marketers do the marketing. But what if you don’t have marketing personnel? How can you generate sales and achieve profitability? Actually, anyone can be a good marketer. Whether if you are an owner, ordinary sales personnel, production personnel, or just anyone in a business organization, you can be a good marketer that can play a very important role in boosting your company’s sales and revenue. A great marketing system can run without the need of high profile marketers or a million dollar marketing budget. Likewise, a person can be a better marketer without the need of a college degree in marketing, long years of marketing experience and or a previous high marketing profile. We only need to understand the following simple and basic ways to become an outstanding marketer.

1. Offer quality products or services: Marketing is not all about product promotion. It starts from the production of products to be offered to consumers. Furthermore, marketing does not end at the time you have sold a product to a consumer. It doesn’t stops there. It continues until the customer is satisfied on the product he has purchased or on the product he will buy in the future. Hence, the first thing to do to become a great marketer is to produce and offer the best products to your customers or render the best services to your clients. If you are a marketer in a company who offers poorly manufactured product, then you better tell them to produce more quality products. And if they will not listen to you, you better protect your integrity and reputation and get the heck out of that organization – you can always find a better company.

2. Make a reasonable price: After you have assured the quality of your products, the next step is to set the most reasonable price. The perfect price for a product doesn’t matter how high or low it is. It should follow your target market or consumers. Can you sell a N10,000 naira worth pair of high – quality shoes to people in the lower class? On the other hand, can you convince a corporate executive to buy a N1000 naira cost manufactured pair of shoes from you? If you want to be a good marketer, you need to set the right prices to the right costumers.

3. Choose the right store: A store as it sounds doesn’t only mean the physical store where you put and display your merchandise for sale to customers. It can be an online store, mobile store or a human store. It is the gateway or the medium where you can transfer or exchange your products or services for consideration. An online or an internet based store is today’s breakthrough in marketing. It is less expensive and even more efficient than offline store. Mobile phones can also become a medium of exchange. But of course direct selling is still effective as of today. To be an exceptional marketer, you need to choose the right place where consumers can access your products and services. You need to find the best geographical area, the best website, and the best persons who will knock upon your customers’ doors to showcase your products.

4. Make a convincing promotion: There can never be more convincing words than words that are true. This means a marketer should be honest and shall not commit lies to people. Who says all marketers are liars? Great marketers don’t lie. His words are convincing because they are true. A foolish marketer lies and exaggerates to make a sale. But his false marketing will punish him in the future. If you have a great product and a perfect price, then tell all the truth about it. That’s a great marketing that multiplies and lasts for long. Again, if you or your company cannot produce quality products and cannot set the right price, then you must get out of it. Defend your reputation and integrity. Keep yourself away from committing lies.

5. Be helpful: By helping clients and customers solve their problems, a marketer can become personally closer to them. His customers will start building lasting trust and confidence to him and to his products. Thus, if you help your customers, your customers will also help you.

6. Consider importance and usability: Even if you’re selling the most sophisticated and most powerful stethoscope in the world, you can’t sell it to an accountant. A medical doctor needs and uses it but not an accountant. Simply find the right buyers by considering your product’s usability and importance to them. If you run a website where you place your products for sale, perform a search engine optimization (SEO) technique for attracting relevant visitors who likely need your product. If you are marketing an MBA program course, you may promote it on an online forum of business and entrepreneurship enthusiasts.

7. Give guarantee: Even if a marketer tells the truth and showcase a number of positive testimonials, prospective buyers will not absolutely bite his products. So to hit the complete marketing strategy, a great marketer should guarantee those products. Money back guarantee and product warranties are examples of guarantees you can give to customers. If you are telling the truth, then guarantees will never let you down.

8. Be the no.1 user of your product or service: You can never know better what you do not use. You cannot talk correctly what you do not know. You cannot sell what you cannot talk. So to achieve excellence in marketing, use what you sell. Of course there are some exceptions to this like the use of coffin (don’t be afraid, this is business), but whether we can practically use or not our products – we must know them just like how we know our best friends.

9. Value and reward people: If you want to become a good marketer, you should learn how to say “Thank you”. As I said in the previous list, marketing doesn’t ends at the time you have sold a product to a customer. It is a continuous cycle that needs a good rotation. A great marketer continues and preserves the marketing chain between him and a customer. You sell a product… the buyer buy and give you money…you reward your buyer…then you sell again a product…then the buyer buy and give again money. Rewarding your customers strengthens this cycle.

10. Create lasting relationship: If you have successfully followed the previous nine ways to become a good marketer, then you have probably created now a good relationship with your clients and customers. A great marketer preserves this relationship by giving tender continuing customer and client care.

Secrets Of Successful Self-Employed

2010-11-16T02:17:00.000-08:00

Running a one-person business is a creative, flexible and challenging way to become your own boss and chart your own future. It is about creating a life, as it is about making a living. It takes courage, determination and foresight to decide to become an entrepreneur. From the relatively safe cocoon of the corporate world, where paychecks arrive regularly, you will be venturing into the unchartered territories of business.

Is there a way to determine whether you can be a successful entrepreneur, or you are better off to work for somebody else? Alas, there is no formula for success. However, most successful entrepreneurs share these ten characteristics. Check if you possess any one of them:

1. Think success: To attain the kind of success that you want, you need to dream big. Every success story starts with big dreams. You need to have big dreams for yourself - which you want to be somebody rich, famous or fulfilled. You need to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve. But it doesn't stop in dreaming alone. You should actively visualize success in your mind that you can almost feel it, touch it or it is within your reach. Play this image back at every opportunity. What does it feel to triple your current income? How will your life change? What will your business look like if you achieved the million-dollar mark?

Successful entrepreneurs possess an attitude of openness and faith that you can have what you want if you can simply envision it as the first step on the path of action to acquiring it. Management gurus have taught us the power of visualization - seeing yourself in your mind as having accomplished your dreams. If you want to be a successful writer, envision yourself signing books for a throng of people who have lined up to have your autograph. If you want to be rich, picture yourself in luxurious surroundings holding a fat bank account. And the process of envisioning success for you should be a constant activity! You need to think that you are successful (or will be one) every single waking hour.

A personal development coach shared me her secret to help her continuously visualize her goals for the moment: when climbing stairs, recite your goal with every step you take. So if you want more money, say "I will have money" in every step of the stairs. This technique will reinforce your goal and keep it fresh in your consciousness.

2. Be passionate with what you do: You start a business to change any or all part of your life. To attain this change, you need to develop or uncover an intense, personal passion to change the way things are and to live life to the fullest. Success comes easily if you love what you do. Why? Because we are more relentless in our pursuit of goals about things that we love. If you hate your job right now, do you think you will ever be successful at it? Not in a million years! You may plod along, even become competent at the tasks, but you will never be a great success at it. You will achieve peak performance and do what you have to do to succeed only if you are doing something that interests you or something that you care about.

Entrepreneurs who succeed do not mind the fact that they are putting in 15 or 18 hours a day to their business because they absolutely love what they do. Success in business is all about patience and hard work, which can only be attained if you are passionate and crazy with your tasks and activities.

3. Focus on your strengths: Let's face it; you cannot be everything to everybody. Each of us has our own strengths and weaknesses. To be effective, you need to identify your strengths and concentrate on it. You will become more successful if you are able to channel your efforts to areas that you do best. In business, for example, if you know you have good marketing instincts, then harness this strength and make full use of it. Seek help or assistance in areas that you may be poor at, such as accounting or bookkeeping. To transform your weakness to strength, consider taking hands-on learning or formal training.

4. Never consider the possibility of failure: As an entrepreneur, you need to fully believe in your goals, and that you can do it. Think that what you are doing will contribute to the betterment of your environment and your personal self. You should have a strong faith in your idea, your capabilities and yourself. You must believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that you have the ability to recognize and fulfill them. The more you can develop faith in your ability to achieve your goals, the more rapidly you can attain it. However, your confidence should be balanced with calculated risks that you need to take to achieve greater rewards. Successful entrepreneurs are those who analyze and minimize risk in the pursuit of profit. As they always say, "no guts, no glory."

5. Plan accordingly: You have a vision, and you have enough faith in yourself to believe that you can achieve your vision. But do you know how to get to your vision? To achieve your vision, you need to have concrete goals that will provide the stepping-stone towards your ultimate vision. Put your goals in writing; not doing so just makes them as intangible fantasies. You need to plan each day in such a way that your every action contributes to the attainment of your vision. Intense goal orientation is the characteristic of every successful entrepreneur. They have a vision, and they know how to get there. Your ability to set goals and make plans for your accomplishment is the skill required to succeed. Plan, plan and plan - because without which failure is guaranteed.

6. Work hard! Every successful entrepreneur works hard, hard and hard: No one achieves success just by sitting and staring at the wall every single day. You work eight hours per day for survival; everything over eight hours per day is for success. Ask any successful businessperson and they will tell you immediately that they had to work more than 60 hours per week at the start of their businesses. Be prepared to say goodbye to after-office drinks every day, or a regular weekend get-away trip. If you are in a start-up phase, you will have to breathe, eat and drink your business until it can stand on its own. Working hard will be easy if you have a vision, clear goals, and are passionate with what you do.

7. Constantly Look for Ways to Network: In business, you are judged by the company you keep - from your management team, board of directors, and strategic partners. Businesses always need assistance, more so small businesses. Maybe the lady you met in a trade association meeting can help you secure funding, or the gentleman at a conference can provide you with management advise. It is important to form alliances with people who can help you, and whom you can help in return. To succeed in business, you need to possess good networking skills and always be alert to opportunities to expand your contacts.

8. Willingness to Learn: You do not need to be a MBA degree holder or PhD graduate to succeed in your own business. In fact, there are a lot of entrepreneurs who did not even finish secondary education. Studies show that most self-made millionaires have average intelligence. Nonetheless, these people reached their full potentials achieved their financial and personal goals in business because they are willing to learn. To succeed, you must be willing to ask questions, remain curious, interested and open to new knowledge. This willingness to learn becomes more crucial given the rapid changes in technologies and ways of doing business.

9. Persevere and have faith: No one said that the road to success is easy. Despite your good intentions and hard work, sometimes you will fail. Some successful entrepreneurs suffered setbacks and resounding defeats, even bankruptcy, yet managed to quickly stand up to make it big in their fields. Your courage to persist in the face of adversity and ability to bounce back after a temporary disappointment will assure your success. You must learn to pick yourself up and start all over again. Your persistence is the measure of the belief in yourself. Remember, if you persevere, nothing can stop you.

10. Discipline yourself: Do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you like it or not. Self-discipline is the key to success. The strength of will to force yourself to pay the price of success - doing what others don't like to do, going the extra mile, fighting and winning the lonely battle with yourself.