by

Lael Johnson

What does your holiday business mindset look like? Let’s look at four areas that might need some attention during the holidays. I’ve listed several questions in each of these areas: preparation, communication, celebration and concentration. Please use these questions as a guideline for evaluating your current business mindset.

PREPARATION: First, are you prepared for the holiday season?

Are you prepared to meet the demands of your customers, whether you offer a service or a product or both?

Is your inventory ready?

Are your business records in order?

Are your employees ready to work overtime?

Are your marketing, promotional and other programs ready to go?

Have you finished up your year-end projects?

Have you met your year-end goals?

Can you describe one project that you’ve successfully completed this year?

COMMUNICATION: Second, have you clearly communicated your holiday goals to your business team, even if you are the only one on the team?

Have you made your plans clear? Are you ready to put your plans into action?

Are you ready for the holiday rush?

Are you ready for the last-minute changes, questions, and other ridiculous mishaps that can so often happen just prior to the end of the holiday shopping season.

Can you describe one promotional campaign that you’ve successfully completed this year?

CELEBRATION: Third, are you ready to share the wealth of this past year with your loved ones, your friends and your customers?

Have you told your customers how much you appreciate them?

Have you told your team and anyone who has been helping you, just how much you appreciate them and their work this year?

Have you had fun with your business? Your customers? Your friends and loved ones yet?

Have you scheduled at least holiday fun event for everyone to attend?

Have you scheduled some personal time to celebrate the holidays?

Have you scheduled at least one brief appearance at a local community holiday event?

Can you describe one holiday event that you’ve successfully completed this year?

CONCENTRATION:

Fourth, are you ready for the new year?

Have you planned and prepared activities to take your business into the new year?

Have you evaluated your performance? Your income? Your expenses?

Have you set new goals for your business? Your employees? Your customers? Yourself?

What mistakes are you not planning to repeat?

What changes are you looking forward to implementing in the next year?

Can you describe one goal or set of goals that you’ve successfully completed this year?

I hope that these guidelines covering preparation, communication, celebration and concentration will help you focus both: evaluate your current holiday business mindset and help you prepare a more comprehensive holiday business mindset in the coming year.

I hope that this article is helpful to you. Please feel free to comment on it here or at my blog .

Copyright 2008. Lael Johnson. Writer’s Eye Advisory Service. All rights reserved.

by

Lael Johnson

Stop and put aside whatever you are doing just for a moment and think about this question. What do you treasure? What is it that you are most grateful for right now, both professionally and personally? Read through the following list of treasured areas. Pay close attention to those areas that cause your heart to stop for a moment.

PROFESSIONAL TREASURES:

Do you treasure:

Your customers?

Your employees? (includes you as a self-employed person)

Your marketing plan?

Your spending plan? (accounts receivable, payable and other assets)

Your brainstorming plan?

Your products?
Your affiliate or reseller products?

Your professional reputation?
Your professional image?
Your mission statement?

Your contribution to your business communities (online and off line)
Your ability to provide for yourself (and others)

PERSONAL TREASURES:

Do you treasure?:

Your ability to provide for yourself (and others)

Yourself

Your character

Your personal integrity

Your motivation

Your purpose

Your spiritual foundation

Your education and life experience

Your skill set(s)

Your creativity

Your intelligence

Your image

Now that you’ve chosen two areas from each of these lists, how are you going to demonstrate to yourself and other people how much you value these treasures in your life?

Here are a four simple ways to treasure your treasures:

You can:

Acknowledge them.

Cultivate them.

Share them with others.

Celebrate them.

ACKNOWLEDGE THEM: You need to become aware of all of the treasures that you have in your life. Even if you think you know how to practice gratitude. Start practicing it more. Start from the very beginning by writing a gratitude journal or share a list of what you are thankful for with another person. Cultivating a grateful attitude is a lifelong practice, that everyone can improve in. No matter how much you may think you know about practicing gratitude, just keep on practicing it. Be creative. Find new and exciting ways to share your gratitude with other people, both personally and professionally. Deliberately and continually train yourself to look for reasons to express gratitude throughout each day and see what happens.

CULTIVATE THEM: Just as you spend time with loved ones and good friends, chatting, playing together, sharing meals and participating in a variety of different activities, so do the same with your treasures. As you cultivate your treasures,such as your love for reading, you will discover new topics to read about or join a book club for people who share similar interests. The more you reach out, the more you will receive back as you acknowledge your unique treasures and as well as those of others.

SHARE THEM WITH OTHERS: I’ve touched a bit on this already. When you network you share more than just your professional expertise with others, you also share some of your character, and your unique view of life and business. This provides many opportunities for others to share more of themselves with you as well. Genuine sharing leads to deeper friendships and working relationships which lead to healthier relationships in general.

CELEBRATE THEM: Cheering each other on as you continue to progress in learning about your treasures, as well as growing both personally and professionally, really allows the various communities that you may be involved in to grow and change for the better.. Celebrating our successes with gratitude and recognition helps everyone grow in the long run. It also reminds us all to continue to appreciate all of the treasures that we have been given and are surrounded by on a daily basis.

So I will leave you with this question again, what do you treasure?

I hope that this article is helpful to you. Please feel free to comment on it here or at my coaching blog .

Copyright 2008. Lael Johnson. Writer’s Eye Advisory Service. All rights reserved.

photo credit: abstract splotcHes

I am making some profound changes in my business and changes usually mean we have to say goodbye to some things.

I announced yesterday to my Skype room that I was going to be closing it in a couple of weeks. The room has been open for about a year now and much as I have loved running that room and appreciated everyone in it, I know that it is no longer part of my journey. It is a room about Passion and once my passion for it started to waver, I knew I was no longer serving the people in it in the manner that they deserved.

Letting something go is always bittersweet. Knowing that we are freeing our life up for something more suited to our new direction is undoubtably sweet but there is sadness in the process too. It is another step out of the hostage zone.

This blog will remain as a testament to that room and the community that came together in the belief that we could do more as a team than we can ever achieve alone.

So what is in your life that you really need to say goodbye to in order to allow something else in?

There are a lot of reasons why people start a home based business, become entrepreneurs or venture into self employment. Let’s review some of the most frequent reasons:

• You hate being an employee, because you’re at the whim of the company, your boss, the economy, policies, a 9-5 work schedule or the traveling. Your salary has a definite ceiling. If for some reason you become disabled you’re life as an employee and the income it earns is gone.
• You’re only able to work at home because of a personal situation. Maybe you’re a stay at home parent who is not able to work outside the house.
• You’re tired of making money for others while you’re earning very little in return.
• Your jobs haven’t been satisfying, rewarding or beneficial to your personal development
• You have trouble excelling in an environment where you have to draw within the lines, follow procedures and adhere to rules and commands.
• You have dreams of making a lot of money and you realize employment is not going to do it for you.
• You’ve become fed up of climbing up the corporate ladder
• Your old job was dangerous or detrimental to your health
• You have an idea you want to bring into the world
• You have a message you want to spread throughout the world
• You want to prove other people wrong and succeed at a business
• You’ve read rich dad poor dad and now you want to hop out of your current quadrant
• You find the prospect of succeeding at entrepreneurship/self-employment exhilarating and life-giving
• You’re a creative person who excels in an environment where that creativity can blossom
• You want to make a million dollars and then some and think this is the route to go
• You love being a teacher, a consultant or an entertainer
• You want to work on your own terms
• You want more freedom
• You’ve read the 4 hour workweek and you are drooling at the possibility of being able to unload work

While there are many more other possible reasons, it is clear that there’s plenty to go around. Thousands upon thousands of people take the decision to go on their own, become an entrepreneur or start a home based business every week…

But do they get what they want?

It is said anywhere up to 80-95% of new businesses fail within the first 5 years and those that succeed end up doing wildly different things than they set out to do. Some look at this phenomenon and come to the conclusion that a lot of businesses fail because they aren’t flexible enough. I think there’s something more going on than that.

In fact I think there’s one crucial flaw just about all of us make.

Being flexible about what you do with your business and services is just a teaser. If you are flexible with your business it will lead your business to succeed, because you’ll make decisions based on economic opportunities, your bottom line and achievability. You won’t sink your business into the ground because you’re unwilling to budge what might not be working in the marketplace.

In essence what happens to people that aren’t flexible is that they forget the real reason they are working. And most business consultants and financial advisors would say that is to make money. That is literally the bottom line,…

Or is it?

I think there is something even more glaring that runs missing. It’s not just about the money. It’s not just about succeeding with your idea, your business, your services. It’s not because of the reasons you left your job. It’s not even about how many people you are able to help.

Ultimately it’s about the experience you want.

Yet few people flap down their laptops and put down their pens, wondering what experience they really want. What do they really realistically think they can have in terms of experience? What kind of day to day experience would they really want?

You’ve heard the phrase ’start with the end in mind’ before. This is important, but it’s not just about having a clear end-goal to work toward. In fact this can throw you off track if your goal is something concrete like ‘earn 5 million dollars a year’. How will you be earning it? By working 60 hours a week and carrying major responsibilities that wear on you mentally, physically and spiritually?

If your goal is to earn 5 million, this is just a target. What you really want is the experience you are associating with having 5 million dollars a year. If you want your business to do 5 million in revenue, what you really may want is your business to touch and improve the life experience of x amount of people and the appreciation and feelings of satisfaction that go along with it. You might want to experience all the perks of being able to afford a luxurious lifestyle or to know you are supporting your family. Or you may simply want to be on the leading edge, because it is downright fun.

There is one way to avoid the pitfall and succeed with your business.

This is an exercise you should do today. It’s a compulsory exercise for my clients.

Write down exactly what your ideal day looks like in terms of experience. Do it both from a personal life perspective as well as for your business. Write it as if you had absolutely no limitations. No restraints. All is taken care for and anything is possible. If things were absolutely ideal…what would you want your day to be like?

What are your first thoughts when you wake up? Are they filled with stress because you know there are a 100 emails to be answered waiting for you in your office, or are your thoughts those of a person that is relaxed and excited? What would you be doing in the mornings? What kind of lunch would you have? What foods would you be eating? With what people? What are you talking about during your lunch? How much time are you spending with your family? What are your last thoughts before going to bed?

What clients do you want to deal with? Do you feel gratitude for receiving many emails and testimonials every single day? Do you service people you truly like? Do you connect well with your clients and what are the interactions like? What are you work activities? How is your business/service regarded by the public? How many people do you touch? What kind of work activities would you love doing? What kind of work activities would you prefer not to do at all? How many phone calls do you answer ever day? What kind of work related activities you think you need to do, but you could have others do much better? How does your relationship to money feel? Do you feel like you could buy anything you’d like? Would you still be screwing around with activities you’re not good at and don’t like doing?

This exercise goes beyond traditional goal setting and is many times more powerful. The key is to think in terms of experience rather than outcomes and in feelings rather than intellectual facts. You’ll find that both consciously and subconsciously you start arranging a life just the way you want it. You won’t find yourself holding a million dollars at the cost of being burnt out, emotionally deprived and deeply unsatisfied like some of the business owners that ’succeed’.

Having both an economically pleasing and viscerally stimulating life means that you need to succeed as well as your business.

If you do not have a clear idea of what types of day-to-day experiences you want, what are the chances of you getting a lifestyle that is rewarding and life giving?

Have fun writing down your ‘ideal day’ and be as detailed as you can be! This is an exercise that can change both your business and your personal life.

To recap:

One of the major reasons why businesses fail is because most people forget the reason they are in business, which leads to inflexibility. A big additional reason why business owners, entrepreneurs & those that are self employed rarely get the life they want is because they focus on concrete, lifeless outcomes while forgetting the real reason they set those goals in the first place. The way to overcome this is to clarify and regularly remind yourself of the type of experience you are aiming for. A powerful exercise is to describe the absolute ideal day in terms of the experiences, activities and feelings that would occur. Not only does this bring lucid clarity about what you are doing with your business in the present, it sets the trajectory of your life to arrange exactly the type of experience you are wanting. It could be the difference from waking up one day, finding that that the business runs your life and you’re continually working for money as opposed to waking up and finding that the business invigorates your life and that money is working for you. Which would you choose?

About the Author Peter Knight

Peter Knight is lead consultant at The Website Audit, a consultancy service that provides transformative web presence assessments. He is also the author behind 11strategies.com, a blog that blends spirituality, psychology and productivity.

]]> http://passionprojectblog.com/why-your-business-efforts-will-fail-unless/feed http://passionprojectblog.com/still-smoking-i-know-you-can-quit http://passionprojectblog.com/still-smoking-i-know-you-can-quit#comments Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:26:22 +0000 drsallywitt http://passionprojectblog.com/?p=177

I saw a segment on the Today Show this morning.  They were giving statistics and suggestions about smoking.  They said that ONE in FIVE adults smoke, they were already smoking by the time that they were 18, and a lot of scary disease and death statistics!

I wanted to share the video with you from the Today show website, but I am having trouble getting it to show on the post.

Just click here to see the video

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26755485#26755485

Well, we “try” and don’t accomplish things. One of the first things that we need to do is to change our internal language, and the way that we speak to others (or type!) in describing ourselves and our intentions.

As the Nike commercial has said - “Just Do It”! When we start thinking that THIS is who we are, and how we behave, the “magical” changes take place. All true change takes place in our imaginations first. I have helped hundreds of client completely let go of their self-image as a smoker. That way they don’t Quit, they shift easily and permanently in only a few hours.

hange the way that you think and you can change your life. Hypnosis, affirmations, EFT, and so many other techniques actually switch your subconscious mind so that you can create the new behaviors and peace of mind that you want on the subject.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnSMbcEEKDQ’>watch?v=xnSMbcEEKDQ

If you can quit “cold turkey”, do it. If you need help then get it. It is important for you to take this seriously, and get healthy!

Dr. Sally Witt
http://www.drsallywitt.com
http://www.stopsmokingwithdrsally.com
http://www.squidoo.com/stopsmokingeasily

What fires my passion is the desire to make a change in the world, to leave something behind for my children and their children that will be more positive and more compassionate and aware than the belief system I grew up in. Something that I dream of which is a world that respects the right of very single person regardless of age, sex, financial status, education or race. Where we look kindly on each other as brothers and sisters, and even more extensions of ourselves, for we really are ONE entity. Every major religion has indicated this through their teaching. We and the source can never be separated. How could we? If this is correct then what we do to others impacts on us and those around us. Every time we hate another, we hate part of ourselves. Every time we help another we help ourselves. When we collectively wake up to this  what a wonderful world we will  create, and in fact, we are creating that world right now as millions of people are waking up around the globe and taking back their power.

I, like most of us, have several levels of life goals, some more immediate and some more wide reaching. Such higher reaching goals direct us in how we approach life and why we do so in the way that we do. I think mine from childhood has been to achieve world peace. I could never understand why people wanted to kill each other and treat each other so badly. Now I am no angel and did some things in my youth that I regret now that I can see how those actions may have impacted on someone else. I was also the reipient of many thoughtless actions. Now I am an adult I CHOOSE to take the path of compassion and awareness.

Over 12 years ago I was lent a film called the Billion Dollar Crop; that film changed the course of my life, and I now promote and educate people on the wonderful resource called hemp (cannabis sativa). It was a hard slog but over the last few years I have witnessed amazing progression in reinstating this useful and environmentally friendly resource back into the mainstream arena and for all the RIGHT reasons. I am proud to be one of the early members of the Queensland Hemp Association in Australia, which did not exist, even in thought, when I was starting this journey.

Another project I am passionate about at the moment is Zenzuu. In my more than 10 years of active internet use I have never promoted something like this. I am not one to sell for the sake of selling but the idea behind this caught my imagination and resonated with those core values formed by my over reaching aims in life. This program offers the opportunity to join a social networking site, invite others to do so and by following a few simple directives create an income for no financial outlay!
I do not know about you but I have many wonderful friends on the net, and off, who struggle to make a living and enjoy even a basic healthy lifestyle that many of us take for granted. This program looks to SHARE its wealth in return for some effort on your part. Basically inviting a few friends, family or colleagues to join you on the site, staying active by logging onto the site 30 times in a month (do it in one day if you wish) and teaching those you invite to do the same. SIMPLE!

Those of you who know me know that I would not endorse something I had not considered carefully and was using and learning about my self. This is one occasion when I am pushing my self that little further because I am passionate about this site and helping those that I have already invited to join so that we can create the joy, health and prosperity we deserve together!

Thankyou Katherine for the opportunity to vent this through your wonderful community blog. If you want to join us and see what the fuss is about then my links are http://www.zenzuuaustralia.com or http://join.zenzuu.com/earthhealer

Once you join there is a Skype room for support that I invite you too

Live with Passion!

We finished our breakfast and returned to the two-lane highway east. As we walked, we passed a motorcycle shop. How fun would it be to own a bike or two? It would kind of have the adventure of hitchhiking but without the wait to constantly test one’s patience. We really enjoyed the unpredictability of our travels, but knew well that soon the lack of money and the coming of fall would narrow our choices. The dream of traveling by motorcycle would have to wait.

Our day’s travel was led by curiosity because the road east headed toward some new mountains. We’d gotten a few short rides back to back and around noon we found ourselves walking across a small coal mining town called Somerset. In the heart of town was a small, one-room post office and a kind of bar. We ducked into the bar to get the local read on job prospects.

The bar was dark and had a dank, musty smell masked by that old fragrance of rotting beer and cigarette smoke. I ended up in conversation with the owner as Libby shot a rack of pool. Midway through our conversation another patron joined in with an attentive ear. We talked much about the local area. As it turned out mining was the be all and end all of the tiny town. There was no other employment. We learned too that the hills were teaming with game. Elk and deer mostly but ample bear, sheep, and even goats could be had within a short drive from town. The land didn’t seem typical of what I always figured elk and deer habitat would be but the bar owner and the other guy were enthusiastic about the abundance of local game.

It sounded like getting a mining job wasn’t easy and you almost had to know somebody to get your foot in the door. A short, pudgy fellow listening in on my conversation with the bar owner turned out to be a coal miner. He said that the money was good as a miner but it was a tough lifestyle. I could see in his eye that he had undisclosed intention as he invited us to his house to learn more about Somerset. Libby had finished her game of pool and so the three of us walked less than a block to his little coal house. His was a cookie cutter Victorian house, cute in all respects except that it was less than ten feet from the two-lane highway that cut straight through the heart of the little town. Everything in Somerset, including his house, was covered with a light dusting of fine, black coal.

He sat us down in his living room and offered us a beer. He was a friendly fellow we could tell but he soon changed the subject from coal mining to another means of making wealth. We listened with full, undivided attention as he rambled on and on about a side business he was starting called “Amway.” We watched in utter fascination as he drew circles then more circles on a piece of paper.

We both really struggled to follow his rationale but we were hooked the moment he drew a circle, pointed to it with his pen and said, “This is you!” Then he said, “Once you go direct you’ll have a monthly paycheck for the rest of your life.” Then he started to show us pictures of folks that had gone direct, some in as little as a few weeks.

We looked at each other dumbfounded. We had no clue just where the money would come from but he said it was completely legal and that we could do “it” too. We struggled so hard to understand just exactly what “it” was. We learned that “it” had something to do with soap. Time and time again he explained how “it” worked. But “it” made absolutely no sense whatsoever to either of us. After an hour or so of presentation the coal miner made a phone call to his Amway boss. Minutes later we were in his car headed once again for Grand Junction, the opposite direction of our day’s intended path.

Grand Junction was a two-hour drive from Somerset and the coal miner had changed into his Sunday best before we left his house. As we drove there was no chance of changing the subject, as he was clearly obsessed with his Amway business. He talked on and on and I started feeling stupid because I couldn’t understand “it” despite his persistent efforts. Except for knowing that within a few days we’d be raking in money hand over fist, we’d have walked away right then and there. Our stupidity was so obvious. I felt almost like I was back in trigonometry class. We had talked about it before and Libby and I both swore that trig was a conspiracy. Even though we studied trig in high school several states apart, we remembered how the teacher and the two kids clear in the back of the class understood it completely. To them it all made perfect sense. But everybody else in the class looked at each other scratching their heads wondering just how it was that the teacher and two pupils in the back of class had cooked up such an elaborate scheme. We really wanted to understand but the more we learned the more befuddled we got.

As we drove on I started to daydream back to when I was a kid and my mom got into something similar back east. Back then they called it Shaklee instead of Amway. I knew little about it back then but it had all the makings of the same kind of ordeal. I remembered how they advertised that you could drink their brand name. Now why you or anybody else would want to drink a glass of basic H is beyond me except to say that you could drink it. Maybe it was the same kind of motivation that drove the goofy neighbor kids to down night crawlers on the school bus.

Then I remembered how Shaklee had branched out to a more diversified product line. One time the sales rep, who was dealing to my mom, got busted by the cops for handing out some kind of protein pills to the other little kids on our block. Apparently, one of the parents in the neighborhood was afraid he was peddling LSD or something to the kids on their bikes and tricycles. He spent the night in jail I remembered.

Yeah, maybe we’d better be a little careful, I thought as we pulled into a residential community in Grand Junction. I could see our new friend was desperate to get something going that would get him out of the mine once and for all. Perhaps the motivation was the same for my mom, to feed five hungry mouths. Yeah, these are all good folks trying to find another way, I concluded.

We climbed up a staircase to a condominium to meet our coal miner’s dealer who too wore spiffy Sunday clothes. We sat down in his living room to talk about money and dreams and such. Then he started in again with those damned circles on paper and promises of never-ending, monthly income. When he finished the first segment of his spiel we walked outside to view the setting western sky from the balcony. That Amway thing had taken up an entire day and we were no closer to understanding “it” then than we were at two o’clock. There was another young man there who was a bit further into his indoctrination. I asked him if he got “it.” He kind of looked at me with a smile.

“I guess so. My weekend plans fell through anyway,” he explained.

I asked him what else he had planned. He said that he and some friends were originally going to the Telluride Jazz Festival for the weekend but it didn’t work out. He said that if we wanted his tickets, we could have them for free. He opened his wallet and handed me two concert tickets.

“Are you sure?” I said as I took the two tickets in hand.

“No, you guys go right ahead,” he said. “Chic Corea is playing tomorrow night. It should be one heck of a show,” he added with a smile.

We immediately walked over to our new, pudgy, coal miner friend and told him that we’d think his offer over for a few days, but that we were going to head back up to Telluride for the jazz festival. His subtle disappointment was broken with a grin and moments later we were strapping on our packs headed south for Telluride, just we two. Well into the night we hopped out of a truck somewhere between Delta and Montrose to sleep just off-road a stretch.

John Paul Riger
http://www.myspace.com/gastonjazzpianist

It wasn’t an easy decision.  Ten years ago there would have been few consequences no matter what I decided.  But with three kids at home (that seem to always be hungry for some reason) it was tough to decide.  Thankfully, my wife believed that we could do it and so we took that giant leap of faith that the business would provide for us.

It wasn’t an easy path to take by any means, and honestly there were a couple of months there where I had enough of eating mac and cheese.  We faced a lot of challenges especially when it came to our friends and their continual questioning of our choice.  We would get such questions as:

"Why don’t you have a job"

"How are you going to survive without benefits?"

"How will you be able to provide for your family?"

And so on.  It seemed that no one really thought that we could make it, but in the end we have persevered.  By daring to be different, I have had the opportunity to do things that I would never have been able to do at a job.  It has also given me the freedom to volunteer at my son’s school and spend time with my kids instead of always being at work.

Even though we have made it through the first year of having no jobs, I know that we will continue to face criticism for being different.  The biggest problem is that what I am doing is not a reality for most people: they just don’t understand how it can possibly work.

But, I am very thankful to have the wonderful support of Katherine and my fellow bloggers here on this site and in the Skype room.  When you step outside of the "norm" it is important to have a good support group of like-minded people that understand your situation and can relate to you.

Do I regret my choice?

Not at all.  Though it has had its ups and downs, this past year has been very rewarding.  I love the freedom to spend time with my kids, I love doing something that I love for "work", and I love to have the opportunity to be myself and be different. 

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

by

Lael Johnson

I’m sure that you’ve heard of the phrase “thinking outside of the box” by now. Do you plan specific time to ‘think outside of the box” about your business? Or do you spend most of your time taking care of the more mundane parts of your business, whether it be administrative tasks, bookkeeping, checking inventory or other ‘left-brain’ activities?

I’d like to suggest that planning to brainstorm, or “thinking outside of the box” can help the more mundane parts of your business run more smoothly. Once your creative energy is released through brainstorming, you can direct it toward assessing, problem-solving or expanding any area of your business. Don’t be afraid of applying brainstorming techniques to all areas of your business.

Here are eight ways that brainstorming can help your business:

FIRST: Brainstorming is fun, exciting and always reveals surprising results. By just participating in a brainstorming meeting you direct your energy toward making progress, rather than becoming stuck in the current problems and old worn-out solutions. Remember that there are no limits, in the first part of a brainstorming session. Any and all ideas are laid on the table, before any editing of those ideas begins.

SECOND: Brainstorming is innovative. Just by participating in a group brainstorming session new ideas are birthed, old ideas are reexamined and more room is created for expansion and improvement of current ideas and techniques.

THIRD: Brainstorming pushes you to examine all new and old resources, ideas and skills. This will again, cause you to examine yourself, your employees, your business plan and other areas of your business from a different perspective.

FOURTH: Brainstorming reveals new referral sources. Just by sharing ideas with another person, they they too,start to share ideas and referrals with everyone else in the session, including you. It becomes a win-win situation for all parties concerned.

FIFTH: Brainstorming reveal potential problem areas. It’s an effective way to approach potential conflicts before they erupt into major business problems. It’s a safe place to air pertinent information, while reserving judgment about those areas, until the time for editing ideas begins.

SIXTH: Brainstorming is a great way to measure business progress. Sharing new ideas, participating in problem-solving and identifying strengths and weaknesses, all lead to further change and measurable progress in your business and/or individual projects.

SEVENTH: Brainstorming births new formats, techniques, new skill combinations and new resources that you can apply in new ways to your business and/or current projects. After all, trying something new or slightly different beats continued over dependence on the same procedures that you’ve used in the past, doesn’t it?

I hope that this article is helpful to you. Please feel free to comment on it here or at my blog .

Copyright 2008. Lael Johnson. Writer’s Eye Advisory Service. All rights reserved.

Take a few minutes and reflect on your business life and activities. Have you totally committed yourself to becoming a success?

What would it take to commit to success?

How about your thoughts, ideas and the processes you are using. Are they moving you forward in your business or are they holding you back? Where did these ideas, thoughts and processes come from – did someone else use these so you thought they would work for you too? That’s a bit crazy isn’t it – to allow someone else to develop your business fate.

Have you changed any of your actions lately and tried some new ones to replace them? Have you tried changing these on a regular basis until you find the right ones to work for you and your business? I hope you are not getting sidetracked researching for lots of new processes that you are literally “stuck” and keeping your business from moving forward.  If you find yourself “stuck,” this would be the best time to find a coach to work with you and help steer you on your path to success.  Ask around for referrals for a coach until you can find one that you think will work the best with you.

You see, you are unique and your business is unique because it is built by you. What is standing in your way to develop some new processes and idea? What’s holding you back?

Is it fear of success?

We definitely become our own worst enemy at times like this. We avoid doing something that will lead us toward success because we don’t feel as if it is perfect. Why does it need to be perfect – isn’t the best you can do at this moment, enough?

Just start something . . . you can keep fine-tuning it along the way. As we progress toward our goals, there are bound to be some “speed bumps” along the way. Don’t let those speed bumps totally stop you, but do allow them to slow you down so that you can determine what produced those speed bumps. Tweak things slightly and continue moving forward – many small steps will move you faster toward your goal than a few large steps.

Keep your focus on your commitment. Stay committed, focus on the end result and improve things as you move forward. Remember, not every recipe is fine for everybody; you have to find what works best for you!

What’s your fear? What’s keeping you from reaching your goals? I’d love to hear your stories – why not post them here as a comment and share your successes and your speed bumps with us. Learning together, doing together, we can all claim our own individual power to be successful.

Carol Deckert is a Netweaving/Networking Coach, assisting groups and individuals to build their business by netweaving – the power of paying it forward. The coaching sessions also include some business building tips and participation in a mastermind, business-building group. Please read more about Carol and RUNLancaster at http://www.runlancaster.com and find her professional profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/caroldeckert.