I am always looking for ways to grow and develop our home based business. Education has always been high on my list so I started reading, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People", by Stephen R. Covey. I am embarrassed to say that I have had this book for well over 10 years and never really opened it and read it. This is embarrassing to me because I am such a bookaholic. I usually read EVERYTHING. For some reason, I never really read this book.
What is even scarier is that I have a whole host of self help books on my shelf and some of them are still in the wrapper. You have to wonder why someone would gather so many self help books and not read many of them. Probably it is related to the paradigm that Stephen Covey discusses, the "Personality Ethics" where you are looking for that "quick fix". At the time I had collected all of the self-help books, I was going through a difficult time in my career. There were bosses that were insanely difficult to deal with, there were co-workers and employees who just didn't work well together. I was striving to make sense of all of that chaos and trying to find a fast way to apply sanity to a crazy world. For some reason, after going through the various seminars and purchasing the requisite books, I never cracked the books.
The business situation did ultimately resolve itself, I chose to change business and career opportunities, and the associated problems did not follow. At the time, it did boil down to making choices, even if it was something subconsciously learned from the multitude of seminars I had attended. The seminars taught methods of how to deal with the situations, techniques on how to change the situation, but they did not teach how to improve yourself, or how to take personal responsibility by choosing to make choices. I always felt good after the seminars, more uplifted, but then that feeling wore off after a few days.
The upshot of this blog is that you cannot just go out to the store and purchase a book to solve your current problems. The books may provide ideas for you to work on, like the Stephen Covey book currently being read, but you cannot institute change unless you choose to change yourself first. As Covey says, you need to change from the "inside out". Quick fixes will not solve the long-term problem, it may just solve an immediate problem. The real, core problem just gets glossed over. It is our responsibility to focus on improving ourselves, through self-discovery and then, once we truly understand ourselves, can we begin to choose to change the situation around us.
As a home based business owner, it is vital that you approach your business as an extension of yourself. Your love of your product or service will come through to your customers and you can truly serve them by providing what they need if you choose to listen to what they want. As you personally grow, your home based business will grow also, even in this very tough economy. Choose to spend a half an hour a day on personal development. It does not mean you have to read, but do something that will stretch your mind, expand your horizons. Find something that will help you to improve yourself, your business will then improve as you grow.
As the weeks go on, we will periodically touch back on this subject, exploring new ideas discovered, and hopefully some of these may ring true with you and help you to develop and grow your home based business. If you would like to discuss any ideas with me, please feel free to contact us at hawgwash1@yahoo.com. Also, if you are unsatisfied with your current business situation and are not sure what you want to do, check out our website for other ideas. We are here to assist you in growing.
Until tomorrow...
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