Motivational Monday

Well, this week we are going to mix it up a bit.  I have been posting the Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits on or around the first of the week for quite some time now.  I thought I would try Motivational Monday, (versus my Motivational Wednesday - rolls off the tongue easier...) for a week or two and see how it goes.  No, Fun Facts is not being preempted, it is just moving to Wednesdays.  Please feel free to let me know which you would ultimately prefer, fun on Mondays or motivation on Mondays....

On to the motivation....

Last week we covered more tips on how to either get motivated to accomplish a task or how to stay motivated to keep working towards a goal.  This week we are going to continue to explore how to remain motivated as you work towards your goals.

Many of you work for a living, you go to a J.O.B. (Just Over Broke), trade your time for their money, come home and just collapse.  Well, doing that day after day, year after year, will seriously wear you out.  Do you remember the first day you landed your first job?  You were MOTIVATED.  You had PLANS.  You were GOING PLACES and TAKING NO PRISONERS.  Now, most likely, you are just grateful to have a job, but it takes so much out of you that you have no more to give once you get home.

This is where the motivational tips I have been offering come into play.  No matter how tired you may be, in order to improve your circumstances or work towards financial freedom, you need to not only define your goals, but really believe in your goals.  Defining goals is relatively simple, the critical point it to not only believe in those defined goals, but to EMBRACE those same goals.  The goals you define should be what you wake up thinking about and should also be what you think about as you are falling asleep at night.

By embracing these goals, you will discover you are as motivated as you were when you got your first job.  But even with clearly defined goals, and you celebrating milestones towards those same goals, you will find over time that your motivation does begin to flag.  This does not mean that your goals are no longer worthy.  All it means is that you may need to find additional methods of motivation.  Every new idea creates excitement, but as you continue to work towards your long-term goals, you will find times where you are still lacking motivation.  This is natural and not a bad thing, all you have to do is to devise some additional motivational methods to keep moving through your 'slow' time.

One thing that will help keep your motivation fresh is to be sure that you ALWAYS make time for yourself.  If you do not take care of yourself, no matter how supportive your friends and family may be, nobody else will take care of you.  Remember to take time out for YOU.  Do not lose yourself in your goal, your goal may be a part of you, but you still need to take some time to rest.  Your mind and body do need this rest, even if you believe that you have to push through and continue to work.  Spend some quiet time each day with yourself.   This does not need to be hours at a time, it could only be 15 minutes to an hour, but remember to take time for yourself and keep in touch with who you are and why you are working for these goals.   You may not feel like you have to do this daily, and if so, at least make an effort once a week to take time out for you.  You don't have to sit in a tub with candles all over, it just means that you should do what YOU want to do for a little period of time.  It is amazing how rejuvenating it is to do something that YOU want instead of constantly working to do stuff for everyone else. 

After you have rejuvenated, do not forget to spend time with your friends and family.  After you have taken care of yourself, you may also find it is easier to help your friends and family with their desires.  It is critical to maintain a balance between work, goals, family and friends.  Without a good balance, you will lose motivation very quickly.   Strive to remember that your friends and family may not always be around for you to spend time with.  Hopefully your friends and family are also motivated and excited about the goals that you have set, and perhaps part of spending time with them includes you all working towards the same goal. 

Time is that commodity that once spent, cannot be taken back, so spend your time wisely.  Avoid those who may 'suck' time away from you, they don't have enough motivation of their own, and would rather use you and your energy to get them motivated.  This is personally draining, and you will find yourself losing that motivational drive again.   Try to align yourself with other motivated people, because their energy will help keep you going.  Then, if they start losing motivation, you are there to help them continue on.

Again, it is always very motivating to see your goals clearly written and posted in a public place.  That way, not only you, but your friends and family can continue to see what you are working towards.  As your motivation periodically lags, all you need to do is to catch a glimpse of your plans, and you will find that your motivation is rekindled.  

These are a few more tips to keep you driving toward your goals.  These tips may help keep you motivated even after a 10 hour work day, with dinner yet to be made and kids that still need help with their homework.  After getting all that done, you may still be able to keep that tiny little spark of motivation alive so that you can do one more thing that will bring you closer to your goals.  You will be amazed about how quickly you can get motivated when you can take tiny little steps toward your goal.  By doing just one little task before you call it a day, you can go to bed enthused because you are now one step closer to your goal.  It is a wonderful feeling to know that no matter how rough your day may have been, you still took one more step toward your dream.  That should always keep your spark of motivation alive.

Hopefully you found some of these tips and suggestions helpful to stay motivated.  Perhaps it will allow you to get through this week a little easier too.  Have a great Motivational Monday.  Wednesday we will pick it up and have some fun with the weekly installment of Fun Facts and Trivial Tidbits.

If you are looking for other income opportunities, please feel free to check out our website for ideas.  We are always available for questions and even for bouncing ideas for other ways to find financial freedom.  

Until Wednesday...

I am ALIVE!!!

Hello one and all. Bet you thought I would never poke my head out of my hidey hole... Well, here I am, almost back in the saddle. Tonight is going to be a brief, wandering chat, nothing too difficult and really, I do promise to get back to regular posting...

I realize I don't have to explain myself, but feel it is the right thing to do... Since the economy has been SOOOO stinky, I did go out and get a short-term job. The problem is that this "short-term" job turned into a major job that then turned into major hours and weekend work. Not quite what I had originally signed on for. The problem has been that I have had to drag my tired butt home every day after 10-12 hours working both in a warehouse and on a computer. Needless to say, I had zero energy to even want to eat dinner let alone talk to you guys about anything.

My mother taught me a great lesson, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. So...three guesses why you haven't heard from me in a Looonnng time? I have now re-screwed my head back on straight and will carve time out of my evenings to at least chat with you all again. I truly have missed talking with you and after reviewing my old posts, needed to take my own commentary and advice to heart.

So, here I am talking once again and hopefully you all can forgive my disappearance and allow me to redeem myself by writing more consistently.

Tonight, I was sitting on the back porch, enjoying the lightning show in the distance. It has cooled down a bit here, all the way down to 102. A nice breeze has kicked up and it was overall a pleasant evening until I happened to look down. As I was sitting comfortably in my outside chair, what did I see, but a BIG BLACK HAIRY thing skulking around right under my chair. My first reaction was to get all body parts as high in the air as possible. Then I looked again to see this SPIDER slowly wandering around under my chair.


I then realized I was trying to fly, feet, and hands were waving around in the air, but it did nothing to lift me any higher from that BIG SPIDER. After my initial shock though, I realized it was most likely a tarantula (still not sure because my eyes were not adjusted too well to the dark, I was watching lightning, so I was still somewhat night-blind. After my eyes adjusted to the dark better, I did confirm I was looking at a tarantula. Then I carefully watched where it was walking and was able to put my sandeled feet back on the ground. I quickly ran to the back door, flung it open grabbed the dogs and locked them in the bedroom. I then flicked on the back porch light, verified the tarantula was still there and ran to get my camera.

So now you see what I saw, and you have a pretty good idea how big this male Arizona Blonde Tarantula is... the tiles are 6"x6". Pretty cool.

Anyway, this guy was subsequently picked up and placed on a bush OUTSIDE the fenceline so the dogs would not hurt or bother it. So all's well that end's well.

That's all the fun for tonight. I will be back tomorrow for a brief chat...PROMISE!!!

Until tomorrow...

Monday Funnies and Fun Facts

Welcome to Monday's Funnies (new addition) and Fun Facts. Since Mondays are usually pretty tough on many, providing some silly jokes and useless fun facts should help put a better spin on what may have been a pretty grueling day. Tonight we are going to add a few jokes to the fun trivial facts. I am not very good at telling jokes (usually mess up the punch line) but perhaps there are many of you out there who have impeccable timing. How many of you also deal with engineers in your day-to-day business dealings? Tonight we are going to poke a little fun at this very interesting profession. Enjoy this week's installment of Fun Facts.

"Two engineering students were walking across campus when one said, 'Where did you get such a great bike?'

The second engineer replied, 'Well, I was walking along yesterday, minding my own business when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike. She threw the bike to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, 'Take what you want.'

The first engineer nodded approvingly, 'Good choice; the clothes probably wouldn't have fit.'"

This Monday was particularly difficult for me. At one point, I had two decisions to make, neither of which were what I wanted to do. I decided that if I must choose between two evils, I was going to pick the one I ever tried before....

Have you ever noticed that the hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread?

If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.

Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have any film... (I know a few of those...)

For the fishermen out there - There's a fine line between fishing and standing on the shore looking like an idiot... (you know who you are...hehehe)

When you were a kid, do you remember Popeye the Sailor? He ate spinach to get strong and get out of bad situations. My parents also insisted that spinach was loaded with iron which makes you stronger. Guess what? Popeye and our parents were wrong. In reality, spinach has no more iron in it than any other vegetable. This spinach misconception dates back to the 1950's when a food analyst made an error while calculating the iron in spinach. His decimal place was off by one place, suggesting that spinach had ten times as much iron content than it really did. Now you can go back to your parents and tell them that you KNEW spinach wasn't all it was cracked up to be...(I still love spinach though...).

Current news in Arizona, they have finally tallied all the votes and have now passed a law allowing medical marijuana to be dispensed in the state. Did you know that Marijuana was not illegal in the United States until October 1st, 1937, when Congress passed the "Marijuana Tax Act"? The total debate time on the House of Representatives floor concerning this issue was 90 seconds. This act did not actually ban the substance - it simply stated that one could not sell marijuana without a license. Of course, Congress refused to issue any licenses. Congress finally banned marijuana outright in 1970. Now the states are slowly allowing it back legally in medical instances. California was first, now Arizona has followed suit...

And, one last poke at my favorite profession - engineers - "Normal people... believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet." - Scott Adams, The Dilbert Principle

Hopefully this brightened your Monday and hopefully you can use some of what was posted in Monday Funnies and Fun facts. Have a wonderful remainder of the week.

If you are looking for a second income or a home based business opportunity, perhaps we have something that would interest you. We have several business opportunities ranging from Stem Cell nutrition, to Pre-Paid Legal Services, nutritional juice drinks to waterless vehicle detailing services. Please feel free to ask us about some of our business opportunities, we may have something that would work well for you.

Until tomorrow...

Fun Trivia Facts

Well, I know, it is not Monday, but it is the Wednesday "Hump" Day and since we missed Monday, tonight we are presenting Fun Trivia Facts. If you have had a rough day and are not looking forward to the rest of the week, perhaps this brief respite will help you survive.

Tonight we are going to rejoice that we are not living in England between 1558 and 1603:

At that time, medicines were not so advanced, it really was not wise to get sick. If you did get sick, you may have been asked to ingest some powdered burnt swallow feathers (do you know how stinky that is?), red coral, pigeon's dung or your own (YUCK!!), mistletoe may be taken in the month of March, swallow syrup of poppy, earthworms, or consume a prepared pill or suppository coated in gold. One cure for kidney stones was a mixture of white wine (OK, I can do that...), salad oil, powdered crab's eyes (do you KNOW how little those are?) and the bone in a carp's head. I think I would rather be sick than to take any of those medications!!!

The women's clothes were not quite as you would think during this time either. The clothes were mix and match (sort of like today...but not..). Sleeves, bodices and skirts were not connected. You connected the different pieces with straight pins (OUCH!). That is largely because safety pins were not invented until 1849. You really didn't want to bend too much for sure... At least if you had two dresses, you could make a lot of different combinations this way...

How many of you think men's codpieces were places to put the man's "junk"? They were not used for that at all...often they were stuffed, and a man could keep important things (no, not the "family jewels") like money, papers, etc in a codpiece for storage...

Now if I was worried about being poisoned, I would wear a ring containing a piece of a unicorn's horn because if I wore that, I was protected from poisonings. The problem? No such thing as Unicorns...ooops..

In England, young men would play female characters in theatrical roles. Women were not allowed on stage at the time. Elizabethans believed there was a difference in genders right from the start. A male fetus was thought to grow on the right side of the womb and the female, the left. Fortunately, the reasoning for malformed or unusual-looking children was switching from the idea of the mother sleeping with the Devil to the more "forward-thinking" concept of Maternal Impressions. If a pregnant woman saw something that startled her, the baby born would have some resemblance to that particular thing (like a boy with scaly skin like a fish, or a horsey face child..). Craving strawberries could cause a woman's unborn child to be born with a "strawberry" birthmark on their skin.

Hopefully you are now happier that you are here now, instead of in England between 1558 and 1603. We all need to be glad about something.

If you are looking for an additional income opportunity, check out our website for some ideas. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.

Until tomorrow...

Election Day Mid-Term Elections

Well, mid-term elections are FINALLY over. It has been a long haul and there have been significant changes already made to hopefully put this great country of ours back on track. We are far from being on-track, now the hard part begins.

With the mid-terms complete, we have to watch and see that the newly elected officials will do as the people of the United States requests of them. We are no longer going to accept our elected people tell us that we don't know what is good for us. We elected these people to represent us, not what they think we want or need. The problem I have personally seen is that even the best intentions of newly elected officials get buried by the 'status quo'. The object this year is to make sure that the new representatives do not fall into the same rut that the people we just elected OUT of office fell into.

We now must be vigilant and remain active in keeping our country strong. We should take a hard-line and continue to expect that our representatives truly represent what we the people want. This is not going to be an easy road to hoe, we will still have problems, but with luck and a lot of dedication from all of us, we can climb out of this hole we all dug (we are ALL responsible for the current state of affairs) better and stronger than we were before. We need to remember not to point fingers, but to squarely take responsibility not for actions that have all ready occurred, but to take responsibility for actions moving forward.

We can never change what has already occurred, but we can make changes going forward that will benefit all of us. Let's put away our party differences (are there really any party differences anymore? Republicans look and act more like Democrats and the reverse is also true) and focus on healing a seriously sick country. Patching problems will not make them go away. We need to honestly identify the rood of the problems we are currently in and fix the problems.

If there are companies that have been poorly managed and are on the verge of collapse, let them fail. How can we as Americans learn how to grow if we don't learn how to fail? A healthy economy does include failed businesses, that is life. Instead of putting a band aid on a dying business, let the business die an honest death. It is from those failures that great things will come. I don't even recommend anymore putting "bail-out" money into the hands of the people anymore. Let's stop that garbage and just get back to good old-fashioned business with the money we have in hand. Let's stop trying to micro-manage people, assuming they are too stupid to take care of themselves.

Let's let Darwin's theory on the evolution of the species take over (aka survival of the fittest). That was how this country was founded, and that, I believe, is how we are going to pull ourselves out of this mess we all are responsible for putting ourselves in. We are all at fault for allowing incompetent politicians to ruin our country. WE voted them in, WE allowed these people to push their personal agendas, WE allowed much of this mess to happen, partly due to greed, partly due to apathy.

Hopefully we will stop being apathetic and will continue to remain active in the actions of our government. To sit at home listening to the news and shake your head in disbelief is NOT action. If you don't like where the country is heading, go out and do something about it. The people have spoken in this last mid-term election, if we expect to see change, we must continue to speak out and continue to act. We cannot become complacent again, if we do, the United States as we know it will be doomed.

The rant on my soap-box is now completed. I will continue to remain active and aware of government actions and initiatives and will do all I can to no longer be the silent majority. Hopefully many more will follow suit. Tomorrow we will be back to our more "normal" blogging, so continue to stay tuned.

Until tomorrow...

How to keep blogging

Last night we talked a little bit about how to stay motivated to continue posting blogs. We covered some pitfalls of blogging and how to possibly get past the excuses... Tonight we are going to continue our theme on how to keep blogging. I was never very consistent writing in my diary as a child, so am constantly amazed that this blog has been going for over a year now.

The biggest difference between blogging and writing in a diary is that when blogging, you may not be divulging your innermost secrets, you are actually talking with others. At least that is how I view blogging. It really is no different than being a reporter writing a column for a paper. The biggest difference is that usually what you print will post without any editor checking your work. Not sure if no editor is a good idea, but hey, at least you get to say what you want to say when you want to say it. The downside is that depending on discussion topic, you could easily alienate your readers. That is a risk you take though, every time you take up the proverbial pen and paper (or keyboard and computer screen...)

So, the question is, how to keep blogging when your ideas may be running thin, or you just aren't in the mood. As we touched upon last night, theoretically, you should have a backlog of written blogs already scheduled to post, but some of us don't have THAT much to say at one time of the week. One of the tricks I use to keep my blogs short, but useful is to basically bribe myself. There are things I would really rather be doing on some nights of the week. In order for me to enjoy those activities, I make myself blog before the activity takes place. That is an amazing way to inspire blogs.

If you know what you want, and see a definitive end to your blogging day, you tend to get more inspired than if you saw the whole evening stretching out in front of you with no sense of urgency. Granted, some people are not driven well by deadlines, but I have found setting specific deadlines does keep the ideas flowing better. Sort of like a synthetic procrastination. You have a deadline to make, and that could be when you do your best work.

Another trick that has been helpful, is to not over think a subject. This may sound a bit odd, but it may make more sense once explained. You have a blogging idea, you research the daylights out of that idea. You now have squished in your brain a ton of information on your topic, and suddenly you are in a brain vapor-lock. You now have too much information vying for position on your blog page. What I have found helpful is to write down what you know, or want to say, in outline form and then put the outline away for a day or two. Yeah, that doesn't help the blog you want to write tonight, but it will make a much better article tomorrow. If you give your brain some time to absorb and process all the information it obtained, you will find that if you give it a day or so, your ideas crystallize and your article will practically write itself.

There are times when you need to give your brain the opportunity to process and compartmentalize the information you have been stuffing into it. Otherwise, you may end up putting too much information in your article and losing people along the way. In today's rushed life, we only have a little time to dedicate to relaxing and/or informative reading, so it is important to provide good information, but not information overload. Keep it short, effective and sweet. You will have more fun writing, and your readers should have more fun reading.

Tomorrow, we will switch subjects, (to help prevent the aforementioned information overload) and you will just have to dial in to see what the new topic will be.

If you are looking for a second income stream are interested in starting your own home based business, our website might have something to interest you. Please let us know if you have any questions regarding earning a second income or starting your own home based business. We would love to hear from you.

Until tomorrow...

Writing Blogs

Well, many of you have been watching this blog, and probably watching others blog night after night, week after week, but have you guys ever tried to write a blog? At first blush, writing a blog may be relatively easy for some, but if you write day after day (even though I have been missing days lately...) especially if you are not a particularly gifted writer (me), you will periodically run out of interesting things to discuss. Writing blogs are kind of like writing in a diary, but with an eye towards others reading what you have to say. My goal is to provide useful information for many of you and I try to provide some version of humor throughout the writing too. In light of that, let's get down to writing blogs...

This week we are going to briefly cover some common blogging issues. The first one is.....wait.....wait for it.... wwwaaaiiittt..... Procrastination.... Yup, you got that right. If you have something interesting to talk about, it is very easy to sit down and write a brief article, but if you are tired, and didn't do your homework (aka research...) sitting down in front of a blank computer screen is just as difficult as a writer with writer's block sitting down in front of a blank sheet of paper... (in the olden days of typewriters and pen and paper...). Technically, bloggers are supposed to write a series of articles and schedule them for posting going forward. That is great if you have a whole series of interesting topics to write about. The problem is if you are a procrastinator (or even an occasional procrastinator like me...). If you procrastinate, by the time you are sitting down in front of that blank screen, you are tired, and you continually find SOMETHING else to do.

There is always something else far more important than trying to determine a story line for your current blog. Again, if you have something significant to say, it is no problem to sit down and write, actually you want to write to get the information out of your head and onto the website. I find writing it so much easier when I have a solid topic, and if I have researched that topic. The problem is when my brain runs dry and I don't have a good picture of what you are interested in hearing about. The biggest problem with procrastination is that once you start writing, you may end up with a lot of blather (technical term...) and not much content for your readers.

One way to beat the procrastination problem is to keep a running list of topics you would like to cover in your blog. That does not mean that you have to write everything you have on your list, but keep a running list of ideas so when you do bump into that writer's block, you can refer to that list to shake some ideas loose. Another trick I use is to gather articles I find interesting and keep them in a file.

The concept of keeping interesting articles is not to plagiarize them, but to again spark ideas for you to research and blog about. For starters, why was the article interesting to you? What was it that caught your attention? Was it news worthy? Was it funny? If you liked it, then perhaps your readers would like to hear more on that topic or a similar topic. I recommend that when you use an article for inspiration, make note of it on the article, so that you do not accidentally duplicate your efforts a few weeks or months down the road. There may be times you want to re-visit the topic, but at least if you have made notes on the original article and any corresponding research, you know where you left off and where you can begin again.

Tomorrow we will cover another stumbling block to writing blogs and another possible way around the stumbling block.

If you are looking for an additional line of income, or are looking to build a small home based business into a means of financial freedom, check out our website. We may have something that will help you attain your dreams.

Until tomorrow...

Millionaire Spotlight

Well, it is Friday and we are back on track for our Millionaire Spotlight. Tonight we are going to look at the Forbes Ranked 18th richest American (and ranked 43rd in the world), Jeff Bezos. Each week we spotlight a millionaire and see what business points we can learn from these people. Many of the millionaires we spotlight started from humble beginnings, like you and I. The difference is in how they managed to build their fortunes. Hopefully as we continue to spotlight various Millionaires both in the United States and around the world, you will find some pearl of wisdom that will help you too to build your personal business into a million dollar industry.

Have you heard of Jeff Bezos? He is a self-made millionaire and is the founder of Amazon.com. Jeff Bezos was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico January 12, 1964. When Jeff was born, his mother was still in her teens. Her marriage to his birth father lasted a little more than a year. His mother eventually remarried by the time Jeff turned 4. His stepfather was a Cuban refugee and had escaped to the U.S. alone at the age of 15. His stepfather, Mike Bezos, worked his way through the University of Albuquerque and ultimately became an engineer for Exxon. Jeff's grandparents had a 25,000 acre ranch where Jeff spent much of his summers working.

Early on, Jeff Bezos showed great mechanical aptitude. He developed many scientific interests and continuously worked on a variety of science projects. It was in high school that Jeff discovered and fell in love with computers. He entered Princeton University planning on studying physics, but ended up returning to his first love, computers. He graduated with a degree in computer science and electrical engineering.

After graduation, Jeff Bezos began work on Wall Street, where the demand for computer science was growing quickly. He remained in the financial realm, first with Bankers Trust, and then at D.E. Shaw which specialized in applications of computer science to the stock market. It was at D.E. Shaw where in the spring of 1994 Jeff discovered that Internet usage was increasing by 2,300 percent a year. He saw a new opportunity for business and immediately began considering possibilities. As he searched various mail order companies, he found that books had no comprehensive mail order catalog. Since a comprehensive book catalog was never economically feasible to mail, the Internet became a perfect tool. A vast book database could be maintained, and a limitless number of people could access that book database. That was the beginning of the concept of Amazon.com.

After more research with booksellers to learn everything he could about the book business, Jeff and his wife decided to go into business for themselves and compile a comprehensive book catalog. He and his wife decided to name the new company Amazon, for the seemingly endless South American river with numberless branches. They set up their new business in a 2-bedroom home with computers on tables made from door blanks. July 16, 1995 Jeff Bezos opened Amazon.com to the world. Within 30 days, with no actual advertising, Amazon had sold books in all 50 states and 45 foreign countries. By September of that year, it had sales of $20,000 a week.

In order to continue growth, Jeff increased his market share as quickly as possible, at the expense of initial profits. He wanted to be more than "Earth's biggest bookstore" and really wanted to be "Earth's biggest anything store". Throughout this growth, Jeff Bezos focused on his 6 core values - customer obsession, ownership, bias for action, frugality, high hiring bar and innovation. His company vision was to be "the world's most customer-centric company. The place where people come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online."

Jeff's focus on his Six Core Values is something we can all apply to our own businesses. These are not difficult concepts, and implemented honestly and consistently will help you to build and grow your home based business too. As you can see, Jeff is always looking for more innovations to provide his customers an even better buying experience. Amazon.com has become a household name. Another wise action that Jeff Bezos took was to reinvest in his company. Instead of spending the early company profits on personal "toys", Jeff reinvested those profits back into his company to continue to grow and develop it. We can all take a page from Jeff's playbook and most likely make our own businesses more profitable also.

Good luck in continuing to grow your small or home based business. Hopefully these Millionaire Spotlights will provide some spark of innovation, or inspiration for you to move your business to the next level.

If you are looking for some second income opportunities and have no idea what you might want to do, our website might be of some assistance. Please feel free to e-mail us with any of your questions. We would love to hear from you.

Until tomorrow...

One Sick Bird

Well, some of you may have wondered where I wandered off these last 48 hours. My bird seems to have had some type of stroke and I have been trying to nurse her to some version of health these last 48 hours. Currently she is one sick bird. I have a Double-Yellow Headed Amazon, subspecies Tres Marie and we have been together over 28 years. She has had some health issues in the past, but has been healthy these last two years. Three years ago I finally discovered her true gender, she laid an egg for the first time since we were together, even the various vets believed her to be a male...

Anyway, you may have noticed that I don't use the term "own" this bird. We have been together so long that there is no real way that I own her anymore than I own the air I breathe. I may have owned her the first few weeks, but after that, whatever she needed or wanted, she usually got. Not much different than having children. Actually, many people teased me that she was essentially my child. We have had many adventures together, she has been through a lot of moving, she has been through a marriage and a divorce, and most recently, she has been on the road whenever we travel. I do not leave her or board her if it is at all possible, especially as she has gotten older.

When I first encountered her, she was a pretty sick little bird too, and it took the vets and I about a year to clear all her respiratory problems up. We discovered in that year that she had allergies and a light form of asthma. We were able to create allergy shots for her, and I learned to clean out her nose when she got too congested. You could say that our relationship developed quickly due to her need for medical care, but even though I was giving her shots several times a day, she quickly learned to trust me in all that I did. She did also learn to hate one particular towel (which I always used to wrap her up prior to giving her a shot or flush out her nose...) but after all was said and done, she did trust me to help her feel better.

Two years ago, she seemed to have had some sort of mini-stroke (my observations, not the vet's), not sure what it was, but she lost some movement in one of her feet. She seemed to be in a lot of pain when she put weight on her foot, so we assumed she wrenched it somehow. We took her to the vet and he provided her some pain medication and some antibiotics, but she quickly got worse. At one point, she had lost so much weight that we thought for sure she was not going to survive, but once I discarded the medications and just gave her protein drinks, she rallied and became healthy again.

A year after that episode is when she started laying eggs, which is very odd for a bird as old as she was. (BTW - she was estimated to be around 7(ish) years old when I found her, don't know where she was for her first years..) She stopped laying eggs last year for which I was very grateful, since I didn't want to cook the ones she laid and I was also told that a bird in her mid-30's laying eggs was hazardous to her health. She still seemed fine, with some bouts of depression when we were not on the road.

She loves traveling more than any animal or person I know. If we don't drive around with her after a month or so, she gets depressed and then sick...

Well, late this last Friday evening, I heard some scrabbling on the bottom of her cage and knew something was not right. After 10pm she is usually on her night-perch and doesn't move around until dawn the next day. When I covered her that night, she seemed fine, but when I uncovered her around 11:30 that evening, she was on the floor of her cage with her wings spread out. When I reached into the cage to see what was up, she just fussed at me, but couldn't move. I thought she had somehow tangled her foot on the floor of the cage, so promptly went underneath to see if I could help.

What I discovered was that she was unable to move either of her legs or feet. Her right foot was curled up, and her left foot was open, but would not close. The only thing that moved on her was her beak and her wings. I picked her out of the cage and tried to see if anything was broken. I discovered that she had lost a frightening amount of weight, but could not find anything else wrong. Since then, I have spent all my waking hours with her, trying to entice her to eat and drink and hopefully regain the use of her legs and feet.

Today she is looking perkier, but is still unable to move either of her feet. She is learning to move around by dragging her body with her beak and with her wings. I continue to spend the majority of my time with her on either my lap or chest, or on a pillow right next to me. She is more alert today and not sleeping as much, but I am not sure she is out of the woods yet. What she is eating today is a protein drink (ST-5) and that does seem to be giving her extra energy. She doesn't seem to be in any significant pain, but seems to go through bouts of extreme frustration because she cannot climb onto her perch, nor can she sit on my shoulder, which she loves to do.

I will continue to work with her, hoping that she will rally, but if you do not see me online much, please realize that I am not ignoring you, but focusing on helping my bird recover. I was forewarned that due to her earlier respiratory illness, she may have a shortened life expectancy (this species lives to be about 50 years old), but she is still relatively young for her species and I am hoping that she will recover fully, like the last time. I am even hoping that the ST-5 combined with a little bit of our StemEnhance product from StemTech will help her to recover. The ST-5 has done wonders so far this weekend, and I will start her on the StemEnhance first thing tomorrow. (The StemPet product does not seem to appeal to her since it was designed as a chewable pill for dogs and she doesn't want to chew anything right now. The good news is that she really likes the ST-5 in both juice and plain water.)

I will keep you all posted, sorry this was a long rant, but I am very worried about my companion, and anyone who has had the privilege of being owned by a dog, cat, or any type of pet, most likely understands the worry and pain I am going through. I admit, I am greedy, 28 years has been great, I would like another 10 more years with her. She has done a lot to improve my quality of life.

Until tomorrow...

Check My Attitude at the Door

Today is another day I decided to Check My Attitude at the Door. There is a reason for this, even though you think I may be overly up-beat and positive, that is not always the case. How long would you continue to read about depressing issues? Heck, I get tired reading the headlines in the papers and on the Internet about how bad it is in the "cold, cruel, world". Personally, I get tired of the body counts, the thefts, the abuse of people upon other people. Because of that, I strive to write about more positive issues. There are many days where I have to check my attitude at the door, because sometimes I would rather wallow in the doom and despair that is rampant in the news.

Managing a home-based business is not easy, especially in these economic times. Your success is determined by many factors, but one major one I believe is in attitude. If you are stressed, depressed or just plain angry, what customer would be willing to come up to you to ask a question? If you are having a bad day, odds are that any decisions you make while in that black mood will be not in the best interest of either you or your business. Attitude plays a big role in your success, and not just your mental success. I am not promoting a Pollyanna attitude, not by a long shot, but you need to do a check of your attitude before making any type of business decision. Sometimes your bad mood will translate into you seeing a situation as negative, and consequently you will respond accordingly. If you have a good handle on your attitude, you may be able to see a positive spin to the situation you find yourself in.

There will be days that no matter what you do, you can't shake that negative attitude. Those are days that I just want to crawl into a hole and then pull the hole in after me. I believe that everyone has days like that, perhaps we need to have days like that. If you are having one of "Those" days, then try to put off making any type of business decision, since you would probably regret the decision you do make. If you must make a decision on a day like that, then call someone you trust and get their opinion. Even if they can't help lift your mood, perhaps they can validate the decision you are considering. If I am having a bad day, I have a few techniques that I use to at least tone down the bad attitude.

One way is to take some time off and focus on something that makes me happy. I may choose to carve some stone for a bit, or if that is not possible, I will pick up a book and get lost in it for an hour or so. Otherwise, I may choose to look at some pictures to remind me of some fun times, or I will call a friend and let them tease the daylights out of me. Each person has to find their own way to deal with stress, so what I do may not work for everyone. Sometimes I just take a walk and force myself to look at the surroundings. Walking and / or exercises will release endorphins that will make you feel better too. You have to force yourself to remember that troubled times are a fact of life, and if you are having problems today, it does not mean you will have issues tomorrow. At the time it may seem like you will have troubles for the rest of your life, but in all honesty, you know that is not true.

If I find myself on that negative spiral, thinking bad thoughts, not liking my current situation, I strive to check my attitude at the door and hope that it blows away before I come back out. I realize that is a goofy thought, but hey, if it works, why not use it. Don't candy-coat your bad mood, that won't work either. The key is to not let your bad mood translate into bad business decisions. Be honest about why you are in a dark mood and then either focus on changing it or try not to make any business or life decisions until you can think clearly again. Again, being positive is not necessarily the right answer, you don't want to be overly optimistic because you could fall flat on your face with that too. Unchecked optimism is almost as bad as a bad mood, you may not make the right business decisions in that state of mind either. You need to be sure to balance your business decisions with well thought-out ideas and not to make snap decisions. It is not easy, and I am the first one to admit that, but, there can be positives in all negative situations. If we all quit when the going got tough, we would still be sitting at home, with all the windows and doors closed and locked. How many times did Thomas Edison try to make a light bulb before he was successful? Did you ride your bicycle the first time you ever got on it?

We all have to remember that the bad times are what makes us learn and be successful. No, that is not a bunch of hooey, we wouldn't have inventions if people quit after their first efforts. Making mistakes, failing even, are necessary. If you fail at trying to do something, then you know not to do that one thing again, now you can move onto another option and see if that one works. Check your attitude at the door and see how successful you can really become.

If you are interested in starting up a second income business, check out our website at http://www.hawgwash.net/. We may have something that will tickle your fancy...

Until tomorrow...

Basics of the Business Plan

Last night we began a series on building your business plan and we briefly covered the basic components of a generic business plan. Tonight we are going to begin to go into a little more detail on the basics of the business plan. Our concept here is to help you start to focus your energy and write down that focused plan so that you ultimately have a road map to grow and develop your home based business.

At some point in time you may have become tired of working for someone else or you are looking to supplement your current income. You have now started looking around for something else to do, some other way to earn income and think you may have found a really good thing to do. The possible problem is that someone else is really pressuring you to get into this particular business opportunity. We have talked about this specific subject before, and before you really jump into any business opportunity, no matter how good somebody else thinks it is, you need to do some research.

At this point, you really are beginning your business plan. This opportunity sounds good, the concept of what they are offering sounds good, and it may be something that you would enjoy doing. OK, that is a great start, but will it really earn you additional income? Before you even get to answer that question, you need to start writing down what you want, and what you know.

By writing down what you want out of the business opportunity, you are beginning to develop your business objectives. Be sure to note what it was about the business opportunity that excited you in the first place. It will be pretty amazing to see what you really want out of the business opportunity by putting it down on paper. Many of us have these grand ideas of what we want our business to be, but when you put it on paper, then, the whole concept becomes more real. By writing down your business objectives, you now are starting to honestly analyse your real reasons for starting a home based business. Once you write down your objectives, you can then review them and revise them to help focus what you truly want to do.

Now that you have your objectives written down, and you are relatively comfortable with what they are ( these objectives may change with time, but remember, this is a first draft), now you can start comparing your objectives with the business opportunity that you are being presented with. Will this opportunity fit in with what your objectives are? Will this opportunity get you to where you want to be? If so, then the next step is to look at the market in which the business opportunity is in.

Does this market have a lot of people already in it and where are they located? Depending on the opportunity, you probably want to have people that are in the same business somewhat near you for a support system, but you do not want them next door to you offering the same items. How much does it cost to get involved in this opportunity? How current is the product or service that is being offered? Is this product something completely new and untested, or is it something that has been around the block a few times and is just repackaged (a great example is weight loss products)? If this is a new product or service, has the parent company done any market testing, and can you get a look at the results? Who is currently the most successful person or group in this particular market? Can you discover what they have done to become successful, is it repeatable? Is it something that you are comfortable doing?

If you are really unsure about the product or services, before you get involved in the opportunity, ask your friends that if you did get into the particular business, would they consider purchasing the product or service from you? You can fairly easily test the waters by asking friends, family and even some strangers their opinion. Go on the Internet and look up the item. Find out what is being said about the product. You actually want to find both good and bad comments about the product. By finding both opinions, you can at least look at the good and bad sides of the issue. It is ultimately up to you to decided to get involved or not, but the more research you do up front, the safer your bet will be. Document all the research and results you discover. Also note where you got the information. This can be especially useful not just for your business plan, but if you want to get others involved in the business, you can provide them with your research and the reasons for why you thought it was a good opportunity.

At this point, be sure to take a good look at the products or services that are being offered. Is this something that fits in with your lifestyle? Is it something that you and/or your family can use? If you don't personally use the item, why would you consider offering it to others? There may be very good reasons, but you need to make note of them since it is part of your business plan. What differentiates these products from what can be found in other stores, or locations? What will these particular products do that the competition cannot or will not do? Does the product or service require any special licenses or permits that you need to obtain? Do you need to get special training or certifications to sell or offer the products? By noting all of these questions and writing them down, you now are building a really solid road map toward success.

Now when people ask you why you got involved, you have already gone through the thought process, written it down, and are comfortable with your decision. If you keep everything in your head, it may sound good when you talk to yourself, but you may not be able to clearly and concisely identify your reasons for getting into this particular business opportunity to others. Writing down all your thoughts, ideas and research helps you to crystallize your goals and then once you really see what you want on paper, you can more effectively communicate that to others.

Tomorrow we are going to continue this discussion, talking briefly about how you plan on marketing your business opportunity, deciding where to start your business, how you plan to get started financially and what to expect back financially.

If you are interested in looking for an additional income stream, and want to start your own home based business, please feel free to review what we have to offer on http://www.hawgwash.net/. We may have something that interests you, or we may be able to spark an idea of your own. Either way, if you have questions, please feel free to contact us through e-mail at hawgwash1@yahoo.com. We would love to hear from you and would like the opportunity to help you supplement your income.

Until tomorrow...

Prioritizing with your home based business

Yesterday we continued discussing being proactive and briefly touched upon prioritizing and time management to help improve your home based business. In prior blogs, we went into detail regarding time management along the lines of how do you carve out the time from an already busy schedule. Part of good time management is knowing how and what to prioritize. If you can't prioritize effectively, then your time management will be impacted.

The key to prioritizing is to decide what you can and cannot change. I know we talked about that before to, but this concept cannot be stressed enough. How many times have you worried about something when in actuality, there was absolutely nothing you could do to change that situation? It happens all the time, we all do it. The key is to try to minimize the impact of that type of worry and stress. If you try to change things you cannot change, you waste much of your precious energy and time working on a futile task. Then you don't have either the time or energy to focus on doing something productive for yourself or your home based business.

In helping me to personally remember to prioritize, especially when things get very hectic and time is insanely limited, I remind myself of the Serenity Prayer. According to Wickipedia, "the Serenity Prayer is a common name for an unnamed prayer by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr...". It is a prayer that is used in a lot of self-help groups and goes basically like this:

"God grant me the Serenity

To accept the things I cannot change;

The courage to change the things I can;

And the wisdom to know the difference"

No matter what your religious belief, the concept here is excellent, especially for helping you to begin prioritizing your tasks with limited time resources. First identify what you can personally change with your actions. Eliminate all those things you cannot change and then forget about them. After you have probably cut your task list down by at least half, then start looking at the items that need doing and start categorizing them.

What items are either critical or in a crisis situation? Are there any pressing problems that need attention right now? (keep in mind that a 'pressing' problem is one that really does need to be taken care of, not one that someone else thinks you should deal with...) Do you have any deadline driven tasks? These are tasks that are necessary to complete. If you do not complete them, you or your business will suffer. Stephen R Covey classifies these types of tasks as "Urgent and Important". Severe problems will occur if you do not resolve these tasks or chores first.

Another set of tasks that will take a relatively high priority, (not as high as the critical ones listed above, but still pretty high), are the items that need preparation before completing (like a presentation), preventative tasks (like paying your business taxes when due otherwise more serious consequences will occur), and relationship building in your business. For relationship building, you want to make sure your customers are happy with your products/ services and you need to touch base with them frequently to see if there is anything else that you could do for them. We cannot stress enough the importance of relationship building in your home based business, if you get a bad reputation, you can lose your business. Therefore you do need to take the time to spend time with your customers and customer base.

Anything that falls into the categories listed above should be taken care of first. If you are proactive (yep, there's that word again...) and tackle those particular tasks quickly, you could easily save a lot of time for yourself and your home based business down the road.

Tomorrow we will continue the discussion of more prioritizing and time management techniques.

Until tomorrow...

Habits to help grow your Home Based Business

Yesterday we talked about being proactive with regards to your home based business. I would like to expound a little more on that and then move onto other habits that can be helpful in growing your home based business.

To be proactive essentially means that you go out and meet the challenges that are looming on the horizon. If you choose to be reactive to those same challenges you may find that more problems will develop. How many times have you worried about a particular situation happening only to discover that once the problem came and went, your worries were far worse than the actual event? By being proactive, and striving to resolve the situation before it becomes a problem, you reduce the worry and fear that may occur. You are essentially taking the situation on, head-on and choosing to respond and resolve the problem before it really becomes a problem. If you sit back and wait for the situation to fully develop and then react, your fears and worries about what might happen will in all likelihood be far worse than what actually took place.

If you choose to actively take a role in the upcoming issue, then you are not allowing your fears to guide your decision making. By taking a proactive role in resolving the situation, you are taking command of the situation before it takes command of you. This way, you don't spend nights awake worrying about what might happen if so-and-so does one thing. You will have made a decision, followed through with it and then, whatever the outcome, at least you didn't let the situation take over your life. Many people worry far more about an upcoming event than the event actually warrants. Being proactive allows you to take charge of your life and your business so you have no room to worry, you get it done.

Another habit to refine in order to help your home based business grow is that of prioritizing. You want to put first things first and focus on the important instead of the time-filling tasks. As we have talked about before, you started your home based business with an end in mind. I know that sounds odd, but why else would you start a small business and take time out of your already busy schedule if you didn't have a desired end in mind that you were working towards? You may want to make more money, or you may want more time to spend with your family. These are all end goals. So basically since you are starting a home based business with a specific end in mind, you are beginning with the end.

After being proactive and taking advance steps towards a situation before the situation takes you over, and starting with the end in mind, you can now begin to prioritize the tasks that need to be done in order to allow your home based business to grow and prosper. Prioritizing can also be looked at in one way as time management. Time is something that once lost can never be recovered, so it is critical that you maximize the time you have.

We will continue talking about time management and prioritization tomorrow.

Until tomorrow...

Basic Discussions

Today is going to be a very short discussion. Basically I am looking at writers' block and have not the slightest idea what to write. I stare at the computer screen looking for inspiration, and the screen just looks back at me. No help there. I search my desk for inspiration, there is ALWAYS something there to trigger a discussion point. There is tons of stuff on my desk (which is another topic entirely) and yet still no interesting thought pops into my head.

My brain is mush, that is the only explanation I have. It has been an extremely busy week, today was no different. Early in the morning (after going to bed way too late last night), I received a phone call that could not be ignored. Since I was up, decided it was a good time to start some housework since we are expecting guests tonight and again tomorrow. So, clean around the house for a few hours. Began to sit down in front of the computer to get some work done, and bam, decided it was a good idea to do some yard work. That completed in about an hour, had to go to the grocery store for food stuffs for the two home meetings we are holding.

The grocery this time of day and year (snowbirds are in attendance in the middle of the day...) is an experience onto itself... Anyway, after long lines, managed to find my way back home with groceries (and some good deals on beef...) put the food away, got more house cleaning done, then finished preparing for tonight's meeting. Wahoo... meeting went well, went late, but went well, then prepared dinner. Now it is almost midnight and am wondering why I can't think of something interesting and enlightening to talk about. Well, duh... did too much, my brain ran out of batteries.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Tomorrow's meeting starts at 10 and ends by 4, that will give me enough time to rest a bit before writing, I will also make sure the batteries in my brain are charged.

Until tomorrow...

Christmas Time

I know I said yesterday that we were going to cover some simple marketing techniques today to help your business to grow. I changed my mind, as simple as that. Tonight is Christmas Eve and it is more appropriate to not discuss business tonight. If you really want whatever business you enter into to thrive, you need to always remember to keep your priorities straight. Keeping your priorities in line will help to keep your integrity, values and identity (items we discussed a few days ago). Our priorities are: God, Family, Business.

Today we spent the morning finishing up on business that needed to be attended to. This afternoon we prepared to attend our Christmas Eve Church service and tonight we have spent together as a family. Tomorrow we will spend more family time together, and will make sure to contact all of our friends and family that couldn't be here to wish them the best of the season. If you do not take time to stay grounded and balanced in the other aspects of your life, you business may thrive for a while, but in the long run, you will not be successful. Success is not always defined as having lots of money. Many people have lots of money, but they are not necessarily happy, nor healthy. I am not saying people with money are not healthy or happy, but in order to be successful, money is just one portion of success, health and happiness round out the full meaning of success.

Do not fret if you do not have a "family". Family means many things to many people. Your traditional "American" style family usually consisted of a mother, father and children, but honestly, that is really a myth. There are stages in everyone's life where you may not be a mother or father, or even have children. You do not have to have all those elements to be a family. Your family can easily consist of yourself, and your dearest friends (if you do not have any living relatives). Christmas is the time of year where you are supposed to stop and take stock of who you are and what your true values are. If you do not like who you are or where you currently are, then it is time to assess what you have and what you can do to change those circumstances.

It is never too late to change where or who you are. If you are breathing, there is an opportunity for change. Looking at Ebeneezer Scrooge in "The Christmas Carol", by all accounts, he was old and VERY set in his ways, but after visits by the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Future, he was allowed to see what he had become and given an opportunity to change who he was into a different kind of person. By changing who he was, he was also able to change and improve his business relations. This is not discussed in the story, but you can only assume that once Ebeneezer Scrooge became a more successful person, it would follow that his business became even more successful. In order to get better, you need to learn to give more.

If you cannot give money, you do have talents and expertise and time that can be given. You will find that the more you give of yourself (in whatever circumstance you currently find yourself) there is an even greater return on that investment. You may not see the money rolling in immediately, but over time, you will find you are happier and that your business is thriving. It really does feel good to give to others without expecting anything in return. Helping others is what I believe we were put on this planet to do, so we should not be stingy with our time or abilities if we can assist others. The rewards will far outweigh the efforts and will reach much farther than you would ever expect.

So, take stock of who you are and what you and even your business stand for. If you are not happy with your current situation, review your strengths and weaknesses with a friend or family member you trust (like the Spirits of Christmas Past and Present) and draw up a plan to get to where you want to be this time next year....then follow that plan. Again, enlist that friend or family member to help keep you on track and offer support when you are feeling like you can't take another step. It is worth every step and like Scrooge, you will become a better person.

Until tomorrow...

Relationship building in your business

Sorry about the hiatus guys. I got sick, thought I was getting better, then got sicker again... When you are not feeling great it is hard to write much of anything interesting. I am not feeling great today, but am feeling remotely human again.

Today I would like to briefly review the importance of relationship building in your business. Having something to sell is important, but what will keep your business alive is the relationships you build with your customers.

In order to have people come to purchase from you they have to have a reason to buy. If you already have a product or family of products to offer, one hurdle has been cleared. By developing relationships with your customers, you are not only developing a version of brand loyalty, you are building trust within your customer base and that will do more for your business than almost any quality product you can carry. Unlike finding the right product to bring to customers, relationship building takes continued time and patience.

You have to discover what your customers are looking for in a business relationship, and then consistently provide that to them. Before you promise to do something, (make sure it is reasonable) be sure it is something that you have in your control to do. In this day and age, giving your word does not amount to much, it is our responsibility to keep our word. People will remember that you did what you promised to do, and they will remember that for a very long time. This is beneficial because your happy customers will tell their friends that you will do what you promise to do. You will be respected throughout the community as a business person who's word is binding. You will find customers coming to you because they trust that you will provide the services you advertise and not leave a dissatisfied customer.

That kind of trust can never be replaced and should never be taken advantage of. If you want your business to prosper, it is critical to keep the promises you make.

Until tomorrow...

Thanksgiving and the Holidays

Well, Thanksgiving Day is tomorrow and many have already started preparing for the meals. The anticipation of friends and family gathering around a table to share food is something we all look forward to.

Despite the dire economic times we are currently experiencing, we do have a lot to be thankful for. We have the ability to communicate with almost anyone around the world, and those people are willing to communicate back with us. We should each be thankful for what health we have, because there will be someone out there who does not have what we have.

We should truly be thankful for the friends and family we have. Family is very important, even if you don't necessarily get along with everyone. You can't pick your family, but when times get tough, you can always rely on your family to help out whatever way they can.

Friends are different, they entered your life possibly by chance, but became friends by choice. Friends will be there to advise, tease, help and support you. Not all friends do all things, but that is why you have different friends. Each friend has a strength that you admire or a trait that you wish to learn. They in turn see a strength or trait in you that they wish to be near. It is very important during this time of year to not forget your friends and family and remember to thank them for the guidance and assistance they have provided for you.

There may have been occasions that you not have thought their guidance or advice was what you needed, but whether it was good or bad, they tried to help because they were your friend. If they didn't care about you, they would not have tried to help or advise, so be forgiving and thankful to all of your friends, especially now. You may not know all that they are personally going through. The best way to have a friend is to be a friend. If you think someone may need help, ask, listen, be a friend, you may be surprised (pleasantly) by the response.

What I particularly love about this time of year is the true warmth that is given by complete strangers. Despite the stresses, you still find people who will take the time to give a warm "Hello" and really ask how you are doing. It is the time of year to reach out and see what you can do to help someone out of a jam, even if it just means helping them reach an item on the top shelf of the grocery store. The only regret I have about this time of year is that people do not treat each other warmly throughout the year. It is my wish someday that we all help each other throughout the year, not just between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Something for all of us to work on next year....

I would like to wish all of you a very Blessed and Happy Thanksgiving. Be safe, take care, spend time with the people you care about and really take the time to be thankful for what you have and the friendships you have developed.

Until tomorrow...

Personal Development - The Reactor Factor

I know that I mentioned Steve was quoted in a new book by Marsha Petrie Sue. I have finally carved out some time to really read this book (and not scan the pages) and thought you might be interested in the contents of this book. I am not going to give you the short version of the whole book, but there are some items I have found that are very helpful and I want to share them throughout the upcoming weeks.

This new book, "The Reactor Factor - How to Handle Difficult Work Situations Without Going Nuclear", by Marsha Petrie Sue is a handbook that provides exercises and tools to help you respond positively instead of reacting inappropriately. What I really like about the format of this book is that even though there are exercises in the book, Marsha provides those exercise pages on her website too, so you don't have to scribble all over your book. That is a huge plus for me, I hate writing in books, I grew up very old school, you did NOT write in your books... Also, by writing the exercises on separate paper, you can loan your book out to other friends without fear of them seeing what you were thinking or what situations you may see yourself in.

The first chapter in this book, Deciding to Decide: Take it, Leave it, Change it, is something that I wish I had read when working in the Corporate world. The thoughts contained in this chapter crystallize what I had to learn the hard way. It takes what you would really see as common knowledge and intuition and puts it right in front of you. After reading the chapter, I realized that I made those decisions, and can see how I worked them through, but it would have been really nice to have not relied on intuition and actually have a process that brings to the forefront the thoughts that are kicking around in your heart and in your head. How many times have you been so stressed about a situation that you felt you were paralyzed and couldn't make any type of decision?

The Deciding to Decide chapter outlines basically the three choices we all have to make. Most of us make these decisions unconsciously. By making you conscious of your thought processes, you become more aware of the reasons for your actions, and can probably improve your situation because you are more aware of the root of the problem and can now write down essentially a decision chart before you react. Even for those of us self-employed people, this chapter is extremely useful. Sometimes you don't understand why your head may say to do one action, but your heart may be directing you to go a different direction. By being able to outline the processes, you are no longer just reacting, you are responding methodically and logically to the situation. In the long run, you will find that you are more comfortable with the decisions or non-decisions you made. This process helps you gain control of what you may feel is an uncontrollable situation. Once broken down into its basic options, it is so much easier to decide to decide. Even a non-decision is a decision. but at least after reading this chapter, you are consciously making the decision to not do anything and will feel better about yourself because of it.

This book is a great read, once you get started, you really don't want to put it down. I had originally expected to fall asleep to this book (I find self-help books generally help me to sleep, not much else), but that is definitely not the case here. You will find that you have to force yourself to put the book down because as you read, you find more and more tools to deal with difficult situations. We all see these situations and it is exciting to see a process to work the problems out. You can order the book by clicking on the book picture in the upper right hand side of our website, we do not receive any money or compensation for promoting this book. This is information that everyone who works should have at their fingertips.

Until tomorrow...

Exciting end to the week this week

This has been an exciting week. On Thursday, we discovered that we were included in a book written by Marsha Petrie Sue, "The Reactor Factor: How to handle difficult work situations without going Nuclear". You can imagine our excitement to receive a copy of Marsha's book with quotes from Steve included not only in the book, but on the back cover of the book.

We have always promoted relationship building with our customers in our personal business. For those of you who have done business with us, you know that we don't just sell you products, but make sure to talk with you and find out about you as a person. We want to be sure that we are satisfying your needs. We are more interested in providing a service to you rather than just taking money from you.

It was extremely exciting to hear that Marsha was going to include some of our philosophies in her book, but we didn't want to jump the gun and tell you all about it until we actually saw it in print. We didn't want to get your expectations up. In the next few days, I will have updated our website to show this new book and how you can get your hands on a copy.

Not that I am excited we are in print (and we didn't print it ourselves), but we are quoted on pages 160 and 161 along with a quote by Steve on the back cover of the hardbound book. I have read excerpts from this book and find it exceptional in helping work with difficult situations. Marsha has it set up as a lesson book and work book, so you can apply the various concepts she presents and have a plan of action. Once Steve has finished reading the book, I will finally be able to go through it too. Right now, I have to wait for Steve to fall asleep before I can sneak a few pages of reading. I do plan on purchasing another copy for my own personal use.

This book is useful for people who are employed by someone else, or by someone who is self employed. It teaches you techniques to diffuse difficult situations without you yourself losing control. I highly recommend it for anyone who is in business for themselves, or for anyone who is working for someone else. You will always encounter difficult situations, it is helpful to have on hand a road map on how to work around those same situations. Take a look for yourself www.marshapetriesue.com. Enjoy.

Until tomorrow...

What do you want out of life?

I am not about to tell you what to do with your life, or what you should do with your life. This article is a brief discussion about making sure that whatever you want to do with your life, that you remain true to your personal values and goals.

In this economy everyone gets very edgy with good reason. You don't know from one day to the next if you are going to have a job, if you are able to get a job, or if you can pay all your bills and make ends meet. These times are extremely stressful, even for the successful business person. Many of the businesses I have talked to have seen a decrease in their profits this year and we don't see any particular end in the near future.

The key is to remain true to your personal values despite what the outside world throws at you. If you remain true to yourself (I know that sounds so cliche, but it is very true) you will end up being less stressed and ultimately a happier person. It is times like these that actually help create new ideas and ways of doing things. People start looking for alternative ways to earn income, and look for innovative ways to sell products and services. This is actually a really good time to get into a new business because if you can get the business to survive in these tough economic times, then you are poised to do very well when the economy turns around (and it will turn around).

If you are wondering what to do and ask friends or family for suggestions, be open about what they have to say, but also weigh what they suggest against what you personally believe. Sometimes their ideas may trigger a great idea for you, sometimes their ideas may just be a reflection of what they would rather be doing, not what is best for you to do. Remember that some ideas may sound scary, but that may just be due to the fact that you don't know enough, or that it is risky. Risk is not something to be avoided at all costs, it is something to be measured and used with care. If you didn't take risks, there is a chance that you may never cross the road to see what is on the other side. The Wright brothers took a risk in flying aeroplanes, most entrepreneurs also take risks in starting new businesses.

Risk taking is necessary in business, but again, you have to take the risks that seem right to you, not your friends or family. If you feel passionately about something, it just may well be worth the risk in trying it (as long as it is not illegal or immoral..) despite what some friends or family may say. Be reasonable about what you want to do, but do not be risk averse. Without risk we would not have become the greatest country in the world.

If you take the risk and fail, at least you know you tried. If you don't take the risk, then you may always wonder what would have happened if you had taken the leap of faith. You do not want to finish your life wondering what happened, you should be happy you finished your life by going for that golden ring. It is not the end that is important, it really is the journey to get there. Be true to yourself and your values. By doing so you will find that good things should happen and if your are honest with yourself, you will discover that the risks you took were well worth the end result.

I will continue this discussion tomorrow...