LIVE LIFE UP HIGH

photo credit: apdk

How are you living?

Many entrepreneurs are living their personal and professional lives in a cloudy haze. They don’t have clear written goals and plans to achieve them.  They really don’t know where they want to end up in life so they live their lives without a clear strategic plan, a winning personal culture and definite concrete actions to take them to this destiny.

You are destined for something great.

Some entrepreneurs are even waiting for their destiny to smack them in the face. They don’t know that they must discover the destiny that is already in them. There is a saying I heard recently,  ”destiny is not a matter of chance it is a choice”. This is very true. You have the right to choose your best personal and professional life. You have the right to move towards a destiny and to live a great life. Obviously there are some things you must do to reach this destiny but you can reach it.  

Let’s begin moving towards our destiny.

My fellow entrepreneurs, over the next few posts let’s take the time to explore some of the best information on effective goal setting, effective planning and goal achievement.  I will pull from some of the best thinkers and writers on the subject and synthesize this information for you in a way that you can take action on it right away. Step by step we will move towards your best life.

The power of choice.

If you want this life your first step is to make a choice. Decide today to be the best you can be and to live the best life you can live. Decide today to do whatever it takes to be your best, give your best, and have the best business and professional life you can have. Choose to have a great destiny and to leave a great legacy. I challenge you to choose greatness today.

Please join me over the next few posts as we move closer to our destiny and live our best lives.

photo credit: nyki_m

In this final post discussing Dr. Caroline Leaf’s book, Who Switched off My Brain?: Controlling Toxic Thoughts and Emotions, we will briefly describe the last three detox steps outlined in the book.

Detox Step 11 – Diet – Dr. Leaf suggests that you should never eat when you are angry or facing any other unpleasant emotions. Eating during those times can make your food toxic to you. Your toxic thoughts will interfere with the proper working of your digestive system. 

Another important point is that when you eat well you will properly feed your brain. Dr. Leaf explains that a major source of food for the brain is glucose. Of course, you need to eat this in the proper quantities.

Finally, it is important to think about what you eat. In the book Dr. Leaf mentions a few of the types of foods that help us think well and feel good.

Detox Step 12: The Spiritual aspect – In this section Dr. Leaf talks about the power of spiritual truth to deal with toxic emotions. The Christian faith is the guiding belief of her life and mine. I encourage you to live in your spiritual truth.

Detox Step 13: Relax – The “acceleration syndrome” is the cause of many mental, physical and emotional health problems. The key point here is to learn to spend your time wisely. You must focus on what is good for you and you must take time to relax.

We have reached the end of the steps to detox your thinking.  These last 3 detox steps are obvious and we hear them all the time, but sometimes as entrepreneurs we don’t do them. Make a decision today to begin using all the steps to detox your thinking and improve your life. 

As always I appreciate your comments.

Please click the image below to obtain this resource.

photo credit: IRENNA&M (home)

In my last post we discussed Dr. Caroline Leaf’s book, Who Switched off My Brain?: Controlling Toxic Thoughts and Emotions . In that post we discussed some of the dangers of toxic thinking. In the next three posts we will briefly discuss the 13 steps that Dr. Leaf suggests for detoxing your thought life. If you follow these steps, you will definitely think better, feel better and perform better. Ultimately, you will dramatically increase your level of success and the success of those around you.

Detox Step 1 – Consciously Control Your Thoughts – The key idea here is to pay attention to what you are thinking. Are you putting unrealistic expectations on yourself and others? Are you thinking fearfully? Do you have specific positive written goals that you are focusing on or are you just drifting through your day. Dr. Leaf suggests that you engage and analyze thoughts that enter your mind and make a conscious decision as to whether you want to accept or reject this thought.  Step 1 is an important step with several important sub-steps that you will want to read in the book.

Detox Step 2 – Frame Your World With Your Words – Most of us have heard that words have power. This is shockingly very true. As, Dr. Leaf explains, 

The words you speak feed back into the magic trees of the mind, reinforcing the memory they came from. When you make negative statements, you release negative chemicals. These lead to negative memories that grow stronger and become negative strongholds that control your attitude and life.

An important point here is that it is not just positive talking that is important, it is positive talk that is congruent to your positive thoughts that is important.

Detox Step 3 – Express those Emotions – The key here is not to deny what you feel. You need to express your emotions at an appropriate time, in an appropriate environment, in an appropriate way. When you repress your emotions you make yourself sick. Eventually these emotions will manifest themselves anyway and usually not in at an appropriate time or way.

Detox Step 4 – Take Responsibility and Take Control – In this step Dr. Leaf discusses the importance of being aware of what’s in your mind in terms of past experiences and conditioning. What are your memories and emotions? Once you are aware of these thought patterns you can begin to deal with bad memories by growing good ones. Also, be responsible enough to seek extra help (prayer, meditation and counseling) if you have long standing emotional strongholds.

Detox Step 5 – Dream On! – According to Dr. Leaf when you dream, important psychological and physiological processes happen in the body-mind connection. Because dreams give you clues as to what is happening in your thought life she suggests that you make a conscious effort to remember and record your dreams. Some experts believe that when you dream, the body can discuss its condition with your mind. The key is to decide to remember the dream.

I know many of my readers may be wondering what all of this has to do with entrepreneurship. I understand the hesitation but please remember proper thinking helps you to excel and take advantage of opportunities. Without proper thinking you will probably never fully realize your entrepreneurial potential.

As always I welcome your comments.

Recommended Resource

Please Click Book Image Below to Order.

photo credit: ooOJasonOoo

I recently read a very interesting book on toxic thinking and its affect on all aspects of our lives. I found the book so interesting and so relevant for the serious entrepreneur that I decided to share it with you today. 

Did you know that the average person has over 30,000 thoughts a day? Further, did you know that an uncontrolled thought life can create the conditions for illness in your body? Toxic thinking can actually make you sick and if you are sick you can’t properly achieve your entrepreneurial goals.

In her book, “Who Switched Off My Brain?”, Dr. Caroline Leaf  helps you understand the anatomy of a thought, how a thought grows, what happens when thoughts go toxic and how to detox your thinking. It was really amazing to me to see how many systems of the body are affected by a thought. It has made me more determined to manage my thought life and to make sure I keep it positive.

In her book Dr. Leaf gives an example of three negative and incorrect beliefs that lead to toxic thoughts and emotions:

1. I must do well.
2. You must treat me well.
3. The world must be easy.

It would seem that these are harmless thoughts but the truth is they create unrealistic expectations and when they are not met they put your mind and body in stress mode and cause all types of health and performance problems.

Please check out the book and let me know what you think. As always I look for your comments.

photo credit: davitydave

Well, we have made it to deadly mistake number 6 in our discussion on the 7 deadly mistakes new entrepreneurs make and how to avoid them. I hope by this point you have learned how to avoid some of these mistakes based on the information I have supplied. Why repeat mistakes others have made if you can avoid them?

Deadly Mistake No. 6 – Not Placing a High Value on your Customers

Many entrepreneurs have been taught how important the customer is but few have really embraced this concept so that it permeates every aspect of their business. Valuing your customer goes beyond customer appreciation days and rebates. In order to value your customer you must take the time to get to know them and then design your business around them.

Many entrepreneurs start out with the customer at the heart of the business but somewhere along the line the customer becomes secondary. This is especially true of growing companies. The entrepreneur’s focus moves from the customer to building the business and dealing with internal issues. This is a hugely costly mistake. The customer must remain the main focus of the business if the business is to thrive.

Here are three simple keys to help you keep your customer front and center in your business:

1. Focus on your customer – As the leader of your business the customer must be your personal focus. Spend time thinking about your customer’s lifestyle. What do your top customers do for work? What do they do for recreation? What are their biggest problems?  You also need to know how your customer interacts with your product or service. Why do your top customers buy from you and not from your competitors?  How are your top customers’ needs changing? What is the biggest problem your customer is having using your product or service. Start thinking along these lines about your customer and you will help keep them front and center in your mind.

2. Build your systems around your customer – This is really self-explanatory. Any system you build in your business should be built only if it helps you serve your customer better. If it doesn’t help you serve your customer better it is not a good system for your business. Simple.

3. Teach your employees how to treat your customers- Your customers are gold to you and they must be gold to your employees. Make sure every employee knows the link between their jobs and how they treat every customer. They must understand that without the customer there is no business and therefore no job for them. It is your responsibility as the entrepreneur to communicate this message to your employees both orally and by example. You may also want to reward your employees for going the extra mile for your customer.

In the final post in this series we will discuss the 7th deadly mistake. As always I welcome your comments.

photo credit: hans.gerwitz

In part one of this post we discussed the fact that many entrepreneurs allow their past failures to hold them back. We discussed 3 bite-sized nuggets that entrepreneurs should consider to help them move past these failures on to success. 
In this post, we will introduce and discuss the four remaining nuggets.

Seek the advice of others who have gone before you – This is probably a step that many entrepreneurs skip. I think for many of us it is a pride thing.  However, it is imperative that we take this step my entrepreneurial friend. Seeking competent advice is very wise. You should seek advice on three levels:

1.Seek advice about whether you have properly defined the failure . Knowing how to properly describe and define the failure is key in determining the causes. It is also a key factor in ensuring you don’t have a repeat performance.

2. Seek advice about whether you have correctly identified the 1 or 2 key factors that led to the failure. It may be hard to be objective about what caused the failure. Discussing your list of possible key factors with a competent advisor can help you clearly identify the key contributing factors.

3. Seek advice about possible approaches to circumvent the failure in the future. This is very important if it turns out that your failure was due to an error in judgement. We all have blindspots in our lives that others see clearly. By seeking advice about solutions you will multiply the odds of succeeding this time around.

Create an action plan – After you have sought competent advice and combined it with the information you gleaned from your own analysis, it is time to create a plan for moving forward. Take your time and consider all the steps you need to take to move forward. A great action plan should include steps to take, deadlines for completion of each step, resources needed to complete each step, possible obstacles to completion and steps to circumvent any known obstacles.

Implement the action plan – There is no need to create an action plan if you are not going to put it into action. At this point, you need to commit to the action plan and get started. After each step, review your plan and see if you need to make any adjustments. Remember things change and we need to be flexible.

Review - After you have accomplished your goal it is important to review. You want to see what went right and what you can improve. The key is to understand the process so you can improve it and repeat it. 

When you face failure this way you will no longer fear it. You will eat failure for lunch. As always, I look forward to your comments.

photo credit: aloshbennett

Recently I was looking in the blogosphere and found 4 very interesting posts for you my entrepreneurial friends. These bite-size posts help you as an entrepreneur to stay updated on important developments that can move you further towards success. As a fellow entrepreneur, I  want to share this information with you to help you be more successful and productive on your entrepreneurial journey. Please check out these informative posts and let me know what you think.

Small Business Success Index Highlights (Estimated time to read: 2 mins)
http://growsmartbusiness.com/small-business-success-index-highlights/

Small businesses are succeeding desipte the ecomonic downturn. According to the Small Business Success Index, small busineses are fairing quite well. For example, it shows that 69% of small businesses made a profit in 2008. This is good news.  Check out this article, get encouraged and get going.

Top 10 Business plan mistakes.(Esitmated time to read: 5 mins)
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/267696/Top-10-Business-Plan-Mistakes

The type is small on this post but this post addresses some important issues (right click and zoom in to enlarge the type). If you are planning to write a business plan for your business or if you are currently in the process of writing a business plan, read this first. It has some good points that many of us overlook when writing business plans.

Top 10 Social Networks for Entrepreneurs (Estimated Time to Read 3 mins)http://mashable.com/2009/03/12/entrepreneur-networks/

No one can deny the importance of social networks. Well in this post Dan provides a list of social networks designed with the entrepreneur in mind. No need to join all of these social networks. Find the one that best fits your needs and join. Spend some time there and then if you want to join another one go right ahead. You will get the best results if you take time to learn each network that you join.

The Best Entrepreneurs Fail Fast (Estimated tim to watch 4.5 min)
http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2009/04/the-best-entrepreneurs-know-how-to-fail-fast.html

In this post, Brad Feld, does a repost of Mark Pincus’s interview about lessons Mark has learned from his Tribe entrepreneurial endeavor. Very interesting information. The idea of failing fast is so critical for entrepreneurs to learn. I have learned this lesson from my business ventures as well. Don’t miss this 4.57 minute video.

As always I welcome your comments.

photo credit: markwgallagher

Here are 22 more things you can do if you want to fail as an entrepreneur. If you want to fail as an entrepreneur, go ahead and implement these items  and you will fail miserably.

1. Don’t give back to the community and to charities around you. This is your money anyway and you worked hard for it. You deserve all the spoils from your hard work.

2. Don’t bother hiring talented people. Hire your friends or hire people because you feel sorry for them. Hiring talented people is expensive. Yes, you may be better off in the long run with talented people but it costs too much right?

3. If you do hire talented people don’t pay them well. Try to get them for the cheapest rate you can and don’t give them any bonuses. If they go somewhere else then they just didn’t belong with you anyway.

4.Don’t provide incentives for your customers or your employees to bring you good ideas. You have all of the good ideas anyway.

5. Work yourself into the ground. Don’t live a balanced life. It is all about the business and the money anyway. What else matters?

6. Think short term in your decisions. Only care about the here and now. Don’t even think about how your short term decisions affect you in the long-term.

7.Don’t bother trying to understand economics and how it can affect your business. Your business is not even affected by what happens in the general economy right?

8. Don’t spend anytime learning the emerging trends in your business and in your industry. You will always have this business and it will always bring in income.

9. Don’t go to conferences in your industry so you can learn something new. You already determined that you know what you need to know. Besides, conferences cost money and they take time.

10. Neglect your family and friends. Who needs the hassle? They should understand that you are building a business. It is all about the business.

11. Don’t be flexible. Be as rigid as possible.

12. Don’t work on your communication skills. What’s that all about anyway. You talk and others listen. Problem solved.

13. Don’t create a business strategy. Just run your business by the seat of your pants.

14. Create a strategy and then take forever to implement it. Analyze the heck out of it but never really act on it.

15. Don’t create a unique selling proposition. Just be like everyone else. Don’t be original.

16. Let fear stop you right in your tracks. Fear is good. Even unhealthy fear that is not based in reality.

17. Constantly talk yourself out of good ideas. Keep doing the same thing.

18. Give up easily. As soon as an obstacle comes throw up your hands and quit. You knew it wouldn’t work anyway right? I mean that is what you constantly said.

19. Don’t learn from your mistakes. Keep repeating them over and over again. At least this is familiar.

20. Criticize your customers and your employees. They deserve it. Really give it to them. And do it often.

21. Neglect social media marketing. Who needs these new fangled strategies? Stick with the old way of doing things.

22. Procastinate when it comes to addressing issues. Put is off until it becomes an urgent matter that will take up a great portion of your time and resources. Who wants to deal with issues when they first present themselves?

Again, as I said in Monday’s post, I don’t want you to fail. Please focus on doing the opposite of what is presented here and you will be moving in the right direction. As always I look forward to your comments.

photo credit: TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³

For as a man thinketh in is heart so is he. Proverbs 23:7

We know who you are.
Do you know how?

By how you constantly think. It shows.

Constantly think you will fail, you will…
Constantly think you will succeed, you will…

Dwell on the negative, it’ll show in your walk, talk, and actions…
Focus on the positive, it’ll show in your walk, talk and actions…

Think on problems all the time, you will attract more…
Meditate on solutions and opportunities, you’ll be awash with them…

Eventually you become what you think about all the time.
I will show.
This is a timeless truth.
Why not use this truth to your advantage.
Meditate on things that move you towards success and life.

Here is some “food for thought”.

How can I get this business started?
How can I add more value to my customers?
How can I help my employees grow?
How can I innovate my business model?
How can I grow as a leader?
How can I grow my business?

Constantly think about how you can make everything around you better.
You will be glad you did.

There are a lot of great business books out there for aspiring entrepreneurs. To me, the best business books are the ones that provide structure to your thinking and that explain the systems behind great businesses. The books that I recommend in this post do just that. To get your business right, you have to think right. These books help you think right about business.

This is a very important book for aspiring entrepreneurs. One trap that many entrepreneurs get caught in is the trap of spending all of their time working in the business and not enough time working on the business.  This has caused many businesses to fail. Michael Gerber effectively addresses this issue in his book.

Most entrepreneurs know about the Rich Dad series of books. While this whole book is great the reason I recommend this one for entrepreneurs is because chapters 30-36 provide structure to business ideas. In these chapters Robert Kiyosaki talks about the B-I Triangle and describes it as the key to great wealth. I agree.

This is a wonderful book for those who want to make innovation a part of their daily business lives. Yes it is a textbook but any person who is really serious about being a successful and innovative entrepreneur should read this book. If you can’t read the whole book at least read chapter 3 which helps you think beyond new products and new services to entirely new business concepts. With these tools you can go nonlinear in your thinking about business models. You must check this one out.

Do you have other great business books that you would recommend to other entrepreneurs? Please let me know in the comments.