Archive for motivation
If You Expect Anyone Else To Believe In You, You Must Believe First.
Posted by: | Comments
Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right. ~ Henry Ford
Starting or maintaining a business isn’t always easy. Life happens and there are bumps in the road from time to time. Nothing in life is perfect, not even the best business. It’s how you well you handle these, hurdles, bumps and difficulties that will determine how well you do with your business.
I have had days where I felt grumpy and like throwing in the towel. In those moments I felt like just giving everything up and going back to just being a stay at home mom. I might have had some problem or another going on or maybe I wasn’t able to do something technical that I needed done and felt annoyed. It really doesn’t matter what the issue was, it was hindrance and causing me to be unproductive. It’s hard to get anything done when your heart isn’t into it.
Those moods never lasted too long and I never actually made steps towards ending my business. I really did love and still love what I do so why end something that I really enjoy because I had a bad day or some obstacle got in my way. Over time I learned how to deal with problems when they arose. What I have learned is that a problem is only temporary and there is always a solution even if I can’t see it at that moment. It’s how I choose my next moves that helps determine the outcome for me. My “Why” or reason for doing what I do keeps me going. Giving up isn’t a part of my plan.
One thing I see all to often in social media is people complaining that their business isn’t working in the very same spots that they are advertising in. They do this because they are frustrated and at those moments they may not see a clear solution so they let out their frustrations through status updates.
This is a huge no no because the ones that see you talking about how bad your business is going aren’t going to be hyped up to listen to your company’s audio, watch your video, sign up for your mailing list, join your team or promote your products if you run your own business, when you are showing them that doing what you do sucks and that your products don’t sell.
You must believe in you and in what you are doing before you can expect anyone to take you seriously or join you in your venture. Remember that while social media can be your best friend it can also be your worst enemy when you spew negativity out against your own self or business.
Know that you aren’t the only person who ever has a bad day. You aren’t the only person who has ever had a problem building their team or bringing in sales. You may think that you are alone but you aren’t. The difference in you who may not be achieving what they desire and one who does is usually training. Think about when you learned to cook or drive. There are steps involved and if you miss a step or two, it usually doesn’t turn out right but with the right training you can bake perfect cakes and casseroles or parallel park like it’s no big deal.
When running a business you need the right training for your particular business. You need to know about the products you sell or how your compensation plan works or what your product or service can do for your potential customers. No matter what type of business you have you need to utilize social media in order to gain a larger target audience.
Learning can make the difference in achieving your wildest dreams and not being able to make a single sale of your services and products, or not being able recruit a single teammate or sign up to your emailing list.
When you are having a bad day and you feel like shouting, virtually through social media to vent out all your frustrations, take a moment to just breathe and relax. Step away from the ipad, iphone or laptop. Stop everything and take a time out to get yourself together.
Ask yourself:
- Do I really believe in what I’m doing?
- Is there a need for the products or services that I am offering?
- Do I enjoy what I do?
- Am I unsure about all of the steps required to run my business?
Letting go of negativity will clear your mind and allow you to think better. Now you can find a solution and you didn’t ruin your reputation or the reputation of your business in the process. How you feel while in a bad mood could be completely different from how you feel when you can just breathe and think clearly. Sometimes all it takes is one negative comment about something to turn someone off from it altogether.
As the saying goes, you only have one time to make a first impression so make sure that the impression others get about you and your business is positive. Positive draws in where negativity repels. If you don’t think you can cut it as a business person or if you think that your business is horrible and you openly convey those thoughts because you are going through a rough patch, do you honestly think that your audience will believe in you.
Remove negativity from around as you as much as your possibly can. If you can’t get along with certain people online because you clash or they: make you uncomfortable, reek negativity, down you or even have wronged you somehow in your business, remove them. It really is that simple. Most social media sites have a block or delete button. Use it if you need to.
Learn to manage your time so you don’t burn out. Sometimes being overly tired can wear thin on the nerves and cause you overreact to a situation because you just can’t think clearly. Take time out for yourself and do something that you enjoy. If you worked a traditional 9-5 business you wouldn’t work 24-7 and you should do that in social media or your business either.
This is something else I have learned the hard way. I take breaks when I need them and I take time to do what I enjoy even it’s just reading a book, spending time with my daughters and husband or talking to a family member on the phone. I had to stop feeling that everything must be done in a day.
If the answer to question four was yes and lack of training is the reason you aren’t succeeding, this is something that you can work on. Find others who are successful in your field and learn from them by reading their blogs and joining their mailing lists to gain the nuggets that they may share with you.
Ethical marketers don’t want to just make money, they genuinely want to help others to do so too and even if they offer paid courses, many times they are teaching some things for free too, through their blogs and lists. Take advantage of that. Soak it all in. Take their courses that are appropriate for your type of business when you can. The more you can learn and apply to your business, the more good results you will see, that will allow you to invest further into your business.
Always strive to learn and grow and this will help foster a self belief because you will know that you are making steps to improve yourself and your business. You will see the results and your self confidence will grow and project to others. When you have believe in you that will show through in everything you do.
To your success,
Alice Coaxum
Are You Holding On To Your Motivation?
Posted by: | CommentsWhile becoming motivated may be one the simplests thing in the world, staying motivated is sometimes a difficult task. Many times people get excited and motivated only to run out of steam later when it really counts.
If you are trying to create an income from home, motivation will be needed for the long haul.
You may be asking yourself questions like “Is motivation really neccessary?” or “What is motivation?”
Motivation is something that causes a person to take specific actions towards a goal. Other words synonomous with motivation are incentive, drive, inspiration and enthusiasm.
Do any of these words describe you and the way you set about to run your business? If not, you may be lacking motivation.
Motivation will take you far. When times get rough and tough, motivation will hold you up as you keep taking actions towards your goal.
Some people are naturally more motivated than others. Every morning it seems as if these highly motivated people, jump out of bed and hit the ground running like they’ve just had four shots of an energy boosting drink.
They just keep going and going like they are super human while others views of them range from admiration to skepticism.
A highly motivated person just seems to accomplish so much while their less motivated counterparts are dragging, procrastinating and whining and almost always fall way short of reaching any of their goals.
Their blogs are up to date, their lists are consistently being built and communicated to and they are always striving to take it to the next level.
That is my goal for 2012, to take it to the next level. The more I do the closer I get to reaching my goals.
For every one of us those goals may be different. For me some of my goals may be adding more PLR content to my site, building additional sites and increasing my list size and for you it may be making twice as many phone calls, blogging regularly, increasing your affiliate marketing profits and building an online presence.
Your goals belong to you and you alone. You don’t have to compete with others, do the best that you can do and we all know when we are doing our best or not. Our best helps us to achieve results and basically if we aren’t doing our best with that goal in mind we’re just doing busy work.
In order to reach your goals you must be motivated and believe your goal is attainable. You could be just as successful as the next person if you are motivated, believe and put to action the things that you learn.
Motivation isn’t a one sized fits all and can come in many forms. Once you find your motivation you need to hold on tight to it.
I sometimes find my motivation in the ebooks I read, in an email from someone I’m subscribed to, a motivating blog post I read or even from things I might hear in a webinar or audio. I find motivation in many places.
As a busy stay at home, home schooling mom, I simply don’t have time to waste, playing around on the internet. I’m in it to win it. May sound cliche, but it’s the truth.
Success is the only option for me or I need to pack it up and call it quits if I feel otherwise.
Where do you find motivation? Do you hold onto it?
Imagine yourself falling from a boat into a river and a few feet away there was a lifeboat. Wouldn’t you do anything in your power to reach that lifeboat and hold on for dear life.
Your motivation is your lifeboat when you are running a business or for life in general really. It will help you through the depressing times when you feel like giving up. It will help you find new ways to reach your goals.
It’s not good enough to have small bouts of motivation followed by long bouts of lack. This happens to many people in and out of the home based business world.
The more motivated you are the more likely it is that you will seek out more and reach higher for success.
You’ll make those calls you need to make, build those websites that need building or market what needs advertising.
Motivation will propel you to bigger and better things as you build on what you are already doing over time.
You will find that you are able to keep going consistently and that you are able to finish tasks and move on to the next. Success isn’t a destination.
There is always a higher level. You need to maintain and expand your success. Make 2012 your best year yet. Your motivation can take you there.
To Your Success!
Alice Coaxum
Don’t Put It Off Until Tomorrow
Posted by: | CommentsHow many times have you had bright ideas that had you gung ho, running wild with excitement? You just knew that you were going to accomplish it only to see several months down the road that you did nothing about it.
Ideas don’t make money no matter how great or important they are, it is the implementing of ideas that bring in money. Last year I wanted to get involved with PLR writing (Private Label Rights). I bought and took a course on how to write PLR. I’m naturally inclined towards writing anyway so this should have been easy for me.
I purchased a domain and hosting and then got busy doing everything except for what I really wanted to do. I procrastinated in the worst way because all of my ideas just sat there lonely like a stray cat in an alley waiting for someone to give it a home.
I let other things get in the way without setting any time aside to get my PLR shop up and running. I run a social network, traffic exchange and a host of other websites. I also felt a little fear about starting a new adventure since I have never ran this type of business before.
Procrastination and fears don’t earn you any money but actions can. Even the best intentions mean nothing unless they are carried out.
I decided that it was time for me to get my ideas out of my head and onto my website. I have been working on my shop and I’m really excited. You can check it out at http://shopforplr.com.
Are there things that you have been meaning to do but somehow you let other things get in the way? Try setting aside a specified amount of time just for the task that you have been avoiding or putting off and little by little you accomplish it.
Sometimes we need to just sit and think, evaluate how our business or business are going. If it is not what you hoped it would be, devise a workable plan that can fit into your schedule. See where you can cut out or drastically reduce time in other not so important areas.
Set realistic goals or mini goals for yourself so you are not easily disappointed which can cause you to want to give up. As much as we might want it to be, things are rarely perfect. Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill when problems arise.
Roll with the punches. Focus on what you can do and not on what you can’t do. Research and learn from those knowledgeable in the areas that are troubling to you.
It can be a real challenge when embarking on a new journey. You know what you want to accomplish but you are not exactly sure how it will turn out. If you follow your dreams through it can turn out to be really rewarding when you reap the benefits later on.
Start small and build up to investing more time. This is working for me. I see now that I could have fit what I’m doing now into my schedule.
Right now my children’s homeschooling year is over for the summer break so I am taking advantage of the extra time. Better late than never though.
Don’t put it off until tomorrow if you can do something towards it today. You can’t reach your goals of winning the race if you aren’t even on the track.
To your success,
Alice Coaxum
