Posts Tagged Marketing
Why Income From your Home-based Business Seldom Exceeds Personal Development
Posted by pintpuller in Personal development on September 25, 2009
Contrary to popular belief, money doesn’t solve the problems of life. This is especially true for those who are given money or win money on a whim. Do you ever wonder why 95% of all lottery winners wind up filing for bankruptcy before they die? It’s because they didn’t become a different person just because they received the money. They kept the same mindset that they had when they couldn’t afford to pay the rent. They didn’t grow into the person capable of handling a lot of money.
Don’t get me wrong, you can certainly arrive at your problems in style with money, which is a great thing. But it’s the kind of person you become that handles the problem successfully, especially when you learn a lesson. People who buy their way out of problems are only destined to repeat their mistakes until they are eventually broke. They don’t learn and they don’t grow. You want to be responsible and continuously learn throughout your life, especially in your home-based business. That’s how you move on to bigger and better things.
A million dollars is not as important as the person you could become while achieving it. Those who earn a fortune and then lose it are able to earn it again because of who they became the first time around. Something magical happens to you when you put forth the effort to go after your goals and dreams. The activity and experiences you go through molds you into a successful person in all areas of life. That is worth more than any amount of money you could ever wish for.
One of the first places to begin developing the mindset of a person who appreciates themselves more than the money they make is to realize that profits are better than wages. This doesn’t mean you should walk into your job tomorrow and quit. But realize that as long as work for someone else, you won’t make as much money as you want. You’ll make as much money as your boss wants you to make and you’ll be able to pay your bills, but you’ll never be rich.
You can start to change your situation carefully by working full-time on your job and part-time on your future. This means being serious about your home-based business if you are currently thinking of it as a hobby. Hobbies won’t make you rich unless you are extremely creative enough to invent the next fad like the pet rock or liquid paper. Work hard to grow your enterprise. Step by step you can make it happen.
Don’t be the type of person that sits around and hopes for things to change. Or worse yet, hopes that the government will support you when you get old. That kind of mindset will get you nowhere in life. You simply should not rely on anyone but yourself. Being responsible for your own future will allow you to become the type of person that doesn’t need to complain about how hard life is. Wouldn’t you like to replace the ever-popular phrase “That’s too expensive!” with “I can afford that!”? Working on your personal development will allow for this change in attitude.
Financial independence is the ability to live from the income of your own personal resources. This doesn’t mean you should go out and sign up for a bunch of credit cards to max out on over-priced leads and online busines systems. They don’t work and you’ll get yourself deep into debt. Instead of following this trend in network marketing that accounts for the 95% drop-out rate, spend your hard earned money on a proper marketing education system that emphasizes leadership.
Helping others along the way to your own success will allow you to become a better person as well. You could have all the money in the world but you could never use it to buy the praise of someone who says you changed their life for the better. That kind of success is only earned and you can never lose it. Money comes and goes, but building relationships with other people through personal development will keep you inspired and satisfied at all times.
A sure-fire way to increase your home-based business success by helping others is to always lead with your product or service. Leading with your business opportunity will only attract people who are interested in money, and they will quit when they haven’t become rich in the first few months. You want to find people who are willing to try your product or service long enough to generate an emotional attachement. This will throw the issue of money right out of the window and allow people to constantly work on improving themselves before their bank accounts.
Love what you become instead of the money you will receive and you will be a walking example of success. Study personal development on a daily basis to keep yourself on the right track as you go along. So many people start home-businesses for the wrong reasons and they wind up failing. They blame the company and person who got them involved instead of taking the responsibility to admit their own mistakes.
If your business is failing, look within yourself to find the answers instead of jumping to another company and repeating the same mistakes. Successful people change themselves when they want to change their outcome in life. And that’s another thing money just can’t buy.
Personal Development – 10 Tips on How to Get Started
Posted by pintpuller in Personal development on September 10, 2009
Are you totally happy with your life? It wouldn’t surprise me if your initial response was to ask the question “Is anyone totally happy with their life?” Fair comment. So let me rephrase the question. “Is there any area of your life right now that you are not happy with?” Is that a better question?
You may be one of the fortunate ones who can say they are happy in every area of their life. However, I bet you are like most people in our society, who are probably unhappy with one or more areas of their lives. If that is the case, let me talk to you about personal development.
Before I move on it may be useful to offer a definition of personal development. I decided to do some research on the internet and Google the term personal development. I was surprised to find that there were not really that many sites that offered a definition, although there were many adverts promoting personal development. I shouldn’t be surprised because Marketdata a research firm has estimated that the personal development industry is set to grow at a rate of 11.4 yearly through to 2010, to a value of $13.9 billion.
“Personal development is the deliberate growth or development of a particular individual to bring out their potential and capabilities making them more aware of their inner feelings, belief systems to become a more conscious, whole or healthy human being”.
I know that probably seems like a mouthful but it seemed to encompass my own thoughts about what personal development is. I decided to ask my partner to offer a definition:
“Strategies that enable me to enhance my life in all areas”
Now I do like this definition because it says what it is, simply and succinctly. The thing about personal development, is that it means different things to different people. When someone embarks on the journey of personal development, it maybe that they have chosen to improve their health, relationships, career prospects, finances etc. Sometime people talk about the mind, body and spirit, or physical, emotional and spiritual.
So how do you get started on the road to personal development? Well, first of all become aware of what you already have in your life and what you are grateful for and then think about what is missing, what do you want, I mean really want. Awareness has to come first, because without an awareness there can be no conscious decision to take action. Becoming aware also means asking yourself different questions and then seeking out the answers. So if your question is “There must be more to life than this?” your mind is already making an assumption that there is more to life and as if by magic you start to see things around you that maybe you did not notice before.
Below I have put together my top 10 strategies that I use regularly to keep myself motivated. As a bonus I contacted some of my friends within the personal development field and asked them to give me their top 3 personal development books and created a top 10 list. I hope this helps you to get started.
1. Take time everyday to do something for yourself. This is so fundamental. Many people go through their day giving of themselves to other people, their job etc. and don’t have time for themselves. Even if you give yourself 15 minutes, that is time with yourself to reflect and focus on the most important person in your life, YOU.
2. Read or listen to personal development material. You must find time to learn about personal development to read or listen to positive and inspirational messages. You could use the 15 minutes put by for yourself to read a chapter of a book. If you drive, put in a tape or CD, this is making use of net (no extra time) time.
3. Decide what you really want to do and do it. Often we think about what we want to do and make excuses as to why we can’t do it. The reality is that the time we have taken to think up excuses as to why we can’t do something, we could have done it. What have you been putting off doing? Take this opportunity to do it, clear out the clutter. Once you have done it there is space in your mind to think about other things.
4. Do not be afraid of making a mistake. You will only achieve success from doing. In history many brilliant ideas have come about because of a mistake. Don’t let fear of failure stop you from doing what you want.
5. Do not put off making a decision because you are afraid it may be the wrong one. Nothing is gained by sitting on the fence. So the sooner you make a decision, even if it is the wrong one, the sooner you can make the right one. Practise being decisive.
6. Keep a journal recording your thoughts, ideas, feelings and personal growth. Keeping a journal is a great way of measuring your progress. Looking back at your journey. It is also a great source of material for any projects you hope to do in the future. If one of your dreams is to write a book, why not start with jotting down ideas in a journal.
7. Be flexible and willing to change your approach if things are not working. Sometimes when you set your mind to do something, with a set plan, things don’t always go smoothly. Remember that as long as you are clear about your destination, you can always change your route, it may take you longer, but as long as you get there in the end.
8. Visualise your goals on a daily basis. Better still put up pictures of your goals so that you can see them on waking up and going to bed. Our minds respond better to pictures than words.
9. Get yourself and elastic band and put it around your wrist. Make sure it fits loosely. Every time you find yourself thinking a negative thought pull the elastic band and let go so that it snaps back onto your wrist. Yes, it will hurt. That is the whole idea. Keep this up for the next 30 days and notice what happens.
10. Celebrate your achievements. Award yourself for any progress that you make because you deserve it.
Sonia is a Personal Development and Success Consultant. She has been involved in the personal development industry for over 20 years primarily in the public sector. When you visit her website be sure to download the free Confidence Building ecourse and sign up for her success strategies and tools newsletter.
Sonia Harris © 2007Personal Development and Success Coach