Are You Blocking Your Own Success?

You know how sometimes you are just meant to see / hear / read something?  Well, yesterday the very excellent blogger Yaro Starak send out a short email, linking to one of his latest blog articles entitled “Do Your Belief Structures & Behaviour Patterns Block Your Success” and as I love Yaro’s writing, I started to read it.

He talks about blind spots, being open minded and how your patterns of behaviour are anchors….all good useful and well written stuff…. and then I either got distracted or called away or started to feel guilty that I was reading for fun when I had so much to do, and I didn’t read the rest thinking I would come back to it later.

Later on, an email arrived from Steve with a link to the article, pointing out a couple of paragraphs nearer the end, that I had missed by not reading on, and which were particularly pertinent to something we had been discussing on Monday.

(Welcome home Steve, by the way!)

So, now another nudge to read this article, from the old Universe, so I did, I read it right to the end.

BANG! POW! KERZAP!

Very good indeed.  So good in fact, that I printed it out and have been carrying it around and mulling it over every since, now embellished with highlighted bits and underlinings.

SO GOOD in fact that the power of the thoughts that this article stirred up called for one thing and it’s something I’ve never done yet ……… I have started journalling.

Yep, manually writing in a book every day, something recommended by Julia Cameron in “The Artists Way” but never taken up by me, after my mother found my five year diary when I was a teen.

I’ve been thinking of starting a daily business journal, after an article I read last week by Todd Brown at Strategic Profits called “The Secrets To Greater Business Clarity” but was putting it off till the New Year, thinking I might get a lovely notebook for Christmas (it’s on my list!)

But Yaro’s article was reverberating so loudly in my head, that I dug out a new notebook Steve bought me recently and just pasted in Yaro’s article and started writing.

Here’s the first part of Yaro’s article for you to enjoy too!  You need to read to the end, remember?

“Do Your Belief Structures And Behavior Patterns Block Your Success?” By Yaro Starak

Are You Aware Of Your Blind Spots? asks Yaro Starak.

Read more..

Neil Asher Gets Nicola’s Parts Out In Public

I was lying relaxing on the table at the local Shoreham beauty parlor (called Beachcomber which I always find quite funny for some reason) being tended to by the lovely Laura, when someone tweeted me to say I was being exposed in public in more ways than one!  That naughty Neil Asher (who organises the Financial Freedom Bootcamp that I spoke for recently) has analysed our marketing and taken apart our info page for the “Really Useful Internet Day” and he doesn’t pull his punches here!

Business & Money – You Have Your Say!

Business & Money – inextricably linked according to our latest Money Gym survey. 50% of you who responded want a successful business with over 27% of you wanting to run a successful business that you can work on, and travel with, anywhere in the world.

Trailing in way behind was “a million pound property portfolio” desired by just 13.5% of you, with only another 13.5% of you wanting to be debt free. I’ll tackle those two topics later in the week, but I bet the property portfolio would have been higher this time last year!

What is a successful business?

Everyone has a different definition and I think it depends what kind of a life you want. If you want a nice easy quiet life, with lots of time for leisure activities and hobbies, then a nice home-based or lifestyle business would be good for you.  You might want to look at a network marketing opportunity like Avon, Telecom Plus, Virgin Vie or Success University.

Or even something more down to earth and local like a babysitting business, gardening or something where you buy into an existing successful system, like Judith’s Cleaning Biz opportunity.  My friend Kim – a great hairdresser – has made a great business working from home 3 days a week, in her lovely salon, entirely depending on word of mouth referrals and able to pick her kids up from school and knock off early if she wants to.

If you want a bit more excitement then you might want to build a global business with lots of staff and a high-flying lifestyle.  If you want high-flying but no team, then a consultancy business might be for you.

By any definition, a successful business is one that covers all its overheads, pays its taxes, makes enough profit to create a long term financial cushion to be able to ride out peaks and troughs in the market or economy, and pay you a handsome salary AND dividends on top!

When I was in my 20’s and 30’s, I would have defined a successful business as one that paid me enough to pay my household bills, without having to work away from home.  My expectations have been raised quite dramatically since then!  As have my outgoings.  But also my income luckily.

Not without a lot of pain though, due to having NO CLUE about what a successful business looks like, acts like or needed from me.  About 100 books, and at least FIVE business mentors later, I might be getting there.

I think it also depends on your level of corporate or business experience when you start, where you set your expectations, and whether you have read any of the great wealth creation or business books like “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki or “E-Myth Revisited” by Michael Gerber which are certainly eye-openers.

Working with Judith Morgan, serial successful entrepreneur, and hanging out online with gurus and business coaches like Rich Schefren has changed the way I think about business for ever, too.

There is no right way or wrong way to think about what a successful business means for you, but do try and define it. If you begin with the end in mind, you will find it a lot easier to put the plan in place to achieve that success for you.

Here’s a recording of our weekly live TV show where my guest Sarah (who’s in the startup phase of her business) discuss the challenges and why she’s even bothering!

Businesses seem to go through phases…in the early days it’s all about attracting clients or customers and so many don’t get past that hurdle.

When we then surveyed our mailing list about what was stopping them creating a successful business some interesting answers came up….

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