photo credit: Matt Gush

In order to create success and make networking worth your time there are a few simple principals you must follow.

By engaging in these simple actions your efforts compounded over time will inevitably create lasting success, and lifelong friendships.

1- Regular and On Time Attendance- This should be self explanatory, but unfortunately it is sometimes taken for granted.

2- Show interest and Participate- Sitting in silence does not add value to the group or portray you as a resource. Ask questions, give valuable ideas, do anything to get people to say “Wow! I would like to speak to this person.”

3- Be a Resource, Not a Meaningless Advertisement- Constantly pitching and only attempting to meet with people who you feel can help you will get you nowhere. You must be willing to help others unconditionally.

4- Build Relationships, Set up personal meetings- One on one meetings is what are going to build your valuable relationships. If you are not willing to make this commitment your business networking efforts are going to be a waste of time.

5- Help Others Unconditionally- You willingness to help is what is going to build your credibility and your brand. Wouldn’t you like your phone to be ringing off the hook? By positioning yourself as a resource and helping everyone that you possibly can without the expectation of something in return is going to mean you have successfully created credibility for yourself and your brand.

6- Find Mentors & Engage in Personal Development- Success without personal development leads to failure.

7- Position Yourself as a Resource, Stay in contact with those you meet- Maintaining regular correspondence with your network will help you stay in the forefront of people mind. The more you can be a resource the more your emails will be opened and your site will be trafficked.

8- “Rinse and Repeat” Plan, Do, Review- You will only get better through repetition – Once you have gotten these simple steps down keep doing them! This is it, the basics. There is no need to reinvent the wheel.

Mastering the mundane is what creates lasting success. The ideas and principals have been written and rewritten over and over again for hundreds of years, nothing has changed.

You have all the tools and resources to build your business as well as you network, get to work!

A Harris Interactive study that found 80% of Americans are not passionate about what they do. That’s 4 out of 5 people who are just working for money, not for their passion. Everyone knows passion is the key to success, but for people who don’t know what their passion is, finding it can be a mystery.

The Passion Test is a simple, yet powerful way to get clear about things that matter most to you and then a process to make those a priority in your life. Passions are clues to your destiny. In order to Live Life on Purpose, you must first know what that means for you.

When you are clear about your desires, what you want will show up in your life, however, only to the extent of your description. It’s all about Intention, Attention, and No Tension.

Intention is consciously stating what you want. Most people don’t even take the time to put in writing what they intend for their life. You can and should make intentions for each portion of your life, such as this day, this meeting, this relationship.

Attention has to do with what you want to create in your world. Your life is a result of what you have been putting your attention on, whether you realize it or not. The good news is, if you like your life, keep putting your attention on what you have been and if you don’t like your life, switch what you are putting your attention on to something you are passionate about.

The No Tension part is accepting that whatever is happening in this moment is the absolute best thing that can happen for you. Let’s face it we are not the General Manager of the Universe. Our reality can show up in many different ways and we have a choice to either resist what is happening or accept it and know that we may not see the big picture right now. Accepting is crucial to the No Tension aspect of life. .

If you are part of the 80% of Americans who don’t love their job, you can do something about it and it doesn’t take a lot of money or time. It just takes knowing how to do it and focusing on what makes you happy.

Think about what a different world we would live in if everyone loved what they did for a living!

Join me on this journey of joy and fulfillment by finding out what matters most to you in life and then start living it! Carol Hasbrouck www.IntentionalLivingOnline.com

photo credit: chenutis

photo credit: mi_ong_pasta

If you have no desired destination any old place will do. Setting up your goals and defining your “Why” is what makes it easier to get through trials and tribulations when they arise.

Having a positive attitude, and being optimistic does not keep obstacles from coming up, but it does help whether the storm. Having a goal helps us work with the end in mind, and without one dooms us to observe our present circumstances and dwell on what is or is not happening.

I attribute my daily success to believing it is going to be a successful day. It is sometimes difficult to believe when you think about your day and don’t even want to get out of bed to start it, but that is where your goals come in. Since my personal goals have been defined I have also written out an in detail description to what a “perfect” day looks like to me it is easier to focus on what good is going to happen. Now every day does not pan out “perfectly,” but I know that the activities I go through throughout the day are getting me closer to experiencing it on a regular basis.

This unfortunately does not work for those of you out there who hate what you do and are unwilling to change your habit and behaviors. There are just too many people hell bent on defining insanity on a daily basis. It is a time of change, and you are no exception. Evolution is taking place and life is evolving faster than ever before. Adapt of be left behind.

Define your goals. Write them down. What does a perfect day look like to you? Both a work day and a play day, define them both. How much money will it take for you to do what you love? How much would it take for you not to have to work for anyone anymore? What does your perfect life look like?

The questions are everywhere, only you have the answers. Good luck!

photo credit: peruisay

Success has a degree of fear attached to it mainly because becoming successful normally requires change. If you do what you have always done you will get what you have always gotten. Defining your goals and setting up you game plan is the easy part, the consistent and persistent implementation of success principals is where the challenge begins.

Once you truly understand YOUR reasoning behind setting YOUR goals, not what is expected of you, but what YOU feel in your heart of hearts that is what will propel you through any unforeseen challenges.

Many people go through some sort of self sabotage, certainly myself included. You will see that everything is going absolutely perfectly and life just seems to get better and better then boom you  fall into the complacency trap. Complacency is the thief of ongoing success.

We are our own worst enemy. Our subconscious mind has so much magnificent power, but we so infrequently maximize its potential. Self doubt, negative or unsure thoughts and actions, talking the talk and never walking the walk, procrastination, these are all things we have 100% control over. Have you ever noticed that the things we like to do the least are what creates the results that we desire the fastest?

One factor in particular which encompasses so many of the success principals is personal development. The ability to set goals, make a game plan, put it into action, and stay focused. In a nut shell that is how to avoid self sabotage, obviously much easier said than done. That is why we must continue to read, listen to quality audio programs, attend seminars, and most importantly keep your motivating goals in front of you at all times. Read them back to yourself multiple times a day to remind yourself why you do what you do. Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do. What extra effort are you willing to make?

Take a step back and evaluate yourself to see if you can identify things you do that are pulling you farther away from your goals. Find out where you are comfortable and if that is bringing you closer to your objective. Your biggest fear of success is stepping out of your comfort zone and making the changes necessary for the acquisition of all you had ever hoped for.

Step out on faith!

A good friend of mine and I were talking a few weeks ago talking about sales in various industries which are commission only, with no residual on the back end. We had the opportunity to motivate each other by reinstating to notion that there is no planning committee out there brainstorming with our best interest in mind. Since we are designed for success, but programmed for failure we MUST take it upon our self to chase and believe in our dreams as early in life as possible.

The one thing my friend said to me that really resonated, especially when you look at the majority of sales and commission only jobs, is “you are one brother-in-law away from loosing that commission or residual if you even have it.” – Jim Anthony
There are so few professions with little to no competition, residual income, and the ability to build a long term passive income stream, BUT THEY ARE OUT THERE! Get something started, not some fly by night opportunity, but a business with a foundation and proven track record. Don’t be someone else’s guinea pig.

Build your own planning committee, find other like minded people to be accountable to, and push each other. Keep your eyes open for the quality people who read books, listen to valuable audio programs, and that go to training events to better themselves. Success without personal development is a recipe for failure. This is why you hear of people winning the lotto and going broke.

Simple daily disciplines of reading, listening, and implementing the strategies and techniques you pick up will put you ahead of the 95% of people who are dead or dead broke by 65. Whether you are 18 or 81 within 3-5 years you can create whatever lifestyle you desire. The only difference will be the story and the legacy which is left.

In the overall scheme of things there are only two types of choices, choices that take us closer to success and choices that take us away from success. This is referred to as the “Slight Edge,” by Jeff Olson.

Every choice we make lies either on the success curve which is going up and to the right, meaning closer to our goal, or down and to the right, drawing us away from our goal. All decisions, regardless of how big or small, are somewhere on this curve. At the moment we make choices it may not seem like they make a significant difference, but good or bad decisions compounded over time will be the deciding factors of our life.

You can look at it from many perspectives. One cigarette may not kill you, but the 10,000th or 100,000th just might. Fast food, one or two hamburgers aren’t clogging your arteries, but what about the 100th or 1000th? Let’s look at it from a success angle as well. Five or ten prospect calls may not make a difference, but what if you made fifty or a hundred? Reading a book or so a year may not influence your life noticeably, but how much more effective would you be if you read ten or twenty?

Looking at your decisions from any angle you will notice a positive or negative pattern or habit. Sometimes it is a good habit and sometimes it is a bad one. The only thing that matters is your ability to identify if you are riding the wave up the success wave or down the failure curve.

This evening or tomorrow morning look at all the plans and activities you do throughout the day and find out what decisions you are making that are drawing you closer to what you desire and what are drawing you away. The most important thing is to not blame others for “making you” do anything. You are the only one in control of the actions you make and only you can change your circumstances. Remember anything and everything that has occurred in your life up until this point you are 100% responsible for, good and bad, it is up to you to determine your interpretations of the events. You can look back and use them as motivation to propel you up the success curve or as your excuse that holds you down.

Thank you for your time and have a spectacular day!

There are people in our lives who are positive and there are those who are negative, both we may consider friends, but how is this effecting us?

When you are in conversation with others and someone is talking about something as simple as remembering names or as elaborate as doubling their income have you noticed yourself thinking “wow, I can’t do that!” and then after you think about it you verbalize it and notify those around you aren’t capable of achieving what they are talking about!

This is one of the many ways we reinforce and program ourselves for underachievement and perceived failure. All of the “I’m not’s,” “I cant’s,” and whatever other self demeaning vocabulary we have learned is day by day sabotaging us subconsciously. Since thoughts are things, this is scientifically proven by the way, it is imperative that we begin to train ourselves to think in terms of what we are capable of and what we do want to manifest into our lives.

Here is a fun and interesting little challenge I learned from hypnotist Topher Morrison. When you have “one of those mornings,” and you perceive things to already be going downhill from the time you get out of bed, for the rest of the day try this: Walk everywhere you have to go at a little faster speed, with your head up, looking around, with a smile on your face greeting everyone you see, and when you get where you are going put your hands up and say “Here I am, I made it!” Do this the entire day until you go to sleep at night.

The reasoning behind this is you typically don’t see unhappy, miserable people walking around quickly with a smile on their face especially greeting others, and your subconscious mind knows this as well. By walking faster and smiling you are now inadvertently tricking your subconscious mind into being happy and enjoying life and since your subconscious is the director of your feelings and emotions you may just feel better on a conscious level as well. Go figure!

Enjoy your day, and have some fun!