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Your Personal Blueprint for Success

Your Personal Blueprint for SuccessWouldn’t it be great if you could tune into your future self, the self 5 years from now, and listen as she tells you that it’s not all that hard, to stop stressing and that it’s all going to be really great? What else would she say to you? This week in my Momentum masterclass we’ve been working on our visions for life and business.

It’s always a very special part of the program and there are often some hard challenges as well as inspirational highs as people distill what it is they’re really here to be, do and have. It can be a challenge to tune out of what everybody else wants, what the experts think, what the media says, what our family expect and to tap into your own authentic self. To reach that place of clarity about what you desire for your life requires focus, quiet and calm reflection.

I really feel honoured to be able to create that precious space for people who are otherwise so busy, they can’t hear their own thoughts or even feel their emotions.

The good thing is that you don’t have to have all the answers. You don’t have to ‘know’ what you want ultimately from your life right now. All you have to do is to reignite the system of tapping into your imagination and desires – a system that you were totally tuned into as a child. Then as you get better at it, like building your muscles, you get clearer and more confident about your direction. So it’s just takes a little bit of re-wiring. No big deal.

If your goal for example is to…build a profitable business that you love, are you clear about what that looks like? Is it broken down so you know the little steps you need to take, to get there? Or is it just a vague concept of something that should be on your to do list? If you want to ‘get fit’ do you know what that looks like and what it feels like and what it takes to get there? Have fun and get specific – map out your vision in detail.

Albert Einstein observed, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”

So for this exercise, tune out of your current stresses and issues and just move your mind way beyond to a time when the stars are aligned and things have fallen into place. Tune into a future place of confidence and clarity. You’ll have a great sense of certainty when you know what it is you want.

We all want a return on our investment of time. None of us want to feel like we’ve wasted it. If you throw more time at a problem, you’re not going to necessarily solve it. We need new thinking. We are not owned by these 24 hours. They are a man made construct. We have, at our disposal, an infinite source of power – of passion, wisdom and potential. We haven’t even tapped into 5% of what we’re capable of.

For example, you’ve created new life – look at your children. You’ve made someone else the happiest person on the planet (! Well, you know what I mean!) – look at your partner. You’ve overcome countless obstacles – think back to when you recovered from ill health, when you bounced back after a challenge that threw you for a six. Remember those times when you felt like throwing in the towel. And then think again. We’re capable of so much more.

I’ve always loved an in-side out approach, instead of an outside –in approach.

This post is aimed at helping you tap into what you want – it might take you a week, a fortnight or a year. There are no limits. And it’s a process – it doesn’t have to be perfect. But when you find your ‘true north’ then your journey, and the way you spend your time, will shift.

Do this exercise with your children – encourage them to have goals and vision boards. There is a lot of science behind this which you’ve probably heard about and that you will master when you get into the Milking It program.
Creating a compelling vision for your life and business is often put in the ‘do later’ basket because it’s never URGENT. But it’s the most important thing you can do. So we coach you through the process. We have a system to help you do it step by step. We get you to tap into what it is you really want. And resonate with that. It’s not enough to just want to wave a magic wand and make the problems / mess disappear. You need to have a direction.

Oprah says: “I’ve come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that’s as unique as a fingerprint – and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you.”

Get creative and share your journey here. I’d love to hear how you’re going. And remember, when you’re ready to make life easier, join the Milking it program where you’ll be given the structure and the steps and the coaching to make it happen.

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Money Tips to Change Your Life

Money TipsHow often is it you find the bills and credit card statements all roll in at the same time, it can be stressful and inconvenient if your pay is late or a client still hasn’t paid their invoice.

Perhaps you know you won’t have enough money in the bank by the end of the month so you try to sort everything in the middle of the month.

Maybe you have been stung with late fees as you didn’t have enough to cover a direct debit.

Sound familiar? Did you know it’s easy to fix!

You KNOW you make enough money every month to pay these bills, but it’s the due dates that can be stressful – you check your balance and find you are practically broke. Take the time to personalise the timing of some of your bills to fit into YOUR schedule.

Money tip – make a phone call – Ring your bank and ask them to change the statement day for your credit card statements, bank statements and most of your bills. You can chose a date based on the statement end date or on the due date (this is usually a fixed number of dates from the statement end date but it can vary from bank to bank). Statement dates close to the end of the month or first of the new month gives you a clean *cut off*. While you can always re-work your budget (spending) to go from a set date to a set date it’s easier to make that call and arrange things how YOU want it, not how your bank wants it.

Take action – review your bills – look at all your bills for the month and note the statement closing dates – if there are any that just won’t work with your new schedule or timing call the company and ask if dates can be changed and if so change it to the dates that suits you best. There are a few points to remember

  • The changes you make can take one or two *cycles* to actually change and take effect and your first statement could be very long or quite short – if it is going to be a longer statement – 5-7 weeks rather than 4 – expect a larger bill. Always keep an eye on your activity online – NOT receiving a bill is no excuse for not paying attention.
  • Take note of the new opening and closing dates on your statement and make sure the new dates suit your cash flow and repayment abilities.
  • Choose the bills you want to pay out of your set pay weeks

The Payoff – take time to remember you OWN your money – your money doesn’t own you! You are firmly *in the driver’s seat* you’re NOT the victim – it’s up to you what you spend and how you spend it and ultimately how you will pay for it all. Like most people you hate overdraft fees and late fees and they ARE avoidable – you just need to plan a little better. So if you can keep that money in your pocket your money handling skills will grow stronger every day!

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How to Create a Vision for your Business

Are you ready to start turning your ideas / passion into money?

Whether or not you have your business up and running yet it’s critical you begin to see yourself running a successful business.  When I’m faced with challenges in my business, it’s my vision that keeps me going.  When I look at the inspiring vision I set when I started my company, all complications fade and I’m motivated to push through and carry on.

Every major company in the world has a vision or mission statement – a broad, futuristic idea of what their company will achieve and look like in the future. Our five-step process helps you get there, but you need to know where “there” is first.

So, let’s take a look at what a vision statement is, and why it’s important for you to create one for your business.

A vision statement is a broad, inspiring image of the future state a business aspires to reach. It describes without specifying how aspirations will be achieved, or when. It’s ambitious and forward-thinking. It’s not about where the organization is now… it’s about what the organisation will be, or aspires to be.

A vision statement needs to:

  • describe your aspirations and intent
  • be inspirational for your future staff and customers
  • project a compelling story
  • paint a clear picture
  • use engaging and descriptive language
  • be realistic
  • align with your company’s values

The vision statement will also provide a clear criteria or measuring stick for decision-making. When making tough choices, ask “Does this support the vision statement?” If major initiatives don’t support the overall business vision, chances are they aren’t worth the investment of time and money.

If your business doesn’t have a vision statement, it needs one. There’s no time like the present!  If you already have one, then take this opportunity to strengthen it or make sure it’s aligned with the current dream you have for yourself and your company.

Your vision statement – once created, agreed to and perfected – should remain consistent and unchanged for several years.

Your team needs a strong, clear vision statement just as much as you do. When creating a vision statement, keep this in mind. The vision will need to be something that your staff can embrace, get excited about and that will motivate, inspire and build morale.

How will you communicate your vision to your employees once you’ve created it? How can you inspire them to nurture and support your vision on a daily basis, and in everything they do? How can you empower and motivate them to take ownership of the company’s future and their stake in it?

Our next blog post will help you get started with creating YOUR unique vision statement.  In the meantime, if you would like some help, please e-mail me at Brigitte@momentumfirst.com.au and we’ll help you get started quickly and easily.

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How to Create a Vision for your Business – Part 2

evaluate_where_your_business_isIn the last blog post, we talked about why you need a vision statement for your business. This post explains the first step to creating your unique business vision statement.

The easiest place to start is to evaluate where your business is today. That will reveal where you WANT it to be.

Start by looking at your current strengths and weaknesses from the perspective of everyone who does business with you: your customers, staff, management, vendors or suppliers and owners.

For example, what would your customers say about your level or quality of service? Would this area be considered a strength or a weakness? What would your staff say, or what would you want them to say about training and professional development opportunities? What do you think about your income and overall financial growth? Use this chart as a guide:

Analyze your observations, and remember that your weaknesses represent great opportunities for change and improvement, while your strengths need to be nurtured and developed.

Take a look at what you’ve written and answer the following questions:

  • What does the overall picture look like?
  • How does the overall picture align with the dream you have for your business?
  • What great achievements and qualities exist in the strengths section? (List 10)
  • What opportunities exist in the weaknesses section? (List 10)

Now that you’ve had a good look at where your business is positioned today, in the next post, I’ll help you to future pace your business and define where you want it to be.

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How to Create a Vision for your Business – Part 3

Where you want to beIn the last blog post, we helped you to explore where your business stands today – the good, the bad and the ugly.

Now we want to get into the detail of where you WANT it to be. When you look at the strengths and opportunities that you explored, where would you like each one to be? Using the features on the chart provided in Part 2, above, let’s now turn them into clear sentences describing the future state of your business. For example, “we constantly surprise and delight our customers with prompt and professional service, which creates word of mouth referrals”.

What opportunities and aspirations are the highest priorities for you and your business?

Take the sentences you created from the exercise above and list them in order of importance to you. You may have to do this several times before you feel the order is accurate. Then combine duplicate sentences or ones that describe similar things.

Once you’ve finished your list, take the top three to five sentences and combine them into a cohesive paragraph. That will give you a really good overview of the kind of business you want to build.

Refine your statements so that they’re broad, future-oriented and use words that reflect your values, priorities and dreams.

You need to refine your statement so it’s smooth, clear and easy to understand. Here’s a checklist to use when reviewing the words you’ve written:

  • is it inspirational for your staff and customers?
  • does it project a compelling image?
  • does it paint a clear picture?
  • have you used engaging and descriptive language?
  • is it realistic?
  • does it align with your company’s values?

TIP: You can use phrases like:

A leader in…
Support the development of…
Offer opportunities to…
Continually create…
Build on…
Inspire…
Develop…
Facilitate…
Achieve…
Deliver…
Bring together…

5. Include your staff in the vision creation process and ask them for feedback.
Do they understand the vision? Do they support it? Does it inspire them? Can they find meaning in their work based on it? Incorporate their feedback where possible and relevant.

6. Put your vision statement where everyone can see it – your staff, management, customers and vendors.
Once you’ve created your vision statement, share it with the world. Your vision is something you’ve committed to, and it lets everyone know where your company is heading. It allows them to see where you want to go, and gives them the opportunity to help you get there.

Now, do you have everything you need to start working towards your vision?

In the Momentum Business Academy e-learning program, we will show you how to work through a comprehensive goal-setting process that will act as the roadmap for achieving your vision. You’ll also review, in depth, the five-step process which is the strategy that you’ll use to achieve your goals, and in turn, the vision you’ve created. Find out more here: www.momentumbusinessacademy.com

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Confidence Boosting

This week I have been reflecting on the topic of confidence as it came up in a session with a beautiful, talented client. She pinpointed that a lack of self-confidence is holding her back from achieving her ideal life and she’s sick to death of it.

It stirred me up and got me thinking. How can someone so talented, beautiful and blessed with so many gifts lack confidence? If my client has it all on the outside, why has her ‘inside’ suffering every step of the way?

It comes down to a belief about being ‘good enough’. If you’re carrying around the opinions of others inside your head when you’re trying to make decisions, move through your day and achieve all that life demands of you, then it’s 10 against 1. You’re literally carrying the weight of the world around with you.

Why not make your own choices and decisions and then let others argue later if they have the time. When was the last time you questioned a confident person? We tend not to. It’s interesting how the only people we tend to challenge are those who are self-doubters. It’s easy, we know they’ll re-consider, pause, hesitate. It’s sport.

While I know that we all need a good dose of confidence to perform well on a daily basis, I also know that vulnerability is a very important and often underestimated character trait. So what we’re talking about here is definitely not assuming a false air of self-importance. Or of being over-bearing or boastful or arrogant. Vulnerability is a strength and can be the source of great confidence.

So let’s consider some different types of confidence.

Confidence can mean certainty – for example, in a clinical trial, you need statistical evidence to show that you’re confident that a certain result will occur. I also need to be confident that the brain surgeon operating on me has done his training – proof of that will give me confidence to go under the knife.

In the public speaking arena, confidence is critical. You need to assume a persona or air of confidence in order to get up in front of many people and talk. We all need to feel a certain amount of confidence about everyday occurrences – like the sun is going to rise in the morning and ‘everything’s going to be o.k.’

So to lack confidence, means we’re going against the natural order of things.

If for instance, we’re carrying around a load of self-doubt and thoughts like ‘he or she might not like what I’ve decided here’. The question is: who are you going to value more – them or you? Who are you going to back? And if you abandon the driver’s seat of your own life, who’s going to step in? And are they going to do a better job than you? Probably not.

Time to take control of the wheel and drive the bus where you want to go. Passengers can always disembark at the next stop if they don’t like your destination. And they can always get back on board when they realise that you’re committed to the journey you’re on.

What does confidence mean to you? Who do you know who’s confident? What is it about the way they think that makes them so? What would happen if you stopped worrying about what others think?

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How to Create a Vision for Your Business

Are you ready to start turning your ideas / passion into money?

Whether or not you have your business up and running yet it’s critical you begin to visualise an existing business and see yourself running a successful enterprise. When I’m faced with challenges in my business, it’s my vision that keeps me going. When I look at the inspiring vision I set when I started my company, all complications fade and I’m motivated to push through and carry on.

Every major company in the world has a vision or mission statement – a broad, futuristic idea of what their company will achieve and look like in the future. Our five-step process helps you get there, but you need to know where “there” is first.

So, let’s take a look at what a vision statement is, and why it’s important for you to create one for your business.

A vision statement is a broad, inspiring image of the future state a business aspires to reach. It describes without specifying how aspirations will be achieved, or when. It’s ambitious and forward-thinking. It’s not about where the organization is now… it’s about what the organization will be, or aspires to be.

A vision statement needs to:

  • describe aspirations and intent
  • be inspirational for your future staff and customers
  • project a compelling story • paint a clear picture
  • use engaging and descriptive language
  • be realistic
  • align with your company’s values

The vision statement will also provide a clear criteria or measuring stick for decision-making. When making tough choices, ask “Does this support the vision statement?” If major initiatives don’t support the overall business vision, chances are they aren’t worth the investment of time and money.

If your business doesn’t have a vision statement, it needs one. If you already have one, then take this opportunity to strengthen it or make sure it’s aligned with the current dream you have for yourself and your company.

Your vision statement – once created, agreed to and perfected – should remain consistent and unchanged for several years.

Your staff need a strong, clear vision statement just as much as you do. When creating a vision statement, keep this in mind. The vision will need to be something that your staff can embrace, get excited about and that will motivate, inspire and build morale.

How will you communicate your vision to your employees once you’ve created it? How can you inspire them to nurture and support your vision on a daily basis, and in everything they do? How can you empower and motivate them to take ownership of the company’s future and their stake in it?

Let’s start creating your unique vision statement.

1. Start by looking at your strengths and weaknesses from the perspective of everyone who does business with you.

Think about strengths and weaknesses from the perspective of customers, staff, management, vendors or suppliers and owners.

For example, what would your customers say about your customer service standards? Would this area be considered a strength or a weakness? What would your staff say, or what would you want them to say about training and professional development opportunities? What do you think about your income and overall financial growth? Use this chart as a guide:

Strengths Weaknesses Customers Customer service Product or service availability and quality Business location Business image Staff Training Salary Professional development Benefits Quality of work environment Management Training Benefits Staff skills Vendors / Suppliers Product or service quality Owner (You) Income Business image Salary

2. Analyze your observations, and remember that your weaknesses represent great opportunities for change and improvement, while your strengths need to be nurtured and developed.

Take a look at what you’ve written and answer the following questions on your pad of paper:

  • What does the overall picture look like?
  • How does the overall picture align with the dream you have for your business?
  • What great achievements and qualities exist in the strengths section? (List 10)
  • What opportunities exist in the weaknesses section? (List 10)

3. Now that you’ve assessed where your business stands today, where do you want it to be? What opportunities exist?

Here you will take the strengths and opportunities you identified in step one, the analysis you completed in step two and start describing them in words. Use the chart below as your guide. Write three sentences that describe the future state of your business.

3. What opportunities and aspirations are the highest priorities for you and your business?

Take the sentences you created above and list them in order of importance to you. You may have to do this several times before you feel the order is accurate. Then combine duplicate sentences or ones that describe similar things. Once you’ve finished your list, take the top three to five sentences and combine them into a cohesive paragraph.

4. Refine your statements so that they’re broad, future-oriented and use words that reflect your values, priorities and dreams.

You need to refine your statement so it’s smooth, clear and easy to understand. Here’s a checklist to use when reviewing the words you’ve written:

  • is it inspirational for your staff and customers?
  • does it project a compelling image? • does it paint a clear picture?
  • have you used engaging and descriptive language?
  • is it realistic? • does it align with your company’s values?

TIP: You can use phrases like:

A leader in… Support the development of… Offer opportunities to… Continually create… Build on… Inspire… Develop… Facilitate… Achieve… Deliver… Bring together…

5. Include your staff in the vision creation process and ask them for feedback.

Do they understand the vision? Do they support it? Does it inspire them? Can they find meaning in their work based on it? Incorporate their feedback where possible and relevant.

6. Put your vision statement where everyone can see it – your staff, management, customers and vendors.

Once you’ve created your vision statement, share it with the world. Your vision is something you’ve committed to, and it lets everyone know where your company is heading. It allows them to see where you want to go, and gives them the opportunity to help you get there.

Now, do you have everything you need to start working towards your vision?

In the Momentum Business Academy e-learning program, we will show you how to work through a comprehensive goal-setting process that will act as the roadmap for achieving your vision. You’ll also review, in depth, the five-step process which is the strategy that you’ll use to achieve your goals, and in turn, the vision you’ve created. Find out more here: www.momentumbusinessacademy.com

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Catching Balls at 6am

By far the hardest things to keep track of in my day are my own thoughts and inspiration. Most mornings I get home from the gym, greet my children and then head straight into the kitchen to help with breakfast and lunches and getting everyone ready to go off to school. Whilst cutting carrot sticks and plating up pancakes, I invariably have a stream of thoughts racing randomly through my mind about the things I need to remember to do that day.

I really don’t want to forget these important thoughts and they are usually the most important things that really need to be addressed. While my hands are busy with food and helping, I can’t stop to write it all down, so here’s a quick and easy tool I use to capture those ‘to dos’ before they are forgotten.

I just open the ‘voice memo’ app on my iPhone and literally talk to myself! Here’s an example from today: “Morning B, today you need to remember to…go through Grace’s presentation with her again, make a hair appointment for sat night, send welcome packs to two new clients, go to the ATM to get money for the ironing, pick up the new glasses from OPSM, send the birth certificate to the rugby club for James and help Lachy with his reading.” That’s it.

Then once I’ve dropped the kids off at school, I jump back in the car, play the memo back and write them down. Then looking at the list, it’s a case of the four D’s – what do I DO, what do I DUMP, what do I DELEGATE and what do I DELAY?

See, juggling is simple! xx

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Stylish Vision Boards

The reason we want to get organised in life is so we can be, do and have what we desire. So it’s important to have a daily dose of inspiration to keep you going through the journey to getting and staying organised.

Sometimes when we talk about vision boards, people recall tacky old high-school collages. Well rest assured, you can leave all that behind. Your vision board needs to be inspiring, beautiful and make you feel amazing.

Busy entrepreneurial mums may initially feel like creating a vision board is a waste of precious time. But it is actually the opposite. A vision board can pull you much faster towards the life you are working so hard for by feeding the subconscious with powerful symbols and messages.

An important tip: don’t clutter up your vision board with too many images. That can be overwhelming and defeat the purpose. After all, this is the year you’re going to be organised,so a cluttered vision board is not what we’re after!

Engage that right brain of yours for some creative ideas on how you want to display your vision board.

I have used a kikki.K vision board.

Follow us on Pinterest to discover some great vision board ideas.

As you can see they are far from boring and actually rather beautiful.

It’s important to create something you love to look at. Remember that through this program, we are going to help you achieve your goals, so really you want to take them seriously enough to find some lovely images. But whatever you do, don’t get all left-brained about it. It must FEEL great. Also, think outside the square. Your images and items are symbols of the things you love and want to attract. They don’t have to be too literal.

This one is so beautiful. I love the pompom trim, the gorgeous wreath and the birds, the different whites and the linen background adds warmth and an earthy tone.

If you prefer more colour and life, check out the one below.

You can also create a digital version of your board so that you can see it any time. We’ve discovered a handy app called Vision Cooker. This displays you vision board on your mobile devices and desktop computers.

How will you display your vision board? What are some great ideas and layouts you have seen?

I’m very excited to announce that we are interviewing Barbara Pellegrino again soon for our 2014 vision board master class. Stay tuned – members will be invited to the webinar.

 

Here’s to Your Success,
Brigitte and Angie xx
Resources – Kikki k Vision Boards

 

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It’s as Easy as a Cup of Tea

Welcome to week two of our 2014 Milking it blog. As we said last week, February is the new January (who wants to change the world when they’re on holiday?) so now the kids are back at school, we’re getting down into the business of making this the greatest year of your life, business and home. This week is about your goals: seeing it, feeling it, connecting to it.

Getting the foundations right will ensure that the rest of the year flows. This week, it’s important to carve out some time to look at your 2014 goals (see the last blog) and create a compelling vision for each goal.

Why a vision? A picture tells a thousand words. It’s more efficient to have a picture of what you want than a long essay detailing the kind of house you want. Your mind naturally brings up an image when you think of any outcome you want. So by choosing those images you’re influencing that process. We all need a picture of the end result we’re striving for. When you’re cooking a meal, you start with the end result – an image of the dessert or the special meal we’re creating. You’re in the process now of planning out your life, your business, and your home in detail so you get what you want. You are a whole-brained person. You’re not just a left-brained person. You have emotion, colour, shapes, etc in your mind so you need to engage that thinking. We’re using images to engage our subconscious. The subconscious mind is the driver or the horse that gets us places. How many of us are on auto pilot?

We suddenly arrive at a destination and we don’t remember how we got there? We just get there. That’s our subconscious just driving us. We tie our shoelaces without thinking. The subconscious mind is like our internal GPS system. By feeding it the images we want, ideas will show up, people will show up. It’s all part of the neural conditioning in the brain. So by having a vision of what your heart desires this year, you’ll start to create new neural pathways which will lead to deeper insights and a journey that is aligned with your desires.

Having a vision board engages your reticular activating system – that part of your mind that obediently recalls what you want it to recall at any point in time. For example, you might be looking to buy a new pair of runners, and you decide the brand you want. Suddenly you see those runners everywhere. Yesterday you didn’t notice them, but today you start seeing them everywhere. That’s the reticular activating system at work. Like a periscope popping out from the submarine, it scans the environment and notices the things that are important to us. It’s a survival technique.

So this week, if you can find time to sit and have a coffee, then that’s your moment to create your vision board. Stick figures will do. Magazine clippings, photos, anything that reflects closely the outcome of your goals. Just make sure they are symbols. We’re not looking for perfection here, just progress.

This step in the Milking it journey will get you out of the dangerous world of negatives which is so common in our every day vernacular. We so commonly use negatives to describe what we want: ‘stress-free’, ‘debt-free’, ‘lose weight’, ‘injury-free’, ‘pain-less’ etc, etc. Remember that our brain doesn’t process the negative part of those phrases, only the key words. So those phrases would simply translate as ‘stress, debt, weight, injury, pain’. I think we’re all happy to move out of that world!

Your vision board is putting things out there that are right for you and everyone else.

There’s just one rule this week – it’s got to feel good. You’ve got to feel AHHH yeah! This is possible for me! I really want this! Yeah! You don’t want to feel like ‘this’ll never happen’, or ‘this is way too hard’. We want to look at the board and FEEL great.

When you’ve finished your board, just run it through what I call ‘The Believability Test’ – if you don’t think it’s possible for you, don’t put it up there. Just put the stuff there that you believe is possible for you. Then as those things happen, you can add to it and improve on it.

It’s so refreshing to embrace a genuinely new start to the year. We have a ton of resources in our membership area to help you with this exercise:

  • A workbook, five videos from me explaining the process
  • An hour long MP3 interview with world leading vision board expert Barbara Pellegrino (that was so much fun)
  • A forum full of Milking it members who are all getting into it and having a great time.

If you haven’t signed up yet, we look forward to having you on board. What are you waiting for?

Brigitte, Angie & the DYRTM Team