As the concept of money evolved over the millennia – substituting agreements of value for things – money became a substitute for power. The words: “money”, “power”, “property” have evolved as a series of surrogates: with power the primordial desire, and survival in a material world the paramount quest. Things, objects – property, possessions – became proxy for power. Over time money became a proxy for things. The desire for power springs from a natural instinct to stabilize an unstable existence. Money has come to represent what we covet most – power. Money is power!

After the need to survive the most pervasive force in the human psyche is the drive to gain power. We want to be in control, we want to be in charge – we want to be powerful. So by securing prosperity for yourself and your kin, you aren’t looking for money. You really aren’t looking for tangible things; you are seeking power. But to what end?

We are simple, relatively small and powerless creatures making our way in a material existence. We judge our surroundings and our success by what we can see, hear, touch, taste, and smell – this is after all a physical world. And in this physical world we see limited resources, limited time, and lots of competition. We have come to believe, by lifetimes of physical evidence, that our survival and success are dependent on our ability to compete for a share of the resource pie; to accumulate what we can, and thereby achieve some level of power over our existence.

Digging a little deeper leads to the question – Why do we want money? In the final analysis it is not money, nor things, nor power that really matters – these are all means to an end. Life is ultimately all about experience and the experiences we seek are about abundance, about growth, and fulfillment. We seek money for power, we seek power for happiness. Ultimately, it’s all about happiness.

Life is fleeting. We are on a temporary journey, moved by some forces to act – what we seek is happiness – what we get is experience. If experience and happiness are not one and the same, then the task is not to labor for money – it is to find fulfillment.

Money and power are really only tools. What you seek, truly, is to build an abundant, fulfilled and fulfilling life. Money, as a medium of exchange, as a unit of account, and as a store of value is one tool available to you to use in this physical existence. Don’t waste life accumulating money when what you really desire is happiness. Devote your time, energy and talents to the manufacture of joy and money won’t matter.

Copyright © 2010 Scott F Paradis

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One of the values of a good Time Management System is that it helps you separate the good use of your time from the less effective uses. This comes into play when we have to deal with days where we are busy, but not productive. From the onset, being busy is not what we want; running around working hard, at whatever comes across our desk is not a recipe for success.

Being Busy

The days where we worked hard, ran hard, accomplished things, and still ended up dissatisfied at the end of the days were the days that were busy for us, but did nothing or very little to move our Agenda along. That is why we have an Agenda; to help us plan and organizes our day, so we can move closer to achieving what we want to do and when we feel it should be done. The purpose of adhering to a good Time Management system is that we want to have a plan, and then work that plan.

Being frantic and hectic does nothing in the long run to help us achieve and realize our goals. We want to achieve the following: being productive. What is not going to benefit us is just being hectic and running around, this leads to nothing of real value for us, except perhaps by accident.

Being Productive

This is where we want to be, being productive means we have achieved what we set out to do, and that is to move closer to realizing what we have set out in our daily Agenda as well as our long term plans and goals. If you do not have a plan, then you are simply at the mercy of the events and the people around you who do. When you allow this to happen, then being wrapped up in other peoples activities is the best that can happen to you and that is not an appealing thought.

Accomplishing what you set out to do has many benefits, one is, success breeds more success. If you get into a groove, see things working out for you, you tend to keep doing what is working for you. Time Management is an acquired taste, some people will turn their nose up at the mere mention of it, and others will latch on, see that it works and then become an advocate, a convert of it. The value of a good system is that it helps to keep you focused and your eye on the ultimate prize, you and your productivity and your happiness.

What we want to be able to do as much as possible is to have full, busy as well as productive days. How do we do that? Self-management, no I did not misspell, we need to control and manage our time, as well as managing ourselves at the same time. Once we separate what we want to do, we then have to discipline ourselves into doing what we set out to do. That is where we have to show some discipline and some focus, keep out the influences and the distractions, and get down to business. This is where a good Time Management System is worth its weight in gold, it will not only help establish a plan for you to follow, it is designed to keep you on course and focused on the tasks at hand.

Easier said than done, it is a long process and made longer if we are not aware of the implications. The days that we get what we want to get done are the days that we are closer to where we want to be. The days that will allow other people, other events and other Agendas to prevail, we a have taken a step backwards. We have only so much time, energy and resources at our disposal, we need to be sure that we make the best use of these limited, non renewable assets.

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Are you someone who knows what it is like to have a feeling of success and achievement but all that feels a distant memory (even if, say you achieved something last week!?)

Are you somewhere that at best your life and career is feeling “eh, just alright” or worse it may even be sucking the life out of you? Perhaps you feel like you’re dying on the vine, or not even feeling much about it at all because you’ve been so numbed to the same routine that you feel like the Dunkin Donuts commercial in the 80′s where a big man shuffles like an automaton saying over and over again “time to make the donuts”. Does your day feel like that?

As the gifted human being I know you are then you know deep in your gut that there has to be more to life than this. I can remember uttering those same words myself almost daily during my first job out of college. Frankly I said those same words many times over the years as I navigated my way around feeling like a square peg in a round hole in career situations that never seemed to fit quite right. Everyone told me that “it” is just “normal”. It’s “just the way it is”. I didn’t buy it. It didn’t feel right to me.

So, here’s the thing – you are meant to have a fulfilling life. It’s not just supposed to be full for every waking moment in a mad dash to the end. It’s not supposed to be a “suck it up and do what you don’t want to so maybe one day you can retire” or “life’s a bummer and then you die” scenario. It might sound funny or harsh, but I know personally when I was around the age of 22 and a co-worker who had been miserable working in the same job for over 20 years said to me “if you hang in there and you’re really lucky you just need to bide your time for about 30 years and then you can retire” I thought my head would explode! What? Bide my time for decades?! Throw my life and spirit into the trash? Are you insane?

Whether I’ve been wise beyond my years or simply stubborn and adamant about living life fully, I’ve never wanted to settle. I’ve never wanted to miss out on all the interesting experiences and people around me. Ask my mother, she’ll tell you – I never napped as a baby. Her idea of working night shift and sleeping when I napped totally backfired because I never napped because I didn’t want to miss anything! (She was one tired lady for a while there.) Now while I’m quite good about getting my 7-8 hours of sleep a night, I still see my life as an awesome buffet of so many cool things I would love to experience. And, well, sometimes a good nap in the sun is one of them!

If your schedule is too packed or your spirit is dampened by days filled to the brim with things that don’t nourish YOU, you’re missing out. You’re living only a fraction of the life you’re meant to live. You’re experiencing only a small piece of the results and impact you’re meant to have in this world personally or professionally. You wouldn’t knowingly go to a store to pay twice as much and only receive half of what you’re meant to have, would you? Yet that is what you’re doing when you settle for full instead of fulfilling.

Is that really what you want from your one precious life?

I know my answer was a resounding NO. How about you? Are you ready to claim your birthright – the choice to choose to live your life on purpose and with intention? Only you have the power to say yes (and no one can say no for you either).

Copyright © 2010 Paula Gregorowicz

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You know how one year, everyone knows you need an M.B.A. to succeed at anything, and then the next, they’re saying that there are no jobs out there anyway, so don’t even try.

Learning that the unfamiliar isn’t to be feared is almost never easy. Just try something new and slightly scary. Catch yourself off-guard and see what happens.

Yet, you can learn to turn a sudden shift in your life to your advantage. You might shake up a lot of people, especially the ones who aren’t happy with how they’re living. But it can be a real chance to turn your life around, by exploring what it is that you really like.

Here are some tricks of how to start to do just that.

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Follow Your Passion

It is not enough to want your own business. You must find the business that you are passionate about! Your business must be in alignment with your personal goals, values and passion. When I was growing up, I was heavily involved in theatre and dancing. I toyed with the idea of obtaining a degree in musical theatre and moving to New York to pursue a career on Broadway. However, I was cautioned not to do this unless I was wildly passionate about it because the rejection was so incredible and the industry was so competitive. Do these obstacles sound familiar? They are very similar to those experienced by entrepreneurs. However, when you do something that you are truly passionate about, it’s easy to get out of bed and feel excited and energized by your work! In addition, it is much easier to find ways to stand out in a competitive market and to do great work for your clients.

Have a Vision

In business, it is critical to pay attention to the right details. Planning is crucial to success. It’s a well-known axiom that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail, and yet I regularly hear from entrepreneurs who do not plan! Without a plan in place, it is too easy to get distracted by whatever happens to come your way. If the opportunities (seminars, speaking engagements, networking opportunities, article requests, etc) are not in alignment with your vision, they will take you off course, and you may not meet your end goal and your vision will become, well… blurred! Think about this before you say “yes” to the next thing that comes your way. If it is not going to help support your goals for this year, month, or week, your decision should be very easy. Just say no.

Find a Way to Be Held Accountable

Many of us go into business to be able to flex our creative muscle. We like coming up with wonderful ideas, but implementing them is not as fun as the big-picture thinking! Our new idea sounds great, and the potential revenue is exciting, but the tasks we need to do to get there are overwhelming and we can’t seem to make any headway on the project! So we procrastinate and find other things to occupy our time, until we eventually take the wonderful creative idea off our “to do” list because we don’t want to or know how to do the work to get us there. This is a waste of your creative spirit! Successful entrepreneurs find ways to be held accountable, whether it’s through membership in a round table or mastermind group, forming an advisory board, entering a formal partnership or hiring a coach to keep them on track.

Spend Your Time on High-Payoff Tasks

Everyone knows that in order to stay in business, we must continue to bring in revenue. However, many entrepreneurs spend too much of their time doing activities that don’t generate income! So what is an entrepreneur to do? Delegate! By outsourcing all the tasks that don’t include generating money or building relationships, you will be able to use your newly found time to make more money! Your time for high-payoff activities (planning, forecasting, developing your marketing funnel, training, and so forth) will increase and in turn, your productivity will increase. There are many virtual professionals who you can hire to do the work you need to outsource and could include anything from accounting to administration and beyond. Once you do this the first time, be prepared to be addicted to this concept!

Focus

How many projects do you have going on at any one time? Or worse, how many businesses are you running at one time? I recently met a woman who has three businesses, and she was complaining that none of them were doing well. Gee, I wonder why? Having too many projects at one time, particularly if you do not have a way of managing each of them properly, means that you’re likely to become overwhelmed. Pick a project or two and focus on those. You will feel so great to knock something out and will be motivated to continue onto your next task. If you are spread too thin, I can guarantee you that you will sabotage your chances of meeting your goals.

After assessing where you are in these five lessons, you can start to see what you need to focus on. Whether you feel confused, struggle with self-confidence or lack tangible results, I suggest taking action to find out if you’re following your passion and determine your measuring stick for success. If you are easily distracted or overwhelmed, I suggest finding a coach who can help you align your goals, priorities and values to create the life and business you desire. By paying attention to these key areas, you can start to shift to creating a business that fits your lifestyle, not one that dictates it, which is one of my personal measures of success.

Copyright © 2009 Meredith Liepelt

Meredith Liepelt, President of Rich Life Marketing, publishes Smart Marketing, a free bi-weekly ezine featuring marketing tips, insider secrets and thought provoking articles designed to help the busy female entrepreneur become known as an expert in her field, build trust with clients and prospects and generate more income than ever before. Claim your free subscription today at http://www.richlifemarketing.com

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The term “Use it or Lose it” sounds trite today. But there is real power in those few words – if you look below the surface. The phrase was first used in “Pushing to the Front”, published in 1894.

First, this book reassures of nature’s almost unlimited capacity to provide for our needs. The writer then goes on encourage us to consciously choose what we want our life’s work to be. He points out the vast resources we have at our disposal to achieve our aims. (Of course, we have so much more today than anyone enjoyed back in 1894!) We are then warned converting these resources into the results we desire will take real effort. Even after we have made some headway, we cannot expect the momentum to be maintained without some ongoing energy – nothing, the author reminds us, remains static. Let me share a passage from Pushing to the Front with you:

“Everything in nature is on the move, either one way or the other. It is either going up or down. It is either advancing or retrograding; we cannot hold without using. Nature withdraws muscle or brain if we do not use them. She withdraws skill the moment we stop drilling efficiently, the moment we stop using our power. The force is withdrawn when we cease exercising it. Nature is liberal with us if we utilize what she gives us, but if we stop using it, if we do not transform what she gives us into power, if we do not do some building somewhere, if we do not transform the material which she gives us into force and utilize that force, we not only find the supply cut off, but we find that we are growing weaker, less efficient.

A college graduate is often surprised years after he leaves the college to find that about all he has to show for his education is his diploma. The power, the efficiency which he gained there, has been lost because he has not been using them. He thought at the time that everything was still fresh in his mind after his examination that this knowledge would remain with him, but it has been slipping away from him every minute since he stopped using it, and only that has remained and increased which he has used; the rest has evaporated. A great many college graduates ten years afterwards find that they have but very little left to show for their four years’ course, because they have not utilized their knowledge. They have become weaklings without knowing it. They constantly say to themselves, “I have a college education, I must have some ability, I must amount to something in the world.” But the college diploma has no more power to hold the knowledge you have gained in college than a piece of tissue paper over a gas jet can hold the gas in the pipe. Everything which you do not use is constantly slipping away from you. Use it or lose it. The secret of power is use. Ability will not remain with us, force will evaporate the moment we cease to do something with it.”

Again, in the author’s own words “The tools for self-improvement are at your hand, use them.” and “Progress may seem slow at first, but perseverance assures success.”

Over a century after the words, “use it or lose it” were first published, the saying is as true as ever. This key to success should serve as both an encouragement and a warning to anyone attempting to build a better future for themselves.

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I’ve done the same thing. I’ve invested more money than I care to admit to learn how to grow my business. And, I grew my business to a point that many would consider incredibly successful. But, what I didn’t realize is that I was growing the business on a cracked foundation. Why? Because I listened to others more than I listened to myself. I tried to model others, more than I created a unique model that worked for me. I did what I thought I should do rather than what was 100% right for me and my life. I allowed some of my decisions to be made from my ego, rather than my heart.

You may find this ironic to hear from the woman who is known for her authenticity and for being a pioneer in conscious entrepreneurship. It surprised me, too, when with the help of my spiritual teacher I looked more closely at the business I had created and saw many things about it (and myself) that needed to shift.

What scared me the most, when I realized I hadn’t been listening to my SELF, is how many other people this is happening to. I teach about conscious entrepreneurship, I make it a discipline to be awake and aware to what’s really happening in my business. I focus on the conscious journey I’m on. And, yet I was asleep in some ways. I felt such compassion for myself that I hadn’t truly listened to the depths of my soul and what it was saying to me, and I felt compassion for all entrepreneurs who are asleep in some way in their business.

So, I’ve been on a journey of learning to listen to myself at a deeper level. And, I invite you to join me on this journey, too. I want to share four of the ways I’ve been deepening my ability to listen to my self. And, conveniently, they spell S.E.L.F…

Silence In a world filled with noise, noise and more noise… silence truly is golden. As entrepreneurs, we’re overwhelmed by email, phone calls, TV, radio, social media, blogs, teleclasses, a long “to do” list, etc. And, it’s all draws your focus to the external. Yet, in order to succeed as a happy, fulfilled, successful conscious entrepreneur your focus needs to be inside of yourself. Silence is how this happens. So, today, please take five minutes to sit in silence. Breathe deeply and tune into your internal world. Enjoy the silence and time to simply be with yourself.

Evaluation Rather than rushing from one thing to another, chasing creative ideas as quickly as they arrive, allow yourself to evaluate everything. With each step you take in your business, be conscious about what’s happening. Does it feel right? Is it working? Is it fun and easy? Did you say “yes” when you wanted to say “no”? Is it worth it? Is it profitable? Too often, entrepreneurs get so excited about what’s next, that they move forward too fast and say “yes” too often. The biggest gift you can give yourself is to honestly evaluate what you’ve done and what you want to do to make sure it is completely aligned with you, your business and your life.

Listening Listening piggy backs on silence. Once you turn your focus inward to be present with your own beautiful being, it’s the perfect time and space in which to listen to your heart. For entrepreneurs, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the external world of money, success models, marketing, networking, creating, etc. But, none of the external aspects of your business will come together with grace if you don’t take time to listen to what’s TRUE for you.

Focus on Freedom Every decision you make in your business needs to bring you closer to Freedom! And not only financial freedom; but freedom in every area of your life. If you make a decision in your business that robs you of a freedom you want in your life, it’s not the right decision to make. Focusing exclusively on financial freedom can lead to overwhelm, confusion, exhaustion and frustration. When you focus on freedom on every level… financial, spiritual, physical and emotional… you will be guided to make the right decisions for your self.

I encourage you to write these four principles on a sticky note or index card right now and place it somewhere near your computer. Use it as a reminder to be silent, evaluate, listen and focus on freedom as you travel the path of conscious entrepreneurship.

Copyright © 2009 Christine Kloser

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As I look back I now understand how many hardships I did not have to face if I had taken my parents advice; now I will help my children break this cycle and capitalize on all this valuable insight.

Perhaps your parents had limitations which you do not have. Perhaps they made mistakes in their lives. Whatever your parents’ younger years consisted of, it is likely that they want better for you.

If your parents made mistakes when they were younger, they have probably learned a number of valuable lessons from those mistakes. They learned that mistakes do come with consequences. Some of those consequences can take many years to overcome, and some cannot be overcome at all. They also learned that avoiding mistakes is much better than dealing with the consequences and the resulting hardships.

You can learn from your parents’ mistakes regardless of your age. They have had years of experience in learning what works and what does not. They have learned which courses-of-action leads to hardships, and which ones lead to success. Whether they learned this from making errors, or from limitations which they had in their lives, your parents want a better, brighter, and more successful life for you.

When your parents guide you, they are trying to help you to avoid making the mistakes that they made. They are helping you to avoid unnecessary hardships, and take the course-of-action which will result in success. When you leave yourself open to their guidance, you will have a better chance and more opportunities than your parents had in their own lives.

You must always keep in mind that your parents always want what is best for you even if their guidance tends to come off a bit harsh, pushy, or very matter of fact at times. Just try to keep your emotions in check and remember to see their true hearts intent. They are honestly and truly just looking out for your best interest through tough love.

Instead of putting time and energy into overcoming mistakes, you can set your sights on your goals and focus on attaining them. You will see that you have more potential than you had realized. This is a wonderful gift which your parents want to give you, by guiding you in the right direction. All you need to do is accept it, in the spirit in which they are offering it to you.

Choosing to follow your parents’ guidance will break the cycle. You, and the children that you may have someday, will not have to endure the same hardships which your parents experienced. When you listen to and follow their guidance, you will be more equipped for success. Not only will this make your own future much brighter, but you will also be setting a good example for your children and future generations.

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