Success is a choice to make. Are you choosing it? What are you doing in your life to make it more positive and meaningful? How are you focusing your time to improve your life and business? We can all take one or more simple steps to do this.
Copyright (c) 2009 Alice Chan
If you live on the West Coast, you are familiar with Daylight Savings time and how twice a year in March and November, we adjust our clocks backwards or forwards by an hour. The rationale behind this practice is that it is a way to make better use of daylight.
We change our clocks during the summer months to move an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening. This change will allow us to still have daylight until closer to 6:00 pm, but it will be dark in the mornings until closer to 7:00 am, almost 8:00 am depending on the weather forecast.
There is always an adjustment period when this happens even though I've been doing it most of my life. Just like when the economy shifts up or down, we ride the wave. We have all benefited from economic upswings and of course, since the opposite of good is bad, there will always be some of those negative experiences as well.
For instance I shared in my recent telecourse that I had a great time riding the wave of the dot com boom (as did hundreds of thousands of other Silicon Valley residents, business owners, and even folks around the world).
Of course, when the dot coms "busted", we also experienced some turmoil with losing some of the luxuries we all had become accustomed to - big paychecks, rising stock prices, millionaires on paper, etc.
Another area that we are all familiar with is the Real Estate boom. I didn't hear anyone complaining when their house values were climbing through the roof and people were knocking on doors offering sometimes well into the six figures above the asking price for their homes.
Now that the tables have turned and the market values have tanked, everyone's forgotten how good it was and how they probably refinanced their homes and took equity out to enjoy luxuries that they wouldn't have been able to otherwise.
It is important for each of us, especially as entrepreneurs, to not get caught up in all the negative talk and be grateful for what we have and what's actually happening in OUR own worlds, NOT THE world.
A few months ago, I decided to unplug from what's going on in the world, by choice. I think it was a very smart choice and one that you all may want to adopt. I made a conscious choice not to listen to the news, read the papers or listen to talk radio.
I'm not an ultra-sensitive person, but I don't like what all the negative talk does to my mindset. Sometimes we get caught in a pattern of negative thinking and when we focus on the bad news, it affects everything else in our lives.
Instead take an inventory of what's actually going on in YOUR world. Are you blessed with a house to live in? A car to drive (maybe even a choice of two or three cars)?
Do you still go out to eat occasionally? Go out shopping on the weekends or at home online? If you can answer "yes" to most of these questions, you are in a very fortunate position.
Keep that in mind and be grateful for those things because that IS your reality.
Here are just a few tips to help you THRIVE during these turbulent times:
1. Take a deep breath. And then another.
2. Stop watching the news, stop reading the papers.
Change the conversation when your friends and neighbors begin talking about things having to do with lack. Instead, opt for CDs or MP3 recordings of mentors that inspire you or audio books and programs.
3. Spend time with positive people---the ones that are optimistic, make you smile, who turn your day around and make you feel better being around them.
Stay away from the ones who just want to tell you about how much they have lost in their 401K this week.
4. Have gratitude for what you DO have - i.e. your kids, your family, your health, your business, and CHOICES.
5. Acknowledge your successes - if you just started your business, celebrate that you had eight jobs this year.
If you've been in business for several years, be proud of your accomplishments and know that 2009 is going to be even better.
Here are some great quotes that help to drive the point of today's article.
"Tough times never last, but tough people do." - Robert H. Schuller
"If you want your life to be more rewarding, you have to change the way you think." - Oprah Winfrey
"Living in the moment brings you a sense of reverence for all of life's blessings." - Oprah Winfrey
Implementing just one of these methods will put you back on track to connecting with who you are, what your purpose is and those deserving of and able to invest in your talents, services, and expertise.
For every person you encounter that blames outside forces for their failure, there is someone else that is taking responsibility for and initiating the necessary action steps for their success.
Which type of person are you? Success is a choice, will you choose it?
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