Back to Me

For those of you who don't know, I recently took a 5 day seminar in Denver that was basically a boot camp teaching everything you need to know to start and run your own successful internet business. This conference was put on by a company who produces a daily newsletter I subscribe to called Early to Rise. ETR is a company run by experts in several business fields and they give you advice every day on everything from running a web-based business to investments to working out. It is very inspirational and encouraging to read something every morning that will get you thinking about your goals. You can check out their website here.

Anyway, those of you who are close to me know that in the years since graduating from college I have been struggling with several aspects of my life and have been unable to obtain my goals, especially since I really wasn't sure what those goals were!! I have used the excuse of living in a small town with limited job opportunities to mask the fact that I am terrified of failing at whatever I try to do in my professional life. It seems I would rather complain about having a bachelor's degree and not being able to use it than be proactive in finding what I am truly passionate about. I have tossed around the idea of going to nursing school ever since I was in college, but after being rejected once and being accepted and not going 3 times, I have finally allowed myself to see that there was a reason I have not gone yet - that is not my true passion; I was just doing what seemed to be the easiest path since that is one of the few (somewhat) decent- paying traditional jobs available in Valentine.

So, I have been sitting around feeling sorry for myself for the last 5 years, and in the meantime I have gained almost 70 pounds (mostly from emotional eating), and I have become a very difficult person to be around and an even more difficult person to live with (Sorry D.R.!). This fat, crabby person is not who I am, and I am ashamed that I have allowed myself to become this way. I have spent far too long believing that happiness would eventually just drop itself on my doorstep because I "deserve" it, happiness is a choice and you can be happy with whatever you have, no matter what it is. I have a wonderful boyfriend and an absolutely perfect son who are the light of my life; I have a very supportive family and great friends whom I have been neglecting because I have been "too busy" and "they don't call me either."

Enough of all the excuses, I am making the decision to take charge of my life and focus my goals so that I can take steps EVERY SINGLE DAY to reach them. I have been taking the path of least resistance for the past few years and hoping success would come to me instead of taking the steps to get me there. From now on I am going to be proactive in reaching my goals and achieving satisfaction in both my personal and professional life. I have been so unhappy that I am not even myself anymore, and I am beginning on my quest to get BACK TO ME.

I have always wanted to own my own business, but due to the small population, most businesses are not highly successful in Valentine. A web-based business, however, can obviously reach exponentially more people than a traditional brick-and-mortar business can. This is my main professional goal, to create a successful web-based business. It has been proven (although I don't have the references to give you right now) that people who share their goals with others are much more likely to achieve these goals than people who keep their goals to themselves. This is because when you share your goals with others, they become more real and tangible to you and you also work harder to achieve the goals if others will know when you fail. This blog has been created to force myself to be accountable to my goals.

The last presentation at our conference was titled "The Missing Ingredient" and taught us that the thing that most people who fail at their businesses or goals lack is FOCUS. You can have the best ideas and intentions in the world, but if you are being pulled in too many directions at once and don't make wise use of your time and just get started, you will fail. The presentation went on to give 9 tactics for staying focused, which I would be willing to share if anyone is interested. The most useful thing I took away from the presentation, however is the "list of 6." This is the idea of making a list of the six most important things you want to accomplish - both for long term goals, medium term goals, and daily goals. It could also be the 6 things you need to accomplish to reach your goals that you have been putting off because you are dreading doing them. Anyway, once you have the list in writing, you start with #1 - the most important thing - and tackle it first to get it out of the way. Then you continue through your list until they are all done, and don't allow distractions to keep you from accomplishing your list for that day. If you aren't able to accomplish all 6 items, transfer what you didn't finish to the top of your list for the next day. There is a tool you can download onto your computer (for those who do most of their work on the computer) so you have a reminder of your daily goals right there in your face. It is very effective. We were given this as part of the package of the conference, but if you're interested in learning about it, you can check out their website. I am working on my six long-term goals, and will be sharing them soon!!