Sometimes your life feels amazing.
Sometimes it sucks.

Sometimes your business is marching forward.
Sometimes you feel it is going backward.

Sometimes your relationships are brilliant.
Sometimes they run into difficulty.

Sometimes you feel you can achieve anything.
Sometimes the voices of self doubt are deafening.

Sometimes you feel you could take on the world.
Sometimes you just want to crawl back to bed and pull the covers over your head.

Life is like the sea with tides that ebb and flow.

But, there are loads of things we can do to shift the odds to favour the good stuff over bad stuff.

But expecting things to ALWAYS be good is setting ourselves up for some serious disappointment.

Keep this in mind:

Sometimes ALWAYS passes.

So, we must grab the good “sometimes” and make the most of them. We must look for ways to change ourselves, our lives and our business to shift the odds in their favour.

And we must respond appropriately to the not so good “sometimes” when they arise. Learn from them. Put things in place to reduce the chances of them raising their ugly heads again.

Then move on. Hanging on to stuff that has past and you can’t change serves no useful purpose.

You can’t always choose what happens to you, but you can always choose how you respond.

“Sometimes” is part of the way life is.

What do you need to change in your life and business to deal with the ebb and flow of your “sometimes?”

I recently left the majority of Linkedin groups that I had joined.

The reason being is that I got totally hacked off with the endless self promotion of members ramming their stuff down my throat.

I found very little value in them.

I am a big believer in the the power, potential and possibility of a community of people coming together from a position of genuinely supporting each other.

And that is what I was looking for in the Linkedin groups I had joined.

A community that want to:

1. Discuss shared topics of interest.
2. Ask for help with a challenge, knowledge or finding information.
3. Brainstorm ideas and get others perspectives.
4. Share experiences, challenges and solutions.
5. Be part of a supportive, encouraging, community.
6. Connect and build relationships with like minded people.

But I didn’t find this in the Linkedin groups I joined. The noise of the self promotion brigade was just too loud.

However, I am a big believer in this motto:

If what you want doesn’t exist, create it yourself.

So, I have decided to set up a Linkedin group that IS a pure support group for Self Employed Professionals. The ethos of the group is based on the 6 points above.

In order to protect the integrity of the group, I think it is appropriate to put a few boundaries in place. So the following rules will apply:

• No selling, marketing or promoting your products and services
• No promoting of your own blog posts or articles.
• No asking people to become affiliates

Do the 6 points listed above sound like the sort of support group you would enjoy being a part of?

If so, come on over and join us. My aim is to make this a really valuable resource and community for you. You can join the group by clicking the link below:

Support Group for Self Employed Professionals

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=4130115

Looking forward to seeing you there.

I love great inspirational quotes.

Particularly the ones that make you stop and think, give a fresh perspective and really inspire.

So, for those of you that also enjoy great inspirational quotes, thought I would share with you my favourites:

Top 50 Inspirational Quotes

1. “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” – Albert Einstein.

2. “Act now. There is never any time but now, and there never will be any time but now.” – Wallace Wattles

3. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle

4. “The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering the attitudes of his mind.” – William James

5. “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin

6. “There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” – Nelson Mandela

7. “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on.” – Robert Frost

8. “You’ve got to win in your mind before you win in your life.” – John Addison

9. “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anais Nin

10. “An ounce of doing things is worth a pound of theorizing.” – Wallace Wattles

11. “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill

12. “Our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us.” – Stephen Covey

13. “The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.” – Joseph Joubert

14. ”Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.” – Winston Churchill

15. “Don’t wait for a light to appear at the end of the tunnel Stride down there and light the bloody thing yourself.” – Dara Henderson

16. “Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.” – Jim Rohn

17. “Vision without action is just a dream, action without vision just passes the time, vision with action can change the world” – Nelson Mandela

18. “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” – T.S. Eliot

19. “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” – Oscar Wilde

20. “Freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose yours.” – Paulo Coelho

21. “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” – John F. Kennedy

22. “I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.” – James Joyce

23. “I have learned that it’s not WHAT I have in my life but WHO I have in my life that counts.” – Unknown

24. “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” – Henry David Thoreau

25. “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” – Jim Rohn

26. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo da Vinci

27. “Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.” – Goethe

28. “It’s time to start living the life you’ve imagined” – Henry James

29. “And in the end it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln

30. “Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.” – Will Rogers

31. “Try not. Do or do not. There is no Try.” – Yoda (Star Wars!)

32. “Every man dies. Not every man really lives.” – William Wallace

33. “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

34. “There are no limits on what you can achieve with your life, except the limits you accept in your mind” – Brian Tracy

35.“Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson.

36. “Either you run the day or the day runs you.” – Jim Rohn

37. “When I thought I couldn’t go on, I forced myself to keep going. My success is based on persistence, not luck.” – Estee Lauder

38. “The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.” ~ Elbert Hubbard

39. “The difference between school and life? In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson.” – Tom Bodett

40. “Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Pablo Picasso

41. “The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” – Mark Twain

42. “There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.” – Christopher Morley

43. “Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.” – Carl Bard

44. “Nothing important was ever achieved without someone taking a chance.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

45. “I will go anywhere as long as it is forward.” – David Livingston

46. “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

47. “The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” – Michelangelo

48. “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas A. Edison

49. “Strive for progress, not perfection.” – Unknown

50. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than the ones you did. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

What is your favourite insirational quote? Please share it in the comments below.

Recently I received the sort of telephone call we all hope we will never receive:

“Ali, I am a paramedic. I am calling to let you know your husband has been in a car crash”

The paramedic would not tell me how he was other than he was trapped in the car, a specialist medical response team was on the way and the fire brigade were working on getting him out.

I can’t put into words how getting that sort of call feels.

At the time the call came in, I was hosting my monthly Self Employed Women Support Group. The group immediately stepped up to do what they could to support me and to get me to the hospital.

Because he was trapped in the car I arrived at the hospital well before him and it was over an hour before I actually got to see him and find out what state he was in.

The wait was hell.

The good news is that we were “lucky”. His injuries were not as bad as first thought. He had a number of broken ribs, breathing difficulties and extensive bruising. We are grateful it was no worse given how bad the smash was. He is now well on the way to a full recovery.

Wake up Call

It is easy to take your plans for life for granted and think you have plenty of time to make them happen. But the reality is that you don’t know when something will suddenly happen that will rob you of the opportunity to have the life you want with the people you want.

Mr D and I have been designing the life we really want since we escaped the corporate rat race 10 years ago. Our design life plans are based on our own definition of success and our core values.

Yet in the aftermath of the accident we realised we had become comfortable on our journey to the next stage of our ideal lifestyle. As a result we had started to play safe, take less of the actions that will take us to the next level of where we want to go. Progress had slowed down. Mediocrity was rearing it’s ugly head (I don’t do mediocrity!).

The Power of a Blank Piece of Paper

Once Mr D was well on the mend, I felt a real desire to go back to scratch and rethink everything. Accident aside, it feels like the perfect time to do it as this year is the 10th anniversay of escaping the corporate world.

So, the other day I got out a blank piece of paper. It has stayed blank for a good few days. Every time I have looked at it, it has stared back at me – blankly!

But it has started to become really powerful.

Powerful because every time I look at it, it has started to inspire me with new ideas and possibilities. It is really making me think long and hard about what “ideal” is in all areas of life moving forward. It is daring me to shoot for what I really want to do.  Clarity around the next phase of designing my ideal business and lifestyle with my husband & son has been kick started.

Yes, a blank piece of paper can be that powerful.

The mediocrity that had started to creep in is about to have it’s sorry ass kicked into touch.

I am sharing this personal experience with you to get you to think about what changes you need to make to have the life you really want. Don’t wait for a wake up call. They don’t always have the happy ending that ours did.

So, I invite you to ponder on this:

• When was the last time you sat down with a blank piece of paper and dared to dream about your ideal business life and personal life?
• If you started from scratch how would you want things to be in all areas of your life?
• What needs to happen for you to start shooting for that?

The blank piece of paper represents just having the time and space to think so that you can make sure you are designing the life you really want.

What will you do to give yourself regular blank piece of paper moments?

I am a great believer in using resources to help our growth and success in business and living life. Whether those resources are books, getting specialist help or going on courses, I am all for it.

More often than not though, people are looking for resources outside of themselves to achieve that growth and success – books on marketing strategies, training courses on improving profits and so on.

Now don’t get me wrong, I totally subscribe to the whole learning and upgrading business skills to achieve goals.

However, quite often people overlook seeking out resources for the most important area for learning and growth that will deliver the biggest results in all areas of their life – growing and developing themselves.

Yet, it is those that look to learn and grow themselves that reap the most rewards and success in all areas of their business and life.

This is because it is WHO you are and how you think that drives your outcomes. Let me explain:

• Your mindset drives your thoughts and feelings.
• Your thoughts and feelings drive your behaviours and actions.
• Your behaviours and actions drive your results and outcomes.

So seeking out resources that allow you to grow and develop you and your mindset is a total no brainer.

With that in mind, I would like to share with you this quote as a mindset resource for you:

Only as high as I reach can I grow
Only as far as I seek can I go
Only as deep as I look can I see
Only as much as I dream can I be.
- Karen Raven

So, if you were to be apply this to your mindset, in the same way you would other types of resources for your business, what could you do to up your game?

Related posts:

Success Mindset: The Optimist’s Creed

Taking Risks (Part 1) – An Essential Part of Success

Mindset is a huge factor in Success in all areas of life.

It is important to surround yourself with people, books and resources that support you in creating and maintaining the mindset that will help you achieve the success that you want for yourself – whether that be in business, relationships, lifestyle or your family life.

The other day my husband was reading Daily Teachings by Rhonda Byrne when he came across “The Optimist’s Creed” by Christian Larson which was written nearly a hundred years ago.

It falls into the category of being a useful resource for supporting, creating and maintaining a Success Mindset. Here it is:

The Optimist’s Creed

I promise myself:

To be so strong that nothing can disturb my peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person I meet.

To make all my friends feel that there is something worthwhile in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything and make my optimism come true.

To think only of the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as I am about my own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful expression at all times & give a smile to every living creature I meet.

To give so much time to improving myself that I have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear and & too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of myself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud word, but in great deeds.

To live in the faith that the whole world is on my side, so long as I am true to the best that is in me.

-- Christian D. Larson

What do you think of it?

Most of us understand the benefit of reading high quality business books to learn and apply new skills to upgrade the way our business works. But are we as willing to embrace books that deal with how we are operate as a person and our mindset?

Many business people aren’t because they have a preconceived idea that personal development might be a bit “woo woo” and result in the need to hug trees. However, upgrading your mindset and developing yourself is the foundation to real success in all areas of business and life. So it’s a no brainer really.

The seven books listed below (all of which I have read more than once) really challenge the mindset. They are all very powerful in different ways.

A couple of tips

• Be open minded. Even if the books aren’t your bag look for what you can learn. Look for the habits you need to change in your own mindset that will influence your levels of success in all areas of your life
• Reading books doesn’t create change. It is what you do with the information once you read it that is the key. Ask yourself “what actions do I need to take to apply the lessons from this book”

7 Books to Challenge Your Mindset

1. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. Provides a framework for a powerful code of conduct that is equally applicable to business, being a parent, relationships and living life.

2. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. This isn’t just about financial riches. It will give you valuable insights into the habits, characteristics and mindset of success.

3. The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles. Not just about financial riches. This was written about 1911 so the style of writing might seem strange.

4. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. Great practical tips for creating success.

5. The Anatomy of Peace by the Arbinger Institute. Deals with conflict around relationships, both professional and personal. I LOVE this powerful book. It’s lessons have served me well in my business, my marriage, as a parent and so many other levels.

6. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. This book highlights the mindset that gets in the way of true financial independence.

7. The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. A less conventional take on creating success. Be open minded!

If you have read any of these books, please share your review in the comments below. Are there any books that you would add on to this list?