have more opportunities

Reflections of the 30 day challenge

2 December 20182 December 2018 by Karen, posted in 30 Day Challenge, Do something new, Spiritual health

For the month of November, I went without TV, unnecessary human contact and focussing on what I want in my life. Well, that’s a pretty big list. The aim was to raise my vibration, to feel even better than I already did.

In the most part, the no TV wasn’t too much of a problem. When I did want to indulge, there were plenty of Christmas films that didn’t have a harsh word in them. Everyone was so well-behaved.

Living on my own, I thought I would struggle with limited human contact. I had friends who kept me in positive conversation. All good there.

I started each day with a 20 minute meditation where I was in a positive feeling without thoughts intervening. Most days went to plan. Other days, it felt as if my brain was too fired up to lay down those electrical impulses.

Writing a positive aspects journal was new for me and it was illuminating what occurred. I used this journal to write about my future day – what I would be doing, how I would be feeling and the knock on effects of that day. Somedays I wrote pages about my life in the next 6 months, in the next year or so and even in the shorter time frame of eight weeks.

Here’s really interesting discovery. The more I wrote about the same activities, the more detailed they became. Those details were previously unknown to me. Now, I have a detailed plan on what I am to be doing for the next six months. That is awesome and a real highlight of the month.

I also noticed that my negative self talk diminished over the month. I became so aware of the same old thoughts that I was able to change my thoughts immediately.

What am I taking forward?

🔥Definitely continue with the daily meditation

🔥Maintain the positive aspects journal

🔥Take care with the programs I do watch on TV Do it again in a couple of months time

If you would like to do it with me in February 2019, please leave your details below.

Blow away the seeds making room for change

Changing marketing channels in 2019

28 November 201828 November 2018 by Karen, posted in 30 Day Challenge, Business, Do something new, Stay connected

Ever adopted a methodology as a way of finding out whether it suits?

Well, that’s what I’ve done over the past 12 months. I started out wanting to know how to reach people who wanted to learn. At that time, it was learning how to avoid the traps of ageing that our society encourages us to follow. The teacher I found, who appeared to be successful using the model she taught, said that you need to have one on one clients first. This wasn’t what I wanted but, I went along with it.

I don’t know how many people are successful with that model and it doesn’t matter. What matters is the platform. See, Facebook loves people who are connected. If you show interest in a person’s posts, then their posts will show up in your feed more. It doesn’t mean your posts will show up in their feed. This is purely one sided.

The topic of dissertation for my masters degree was on small business networking. At the time there wasn’t much written about networking and relationship marketing. This was in 1994, so quite some time ago.

I created a model of networking, ran workshops to educate fellow business owners and tracked their successes or not over the next year. Did the model make a difference?

The upshot was yes. We need both density and diversity for our business to grow. Density means we need to have a group of people who knows us and each other. They then create momentum around word of mouth. Now, facebook is very good at density. It loves that we are interconnected. It is not so good at diversity.

Diversity is where we meet other people who may not be connected with everyone else. Think about one of your colleagues referring someone from their own network or attending a conference and meeting people totally new to you. These connections are vital for business growth. As you grow a new ‘network cell,’ the density increases and momentum builds. Unless you run a group or run ads, it is hard to find and nurture diversity. Instead, the posts you see are increasingly those you are connected to and their close associates. Fun if you want to build a social network, not so fine if it is also a business network.

This started me thinking about raising the diversity side. Over the past few months, I looked at Pinterest, Instagram and Linkedin. Even though, I have a presence on these, my efforts are really on approaching owners of networks either with blogs or podcasts and being a guest.

This means I create my own flock from the diverse environment and create density through community building. This may not be the best route for you. Think about it though, if you think differently or your services are different to the run of the mill, it maybe what is missing now. I know we all feel that what we bring is special. What I trying to explain and possibly doing badly is, we can be special with how we help people with weight loss, confidence, law of attraction or business growth. These are established areas that people understand and are looking for the person of best fit.

On the other hand, there are those emerging areas such as parenting, ageing, grief, mindset (and ‘emotionset’) where there is an aspect of education. We can do that two ways, educate our current network and build momentum that way. Alternatively, we can send our message out to a larger audience in order to attract those who are already searching for answers. This is where I am directing my attention.

I am grateful for meeting all the people, making friends with several and with some having a real impact on my life. Without the last year networking, it would have been much lonelier.

Are you changing how you are marketing and networking in 2019?

Gratitude is more than your 5 a day

5 November 20182 December 2018 by Karen, posted in Do something new, Gratitude, Spiritual health

Surely, there’s not much more to gratitude than writing five things, or even 3, you are grateful for each day. That seems to be the standard advice and activity on the net.

Keeping a gratitude journal will certainly do something and it will do more if you write out each statement like this:

I am grateful for ……..

Even better, take it a step further, list 5 different things each day for 90 days and then you really start seeing some benefits.

This is why there is a lot about gratitude bing powerful yet, there is a gap between this and experience.

Don’t get me wrong. the five entries per day is a great place to start. It is the beginning.

Gratitude, and I like to use appreciation as well, is more of an attitude or a lifestyle change than quickly filling in the 5 things before dropping off to sleep or start the morning rush.

As you already know, making these sort of changes require a bit more application.

Consider viewing every action through the lens of appreciation

To grasp gratitude, consider viewing every action through the lens of appreciation. This includes driving the car, being on social media, watching TV, spending time with family, dealing with customers, staff or even your boss.

There’s a lot of science to show how we approach a situation has an impact on its outcome.

As you go about your day, pause and look around for what you can be grateful for. These can include the furniture, car, food, drink, colleagues, family, how you overcome adversity, how your life experiences so far has led you to be here, nature, your hobbies… the list is endless.

There is so much more to gratitude than your 5 a day.

The benefits of practicing gratitude are that you become kinder, more generous, more favourable opportunities arrive and life becomes less of a struggle. We all want that, don’t we?