All posts by Melinda
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TODAY IS A GIFT!
Every Day is a GIFT! Stay in the Present. Keep a positive mindset!
We can dream or we can fear our tomorrows. We can cherish or regret our yesterdays. We can only live our TODAYS. The one thing we truly have control over is the moment we’re in now. Learn to live in the present and you will renew your joy in life. Remember to be grateful for all you have. The here-and-now present truly is a present – an unexpected gift to be carefully unwrapped and savored.
Stand Out!
On walks down to the Clark Fork River, near my home here in Missoula, MT, I make it a project to look for rocks. One of my granddaughters, Sloane, who is 6 years old is quite a rock collector. I don’t carry my my iPhone, as I enjoy being unplugged so I miss the photo opportunities.
The other day I found an image that mirrored the rocks in the river near my home. This image made me pause. “Would you look at how this red rock stands out among all the others”, I thought to myself. “This is what I am inspired to do. Stand Out!”
How can we do that… stand out in a sea of other business owners? We step up, reach out and share. I challenge you to share your story, share your strengths and even your failures. Who needs your help? Believe that you have something that stands out, a business that you believe can provide a future for someone else. I’m so grateful that someone shared with me during a time when I didn’t have options. I hope you will find courage to step out of your comfort zone and share your story. Your ideal client will be drawn to you and to your story.
Be a GREAT Listener
Listening is a skill that will carry you far in business. As you listen, be present! Always keep in your mind, what can I learn and what value can I bring?
- PAY ATTENTION. Focus on details as you listen to someone. Make sure you allow others to express themselves before you weigh into a conversation.
- Look the person in the eyes. Keep focused on them. Put your phone away when you are in the company of others.
- Try not to jump to conclusions when you are in a conversation with someone.
- Never interrupt. Give a person an opportunity to get all their thoughts on the table. This gives you time to process what they are sharing.
- Make notes. Remember the high points as a person speaks and comment on what impresses you the most.
- Ask questions This will let the other person know that you are interested in what they have to say.
5 Ways to Be a Good Mentor
Are you looking for a meaningful volunteer opportunity? Mentoring youth can be simultaneously exhilarating and frightening. Make the experience meaningful and engaging for you and your mentee with a few of these strategies:
Make sure you have the time to devote. Successful mentoring requires consistency and availability. Plus, if you are a mentor to a kid who may have already experienced a great deal of disappointment in life, that consistency and availability will help instill confidence in the relationship.
Keep your mind open to differences between your family backgrounds, cultures and socioeconomic circumstances. This means you should be as willing to learn as you are to teach. Focus on creating a safe and healthy environment to look for common ground, do things you both enjoy, and learn from each other.
Communicate regularly. Aside from scheduled face-to-face meetings, use video chat, texting, email or social media platforms to bring more presence to the relationship. Make sure these avenues of communication are appropriate first.
Create learning situations. Volunteer together, attend a lecture, take a class, teach a specific skill or hobby, give education or career advice, or even expand your mentee’s network by introducing him to other community members, professionals or students.
Give feedback when asked but don’t force your process or ideas. It’s often more helpful to ask questions, so your mentee can work problems out himself. This helps your mentee develop thinking skills and trust his own judgment.
Discover mentoring opportunities with these sites:
- Volunteer Match: Search by zip code throughout the United States.
- America’s Promise Alliance: Mentor, work with youth groups, or help in classrooms and museums.
- generationOn: Access resources to start your own generationOn Kids Care Club.
Finally, the most important thing to remember is to be yourself. It’s the most effective way to strengthen the relationship with your mentee.
Sources: United Way, Parents.com, NYMetroParents
Create Balance in Your Life
I love this quote by Albert Einstein! It’s SO TRUE. We do have to keep moving to balance that bicycle, but be sure you are moving in the direction that you really want to be going. We all want to find balance in our lives. Here are some tips to help create balance to remember.
Focus on your priorities. Say “NO” to everything that doesn’t align with your values and what is most important to you. Create structure in your daily work, rather than reacting to the unexpected. Other people’s poor planning does not need to become your priority. Arrange time in your schedule for other activities besides work so that your days are not only balanced, but rewarding.
Be flexible. Accept that needs will pop up that will require your readjustment and perhaps new choices. Forgive yourself when things don’t get done. Stop striving for perfection and allow for more reasonable standards.
Create daily routines. Instill healthy habits into your daily life. Find ways to relax, relieve tension, and minimize stress. Allow time for self-care by practicing daily journaling, meditation, exercise or some other form of quiet time just for you where you can go to reflect, plan, relax and envision your day ahead. Eat healthy meals, drink plenty of water, get adequate rest, and take care of your personal hygiene. Give yourself a break throughout the day to restore your natural state of harmony and calm and to rekindle your creativity. Structure your day to take advantage of your peak performance times.
Establish support networks. Be willing to ask for help and receive it. Enlist family, friends, neighbors, professionals, and others to help you as needed. Delegate chores at home. Train a child to take responsibility for small tasks. I also like the D’s … Do it, Delegate it, or Dump it!
Simplify your life. When your life is overcomplicated and overfull, there’s little space for what truly matters. And there’s no room for personal growth, positive energy, love. Scheduling too much in a day brings on stress and even depression. Start TODAY by eliminating activities from your life that really aren’t important. We can all find ourselves busy around the clock, but busy doesn’t mean that you are any more important than anyone else. What this really means is that you are probably missing out on the things that would really make you have more joy and fulfillment in your life.
Stand Up! Step Up! Reach Out to others in 2017!
Setting Goals in Your Direct Sales Business
2017 can be the year that YOUR Dreams come TRUE! Let’s start that journey, and the vehicle to taking you to your dreams are the daily, weekly and monthly action goals that you put into place NOW! With true clarity here at the
beginning of January, you will set better priorities, take more
consistent action and meet & exceed your goals.
Critical Daily Goals for a Direct Sales Business Owner:
1. Set hours of Operation. Setting hours is liberating and a key
indicator of success in your business. If you treat your business like a hobby, it will pay you like a hobby.
2. Commit to Personal Development each morning. Focus on yourself for the first 15 – 30 minutes of the day. Read inspirational books on personal development. Watch a video or listen to a book on tape. I love Audible! Jim Rohn is a personal favorite of mine. He said, “For things to change, you’ve got to change.” You owe it to yourself to put positive thoughts in your head, each and every day.
3. Reach Out to 3 – 5 new people each day. You can do this alongside your busy life.
Get in the habit of striking up conversations with people you meet when you are out and about; at networking event; running errands; kids sporting events, etc. Reach out on social media and add new friends. Like and comment on what they are doing and offer up a time to connect via the phone or face to face if you live in the same area.
4. Follow Up with 3 – 5 people each day.
The Fortune is in the Follow Up! Create a “call to action” and a sense of urgency. WIFM ~ what’s in it for me?
5. Share a “Power Start” (strategy session) with 2 business partners each day.
The key to success is keeping your business simple and duplicating a simple system to follow for your teammates. Creating accountability is key. Weekly Power Start sessions where you share strategies and ask for their accountability is so important in growing leaders in your direct sales business.
I hope these tips will help. For more information, click Learn More and I will send you business tools to
help you with language, following up and social media strategies as well. Make it an awesome day!
WHY
We were all created with incredible worth and value by a Creator who made each of us unique. Remind yourself
every morning what a magnificent person you are. Start each day wondering what great things are in store for you that day. Don’t take for granted what you were created for and why you do what you do. You have PURPOSE, BELIEF and PASSION within you just waiting to “spill out” each and every day! Think from the inside out and find that purpose, belief and passion.
It is so important to believe in yourself. Your belief and your passion will impact your WHY. All inspiring leaders start with Why. Think from the inside out. “WHY have I chosen this path?” “WHY will my decision to follow this path impact me and the people I love?” Then with your WHY in mind, think of ways to build yourself and build others. Not just in your business, but by helping all of the people who are important in your life. Don’t take for granted what
you were created for! Belief in yourself and commitment to your WHY will help you achieve whatever your wildest dreams are.
CHALLENGE Yourself In 2017!
We all desire an incredible 2017- and there are 5 things we need to DO in 2017 to help 2017 Be the BEST Year for us personally and professionally.
1. CHALLENGE what you THINK and take it to a New Level this year. What you think about, you bring about. Your life is a reflection of your thoughts, so THINK BIGGER! This leads to a bigger and more successful life. This is the Year of the Big Think!
2. CHALLENGE what you SAY. Make sure that your words are more empowering. Affirmations are powerful. “I AM Successful” I AM Blessed… etc
What you say this year will bring a new place in your life that you have only imagined. Quit talking yourself out of HUGE success; instead start talking yourself into it.
3. CHALLENGE what you DO! Step into the actions that take you out of your comfort zone and make you GROW! Small actions will lead to a small year. Engage in the actions that FORCE you to GROW.
4. CHALLENGE How you VIEW Life and What you have SETTLED FOR.
This is the year of THE REACH. Reach for what you truly want in life, but you must SEE IT first. MUD Settles- and YOU are NOT Mud. QUIT Settling in life for what happens. MAKE something incredible happen. Don’t let others talk you out of it. God made us to PURSUE. Pursue your dreams relentlessly!
5. CHALLENGE the Status Quo and BLOW IT UP in your own life.
Nothing is as sad as the same old thing happening every year. Shake it UP! Break it UP! TAKE IT UP to a NEW LEVEL and never look back at what was holding you back.
There is a “Y” in the road of life that you are at- and you have to decide if this year is going to be a Masterpiece of Magnificence or a Masterpiece of Mediocrity. I pray that you choose the first one, as it truly is the the BETTER and you DESERVE an amazing year as well as a blessed year!