The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. Eleanor Roosevelt
You are never given a dream without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however. Richard Bach
Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true. Napoleon Hill
Reading these quotes today and several others with a similar message and asking myself, “what does it mean to dream it and achieve it?” “How can this help someone who is building a business of their own?” Is the dream portion all that important? I say emphatically ~ “YES”! Put the DREAM to paper and go as far as to find photos of the parts of that Dream that bring it to life for you! Seeing these images of what a successful business will bring to you and how a DREAM BOARD will bring focus to your daily work ethic will certainly bring about the achievement of that Dream! Bringing others on board with you to share your dream is important as well. Break this dream/vision for yourself down into goals and then the goals into activities. As you work through your day, ASK… “Is what I’m doing right NOW bringing me closer to my dream for myself and for my family?” If it isn’t, then Stop, change gears and move in a work direction that WILL!
January 2017 ~ Your Personal Development Challenge is to FOCUS on YOURSELF
Personal Development is one of the most important gifts you can give to yourself. Give equal importance to growing personally by committing to daily personal development. Commit time each day; at least a minimum of 15 minutes to filling your mind with positive information that will affect your life and the way that you respond to challenges that happen during the day
January is the perfect month to recommit to a personal development practice. As you read, you might write down at least one “take away” from your reading. Keep a journal of your take aways.
“For things to change, you’ve got to change.” Jim Rohn
If you aren’t happy with the way things are going in your life …in any area of your life, from your health, to your income, from your relationships to your business… make a commitment to daily personal development. You can make a shift in all areas of your life. You owe it to yourself to put positive thoughts in your head each and every day. Remind yourself how amazing you are and how the possibilities are endless!
What if you could build an income that completely changes your family’s life? What if you could work around your children instead of having to leave your children in the care of someone else? If you’ve never thought it was possible, well I’m here to tell you it is. Contact me today and let me share with you the possibilities that are available. You can BE in Business FOR Yourself, but not BY Yourself! I have over ten years experience in this industry and offer my business partners a wealth of support, ideas and encouragement
When stretched financially, we’re often forced to cut back to get by. Melinda Hickey knew this firsthand, but she refused to let seeing her family be one of the sacrifices she had to make. When she exited the plane in Montana, visiting her grandkids for the first time in nearly a year, and saw the oldest boy running at her, shouting, “Finally! I get to see you,” Melinda knew that moment would inspire her to keep persevering so she could recreate it over and over again. Using her family as the source of her strength, Melinda has found a way to live her passions and enjoy what she loves.
For much of her career as an elementary school teacher, Melinda found herself in a constant state of flux. Her husband, Mike, served as a Colonel in the Air Force, which caused their family to move quite a bit. It was hard starting fresh each time. Their three sons would have to adjust to new schools while Melinda would need to get re-certified to teach. “I love the military; it gave me confidence, broadened my horizons, and allowed me to meet amazing people, but the downside was that I was always at the bottom of the pay scale in every new location and I couldn’t build a retirement plan. When Mike retired from the military, we were in Austin, Texas, and I was still teaching. One day I was sitting on a park bench at recess and it dawned on me that after 24 years, I only had seven years of tenure. I turned to a fellow teacher and said, ‘I am out of here!’ It just didn’t make sense.” Soon after, Mike’s corporate job was eliminated due to a company closure. Facing bankruptcy, they decided it was time to make a change.
In 2005, they moved back to Tennessee and decided to go into real estate with one of Melinda’s sisters, Donna, and her husband. They were quite successful until 2008. “With the downturn in the economy, no one was buying anything, so we were living solely on Mike’s retirement. We had to give up going out to Montana to visit our sons. We hadn’t seen our two grandkids in nearly a year. That was the hardest part; I just really wanted to see them.” So, in March of 2009, when she attended a Rodan + Fields® meeting, Melinda saw an opportunity to potentially get ahead financially. “I remember thinking this could be the lifeline Mike and I were looking for. I was excited about the idea of partnering with the Doctors, but what really riveted me to the core was the evergreen opportunity.” Melinda signed up as an Independent Consultant that night and within weeks, after having lived paycheck to paycheck for nearly a year, she had some extra income.
At first, Melinda simply viewed her business as a way to provide a little extra money that would allow her to visit her family, but as she started to see her earnings, it quickly became more than that. “By the second month, I had purchased a plane ticket. It was so rewarding knowing I could do it. So, after that first trip to Montana, I just kept going, ready for more. In 130 days, I had reached Level V. That started it all. Within a year, I was earning an income equivalent to Mike’s retirement. Now, it’s double that.”
Melinda is amazed at the many options her business has provided her family. “It’s just incredible knowing that our retirement is secure. And where else could a 60 year old reinvent themselves? I felt that I had finished the work I had been called to do as a teacher, and I thought that real estate was the next chapter, but I wasn’t passionate about it. When things weren’t successful, I was so grateful that I found an opportunity where I could embrace the person that I am. I was able to weave the teacher, coach, and encourager in me into a new career. And the cool part is that I get to return to my first love, which is teaching. But now, I’m teaching a team about personal strengths and how to lead genuinely. I really think it’s just like my days as a kindergarten teacher. I’ve come full circle, still doing show and tell. I show the products and I tell about the business.”
Another aspect of her business that Melinda absolutely loves is building and strengthening relationships. “It’s been so rewarding becoming Premier Level V leader. The relationships she has created over the years have proven to be the most fun part. “I feel like we’re all one big family. I am so proud of my team and it’s so exciting to watch their success. I’ve seen so many people take a leap of faith and start a new life. It’s wonderful to witness someone’s life change and it pushes you to keep going, knowing your business may keep growing and more good may come from it.”
Melinda has always been passionate about having a positive impact on others and using her ability to pay it forward. She is very active with the Prescription for Change Foundation in Nashville and assists with an all-encompassing program that offers a variety of opportunities including life skill training for moms and young adults, gardening, and summer camps for children in poverty. Melinda is also helping to plan a Christmas in July stocking stuffer event and a back-to-school fundraiser. “My R+F business has really allowed me to focus on who I am. I have time and the means to be involved in my community and help others. It’s important that we leave the world better than we found it and we don’t live forever, so why not create something that will? I see a possibility to do that with R+F.”
Contact me today to start a conversation about how YOU can begin to Redefine Your Future! http://youtu.be/BPw4_oPtvw0
Melinda hopes to create a legacy of love for her grandchildren in the form of a summer retreat home in Missoula. Despite living so far away, Melinda and Mike are looking forward to being as present as they can be in their seven grandchildren’s lives. “I don’t have a crystal ball, I don’t know what the future will bring. Maybe one day we will live out there, but right now we have a 93 year old mother to take care of. We spend a lot of time with her.” The flexible schedule allows Melinda to care for her mother and enjoy activities she loves like gardening, journaling, walking, and spending time with Mike. “Every day is different and that is pretty cool.”
Melinda truly believes that if your “why” is big enough, your “what” doesn’t matter. “You will experience disappointment. It’s life. There are obstacles every day, but the best way to discipline your disappointments is to revisit your why and to be honest with yourself about why you are doing this or taking a leap of faith in the first place. The why is the most important part of the career.” For Melinda, that driving force is her family. Home is wherever she is instilling life and love into her relationships and, by infusing her business with faith and the commitment to doing good, she is building a family and creating a legacy wherever life takes her.
Why Direct Sales? Why was this so perfect for Melinda?
82% of WOMEN who earned 6 figures or more did so in direct sales.
Melinda was introduced to an incredible direct selling business in the pre-global stage.
The company she works with provides abundant support! Melinda provides her team weekly training calls, Training Sites and One-to-One support every step of the way!!
Her company is a simple virtual franchise business with zero inventory. “We simply wash our face and talk about the products with proven results and the amazing business opportunity. We share with people we know and meet, while we are on the go in the midst of our busy lives”, Melinda shares.
The Best Part: Direct Sales offers substantial income, time freedom, while empowering & helping others.
Let’s talk about how we can get you started today!
This was such a great article… we couldn’t have said it better! Enjoy the read and put into practice! We plan too!
1. Stay Positive! You can listen to the cynics and doubters and believe that success is impossible or you can trust that with faith and an optimistic attitude all things are possible.
2. Take a morning walk of gratitude. I call it a “Thank You Walk.” It will create a fertile mind ready for success.
3. Make your first meal the biggest and your last meal the smallest. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.
4. Zoom Focus. Each day when you wake up in the morning ask: “What are the three most important things I need to do today that will help me create the success I desire?” Then tune out all the distractions and focus on these actions.
5. Talk to yourself instead of listen to yourself. Instead of listening to your complaints, fears and doubts, talk to yourself and feed your mind with the words and encouragement you need to keep moving forward.
6. Remember that adversity is not a dead-end but a detour to a better outcome. {Tweet This}
7. Don’t chase dollars or success. Decide to make a difference and build meaningful relationships and success will find you. {Tweet This}
8. Get more sleep. You can’t replace sleep with a double latte.
9. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in your purpose, people and the positive present moment.
10. Mentor someone and be mentored by someone.
11. Live with the 3 E’s. Energy, Enthusiasm, Empathy.
12. Remember there’s no such thing as an overnight success. There’s no substitute for hard work.
13. Believe that everything happens for a reason and expect good things to come out of challenging experiences.
14. Implement the No Complaining Rule. Remember that if you are complaining, you’re not leading.
15. Read more books than you did in 2013. I happen to know of a few good ones. : )
16. Don’t seek happiness. Instead decide to live with passion and purpose and happiness will find you. www.Seed11.com
17. Focus on “Get to” vs “Have to.” Each day focus on what you get to do, not what you have to do. Life is a gift not an obligation.
18. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements:
I am thankful for __________. Today I accomplished____________.
19. Smile and laugh more. They are natural anti-depressants.
20. Enjoy the ride. You only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy it.
Being a military wife, a parent, educator and business woman, I have learned that teaching and story-telling are my greatest strengths. I view myself as a faith-filled, genuinely optimistic entrepreneur. I love coaching people to financial independence.
As a former educator and realtor, I knew when it was time to move on to another career in direct sales. I love this industry! It offers time, freedom and flexibility along with unlimited earning potential! This industry allowed me to replace lost revenue when the real estate market took a down turn in 2009.
Six weeks after joining my company, I earned enough to pay back my initial investment and purchase a plane ticket to visit my family in Montana.
In six months I paid the expenses for our youngest son’s wedding by hitting company recruiting bonuses month after month. I was recognized as a Rising Star at our company’s inaugural convention. My two sisters joined me in earning the top leadership position in our first year along with incredible all-expense paid trips.
Two years into my new career, I retired my real estate license; earned a free Lexus, and doubled my husband’s Air Force Full Colonel pension. I love working from home in very part time hours. When I help my team members achieve what they want and need then I am blessed as well. I’m forever grateful to the visionairies and founders of my company. I’m blessed to be a brand ambassador of an ever expanding company with a product that slows down the visible signs of aging!
My dream is a summer retreat home in Montana where Mike and I will build legacy for our children and grandchildren. I love that I can and will be a change agent for others who have stopped dreaming. Maybe that someone is YOU!
Contact me on how we can get you started on a journey as the CEO of your own company!
2016 Update: After 7 years in business, Melinda and Mike were able to purchase not just a summer retreat home, but moved to Montana. Because of Melinda’s consistent earnings, they qualified for the home of their dreams pictured here.
Thanksgiving should be celebrated in our hearts and demonstrated in our lives every day. Life is too short and too precious, so show your gratitude often.
Have you stopped to consider that today is a special gift from God? Sometimes, our days can be so full and busy that we forget how fragile life really is. It can be easy to allow little things to creep in and steal our peace and joy. Maybe something doesn’t go our way, or someone says something upsetting. Even traffic can cause us to lose focus if we let it. We have to remember that each day is a gift. If we choose to focus on what’s wrong, we’ll miss the blessing that each day has to offer.
I encourage you today; don’t let the precious moments of life pass you by. Don’t wait for holidays and birthdays to show people that you care. Remember, each day is unique and irreplaceable. You have been given time that can be invested or wasted; hours that can be used or misused.
That’s why the psalmist prayed to God, “Teach us to number our days.” He was saying, “Teach us to value every moment we’ve been given.” As you daily keep a proper perspective, you’ll gain a heart of wisdom. You’ll draw closer to God and experience the full blessing that He has for you each and every day!
Let’s talk about that. Letting go is something that we rarely do. Instead, we burn the candle at both ends. Whether it’s taking on more at work; holding down the fort at home without support; volunteering; traveling ~ our plates are full! We can realize how stressed we are feeling, but what do we actually DO about it? Our body can “go-through-the-motions” of letting go, but rarely do we truly RELAX without mentally working on something in our minds ~ something on our “To Do” list; on our Too-Full plates!
The KEYS to Letting go of Stress are.
Recognize where the stress is coming from and take action to alleviate it.
Take Action. Write down your three or four top priorities in your life. Then make sure everything you’re spending your time on serves them. And before you take on something new, check it against this list. If it doesn’t help you work toward your priorities, don’t do it. Don’t allow guilt to determine your actions. Walk in the path that you truly KNOW to be appointed and anointed by God.
Spend quality time each morning “filling your cup” not just with java or hot tea, but filling your spirit with inspirational readings. I start with God’s Word. I take the quiet moments in the early morning where I can check in with my dreams and desires.
Take time to exercise. I feel beautiful when I take care of myself – inside and out. For me, this means getting enough fun and challenging exercise, and at least 7 hours of sleep.
Get Organized. I’m focusing on organizational efficiencies, so I know where everything I need is with either a few clicks of the mouse, or a few steps in my house. This not only saves me time, but clutter in the house ~ is clutter in the brain. Learn to carry a notebook around with you for 3 days and capture everything you do and how long it takes you to do it – no cheating! This will help you uncover what’s derailing your productivity and stealing time from your top priorities and all the things you love. Once you’ve identified what’s sucking your time, you can then start make efforts toward making the most of the time you have.
Destroy the Distractions. One thing I’ve learned is that the busier I get, the easier it is for me to get distracted. Once that happens, I start feeling like a pinball, bouncing from one task to another, which increases my stress and decreases my productivity. I have to stay vigilant against the things that can derail my focus. And since I work from home, my “office” is chock full of would-be distractions! I’ve had to learn to carve out sacred time on my daily schedule for things that must get done – whether it’s work, working out, sleep and time with my family. Instead of answering every bloody email and call the minute it comes in, I have set times for responding, which preserves the uninterrupted time I need to accomplish things that require full concentration. Although the immediacy of email is gratifying, and a phone call can be a welcome excuse from difficult tasks, the reality is that most calls and emails can wait. And I’ve had to learn to ignore a full laundry basket and the new baby gift that hasn’t been sent, until I’ve accomplished the other things that serve my top priorities.
Delegate. I recently delegated a team training to another leader in my organization. I gave a project to my virtual assistant that I was SURE only I could finish, and I just said NO to a deadline that I previously felt was month-end driven. Letting go of these three things made such a difference, I actually had time to read a chapter in my latest best seller before I went to sleep.
Letting GO feels good. Doing it with integrity feels great. Each and every call I make to “let go” is greeted with understanding and support from others willing to help me. Conversations with people willing to help me relieves a lot of stress as well.
Get in the habit of setting your priorities, getting rid of time suckers and eliminating distractions now, you’ll be able to reduce stress and fit in more of the things you want to do throughout the rest of the year. And that’s how you’ll get closer to designing the life you’ll really love.
I was struggling to engage the audience. Okay, forget struggling — I was dying onstage. Maybe I was having an off day. Maybe they were having an off day. Or maybe it was the fact every one of the 100 people in attendance was a CEO, an executive, or the owner of a medium to large business, which meant they were way more accustomed to being listened to than they were to listening. So I took a shot. “In one sentence, what is the key to leading people?” I asked.
Throwaway question? Sure. I knew no one would answer. That was the point. They would sit and stare and I would offer an intentionally against-the-grain answer intended to spark some heat and conversation. (Yeah, I know. But remember, I was dying.) So I asked the question and paused to read the room. Some people looked down. Some looked away. Just when I was about to speak a voice broke the silence. “I think I know,” a man said. A few heads turned in his direction.
My head turned too. I was a little surprised and a lot concerned. Shoot, I thought, now I’ve stepped in it. He’s going to whip out some leadership cliché and I’ll have to scramble to recover from the dead end I just created.
So I was only half-listening as he said, fairly quietly, “No one cares how much you know until they first know how much you care about them.” Wait — what? “Could you please repeat that?” I said. By now a number of heads had turned in his direction. “We think we have all the answers, and maybe we do, but that doesn’t matter. No one cares how much you know until they first know how much you care about them,” he repeated. He took the ongoing silence in the auditorium as disagreement. “No, really,” he said, sounding more confident. “Yeah, we’re in charge, we talk about targets and goals and visions… but our employees don’t care about that stuff for long. We can try to communicate and engage and connect all we want but no one really listens. They just smile and nod and go back to doing their jobs the way they always do. “Our employees don’t really care about what we want them to do until they know how much we care about them. When employees know — truly know — that you care about them, then they will care about you. And when they know you care, then they will listen to you… and then they will do anything for you.” Best answer ever.
Follow
