rainbowsoverruins

Taking Notice of Your Inner Advice More Quickly

By Leave a Comment

Today, I am laughing at myself.  You see, I just realized that I have spent months developing tools and techniques, visualizing, planning and taking action toward my goals, yet missed something that was right in front of my face.

In “Rainbows Over Ruins,” I tell you my story, however, I want you to be able to do this for yourself.  This has translated into the development of a social media platform where you can find me and content for a course on these topics.

There’s a touch of’ do as I say, not as I do in this.’  Note that I instruct others to develop a strong relationship with their Higher Self; call it your subconscious mind is you wish.  This relationship can be an important factor in achieving goals.  That’s where the humor comes in.  I am not always listening to my own inner voice.  I think I am listening and taking action when I receive an impetus to do something, however, often I just file the ideas away for future reference.

Here’s an example:  In “Rainbows Over Ruins,” I describe my desire to build a center where people can develop their ability to use the power of their mind, work with others, and incubate their dreams into realization.  Over the past few months, the sense that I should begin to focus on this center has grown ever stronger.  I often suggest students should ask themselves a question – What can I do today to feel the way I want to feel when I have or achieve my dream?  Asking myself that question, the answer that has come up is to volunteer at a similar venue to my dream site.  I’ve been searching for one.

Spiritworks-Center For Spiritual Living - Burbank, CA, United StatesThe humor in this is that this week I realized that the Universe has been pointing me to a place for months.  I drive past it on the way to work most mornings.  A colleague, John Charnay, discussed it with me a few months ago.  And I kept saying to myself, “I’ll get over there.  I’ll introduce myself.”  Then John scheduled a workshop at the very same facility on vision boards (which you may be aware are one of my passions). Of course I went, both to support John and because I love playing with vision boards.  The results: (i) a new, smaller board for my home office, (ii) a visit to the SpiritWorks center, (iii) meeting the very person on my list of people to contact, and (iv) seeing that the facility has several components of my dream center.  This may very well be an ideal place to actively pursue volunteer work.  Plus, a new afformation is being added to my routine:  Why am I listening responsively to inner suggestions I receive?

I wonder, what inner nudges are you receiving that you are just not taking the time to investigate?  Today is a perfect day to explore possible answers that may move your dream projects one step closer.  Let down your resistance; let go of the compulsion to know and control everything – and see what happens.  It’s just one step after all, not a lifelong commitment.

May you find joy in the discovery of what your Higher Self is suggesting for you.

To Your Success,

Susan

 

NOW ABOUT THOSE RESOLUTIONS

By Leave a Comment

It’s that time of the year and my email inbox is filled with messages from folks in the self-improvement field telling me how to keep to my resolutions or choose another word like “commit” or a word other than resolutions. They are hitting a nerve. We want to do whatever we can to avoid what we believe is the inevitable sense of failure when we do not keep our resolutions.

If you’ve been following my posts throughout December, I think you’ll agree that I’ve been suggesting something similar all month: Pre-pave the New Year by determining your goals before the holiday rush.

With the holiday weekend here, now is a great time to settle down in front of the TV with movies or sports on the tube as background noise. No, that’s not my recommendation because it’s distracting, however, what I’m about to describe could take a while and I want you to enjoy it.

I want you to take those notes you made about your dreams and goals for 2015, put them in front of you and start to make a plan for how you are going to achieve them. Most of us are really good at making the first list of resolutions. We may even add extra language – I intend to lose 40 pounds; I intend to work out every day. However, we fail to provide some really critical information.

Why do you want to lose weight? Why do you want to work out? Do you have a result like a promotion you want to receive? Do you have a targeted event to attend? Goals are easier to achieve when you have a date in mind to achieve your goal – such as losing weight before your high school reunion or your big family wedding. It is also easier to evaluate if your goals are realistic when you attach a date to it. If you feel overwhelmed when you add a target time frame to your resolution, chances are that you need to break your resolution into smaller steps.

Are you being specific enough? Can I measure signs of my success? I may say that I want to make 2015 the best year ever, but what would have to happen for me to recognize that I have reached that goal by December 31st?

Are you overwhelmed just looking at your list? Which of your goals/resolutions are really important? There may be a few on your master list of goals that would be nice, but you don’t have a great deal of passion about them. So go ahead, take your list and reorder it according to your priorities.

Are you ready? Go make, edit and prioritize your list now before you get distracted.

Clue to potential failure number 1: If you find your head filling with negative self-talk, write down what you are telling yourself on a separate piece of paper. Mark Waldman calls it your C.R.A.P. sheet. You are acknowledging the negative while honoring your brain’s concern for your well-being. That seems to satisfy the sense of self-preservation, allowing you to explore possibilities instead of stopping you.

When we continue, we’ll identify the next steps to take your goals to the next level.

To Your Success,

Susan

The Key to Developing Persistance

By Leave a Comment

Tenacity. It is a quality that develops when you are fixed upon your purpose. It’s a necessary quality to have when you are trying something challenging or that will take considerable time to achieve. Tenacity implies that you will do whatever it takes to accomplish your vision and reach your goals.   It involves persistence, determination and perseverance, all strong words that support the theories of success.

Regular students of success philosophies are familiar with the writings and stories about persistence. Napoleon Hill gave us the often used quote: Anything the human mind can conceive and believe, when organized around a purpose and a plan, can be achieved. All too often, the organization phrase is left out in common usage, yet it is the key to achievement. Knowing your purpose and developing a plan that you can follow with persistence yields the prize.

Bob Proctor, the success coach commonly known from his appearance in the movie The Secret, began his successful pursuits when he studied the words of Napoleon Hill and owned them through his actions.   He went from $4,000 a year income as a fireman to over $100,000 within a year. He built multiple, highly successful janitorial services using the principles of success before moving into the personal development field. To this day, Proctor devotes one month a year re-reading one specific chapter every day. It is the chapter on persistence.

Hill’s classic Think and Grow Rich is filled with stories of perseverance. An entire chapter is devoted to persistence. Greg Reid and Sharon Lechter picked up on one of those stories as they wrote Three Feet from Gold, the tale of a young man who gave up his pursuit of a vein of gold, only to have the new owner find it three feet from where he had stopped. Greg has gone on to write extensively on this quality of persistence – stickiness.

Hill is clear on one point. The ability to develop determination and the self-discipline to pursue our goals begins with purpose. A couple weeks ago, I suggested that you might find this a great time to plan for your New Year’s resolutions so that you could build them around your goals. Such planning constitutes a great strategy session that improves your chance of achieving goals because you attach them to your purpose and the big “Why” behind the actions you choose to take.

If you are going through this process, you may want to ask a few questions of yourself. What is it about your goal that resonates deep within you? Call it passion. Call it purpose. Why does it fill you with enthusiasm and drive? Why does it stick with you even when you experience obstacles? The answer is extremely important to your ability to maintain the pressure that moves you along the path to your greatest desires.

And if you are unclear about your purpose, one of your resolutions may be to identify your purpose this year. A good place to start might be to observe yourself. What are you drawn to? What do you study or watch? Who are your friends? Who are your heroes and heroines? Where do you like to go? What things do you want? If money is your big goal, ask yourself why? What does money mean to you? What feelings come up when you think about having money? How will you use it? If you had all the money you currently dream about having, what would your life look like? As you go through these questions, a pattern of feelings will emerge around the things you have in your current lifestyle and the ones you would like to have.   How will you feel when you have them?

Purpose brings a sense of direction. Purpose brings passion. Passion brings tenacity and the ability to stick to it. The emotions you feel when you sense movement toward that which you desire brings such joy and well-being. Take the time this season to align with how you envision your dreams and draw the road map that appears to take you to them. With this in hand, may you find all the tenacity you require to not only keep your New Year’s resolutions, but also move steadily toward your goals.

To Your Success,

Susan

PREPARING TO LAUNCH

By Leave a Comment

With the arrival of the first books, all my energies have shifted. For so long my focus has been on writing, nurturing my relationship with the subconscious mind that is allied to creative consciousness. I have allowed my Inner Game to dominate my thinking on weekends which is when I make time to do so.

However, taking the publication to others involves developing a strategy, an Outer Game of goals, plans and actions designed to yield my desired results. Of course, I’ve been thinking about it, but here is the moment of truth when actions speak louder than words, literally. There are questions to ask myself. Where do I go from here? What do I hope to accomplish? What will my activities look like once I have manifested my vision?

Although I used to think of strategic planning in finite, tangible terms, I have come to realize that it involves both inner and outer aspects. What we create is as much what we visualize in our minds as it is the outer manifestation. So what do we need to imagine? What mind movies need to stream across the screen of the conscious mind?

When I took strategic planning in graduate school, six areas stood out: products and services, clients or customers, personnel, operations, finances, marketing and the surrounding environment. As we answer questions, we define and affect all the other components of our results.

S.W.O.T. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats). – What is the environment in which we find ourselves? Is there a great deal of competition? What is our U.S.P., Unique Selling Proposition? What value do we bring to our prospects?

Products and Services. My mentors were quick to ask me: what happens after your book is published? And they weren’t referring only to book tours and book signings. Did I want to keep writing? Was I building a legacy as a thought leader? Or as a media coach? Was I building a business with products and services?

Personnel. Who needs to be part of the team? Do I want people to be in an office full-time or would I be better served by hiring services from outside vendors or virtual assistants (VAs). Do I have someone to handle the accounting? Do I need legal services?

Operations. How will we make our products? How will we deliver products and services? Will we find fulfillment companies or do it ourselves? What systems will we have in place for payment? Will we ever meet those who purchase in person or will we connect primarily via phone and Internet? Will we interact one-on-one or in larger groups? Will our office be “brick and mortar” or “click?” Will we work from home or obtain space for offices and production?

For the moment, my office will be virtual – my website – which will serve to dispense information on products and services, a taste of my teaching, core information and a point of sale. In earlier websites, I forgot the point of sale part, but if a website is to provide the means to build a business, it needs to help generate income.

I’ve spent the past few weeks writing content for the site, as well as working with Kim Barbieri, a visual marketer who has helped Peter and me with our books and websites for several years now. Kim helped me choose the look of the site by suggesting I browse through several sites I knew and pick out the ones I liked. That would serve as a jumping off point. It reminded me of how Steve Lenchner (Lenchner Glass) works with his clients, suggesting that they bring in samples to provide a feel for their likes. (Note: Both Kim and Steve have radio interviews talking about their businesses archived on my BlogTalkRadio show “Susan Sherayko Online” at BlogTalkRadio.com.)

Anyway, Kim had me visit the Template Monster. From there, it was all about choosing the architecture that would give me visual results I desired. My preliminary design utilizes a photo changer for visual interest until I feel more proficient working with audio and video on the site. The website – www.susansherayko.com – is live, however, I will continue to test and tweak it.

Marketing. How will I make people aware of my products and services in order to share them with others? Although we enjoy creating products, if we are to continue to do so, we will need financial resources. Whether we are selling or raising such resources, we will have to communicate with others in a way that inspires them to engage with us.

Writers have a variety of options based on whether they self-publish or are being handled by a publishing house, but they still have to choose how actively they participate in order to achieve the best results.

I will kick off my marketing campaign with a book launch. It’s a big party to celebrate publishing a book. Now, I have always enjoyed a fun theme party. For years, Peter and I held an annual beast feast in January to wrap up the holiday season. Not knowing exactly what one does at a launch party, I’ve been doing a little research. I think it can be lots of fun, especially when you consider that launches can incorporate both live and virtual attendees. You can invite everyone you have ever wanted to “have over” and they can join the festivities no matter where they are.

Additionally, you can invite “book bloggers” to participate when an area of your party space is set up with computers where people can interact, post comments and pictures and truly celebrate! I’ll keep you posted on how this goes as this is a new kind of party for me.

Finances. All of these answers that we design into our project, simple or complex, have to be fueled. They help us determine our budget, the means of financing and how it will be controlled.

Add one more category: Lifestyle. When all is said and done, what will your lifestyle look like? Look at the day to day way you’ll live, as well as the leisure possibilities when you are successful. Now is the time to edit your decisions before they are in place and more costly to shift. Of course, you can always make changes along the way. My plans have clarified over the months of going through the publishing process, working with my mentor and growing awareness of options.

Questions keep coming. How do you work with a V.A.? What is the most effective marketing plan for my lifestyle? How do you launch in cyberspace?

I’ve learned to ask better questions to help me attain the results I desire. Here’s hoping you do too.

To Your Success,

Susan

Willing to Meet the Audience

By Leave a Comment

I’ve spent my morning daydreaming and planning how I am going to share my book Rainbows Over Ruins when it is published. The prospect of reaching out to others has been looming over my head for months. With only a few items in the editorial notes left to address, this could be happening within a very short time frame. Of course, it’s also part of my work in television. We are always asking questions about developing an audience. What I have been learning is that building an audience for a network program and building one for a personal project is surprisingly similar.

First, finding our audience is a natural outgrowth of creativity. At some point in our creative process, we are going to want to share our creations. This is especially true if you make multiple items that require storage, if you want to move a project along in order to make room for new ideas, if you need additional resources in order to continue to create, or want to recoup the costs of what you have already done. It helps to know what you ultimately want from your creativity.

In my case, after a landslide destroyed our home, I became fascinated by the creative process and the power of the mind, especially when I saw that my own steps to rebuild paralleled the process involved. I set out to describe it. What happened to me next led to greater depths of understanding than I expected as each step was revealed and the corresponding life lesson learned. I believe the information contained in the story I tell can improve people’s lives.

Was I thinking about sharing the story when I set out to implement the idea of writing a book? Of course, it was in the back of my mind when I started to write, however, as I got inspired with the project and working through all the details involved in order to see my vision come to life as a published book, how to share wasn’t front and center.

It is now. Once I have a box of books on my dining room table, what am I going to do with it? I’ve been reading and now have scraps of paper, pages in my notebooks and white boards of information designed to help me create a plan to raise awareness of my book so that people will know it exists. All this study has provided me the basics to know what to do. What remains is to activate my willingness to make it so.

It’s a little daunting as I begin to introduce myself to strangers and share what is a very personal journey through the creative process. Yet each time someone comes up to me to ask me a question or tell me how much they are looking forward to reading Rainbows Over Ruins, I feel better. And it feels good to be able to encourage others to share their creative projects as they see me going through the experience as well. Each conversation is helping me realize who needs what I have to offer and I’m glad – and grateful – that they are willing to share that with me.

Making Your Resolutions Count

By

With New Year’s around the corner, lists of resolutions for 2014 are being compiled by one and all.

We even made a game for the show all about the most popular resolutions and have guest speakers on the schedule with suggestions about how to keep them.

Isn’t that always the problem? We start out with the best intentions for the New Year and then a few weeks into the year, they have fallen by the wayside. So what are the best things we can do now to get what we want in 2014?

Moving into January, we are like the Roman god Janus looking forward and backward. It’s a good time to check in on the year 2013 to list our top accomplishments for the year and express our gratitude.

We are also formulating our dreams for the coming year. As you make a list, you have a greater chance of sticking with the ideas that really mean something to you. So before you put something on your list, ask yourself where you want to place your focus? Why is it important to you? How do you want to feel when you achieve it?

Enhance your dream projects by visualizing what they will be, how they will unfold, and see yourself in relationship to them. Take an inventory of what you already have and what you will need to acquire in order to accomplish your goals. And round out your thoughts on your ideas by noting the steps that will be required in the form of a plan.

Help yourself stay focused by writing a list of affirmations and afformations to read or recite daily throughout 2014 until you have achieved your goals.

If you take the time to really think through the resolutions on your list, you will have a much better chance of getting them and as New Year’s dawns, you will already be well on your way.

Happy Holidays and much success with your resolutions for 2014!

Susan

Do You Have A System for Success

By Leave a Comment

I am a great believer that opportunities are everywhere. When we are looking for them, we stumble over them. With all the distractions in our lives, we may miss them, brush them aside or mumble something to ourselves about getting back to ‘that’ later. Sadly, later never seems to come. Why? From my vantage point, I get to see colleagues master their studies, pouring hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars into the pursuit of education only to let their new skills languish. They seem unable to move to the next step to build their careers or businesses. What’s stopping them? In coaching, we talk about “being” before we can have. We discuss the motivational gap between where we are and where we want to be. Yet, it is more than just theory to know what we want and outline a plan. At some point, we must decide we have completed our education or a particular stage of development and are ready to move into the next right action.
Let me give you an example of what I mean. If you were to come to me for coaching, I would ask you ‘what do you want?’ We would look for the idea that inspires you. We would look at where you are and where you want to be. Perhaps you will realize that you need an education to prepare yourself to pursue this idea, after which you will find a way to make it a career. You research what is required, formulate a plan and then take the necessary steps to find a school, become a student, take classes, study and complete your courses. What happens next? You begin to look for ways to work with your idea. You may feel as if you are back at square one. You still have the vision of your idea. Now you have added education. You have skills and abilities that enable you to use your idea, but you may lack a system that enables you to connect into the commerce system around you. You lack access to the power grid, the network.
Napoleon Hill wrote that Success comes to those who have the power generated by organized effort around a purpose and a plan. As we complete one aspect of our original plan, we have grown to a new level. The old plan may no longer serve our greater purpose, or may need to be refined, fleshed out in light of new developments of which we were unaware at the time of our original conception. The next indicated stage may be too broadly described with insufficient detail to apply in physical action. In an ideal world, as we approached the completion of each step of our journey, we would take the time to review our plans and determine what will come next – before we throw up our hands in dismay.
But say we arrive at this moment of revelation that we have no idea what to do next. That is not the time to give up in despair. We continue to work together. We acknowledge your accomplishments and look at how that has changed the ‘job’ requirements. We may go back to the research stage, asking the same questions again. What do you want? Where are you now? Looking around you at those who are already doing what you want to do, find out how they got there. Contact these role models. Find out when they will be in your area, read about them. Find out what in the path to their success can help you gain access to those that help you do the same.
Once we know what we have to do, then we need to create or duplicate the system they used. This may be as simple as 10 phone calls a day, 5 meetings per week. When I was in this same position, I was stunned to discover that the razor’s edge difference between success and failure could be as simple as making the calls and taking the meetings. Set a goal for yourself and do whatever it takes to meet those goals. Pay no attention to the circumstances around you. Spend no time lamenting or feeling upset if you cannot do everything you set out to do. Do what you can do consistently. Take work to keep bread on the table and a roof over your head as necessary while you hold the vision of what you really want to do, then dedicate whatever time you can, every day, to move toward that goal.
One of the lessons I’ve learned moving from project to project in television production is that the truly successful are those who have the ability to repeat the process with each new venture. We take an idea, inspire others to join us, figure out how to make it happen, and then act. We move through a series of stages handled by different departments – development, production, distribution. Most of us specialize in one aspect of the overall process. Others have the knowledge to manage each stage as a project moves through the process.
We’re just getting ready to do that on the Think and Grow Rich Experiment project. We have written our plan and are completing a sizzle reel that will be our marketing package in order to attach talent and raise the money to produce a documentary. Completion of these two tasks places us in a new position. We will now have the tools to market our idea. It requires new actions and a systematic approach for the producing team. This is roughed out in the business plan. Now, we will refine it into actionable items that we can do repeatedly while we seek funding. Only when the funding is in place will we move into yet another stage for our project, the actual production. Moving forward to approach investors before we had the tools in place would have been counterproductive. Starting to produce without funds would be problematic. Each step has its own tasks to complete. If we take the time to discover them and build the necessary system around them, we are in a good position to accomplish our goals.
If you find yourself in this moment between stages, pause for a moment to review. What was your idea? Where did you begin? What steps have you accomplished? What did your role model do at this stage? Make a list of the next steps you can take to move you forward and break them into small actions that you can do each day until they become positive habits that support your endeavors. Systems may get more complicated over time, but these basic habits will form a solid foundation to build upon in all endeavors.

MENU