YOUR TICKET TO FREEDOM

Marketing a home based business means getting creative and thinking outside the box.  Try things other people haven't thought of and stand out from the rest.  Be consistent with your look...it is just like branding.  People will start to recognize what you are distributing and they will get a sense that it is legitimate and not just some scam or scheme.  Your "brand" says something about you and about your business.  It evokes moods, feelings, and thoughts.  Use that to your advantage.  Vista Print is a great resource for your marketing materials and for creating consistent themes for your branding.

I picked up a pack of 500 tickets from the local Dollar Store and guess how much they cost???  Of course, $1.00.  I ordered a small stamper from Vista Print for free.  I'm thinking about handing them out at some local craft fairs or events, or even just leaving them with a tip at restaurants...you name it...Yah!  That's the Ticket!

Also from Vista Print...sticky notes to go on gas pumps, in public restrooms, on windows, walls, community boards...I am stuck on Sticky Notes, cause Sticky Notes are stuck on me (Sorry, just feeling a bit silly tonight).

How about some sizzle cards for car doors, random counters (umm, I suppose encounters, also), at drop off day care centers, on bar tables at the local country dance club...(Okay, I will admit that I don't do country music, so for me it might be at a nice little urban bar that serves vintage scotch ;)

Let us not forget post cards.  I just picked up about 250 post card leads and now I have the cards to go with them!  I haven't used snail mail since last century!

So, I'm thinking this guy is on top of the world, having the best time of his life, wearing what he wants, doing what he wants, feeling amazing, energized, happy, radiant, in control of his freedom and his future.  What do you think?

THE UNGUARDED MIND

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "A man is what he thinks about all day long."  As a professional who has been in sales and management for the past twenty years and who now has a home-based business, I can attest to the reality that a person's greatest obstacle to success is his or her own thoughts.  Sometimes it only takes one little thought to destroy what was shaping up to be a record-breaking month.  On the Journey to Amazing, sometimes you run over a skunk and you get what we call in the sales profession "stinking thinking."  When you work from home, there is often no one there to help take away the smell.  In any case, it is important to understand the difference between unhealthy and healthy thought patterns as well as being able to develop mindfulness in order to become successful.

It is estimated that on average each person processes 12,000 thoughts per day.  That equals out to be about one thought every five seconds.  Unfortunately, the majority of these thoughts are known to be unhelpful and unhealthy.  These "unguarded" thoughts are driven by emotions like anxiety, feelings of pain, distress, irritability, and craving.  Having thoughts is a natural process, a part of who we are, but it doesn't mean that we are helpless or held captive to our thoughts.  Our thought patterns are just that...habits that we have allowed to dominate our innermost sanctuary.  Like him or not, Buddha got it right when he said that nothing causes as much pain as an unguarded mind.

One of the most important keys to success, not only in business, but in life, is to develop and practice useful forms of thinking.  In order to understand how we can develop useful forms of thinking, though, we must become mindful of unhealthy patterns.  The first thing we must learn in this process is that we can't always believe everything we think.  Just because we think it doesn't mean that it is true.  We may think that we are unsuccessful, that we aren't able to sell, that we aren't any good talking to people, but those thoughts are part of a cycle that only leads us to unhappiness.

We must next learn how to identify unhealthy or unguarded thoughts.  There are five general patterns, or what we call hindrances that represent the texture of the unguarded mind, all of which make us unhappy.  These five hindrances sum up most of our thinking patterns in our daily life.  These patterns are created by the mind as strategies to help us find solutions to our discontent.  Also, these hindrances are cyclical, for instance: an anxious thought or moment gives rise to certain feelings, which in turn reinforce the anxiety only to perpetuate and deepen the original feeling.  The five hindrances are as follows:

1. Worrying:  We often times worry about things we can not control, that we fear, that might happen in the future, or that we think someone else thinks or feels about us.  Worry leads to stress.
2. Day Dreaming:  We sometimes don't seem present and use our thoughts to escape.  These thoughts may seem random or disconnected.  We may find ourselves not wanting to be in a certain place or situation.  These thoughts lead to a lack of peace and inner rest.
3. Doubting:  We undermine ourselves and question our actions.  We choose not to trust our intuition and we begin to think ourselves incapable of better than we are.  These thoughts lead to depression.
4. Longing:  We use thoughts like "If only I could...then I would be happy."  We constantly look for something outside of ourselves to make us happy.  If I could just get this job, or have this much money, or meet this person, or if I could just stop smoking, or procrastinating...Longing leads us to irritability and unrest.
5. Arguing:  Often we find ourselves arguing in our minds with someone over certain issues or situations.  We become consumed with the argument, often playing it over and over in our minds.  The reality is that the argument we are having isn't with the other person.  They are not present, so what we are really doing is arguing with ourselves.  If we argue with ourselves, who can really win that kind of argument?

Now that we understand the five hindrances of the unguarded mind, we must begin to practice mindfulness.  We must practice becoming aware of our thoughts when we are caught in the cycle, realize which hindrance we are cycling through, and gently bring ourselves to a positive stream of thought.  One might define mindfulness as mental freedom, a place where we can become aware of our thoughts and experience freedom from harmful patterns.  A few of the best ways I have found to accomplish this is through the use of breathing techniques, relaxation techniques, and meditation.  Meditation is a simple process of training the mind to be more attentive.  The reality is that everyone deals with stress.  Negative stress has its roots in unguarded thinking, and one of the best ways to overcome stress is through developing consistent relaxation or meditation practice.

Through mindfulness we will find that over time we are making thousands and thousands of little decisions about which thoughts we are going to allow and which qualities we are going to develop.  We are sculpting ourselves, shaping ourselves, and changing our inner make-up.  We are changing the kind of person that we are becoming.  People often say that to be successful you must first change the way you think.  You must become the success on the inside that you believe you can accomplish on the outside.  Just like everything else in life, it takes work, dedication, and persistence.  It isn't a get-rich-quick mental scheme.  You probably won't become on overnight success, but if you practice it, you will success...and you will succeed.  You deserve nothing less than amazing!

Remember:  A mind without hindrances is a happy place to be!

HIDDEN TALENT

Today my Journey to Amazing took me a little outside my comfort zone.  I've had to attend some meetings for about six hours yesterday and then again today.  While sitting through these meetings yesterday, I couldn't help but notice the guy next to me doodling on the white space of his Venti Starbucks Coffee cup.  It turned out to be more than just "doodling" though.  His designs were amazing!  This guy had talent, so I kind of figured he was an artist, tattoo artist, graphic designer, or something professional.

When I got home last night I started thinking about my day, the meetings I had just attended, and that fact that I hadn't seen my son since I had dropped him off at school.  His grandma picked him up and took him to her place, where he spent the night so that I could get up and go back to the meetings the first thing this morning.  Since my dream that I discussed in my previous post about my corporate job, I have been ending each day playing back the daily events so that I can become more cognizant of amazing moments I would otherwise not consider.  The designs this guy was drawing earlier in the day really caught my attention, and I knew that I needed to say something when I went back Saturday morning.

Saying something just isn't my normal modus operandi.  I'm the kind of guy who would normally just sit quietly, observe, and mind my own business.  The thought of how we are all gifted in different ways that make each of us unique and amazing compelled me to get out of my comfort zone and say something to him.  So, this morning when I got back to the meeting I greeted him, introduced myself, and told him that I had noticed his artistic ability the day before as he drew on his cup.

I suppose the funny thing about this is that this guy really didn't look or come across as an artistic person.  He was wearing hunter green camouflage, a  backward ball cap, and had a big wad of chew in his mouth.  He looked more like a outdoor sportsman with a cocky attitude who wouldn't mind grabbing a rifle and unloading a couple shots just to get off on the recoil.

So here I am, curious as to how this guy looking and acting the way he does has this amazing talent.  When I complimented him on his design ability, he looked at me kind of funny, like maybe he was thinking, "Are you gay and trying to hit on me?"  So, realizing his concern, and relying on my many years of sales experience, I started asking him some questions.  Knowing I wasn't going to hit on him, he relaxed and began to answer my questions.

This guy's name is Mike.  He is a career firefighter in Denver.  He and his wife live here in Fort Collins.  Not too long ago he went on a date with his wife.  They knew they were going to be drinking, so they rode their bikes.  They had a pitcher of margaritas and a couple beers, watched a game and ate dinner.  On their way back home a cop saw them riding and having a little too much fun up on the sidewalk, so he flipped his lights, pulled them over and confronted them.  Mike got a little cocky with the officer because he wasn't going to be intimidated by the situation.  He ended up getting a DUI and the officer took his drivers license away.  Mike got with a lawyer and got his license back, but has ended up having to go through the whole DUI experience.  He and his wife thought they were safe because they were on bikes.

I then asked Mike where he learned his design skills.  He kind of shrugged it off and said it was just a goofy pastime he developed when he was bored.  I asked if he ever thought about taking it further than doodling.  As he spit in his cup he asked, "Why?"  So, this is what I said to him:

"Recently I had an experience and I realized that people are seldom ever complimented on the things they do really well, so they end up trying to do a lot of other things that aren't as meaningful because they are told that's what matters most.  I just wanted to take a moment to tell you that you have an amazing talent and I can tell when you are drawing it isn't just a goofy scribble.  You are able to take a blank space and bring it to life.  If you have never considered it, you should think about creating a website and sharing your talent.  Your designs would make some killer art for tattoos or for graphic artists."

Mike wasn't too comfortable receiving compliments.  He kinda shrugged it off and said that life was too busy for him to do anything like that.  Of course, by the end of the day, his cup was completely full of new and fresh designs.  As for me, I moved out of my quiet, intellectual shell and did something I kind of found amazing.  Instead of letting an opportunity pass me by, I made a willful, deliberate decision to share my Journey to Amazing with someone else, and hopefully, helped someone else catch a glimpse of something amazing about himself.  Of all the people in the meeting, nobody else really said anything to one another.  At the end of it, Mike came up, shook my hand and said, "Hey, good luck!...and thanks for the compliment."

MAY THE TEA NEVER STOP

I love tea, but even more I love the creative process.  Tea has become second nature to me.  You will see me with a cup of loose leaf tea steeped to perfection no matter where I am.  To me, tea is one of the most amazing mysteries.  All of the thousands of flavors that we can create comes from the same tree and the same leaves.  One of the greatest pleasures is to now be able to work from home and enjoy one delicious steep after another.  Having a home based business really does afford one the most simple, but also the most rewarding pleasures of life.  And so now I share with you a rather creative poem about my love for tea...

MAY THE TEA NEVER STOP

I lived in a world of gold and gray
in a moment that lasted more than a day
and in that moment lasting more than a day
I sensed you drifting slowly my way

I felt your presence for a moment in time
and tasted you quietly in my mind
as you softly danced with grace refined
I joined with you our souls entwined

Tied together in visions of gold and gray
I chose to send my heart your way
and as my heart bid me "Good day!"
I lifted my cup without delay

I savored you longingly in my mind
while life slipped by for quite some time
and all that happened seemed so sublime
in that moment lasting more than a rhyme

Finally I reached a place I could not top
as I selfishly inhaled you like a joypop
and I thought as I floated past a quaint little shop,
"May the tea never stop..."
~Harlan Snyder~

BELIEVE

~ If you believe you can, you probably can. If you believe you won't, you most assuredly won't. Belief is the ignition switch that gets you off the launching pad. ~  Denis Waitley

Do you believe you can?  One of my son's favorite books is The Little Engine That Could.  Perhaps you remember the story...Something needed to get done, but so many just felt the job wasn't for them.  They steamed right past the opportunity and missed the chance to make a difference in the lives of other people who were in need.   Some may believe they are too good, others too important or too busy, or too strong, or too old, or too this, or too that...you get the picture.  It is not our size, our past, our failures, our previous work experience, or our low self esteem that matters.  It is simply our ability to believe that we can.  We can make a difference in the lives of others who need something we have to offer.  In turn, we find that the biggest difference comes in the growth and enjoyment we receive.  We may have to do some tugging and pulling at first, but once we get going, we will get closer and closer to our goals, and then we will be there before we know it.  Instead of chuffing, "I think I can.  I think I can.  I think I can" we will be smiling and saying, "I thought I could.  I thought I could.  I thought I could."

A LETTER TO MY SON

Dear Julian,

You told me today that it would make you happy if I left you a note and drew you a picture.  I thought I would leave you this note along with some of my favorite pictures, as your happiness is very important to me.  I want to let you know how proud I am of you, and even though I can get a little pushy with you, it is for the reason that I do care so very deeply for you.  Your childhood and your journey into manhood is the single most important responsibility I have been given.  I have been provided with the opportunity to help show you and guide you…to be your teacher.  In turn, you are also my teacher.  I want you to know that everyday I spend with you, I learn something new.  You’ve taught me to understand the capacity of love a father can have for his son.  You’ve taught me the importance of patience, as I take my responsibility as your father very seriously.  You have taught me joy, and you have brought a light into this world that I find remarkable.  I just want you to know that I think you are amazing :-)
I’m proud to be your teacher, and to enjoy the wonderful and amazing things that you teach me.  I’m proud of you…I love you!
Your Dad

 

THE WOLF WITH TWO HEADS

There is a story about a wolf with two heads that goes like this:

A young man was seeking help from an elder and needed to ask the elder's advice about a choice he needed to make.  Before he asked, he noticed a necklace the elder was wearing.  The necklace was a wooden carving of a wolf with two heads.  The young man asked the elder what the carving meant.  The elder replied, "The wolf has two heads.  One head symbolizes good and the other head symbolizes evil."  The young man asked the elder which of the heads was the strongest and which would win.  The elder answered, "The one that I feed the most!"...With that, the young man left, having had his unspoken question answered.

This serves to remind us that regardless of what dream we have for our life or what we want our children to learn, we must pay attention to which head of the wolf we are feeding.  No matter how strongly we may believe that our choices are serving our dream, if we are feeding the wrong head of the wolf, then it will win and consume our dream, our legacy, and our character.  It will then turn and look to consume that of our children, for we have not taught our children to make good choices.  To truly experience amazing in our lives, we must always pay attention to the wolf with two heads.  We must feed the one we want to win.

OUTSTANDING LEADERS

Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish.
Sam Walton

I had a dream the other night that I was attending a sales meeting for my current place of corporate employment (not my self-employment, which is part of my journey to amazing).  This was one of those meetings where all the employees were gathered from around the area and packed into our store in Loveland, CO.  Our district manager was up front, flipping her hair, and going on about how all her employees were making her look bad in the rankings.  Her comments were snide and belittling.  In the middle of this sales "beating" I suddenly stood up and proceeded to the front where I firmly took the microphone from her and began to speak.  My first words were not kind...in fact, they were also belittling and sharp tongued.  Many a time we have set through these meetings where we are made to feel anything but amazing.  In my dream, this time was the last.  I had had enough of watching her orchestrate wardrobe changes throughout our meetings so that she could share her obsession with shopping.

Before the shock-value of my actions and words could fully fade, I leaned over to an employee sitting toward the front and asked her name.  I then asked her to share with me something about herself that she considered amazing.  She was a bit puzzled, and it became obvious this shift in perspective was alien to her.  She commented that she really didn't know.  I then asked her if there was something that she liked to do outside of work that allowed her to escape...something she could get lost in and that she knew she could do really well.  Her face lit up as she shared that she loved to create picture frames.  She shared that when she began to personalize picture frames with different craft material, it would inspire her.  In fact, many friends thought she should consider marketing her creations.  She described that when she was in that creative mode she felt amazing.  I then asked her if anyone in this company had ever made her feel that way...inspired or amazing.  Her answer was, "No, not once."

I then went to another employee and asked him to share something about himself that he found amazing.  He shared that he loved to jump on his bike and take power rides through the mountains.  It boosted his confidence and self-esteem, and helped him cope with stress.  He explained that when he was cycling through the mountains, the thrill of coasting down the mountain and taking the turns was amazing to him...he felt alive and felt like he could accomplish anything.  I then asked him if he had the same feelings about his work.  He, too, answered, "No, not once."

I then began to speak, "I love who I am, and I believe I deserve nothing less than amazing.  In fact, I want to tell you that every one of you are absolutely amazing.  You deserve amazing in your life.  You deserve to feel the joy of inspiration and the exhilaration of success.  Never settle for anything less than amazing.  Never let anyone tell you that you are less than amazing.  Please, answer this question for me...If your managers were to come to you and tell you how proud they were of you, and they constantly encouraged you or told you of the best qualities you portrayed, how would that make you feel?  Amazing?"

"If you take time to understand that out of 7 billion people on this earth, you are the only one with the exact set of talents, gifts, and strengths...that you are the only "you" in this world, that should feel pretty amazing.  Why is it that we don't feel amazing...that we don't experience amazing...that we don't live amazing?  Somewhere along the road, when we are doing what feels or seems amazing, someone comes along and tells us that it is wrong.  We get told over and over, until we start to believe it.  They tell us that we must act, live, work, and maybe play certain ways in order to get what we want, then we will feel amazing...but we don't.  We feel tired, overextended, frustrated, stressed, and worn out.  We loose our dreams and our visions.  We settle for less than amazing and end up just trying to survive."

"I find it sad that I go to work every day and by the time I get done, the only thing I don't feel is amazing.  Management pushes us to perform above and beyond, and I understand it, but I believe that what they push, or the way they push, is very wrong.  In fact, what comes to mind when you hear the word 'push'?  It is an act of aggression!  In the legal system, pushing is called assault.  Yet here we are getting pushed harder and harder every day, and there are no corporate police to penalize someone for assaulting another human being."

"In my world; in the world that I find amazing, I'm not pushed, I'm celebrated.  I'm encouraged, I'm made to feel amazing.  When I feel amazing, then I live amazing.  When I live amazing, then I am amazing and I get comments from my customers that their experience was also amazing.  Amazing brings about amazing.  Assault breeds injustice.  My friends, in all that you do, in all that you are, in all that you are yet to become, I want you to know that you are amazing.  You deserve nothing less!"

Well, it was quite a dream.  I'm not sure if I got fired or not...or if my outburst had any affect on the way corporate America treats their employees.  It certainly felt good to get that off my sub-conscious, though.  It is one of the reasons I have decided to take this journey to amazing.  I am determined that the only time I will stop along this journey will be perhaps to smell the roses.  Oh, and maybe also to count my blessings.  Sam Walton had it right...Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish.

PERSPECTIVE

I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.
e. e. cummings 

Wow!  It is so amazing to get outside and enjoy the subtle changes taking place as summer begins to relinquish its hold and fall's gentle breeze cools the air.  Lol...It's like a scoop of protein/metabolism boost for the soul.