The Navigator

Posts Tagged ‘wisdom’

Encarta defines wealth as “an abundance or great quantity of something”.

Many of us automatically jump to the thought of money when we hear the word wealth.  I know I do. Or at least I did.  When my friend, Cathy, and I decided to co-facilitate a Commanding Wealth Circle I struggled with the name because I didn’t want people to think it was all about money.  Yes, money is a part of it.  We need it to live and enjoy some of life’s pleasures (although many pleasures are free).  I actually pulled out the dictionary as I was creating flyers for the group.  That’s when I saw how expansive the word “wealth” can be.  It’s just how we choose to define it for ourselves.

I am reminded of a story I heard once about a “wealthy” man and his son.  The man wanted to teach his son how lucky he was and thought he could do this by showing the son how poor people live.  They went to the country and spent some time on a farm with a family that would be considered quite poor.

At the end of the trip, the father asked his son what he thought.  The son had a great time and told his father that what he learned was this:

• They have one dog and the family had four.
• They have a pool and the family has a creek that goes on forever.
• They have lanterns in their garden and the family has stars in the sky.
• They have a piece of land and the family has fields that go farther than the eye can see.
• They buy their food and the family grows their own.
• They have walls to protect them and the family has friends.

The son then said to his father, “Thank you for showing me how poor we are.”

It’s all perspective.  Everything in life is that way.  We get to choose how we want to define everything in our world.  It’s both a blessing and curse – depending on your perspective.  Which will you choose?

For more information on the Commanding Wealth Circles, visit our website.

“Let the 80/20 Principle Pay Off for You”
by Ali Brown

It pays to play to your strengths. But how do you pinpoint the areas that will increase revenue and earn you more money? Simple: by following the Pareto Principle. Developed by Italian economist and sociologist Vilfredo Pareto, this short, simple rule states that 80% of our results come from 20% of our activity.

You may have heard that we wear 20% off of our clothes 80% of the time, and the same 80/20 rule applies to business. For instance, 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers. Conversely, 80% of your complaints come from 20% of your customers and 80% of the profits made in your industry come from 20% of the companies. The exact percentages may vary, perhaps 75% and 25% instead of 80% and 20%, but the concept remains the same.

By identifying customers and areas that are most valuable to you and your business, you can boost your bottom line without working longer or harder. In fact, you’ll be working smarter. At the same time as you’re finding your most profitable areas, you also need to think about those customers or products that are not performing well and may actually be dragging down you and your business.

For instance, if you own a secondhand music store, you probably have some inventory that is flying off the shelves and other products that just aren’t selling, no matter how low you price them. By dividing your products in categories (perhaps by music genre), you could see which items your customers are buying and which ones you should stop carrying. By matching your products to customer demand, you’ll be able to turn over inventory more quickly and make more money, all without adding more square footage or spending more money on advertising.

Here are some areas to consider in your own business:

*Employees – Who is your rock star salesperson and what you can you do to help them achieve even better results? Also, who is underperforming and might they be better suited to other tasks? Both are important considerations.

*Customers Calculate how much revenue you’re getting from each customer and subtract the cost of administrative time or other costs to maintain that relationship. Once you’ve figured out which customers are in your top 20%, you can make some strategic decisions about how to better meet their needs.

*Markets – If you sell products to different markets, evaluate these markets with the same principle you used for evaluating your customers. The markets that are earning you the most money should become obvious, so you can start examining the direction in which the company is headed.

Once you’ve identified areas that aren’t paying off, you have to be ruthless and kick them to the curb. Your business cannot flourish if you’re spending valuable time and resources on customers or products that are unprofitable. Once you make the strategic decision to cull wasted space and focus on areas that earn more money, you’ll have a much better chance of surviving, and even flourishing, in a competitive business environment.

© 2009 Ali International, LLC

Self-made multimillionaire entrepreneur Ali Brown is devoted to creating financial freedom for women globally through the power of entrepreneurship. To learn how to create wealth and live an extraordinary life now, register for her free weekly articles at www.AliBrown.com

It’s always better to give too much, pay too much, and love too much, than not enough.

But then, Michele, since everything comes back to you anyway, can there ever be too much?

I love you too much anyway,
The Universe

Want your own messages from the Universe? Visit tut.com.

So, things have been crazy lately and I haven’t blogged much lately.  I’m feeling a little guilty about it.  It was something I had committed to and yet here we are again – not following through.  My intentions are all good and then life happens and I get off track.  For those who know me, getting off track is pretty easy.  Thoughts and ideas overflow from my head 24/7.

I used to think I wanted to shut it off until someone asked me one day during a healing session if that’s what I really wanted.  It only took a second for me to realize I didn’t.  I LOVE all the ideas that come to me.  I LOVE learning.  I LOVE it all!  I’m so grateful she asked me that or I may have spent the rest of my life trying to shut it off.

So, where am I at today?  Where am I not would probably be a quicker answer but I’ll give you just the highlights and try to keep it short.

Tomorrow I start school.  I can’t wait.  Every couple of hours here at home today I pop my head around the corner and asking my family if they know what tomorrow is.  They say no or Monday and then I say, “It’s a school day!”  Can you tell how excited I am?!  First on my agenda?  Learning all about color theory.  Well, second.  First I tested out of one of my classes because I felt I knew most of what the class would cover.  They said I was the first one to try testing out of this class and pass!  Yeah me!

Many of you know I spent 15 years in parks and rec.  I left in part because I really wanted to be able to offer programs and services that I am passionate about.  Not ones that someone else told me I had to offer.  Now I’m doing that.  The other thing I loved doing for parks and rec was marketing and graphic design.  That’s what I’m going back to school for!  I know I have some skills and I could gain more on the internet or in an occasional class here or there but I really want structure – the most missed component of having a 9 to 5 job.   It’s great to be able to work in my pjs on the couch and to decide when to schedule things and I still crave some structure.

It will also create a network of people who are passionate about the same thing for me.  I have this for the other aspects of who I am but not so much for people who love designing.  I am also really excited to be the student here and connect with other students too!

The theme here?  I saw that I wanted/needed something and I figured out how to make it happen and I did it!

What is it that you want?

What are you willing to do to make it happen?

When you see a roadblock/obstacle, what do you do?  Do you give up or find a way to go around it?

I’d love to hear from you…please leave a comment!

This is so true!

Only when you care enough for people to help them pass you by can you truly consider yourself a leader.

Tweeted by barefoot_exec

Love this quote!

“I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence but it comes from within. It is there all the time.” ~Anna Freud

Shared via Twitter by UCanHealUrLife

Success is not measured by how you do compared to how someone else does. Success is measured by how you do compared to what you could have done with what God gave you.” – unknown

Thank you to Deb Bollom from d5coaching.com for sharing this amazing quote. I love it and had to share with others!

Last Wednesday I had the pleasure of sharing some of my favorite tips for social media on our Lodestone virtual meeting call. I love sharing tips that I find to make my life easier so I thought I’d share a couple here.

If you tweet, try hootsuite.com. It’s a free site that allows you, among other things, to schedule out your tweets. Consistency is one of the most important things in social media.

Another favorite of mine is the Twitter application within Facebook. This application can be found just by doing a search on Facebook. Once installed, it allows you to tweet from your facebook page AND whatever you tweet from anywhere shows up on your Facebook page as a status update!

Each month, our Lodestone members have the opportunity to be a part of these calls – a different topic explored each time based on what our membership needs. This is a free, exclusive opportunity for Premium and Associate members. If you are a healing arts practitioner and are looking to connect with others and receive support with your business, check out our website at www.lodestonedynamics.com! Special pricing is available through June 2009.

May your days be filled with joy, love, abundance and success!

First published by Essential Wellness in 2005

Have you ever wished you had more confidence in any area of your life?  Your job? Relationships?  Intuitive living?  I know I’ve been saying for years that I wish I had more confidence in all of those areas and more.  I’ve wondered why I didn’t have more and I’ve wondered what my life would look like if I did have it.  I’ve played the “if onlys” over and over in my mind.

Finally, after tiring of seeing little change, I decided it was time to get out there and start doing things.  I realized that things weren’t going to change on their own.  One of the areas I looked at was my job.  Although there were many things I enjoyed about my job, I didn’t really feel passionate about it any more and felt like there was another direction I’d like to go.  One day I just took the afternoon off and went out looking for office space in the community.  As luck would have it, I found a perfect space that I could afford.  Then I joined the Chamber and before I opened my doors, I had my first official client call to schedule an appointment.  Things just grew from there. 

I realized that every time I took a risk, I gained confidence!  And not just in the area I took the risk (for example, my job) but in every area of my life.  Even though I’ve heard for most of my life that practice will do that for you, this was different for me.  It wasn’t really practicing as much as just going outside of my comfort zone to achieve the things I want. 

Rhonda Britten, author, calls this stretch, risk or die.  Imagine a bullseye and the middle of it is your comfort zone.  The next ring out is the stretch zone, the next one is the risk zone, and the furthest one out is the die zone.  Stretching is something you’ve been avoiding but isn’t really that hard to do.  The risk zone is when you doing something that is scary for you and if you do it; it will probably change your life.  The die zone is where you do something that is so scary, you feel like a part of you is going to die.   As you visit the outer edges of your bullseye, you will be able watch your life change before your very eyes.   

I invite you to take a look at an area of your life you’d really like to change.  Come up with two stretches, two risks, and a die.  Start with the stretches and go through each item on your list.  As you do, acknowledge each one proudly, no matter how small it may seem.  Each time it will get easier and easier and you will feel your confidence begin to grow. 

To have the life you desire you must move out of your comfort zone and into the stretch, risk, AND die zones.  Know that you are worth it!  Today’s your day!  Make it count!

First published by Essential Wellness in 2004.

I have struggled all my life with a feeling that something was missing. I could never quite put my finger on why or what it was, I just knew that something wasn’t right. I spent many years being angry with others for things I felt were wrong in my life and trying to run from the pain inside. I took this anger out in a variety of ways, none of them healthy or productive. In general, I wasn’t a happy person.

Over the past few years, I decided it was time to do some soul searching and I sought out ways to improve my life as well as my outlook. I explored many avenues of learning. I tried yoga and started meditating. I explored psychic development and tried to live my life more intuitively. I also explored a variety of alternative healing methods. What I discovered was a common denominator in all of these paths – compassion for all, including ourselves.

All the peace and happiness on this earth and in my being can be summed up in one word – compassion.

As we travel on this journey, we tend to look around us in every direction possible searching for the answer when in fact the answer lies within us. Life takes on a whole new meaning when we realize that our entire purpose here on this earth is to develop compassion for all.

Wanting others to be free of suffering is the definition of compassion. Each and every day becomes more meaningful when we fill it with a kind heart, less selfishness, and an attitude of service to others.

Through my own journey, I struggle with this every day. Being a spiritual being in a human body is truly the most difficult task to master.

When I am at work and at home, I am forever put in situations that challenge my ability to have compassion for all. As hard as I try, it seems like something always comes up that I struggle with. This has been a source of frustration for me. I couldn’t figure out why this was so hard. The concept is so basic, I thought, so why can’t I do it? I came to the conclusion that I don’t think perfection means being able to have complete compassion for all in every situation; after all, we are human and have human emotions to cope with. The perfection is in our intention to do it as much as possible and to keep it in the forefront of our minds at all times. In doing so, our ability to have complete compassion grows and we are able to truly feel this way more and more of the time.

Here are some of the ways that have helped me in my quest to have compassion for all:

1. Realize we all come from the same energy.  We are all connected in some way. In Dr. Wayne Dyer’s tape set entitled, The Road is Never Crowded along the Extra Mile; he shares a saying from the Native Americans that says no tree has branches as foolish as to fight amongst themselves. We are all as connected as the branches on a tree and should treat each other as such.

2. Forgive someone from the past.  Through our connectedness, we become angry or resentful towards someone for something they have done or said. We are the only ones who suffer when this happens. Being resentful or angry is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die. It will eat at you as long and as much as you let it. Forgiving someone doesn’t mean that you dismiss what they did or said. It simply means, you don’t allow it to affect you in a negative way. Letting go can have a liberating effect on our hearts and souls.

3. Put yourself in their shoes.  When you start to feel angry with someone, put yourself in their shoes. Picture them as a small child. Think about what they have experienced and how those experiences have affected them.  The experiences we’ve had in our lives make us the person that we are today.

4. Be in service to others.  Put yourself in a position to be of service to others. When you live your life thinking in terms of “How can I be of service to this person?”, it softens your heart.

5. Practice living with an open heart.  Lead with your heart in everything you say and do, realizing that along the way there will be many who will not be receptive to this way of thinking and that’s ok. Remember, you can’t control what others do or how they feel. Living your life in this manner will bring a great tenderness into your being that will flow into everything you do and others will notice.

6. Lastly, when faced with a challenging situation, keep repeating “love and compassion” in your mind.  Whenever I am struggling with something, I repeat “love and compassion” in my mind over and over again. This helps me remain calm and focused and to remember what our purpose here on earth is.

Arthur H. Stainback said, “The value of compassion cannot be overemphasized. Anyone can criticize.  It takes a true believer to be compassionate. No greater burden can be borne by an individual than to know that no one cares or understands.” It’s time for us to do our part to make sure that everyone feels as if someone cares. It’s time for us to stand up and, in the words of Gandhi, “Be the change we want tosee in the world.”