Think Positive Live Positive

Positive thinking may sound like mumbo-jumbo to some people, but other people firmly believe in it.  Positive thinking is the act of staying optimistic, even when faced with difficulties or challenges.

Staying positive, even in the face of adversity, can help you conquer challenges.  When you think positively, you are envisioning your success.  Failure will not be an option; you will move past the obstacles in your way.  When a person thinks positively, they will attract positive people and positive outcomes in their life.

When you find yourself facing a roadblock, try to find a way around it.  It can be easy to give up.  Giving up will not bring you any closer to accomplishing your goals.  In fact, giving up can make you feel even worse and cause more stress.

Finding a way to forge ahead and reach your goal or accomplish your task will help you grow as a person.  You will feel more confident and able to take on new, more difficult challenges. Read more

Ready for a Business Coach???

Often times we actually know the steps we need to take with our business, but systemizing those steps into “do-able” chunks can be a lot more difficult. There are also many “small” questions that come up as we build our business, and having someone to turn to can be a great help. Even just having a person to run your idea by for vetting can be a life saver. In these situations, one-to-one coaching can really help.

How do you decide if coaching can benefit you? Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

#1 – Could I use an impartial person to run my ideas by?

Your friends and family may be great to turn to for help, but remember they are slightly biased. You have heard it said that they will tell you what you want to hear–this is not the time for that! Even if they gave great ideas, it doesn’t help if they don’t specifically understand the inner dealings or your business or market.

Having an impartial person dissect your ideas and plans can be very beneficial, particularly if that person is in your field and has already achieved the success you hope to achieve. Read more

Steps toward Effective Time Management

Does it always seem like you are under the gun to get things done?  Time seems to get away from you and you don’t know why.  Maybe what you need is a way to effectively manage your time.

Time management is an age-old problem.  Remember Wimpy in the old Popeye cartoons?  He’d pay on Tuesday for a hamburger today.  Why not pay now?  Procrastination is the enemy of all who try to manage their time.  If you have been bitten by the procrastination bug, it’s time to take an antidote.

Time management issues can be dealt with in three stages:  planning, tracking and assessing.  Just like with other issues in life, the best way to handle them is head on, before the problem gets to be too big for us to even want to look at it.

1.  Planning – Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.  We’ve all heard it and it’s true for the most part.  You have to have somewhere to start or you’ll spend half of your day deciding what to do.  Planning begins with the end – deadlines.  Know how much time you have for each task you have to accomplish.  Within that timeline, you can break down the larger goal into more manageable pieces.  Read more

Five Tips to Beat Procrastination

Why do it today if you can do it tomorrow?  Thinking like that is the beginning of the end when it comes to getting anything done — work or home chores.  The key to being more productive at work is to stop procrastinating before it gets a foothold in your thinking process.

Why do you procrastinate?  There are several reasons and some might surprise you.  Fear of failure is one reason.  No one wants to be make mistakes but they are a part of life and they do happen to everyone.

Fear of success is also a reason why you might procrastinate.  Here is the rationale:  If you succeed you will be expected to do so all the time.  The pressure alone can stop your work. Read more

Auto Responders: Work Smarter Not Harder

Auto responders…wondering “What ARE they?” Heard about them, but have no idea what they are and how they are used?

Auto responders are great “assistants” for the busy writer. The use of auto responders is quickly becoming standard.  Given the digital age we have come into at full speed, it is becoming more and more time-consuming to be checking voicemails and answering machines.  The digital age is now allocating and advocating the use of these responders as a fax-on-demand-type of system.

An auto responder is an automatic messaging system, generally used in instant messaging systems and emails, to generate an automatic response to an incoming message or a scheduled outgoing message to those who have requested this information.  They can be configured in many different ways to include not accepting the incoming message yet shooting a message back, letting the sender know that messages aren’t be accepted and when they will be. Read more

Phones, Phones, Phones – Essentials or Distractions???

No matter what type of online business you are in, or how you communicate, you will find there are a number of reasons that you will need to use a telephone.  You may need to soothe clients who need to hear a real human voice or you might need to find a way to communicate with your colleagues that is more immediate than that of a simple e-mail or chat session.  The problem is, however, that phone use, whether it is through a landline or through a cell phone, can cause you plenty of problems, especially if you let it get out of control.

For many of us, nothing is more simple or instinctive than calling someone up to chat.  While we may want to keep it professional, there is a good chance that we will spend a lot longer on the phone than we thought we would, and before we know it, the day has sped by and our efficiency is shot. The work we intended (our intentions are always good in the beginning aren’t they?) to get done is being put off until later.  Have you ever experienced this?  This may be a sign that you need to think about your phone use and how it is affecting the bottom line in your business. Read more

Easy How-to’s: Give Google Notebook a Try!

Google Notebook is a tool which makes it easy to clip and organize online information.

When you’re browsing online Google Notebook makes it easy to clip and paste you’re your notebook.  You can even categorize them by vacation, business research, pet training, and recipes – whatever you want.

To get started you’ll want to get a Google account if you don’t already have one.  To do that simply visit Google and click on “Get Started.”  Note that if you already use Gmail, AdSense or AdWords then you already have a Google account.

You can also visit https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount to create a new account.

Once you have a Google account installing Notebook is easy. Read more

Secrets to Productivity: WRITE IT DOWN!

What do you want for this year? Think for a moment with me… Next year, this time, what do you want to see different in your life? What would you like to see finished? What would you like to see accomplished this year?

Dear friend, this year is the year of fullness. I have committed to make this year a year of commitment, accomplishment, and productivity. Want to make this year the very best ever too? Let’s find some keys to productivity. Let’s dig in and get moving strong. Ready? Well, today let’s look at one of my biggest keys to productivity…

Take time to write EVERYTHING down!

Talk about a key to productivity! If there were one thing that I really believe makes the difference in my own productivity, it is this one discipline. I know, I know what you may be thinking… Read more

Secrets to Help You Stay Focused in 2009 by Cindy Rushton

Anybody else battle with distractions and interruptions? Do you want to stick to the things that are on your heart, yet realistically battle with staying focused?

Oh! I TOTALLY relate! In fact, the past few months, my heart-cry has been to stay focused. Everywhere I have turned, I have heard messages on staying focused…saw articles on being focused…and talked with my friends about being focused. As a result, I have found a few great secrets that have really helped me to stay focused on the most important things in my life and get more done at the same time. Want to know those secrets? Well, let’s dig in…

BEGIN EACH DAY WITH A QUIET TIME…

I know what you just thought…”BUT! Cindy, that gets me off track for the day!”  Read more

Staying Committed to Your Business

Becoming a successful writer requires a certain amount of drive and enthusiasm.  If we didn’t believe in ourselves and our businesses, we would never step up to the call. We would still be working for someone else.  But when the going gets tough, it’s easy to lose sight of why we started in the first place.  This can cause us to become unmotivated, and it could be the demise of the business we’ve worked so hard to build if we’re not careful.

Businesses are like relationships:  commitment is an absolute must if they are to succeed.  Here are some tips for staying focused and pulling through the hard times.

Read more

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