Vacation Productivity.. and other new years musings

From Liz Uible

I LOVE this week. This last week in the year is when more people are off work, stores are closed, and generally, there are fewer business demands than any other time of year.

Maybe for the first time, I really get why this week is when people reflect on last year and adjust in preparation for the new year. We actually give ourselves time to think this week. We give ourselves time to plan, to organize our thoughts. We tend to be with friends and loved ones more this season, whether home for the holidays, or bonding with other who are not.

I actually did not work from my office, but on the dining room table in front of the Christmas tree. And I got so much planning and creating done!

What if I did this more than once a year? What if we did this in July, too? Or quarterly?

I wonder… does the whole world have to turn off for me to get this feeling of vacation-work that I am getting this week? Or do I simply need to work somewhere outside of my office?

Some efficiency experts recommend that we be get outside of the office for most of the day 2 days a week to engage our creativity. I have a friend who sits in his special creativity chair when it is time to be creative. Setting goals and a vision for the next year takes a level of creativity and open-mindedness that I haven’t given it in the past.

I do like the arbitrary distinction Midnight on December 31^st offers. On that day tomorrow is not the same as next week. You can change. You can make tomorrow different than today. And that is the beauty of New Years day. You can make a new creation and call it yourself. New Years gives us an excuse to be better tomorrow than we are today, rather than just more hung-over. Check out the Motivation Marathon we are putting on next week. Another excuse to be different next week than we are this week…

The Motivated and Effective New Year

From Liz Uible

How Would You Like to Start the New Year Motivated, Inspired and able to Manifest your Dreams on a totally different level?

I am getting more and more excited as Christine and I plan three calls for the New Year with three inspiring and goal-oriented women. We are calling the series Motivation Marathon 2007 and it starts this Monday. One of the cool things bout it, is that the proceeds from these calls go entirely to our Foundation for Micro-lending and will be used to help women start businesses in Rwanda.

Here's the lineup:
JANUARY 1st: Beth Walkup, entrepreneur extraordinaire, Presidential Appointee, and former Vice President of C.A.R.E. International, was featured in Christine's leadership book for women (Can a Girl Run for President?) for her exceptional mind set. She's truly a woman who creates her own destiny. At age 30 for example, Beth decided sheneeded to be surrounded by positive people ONLY, and did a complete and courageous sweep of all friends and colleagues.

Benefits: We'll learn not only her Mindset on Success, but also how to look at the coming year and set tangible goals to move our businesses and passions forward.

JANUARY 2ND: Hilde Bartlett has an amazing rags-to-riches story.
This impressive woman, has been named Business Woman of the Year
(twice!!!) in England. And built a business from scratch to $10.
Find out how this Brit used the principles of the book
"Excuse Me - Your Life is Waiting!" to sell her company and live the
life of her choice. Now she mentors business owners around the
world and we have her!

Benefits: We'll learn how to materialize our dreams and make
our business and personal life come alive with Hilde's unique
step-by-step method!

JANUARY 3rd: Sue Dyer combines it all, with serenity, grace and power! She's a mother, a business owner and an internationally recognized construction industry Mediator. She exudes absolute calm. Even when working with Hard-Hat construction workers in the most grueling mediation sessions, she's able to keep her serenity! You will learn to keep your serenity when the world is crashing in around you.

Benefits: We'll learn how everything in the world is first created in our minds plus how to get Our Minds in alignment so we can create a Huge 2007!

So we’re pretty excited and are creating our own business plans and goals in conjunction with these calls. You can do the same. It is not too late to register for all three. Click here to learn more

Small Changes

From Liz Uible

…A one-degree change in the trajectory of you life will hardly shift a thing, today. But a one-degree change, carried out over a lifetime puts you in an entirely different place. That is the power of incremental change…

I am so inspired by the one-degree shift I wrote about yesterday, I have been thinking of tons of other little changes that have made a difference in life.

I have only a few instances in life that they can point to as seminal, instances that changed my life forever. I made a call to my now-husband, Cyrus six years ago in which I told him that we were meant to be together. Luckily he agreed. That is a seminal decision and action. I can think of two or three other seminal decisions in my life.

The rest of the major changes in my life have been the result of little decisions. Think about how amazing that is. Just slight changes in trajectory changed my destination completely.

Today I am feeling grateful for one such small decision that has made a huge impact on where I stand today. In the summer of 2006, Cyrus and I were invited to a gathering of real estate investors in the Midwest. These were forty or so investors whom we did not yet know. We knew of them and they had tons of experience and we knew we could learn a lot from being around them. We got the invitation on Monday. The gathering was Friday. Plane tickets were by then $1000 a piece, more than our current budget allowed. From the East Coast the drive was 16 hours. It would have been easy turn it down and go about our life, disappointed that we had not had more time to plan.

Instead, in a surprisingly short time, we had decided to drive cross country and meet these people face to face. We got our books-on-MP3 ready, packed up the car, and drove the 16 hours to grow our network.

When we arrived we were immediately known in the group as the couple who had driven from the East Coast on a few days notice. They knew immediately that we were ‘doers.’ We had immediate notoriety.

The decision to drive 16 hours on a few days notice to hang out with people I respect is not what I would call a seminal decision. But it was a one-degree trajectory shift. It didn’t change our lives immediately. There were no fireworks. It was simply a decision like the ones we make regularly. But it gave us a powerful introduction to relationships we wanted to create. And over time, we found ourselves in an entirely new place.

What decisions like that have you made in your life?

When we drove home from the mid-west trip, not much looked like it had changed. We had learned some and started some relationships. We had met people doing cool things. Nothing dramatic, nothing earth-shattering. Just 32 hours of driving and some new friends.

Time kept going and our path was permanently changed by that slight shift in trajectory. In retrospect, several important things came out of the decision to drive 32 hours to be with people we didn’t know. We have created lucrative investment partnerships with people who we met that weekend. We have developed peers on the level we were searching for. We began to create a community of people we love and respect, many of whom are where we want to be. And that weekend I met Christine Harvey, my partner at WomenforWealth.com, for the first time.

Which brings home to me the value of developing relationships with people you respect. How can you develop those relationships today? Can you drop a card in the mail to someone, or offer a mentor help on a small project?

I think I will write a few Holiday cards. They are not late. In fact, they are 360 days early. J

Small Shifts, Huge Results

From Liz Uible

Ahhh… the New Year’s resolution. It is that time of year again. The New Year is a natural marker in time to evaluate where we have been and where we are going.

The New Years resolution can be huge. People quit smoking, take up exercise, and find love based on their New Years resolutions. That is big stuff. But I find that in my life it is generally the small, barely perceptible shifts in trajectory that create the big changes down the road.

Let me paint an image to describe what I mean. Imagine you start walking the long way on a football field, straight down the middle. Now, veer ever so slightly to the right-just a small shift to a different course. After several yards, that slight shift in trajectory takes you to a place far from the center course you originally had. And the further down the field you get, the further from the original course you will get. Eventually you might be in the stands. That is what I mean by a change in trajectory… the destination will be different in 50 yards. And you will have a different view of the field.

That’s how life works. Just slight changes in your life, implemented today, can mean HUGE rewards over the next five years.

This is so powerful, I am getting chills… 2007 marks five years since I started my own business while simultaneously working 50 hours per week at someone else’s company and commuting 3 hours per day (that’s 15 hours a week of commuting, if anyone is counting). I didn’t do much in my business that first year. But I did make an almost imperceptible change in trajectory. I began to listen to motivation, training and success principles on my ride instead of negative disk jockeys and traffic reports. The results weren’t thunderous. They were slight at first. I was in a better mood when I got to work. I was in a better mood when I got home. I probably honked at my fellow commuters a little less.

As time went on, the impact got more dramatic. My new path, just slightly shifted from the old one, got further and further from the center line. My destination was different. My view of the field changed, too.

I didn’t start listening to positive CDs because I really believed that I would quit my job and become financially independent. I wanted to make some money in my business and learn how to make more at work. I listened to tapes because it was more fun than the traffic report (there was always traffic- sometimes with an accident, sometimes without). I truly believe that listening to tapes daily- that small shift in behavior -created an entirely different view of the field, a whole different view on life.

And here I sit, 5 years later, with several businesses, a great relationship with my husband and business associates who inspire me every day. I don’t commute 15 hours a week anymore, as my office is next to my bedroom. My new trajectory was almost imperceptible at first, but it allowed me a different view of the field, of life.

To me, that’s what New Years is about. Looking back over the last year and forward into the next is not about making a sharp right turn. You might just want to make a one-degree turn to the right… an almost imperceptible change to the outside world. Those little shifts in daily habits that build up... reading for just 15 minutes a day, listening to something positive on the ride to work, saying “I love you” to your spouse and children every single day, or writing a card to a different business associate every week. These things can change everything over the next three to five years.

What can you start doing today to shift your trajectory? What little action will create a different view of the field?

Who Will You Be Today?

From Christine Harvey

WHO WILL YOU BE TODAY?

Last night I was feeling quite stressed about today. I knew I would have a house full of people picking up after my flood damaged house. I wasn’t ready to face a real work day when I was stilI enjoying the Christmas break. My stress increased as I visualized all 8 of them zooming around me, asking where this goes and that goes. The carpenters would be trying to install baseboards WHILE two women would be cleaning furniture at the same time, right under each other’s feet. Then the remodeler would be glazing the new grout while I’m trying to tell the unpackers where to hang paintings and mirrors. And then there’s my list of unfinished items for each group which I needed to doll out and supervise before anyone left.

But one saving grace I had last night before going to bed was the thought that they surely didn’t cherish the thought of starting work today either!

This morning I awoke with almost complete freedom from my stress. Why was that, you might ask? The answer was simple. The stress left because I awoke with this question for myself: “Who would I be today?” … Would I be there to acknowledge them as wonderful human beings? … Would I be there to express gratitude to them for sharing themselves with us right after the holiday? … What could I do to make THEIR day better?

Now you might say, “Well of course Christine, you should always be thinking these things.” And yes I agree. We should always be thinking outside ourselves, and thinking thoughts of gratitude. BUT, how often is it that when we are in a binge of stress, that we forget this? AND by forgetting this, WE BRING THE STRESS UPON OURSELVES.

And since stress in society is so high these days, I wanted to share these thoughts with you this day after Christmas. … Who will you be today? … Who will enter your life that you can show gratitude to? … Wherever there is resistance to this, there is a need to examine it, they say!

A lesson I have to keep re-learning for myself is this. Whenever I’m feeling stress or resentment or ANY feeling of discomfort or lack of joy, I can abolish it IMMEDIATELY by focusing on something outside myself. Anything. … Anything outside myself – it’s often the trees I pass as I’m driving. It doesn’t matter what it is because the mind can only hold one thought at a time. So while I’m thinking about how gorgeous the tree is, my stress – which is really only self pity – is GONE. Presto. What an inexpensive and instant solution!!!

So, what’s the bottom line? If you’re facing any discomfort today, ask yourself “Who will I be today?” Can I ‘be there’ for someone else? Can I be a light in their life? If so, your day will be magical! And the law of attraction will bring SURPRISES and blessings your way!

You can write and let us know your experiences, at this email:liz@womenforwealth.com

Our fondest regards and best wishes for the week ahead,

Christine Harvey and Liz Uible
Founders
WomenforWealth.com
And WomenforWealth.com Foundation

What Is Worship?

From Christine Harvey

Yesterday morning I decided to go to a morning worship service. There’s a lot to do on Christmas Eve morning, but I always feel inspired by going to a service on Christmas Eve. And because it fell on a Sunday this year, I was able to go to a morning service and not wait for the candlelight service in the evening. An added bonus was that I would be able to take my granddaughter who just turned four, to play in the nursery.

To my surprise, there was no nursery yesterday. Normally the children leave after the first hymn, but on this occasion there was no mention of the children leaving, and so Felicia just sat there in her chair snuggled up next to me. I wondered how this would go – a wiggly four year old listening to an hour long, grown up service.

The subject of the day was: ‘What is worship?’ After a passage was read, the subject was opened up for discussion. A microphone was passed around so that all could hear. Numerous people raised their hands and shared their thoughts at length, circling around the subject, trying to grasp it’s totality. One woman even said at the end of her message, “I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I think you see what I mean.” Suddenly I saw Felicia’s hand go up and down and wave around. I thought, “Oh, my goodness, she’s bored, we’ll probably have to leave soon.” But no, to my surprise she reached up to whisper in my ear, “I want to say, ‘Thank you for our blessings.’”

“That’s a wonderful thought,” I told her. “You should say that.” She had to pursue her hand raising efforts, but finally someone said, “I think the little girl wants to say something.” When her message came out, people were spell bound. A lot had been said that morning about the importance of having gratitude, but nothing quite summed it up as clearly as that. “Thank you for our blessings.”

This whole experience has lead me to a lot of reflection over the last 24 hours. Several things occur to me, and I wonder what occurs to you. For me, first is this question: How often do we not listen to children intently, especially our own, and yet ‘Out of the mouth of babes...’

Secondly, how often do we not listen to ourselves or others? Often the answer is right in front of us, and yet we don’t recognize it. We don’t recognize the source. We’re expecting the answer to come in a different way, or not at all! Several nights ago I was watching a DVD with my family called ‘The Secret.’ I remember it’s message - that we can manifest whatever we want in life, but here’s where most of us go wrong. It’s in NOT being open to receiving. Not truly believing it’s possible. When we lack believe that it’s possible, we certainly don’t see the answer right in front of us.

But how do we overcome it? The first step is thankfulness for the blessings we have already, no matter how small. Yes, Felicia had captured it. Often even a four year old can see what we can’t see - ‘Thank you for our blessings.’

Recently I went to a Maui Mastermind event, and a lot was said about the importance of ‘mind set.’ After one of the break out sessions, a thought struck me. It was one that I had heard several years ago, and had filed away at the back of my mind. It was manifestation taken one step further - ‘Everything we want in life is in fact ALREADY there, waiting for us to discover it. It’s only our reluctance to be open to receiving that blocks us.’

What are your thoughts? You can email us at liz@womenforwealth.com