Are you Living Your Dream?

Many are asked at a young age ,"what do you want to be when you grow up".  Little minds have no idea what to make of this question.  Many have dreams beyond their capabilities, such as a little boy who wants to be a famous football player or a rock star.  Over time, the dream is altered, a little more thought is put into it and soon he realizes the woork it takes to be that football player or rock star.  It's funny how big the dreams are when the little minds are at work.  The work to be put into that dream is not even a thought to be considered, just the end result.  It's so simple in their mind to be that football star or the rock star.  

Awe remember when the life dream seemed so easy?  Then grown up reality sets and and life is just a little bit harder than it looked when Mom and Dad were running the show.  So are you letting the struggle get in the way?  Are you working your dream job?  Do you have your dream home? 

Life is so simple when it comes down to what makes us happy.  A nice meal with firends, a few new pair of shoes, a smile on our kids' face, finding a great deal at a second hand store or a yard sale.  Here's hoping all of us have our dreams within reach and happiness fills our lives. 





   

Are You in my Stats?

Biggest thrill I have with this blog is seeing my stats.  It's gives me a sense of growth.  Something, I think, all of us like to see.  It's like earning money almost.  When I see I've had 10 page views I feel all kinds of giddiness inside.  The feeling is just amazing, but why?

I write about things that make me think with positivity, I try more than anything to give a feel to my post that I got up on the right side of the bed.  Looking at the bright side, seeing the glass half full.  I have little to complain about and have realized quickly that what I can't control I shouldn't worry about and what I can control if I am complaining about it, than I better change it. 

Life is too short to have bitterness.  Always show forgiveness, never take for granted, and tell those dear to yoru heart that you love them!

Isn't it time you start showing up in my stats? 

CDM?

Customer Direct Marketing, what is it? Sounds pretty direct to me, the customer is directly involved with marketing. Have you ever thought about what you are paying for advertising? Yes, you! All of the products you buy at Walmart, Kmart, Aldies, Wegmans where ever you shop at? Consumers pay for the advertising and marketing that goes into the products we choose to purchase.

Yes it starts with the company, of course, they have to put up the thousands of dollars it takes to market and advertise their new products. To keep up with competitors they have to come up with the next best thing. What if you found out that instead of paying an already rich and famous to persuade you into trying new products let it be you that helps persuade a friend into trying new products.

But let's talk about these new products. What if you were told the products advertised on TV have all the fillers in them to help the maker of the product to get a larger bang for their buck. It's actually extimated the buyer is paying 60% towards the advertising which leaves 40% to what goes into the product. That's 60 cents to the dollar going towards advertising leaving only 40 cents for quality product.

Why am I writing about this? Well I have found amazing products that are talked about through and only through Customer Direct Marketing. I joined the team in January of 2011, I purchased a view of the products and to say the least fell totally in love with all of the products I tried and have no problem talking about them with those dear to my heart, and would refer anyone to the company. They have excellent customer service, products are delivered to your door, and they are products we use daily and need monthly if not weekly.

Wouldn't you like to take part in Customer Direct Marketing? Contact me today or click on the icon to the right "working for yourself...Not by yourself" Start Today!

Building a Business~ What's it take?

Are you tired of having your future lay in your boss's hands? Take the stand and find you niche and run with it. This day in age, anything is possible. If you have drive, dedication, and support, there should be nothing in your way that can stop you!

There are so many opportunities on the internet that give all of us an option to start a home business. Whether it's homemade products, at home party business, marketing, or data entry. You can make a choice to work from home and love it. Here are the steps to follow:

First : Make the decision to work for yourself.

This is a heavty role to committ to, so when you make that decision, decide your hours of work, decide your level of dedication, make these decisions and stick with. The most meaningful quote I heard when making this decision is ask yourself, "Would I have fired myself today?".

Second : Don't spread yourself too thin.

Working from home means just that, you are working in your home and home needs to matter too. Keep the balance, in step one you already decided your hours. This is where that matters, making a list will help tremendously here. Making a business means selling yourself. But remember why you decided to work at home, for many of us we stay home to be with our kids, but need to feel like we are contributing. If you are home for your kids. Schedule your working hours around them. Make those sort or sacrifices.

Third : Expect challenges, share frustrations, and learn from failures.

Admit you are up against a big world out there! You have a dream but you will have a lot in your way. No matter your dedication, no matter your drive. Something along the way will crash into the momentum... Expect this! Talk about this frustration, if not talk write about share the challenge help someone else learn from it. When you allow yourself to learn from a mistake whether it's your mistake or anothers, you are giving yourself the ulitmate lesson. You learned what not to do next time.

Fourth : Don't push!

We see it all the time, a new consultant throwing their new business ideas all around. Don't be pushy! Don't be aggressive! Most importantly don't get angry. We all like a certain spice about life. The spice you've chosen to sell might not be for a few of your friends. Understand, respect, and thank them for at the very least allowing you the opportunity to show them your new adventure. Just becuase a few people aren't in love with your idea, does not mean they never will be. Be open to this possibility and no matter what never be angry from a no thank you. Be thankful for the opportunity. If anything look at as another opportunity to learn more about your business and how you want to present.

Fifth and final : Be You!

Always be yourself! You decided this fate you decided on this business, Embrace it and make it yours!!! Be confident with it, always show confidence even if you aren't certain give the posture that you are. No one else is going to walk thru your front door and tell you what will and will not work with Your business! Own it, Love it, and Be a confident You!!

So I am guilty of not following a number of these steps... But I believe in each of them. I believe that these steps are the core to a business builder. I feel confidence can carry a person straight to the top. Allowing others to make the decision to love what you are doing is the only way to succeed. Making them feel they need you opposed to you needing them is the true meaning of a successful business and business builder!

Any business you choose, choose it and work it!!! Once the decision is made focus and work! This is what it takes!!!

Is turning into your mom really that bad?

Oh we hear it all the time, I realized today I am my mother. Well is that really that bad? Oh how funny, being that teenager and in our early twenties, we know EVERYTHING, don;t we? I am just shocked of where I was and where I am with my views, and how I want to raise my kids to view the world. Yes I have my own ways of how I parent and that is good when mixed in with the way my parents raised me.

With age comes wisdom. Only 31 years into this life; I have so much to learn and yet have learned so much. Did you think when you were growing up you would actually start wanting to be like your mom or even your parents? I sure never thought I would have so much respect for my parents. But life does a 180 and what you thought you would never be, you actually become. Well for some of us!

Many of us grow up wishing to be as far away from where we grew up. Many of us follow that path. For me, absence made the heart grow fonder. Never thought I would be the one living a block from my parents. That's what happened. Absence was what made my heart need and want my family close by. I realized quickly, my family was and is my rock. I needed them, I wasn't the personality to move on and make me a new world.

Proudly, I moved back, made more very dumb decisions. Finally, I realized my calling, being a mom. My son was born and everything fell into place for me. No he didn't come with a manual but my love for him was my guide. I nourished him and went to my mom for help surprise, surprise she was there. That unconditional love from her gave me the confidence a new mom needs. Her openness to help and step in and out was so amazing. It certainly wasn't like that through my teen years. I was a dare devil, I stepped into the life that was defintily more risky that I would hope for my very children. I can see now why she wanted to try to keep me safe.

I hope that when my kids are teenagers and in that stage I am just like my mom. I hope and pray my children are nothing like I was, chances are they will be just the same, little hellians. I see my hair turning gray super fast, I see me losing many battles, and I see my children challenging me the way I challenged my parents. Though that is a lengthy 10 years away. I still am dreading it. I am affraid of the things they will choose to try. I tried and did far too many things at too young an age. So for me, becoming my mother is not going to be bad at all, in fact, becoming my mother would be a pleasure. Yes there are traits I am hoping skip me, but ya know what there are traits I already have in me I wish I didn't. Seeing those flaws and working on improving them is always an option.

This path is not nesecarily true for all, I am sympathetic to those who were not born to a loving mother, a mother who raised them with all the support and tenderness in which I was raised. For those peole, I can only hope they have the understanding that though their biological mom wasn't that person, somebody else was. Though there are others that had no one to care and love for them. These people have a unique challenge in life. All of us have a different path. I can acknowledge many are not as lucky as I was and am. I hope for many they have been able to find their purpose and reason in life. Good Luck to all!

This post is for my mom pictured below with her four beautiful grandchildren!! She's an amazing woman!!!

How to Become Successful?

How do YOU become successful? The last I checked Success isn't something available at a supermarket. It's something you find inside of you. You measure your idea of success, you decide if you want to push or sit on the sidelines.

Success is within and only within, it doesn't grow on trees and isn't handed to you in the office. My idea of success is having happy children and having a home to raise them in. The means I use to get to that success, well still trying to figure that out. Although the means isn't streamlined, my success is a reality. We have extremely delightful and happy children and our home is all that I've ever dreamed of.

Doesn't success change from time to time? Absolutely, when in college or let's say high school what was your dream of success? I know for me becoming the captain of my high school softball team, was my senior year of success. Oh my what a dream come true with that reality hit me. I was on fire that practice, seemed that whole season went pretty smooth for me. So I got my success, was that it? Were my dreams done? Hell No, next challenge, next conquer!

So where's the kicker in becoming a success? If it's my measurement then why don't I feel successful? Well that starts with those around you. Not everyone is going to believe in your dream and your potential for success. This is where many of us cower down, we hear that inkling of doubt and take it as inevitable failure. I do it, all the time. I have big dreams great ideas. Then, I talk about it to friends and family, problem is, the enthusiasm isn't there. In my mind, I think, well I guess it wasn't that great of an idea any way. So sad, as growing people we allow for one small lack of enthusiasm stage our momentum. I am guilty of it, probably more so than most. My dreams come and go as fast as the sun sets.

That change in dreams, doesn't at all hinder my desire for success. I have already stated what is success to me and that I've achieved it.

A few years back my success was measured by also having a career. I was working in an office. I wanted to be the boss, I wanted to rule the roost. It was only a short 18 months or so and I succeeded. Accomplishing that goal was an amazing achievement for me. In fact, for me all of my goals thus far have been reached in my short life... Just 31, turning 32 this May. I am a little nervous to look ahead and think "hmmmm am I going to be as lucky in the next years, will I be able to fulfill my dreams still". Then I get this feeling all through me, what do you mean lucky? Achieving all of those "successes" wasn't the luck of the draw, or being at the right place at the right time. Getting those achievements and becoming the Leader was what was meant to happen becuase I didn't give up, I didn't sit on the sidelines. I dreamt and I acted. I gave my all, my dedication was admired and my measurements of success became my reality.

So How do you become Successful? You decide what is successful, what do I have to do to get there, and what are my challenges, will I let them get me down? You decide if success happens, nobody else! Good Luck!!

Be kind, expect little, and give a lot!

Enjoy!

When Stress Overwhelmes Us..

How to deal with stress that is over the top? What happens when work, life, and family have taken it's toll on you? Most of us will shut down, some will become moody, some will outrage at the one closest to them, some will do all of the above. Why does stress turn the most gentle person into an unapproachable person and why does it seem we aren't able to confront the "right" demon?

Well for many of us not willing to have a confrontation is the reason we do any of the above outcomes. The best way to handle stress is first find it root, are you stress because of work, family issues, finances? Finding the root helps get right to the problem, only if you are able to tackle that particular problem.

What to do if it is a coworker? What to do if it is finances that you can't pull through? Well, teh only thing you can do address it and see where it goes. You can't change things that aren't in your controld must of us stress over things that are out of our control. Have you gone home from a stressful work day becuase everything and anything went wrong? What part of that where you able to control? I'll bet on maybe 20% if that. How about when a few of your appliances break down? Any control in that? Maybe you put too many towels in your washing machine, that you can control. Anything else, is a pretty strong certainty that you have no control over. Why do we stress over things we can't control?

Ever thought of the path we were meant to walk? Stress is evil, it's evilness gets into our minds, bodies, and souls and does the talking and reacting for us. How often have you thought back and realized that wasn't you talking? First question, are you able to apologize and admit you were wrong. Second question, do you think about the chain of events that occurred for you to have reacted in a regretful way?

Speaking for myself, it used to be that a stressful day would happen I would come home and didn't so much react to much but would be very distant and just thankful for that day to be over. After the stress came to be day in and day out I became that devil. I yelled about anything and everything at my family, my friends, my coworkers, and my boss. It took me a good few months to realize what was at the root. I had continually assumed it was everyone else. I was reacting as I should, until my reality set in and I was the one being out of line. I made the change that needed to happen for me. With that decision a new set of rules is in play a new line of stress is going to grow into my world. How do I avoid this not getting too deep for me to handle?

My advice to me and the any of you that have these thoughts.

First, stop wanting to have the control! Second, reflect on the day see what you enjoyed see what brought you down and avoid the downer! Third, when something happens that does bring pressure/stress/anger let it go on the spot. Someone pisses you off, laugh about it, but realize why it pissed you off. Are you being too sensitive? Are you overreacting?

I am pretty sure the saying goes, Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. You react positively, positive things will happen. You react negatively, the cloud of negativity will linger above.

A So Called Writer....

"I'm a so called writer!" I saw this on a hub and it got me some motivation. How do you call yourself a writer unless you have been published? Well I am not published. This is my personal blog and I have 4 followers, which I think is pretty cool! Until I do some research and this so called writer I referenced has over 400 followers, now that is cool!

I love to write, if I have the thoughts rolling from my mind, when they are lost inside though, I find this delightful hobby of mine to be quite challenging. So when I saw his opening line... he is a "so called writer" I had to take a peek.

After reading only a few hubs, I realized he writes with honesty, he writes what's on his mind with little editing (if it is, it's un-noticed). So here goes, my unedited honesty...

I feel I can bring a lot to the table, I put what I think on paper and if you read it excellent, if you don't so be it, if you respond AWESOME, if you respond negativly just as well, now we have something to discuss.

For me, an argument is a chance to dig dip into anothers views, for many others an argument is about being right. So with that I ask, why do you need to be right? Why must everything be your way? I am pretty sure there's over 1000 different ways to die so why do you have to be right? This is what I want to ask that person who thinks everything they say is right all of the time... I mean really, is it possible? wouldn't that technically mean there's only one way of looking at things, or doing things? So with that said, is that what it's about being right and having things one way? Is that how it's supposed to be? Isn't it all about discussion, coming to a conclusion that best suits the situation? Not about being right? Not about your way and my way!

So I will call myself a writer until someone proves to me I am not. Let's start the discussion....

Focus and Dedication is all You Need to get Anything Done!

Why did you play a sport in high school, or an instrument, or why did you go to college to be a lawyer, a teacher, a manager? Because you had a goal! You have to spend money to make money, this is why you pay for your college education, in the sport you played you practiced your mom or dad had to pay fees to keep you involved. Right now my son is in karate and the fees for him to play are not cheap and when he leaves his practice I tell him to practice at home. Live is a short journey you have to make of it what you want out of it.

If you love your job and your extracurricular activities you are on the path you were meant to be on. If you are like me, have been in love with your job, fell out of love with your job and want to be and need to be happy with where you end up.... Then you have to figure out the goal and run with, work on it everyday, realize that each day you wake up, isn't the day you will become rich, you have to work hard to play hard and to earn hard. Great things happen to those with dedication, hard work, and big dreams.

Those people that giggle when you show them all the excitement about where you will be in 5 years. Let them giggle, giggle along, it's a great accomplishment to dream and dream big, pat yourself on the back for it! When they make fun of you about you making strides in being successful, laugh with them, and just be you! You are the only one that knows what is right for you. Mom and Dad raised you, you have lived your life as best you know how. You have decided on your career, you have decided on your style, it's you that makes the decisions, do you still make your bed in the morning? I just threw that in there becuase I don't, I don't always have a clean house, but I am always working on getting my name out there. I have a 5 year plan. I have the business plan that goes along with it. I have to take one day at a time and hope that each day I step closer to the end result!!

If you need motivation, be the train that says, "I think I can" you will be surprised if you tell yourself you can make something happen how quickly it comes true! It takes a lot of focus and a lot of dedication with those you have nothing but success in front of you!!

Give it your all, and at the end of the day know your regrets will be few and far between!!

Have a FaB DaY!!!