Find Out How to Succeed at Being Yourself

I have to say right out the gate that this article is not based on any theory you may find in books, nor is it based on an academic’s teachings.  No siree, this article is written by someone who is renowned for her straight talking and honest approach to everything and everyone.  The author is also a graduate from that awesome University of Life having taken a few hard knocks along the rocky road.

How to succeed at being yourself is 100% down to you and what choices you decide to make in any given situation at any given time.

When we come into this world we come in naked, that is both physically and mentally and we are 100% being ourselves.  Yes the theorists amongst us would say there are many things we are genetically pre-disposed to.  For example, they would say that if one or both our parents had addictions then our chances of having that same addictive aspect to our personality is greater.  But forget all that because how you succeed at being yourself is down to one thing and one thing only – the choices you make.

When we are small children, choices are made for us by our parents and other family members.  As our personalities start to develop we quickly get a sense of what is right and what is wrong because everyone around us lets us know.  That is when external influences start to take effect and stop us being ourselves.  As we get that bit older and start kindergarten or school, peer pressure also starts to chip away at who we really are.  By the time we reach elementary stage, only about 30% of who we really are is on public display.  The remainder is blocked by filters and we can have a multitude of personas dependant on the situation.  We are only successful at being ourselves when we feel safe to do so.  Ask yourself when that time is for you.  Is it in the car in the morning driving to work when ‘you sing like no-one can hear you’, is it when you escape to that ‘space’ you have in the home?

We all choose how to respond when someone says something we don’t like, we choose to behave in a specific way in a variety of situations.  If your automatic response to a comment you did not like is to raise your voice and start shouting then just for that nano second ask yourself “what are my chances of dying here if I were to just smile and say nothing?”  If the answer to that is anything between 90-100% then by all means raise your voice……..

Now you may quickly respond to that by saying “if I were to just smile and walk away then that is not me being me”.  Well let me ask you something “how much fun is it being you?  Are you happy in that angry world?  What are you like when there is no-one around you, what sort of thoughts do you have, what dreams do you want to make happen, when was the last time you told yourself that you are an OK sort of person?  Was there ever a time when you allowed you to be just you and told yourself that it really does not matter what others may think about me.  When others judge us, their thoughts are mapped out by their own life experiences and there is little or nothing we can do to change them so why bother?

How would you like to be someone that people having nothing bad to say about?  The type of person that is warm, friendly and never sees anyone as a threat.

You can be that person, the one who all those years ago wanted to be a certain way before others told you it was not right.  Perhaps you love to make others laugh but somewhere along the way, you didn’t have the normal receptive audience and you lost confidence.  That was their issue and not yours, just go out now and find an audience that does appreciate your humour.  Maybe you wanted to be something in your career but many people told you it was impossible so you just gave up.  That says everything about them and nothing about you so ignore them.  If you have the belief, you can do it, I believe in you so just go and do it!  Make it happen, start making some small choices to change and you’re half way there.

You can be honest with people so long as you never deliberately hurt their feelings.   Before you speak, always ask yourself “how would I like to hear that something doesn’t look right on me, my essay is not quite up to scratch?” etc.

I would just like to finish up by asking you to ask yourself is “how successful am I at truly being MYSELF?”  If I started as a baby being 100% ME, what percentage is left today?  You can get back there; you just have to make different choices than perhaps you are at the moment.

What Should I Do With My Life?

What should I do with my life?  How many times have you heard that phrase come out of the lips of friends, family members or even out of your own mouth.

It is most definitely something I would have said many times and what is interesting about the actual wording of the phrase is the word ‘DO’ rather than ‘WANT’.  This implies to me that the person saying it is actually ready to do something to change how they are, what they are doing and make changes for the better.

How many times have you heard people say “I would love to do something different” and the remainder of the sentence hanging in the air and not uttered probably goes something like this “but I really can’t be bothered” or “but it’s all too difficult”.

I believe that the main reason for not changing how we are is not because of any external influences but because of what is inside us.  It’s that wee inner voice that sometimes tells us “don’t try it, people will laugh at you” or “you’ll never be able to do that” or “I know lots of people that tried to do that and it didn’t work”.  It’s really easy to talk ourselves out of doing something and oh so hard to acknowledge the many strengths we all have inside of us.

If I could just share with you some of the questions and soul searching I did before I changed my life for the better:

Could I do something I love and earn at the same time? Absolutely – so I sought out those who do both, studied what they did and learned from them.

Listened to my inner voice – don’t we all have this, that niggling wee voice that tells us we can’t do something, lots of people have tried and failed and we will also.  Don’t listen to it!  Make a list of your inspirations and keep adding to it.  As you come across an obstacle that might stop you getting there, quickly jot down a way you can get over that obstacle then cross it right off because it’s no longer an obstacle right?

Beware of procrastinating, talking yourself out of an idea or finding reasons why something wouldn’t work

Keep that goal alive - put a picture of where you want to be – it may be living in that big house, driving that fast car or just enjoying luxury holidays with loved ones.  Have a big picture of that dream stuck on the refrigerator, in the car, by your bedside – in fact everywhere around the house.

Do everything with a purpose – that purpose being that goal you are aiming for.  If you find yourself doing time consuming things that are not in pursuit of that goal then question your motives for doing them.

Finally, Never Ever Give Up On Your Dream

What Should I Do With My Life?  This is a $10 Million question – My advice would be the very same advice I gave myself – do what I love to do, it helps and doesn’t hurt anyone else, allows me freedom to make my own decisions on how I live my life and is relatively stress free.  Want a piece of that?

Follow Your Dreams!

I remember quite a few years back being told by a senior manager that I had a unique ability to engage people and make them feel they could do anything.  This has always remained with me and although I don’t intentionally set out to ‘push people to achieve’ I naturally find myself doing it.

You see the way I learn is through doing or listening to other people relate their experiences, their failures and successes.  This does not mean I still don’t try things that haven’t worked for others, I do what I think is right and best for me.  I never allow anyone telling me I cannot do something to stand in the way of my success, to the contrary.

Success is a very personal thing but I think most people would agree that success is about being fulfilled in your life.   It’s that warm feeling you have, knowing you’re doing OK but more importantly that you are making a difference in other people’s lives.  Now this doesn’t mean heading off to third world countries to do voluntary work although that is highly commendable.  No, what I mean is just touching briefly into the lives of others.

There are lots of people I remember and think highly of and every one of those is because I can remember how I felt when I was around them.  Most are positive and the others – well, I just choose a different path than the one they are on.

The end result is the happiness I have and peace of mind now to know that I always do my best by others and if I can reach out a hand to help, that hand is there and I will stretch it as far as it needs to go.

How would you like to be able to look back on your life with a huge smile on your face knowing you made many of your dreams come true and you made a difference in others’ lives and helped them realise their own dreams?

Here’s a short video I shot with a few personal photos of people and things that are important in my life – everything else is the small stuff and I don’t sweat that!

2 simple words that will guarantee success in Internet Marketing

Do you look in the mirror every morning and like what you see? Do you see someone who has achieved or do you see someone who is always in pursuit of that next best thing but rarely gets there? What about your achievements, successes and things that haven’t gone so great for you – well to be frank, the buck stops with that person who is looking out at you from that mirror.

Just Do It!

Once you begin to really take responsibility for how you want your life to be, then that is when wonderful things start to happen. There are 2 simple words that will determine whether you get there or not. The first of these words is BUSY – yes, that’s right. How often have you used this word to stop you doing something you really know you should be doing?
I often used that word as some way of avoiding what I really should be doing, I would be ‘busy’ on some of the social networking sites convincing myself that somehow this was productive to my online business. Yes it was, but nowhere near as productive as I could have been had I taken ACTION, the second of these 2 simple words.

I knew I needed to have focus and that focus needed to manifest itself into action. Let us study both of these words for just a second in the context solely of internet marketing:

2 words explained

BUSY – being too busy doing the wrong things will do nothing to drive your business forward. Whilst it may be wonderful to spend time looking at others’ perceived online successes, this is doing nothing for you and you are losing money every minute you are ‘busy’ doing this.

ACTION on the other hand is doing what needs to be done to drive your business forward and you are making money whilst doing so. You can also take pleasure in striking actions from your ‘to do’ list each day and preparing your action list for the next day. Action will turn your dreams into a reality, being forever ‘busy’ will ensure they remain just that – a dream!

What intrigued me when I first started online is that I knew I was procrastinating, avoiding, being busy – call it what you will but what was that part of my brain that convinced me I was ‘busy’ all the time when in effect I was achieving nothing.  Whilst in normal terms, ‘being busy’ and ‘taking action’ may equate to one and the same, in the world of online business, there is a huge difference.

The funny thing about both these simple words is that almost every online marketer knows the difference and can easily see it in others.   Why is it so difficult then for us to see it in ourselves?    I’ll use a simple analogy of a smoker.  They know this habit is a bad one but they persist with it – they also know the damage that their passive smoking can inflict on others – but they continue to do it. They know fully what the long term results will be but they persevere with their bad habit.

So too will being ‘BUSY’, it will just eat away at you and in the long term all you will have will be broken dreams.

Busy people will have no end of explanations for why they did or did not do something.

What to do to avoid the ‘busy’ syndrome and get some ‘action’ into your business

• Firstly, do not go near your emails or any social networking site when you first switch on your PC.
• Have a list at your side and write down 5 things each evening you must do the next day
• When you switch on your PC start at #1 on your list and work through all 5 crossing off as you do them
• once this is done, allow yourself some time on the social networking sites because these are important to internet marketers but strictly limit yourself and go on there with a clear purpose
• The same applies to the forums – allow a time and when that time is up – LEAVE the forums

You will face some setbacks and when you do, the question to ask yourself is this “are my goals and dreams worth trying to get over this hurdle?” If the answer is a resounding “YES”, then take ACTION. If your answer is a defeatist “NO”, then you need to have a bigger dream

A dream without an action plan is just that – a dream and it will never be anything more unless you take those vital action steps to make things happen.

Correct Mindset – 4 factors you need to consider for success in the online world

Everybody says they have the correct mindset but more often than not people don’t.  So what exactly is the correct mindset and how does it work?

TIME

What exactly does it mean to have the correct mindset to make money online?  Most people I speak with do not realise that to establish a credible and sustainable business is going to take time.  If your entire focus is on making money, then I ask you to challenge your mindset.  So TIME is the first thing you will need.

When I discuss making money online with this group of people I always advise them to either stay where they are in their regular job or go and get another job because they are not going to build a sustainable business online.  Now you can make really good money eventually but it did take me 5 months before I saw any signs of income coming in.

Do I think everyone takes that long to generate an income?  Absolutely not – providing they have the correct tools and do not have mentors that tell them WHAT to do but not HOW to do it.  With the most appropriate form of training you can easily be in profit sooner than that but a realistic timeframe would be 2-3 months.

EFFORT

The second important factor in building an online business is EFFORT.  It is going to take some effort on your part to learn all these new skills and implement them as soon as you learn them.  I would advise that as soon as you do learn a new skill, put it into practice immediately otherwise you will forget it.  I align this to that famous quote ‘tell a man how to fish and he’ll remember it for an hour, show him and he’ll remember it for a day but let him do it himself and he’ll remember it forever’.  The same principles apply when learning new skills in online marketing – learn it then do it!

DISCIPLINE

The third factor you need to apply is DISCIPLINE.  Yes you are working from home, yes you have no-one breathing down your neck and giving tight deadlines, but you are working and that should be your focus.  Do not keep checking your emails, do not download another eBook, do not go into forums to see what is going on.  Unsubscribe from all those lists that clutter up your inbox.

EXPENSE

To create an online business it will need an amount of expense from you.   It is a business and like any offline business there is the initial set up costs.  Proportionally however, in comparison to an offline business the costs are almost negligible.  The three essential expenses you need to invest in setting up an online business are:

·         Domain name – approx $10 (one-off payment)

·         Hosting account – approx $7 per month

·         Auto responder – approx $19 per month

You will see that you can start a web business for less than $40 and be in substantial profit in just a few short months.

In summary then, the correct mindset in order to succeed in an online business is TIME, EFFORT, DISCIPLINE and minor EXPENSE.  To be successful you need to have all 4 and work each day employing the 3 main factors.  If you just take the time to REALLY learn and master all the tools, you will continue to reap the rewards every day you work at your online business.

How can I find an online coaching business that is right for me – 10 point check list?

If you were to type into the search engines ‘online coaching business’ there will be thousands of sites that appear but how do you gauge the one that is right for you?

It is very easy to get caught up in a lot of the hype that is out there and amidst all of that, there are hundreds, possibly even thousands of good, well intended and reputable online coaching businesses.  When you are completely new, it is very easy to get sucked into something that looks as though it is exactly what you are looking for, but from personal experience can fall far short of what was originally promised.

So how can I, through this article prevent you from making similar mistakes I did in the early stages?

• Firstly you need to identify what is it you really want to learn?
• How much online marketing experience do you already have?
• What credentials does the online coaching business have?
• How many clients do they have, are you going to be one of thousands?
• How do they conduct the online coaching, is it on a 1-1 basis, is it through a series of emails, video tutorials or is there a real person you will be dealing with?
• How accessible are they going to be to you?
• What guarantees are they giving you?  This is one to watch as no-one anywhere can guarantee your success.  Your success or otherwise rests firmly with you, your motivation and mindset to succeed.
• What fees are they charging?  Is it a one-off fee, a monthly recurring fee, or perhaps you pay for individual consultations?
• How current are they in the knowledge they are passing on?  The online world and ways of marketing are changing almost daily and what worked well this time last year may now be ineffective.
• Do they have a forum set up whereby you can liaise/network/share learning experiences with other online coaching business students?

I would advise that before you sign up to any online coaching business that you use this check list above.  You may have several other questions in addition to those above.   I would suggest you cut and paste them and leave space under each question to write the answers as you assess the online coaching business and its suitability to meet your needs.

The world of online marketing is like no other, and like many others moving into internet marketing, I tried to bring a lot of my experience from the offline world into my business in the early days and quickly learned it is almost incomparable.  Due diligence is the key of the day; there are many ruthless online coaching businesses although thankfully these are outnumbered by the genuine opportunities that can also come your way if you just take the time to assess exactly what it is you need.  On a similar level on the scale, assess what you don’t need.  There will be many FREE offerings to get you to sign up with a specific online coach and my advice here is, if it is something you are not actively looking for at this time, focus on what it is you are looking for and leave the free gift for another time.   Ask yourself if it is a ‘need’ rather than a ‘want’ and that should provide you with the answer.

Lessons from geese – a leader is nothing without their team

The acronym TEAM represents Together Everyone Achieves More and there is no truer representation of teamwork and teambuilding at its best than through the geese that share out planet.  When I first read this, it just made so much sense to me and having always operated in a teamworking environment, I know that although I was in a leadership position, I was nothing without the backing and support of a strong team. 

I have carried this through to my current business in internet marketing, and although it is my own business, there is always a strong team with a positive mindset behind each individual that makes the opportunity and business sustainable and profitable for everyone.

Learn from the geese

As each goose flaps its wings, it creates uplift for the others behind it. By flying in a “V” formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.
Lesson: People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of another.

Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone, and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the “lifting power” of the bird immediately in front.
Lesson: If we have as much sense as the goose, we will stay in formation with those who are headed where we want to go (and be willing to accept their help as well as give ours to others.)

When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies at the point position.
Lesson: It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership–with people, as with geese, we are interdependent on each other.

The geese in formation honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.
Lesson: We need to make sure our honking from behind is encouraging, and not something else.

When a goose gets sick or wounded or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay with it until it is able to fly again or dies. Then they launch out on their own, with another formation, or catch up with the flock.
Lesson: If we have as much sense as geese, we too will stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong.

By Milton Olson

Career change at 50 – 50 is the new 30!

It wasn’t so long ago that employment stability was the hallmark of an emotional maturity and reliability.  After all, our parents and their parents were of the mindset that if you do a good job, then that is you set up for life.  Those days are well and truly gone now and today’s culture lends itself to doing a good job, but only short-term.  New skills are quickly learned then taken elsewhere and the average time spent by the younger workforce is 2-3 years in any one job.  Most people expect to change jobs several times in their working lives, and some may even change their career.

We are healthier today and are more productive longer so we have time to gain experience in several types of work, not just one.  The marketplace changes so rapidly that many careers today are unrecognisable from their forms even 5 years ago, and some have even disappeared altogether!

Some people are being forced into transition for many reasons, not least of all by the world recession that well over one year later is still looming over the world.

So, is it too late to change your career at 50?

Speaking as someone who did and has never looked back, I say most definitely not.  I feel more productive now than at any other time in my life.  I have many work and life experiences under my belt, have accomplished most of the things I wanted to although for many years I knew I wanted to do something different with my professional life.  I knew I no longer wanted to work ‘for’ anyone, I wanted more control over my life and I most definitely did not want to commute to work every day.  So, I chose to work from home within online marketing and have never looked back.  My one regret is that I did not do it years ago.

What is the best career change for someone at 50?

Make a list of the elements of your current work that give you satisfaction?  Is it the people you work with?  The tasks you perform?  They way you feel about yourself when you have achieved a goal?  The geographical location of your job?  The nature of the industry?  How your work benefits your customers?  By doing this, you will draw up a list of what your motivators and strengths are and will reach a conclusion of the type of career you want versus what you most definitely do not want.   Once you have done this exercise, then a free career self assessment tool can be found here.  I am receiving no financial gain for promoting this link.

What career change opportunities are available for someone over 50?

If you are looking to work in a home based opportunity, then the fact that you are 50 or over is most definitely a major plus.  You will undoubtedly have all the relevant transferrable skills to make a success of running your own business.  As a graduate from the University of Life, your skills set will consist of people skills, adaptability, flexibility, results orientated, can do attitude, strong work ethic, motivation, determination and a sound knowledge and vision of what you want to achieve.  With a positive mindset anything is possible and if you believe in yourself, you know you are worth it then what is there in the world to stop you achieving your dream.

If you want to continue in a JOB then you may find that some employers are ageist despite their best efforts not to be.  Many still fail to see the value in a more experienced employee, preferring to opt for someone younger who in fitting with the culture, will probably move on after a year or two.  Some employers on the other hand actively embrace the more experienced person, realise their value and the commitment and loyalty they will bring.

Career change at 50 – how fulfilled do you feel?

Remember your earlier dreams and think back to those careers you dreamed about when you were younger.  You probably had some big, idealistic ideas for your future as a child, and you might have abandoned them prematurely in favour of more seemingly practical choices.

Perhaps the time to realise those dreams is now.  Refresh your memory of what those early dreams were and how they made you feel about yourself when you imagined doing your dream work.  Now you are equipped with more world knowledge and a more adult intellect, how many different real careers can you list that would realise or resurrect those feelings?

Living my dream now

I never thought for one minute that I would be working in an online business.  I am living the life I always wanted, I am able to make lots of money online and all this despite having a very little knowledge of IT.  The business I joined is a Turnkey business so it had everything all there that I needed to get up and running and into profit quickly.  I have no end of video and audio tutorials and had the luxury of a mentor, a real person to help me get up and running.  I am fortunate enough now to be a mentor of others and spent a lot of time helping my team during the initial stages.  This combines 2 of my main strengths, one is helping others succeed and two is learning something new each and every day.  My motto throughout life is ‘a day wasted is a day I haven’t learned something’.

Finding job satisfaction – employee satisfaction is not the only thing that matters

Finding job satisfaction – employee satisfaction is not the only thing that matters

Are you in a job you are unhappy with?  Do you feel you are stuck in a rut and just cannot get out of it?  Do you get up each morning with the dread of going into work and wishing you could just do anything else?  If so, this article is for you and I will go some way to explaining why this is and what you can do about it.

Why am I unhappy in my job?

There is no end of reasons for being unhappy in your job but the fundamental reason why most people are unhappy in their job is they are out of alignment with the organisation they are working with.  It is okay to have the occasional day that you feel down, do not really want to be there, and so long as it is the occasional day then is perfectly normal and all workers experience i at some time in their career.  Your personal situation could be a major factor, perhaps there is something going on in your life that really needs looking at but you have to go into work each day with matters unresolved.

If these feelings are prolonged and become an almost daily occurrence, then this diagram below may explain why that is.

Strike a New Career Deal, Carole Pemberton

Alignment model explained

To be happy and successful in any job, you need to be in alignment with the organisation and it with you.  What this basically means is that your needs, wants and values must be similar and a match with the employer.  It is crucial that when applying for any job you check your alignment with the organisation.  Where you cannot do this fully prior to interview, then you need to ask the relevant questions at this point to check your needs, wants and values match what they are looking for.  If this is not the case and you are just taking the job out of pure necessity, then the chances of you gaining the job satisfaction you want and deserve and greatly minimised.

If you do not take the time to get the career you want, be prepared to take what you get; George Bernard Shaw

Who am I?

For example, if you are an ambitious individual, enjoy making decisions and working off your own initiative but you have a manager who micro-manages everything you do, then you are going to be unhappy in your job.  You probably feel you are not trusted, your efforts go unacknowledged and whatever you do is microscopically examined and this can quickly demotivate and demoralise.

If on the other hand you see the workplace as revolving around you, i.e. you want to spend time surfing the net, keeping up with your social networking friends and work is getting in the way, then you need to be asking yourself “what is the company paying me to do here”?  Am I in the right job?  Could I not do what I am paid to do and use my lunch break to do my own thing?  Would it be okay to use the company PCs to do this and providing you produce the goods when you are paid to do so, this could normally be negotiated with your employer.

Check your own alignment

• When was the last time you left work thinking “I really enjoyed today and am looking forward to going back in tomorrow”?  Now this may be some time ago, but I strongly urge you to come up with a day you felt like that.
• What was so good about that day?
• What was I doing that I enjoyed?
• Who or what made me feel so good?

What you may come up with is something like:

• I was given a last minute task to do with a very tight deadline and I achieved it
• An idea I had proposed was implemented
• I went that extra mile and a customer left really happy and commented on the excellent service I had provided
• I was selected ahead of my peer group to undertake a fairly difficult task
• My line manager singled me out for praise

Thinking about all of the above and coming up with an example, start analysing it and within that example you will find what your strengths and motivators are.  For example, if you chose the last minute task point, you will find your strengths and qualities could be something like:

• Working under pressure
• Working to tight deadlines
• React effectively to rapidly changing priorities (dealing with fast balls)
• Solution focussed
• Can do attitude
• Adjust priorities accordingly to meet customer needs
• Sense of urgency

What influenced you to be the person you are today?

I was reading an e-book that really had nothing to do with internet marketing but more to do with perception and in particular how we perceive ourselves and others.  It was all about dealing with the ‘big issues in life!’.  As I was reading I was able to relate much of it to what I have observed in my life and how I actually live that life today.  It talked about influences in your life, be they teachers, church elders or it may even have been a random stranger.

I have met many, many people in my life who have impacted on it in one way or another, some in a good way, some not so good but they have impacted nonetheless and helped mould me into the person I am today.  That person today is someone with good strong values, someone who can see the human being behind the trappings of either wealth or poverty and who is committed to making a difference in other people’s lives.

So let’s take a journey back (quite a few years) to when I was at school.  I was a naturally bright child, I rarely had to do homework having a bit of a photographic memory and I believe that was more out of necessity than anything else as trying to do any homework in a dysfunctional household was just a non-starter.  I was brought up in a very poor home, one of 5 siblings and where feeding and looking after the kids always came second to alcohol and cigarettes.  This was no different to almost all the other families who lived around us on the estate.

Please don’t feel sorry for me though, I am far from a victim and see myself as a survivor.  You see, I had to survive from an early age and that has helped me through life.  I rarely allow anything to get in my way of trying to do something, I will find a way round it to make it happen.  This is never at the expense of anyone or anything though.  I loved animals, still do and found them to be a lot of solace when I just needed to get away and grab some ‘me’ time.

I had some fantastic teachers and I would always sit at the front of the class eager to learn and they seemed to like that.  In fact whenever I went on any seminar in my corporate job, I always sat at the front in the middle!  I love to learn and aim to gain a new bit of knowledge each and every day.  I also had one teacher who just didn’t like me, no reason that I knew of, she said I smelled and made me sit at the back.  This then evolved into her not allowing me in the class and making me stand in the corridor for the whole of the lesson.  Consequently, my grade rapidly dropped and no-one in the school noticed (or cared).  They always say that you may not remember what someone said to you but you will always remember how they made you feel, and this is absolutely true for this happening.  I would never in my life ever make someone feel the way she did to me.

I left home as soon as I could and joined the Army.  Many people from similar backgrounds to myself do this, they join a very disciplined service that has strict boundaries but gives them the feeling of being part of a very large family.  You could  make mistakes and someone always had your back.  It built my confidence by recognising in me something I didn’t know I had, leadership qualities.  Whenever there was a task to be done, I was right up there full of ideas as to how it should be done and what part everyone should play in it.  I was fortunate to have some excellent role models who allowed me to grow and develop, who encouraged me when I doubted myself and who, at risk of losing some credibility themselves, allowed me to be better than some of them were.  I now know this is a sign of a true leader, someone who is not threatened by those who can do things better, but is willing to learn from less experienced and younger team members.

I reached the top of my tree in this career and moved onto various careers that had a common thread running through them.  They were all about helping others.  I got immense satisfaction from this work and even to this day receive kind inspirational messages thanking me for how someone has moved on with their life and achieved things they never thought they could.

Now with my own home based business of internet marketing, I am combining everything I’ve learned in my life.  I’m continuing to educate myself every day, I’m helping others how to market on the internet and I pass on all my knowledge and skills confidently and with great pleasure.  There is nothing more rewarding that seeing someone achieve using tools and techniques that you have taught them.  I would far rather give a hundred times over than to receive.

So if you’re reading this and perhaps you’ve had some experiences similar to my own, I am living proof that you can achieve anything you want in life.  You just have to adopt the right mindset.  If you believe in yourself and think you’re worth it, don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something!  Find a way, ask someone, ask ME!