The Power of Gratitude

E-Myth: Delegated, Automated, Now What?

You've probably heard of books like The 4-Hour Work Week and The E-Myth. They teach entrepreneurs how to delegate and liberate themselves from the day-to-day operations of their business so they can do what they've always dreamed of doing -- sit back and watch the revenues roll in. It's the great American dream - right?

Here's something few people talk about ... when you get to that point, what do you do with yourself? Sure, you think you'll travel, you'll see the world, you'll take up golf or painting. And that's all great. But if you're a work-a-holic who has finally been able to delegate the majority of the day-to-day tasks of your business, there's a lot of junk that goes on in your head when shifting from "doing" to "being."

For example, I took off the month of June, yep, I took it off. I worked in my garden, spent time with my 6 kids, went on a family vacation. I think it's the most amount of time I've spent outside work in 19 years. The only thing I did was monitor emails and post a few fun updates to Facebook. Everything else in my business is automated or delegated. It's a liberating place to be. And since Independence Day is coming up in the US, I thought I'd chat a little with you about the typical traps the independent entrepreneur tends to fall into.

1) We feel guilty. "I should be working. It's not right that these revenues should flow in so easily with so little effort."

2) We feel fear. "Oh, no, what if I cut back on the time I spend in my business and it all falls apart?"

3) We don't know what do with ourselves. "Hmmm... maybe I should start a new project?" If work is all we know and are, we'll fall into the trap of creating more work for ourselves instead of actually living and being. As Ann Quindlen, an essayist and novelists said, "You cannot be really first-rate at your work if your work is all you are."

I don't claim to have all the answers. I'm in the midst of this, but a few things that have helped me are the following:

a) Immerse yourself in a relaxing, yet productive hobby. In my case it's gardening.

b) Take a vacation. Go somewhere you've always wanted to go.

c) Spend quality time with those you love.

d) Journal. Each morning after I work in my garden, I sit on my back deck and journal whatever's on my mind. It's amazing how therapeutic journaling is and how much more clearly I see the world. I've even used a few of my journal entries in my blog.

e) Take action from a place of stillness. Contrary to what you'd think from the title, my ecourse How to Get More Done in a Day than Most People Accomplish in a Week isn't about being a rat on a wheel. It's about delegation, automation, and operating with focus and serenity. Had I not learned these principles, I'd probably be filling this gap with a bunch of busy work instead of enjoying it thoroughly.

Those are my ideas. I'd love to hear from you. What are some of the typical traps you've found and how have you sidestepped them?

Keeping a Journal Leaves a Legacy

I've spent the last week digging in my garden and reading my favorite high school English teacher's old journals and poetry. Linda Hawkins died from the effects of a bone marrow transplant two years after my class graduated. She left behind a legacy that couldn't possibly be measured by human minds. Her students still talk about her hilarious personality (standing on her desk and squawking like a bird to bring a class to order) and her ability to inspire creativity in the young.

I would not be an author today had it not been for Linda Hawkins. She taught me to put my heart on the line when writing, but more importantly she taught me to trust my instincts. In the last week, I've learned even more from Mrs. Hawkins. As a resu1t, I've decided we spend the first 40 years of our lives discovering who we are and the time remaining either

a) bemoaning what we've done with our lives and letting it hold us hostage like rats on a wheel,

b. OR mustering the courage to be the magnificent individuals we were born to be.

Linda Hawkins was 44 when she died. I think her greatest regret was that she knew who she was, but had so little time to enjoy that blissful path.  She was a teacher, a shaper of young minds, and a builder of destinies.  She loved teaching, but she battled an illness that deprived her of it. If death is considered losing, then I suppose we're all losers in the end; but if living with grace and faith have anything to do with succeeding, then she was one of the most successful people I've ever known.

As I've read through her journals (one of which covered her 2-year battle), I've learned some important lessons:

• Have the courage to be your best self and let God take care of the impact that is made as a result.
• Look for the beauty and the good around you each and every day. Be thankful for it. Embrace it.
• Keep a journal. It will help you deal with life, and it'll leave a priceless legacy for your posterity.
• Finally, in Linda Hawkins' own words: "When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on."

So there's my challenge to you and to me . . . let's get off our rat wheels and be who we were born to be! Time is of the essence.

Dealing with Emotional Pain

It's been said that emotions buried alive never die. Avoiding your feelings isn't a way of dealing with emotional pain. No amount of "reining in your thoughts" or "thinking positively" will help if you're burying past pain or emotions that haven't been properly addressed. Stuffing them down in your subconscious isn't a solution. And, frankly, neither is talking them to death. They will scream for recognition and resolution in other ways – often physically through illnesses, aches or pains. Other times they will sabotage your quests for success and adversely affect your relationships and career goals.

One of the best ways to address emotional pain is to get to the root of it energetically, give it time to be recognized and accepted, release it, then replace it with something positive. Becky Ross is one of the best at helping people do this. In an hour session, she helped me release burdens and feelings of betrayal that I'd carried for years – previously unable to fully address them and let them go.

At the end of the hour, they were gone, never to return! What's more, I'd learned a technique that I could use for myself over and over as new things cropped up. It's wonderful to know I don't have "put up" with emotional pain or try to muster the willpower to succeed in spite of self-sabotaging blocks. I can delete them, and move on! I highly recommend Becky Ross and EnergeticHeart.com.

Building a Fan Base

In this video Lisa Rae Preston and I discuss how to create a thriving fan base that gobbles up everything you have to offer. It examines the success of romance novelist Marcia Lynn McClure and her old fashioned romance novels as an example of personality driven marketing.

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When Is The Right Time to Start a Business?

Should you start a business if you're having a hard time putting food on the table? Can you build a business while working another job? Is there a way to make instant riches online? Find out the blunt and honest truth in this 3rd video I did with Lisa Rae Preston.

How Long Does It Take to Build a Business

This the 2nd video in the series I did with Lisa Rae Preston talking about the determination and time required to build a successful business around your gifts.

Creating a Business Around Your Gifts

I recently had a conversation with creative genius, Lisa Rae Preston, about the differences between building a business around products and building a business around your personality and gifts. There are pros and cons to each, but for many, a personality-driven business is more organic, natural, and enjoyable.

My daughter turned this conversation into a series of fun little videos. Here's the first one in the series.

Learn more about monetizing your gifts here.

The Invisible Woman

I love this video by Nicole Johnson. It puts motherhood ... and womanhood ... into perspective . . . God's perspective

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It reminds me of a tribute I wrote to my mother about 10 years ago:

The Influence of a Righteous Mother

As I look back over my life and the influence that my mother had on me, I realize that the things she taught me have never left my memory. They are burned into my character and will stay there forever. A righteous mother's influence for good spans the generations and touches the lives of so many more than her own children. Her influence radiates in the lives of her children, her grandchildren and great-grandchildren and out to all they come in contact.

There are five attributes my mother possesses that are worth modeling. Unfortunately, the apple has fallen far from the tree on some of these characteristics. I feel that I (and everyone else in the world) would do well to incorporate these five principles into their lives.

Work Hard

My mother was always working. I'm not talking about a career really, although she did have a good career before marrying my father and having children with him. She was cleaning, cooking, planting flowers, working in the yard, or teaching us to do the same. We had regular jobs that we had to do. She taught us that being part of a family meant everyone chipped in -- not just the mother slaving thanklessly while no one else lifted a finger. She got in there with us and showed us how to work, taught us the proper way to vacuum, to dust, to mop, to wash dishes. She instilled an intense desire to work for what we wanted in life.

Waste Not a Minute

My mother taught us to use our time wisely. We quickly learned that you don't tell Mama that you're bored. If you did, you'd be given some household chores to enliven your day. If we fought or quarreled, we were put to work. My mother lived by the motto that an ''idle mind is the devil's workshop.'' Constructive use of time was paramount, and that principle is indelibly burned into the character of her children.

Keep Your Word

My oldest sister fondly refers to my mother as, "The burning bush." If my mother said it would happen - regardless of whether it was punishment or reward - it would be carried out. So let it be written; so let it be done. She didn't make promises she wasn't prepared to keep. If she promised you something, even if something else came up to intervene, she would still find a way to carry out her promises. In all my years of living, I can't recall that my mother ever told a single lie. Her character was and is beyond reproach.

Be Consistent

My mother was ever consistent. There were no surprises. If you disobeyed, you knew you'd reap the assigned consequences. When it comes to her devotion to God, she is ever faithful, ever true. My mother saw that we were in church ever Sunday. Only on rare occasions, in cases of definite illness, did we miss a Sunday. She taught consistency and faithfulness by example. Although one could hardly say I am consistent in raising my children, at least her consistency in her devotion to God has worked its way deep into my mind.

Serve Others

My mother has one of those sixth senses about serving other people. When I was a young mother, I'd run out of fabric softener in the morning, and who would turn up on my doorstep that afternoon, but my mother carrying a brand new bottle of fabric softener. The woman is amazing. She anticipates the needs and desires of her children with the intuition of a psychic. She lives to serve her children and others.

These five characteristics that my mother possesses in such intensity affects not only her own children, but also her grandchildren. And as her children and grandchildren go out and attempt to follow in her footsteps others are blessed and impacted for good. The example of a righteous mother avails much, spans the generations and permeates to all within the reach of those she touches.

Happy Mother's Day!

Redistribution Robs the Pursuit of Happiness

The US Government has been in the business of “redistributing” wealth since the FDR days. Prior to 1943, there wasn’t even a federal income tax on individuals. In the last few months, redistribution has risen to escalating proportions.

Since this is a relatively new concept in the history of our nation, I think we’d do well to examine this shift and whether it is a positive one.  I maintain that it is not, and over the next few posts I’ll share why redistribution is just another term for robbery.

#1 It Robs the Poor of Their Potential to Grow

In May of 1990, my husband and I were in a bad situation. He was jobless and I was a stay at home mom. We had 2 small children, one of whom was on a heart monitor that cost $600/month to rent. It was then that I started my business. The first six years were excruciating. There was feast and famine, debt, and stress. Along the way, we surely could have qualified for government assistance, but we never sought it. Instead, my husband found what employment he could, and I worked and learned about business.

Even after the first six years, we struggled for at least another 4-5 more. Nothing about the road was easy. Yet, heaven sent me mentors along the way who taught me not only how to run a business and how to market, but also how to think. Experience taught me to lean on the Lord. I most certainly would not be the person I am today had I never endured it.

Looking back, there is only one thing I would do differently. I wouldn’t have borrowed from Peter to pay Paul. I would have worked out some arrangements with Peter and left Paul out of it. But that’s a whole other article.

Bottom line, if someone said that they could go back in time and hand me some ongoing support through those early years so that I never would have to suffer, I wouldn’t take it. Why? Because it would rob me of the experiences that made me who I am. It would rob me of my strength of character, my faith, my trust in the Lord, and my ability to use creativity, ingenuity and inspiration to find solutions. It would deprive me of my ability to produce my own income.

When we seek to “fix” someone else's life on the pretext of “not wanting them to suffer” we usually do more harm than good. Sure, there were people who gave us things along the way. Charity was extended to us by our kind parents and siblings on more than one occasion. But they did not support us to such an extent that they deprived us of our dignity or our ability to grow.

The Declaration of Independence lists “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as the three inalienable rights of mankind. It is the “pursuit of happiness” which has made me who I am. The struggle has made me stronger, and the journey has brought  joy and happiness. Happiness cannot be forced upon us, or handed to us on a silver platter. The Founding Fathers knew that governments that get out of the individual’s way foster greatness, strength of character and ultimate freedom. I hope and pray that my children will enjoy the same freedom I have had to pursue their own happiness.

What It Means to Really Live

My friend Jeri Gilchrist posted this quote by Marjorie Pay Hinckley on her blog. Love it!

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Mrs. Schenk's lawn. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."