A Light Bulb Moment

I was lying in bed the other day, thinking about my new venture as an entrepreneur and it dawned on me that I was not going to become a successful entrepreneur if I kept chasing after the quick buck. You see after I got laid off my job and decided to start my own business, I started to focus on the “Get Rich Quick Scams”.

I would stay up late nights watching those infomercials. You know the ones am talking about, the infomercials that tell you, “just send in $59.95 and once you received your home business kit, you’ll start making thousands of dollars instantly”.

Before you know it, you’re so excited, you get up in the middle of the night, you stubble over the cat trying to get to your purse or wallet and in your mind you’re thinking about all the things you’re going to do with the money you haven‘t made yet. Does that sound familiar?

Once you receive your “Home Business Kit”. You‘re so excited. You say a little prayer before you open the box, “God, let this be the one”.

After a few weeks, guess what? You’re mad and frustrated because you have not made a penny from your investment. So, it goes up on the shelf to collect dust, along with the other “Get Rich Quick Scams” you purchased in the past.

Now, getting back to my light bulb moment. I realized that my being desperate to make money fast, made me a victim to the “Get Rich Quick Scams”. I also realized that you can not attract financial freedom from a place of desperation.

Here are a few tips I like to share with you that have helped me stay on track to pursuing my dreams.

1- Focus on what you are passionate about. When you’re coming from a place of desire and passion, you’ll be more focused on providing value to people instead of how much money you can get. People will notice that you care about them instead of their wallets and before you know it money will start flowing into your bank account. There’s an old saying, “Give people what they want and they will give you what you need”. (Money)

2-Once you’ve found your interest, start talking to people that are successful in that field. You’ll be surprised at how experts love to help others.

3- Realize that it is going to require some work, dedication and education. Besides, when you’re doing what you love, it won’t feel like work.

4- Read a lot of positive books. Such as ,“Think and Grow Rich“ by Napoleon Hill, “How To Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie and “Failing Forward” by John C Maxwell (my favorite). Just to name a few.

5- Celebrate your small victories.

6- Never, every quick, no matter what.

I like to leave you with one of my favorite quotes: “If it’s to be, It’s up to me” by Les Brown

Ps. I’ll see you next time with more ideas and tips.
Until next time. Blessings to you and yours and may all your dreams come true

Your friend, Gigi

One Of The Keys To Your Treasure Is Goal Setting

I was talking to my best friend, Mel the other day, about my blog and even though he’s a big fan of mine: LOL, he mentioned that it was missing something. I asked him, “what was it missing”?. He said, “Gigi, I like to know more about your goals”.

He informed me that goals are not promises, but commitments and that I needed to set some goals in order to obtain my dreams. That made since to me. So I went to work on putting them together.

If you remember from my previous blogs, I shared my dreams with you. But a dream is only a dream if there is no plan to take ACTION. (I know, dreaming is more fun, there’s know hard work involved).

This is what I came up with. To be to my own boss, run my business from home and to be able to make a profit of 50K at the end of 2008.

After looking over my goals, they seemed to big to reach. That was a little overwhelming. So I decided to brake them down into smaller, bite size goals.

For example, I am going to work on putting together a marketing strategy. I plan to have this completed in two weeks.

Another small goal I plan to accomplish, is to have my website built and completed in two weeks. (By the way, I found this great website building service at www.sitesell.com/site4u.html. I especially recommend it for people who are interested in building their own website. The great thing about it is, you don’t have to know anything about HTML. They practically take you by the hand from beginning to end. It’s awesome).

Now, here are some basic rules to goal setting:

1-You should write down your goals.
2- Your goals should be specific.
3- Your goals should have a time frame as to when each one will be completed.
4-You should review and up date your goals on a regular basis.
5- You should keep your goals near you at all time. Because they will serve as a reminder why your dreams are worth pursuing.
6. Don’t forget to celebrate your small achievements.

Here’s one of my favorite quotes:

“There is a time when we must firmly
choose the course we will follow,
or the endless drift of events will make
the decision for us“. By Herbert Prochnow.

I hope this helps you as much as it’s helped me.

Well forks, that’s it for now.

Ps. Blessings to you and yours and may all your dreams come true.

Your friend, Gigi

In Walks Fear, Now What?

Hi, let me bring you up to date on what’s been going on since my last posting. My first week of unemployment, I was excited about my new found freedom. The idea of being my own boss was exciting. No more JOB for me.

First day, I turned on my computer, checked my e-mail. Then I looked around my one bedroom apartment (that I share with my dog peaches and my fat cat china. They’re cut but they don’t pay any rent). I asked myself, “what do I do now“? I realized that my closets had not been cleaned out since I moved in my apartment eight years ago. I figure why not take advantage of this free time to do that. Before I knew it, I had pulled out all the junk in all the closets (oh my god, that was a lot of junk), I also took care of some daily tasks and made a few phone calls (I was a busy bee).

Even though it felt good to rid myself of some of the clutter, at the end of the day I realized that I have not done anything that wound move me toward making my dream a reality. If I kept at this pace, I would definitely be back at a JOB. Fear started to set in.

Remember in my last post I shared with you my problems with FEAR and PROCRASTINATION. You see, I realized that fear rears it’s ugly head when you're faced with something challenging, keeping you from taking all of the necessary steps toward pursuing your dreams. What happens is that you’re so focused on failing that you start making excuses.

I found a solution. What I am about to share with you is so simple but yet powerful. If you apply this idea, you will be successful at what ever you decide to do. Are you ready for this? Hold on to your hat. All you have to do is, Feel The Fear And do It Any Way. Yes it’s that simple. By the way, I recommend you read the book “Feel The Fear And Do It Any Way” by Susan Jeffers. It’s a great book.

You see, a lot of people don’t go forward with their dreams, because of the fear of failure. Well, I am here to tell you that failing is a good thing. Because it allows you to learn from your mistakes and it allows you to grow. You know what they say, “what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger”. Remember anything worth wild is not going to be easy, but if you stick with it you will be rewarded.

You have to fight tooth and nail for the kind of life you know you deserve. We all have greatness in us. Sometimes we just have to dig deep down within to find it.

In saying all that, I realized I had to sit down and Map out a plan (which is very important). Here is a little exercise I used to get me on the right track of the pursuit of my dreams. You can use this exercise yourself.

First, make a pledge with yourself. Just fill in the blanks:

My Getting The Life I Deserve Pledge:
This is my year to be the person I’ve always wanted to be. This year I will put
(put your name here) first. Starting (put the date here), I will focus on taking the steps to achieve my goals. Ever since ______________ I’ve known that I want to ____________. Today I will create a plan to realize my dreams.
This is my year to achieve at least four goals:

1. _________________________________________
2. _________________________________________
3. _________________________________________
4. _________________________________________

Negative factors, real and imagined, will no longer be obstacles to my success. To get over (obstacle #1), I will stop ____________. To get over (obstacle #2), I will pray that _______________. To get over (obstacle #3), I will plan to _____________. I know I will be successful because it is my dream to _________________.
To stay on track, I will have my friend (the name) check in on my progress every week/month/quarter (choose one) and hold me accountable. This is my personal 2008 pledge to myself so that I can realize my dreams and live the wonderful life I
truly deserve.

You sign it.

This truly works. Try it and see.

I’ll see you next time with other tools and Ideas that’s working for me and that can work for you also.

Ps. Blessings to you and yours and may all your dreams come true.

Doing It My Way

Hi, my name is Ginesta, but you can call me Gigi, that’s what my friends call me. I’m 48 years young, I’ll be 49 on December 31 2007. And I just got laid off my job : ( a week before Christmas), after being there for 7 years (Merry Christmas to me).

When I was faced with the news that I was going to be laid off, I was excited, it took everything in my power to keep from jumping for joy. You see, I truly hated my job and the people I worked with . But I was to scared to make a move. Doesn’t that sound familiar?

Like a lot of people, I kept telling myself, “ as long as I was making a living, had a roof over my head, had food on the table and was able to shop at Target, I was doing great. I was just feeding myself a bunch of lies and excuses, so that I wouldn’t feel bad for not having the courage to pursue my dreams to it’s fullest.

I read somewhere that about 3% to 5% of people that pursue their dreams become successfully while the other 95%-97% are living a life of quite desperation (I was part of the 97% group. That‘s scary).

I realize that my getting laid off my job was an opportunity in disguise, and it’s up to me to take advantage of this opportunity.

There are things that I struggle with, FEAR and PROCRASTINATION (just to name a few), but I am not going to let them stop me. I’ll work on them along the way. A wise person told me, “you don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it started and improve as you go along“.

There’s a great quote that goes: “a bad plan executed is better then a good plan waiting for that perfect moment” because there is no such thing as a perfect moment.

My goal is to never go back to a JOB every again, and to pursue my dreams with all my heart and soul.

I created this Blog so that you can join me in my journey to a new beginning. You’ll be able to witness the good, the bad and the ugly. I hope to inspire and encourage you to fight for your dreams.

I’ll also be sharing different things with you like articles on how you can turn your passion into profit, marketing tools and tips that you can use to grow your business, and I’ll also be here to offer words of encouragement when things get a little tuff, and believe me they will get tuff.

I think it’s important to have like minded people in your corner, people that will support you when you’re faced with obstacles and you feel like giving up, because as we both know the journey is not going to easy but it will be rewarding.

So, go right ahead and jump in there with both feet (it’s ok to be in control of your own destiny) get down and dirty to make your dream a reality. Don’t worry, we’ll be there for each other.

Ps. Blessing to you and yours
I look forward to meeting you soon.

Pps. No more JOB’s : )