Achieving Your Dreams

I am a proud Mama!  You see, my sweet, high school daughter has been ACCEPTED TO COLLEGE!  Now believe me I am in no rush for her to leave home, in fact for the last year I have been tearing up at the thought of it.  As you know, I already have two sweet college boys  (yes – we will have 3 in college at the same time next fall – yikes!$!$!) so we have been through this before.  But this sweet daughter’s journey to this point in her life has been a little different than my boys.

You see Cali was born with  speech and learning disabilities.  Through her educational journey she has always had what is called an IEP (Individual Education Program)  this has allowed her special services (resource room, speech therapy. etc.) .  Learning has never come easy for her, she has had to work twice as hard at it as most people do.  But Cali’s spirit, spunk and determination have brought her to today  – where she has received her first college acceptance and she will be graduating with an Honor’s Diploma (which means she has taken Advanced Placement courses and completed an involved service project as well as other things)

What an amazing experience it is to see your children struggle with challenges, overcome those challenges and achieve their dreams!  I have learned a lot from being Cali’s mother.  I marvel at her strength, her determination not to give up and her ability to stay the course.  I know that because of these traits Cali will be successful at whatever she undertakes in her life, that she will be able to overcome whatever challenge is placed in her path.

Each of us has our own set of challenges whether in business or in life.  One thing Cali has taught me is that if you want something bad enough and the desire is strong in your heart you can overcome!

Being the Proud Mama that I am I wanted to share with you Cali’s college essay – it describes Cali’s journey and personality so well and I know that Cali’s spirit and determination will take her far!

“I don’t do time and money,” stated a spunky little girl-me-to her resource room teacher.  But this spunk and determination helped me to overcome my learning disabilities and challenge myself in all aspects of life. From day one, it was a challenge to speak.  This brought on numerous ear surgeries and years of speech and language therapy.  My late start and struggle in school with reading, talking, and understanding brought an adventure. 
During elementary school, I went to the resource room.  Some kids cruelly called it “the retarded kid’s” room, but I found it a safe place.  In this protected space, I felt comfortable learning without being intimidated by other student’s speed of learning. In middle school I wanted to prove that having a learning disability doesn’t equate with the label, “stupid.”  I spent hours doing homework and studying.  Even though I wasn’t getting straight A’s I was achieving excellence by performing at a quicker pace. I now have the goal to graduate with an honors diploma.  Even though it’s a struggle, I enjoy the challenge.  With four AP classes I have learned that I am capable of new and bigger things. My determination has helped me overcome obstacles in more then just academics.  I aspired to land a leading role in a high school musical.  After numerous rejections, I achieved this goal after hours of preparation and positive thinking. Another one of my goals has been to attend BYU.  I know this won’t be easy, but by overcoming my disabilities I am prepared to take on the challenge of being a BYU student.  There is no greater feeling then achieving your dream after you have worked for excellence.

I love you Cali!

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My Restful Sabbath Day

It’s Sunday evening and I don’t usually post but I just had to share with you my morning.  My husband is out of town so the girls and I were sleeping in (it was 9 a.m. and that is sleeping in for me – not the girls). Yesterday had been a big day – I spent the day at a 1,700 person customer event at our Expo Center in town – a great day but I was tired!

The phone rang, waking me up, it was the mother of the young woman who was to teach our Sunday School lesson today – her daughter had been up all night throwing up – I needed to teach the lesson – great!  I drug my body out of bed to “throw” together a last minute lesson.

An hour later (which was now an hour before church) my oldest daughter finally got up and said “Hey – wasn’t Tessa suppose to give a talk in church today?”  Well – she was and we had totally forgotten!  No one had written it on the calendar so – out of sight – out of mind!

Now this brought on major panic to my teenager and she announced “We can’t go to church!” You see, her name would be in the program stating she was giving a talk and she would be sitting in the congregation, not giving a talk.  Obviously we had been flakes and forgotten – so true- but who wants the whole church to know!!  Not my teenage daughter.

So it was now my job to call the person at church in charge to let them know we were total “flakes” and had forgotten – sorry!  Don’t you just love those kind of phone calls.  I could have given him a whole list of reasons why we had forgotten – finals week at school, hosting a 1,700 person event at the Expo Center, my father had major surgery this week,  instead I just told the truth -we forgot!

Fortunately for my daughter the names of the speakers had not made it into the church program  so at least the whole congregation wouldn’t know we had forgotten and we didn’t have to stay home from church in embarrassment.

We went to church, no one knew the better and my lesson went well.  After church we made Grandpa some cupcakes and visited him in the hospital – he’s doing better and will come home tomorrow and now I am off to get a little rest at the end of my Sabbath Day and watch a little Jane Austen. (Masterpiece Theater – take me away!)

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Smart Book

It is freezing cold here in Portland, Oregon.   O.k., it’s only in the low 30’s but the wind is blowing and for us that is cold (I did grow up in Wisconsin so I really do know what cold is but I have lived in Oregon long enough to have readjusted).

So any way – I was getting ready to go for a walk this morning and since it is so cold I decided I needed my ear muffs, gloves and a scarf and as I was reaching into the closet to get them – OUCH!  I pulled a  muscle in my shoulder/back.  All I did was reach – I must be getting old!

I am now sitting at the computer with my “Original Bed Buddy“,  something that looks like a long sock full of some kind of grain that you  heat up in the microwave and it really does make my muscle feel better – so at least I can type this post.  The only problem is my children think it stinks so they won’t come near me when I am using it (or maybe that isn’t a problem:).

Back to the post –  last week I shared with you my Desk Declutter and that one of the things on my desk was my Smart Book.  I promised more details on the Smart Book so here they are.

My Smart Book is called “my Smart Book” because it is my brain.  It contains all the important papers, lists, directories, information that I refer to on a regular/daily basis for my business.  As I mentioned in last weeks post – people spend 150 hours a year looking for things.  My Smart Bookhas helped me cut that number down quite a bit. (If you read my Desk Declutter post – I did find the rebate check I was looking for!!)

To make your own Smart Book you will need:

• A two inch – 3 ring binder
• A set of numbered tabs (1-15)
• All the papers, lists, publications etc. for your business that you refer to on a daily/weekly basis.

My Smart Book contains the following tabs:

Business Calendar (team meetings, webinars, conferences, customer events etc.)

Monthly Company Consultant Newsletter

Team Roster (my first line team members) -includes name, address, phone and email

Leader Roster (all team leaders)

Customer Newsletter

Customer Product Price List

Incentive Brochures -Qualifications for Company Sales and Recruiting Incentives

Incentive Trip Brochure/Qualifications

Convention Brochures (Regional, National and Leadership)

Upcoming Customer Event Registrations/Info

Company “Help” Numbers

Policy and Procedure Manual

Monthly Management Reports

Conference Call Info

Your Smart Book categories may vary.  During the next couple of weeks keep a list of those items you use and refer to on a regular basis – what are you spending time searching for on your desk?  These are the things that should be put into your Smart Book.

I just 3 hole punch the list, brochure etc. and put it right into the binder or for somethings I put a top loading page protector in the binder and slip in the item (fold out incentive trip brochure)- whichever works best for you.

The trick is to keep it updated – each month remove the outdated info and replace it with the current month’s publication.  You will find yourself referring to your Smart Book many times a day – when a downline calls with a question about the current sales incentive, how many points they need to earn an incentive trip or a customer calls to find out about a monthly special.

Be Smart – get a Smart Book!

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Declutter your Desk

Quick -What color is your desktop?  If you are like me you may have forgotten because you haven’t seen it for a while!   Part of it may be that during the holidays I tend to let things “pile up”, especially in my office.  In fact you can see from the picture what it usually looks like – not an inviting work environment!

One of my goals for 2008 is to live a more “clutter free” life – and the first place I am starting is my desk!  In an article I recently read (I’d give you the source – if i could find it!) it said that “a desk is not a storage area, it is a work space.”   So this week I worked on “uncluttering” my desk to make it a better work space.  My tips and ideas for getting control of your work space are:

1.  Remove everything from the desk!  (pile it all on the floor).   Guess what – the top of my desk is brown!  Sort all papers into 3 piles – To File, (file all those away – do not put them back on top of your desk), To Act/Do (these go into a file and can be put back on the desk), recycle/shred (do this NOW!).   I also have a pile for To Blog (this is also put back on the desk).

2.  Get rid of any horizontal filing/inbox you may have.  Things just seem to get buried and lost when they are filed or stored horizontally.  Did you know that the average person spends 150 hours a year looking for things they can’t find!  (I am currently looking for a $50 rebate check I can’t find!)   For my birthday a friend gave me a darling  leopard print, vertical file box so that is what I am using on my desk.

3.  Keep only what you need on your desk – file everything else away.  The only 3 files in my new vertical leopard file box are-

To file -there should be nothing in here when you put it back on your desk. This is the easiest file to let get out of control -spend a few minutes at the end of each week filing away what has accumulated in here during the week.

To do/pending -active projects

To blog – ideas I want to share with you

All other paper that was on my desk is now filed away in my file drawer (I’ll share what files are in there later) or in my Smart Binder (more on that next week).

The only other things on my desk are:

–Smart Binder -coming soon!

–Inspiration Journal – where I write down ideas, thoughts etc.

–Message Pad – I use a spiral notebook for my phone messages,  do not use slips of paper or sticky notes!  This message notebook seems to have a habit of disappearing from my desk anytime my family seems to need a piece of paper so, I have written on the front of mine “DO NOT REMOVE FROM DESK” and have tied it to my desk with a ribbon.   It seems to help!

• Something Pretty – I have a piece of artwork I was given when I promoted to Executive Director, a picture of my children and a yummy smelling candle.

– Business tools -fax machine, computer, speakers, rolodex, phone and a container of pens.  I also have an inbox for mail (mainly bank statements) that need to be dealt with.  You can see by the picture below that it is a little bit more inviting work space.

4.  Lastly, each day, before you “leave the office”, take a few minutes to be sure it is picked up and clutter-free.  Coming to work each day will be much more fun when you can actually see the top of your desk!

So schedule some “decluttering” time this week and enjoy your work space!

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Gifts

It’s my birthday today. I enjoyed a fun, yummy lunch with girlfriends and there were even gifts! I have been thinking about gifts a lot lately – not just because of the past holidays and my birthday but because of a movie we watched as a family during the break. If you have not seen “The Ultimate Gift” you need to! In fact I would highly recommend purchasing a copy for your family. I don’t buy many movies because there aren’t too many movies I want to watch more than once but I did buy this one!

It is a wonderful movie about “when grandfather dies, trust fund baby Jason Stevens anticipates a big inheritance. Instead, his grandfather has devised a crash course on life with twelve tasks – or “gifts” – designed to challenge Jason in improbable ways, sending him on a journey of self-discovery and forcing him to determine what is most important in life: money or happiness.”

As I watched the movie and later thought about the 12 gifts that Jason received on his crash course I thought about how these gifts related to my homebased business.  I discovered that my homebased business has given me these 12 gifts also.

 The Gift of:

1.  Work –  What a gift it is to have a job that allows me to always keep my family as my first priority while still finding fulfillment, success and recognition through my work.

2.  Money – The income I have earned through my homebased business has provided many of the “extras” for our family – vacations, second home, lessons, shopping etc. and the last few years it has also provided the “basics” when my husband has experienced unemployment.  The money I earn through my business has been a true gift to our family.

3.  Friends– I can’t even begin to count the friends I have made over the last 17 years I have had my homebased business!  I have met so many wonderful woman (and a few men) that have impacted my life, inspired me, and motivated me.  Two of my dearest friends in life I met through my direct sales business. 

4.  Family -The biggest gift my business has given me is the ability I have had to be a stay at home mom!

5.  Problems –  Yes, there have been problems and there always will be.  The last 17 years have not all been smooth sailing.  There have been plenty of ups and downs, high sales, low sales, high commission checks, low commission checks but I know that with the blessings must come the trials.  I am grateful for those trials for they have made me a better and stronger person.

6.  Learning – The thingsI have learned from my homebased business are many.  I have learned how to sell (something I had NEVER done before nor thought I could or wanted to do!), recruit, speak to a group of 4,000 women, lead a team of 700,  deal with difficult people, etc.  I could go on and on….

7  Laughter – I have learned to laugh at myself – I have made plenty of mistakes along the way and I am grateful for those who laughed right alongside me as we have learned and grown together!

8.  Dreams – I have learned how to dream and  because of my homebased business I have seen  many of those dreams come true.  The purchase of our second home on the Oregon Coast was a dream I have had for many years – it was because of the income from my homebased business that we were able to purchase it.  I have many other dreams too that I look forward to the realization of thanks to my business!

9.  Giving -I have been both a giver and and a receiver.  I have been able to give of my time, my experience and my knowledge to help others with their business.  I have been able to “give” to my customers as I have helped them but I am sure I have received more than I have given through the many gifts and blessings that have come into my life as a result of my business.

10.  Gratitude – I am grateful on a daily basis for all that I have been given, the many gifts that my life has been blessed with.  Sometimes when things aren’t going exactly the way I want it easy to forget to be grateful.  One of my resolutions for this year is to be more grateful on a daily basis – to recognize the hand of the Lord in my life each day and the blessings he showers down on me.

11.  A Day – One of the biggest gifts or blessings of a homebased business is the freedom I have to choose how I will spend my day – each day is mine to choose.  I do not have a boss telling me what I have to do and when I have to do it – it is up to me. 

12  Love – How grateful I am for the love I have for my team members, fellow consultants and my customers.  My life has been so enriched by the people that my business has brought into it.  My life is fuller and richer because of them.

So go out and rent or buy “The Ultimate Gift” and take some time to review over the many gifts you have received. 

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