Sunday, March 29, 2009

Prioritizing

Many of us know what prioritize means. Basically it's to do the most important thing first. But how many of us can say that we regularly prioritize everything successfully? Why is it common knowledge to keep your priorities in order, but when it comes down to actually doing it, very few of us prioritize on a daily basis?

I believe 2 things prevent us. Here they are:
1. Lack of planning. When things and circumstances come at us, we are in reaction mode due to the lack of planning our schedule in advance.
2. Inability to say "no" to ourselves. I've learned that keeping my priorities straight requires me to be able to say no to myself when I want something. It's the ability to delay gratification that actually empowers us to get done what needs to get done.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

A Matter Of Balance?

Early on in my mothering career, I sought to balance being a stay at home mom with working at home. What did it look like for me you ask?

You'll need to know how I get things done. I love to learn new things and I had a "million" things going on at once. I tried to "balance" everything much like a juggler kept objects in motion in the air. You guessed it. I could only keep everything I had going on for a certain amount of time. Usually it was 1 week. Sometimes I got it up to 2 weeks. Has that ever happened to you? You want so bad to do everything well, that you give it your best shot - but it didn't last?

Needless to say, I was pretty frustrated. I had my fair share of ups and downs building my business and parenting my children at the same time. Thank God I have an awesome business coach who pointed out to me that what I was doing was like being yoked to slavery. That sounds serious, doesn't it? Surely what I was doing wasn't THAT serious...

Or was it?

So what did I learn to do?

I'm sure many of you have heard it before...can you guess what it is?

PRIORITIZE. More on this to come...

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

What does it take to be an Entrepreneur?

Being an Entrepreneur is simple, but certainly not easy. There are many obstacles and challenges to building any type of business. So what does it take to be an Entrepreneur? What does it take to not quit when things get tough?

It takes many things. The first thing to BE is someone with Character. Good character with a strong sense of responsibility - now that is building on a solid foundation. Just like building a house - one built on sand will fall when storms and winds hit. But one built on solid ground will stand and be of great value to its inhabitants.

As Entrepreneurs, we invest into developing and growing as human beings - and build that CHARACTER and possess that VALUE to give to people. We are not in business only for the money. Money is a byproduct of who we ARE and what we DO on a daily basis. Money is basically the seed we have to invest into the lives of others - and we want to invest well and invest fully. Quoting Hans Johnson, "When we become a good 'farmer', our seed grows and our crops are very fruitful, yielding 30, 60 and 100 fold returns."

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Earth-Shattering Calamity?

Today I came across this post that reinforces what my husband says about America and our church age. The post is from a business mentor of mine, Mr. Hans Johnson. His keen insights and experience are absolutely amazing, as you will see.

Earth-Shattering Calamity About To Happen?

The Coming Evangelical Collapse?

Yesterday my husband read an article entitled The Coming Evangelical Collapse.

We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West. Read more here