Have you been struggling to find the answers to the problems that you’re having? There could be a solution. It could be staring right at you. It could be right beside you. It could be so in your face. But why aren't you seeing it? Your problems could be:
When you’re trying to find a solution, it’s like you’re looking for ONE solution or maybe you have MULTIPLE solutions but you haven’t come to that one clear solution you’d like to do. Since you haven't had that clarity, it's so hard to move forward. Here are the three reasons why you’re not doing it, can’t do it, or can’t figure it out. First Reason: You’ve Got Blinders On Why can't you see the solution? Because you've got blinders on. Racehorses have blinders on so they only see straight in front of them. That's really helpful because they're not distracted by the other horses or the crowd. However, when you’re trying to find a solution for something and you have blinders on, you’re not seeing what you need to see. You're blocking your peripheral vision. You're only focused on one track. But if you're looking for a solution, you want to be able to pull from all different areas. Pull from all different possibilities. We can think of the blinders as limiting beliefs. They're narrowing your view. For example, you want to exercise more, but your limiting belief is you’re not athletic. The saboteurs jump in too. They make your blinders even bigger so you don't get to see what's possible. This is really sad because you could have a really great idea or an opportunity you’re not seeing. You really need to do some brainstorming with someone else who will support you so that all of these different ideas can come out. Second Reason: The Solution is Right in Front of Your Face Sometimes, we are looking for a solution, but it's already right in front of us. I did a coaching session with one of my peers, and we were trying to figure out my ONE thing… my ONE word… the ONE thing that I am known for. I was like, “I don’t know! I'm trying to find it.” I'm looking around to find the answer. Then she questioned me, “Diane, isn’t it Dynamic Women? Isn’t that your thing? Isn't that what you talk about and what you train on and what your books and your programs are about?” YES! It was right in front of my face! If it was so obvious, why didn’t I pick it? Because it was so obvious. Maybe you've been in this place that it's just too simple. It's too obvious. It's right there. Sometimes we overlook the obvious choice because…
Sometimes we want to overcomplicate things. I’ve seen female leaders believe that if it's not complicated, it's not worth doing. If it's not complicated, it's not good. These are all BS. How do you get out of this? Write all the options down and then ask someone else, “Is there something I’m missing?” It’s helpful when it’s someone unbiased... Like a coach or someone that’s already in your corner so that you can get the best answer possible. Oftentimes, the solution right in front of you is the one you need to take. Third Reason: You’re in the Picture One of my favorite quotes is from Les Brown, “When you're in the frame, you can't see the picture.” When you're in the picture, you're not seeing what's beside you, what's behind you, what's around you, and you don't also see how the big picture looks. It's good to get someone else's perspective on many areas:
They can tell you what they see in the big picture because you can't always see it It's sometimes hard to make decisions when you’re in the frame because we're so stuck on that one small piece of the puzzle that's missing… we're not looking at the big picture. In my coach training, we call it the little ‘a’ and the big ‘A’ agenda. You can't be in the big ‘A’ agenda all the time because you're trying to actually get stuff done, the little ‘a’ agendas like:
You're doing all these little things. That's where it's important that there's someone in your life, someone you trust, who can look and view the big picture for you. Who can tell you what they see in an honest kind way but also in a hard truth kind of way. While also acknowledging you and cheering you and calling you on your BS. I encourage you to get somebody in your life that you trust, that can give you that honest feedback. Finding solutions to problems is a really great thing to be able to do. The best place they're hiding, sadly, is sometimes right beside you, right in front of you or around you. Find that person you trust who can help you… who can help you find the solutions so you know what you need to do. Join the free Dynamic Women Global Community and be supported by other like-minded women. Read my other blogs here:
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As women, we play a lot of roles. We have to attend to so many responsibilities that at the end of the day, we don’t always have time left to devote to what we really want to do. A lot of my clients say:
How can we really balance taking care of the kids, husband, home, business, your health, and any other passion project that you really want to do? I’ll break it down into 5 ways. #1. Be clear on what you want The first question that you really need to ask yourself is “What do I really want in life?” With my clients, we use the coaching tool called the Wheel of Life, and it includes all 10 areas of our lives. By looking at the wheel, we start to get super clear about what it is that we want and need and our priorities. What's interesting is it really unearths new ideas, things that maybe you haven't talked about. Asking yourself that question, “What do you want?” is really going to help move you forward. What I've been noticing is this is also the hardest question to answer. It looks super simple and it should be super simple, but as adults society has done us wrong. If we ask a child what he or she wants, they will come up with a massive list of things. But as adults, we often focus on needs and priorities or what society has told us we should want. Knowing exactly what you want in each area is going to help you to feel more balanced because you'll have clarity on where to spend your time, your energy, your money, and all of your resources. It's not something that is going to be answered really quickly. You need to be able to take that question and sit with it so you get the deeper answer. It's not something that you can just come up with on the spot (unless you’ve done the work). If it is a quick answer, you risk focusing on what society wants for you or what your parents or spouse want for you, or what your company wants for you. So it’s best to come up with what YOU want. The first piece around getting balanced is really understanding and having clarity on what you want. It is really important to do this with a trained professional. I know I said you need to take time to figure this out. But the thing is, you also need to know what the ideal is and a coach can help you get to the heart of it. #2. Set your priorities Question 1: What are your priorities? Making a priority list for yourself is crucial so that you know where those 10 areas stand, and the priorities of each one. This is important because when we are spread thin - kids, husband, family, and projects at work or whatever it may be - we really need to know what comes first. Question 2: And where are you on your priority list? Making a priority list for yourself is crucial so you know where you are on the priority list. I had a client who thought that her first priority was finding a new career. But after looking at all areas of her life, we learned that her health and personal development were actually the priorities, so she can build a strong foundation to then go and get her dream job. If you're finding it hard to balance, it could be because you need to take care of yourself first or you need to take care of one area so that you can have some balance and consistency. #3: Have a strong “YES!” Oftentimes, my clients talk about the need to say ‘No’ more often. I totally agree. But I also know that it's extremely hard to say ‘No’. So if you feel that way, I suggest you have a stronger ‘Yes.’ What do I mean by that? When you get invited to do something or to go somewhere or to be involved in something, do you immediately agree and say, “I want to do that”? Or do you feel hesitant and say, “I'm not sure. Maybe I shouldn’t do that”? Then the ego comes in or that person's influence on you is at play. So where does having a strong ‘Yes’ come in? If you do have clarity on what you want, then you have clarity on your priorities for all the areas and what you want to say ‘Yes’ to. This helps you to have only three to five main focus areas or main goals you're working on at a time so that you're not overwhelmed. When you know what you want, then you can say ‘Yes’ to that, making it easier to say no to other things. The problem is if you're busy and you're good at achieving lots of things and you're good at being able to take care of many responsibilities, people are going to keep asking you. If you have those strong ‘Yes’ priorities in your life then you will be able to say ‘Yes’ to these things. Therefore, you’ll be able to say ‘No’ confidently to everything else! #4. Figure out what resources you have The next piece if you're having a lack of balance, is to figure out which resources you can use as your solution. Ask yourself this: Do I have more time, more energy, or more money? If you have a lack of balance, you probably don't have a lot of energy, but maybe you have more money. So you could bring in solutions like a cleaner, a meal service, or delegating some of your work. I do this with all areas of life, all problems, all obstacles, and all opportunities that I have. Can I use my time, my energy or my money to help with this? If you have money and time, but no energy, then go recharge somewhere or pay for support to be recharged, pay to do a juice cleanse, or pay for a chef to create some healthy meals for you. You've got options. In the same way if you have less of something then it could be time to make some changes. If you have no money, you need to clear some things out that are costing you money like subscriptions you don’t use. If you have no time, you need to clear things out that are sucking your time like watching endless TV shows. If you have no energy, then you need to do things to gain energy and to clear the things that are sucking your energy like negative people. #5. Take Action I have asked you a bunch of questions and given you 4 Ways to Balance Life. Use what I’ve shared and your answers to guide your choices and TAKE ACTION. A lot of times people are in this place of “I'm so unbalanced”. Well, you got to do something about it. You have to get into action on it. If you keep complaining about it, but never do anything, then you're just going to be like a hamster on a wheel, rolling, rolling, rolling and never getting off and never feeling better. How about you go on your calendar and block a day off? Maybe you need to go on a strict time where you’re saying no to invitations. You have choices here, but you’ve got to do something about it. I invite you to really look at these five ways and now I ask you, What do you want to implement? I didn't say, “What do you NEED to implement?” because the thing is, you probably won't implement what you need to implement. If you're very self-aware and very on top of it and you have some accountability like my clients do, then please do what you need to do. If you’re not sure you can do anything, then go with what you want to do because then you have more of a chance to succeed. Please choose something that you 150% believe you can do and will commit to. Then the joy is, that when you do it you’ll build confidence and self-esteem so you can tackle something that is a little bit harder next time. If you want to increase your success, money, and happiness by mastering your inner and outer wealth, join the Dynamic Success Accelerator.
Read my other blogs here: In my last blog, I talked about three out of the five problems that cost you money, success, and peace. Now, let's go onto the other two. Problem 4: Not valuing your time. There are 3 ways you could be not valuing your time:
And then the problem could be… You’re letting people take advantage of your time. The trouble is that when you don't value your time, it shows up in your negotiations with others, in your schedule, with the amount of stress you have and in your bank account. When you don't value your time, you could also squander it on things that don't matter as much. What I look at with my clients is, what is the return on investment (ROI) for your time? If it's an income-producing time, then how much is an hour worth? Is it $100, $200, $1,000? When you're not doing income-producing activities, meaning you're not working with a client that you can bill, and you're not making a sale to a customer, it’s all the other tasks that keep the business going. But when you don't value your time, you would say “Yes” to doing tasks you should delegate. If I looked at your day and all the tasks you did, are they all $100, $200, or $500 an hour activities? I'm guessing not. Do you know the expression “time is money”? I feel that time is everything. Time is not a renewable resource. You cannot get it back. Time is so precious. You could help more people if you were focusing your time on supporting your clients and customers rather than all the other stuff. I understand the belief that when you’re not earning a lot or youre a small company you can’t delegate. I challenge that. There are activities that are below your pay level and frankly not your core skills and talents, so they must be delegated if you want to grow and have life balance. For example, if you can make some calls and sell $100 in product or trade 1 hour of your expertise for $100 then you can pay $25 an hour for 3 hours for a cleaner to clean your house or a Content Creator to make some social media graphics. You still have $25 in your pocket and it saved you 2 hours.Then if you used those 2 hours to do what you did to make the $100 you are now up $225. The key thing is to use those hours you saved to do things only you can do. Problem 5: You think you need cash to make cash. You think you need to have money in the business or money in your life to be able to make more money in your business or make more profit. But there are actually six ways to increase wealth when you don't have any money. These are strategies I brought in when I started out in business. They're things that I bring in continuously to be able to earn more money without spending more money. These are things I teach in the Million Dollar Woman Program. Now, let's just actually look at that word for a moment - Spending. Spending means to give and not get back. But every time we have money come out of our hands, it's investing. Now if you are going out and buying Tim Hortons or McDonald's breakfast every day, that's spending and not investing. But if you were to buy a really nice coffee machine, so you can make your own coffee at home, that can be seen as investing because by buying that you can bring money back to you. Investing in a coach to help you to get ahead faster and not make mistakes can have a great ROI, so can investing in software that helps keep track of leads or a FB ad specialist you can build your list and bring you leads. Everything that you do in business and in life should have some Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of
They also need ROI. If I'm putting in $1, can I get $5 back? If I'm putting in $1, can I be moving my business forward and save myself some time? You might think that you don't have the money so you can't invest. That’s BS! As Les Brown said, “When you're in the frame you can't see the picture.” The only way that you can learn how to do these six things or how to be able to move ahead without money is by being able to be creative and learning from someone who has done it or who can help you to see it. One example is barter, trades or contra. I have been able to acquire many things in my business without putting out money.
There are a lot of strategies around this, and everybody's business is different. But there are six different strategies that I do almost all the time, so that my expenses are lower, and so that I can move my business forward. It doesn’t mean all these six things instantly give me money, but each of these six things eventually has a return on investment. If I'm investing nothing and then I'm getting something back, isn’t that amazing? Over the past two blogs, I’ve covered the five things that I see in my clients that’s stopping them from making more money. I work with female business owners. I work with female leaders. I work with women, and these five things are costing them not only money, but their time and their peace. It's not helping them get ahead, and at the end of the day, money is not everything, but money makes things easier. It can make life more peaceful and enjoyable. If you want to learn more about how you can make more money, schedule a complimentary 15 min chat with me by emailing [email protected].
What's stopping you from making more money? There are five problems that I continuously see in my clients, in my network, and in people I talk to after keynotes that I give. These problems can cost you money, your success, and your peace. Here are the five problems (in no particular order): Problem 1: Having only ONE income path This was a really big issue for a lot of people during COVID. If you’re an employee, then your one income path is your salary or your paycheck. But having just one income path means that if you ever do lose your job or if anything ever happens and the company's not paying you on time, that's really all you have. Unless you're able to get bonuses or work overtime, you're really capped in what you can make. If you're an employee and you have your nine to five, but you also have a side hustle, then you're getting another income. If you have rental properties, then you have an additional income coming in. On the other hand, you could be self-employed or you’re working for your own business and that’s your only income path. For instance, a lot of professional speakers really struggled when COVID-19 happened. There were no in-person live events. Yes, they can get paid virtually or work around it in some way, but most of them struggled because they only generated money through speaking and all of their engagements were canceled overnight. Now for me, I was able to pivot my focus. I focused on the things I can do that bring in money.
If you have multiple streams of income, not only is this good in case something happens to your main source, but you can also have different income streams for different times or seasons of the year. It would be even better if one of them is passive, meaning you don't have to touch it, and it's bringing you money:
Having multiple streams of income can help relieve stress. It can help you to have a more consistent and higher income. Think about this: how many income streams do you have? How many paths to money do you have? If you only have one, how many do you want to have? Problem 2: Look to your bank account for your happiness The thing costing people money is the fact that they focus on the money and they don't spend any time in joy and happiness and relaxation. When you're only looking to your bank account for your happiness, your joy will be hollow. I have heard these words from very wealthy clients. There's Inner Wealth, and there's Outer Wealth. Most people focus their time on their outer wealth. They're focusing on all of the things outside of them that can bring them happiness, and that can bring them wealth. There are things that you can do in your Inner Wealth to feel wealthy every single day. For a lot of people, they’ve moved away from money being the motivator. Instead, choosing passion, giving back, their movement and their why as better motivators. If you've been in any of my programs like Dynamic Balance or Keys to Success, then you have heard me talk about the Wheel of Life. One of the biggest problems people have in balancing their life is that they measure their life according to their success, rather than their satisfaction. When you look at the Inner Wealth as well, it gets you to a place of feeling wealthy every day, even if you're not rolling in massive amounts of cash. The same is true when you measure your life according to satisfaction rather than success, you can be happy every day of your life, not just when you have that amazing milestone or goal that you've reached. Problem 3: They say “Yes” to all opportunities (And say “No” to some great opportunities) When you say “Yes” to everything, it's potentially because you're coming from a place of lack or a place of scarcity:
At the end of the day, it's not bringing you the right amount of money and even if it does, it's stealing your energy and your joy. We don't want that to happen. I actually have nine different guidelines that tell you when you can say “Yes” and when you should say “No”. I’ve heard these are helpful because people sometimes feel like they have to say “Yes”, and they need some tangible guidelines to use. Here are two of those nine ways. I cover these in my Million Dollar Woman program.
I’m thinking of sharing all 9 in a PDF with explanations. If you’re interested in that, please email [email protected]. If I get enough interest we’ll put it together and email it out. When you have the 9 and you have an opportunity you’re deciding on you can see how many of these nine guidelines it has. Then it becomes a no-brainer. With clients we then take it a step further and see if the opportunity can satisfy maybe two or three more of these: so how can you negotiate, write it in your contract, casually suggest ways to get the other six or seven different benefits working for you. In my next blog, I will share the other two reasons that stop you from making more money. Read my other blogs here:
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