Time to Re-evaluate the Purpose of Your Business???

What is the purpose of your business (career)?

Take a moment and answer this question before you read on.

If you are like most people, your answer will be along the lines of:

* I get to do what I love.
* Create a lifestyle for myself.
* I make people’s lives better.
* I serve people.
* I take away their pain/ meet clients needs.
* Provide valuable services.
* Help others to succeed.
* etc.

Where does “making money” show up on your list? Or, does it even show up on your list?

For a lot of people, it does not even show up on the list. But if we stop to think about this, the purpose of any business is to make money. Otherwise, it is not a business it is a hobby.

What if we revised our purpose to reflect this.

“The purpose of my business is to make money by helping people to get out of their own way!” (Versus, “The purpose of my business is to help people get out of their own way.”)

This gives me a very different foundation upon which to stand and brings a different energy and focus into my business.

The Law of Attraction in a nutshell says that we get whatever we give our energy, attention and focus to. Modifying the purpose statement gives attention to this very important component “money”.

Now, money in and of itself is not a motivating goal. Lifestyle and fulfillment/contribution goals have way more juice. However, money is usually a very important piece of achieving those other goals.

There is A LOT of head trash around money. Very often people think it is bad to focus on money.

This article is not about making a “god” out of money or making money the be-all end-all because it isn’t. This article is about returning money to its rightful place, a very important component of your business (career).

It does not serve you to under-value money any more than it serves you to over-value money.

Modify your purpose. The purpose of my business (career) is to make money doing the things that provide fulfillment, sense of contribution and satisfaction!

Intending great joy and success in all you do,

Jonathan Manske
Cerebral Sanitation Engineer
“taking out your head trash”

Check Writing Resistance

As you might have noticed, our society is insane around the topic of money right now.

Predictions of gloom and doom are rampant.  Scarcity and lack are the mindset of the day.  Hoarding and imaging worst case scenarios are popular new hobbies.

Here’s a common business owner scenario:  “Okay, I’m not going to spend any money for anything!!! ~ but I sure hope lots of people continue to buy from me.”  Does that seem perhaps a tad bit illogical?

People are forgetting an important universal law ~ “What you focus on is what you get, whether it is what you want or what you do not want.”

Get off the terror train. Just because all the lemmings are running for the edge of the cliff does not mean it is the right thing to do!

Start focusing on what you want.  Stop engaging in talk about how bad business is, about how bad the economy is.  Just stop!

More millionaires were created during the great depression than at any other time in our history.  Opportunities abound right now but you will never see them if you are focused on what is wrong.

OK enough of my rant and back to my topic:

The other day I was talking with a client and he mentioned how reluctant his potential clients were to writing a check.  They were very interested in his service but somehow it was hard to write that check.

It hit me.  Well of course it is hard to write a check these days.  Mass consciousness is squarely stuck in scarcity and fear.  Then I realized that I had check writing reluctance too.  I’d been dragging my feet about paying my bills.  I’d pay them at the last possible moment.  I didn’t want to write that check.  I’d been infected by mass consciousness.

The good news is there is something you can do about this insanity in mass consciousness.  You can create a safe haven where people can step out of the storm for a bit and catch their breath, catch their perspective.

Here’s how you do this:

1)  Both visualize and intend that the person you are interacting with is inside a bubble.  (I make the bubble pink because pink brings in heart energy.  And, if it feels appropriate to use another colour, do so.)
2)  Intend that the surface of the bubble is selective.  It lets in good energy and thoughts and keeps out the negative.
3)  Intend that the negative already inside the bubble is dissolved by the pink light.
4)  That is it!  Now give them space to make their decision.

What you have done there is you have created a buffer, a quiet space where that person can make a decision that is the right one for them without the pressure of mass consciousness.  Whether they buy from you or not, you have given them a valuable gift (a respite from the insanity of mass consciousness).

Although very simple, this technique is very powerful.  I have seen it literally change lives.

Wishing you great joy and success,

Jonathan Manske

The Law of Attraction in Times of High Uncertainty

Stating the obvious, we are experiencing a period of high uncertainty and most people are “freaking out” about it.

The big problem with “freaking out” is that worry, anxiety and panic never improve a situation.  The basic premise of The Law of Attraction is that whatever you give your attention, energy and focus to is what you get - whether wanted or unwanted.

FOCUS
Well, what are most people focusing on?  Disaster, impending doom, catastrophe, fear, loss, hardship, uncertain times, financial ruin, being a victim - the list goes on.

Hopping onto this bandwagon of negative focus is absolutely the worst thing you can do for yourself right now.  All you are doing is attracting more of the same into your life.

I used to teach a mountain biking class.  One of the skills I taught was how to ride through a tight space: such as between two trees.  To do this, you must focus on what you want, the space.  As soon as you focus on what you do not want, the trees, you will probably run right into them.  This will hurt.

Right now, there are a lot of people focusing on the “trees”.  This will hurt!

Instead of focusing on the “trees”, focus on what you want!

PERSPECTIVE and LABELS
Perspective is how you look at things.  How are you looking at the current situation?

During the great depression, more millionaires were made than at any other time in our history.  Those who made their millions then saw an opportunity where the majority saw a crisis.

Your perspective gives rise to the labels you use. Labels then determine how you interact with something.  You will interact differently with something you label “good” versus something you label “bad” or an “opportunity” versus a “threat”.

I guarantee you that there are a lot of successful people out there who are seeing the current situation as a tremendous opportunity.

Warren Buffet is buying by the wheelbarrow full right now.

PERSPECTIVE II
Most problems tend to diminish when we get a bigger perspective.  A bigger perspective can be quite useful here as well.

All systems move through cycles and phases.  They have their ups and their downs.  The real estate market, the economy and the stock market are all systems.

This too shall pass!

DISSIPATIVE STRUCTURES
Noble Prize winning chemist Ilya Prigogine created the theory of dissipative structures.

Without going into what a dissipative structure is, we can take some useful information from this model.  It provides us with a way to manage chaos and uncertainty in our lives without becoming a victim to it.

The model shows us that under certain conditions a system becomes increasingly unstable and reaches a point where it can no longer maintain or reorganize itself.  At this point, the point of bifurcation, the system has to change.  It will either jump to a higher level of organization or break down and reorganize at a lower level of organization.

The period of time while this is happening is called the period of perturbation.  It is a time of high chaos and fluctuating energy.  Chaos always precedes the shift.

We are now experiencing the chaos that precedes the shift.  The system will reorganize.

SERVICE
Looking for the opportunities to serve is a way to thrive in the chaos.  Be of service to others.  Be of use.  See what others need and then provide it. (That sounds like a definition of entrepreneurship)

COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS
The more you panic, the more you feed the monster and the bigger the problem becomes.

Stay positive, focus on what you want and know that this too shall pass!

Wishing you great joy and tremendous success,

Jonathan Manske

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Mirror Mirror on the Wall

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You have an image of yourself inside your head, your Self Image .

This image acts as the ultimate instruction manual for your life.  It provides the rules of operation by which you live.

Your thoughts, behaviors and actions are all consistent with your self image.

Now here’s the thing:  some of your self image is beneficial and supports you to have a great life and some of your self image is not beneficial and causes you to suffer.  And almost all of your self image got created by accident.  It was influenced by parents, teachers, friends, society, culture, religion, role models, and your experiences.

For example:  If your self image includes being a successful business person that would probably make your life better.  If your self image includes being an inept business person that would probably make you suffer.

The good news is that you can change parts of your self image and in so doing you can improve your life.

Here’s an easy way to change your self image:

First of all, you need to get a sense of your current self image.

#1  Pick an area of your life that you are looking to improve.  As an example, let’s use money (or fitness).

#2  Imagine that you enter a big room and in the room are four groups of people.

In one corner are people earning minimum wage and entry level type salaries.  (Overweight non-exercisers)

In the second corner are working people who earn $40-80K a year.  (A little chubby, occasional exercisers)

In the third corner are business owners and managers who make $100-250K a year.  (Fit, exercise daily)

And in the fourth corner are executives, top sales people and CEO’s who make over $250k a year.  (Marathon runners etc.)

#3  In which of these four groups would you feel most comfortable, most at home?  (Stick with reality here - not which group would you most like to be in but rather which one would be most natural, familiar and comfortable.)

That is your current self image.

#4  Imagine that you are a shorts and t-shirt type of person and that you dressed up in formal evening wear, a tuxedo or cocktail dress.  When you look in the mirror, it might take a moment to recognize yourself and then you would say, "oh yeah, that’s me."

#5  You want to use this idea, "Oh yeah, that’s me" to change your self image.

Create an image that is an upgrade of your current image.  Then keep reminding yourself, "Oh yeah, that’s me!"

It only takes a couple of seconds to do this:  "Oh yeah, that’s me - the successful business person!"  "Oh yeah, that’s me - the daily exerciser!"

When you keep reminding yourself of this, you begin to change that self image and when you do that, your life changes!

Mirror Mirror on the wall, who’s that successful ________ I see?  Oh yeah, that’s me!

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Mr. Eat, Pray, Love

Dave Bravdica’s friends often refer to him as Mr. Eat, Pray Love.

(This is in reference to the book Eat, Pray, Love written by Elizabeth Gilbert.  Her book was #1 on the NYT Paperback Nonfiction List for over a year!)

Dave has a great story.  He got clear about what he wanted and then took the courageous steps to make that happen.

When I first met Dave, he was working for a company that was very hierarchical and old school in philosophy.

This was a terrible fit for Dave and it showed.  He looked worn out, stressed out, uninspired and his self confidence was circling down the drain.

His biggest challenge was the "golden handcuffs".  He couldn’t imagine that he would ever be able to replace his income while doing something that he enjoyed.  He had a lot of head trash around this issue.

Dave spent a while having a tug of war with himself:  I should do something different - I cannot do something different and make money.  This only further depleted his vitality.

Finally on his birthday, Dave said to himself, "I either need to do something different or resign myself to the way things are now.

He decided to do something different.

He quit his job and enrolled in chef’s school.  After chef’s school he went to Italy to learn more.

Dave believes that in order to understand the food you need to understand where it comes from and the people.  To this end, he spent time working in a winery, a cheese farm and a cured meats farm.  He really immersed himself in Italian culture.

Now he’s back in Denver and has opened his own catering business, Flavor Cater, and is also teaching at the chef’s school.

I recently saw Dave and was delighted to see how good he looked.  He looks so much more happy and full of vitality.  He’s excited and optimistic about the future.  And, he is doing what he loves.

Dave is all about food and wine and how they can bring people together.

We can all learn something from Dave’s story.

We have all done what Dave did when he got trapped in an either/or perspective.  (Either I can stay here and be miserable or I can do something different and make much less money.)  In Dave’s mind those were the only two possibilities.

Here’s an analogy: There are two kinds of light switches, on/off and dimmer.  With on/off you only have two options.  With a dimmer switch you have a wide range of options.

Whenever we seem stuck or trapped, we are doing the on/off switch.  When we change our perspective and start to see more possibilities (dimmer switch) the sense of being stuck or trapped tends to disappear.

Dave will be my guest this week on The Inevitable Success Radio Show

You can tune in to that show on Thursday September 18th at 1:00 Mountain Time at www.realcoachingradio.com.

The show will also be archived if you want to listen at a later time.  archive link

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Keep On Moving Forward

This spring I went on an adventure.  As it turns out, my adventure is a pretty good recipe for success.

My motto during the adventure was "Keep Moving Forward!"

Four friends and I decided to ride the Kokopelli Trail.  This is a mountain bike trail that runs from Fruita Colorado to Moab Utah.  It is 150 miles of very tough riding.

Going into the ride, I had concerns about my ability to complete this ride.  Simply put, I had not prepared enough.  The longest training ride I had done was 20 miles and I was exhausted after that.  Now I needed to do three 50 mile days in a row.

I decided that as long as I kept moving forward I would be all right.

I kept this idea, Keep Moving Forward, in mind throughout the ride.

When I came to really steep sections of the trail, I got off my bike and walked.  I have the ability to ride those sections but the energy it would have cost me was too much.  As long as I was walking, I was still moving forward.

My goal was to complete the ride and if walking 50 yards here and there helped me to complete that goal then I was fine with that.  In fact, there are numerous mandatory hike-a -bike sections on the trail that nobody can ride.  I just had a few more hike-a-bikes.

This strategy served me well.  I kept moving forward and I completed my goal.

Other elements were necessary in order for me to keep moving forward and achieve my goal.  (Do you have these elements in place to support you to keep on moving forward?)

Support:
Jason’s dad drove sag.  He met us about every 20 miles with food, water, tools to fix our bikes and our camping gear.  Without him, we wouldn’t have been able to complete the ride.

We also had the support of each other and of friendship.  This helped immensely.  (What’s your support?)

Rest and Recovery:
Part of moving forward is taking breaks where you are not moving forward.  Without stopping to rest, eat and sleep we wouldn’t have succeeded.  In the face of stress and effort, we still needed to take care of ourselves.  (How do you rest and recover?)

Snacks:
I ate a lot of powerbars and other energy snacks on the trail.  Whenever I would start to feel tired, I would put some more fuel in my tank which would allow me to keep moving forward.  Without these snacks, I would not have succeeded.  (What are the "snacks" that put fuel in your tank?)

The Right Equipment:
Obviously the right equipment was an important part of being able to complete the ride.  A road bike would have been destroyed 5 miles into the ride.  This is a serious mountain bike trail.

I also needed my pump and a spare tube.

My camelback carries 120 oz of water, has storage for tools, food and extra layers of clothes.  (Do you have the right equipment?)

Trail Map:
All of the other things I have mentioned would have been useless without a plan of where we were going and a map to guide us.  (Do you have a map and a plan?)

Remember, your success is a long journey.  As long as you Keep Moving Forward , you constantly move closer to achieving your goal.

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From my observations of working with people, it seems that nobody really understands trust.

What does it mean to trust?

Most people leave reality and go to fantasy land (where everything is perfect) when they think of trust.  Instead of dealing with what is so, they pretend that things are the way they want them to be.

Let me give you an example from my own life.  Many years ago my wife and I bought a fixer-upper house that we were going to fix up and then sell.

Our contractor, Steve, repeatedly over promised and under delivered, lied to us and did poor quality work.

Instead of dealing with reality and firing him, I went to trust fantasy land.  This is a place where Steve really was a good guy, he would come around and treat us right, he would start doing what he said, he would get the job done well, on time and on budget.

Of course, none of this happened. Steve continued to be who he had shown himself to be.  I continued to have headaches, frustration and stress over this project.  And, instead of making money on this venture we lost money.

I see this all the time.  Instead of dealing with reality people go to trust fantasy land.  The consequences of going to trust fantasy land are usually painful.

So then, What does it mean to trust?

There’s an old Chinese proverb:  Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

This saying captures what it really means to trust.

Trusting means paying attention and observing what is there.  People are creatures of patterns, programs and habits.  They will show you who they are and what they do over and over.

Genuine trust is trusting that person to be true to their habits and patterns, to expect them to repeat what they have already done.  Then processing this and asking yourself, "Does this work for me?"

If I had done this with Steve, I would have realized that he was going to continue to break his word, over promise and do poor quality work.  Then if I had asked myself if this works for me, the answer would have been "OF COURSE NOT!" and I would have fired him.

(Boy I wish I could have a do-over on that project!)

This is also true for self-trust.  We should expect ourselves, we should trust ourselves, to be true to our own patterns, programming and habits.

If you procrastinated today, you should trust yourself to procrastinate tomorrow.  Then instead of beating yourself up because you are a "bad person who procrastinates", you end up just dealing with reality - "Oh, I’m being true to my patterns and am procrastinating again."

Ironically, dealing with what is makes it easier to change because it removes pressure.

Life gets easier when we deal with reality, when we deal with what is, and then make decisions based on that.  Trust others and yourself to be true to patterns, programs and habits and your life will get easier.

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How Do You Think About Yourself?

The way that you think about yourself has everything to do with the way your life is turning out.

Maxwell Maltz was a very famous plastic surgeon.  (He also wrote Psycho Cybernetics.)  He discovered something very interesting.  What he discovered is that he would do the same procedure on two different people and create very different results.

Let’s imagine that two people went to see Maltz because their noses had gotten crushed and deformed.  Because of this blemish, they had become self conscious and shy.  After the surgery one’s life was totally changed.  He became social, outgoing and confident.  For the other, nothing really changed.  In fact oftentimes this person couldn’t even tell that he looked different.  Friends and family could see the difference but he couldn’t see it in himself.

Maltz realized that there is a self image inside our heads - who we think we are.  This self image runs our lives.

If we change the outside but do not change the inside, the self image, nothing really changes.

I had a very insightful weekend regarding my own self image.

I think of myself as a laborer rather than a business owner.  This is a problem!  This is contradictory to what I want to create in my life.

I’ve been an entrepreneur pretty much my whole life but I have never thought of myself as such.

In high school and college I had a lawn mowing business.  I made way more money then my peers who had summer jobs.  But I never thought of myself as a business owner.  It never occurred to me to get even more customers and then hire some labor and make money off of their efforts.  Instead, my mindset was that if I want to make more money, I just need to work more.

Well, 20 years later I’m still doing that.  I still think of myself as a laborer.  Now that I am aware of this, I see it all over my life.

On my recent fishing trip to Alaska, I was a laborer.  If I saw something that needed to get done - I did it - get the boat ready, rig up fishing poles, haul salmon, vac-pac salmon and so on.  (I am a very good laborer).

If my self image was of a business owner, an entrepreneur, I would have seen that these things needed to be done and then would have made sure that they got done with me doing the doing as a last resort.

The good news is that:  You can change your self image!

Contrary to popular opinion, you can change your self image and changing it can be a quick, easy and painless process.

I have an appointment with myself this afternoon to do some work on changing my self image from laborer to business owner/entrepreneur.

Take a look at how you think about yourself.  If that thinking is not consistent with what you want to create in your life, then it’s time for a self image upgrade.

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Losing Weight - a bad idea

Yesterday I overheard someone mention that they needed to lose weight.

There is a big problem with this kind of thinking.

What is the very first thing you do when you lose something?  - You try and find whatever it was that you lost. You will tear up the whole house looking for what you have lost.  As soon as it is lost, it becomes something important, something you must have back.  You will look and look.  Even if you give up on looking for what you lost, you will wonder about it, "Where did it go?"

So, why would you want to lose weight?  You are just asking to get it back!

How you talk to yourself and the way you talk to yourself really does matter.  It really does make a difference.

If you are talking about losing weight, you are sabotaging yourself.

When you talk about losing weight, you are also focusing on what you do not want rather then on what you do want. You get what you focus on.

What you want is to be healthy and at your perfect weight.  Focus on that instead.

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Jekyll and Hyde

Have you ever had a Jekyll and Hyde experience?

If you are living human the answer to this is - Of Course!

A Jekyll and Hyde experience is when you have a plan or course of action that you know would be good for you and would support you and then you go and do something completely different, something that is not good for you and does not support you.

Dr. Jekyll makes a plan and then Mr. Hyde takes over and things go to heck.  This is when you usually say something like:  What the “bleep” just happened?  Or, you start asking why:  Why did I do that?  Why didn’t I do that?  And so on.

Jekyll says, ” I ought to exercise, I’ll go for a run.”  Then Hyde takes over and 3 beers later Jekyll is wondering why he didn’t go for the run and why he drank those beers.

Jekyll has a plan to call clients this afternoon and follow up with them.  Hyde takes over, the afternoon is wasted and no calls are made.  Jekyll wonders what the bleep happened and where did the afternoon go.

Jekyll is often frustrated because he has good intentions and knows that these things would be very valuable and beneficial - but they do not happen.

Jekyll is your conscious mind.  Hyde is your non-conscious mind.  Whenever these two are not in alignment, Jekyll ends up frustrated and Hyde ends up running the show.

You have tried to fight Hyde so you know from personal experience that this does not work.  Hyde is just too strong he overwhelms you and takes over.

So, what to do?

It’s not about Jekyll becoming stronger or having more willpower.  Hyde simply takes over and that is the end of Jekyll’s plans.

You need to explore what is going on beneath the surface.  You need to discover what is that button that is getting pushed that has Hyde surface and take over thus thwarting your good intentions.

Then you need to reprogram that button so that Hyde stays hidden, so that Hyde does not need to come to the surface to ruin the day.

One way to reprogram the button is to inquire into:  what is my fear, what is my resistance here that brings out Hyde?  Once you have identified this then you can recontextualize and reframe the situation which, will give you different access to it.

A client of mine had a really hard time asking for sales.  When it came time to ask for the sale, Hyde would appear and consequently she wouldn’t ask for the sale.  We did some recontextualizing and reframing.  She saw that her job was to inspire people and that asking for the sale was really asking if the prospect wanted to get inspired.  For her this was a very different question and it kept Hyde dormant.

If you are not sure what the button is, what triggers Hyde to show up feel free to contact me for a complimentary Business Mindset Analysis.

In the Business Mindset analysis we will spend 15 minutes and take a look at what is the invisible brick wall that you keep bumping into that keeps you from succeeding.  We will look at what is it that makes Hyde appear.