When I first started out in my blogging venture I often shared inspirational stories. I know, I haven’t told one in quite some time. But, there will be one coming today which was inspired by a comment that was left on my last post by one of my regular readers, Tim Singleton. (Thanks Tim for the inspiration for this blog post!)

Tim shared his disappointment about a prospect he spent money and a lot of time on, educating him about his product and then in the end, lost to his sponsor. The prospect’s reasoning, Tim’s sponsor was a “bigger deal.” Huh? Are you for real?

Welcome to 2012!  A very Happy New Year to you !I’m so glad you are here with me.

As you might know I took the entire month  of December off and I had an absolutely marvelous time. I even was able to scratch some things off of my bucket list. (Yep, at my age you need to start living a little, haha.) I also created some new holiday memories by going to see my favorite musical, West Side Story, performed live on stage. What an experience!

What does success mean to you? If you don’t know and don’t have a clear vision of what success means to you it will be almost impossible to achieve it.

Since we are all different, success will mean different things to you and me. To some people success is just getting up in the morning. To others it means reaching the lifestyle of their dreams.

Success isn’t a destination. It’s a journey. It has peaks and valleys, twists and turns and yes, also the occasional road block.

Success needs planning. But before you can plan you need to know exactly what you want. That’s where the clear vision comes into play.

If you have known me for a while, you know that I love quotes. Not a single day goes by where I don’t use them or add a couple of new ones to my collection. Motivational quotes have become a part of my daily routine.

Why are quotes so popular?

Well, for starters they inspire, motivate, encourage and empower us. They give us hope, they teach and at times they even make us laugh.

“Bessie Braddock (to Winston Churchill): Winston, you’re drunk. Churchill: Bessie, you’re ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober.”

There Are No Problems

I watched Michael McMillan’s “Pink Bat” movie the other day. It’s about turning problems into solutions.

As I was watching this little movie I was thinking … Are we looking at problems the wrong way?

I know, as you know as well, there are always two sides to each coin.

Take Immediate Action Using the Tools Already Available to You

Here’s an amazing story to illustrate my point for today on how to stop getting ready to get ready and instead take immediate action with the tools already available to you. You know without action your network marketing business is not going to grow.  Au contraire. There has to be constant and consistent action to keep it alive. Massive action taken will even put it on turbo charge.

But anyway, let’s move on.

I heard this story told by Roberto Monaco who is a great story teller and public speaker. Oh and by the way, he was the top producer in the Anthony Robbins Company for 5 years straight.

Without further ado, here is the story. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I have.

The Brooklyn Bridge Story

Napoleon Hill said, …“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve. Regardless how many times you may have failed in the past or how lofty your aims and hopes may be.”

When you read the story below, than you will see that this is absolutely true.

So get away from the naysayers and dream stealers and go realize your dreams. If you have a vision and you believe deep down in your heart that you can absolutely accomplish it … then  go for it!

Apply the 100/0 Principle

A lot of emphasis is put on relationship building and using the law of attraction in our industry. It is said that people who know, like and trust you are more likely to buy from you or join your business.

But just how do you go about building a relationship of trust with your prospects or customers?

Well, here’s a good start….

Self-discipline Key to Achieving Your Goals

Achieving your goals is a lot easier if you practice self-discipline on a daily basis.

Let me explain what I mean by that.

I got up this morning and looked at my “To Do List” for today. It’s not very long, but there are some items on it which I really dislike doing. However, they are important tasks that I need to do in order to move my business forward.

Now, would it really make such a big difference if I just skipped today and had some fun instead? At first thought, no, probably not.

Georgi - Learning about Limiting Beliefs

My last blog post was about the fact that dogs really don’t love bones. (Who would have thought?) They just settle for them. The moral of the story … why would anyone (dogs or humans) settle for less.

Well, there are actually reasons why we are settling for less than we could have and I will illustrate that in another story from the great personal development seminar I attended last weekend.

So here’s the “rest of the story”…The story of Gus, the lab, and the tennis balls

Gus, like all dogs, loves to play with tennis balls. (Our dog Georgi goes nuts over them as well.) So his owner, would bounce a brand new tennis ball a couple of times just to tease Gus and then he would throw it and Gus would go to retrieve it. But he wouldn’t drop it once he brought it back. Instead it would take some prying that ball out of his mouth.

Do Dogs Love Bones?

I attended an event for my company this weekend and I must admit that was one of the best events I have ever been to. While it did touch on product and company training, it was mostly about personal development and mindset etc., and if you have been following my blog for a while then you know that I absolutely love personal development stuff. The event was amazing and I came away from it a totally changed person.

As a matter of fact it made so much of an impression on me that I would like to share a few of my personal highlights with you in my next couple of blog posts.

If Elephants Could Change Their Mindsets ...

Urban legend has it that elephants are afraid of mice. Well, that’s not really true. Elephants are actually one of the more fearless animals in the world and they also have an excellent memory.  However, they are not the brightest creatures or they would realize that they could kick the stake they are tied or chained to (at the zoo or circus) into next week if they wanted to.

You see, elephants are tied to stakes as babies and no matter how hard they pull and tuck they can’t get loose. I already mentioned the incredible memory elephants have. So even when they are fully grown they remember that they couldn’t escape when they were tied down when they were little so they figure they still can’t and don’t even try.