Have You Made Your List of Dreams Yet?
Welcome! It's great to have you back again!While that may sound silly to some, having a list of dreams (or goals) and having those dreams actually written down, is a crucial step in you being able to achieve them.
Please note, when I say they have to be written down, YOU need to write them down, not have someone else write them down for you. 
How many times have you gone grocery shopping without a list and returned home to find that while you’d bought all sorts of things that you did need, you didn’t come home with the item(s) that you went to the shop for in the first place?!
I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve done this very thing, and it both annoys and frustrates me every time! Even though I have actually needed and/or wanted the items that I purchased, if only I’d taken my list, I would not have lost focus and I would have achieved exactly what I’d set out to do!
These days, I make sure that I at least write the item on the back of my hand, although this isn’t always fool proof … sometimes I actually do forget to look at it! Doh!
Dreams and goals are like that. When you write them down, not only does it help you remember them and be able to focus better on them, you are less likely to end up achieving “less important” dreams, or even worse … none at all!
By writing your dreams/goals down, you are “giving them life”, so to speak. You are, in effect, transforming them from “just” an idea, to a more concrete, tangible form. You can then refer to your list on a regular basis (hourly, daily, weekly, monthly – whatever you feel is right for you), which will help to keep them fresh in your mind and in your focus.
Many people also use Dream/Vision Boards which are the same idea as a list, only they mostly use pictures and words of their dreams/goals, rather than it being a list, as such.
Life has a not-so-funny habit of getting in the way of our dreams at times. Losing focus from our dreams for too long can often see those dreams forgotten or “put on the back burner”, or added to the “some day” list … never to be realised. Sometimes dreams get put on hold for so long, that we literally run out of time for them. 
Have you seen the Disney – Pixar movie, “Up”? If not, I highly recommend it. It’s a very enjoyable movie, but is quite sad at times too. I won’t go into all the details of the movie here, but the reason that I’m mentioning it is because the main character, Carl, and his childhood sweetheart and then wife, Ellie, dreamed of visiting Paradise Falls in South America one day.
So they start saving for their trip, but something else would always come up that they needed the money for, so their Paradise Falls dream would be delayed. This happened constantly, but they kept persevering until they had enough money to make the trip. Unfortunately though, just before they take their trip, Ellie gets sick and passes away.
Fast forward a little in the movie, and Carl is determined to make his and Ellie’s dream a reality. Ellie kept an album/scrapbook with photos, and in the back of it was a picture of their house at Paradise Falls (just like a dream/vision board or dream list, she had it in a form that could be seen and referred to often). Carl sees this, which prompts him to come up with a plan to make it happen.
Carl makes their dream a reality by tying balloons to the house (yes, really – it is an animation, afterall!) and eventually, after an amazing adventure with Russell the Boy Scout, Dug the talking dog and Kevin the 13 foot flightless bird … you’ll just have to watch it! … Carl finally gets to Paradise Falls!
Now, I realise that this is simply an animated movie, but the message I got from it was:
* Don’t forget about your dreams;
* Life happens, but if your dreams really are that important to you, you’ll find a way to make them a reality;
* Perseverance and focus will help you reach those dreams, despite the obstacles on the way;
* You only get one chance at life, so make it the best one it can be. 
So my advice to you today is:
* Write down your list of dreams/goals (or make a dream/vision board with pictures and/or words);
* Read it every day (or whatever you feel is applicable, depending on the particular dream/goal);
* Place it in a prominent place, or at least where it is readily accessible; and
* Truly believe that you CAN and WILL achieve your dreams.
So, what are you waiting for? Get cracking and make your list or create your dream/vision board if you haven’t done so already!
If you already have one, then “Congratulations” you’re on the right track!
Life should be a dream … shaboom!
Dream It … Believe It … ACHIEVE It!
I’d love to hear how you’re working towards your dreams, so please feel free to leave a comment below.
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Synchronicity: Random Coincidences … or Not?
What is synchronicity?
To quote Carl Jung (a Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher born in 1875): “Synchronicity is the coming together of inner and outer events in a way that cannot be explained by cause and effect and that is meaningful to the observer”.
Putting it in a simpler way, synchronicity is meaningful coincidences from seemingly random events that come together, that cannot be explained by either logic or science.
Is that as clear as mud? lol
Seriously though, have you heard of it before?
Most likely you’ve experienced it but perhaps you didn’t know that there was a name for it.
Maybe you believe that these experiences are simply random coincidences.
Regardless of what you or I believe, there is no doubt that coincidences (or synchronicity) do happen, and they happen to everyone at some point in their lives.
How many times can you recall a series of events happening in your life, a seemingly random series of events, only to find yourself thinking later on, “Wow! What a freaky coincidence!”.
It happens to me on a very regular basis, actually, and I firmly believe that like anything else that you become consciously aware of, the more you notice it, the more it seems to happen … but that’s for another post.
Some common examples of what I’m talking about here are:
* Someone you haven’t seen or heard from for a while just “pops into your head”. Then the next time you are doing your shopping, for example, you see them face to face!
* You decide to ring someone only their phone is engaged. Later on you discover that you were ringing them at the exact time that they were ringing you! (my sister and I do this quite often!).
Speaking of phone incidents, I just have to tell you this funny (and relevant) story that happened about 6 weeks ago:
I was on the phone talking to my sister, when we heard the beeping sound of someone else trying to call her. She said, “I’d better get that. I’ll ring you back in a minute”. So we said goodbye and hung up.
I was going to ring Mum soon anyway, so I thought I’d ring her while I was waiting for my sister. So I rang Mum only to find that she was the one who had been calling my sister! They’d only spoken for a moment though because someone was trying to call Mum (it was me!).
Mum said that she’d ring my sister back shortly after she’d talked to me, then only a moment later, MY phone was beeping at me so I told Mum that I’d better get it (because I was actually waiting on another call other than from my sister) and that I’d ring her back …
… and you’ve guessed what happened next, haven’t you? …
As it happened, the one calling me was my sister! She was calling me back while she was waiting for Mum to call her back!!
How funny is that?! This all happened within the space of a few minutes!
In hindsight, we should have just added Mum to a three way call and done away with the “phone tag!”
Now, logically speaking, my mother, sister and I all talk to each other on a very regular basis (often daily), so for one of us to ring another while they were talking to the other is highly likely to happen, and actually HAS happened before.
What had NOT happened before, was the three of us all calling the other in a “tag-team-like” fashion!
Anyway, getting back to where I was going with this post … !
I find myself being amazed at these “coincidences” happening. They always lead to me thinking about how different the situation would have turned out had one tiny thing been different.
Towards the end of last year, I was the parent on duty for the day at my son’s kindergarten (I did this on a regular basis and thoroughly enjoyed it – so did my son).
Fast forward to lunchtime on this particular day, and all the kinder children, the staff and I were sitting down to eat lunch.
As the children proceeded to open their lunchboxes, I heard one of the girls comment that she didn’t like the sandwiches that were in her lunchbox. I looked across at her to see a rather unimpressed little face!
My first thought was, “How many kids say they don’t like what their mum gave them, only to find out later that they actually DO eat that food, and they simply wanted something else instead on that occasion?”
Then I heard one of the staff members say to her, “Well, Mum wouldn’t have given it to you if you don’t eat it” … snap!
Then the little girl (K) said, “R (her sister) has these sandwiches. She’s probably got mine instead!”.
Given that the kindergarten is in a room at our primary school, I said to one of the staff that I would go to R’s classroom (K has 4 older sisters at this school!) to see whether they had, in fact, been given each others lunch. I was more than happy to do that, but was told not to worry about it and that K could just eat whatever else she had in her lunchbox.
The staff member also said that R would have eaten the sandwiches already, given that the bell for the school children to go outside had rung five minutes earlier and they would all be outside playing.
Well, as it turned out, K only had a small container of fruit as an option, which certainly wouldn’t have filled anyone for lunch.
Right then and there, I thought, “I wouldn’t like any of my children to go hungry if this happened to them, and I’d like to think that somebody would make the effort to help them out.”
So, I got up and said to one of the staff, “Okay. I’m going to see if I can find R on the off chance that she didn’t eat K’s sandwiches” …
Can you imagine my utter astonishment when I stepped through the kinder doorway, into the hallway, only to see the very sister who I set out to find!
R had come back inside quickly to get a ball (the students aren’t allowed back inside once they’ve gone outside!), and she was on her way out the door again – literally! Two seconds later and I wouldn’t have seen her!
I called out to R and asked if she’d eaten her sandwiches. She said, “No, Mum gave me K’s sandwiches and I don’t eat those ones!” Guess what I had in my hand? R’s sandwiches! We both smiled and laughed as we went back to her classroom where she gave me K’s sandwiches.
I returned to the kinder room with K’s sandwiches which I very happily handed to her. “Thank you, Kylie!”, K said with a huge smile on her face.
Not only was K obviously very happy that she had her lunch, I felt pleased with myself that I’d done something nice for her, something that nobody else apparently felt was worth doing.
Then I sat down and ate my own lunch, thinking about how different things would have turned out for K and R had that series of events NOT happened exactly as they had.
Now, going back to Carl Jung’s definition of synchronicity where the coincidences are meaningful ones (to those involved), in a seemingly random series of events, do you think that the “sandwich incident” was synchronicity in action, or mere coincidence?
I believe it was synchronicity, however, I’d like to hear your thoughts on this. Plus, if you would like to share any of your experiences with synchronicity (either in your business or personal life), then please do so below.
Oh, and one more thing … if you enjoyed this post, please leave me a comment and Tweet it, Digg it or Share it with your Facebook friends. Thanks!
Feeling Overwhelmed Happens to Everyone – Not Just You
Does any of this sound familiar?
You’re suffering from “information overload” and your brain “hurts”;
You’re overwhelmed at all the new information that keeps coming your way and you just can’t keep up with it all;
You don’t even know where to start with all this information coming at you;
You’re struggling to be able to make sense of this information and “take it all in”;
You feel like you’re treading water or worse, drowning;
You sit at your computer trying to work out what to do next and you can feel your eyes “glaze over”, your brain “switch off” and you just “zone out”;
You wonder what on earth you were thinking wanting to work from home online because it’s all just too hard …
Did any of that ring a few bells with you? I’m sure it did.
What was your score out of the 7 points above? Mine was 7/7 at one point!
Despite feeling every single one of those things though, I was determined that I could work my way through it all and become just as confident and capable of everything as what I thought everyone else was …
… and therein lay a big part of my problem:
I believed that everyone else was doing better than I was;
I believed that others would be looking at how “behind” I was and be judging me;
I believed that I would be “left behind”;
I believed that I wasn’t cut out for this after all.
The fact of the matter is, that it was my perception of the situation, not the reality.
As time went on, I found that there certainly were plenty of others struggling too (surprisingly, many of whom I thought “knew everything” or at least knew a lot more than I did!).
Ironically, I ended up helping a few of them and surprised myself in the process – I really had learned something after all! That was a very exciting time for me, as it gave me more confidence in myself which helped convince me that I really could “do this online thing” afterall!
About four months ago, I had the privilege of becoming a founding member of Jodie Thompson’s Profit Being You Community.
I joined the community with the expectation that I would be learning a lot of new information (I love learning new things ). Well, I’m very pleased to say that so far, I haven’t learned much at all!
“What?! That can’t be right”, I hear you say.
For the record, that is NOT a bad thing or a criticism of anyone at all. What I’m saying here is that I have learned so much from Jodie Thompson over the past couple of years and it really has sunk in! (Jodie was the first person who I met online that I had personal contact with – via skype - and as a result of that, she became my first online mentor – thanks Jodie )
From what Jodie has taught me, I’ve been able to work out lots of things on my own and where I couldn’t work it out, either Jodie has been able to help out, or I’ve at least had enough knowledge to know where to find what I was looking for, and how to interpret and use the information that I found. I’m rather chuffed about all that.
I’m so pleased that I persisted with learning what Jodie was teaching me, because now I’m able to teach others what I’ve learned, which is something that, only a couple of years ago, I didn’t believe I could do.
In fact, there was a time that I didn’t believe that I had anything to offer others – online, that is … I’m a mum first and foremost and a good one at that – however, I now know that I DO have a lot to offer (and believe me … that has taken a long time for me to honestly believe, let alone say to anyone else!), and I am loving helping so many others, sharing my knowledge and of course, learning more and more!
Now, getting back to the point of this blog post, I’ve been helping lots of people online for quite a while now, including helping out in the Profit Being You Community since it first started, and the thing that I say to everyone who is struggling and thinking that they are asking me “silly questions” (of which, of course, there are none) or being a nuisance (which nobody has been at all), is that …
None of us are born knowing these things. Every single little thing was brand new to each of us at some point in time.
Plus, we all have different experiences, different lives, different commitments and pressures … and at the end of the day, nobody is being left behind or should be feeling bad about themselves because they aren’t the same as everybody else (ironically, many are “in the same boat” as a lot of others, but they think that it’s only them! Haven’t we all been there?! … I have, that’s for sure!).
Where possible, make the changes you can and need to, to help get you where you want to be. And remember, it’s your life and they’re your shoes – you’re walking in them, nobody else is!
Remember that there are only so many hours in the day, and only so much one person can physically and mentally achieve in one day – don’t be so hard on yourself.
Find yourself a mentor if you don’t already have one.
So to sum this up: be kind to yourself and allow yourself the time that YOU need. It’s hard at times when you see others “achieving more” (and I use that term loosely) quicker than you are. But remember, it’s not that you can’t, it’s that your current situation isn’t conducive (supportive) to that happening right now.
Stay positive (and that does not include saying to yourself, “I’m positive that I can’t do this!”) and give yourself enough time to learn what you need to know in order to move on to learning the next thing. Focus on the things that you can do well (you can read my blog post on Focus here), and you’ll be amazed at how much easier it becomes once things “sink in” and make sense (and it will ).
For some, that will happen relatively quickly. For others, it will take longer.
Believe it or not, you’ll be teaching others how to do just what you’re struggling with right now, in less time than you think!
So don’t worry … it’s all good
Are You Focusing on What You Can’t Do, Rather Than What You Can?
I have a funny little story to share with you (that does have a point) …
Yesterday, my five year old son and I were at another person’s house when he found three balls (he loves balls!).
He came racing in to where I was with all three balls, very excited, and then he said to me, “Mum! Mum! I’ve found juggling balls!”.
“That’s good, mate”, I said (smiling and having a little chuckle to myself as to how excited he was about it).
Then he said, “Mum! Look what I can’t do!” (not a misprint) as he then proceeded to show me how he CAN’T juggle three balls at a time!
What a sight! Talk about funny!
My chuckle turned into a hearty laugh as I struggled not to laugh hysterically! (given that we were at someone else’s house plus I have a fairly embarrassing laugh when I get wound up!).
After my son had shown me what he couldn’t do, he then showed me what he could do.
He could “juggle” two balls at a time (throwing one up, swapping hands with the other, then catching the one falling down in the free hand), and he could “juggle” one ball (which was merely throwing the ball up with one hand and catching it with the other). He has excellent hand/eye coordination by the way
I could see how proud he was of himself for being able to do both of those things, and it got me thinking about how often we tend to focus on the things that we can’t do well (which often leads to feeling down about ourselves and then the procrastination cycle usually begins!), and in doing so, we tend to forget to focus on the things that we can do well (and often take for granted!).
The more positive experiences we have, the better we feel. Of course, there will always be negative experiences to be had by all (that’s life), but if you can keep things in a balanced perspective and focus more on the positive events rather than the negative ones, it will help you to deal with negative events when they come your way.
I’m not suggesting for one moment though that anyone “turn a blind eye” to the negative experiences they have. That doesn’t help anyone! What I am saying is: the more positive events you experience (and this often includes your perspective of the situation which is obviously going to be affected by previous experiences), the better you feel about yourself, and the better equipped you’ll be to deal with negative experiences as they arise.
Did this post get you thinking about where your focus is?
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Do You “Go The Extra Mile” For Others?
As far as I’m concerned, one of the best attributes of a person who provides great customer service is their willingness to “go the extra mile” for someone.
Monday 2 November 2009 8:00 pm
(soapbox time … )
Whatever happened to someone using their initiative?
Geez, I’m annoyed! (to say the least).
Today is Monday, and since last Thursday, I have had major trouble with my internet connection.
It keeps dropping in and out which is making things very frustrating for me. I have contacted the service provider and explained the problem, and the first lady I spoke with took me through some common troubleshooting steps to try and resolve the problem.
Unfortunately, the problem was not resolved, and she referred my call to another department for them to contact me. The lady was unable to give me a day, date or time that I would be contacted (which I do understand), however, she gave me the impression that I would be contacted in the next day or so … I’ve been waiting for someone to call me since then!
Growing more and more impatient at not having a connection, I contacted my service provider again on Friday to be told (by someone else) that a technician would be coming to my house on Tuesday and that they would be ringing me on Monday to organise a time that would be suitable for me. Yeah, right!
I queried this man as to whether this really would happen and he assured me that someone would definitely be coming to my house to fix the problem. To be totally honest, I didn’t believe that for a moment.
I know that sounds harsh, however, late last year I was without an internet connection for nearly 7 weeks, and it took countless phone calls every day to the service provider, speaking to countless different people, who literally all told me something different from one another (I still have the copious amount of notes that I made at the time to back this up), and then only after I contacted the Ombudsman’s Office, did the service provider very reluctantly send someone to my house!
That, plus the fact that Tuesday is Melbourne Cup Day here in Victoria, Australia and it’s a public holiday for most people
As I’m sure you can see, I have very good reason to not believe this man that someone would come to my house at this point in time.
So, from Thursday when I made that first phone call through to early Saturday night, I was without the internet at all. Early on Saturday night after resetting my modem for the umpteenth time, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the connection remained for longer than a few minutes!
It stayed this way for the next few hours and I thought that the problem had been fixed. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case at all, and since late afternoon on Sunday, I’ve had very intermittent service again.
This afternoon (Monday), I rang the service provider because I hadn’t heard from anyone (not that I really expected to though) and you’ll never guess what they told me …
Someone had rung on Saturday morning, only it happened that they’d rung the wrong number (this was noted on their file).
@#!!!**?%$#@!!!! (this was my head exploding with utter disgust, frustration and disbelief at the situation).
Why on earth didn’t that person bother to find the CORRECT number and ring that?! After all, they have access to my contact details … !! (my internet and phone accounts are combined).
And to think that I nearly rang them on Saturday night (thinking the problem was fixed) to tell them not to worry about contacting me because I felt that it was the right thing to do by them! How ironic …
So here I sit …
- totally frustrated that I cannot be on a webinar tonight that I would like to be on;
- utterly appalled that the person who rang didn’t make the effort to find the right number;
- annoyed in general that there are so many people out there who really don’t take the initiative to provide excellent customer service when it’s not that hard to do;
- waiting for someone to ring me on the correct number (which I’ve provided to two people since the “head exploding” phone call earlier); and
- … without any internet connection
Maybe I’m part of a dying breed of people who simply love to help others and DO go the extra mile to do so.
Maybe I’m being unrealistic and this person may have had better things to do with their time (I know I did! ).
Maybe, like or lump it, I’ve become addicted to the internet and just “can’t live without it”.
… possibly all of the above – hehe.
I am doing my best to not be frustrated about the situation. Afterall, it’s out of my control, so it’s a big waste of my energy being upset about it.
I’m venting my frustration by blogging about it, although you are only able to read this because the problem has been resolved (hopefully permanently, possibly only temporarily)
Have you had a similar experience to this regarding people ringing you back (or not, as the case may be)?
I am interested in hearing your thoughts about what you would have done in this situation if you were the one making the phone call to me. Would you have:
A: Decided that the attempt to contact me, despite ringing the wrong number, was good enough, or;
B: Used some initiative and reasoned that I would not have left a wrong number (I’m wanting help so obviously I would have provided the correct contact telephone number) and made the effort to find that telephone number and rung it.
I am interested in finding out what you think about this situation, so please leave me your reply below.
Plus, if you enjoyed this post, please consider tweeting it and telling others about it.
UPDATE - Monday 2 November 2009 11:00 pm:
A freaky thing happened not long after I finished typing out this blog post …
I was sitting here typing another post for my blog, hoping like mad that my connection would be back in time to attend a webinar that I wanted to be on. I had clicked on the appropriate link to take me to the webinar quite a while earlier, but it wasn’t able to do anything (obviously!).
After considerable time, I thought I’d have a quick look to see whether my connection was back yet or not, and funnily enough, only a few minutes before the webinar started, my connection was back and I was able to be on it for the entire time! (without any disruption to my connection either!).
Was it a coincidence, or not? I really don’t know the answer to that, however, what I do know is that the timing of my connection returning was positively freaky!
I won’t ring my service provider and cancel their call just yet though. I’m very curious to see whether anyone actually does ring me!
UPDATE – Monday 16 November 2009 5.00 pm:
Not surprisingly, I have not been contacted by my service provider regarding this particular issue.
Do You Make The Effort To Remember Names?
This seemingly minor detail can leave a lasting impression (both good and bad).
Today in the mail, amongst the junk mail, newspapers and some letters, I found an envelope addressed to my husband and I.
Straight up, it annoyed me that whoever sent this letter had spelled my husband’s first name incorrectly. I put that annoyance aside and opened the letter, only to find that the enclosed invitation had his name spelled wrongly on it too!
How annoying!
They had obviously gone to a lot of trouble to use good quality paper, coloured print, different fonts, and yet they managed to spell my husband’s name wrong! Plus, to add insult to injury, so to speak, the invitation was from someone who should have known better!
Even more annoying!
Call it petty if you like, but I have always believed that it is respectful to other people to spell their name correctly.
Of course we all make mistakes and obviously this person didn’t mean to spell my husband’s name incorrectly, however, they should have checked it before posting.
To further make my point, have you ever felt “extra special” when someone has personally addressed you, rather than using a one-size-fits-all greeting?
I have.
I can remember a few years back when I returned to a pharmacy that I hadn’t been to for a long time, and the girl who served me addressed me using my name. I was both surprised and flattered that she’d even remembered seeing me, let alone remembered my name!
I made a point of telling her that too, and I could see that she felt good because I’d acknowledged what a nice thing she’d done, plus I specifically told her that I appreciated it.
And what pharmacy do you think I continued to go to after that? That one or the one a few shops down the street?
That one, of course!
Not only did the girl make me feel appreciated on that particular day, I became a more regular customer from that point onwards. Plus the customer service from all staff members there was excellent, therefore, I had no reason to not give them my business.
Now, I also realise that some people aren’t very good with remembering names face-to-face, however, you should at least make the effort to find out the person’s name and do your best to remember it, especially if it is someone who you are likely to come into contact with again.
Imagine what a good impression you would make by remembering their name!
There are many ways that you can remember names, including writing it down as soon as you get the chance, or noticing something about the person that rhymes with their name and using that to help you (just make sure you don’t tell them that!).
As we all know, there are countless variations on the spelling of many names, and mistakes will always made be, however, I believe it is even more important to make the effort to correctly spell those names that are a little different to the norm. Trust me – it will make that person’s day
I recently met a lady who has a very unusual spelling of her name. Her name is a reasonably common one, however, I don’t think I could have guessed how to spell it in a million years!
I felt sorry for her. Obviously her parents liked the name (and still do, no doubt), however, I’m sure they didn’t realise how annoying it would be for their daughter to have to spell her name for everyone her entire life!
This lady is resigned to the fact that most people get her name wrong and accepts it spelled other ways, however, that shouldn’t be the case. I’m glad I made the effort that day to find out how to spell it her way because I could tell by her reaction that it really does matter to her (that and the fact that she told me she appreciated me asking!).
Imagine going through life having your name spelled the wrong way most of the time!
I’d hate that.
So to wrap this up, whether it’s in your personal life or business life, make the effort to spell peoples names the way they spell them. Their name is important to them and it can make all the difference when you make the effort to get it right.
When you appreciate and respect other people, most people appreciate and respect you in return.
Who knows where that could lead …
~ Message from Kylie ~
The More the Merrier …
Essential Tools for Your Business
