Making Money On Purpose!

At some time or another we all ask ourselves “am I doing what I was meant to do?”  We all have an inner sense of needing to leave a mark with our lives and I believe that our purpose and passion play a huge role in accomplishing that task.  For me, listening to God’s direction plays a big role in my purpose, but for others it may be entirely different.

I also believe that our purpose and passion change with each season of our lives.  For instance, twenty-five years ago I would have told you my purpose and indeed my passion, was to love, nurture and raise my two children.  It was truly the most rewarding part of my life, however, life did not end when that job did.

Today I will tell you that my purpose and passion really lies in helping other people reach their goals.  I also believe that what I have done in the past has prepared me for what I am doing today.

So when people ask me how they can know if they are fulfilling their purpose, I always help them look back at what has gone before.  This is, of course, not always true, but many of life’s experience do prepare us for our present journey.

So if you are sincerely looking for your purpose today, start with what you have been prepared to do. Perhaps you are just finishing college and are not sure which direction to go, look to what you have studied, does it align with some of your passions?  If yes, then pursue in that direction.  Look to things you have always found satisfaction doing, things that have always made you feel accomplished, these will all be part of your purpose and passion.

Perhaps you are in mid life and looking for a way to feel your purpose fulfilled.  Look back on those things that have made you feel alive and pursue something in those areas.

Aah, but can I make money at my purpose and passion?  Well the short answer is, some do and some don’t.  Those that do are fortunate and blessed, those that don’t, but love it anyway, may need to become tentmakers, that is, working by day to pay the bills and pursuing passions at night.

Whatever your situation, look for clues as to what makes your heart beat faster and begin to pursue those things.  Life truly is about the journey, but as with all journeys, the first step is up to you.  Put your shoes on and let’s getting moving.

Are You Working For Nothing?

Most of us feel as though we are working very hard these days but with very little return.  For some it is because you work for someone else and feel you are not being paid nearly what you are worth.  Chances are you are likely correct but the people I am talking to today are the business owners who provide a service or product they have not priced correctly.

That’s right, I work with a lot of clients who fail to price their wares well and then work very, very hard for their clients and find that on an hourly basis they are making much less than they imagined.

So how does this happen? Well, when we start our businesses, we often fail to do the research necessary to make sure we are pricing ourselves competitively.  Another problem is that we don’t think through our working process very well.  As an example; if I charge $100/hour for coaching and coach for one hour with no other responsibilities around that client than that one hour, then I am probably doing okay.  But, if for that one hour of work, I then have to go and do five hours of work to provide additional help for the client, then that $100/hr just turned into less than $20/hour.  It also reduced the amount of time I can spend with other clients.

Many consultants suffer from this problem.  They often fail to take into account all the background work necessary to do the job for their clients and therefore price themselves too low.

As you look at your business profitability, really consider carefully the whole picture so that when you are with your clients you help them and yourself.

Making the Most of Time!

Ever have one of those days where you feel like everyone lets you down and cancels appointments and completely messes up your tidy little plan for the day? Let’s face it, we all have that happen from time-to-time and it can be annoying, but it is what you do with the upset that makes all the difference.

So you can go “whoo who” and spend the day at the movies or reading a book or generally blowing the time OR you can get out your handy little task list and look for items that have been on that list for long time. You know those things that must be done, but are not urgent and don’t scream for your attention, until one day when they are hopelessly over due and you wonder why you didn’t get them done sooner.

I had one of those days today. I had a couple of clients cancel (for good reasons) and another appointment got rescheduled and there I was with actual time on my hands. So I decided to do something creative that needed to be done, but I had not gotten to it. I reworked my business cards and reordered them. I am going on holiday in a couple of weeks and I have been waiting to order cards so they would be here when I arrived home. But I wanted to make them look a little more creative, but, creative takes time and I just didn’t have a chunk of time to do it in. But today it was given to me like a gift. I love it! Another task to check off. It seems wrong that this should excite me so, but none-the-less it does.

Time can be your friend and ally or it can be your worst enemy. We are all given the same amount of it in a day, and if we make friends with it, time will serve us well. There are many things that we can choose to do with our alloted amount of time, and our success is determined by those choices. Choose wisely!

Staying Organized

So much of life depends on keeping our ducks in a row and staying on top of all the tasks and responsibilities that must be accomplished each day.  Ironically, in spite of all the technology that we have hanging off our belts and purses, we seem to be falling farther and farther behind in our jobs and personal lives.  So what is the problem?

The missing ingredient for most people is usually organization.  Most people do things as they come up and don’t take the time to plan each day, week and month.  Most folks are not sure what is coming up on any given day, even though they can be in control of their schedule.  They let life happen to them, instead of taking control of their time and tasks and planning how they will get accomplished.

To avoid this problem start by learning the art of planning.  Everyday at the end of the day, take a look at your schedule and decide what needs to be done tomorrow.  Take time to prioritize tasks, and schedule their completion between appointments.  Plan blocks of time to return calls and emails.  Take control of the day before it begins.  At the beginning of each week, schedule a planning time so that you can set appointments and conversations to suit your work load.

Planning is really the key to getting on top of our lives.  Even though we are writing appointments and task down, without planning, nothing is accomplished.  So if you really want to get more done and accomplish your goals, start taking planning seriously.

Clearing the Clutter in Your Mind

About nine months ago my husband and I moved from a house we had lived in almost fifteen years and even though we didn’t move far, we had a lot of accumulated “stuff” and it seemed like a lot of work.  I have been told that you can whittle down your belonging to the things that you really need by moving three times or having a fire. Since I was not interested in a fire, I thought I should judiciously make sure I didn’t take things along we didn’t need or use.  We managed to fit what was left in the new house, vowing of course, not to collect more “stuff” in the future.

I feel that way sometimes about my mind.  I often find it hard to focus on the important things in life because my mind gets cluttered with the messiness of daily living.  There are times when I would love to be more creative but my mind is filled “to do” lists, ideas yet to be developed, things to write, people to see, all kinds of things just float around in my head and make me kind of foggy and I can float through the days stepping over things in my mind that I can’t get to yet.

My answer to the problem is to do what I call a “mind dump”.  I will sit down in front of my computer and just write down everything I am thinking about.  All the ideas for articles, presentations and blogs, then the “to do’s” I never seem to add to my list, that list of names of people I want to visit with that keeps floating around in my mind with no particular place to land, the cards and notes I need to send and so on.  Then, if they are important enough, I incorporate them into my daily/weekly/monthly plan.

It feels great to have those things off my mind, even though they are not yet done, they are in the plan.  It is actually a little energizing.  This exercise can be done whenever you feel weighed down by your thoughts.  When you find yourself saying “oh I have to remember to…” that is a good time for a “mind dump”.

Make Friends With Time!

Have you ever thought about your relationship with time?  Many of us think about how much or how little time we have, but rarely do we think about time itself.  When I was speaking to a group of people recently I asked them how they thought about time.  The answers were interesting.  Some felt time was the enemy, they were getting older and not accomplishing much.  Others felt time was scarce, they had more obligations than time.  Others just felt they could not enjoy time because they just had too much to do.  Only one person felt at peace with time.

No matter how we view time it doesn’t change it.  We really can’t manage time, because we can’t control it.  Although I have often thought it would be nice to be able to stop time and just enjoy the moments before they slip away forever.

So how can we make friends with time?   Well you gotta have a plan!  Like money, we have to be able to plan how to spend it.  The people that have the best relationship with time are those folks that have disciplined themselves to budget their time to their advantage.  Like money, time is limited.  It may seem, especially if you are young that time is limitless, but believe me it runs out for all of us.  So the best way to make friends with a limited resource is planning how we will spend it.

Set some goals that will help you use your time in a fashion that provides you with something in return.  For instance, set a goal to accomplish something that you have been wanting to do for a long time.  Maybe it is enjoyable, maybe it is just a task you haven’t gotten done and must be done.  Plan on when you want to have the project finished, how many sessions it will take to finish and how long those sessions will be.  Then put it on your schedule.  Once you begin to get into the habit of accomplishing goals it becomes addictive.  Soon you will become excited about time and feel that it is an ally in making you better.

Making time your friend is really about discipline.  Realize that the time you have is the present, today.  Today you can choose to use time wisely or waste it, but remember you will never get it back, once you have used it, it is gone.  Yesterday is a memory and tomorrow is a dream, seize today and make friends with it, disciplining yourself to do exactly what you want to do.

We tend to regret the past and look forward to the future, so today is the day to start capturing dreams and making them reality.  How have you used today?  Was it your friend.