“The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”

William Faulkner

As we approach the half-way mark of 2011, let me ask you a blunt question today, namely:

How well are you meeting or exceeding your goals set forth at the beginning of the year?

Is your business exactly where you projected it would be by early June? Or when you take an honest look at things, do you find that you’ve somehow veered off course and wandered painfully far from your desired destination?

If you resonate with the latter, try to put your inner perfectionist to rest and don’t get too upset over it. The road to success hardly ever runs in a straight line and these things happen frequently in business and life.

Take for example the first mission to the moon. Did you know that the spaceship was off course over 90% of the time en route? Yet despite all of these errors and problems along the way, we celebrate the fact that the spaceship landed precisely at the targeted destination, just at the right time. In fact, the need to course correct along the way to adjust for different variables was built into the flight plan.

The same can still hold true with your business. You can be woefully off course today and still make or exceed all of your expectations by December.

The key is making swift and honest course corrections now so you can get back on track tomorrow.

Course corrections don’t necessarily mean you have to scrap all of your plans for the year! In fact, you may find that the answer was as simple as making a few price adjustments or simplifying a process that was way more complicated than it needed to be. You just have to be flexible to identify what’s throwing you off and make tweaks accordingly.

Here are 3 key questions you can use to guide you to make any powerful and needed course corrections to ensure you have a brilliant and successful year:

1. What is Working Brilliantly? Take an honest assessment and figure out what IS working well in your business. What efforts are bringing in the most money? What brings the most referrals or repeat business? Once you identify what’s working, start to think about how you can build upon your existing strengths to duplicate these results.
2. What is Not Working So Brilliantly? It’s hard to admit that what we thought was a brilliant idea turned out to be a flop. It’s a blow to the ego and to the soul, especially when you’ve worked so hard to bring it to life. But to get back on track, you need to identify such things so you can either adjust your plan or scrap an approach that doesn’t seem to be working.
3. What Brilliant Course Corrections Will You Take Now? Now it’s time to make course corrections based on your honest evaluation. Where can you make an adjustment that gets you better leverage and better results? Perhaps it’s time to spruce up that sales copy or block time off to connect with former clients. Maybe you need to delegate some tasks so you can get the job done right and done with better speed. Or maybe you need to conduct more market research to determine what potential clients really want from you. Small, consistent course corrections along the way can get you back on track quickly so you can cross the finish line this year in flying colors!

STEP INTO YOUR BRILLIANCE

Block off 1 hour this week to do a mid-year review. Pull out the 2011 business goals you set as well as any New Year’s resolutions you made. Commit to being honest with yourself, not judgmental. As you review your plans, use the 3 questions set forth above. Once you’ve identified what needs to be corrected in your business, map out your new 6-month plan and take action.

© 2011 Carolyn B. Ellis All Rights Reserved

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The phenomenon of what I call “spiritual snacking” is a significant pitfall to the business owner or entrepreneur who wants to create a purpose-driven and profitable business. Believe me, I’m a huge believer in life-long learning and am committed to learning how to live a more conscious and aware life. Yet, as I shared in Spiritual Snacking, Part 1: How to Tell if You are a Spiritual Snacker, there can be some significant costs to indulging in the quest for information when it comes at the cost of taking action in your business.

If you feel you might be a spiritual snacker yourself, here are some tips I recommend to help you break-free and integrate your wisdom.

1. Think Critically
   Whether you’re in a seminar, listening to a teleclass or reading a book, it’s important to think critically as you absorb the information being presented to you. Ask yourself, “How can I apply this to my business and my life now?” Write down the inspirational hits you get as answers to this question on a separate page that will then become your “to do” list when you get back to your office.
2. Block off Time
   Give yourself some breathing room and block off time in your calendar so you can adopt new ideas or strategies into your business. Particularly if you have a support team working with you, plan time to train them and bring them into your new perspective and expectations.
3. Go On An Information Diet
   If your shelves are overflowing with vital, critical information you have yet to crack open and use, it’s probably time to go on an information diet. As one of my marketing mentors used to say, “Less information, more implementation.” Make the commitment to implement what you already have before you get any new resources.
4. Your Life IS Your Seminar
   Some spiritual snackers love the emotional high they get from a transformational seminar, feeling so energized and enlightened with other people. Coming back to regularly scheduled life can feel like lunch-bag let down. Old behaviors, beliefs and relationships that you temporarily forgot about while at the seminar are still with you when you get home.

Instead of signing up for the next seminar, make a shift in your perspective. As one of my spiritual mentors says, “Your life IS your seminar.” How you show up outside the seminar room is far more important in terms of your long-term success. Treat every day of your life as an opportunity for shifts, enlightenment and transformation. Lasting change and growth takes time, discipline and a commitment to making conscious choices. You don’t have to wait until the next great seminar to do that.

It’s a veritable smorgasbord out there for information-hungry, strategy-starved entrepreneurs. The Internet is practically bursting at the seams with information products offering all sorts of tools, gizmos and ways to connect your business to your customers. The guru circuit is busy offering ways to transform your life, your business – all in a single weekend.

Purpose-filled entrepreneurs also search for ways to accelerate and expand their spiritual growth, which can add a whole other layer of activity to their already busy calendar. How do I know about this, you ask? Well, I’ve done my fair share of seminar-hopping and spiritual snacking! It’s like going to an all-you-can-eat buffet and loading up your plate. Sure, you can eat all you want, but if you don’t take time to chew thoroughly you could end up with a bad case of indigestion.

Some signs that might be what I call “a spiritual snacker” include:

• Having unused information products in your home that still have the original wrapper on them
• Needing a bigger bookcase for all books, tapes, DVDs, and workbooks you’ve accumulated, only a fraction of which you’ve actually read or viewed
• Feeling discouraged and overburdened when you look at your information toolkit, instead of inspired and motivated to take action
• Getting a big “Aha” insight one moment, and then remembering that you actually had that same insight months earlier but haven’t done anything as a result of it yet

Finishing that great book or attending that rousing seminar and NOT taking time to integrate the information you picked up there is where we do ourselves a disservice. When you add ACTION to information, that’s when you gain experience and wisdom. After all, we learn best by doing – not just by reading books or attending seminars.

Are there costs to the “spiritual snacking” habit? Absolutely! Your focus and attention can be split in multiple directions. It feeds a tendency to look outside oneself for answers, instead of digging into your own wisdom and resourcefulness for answers. It can be costly, both in terms of dollars and hours spent. Spiritual snackers get more focused on finding their next helping of information instead of doing things that directly impact their bottom line, like marketing their services or creating new products.

In next week’s issue, I’ll share with you Spiritual Snacking, Part 2, where I’ll share some powerful tips with you so you can break-free from spiritual snacking and integrate your wisdom.

Fear, terror and contraction are part of the emotional landscape that every business owner has to travel. I was speaking to a client recently and she was completely in the grips of a panicky fear attack. “I’m starting this new program for my clients, and yet I’ve never been more scared in my life,” she said. “Maybe that’s a sign that I shouldn’t be doing it.”

Wrong.

If you are feeling called to try something new and different, and it’s scaring the daylights out of you, I think you should congratulate yourself instead!

In my view, fear is a healthy signal that you are stretching out into new territory and out of your comfort zone. It means you are reaching down inside yourself to find the resources, wisdom and conviction that you will need to successfully deliver that new program or product.

Somewhere along the line we got the idea that, if we felt fear, it was a bad thing and a signal to stop in our tracks. Of course, we’re designed to have fear get triggered when our sense of safety is threatened. But many of the choices business owners face aren’t a threat to anyone’s physical health and well-being. Making a decision that scares us and not having it turn out the way we wanted may challenge our confidence level, our return on investment of time and money, or the ego’s concept of who we are, but typically nobody’s life is in danger.

Deciding to back away from your growth because it feels scary and uncomfortable is a mistake. And the bad news is, the next time you face something that makes you feel afraid, it will be even tougher to break through the “terror barrier” and get to the other side. Here are some quick tips to help you reframe fear:

1. I like to say that FEAR is simply “Feeling Expansion And Resisting.” Nothing more. You’re feeling a stretch, you need to grow into it and then you will move past it.
2. Remind yourself of why you had the inspiration to make this scary decision in the first place. How will your life be different? What kind of impact will you have on your clients, your family and the world if you keep on saying “Yes!” to yourself and your decisions?
3. Tune in to your inner wisdom and ask if there’s anything you need to know or resource you need to get in order to help you through. If your fear is kicking up, it could be a sign that there’s something you’ve overlooked. If you feel like you’ve got everything you need in order to move ahead, just take a deep breath and take the leap.

Have you ever encountered the kind of person to whom you are immediately drawn like a magnet, even though that person is a complete stranger?   You have probably said to yourself, “I don’t know what they have, but I want to find out more about them.”

That person exudes personal confidence, and who wouldn’t want a piece of that?

How do you harness that energy?  Does it just come naturally for some people, or is it a learned behavior?  Well, I think it’s both.  It is definitely possible to make that internal connection that is attractive and intriguing to your prospective clients.  It is possible to get to a place where you’re no longer selling…you’re attracting new clients.

With the Six-Step Mastery Program process that I’ve created, you will have your emotional housekeeping done so you’re not being held back by any limiting beliefs or plaguing thoughts from your inner critic.

Isn’t that great? What an exciting place to be!