Is this you? Do you see roadblocks at every turn? Or you create the roadblocks sometimes with your own mind?
You know there are things that would help your business but you talk yourself out of it?
You create obstacles or excuses to make yourself feel better about why you aren’t doing it?
You even talk to others that are struggling just to make you feel better or justified?
Yep. I’ve done all of the above. And guess what. It just prolongs the possibilities of what COULD happen!!
So let’s talk about this.
😎Why do you talk yourself out of it? Do you fear that others may judge you? You may look silly? You may make a mistake? Guess what! That’s being authentic! Allow yourself to learn and grow. Allow yourself to make mistakes and even look silly once in a while. You are growing!
😎You make excuses. We are all good at making excuses. And I can present myself with some darn good ones too! That even I believe! But we can’t deceive our gut instincts. We can’t hide using excuses forever.
😎How about talking to someone else that you know struggles too? It feels good to have back up! Right? NO. It may feel good for a minute, but we aren’t doing anyone any favors that way. How about switching that around and encouraging the other person to jump in with you and go for it.
If you were to actually step aside and get out of her head and out of your own way, think of the things you could accomplish!
Just remember, you are only hurting yourself when you get in your own way. And remember, if someone is going to make fun or laugh at you for making a mistake, that’s on them. Unless they are helping you pay your bills, their input is not valid. Am I right?
So make today the day you go for it! Get out of your own way!! And then tell me all about it so I can cheer you on!
Today I am feeling grateful and happy! I’m sharing my story in hopes that if you are feeling in a rut or complacent, that you find your happy! Without changing careers or doing anything drastic, we can all find our happy!
My story begins…
Prior to my current job as a Pink Zebra Consultant, I was in a career that had me working 50-60 hours minimum each week. I had to fit my PZ business in where and when I had the time for it. I actually MADE the time for it in evenings, weekends and lunch breaks. My goal quickly became to be able to quit that hotel career.
Then in 2016 I got to a place within my PZ Business that my goal and dream came true! I was able to leave my hotel sales career and focus 100% on PZ!! How amazing is that?!
Benefits of my Direct Sales Business
I’ve shared over and over again how much I love what I do. I love the benefits, the freedom, the ways it has pushed me out of my comfort zone.
Instead of recapping, simply click here to read more about the benefits of Direct Sales that I talk about in one of my recent blogs.
Confidence grows
One of the things that no one really talks about is that once you begin your own business, you begin to see several things. A few of them are listed here:
If you aren’t already, you become self motivated.
You begin to manage your days to be more productive.
Stepping out of your comfort zone happens more and more without even really thinking about it.
Creativity creeps in because you look for new and innovative ways to do things.
Overall confidence grows as you begin to succeed in things you didn’t realize you could do before!
Dreams become bigger and bigger.
The ability to give back and to perhaps be an inspiration grows.
What’s next?
After doing only Pink Zebra for the last five years, I have done so many things. My days are super organized. I’ve managed to carve out time for ME, as well as time for my family each week too. This took some time to get to where I am, but I’m SO grateful I put in the work!
All of the sudden as I wrote out my dreams and goals earlier this year, I realized that I was in a great position to do something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. And because I AM highly motivated, and I DO have my business rocking along at a great pace, I decided to make that goal a reality!
Don’t get me wrong!
Before I dive in to what I’m doing I have to say…please do not get me wrong. I don’t recommend making goals that will take away from your business. And especially not a goal that will interfere.
I’ve seen people time and time again think that having more than one DS company is a good idea, only to find that it’s hard to manage. The hardest part is really that our customers are completely confused and not sure exactly what we are doing or how to support us.
BUT, I’ve seen people be real estate agents, teachers, open their own hair salon, and even be professional photographers, all while working their one direct sales business. Most of the time these can compliment one another!
MY story now…
So now that I’ve led you to it, let me tell you why I’m writing this! Last Friday, my BFF’s daughter and I started our own little online clothing boutique. We totally love fashion and have always bought a ton of it, wishing we could roll our favorite places in to one place to shop.
AND, I have a handful of friends that either have a boutique or a brick-and-mortar shop and they love it. So we wanted in!
They compliment one another
The cool thing about this is that my two businesses compliment one another. I LOVE home fragrance and home decor. I also love fashion. (Decor for our bodies, right?!) So, Nicole and I opened Bella Moods Boutique last Friday. It’s all online, so being able to do both will be fantastic.
I love to be busy (especially when it’s FUN), and I love to be of service, so I’m excited to do this!
Not to mention it will put me in front of even more people, which will give me a chance to meet others that I can also introduce my PZ business to!
Here’s another bonus I’ve realized
One of the best bonuses I’ve found is that when we are excited about something, things fall together better in all areas. Since we get to shop for our clothing that we bring to our customers, it’s FUN for us. (Like I said, I love to shop for clothes). And we hope to offer more value by helping people feel as beautiful as they truly are!
With PZ I have a big team and get to work hand in hand with some amazing people that I would not get to otherwise! We get to do so many fun things with a direct sales business!
So I’m having even more fun. And when I’m having fun and am happy, I’m more creative. And when I’m more creative, I’m better at what I am working on.
Makes sense?
See what I mean? We’ve been working on buying and getting the website up and running, along with determining packaging, etc…but at the same time, I had the best PZ month that I’ve had in a while! Why? Because I was feeling motivated, happy, creative, and ready to rock!
Funny how that works!
Back to your dream
So the point of my blog is this…build your business. As your business grows, dream bigger and bigger. If you see an opportunity or even find a fun hobby that you will enjoy, (and it won’t distract from your main business!) then go for it! Watch how it impacts your business in a positive way!
Keep your creativity going! Do things that bring happiness to your day so that you’ll make the most of what you are doing, and you’ll bring your happiness to others!
Do you compare yourself with others? I just had this conversation early this morning with someone, and thought it was worthy of repeating!
It’s hard
We always say not to compare because we are all on a different journey and don’t have the same timing, etc, but this is harder than it sounds. How often do you find yourself wondering why you haven’t hit that goal that Susie has? Or your sales aren’t as good as hers?
We are human, and that is just a normal reaction.
So what can we do?
Here’s what I do. Maybe this will help you as well. When I start finding myself comparing myself to someone else, I stop and ask myself this question…where was I last year? Am I still in the same place? Or did I grow?
Compare yourself to YOU
If we can stay focused on ourselves and how much we have grown or accomplished, then we are in the right place. If we want to do better, then our goal should be to improve ourselves. Not try to be like someone else, but to be a better version of ourselves.
Just this morning
In a conversation this morning, I asked the person where they were just a year ago. We then started listing off all of the areas they have seen good things happen and all of the improvements they have implemented in their life.
Suddenly the conversation went to a completely different place! They were saying things like “Wow. I’ve come a long way!” “I didn’t even think about that!”
It’s easy to get caught up in what we don’t have instead of looking at all that we do have.
One simple word…GRATITUDE
I actually have a sign in my office that says “gratitude changes everything”. This is so true. When we stop comparing ourselves to others and think about our own growth over a period of time, we become grateful. When we are grateful, our hearts are happier. When our hearts are happier, we accomplish even more AND we never know who is being inspired.
My own situation
I always like to share a little piece of me when I share things like this, so that you see I’m living and breathing what I’m writing.
Recently I was beating myself up because we have some BIG sellers in our company, and I’m not in that top group. I felt like as a leader, I should be doing those kinds of numbers.
When I take my own advice, I realize that I’ve done better than last year by a bit, but even more importantly, I think about where I was 10 years ago.
10 years ago I had a corporate job working 50-60 hours a week, including some nights and weekends. I made much less than I do now, and worked for someone else. I enjoyed my job, but I was definitely not my own boss.
Today I have my own business, I still work a lot of hours, but it’s on MY terms and my schedule. I definitely make more money, and I earn extras (like incentive trips, jewelry, etc). I can work from anywhere AND I get to be of service to others.
Oh, and did I mention…this freedom makes me HAPPY. 🙂
So compare yourself to YOU
When you find yourself going down that path, stop and ask yourself where you were a year ago. Or ten years ago. If you aren’t where you want to be, then adjust your goals and work toward them. But do it based on YOU and YOUR goals. Not someone else’s.
What you can accomplish when you have the right mindset, and some determination (with no excuses), is incredible.
Several have asked me about the weight loss journey I started Fall of last year. First, let me say that I had tried to take on weight loss MANY times before, so I’m most inclined to share what I believe was the real difference.
Getting started
Like I mentioned, I’ve tried just about everything under the sun to lose weight over the years. If there is a fad diet out there, I I have probably tried it. Now in my 50’s, I had basically given up on the idea of losing weight. I had decided that I was going to just love this size I was now in and stop obsessing over it. I wasn’t happy about it, but I’d decided to give up on weight loss.
Each time I got involved in a ‘plan’, I may lose 2-5, maybe even 10 pounds, but I did not stick to them and always gained that weight (and then some) back! Can anyone relate?
Focus on health
So instead, I decided to focus on my overall health and “feeling” better. Women tend to hit a time in life where everything can feel out of whack. (I suppose men do that too, but I’m speaking to the women on this one). I had tried hormone pellets, lots of vitamins, and anything else my doctor told me might help me feel better. Instead of feeling better, I felt like things were getting more disrupted!
A friend of mine told me about an ND that she saw and loved. She studied the eyes. It’s called Iridology. I had never heard of it, so thought I’d make an appointment!
I’m SO glad I did. She took one look at my eyes and told me I had a dairy allergy for starters, and needed to cut all dairy. Truth is, I didn’t even realize how much dairy I had each day.
Since I wasn’t eating cheese all the time, I didn’t think I had to make a lot of changes. But then as my day went on, I realized so many of the things I was eating contained dairy! My creamer in my coffee, my cottage cheese I had with fruit at breakfast, my yogurt at lunch, and so on. Since it wasn’t cheese or milk, I didn’t even consider that as dairy. Wrong!
Hormones
One of the biggest things that cutting dairy did for me was help balance out my hormones! I had horrible female challenges for the last two years and just figured it was part of menopause and aging. Until I cut out the dairy! Suddenly my hormones were not an issue any longer!
I still can’t believe it sometimes. That a food allergy could cause such havoc in the body. But my ND explained it all to me and the lightbulb came on. If you’d like to learn more about my ND or Iridology, I’m happy to share her info. She is local to my area, but perhaps her website could be helpful.
As I started feeling better
One of the other things my Iridologist told me was that I needed to cut back on the sugar intake! I didn’t love that idea at first, because there is sugar in just about everything! BUT, I decided to at least do it a little.
Truth is, I can talk myself out of lots of things. Or in to. So when my husband wants ice cream after dinner, I easily gave myself permission to have some too. Even knowing the sugar wasn’t helping me.
I remember hitting a point where I was feeling much better ‘mentally’…cutting out dairy seemed to be the winner here! I just needed to buckle down and eat better over all. Maybe, just maybe, I could actually drop a couple of pounds now. I just needed to figure out the best plan of attack.
I even remembered some things a coach had taught me earlier in the year about the “plate” and the things to eat on it. I knew a few things for sure, but was needing something more.
Perfect timing!
It’s always amazing to me that when you are ready, and I mean really ready, the right things come in to play. A wonderful lady I had known for several years and I ran in to each other at a get together and she was sharing with me that she was working nearby as a weight loss coach. Seriously…Perfect timing!! We set up a time and I went in to talk to her.
She shared the plan with me, and asked if I was REALLY ready. She said that I have to be ready and want this, because she can’t just want it for me. I assured her I was all in!!
You have to be ready!
All the programs in the world won’t help if you are not ready to focus. I was determined to do everything I needed to do to make this work. My mindset was ready!
The reason it works!
In this particular program, it’s great because you eat real food. No packaged meals, which to me, teaches us more about what we can eat as well as things we should avoid. The other thing I really like about this plan is that you get specific amounts of food each day. So it’s not left to guesswork. When she says you can have fruit, she gives a specific list of the good fruits you can choose from, and the amount you can consume.
Like I said, no guesswork. There is a list of exactly the things you can eat on a given day, as well as the things you want to avoid eating together. There are certain things that have more sugar than others, etc., that I never realized before.
BUT…truly, the most important part of this plan is the encouragement and accountability Kathy gives. Kathy stays very connected to me and gives me the encouragement I need constantly.
As with anything, there are times that you may be traveling or in a situation where you are a little worried about your food options. Kathy always talks me through it and builds up my confidence as I am going in to a situation. Truly the cheerleader I need to keep me on track!!
Kathy actually makes me feel like I’m more important than just being one of her clients. Everyone that I know that goes to her would say the same thing. She is SO good at what she does, which makes this process so doable! She has a real gift.
You don’t have to be local!
The cool thing too is when I did have to travel, I could just text her. She actually has a lot of people that work with her now that are out of state! It’s fun when you get to be here and can see her in person, but she makes it so easy where ever you are! FaceTime, texting, calling…there’s no excuse!
Hard work has paid off!
So here I am, nine months later, and so happy. I have dropped from an XL to a S in tops. From a 14 to a 7 in jeans. My knees and back don’t ache anymore! Exercise actually feels good instead of hurts. lol
Please know…I do not share this to brag (though I will admit I am proud of myself!)…I share this to say that if I can do it, you can too. I share it in hopes that it may encourage someone that has been thinking about it.
If you need some help like I did, Kathy is fantastic! As I mentioned early on, I actually tried ‘eating right’ many times, and even though I may have lost a few pounds in the first couple of days of trying, I never stuck to it. I needed Kathy’s encouragement and accountability.
Back to mindset!
But back to mindset…you have to decide that you are ready and determined. You have to be willing to make a few sacrifices for the time being, and you need a great accountability partner that will keep you focused and on track. And drop the excuses! Excuses just make us feel a little better temporarily, but do nothing for us in the long run. It took me a while to figure that out, but now when I hear myself start to make an excuse, I catch myself and say NOPE! Not doing that!
Actually, this can relate to just about everything, don’t you think?! It definitely related to my weight loss journey!
Shoot me a message!
If you’d like to learn more about Kathy, send me a private message. I have her contact info, but prefer not to make it public here since it’s her cell phone. By the way…I’m not a paid spokesperson! I am just so happy with the results that I want to share with anyone who can relate to my journey and could use a little help!
What ever journey you are on, I wish you the best! And share with me! I love hearing from you all!!
XOXO
2019 on the left. Last weekend (2021) on the right.
How often do you do a refresh? Whether on a room, or a part of your business, or just on your general outlook of life…I love a good refresh! To get inspired again!
When you are just ‘stuck’
Do you ever feel completely stuck or just blah about something? Maybe it’s like us recently. For SO long we would walk in to our kitchen and just be thinking YUK.
We went from some days wanting to just move because we hated our kitchen, to other days just not being sure what would help fix this blah feeling we had about it.
Consider your options
What ever area you are stuck in, the one thing you can do is consider your options. Is it something a little paint could fix? Metaphorically or not, sometimes it’s just a little fix you need to get you feeling great about that particular thing again.
Using our kitchen as the example here, it took us quite some time to figure out what we could do to make us feel differently about this space that just wasn’t pleasing in our lives. We thought about all of the options. One thing I have learned is when you are thinking about options, don’t hinder yourself right off the bat. Don’t think about the challenges, just the possibilities.
From there…
Once you consider all of the possibilities, then you can sit down and think about the challenges faced with the possibilities you really love. When it came to our kitchen, we had a list of the things we would love to do. We had some really big ideas. We also had a tight budget. But we first thought outside the box and considered everything!
Then we started going through them and considered what the exact challenges would be. Often times the challenges are financial (like ours!), and that’s ok! You want to stay on track there so you don’t end up in a financial hard place.
Make the decision and DO IT
After careful consideration of the things we wanted to do and then the challenges we needed to overcome, we actually realized it could be as easy as a coat of paint!! And we knew how to paint, so this was something very feasible! Not a big expense, and something we could take on!
So we just got started! We had a weekend of rain coming, so my husband got the supplies to get everything covered up from the painting, and on Saturday morning we got started!!! Sometimes the hardest part is getting started. So just START!
The outcome!
This is the best part. During the painting, I will admit a few times that I wondered if we bitten off more than we could chew, but we kept going. Once it was done and cleaned up, it felt NEW! And fresh!
It’s been nearly two weeks now and I LOVE my kitchen again. I enjoy being in there. Just because of some paint!
Just for fun…here is a before and after of one side of the kitchen.
Who doesn’t love the feel of a new space? I know I love it!I’m loving what just a coat of paint can do to a space! And my mindset!
It got me to thinking!
After we finished, I sat back and realized that this adjustment can apply to a lot of things in life! When I’ve been ‘stuck’ in my business, if I make a slight shift or focus on something new to do to get me excited again, it makes a huge difference! Especially in my mindset!
And really, our mindset is everything.
What can you adjust?
So what area of your life are you feeling stuck? Maybe unsatisfied? What can you do to refresh and make a slight change?! I’d love to hear from you! Let me know what you are going to work on to refresh an area of your life!!
You know there are things that would help your business but you talk yourself out of it?
