Is Your Desk Ready for Success

Whether you run your own business or run your household, we all want to be successful, right?  Did you know that making your space more functional and clutter-free can open you up to all sorts of opportunities?  And you thought getting clutter-free was just about tossing things!

Today we are going to Feng Shui your desk.  Many years ago, I read a lot about Feng Shui and actually used it in our home.  My goal then was for peace and love to fill our home.  It wasn’t long before hubby came into our lives “out of no where”.  Coincidence, maybe?  God’s timing? Definitely.  But I was also open to the possibilities.

Feng Shui is a practical science for our living space.  I believe that when we apply the principals of Feng Shui to our space, it also changes our mind set.  The whole Law of Attraction starts to work.  The idea is that you energize your business and your life by cleaning out and moving things around a bit.

Here are some tips from Jenn Aubert of LearnSavvy

It all starts with a Feng Shui map called the bagua.  You overlay it in any area in your home to help promote supportive and beneficial energy.  Here is the basic bagua:

Sit down at your desk and place this right in front of you… where the career is nearest your lap.

WEALTH & PROSPERITY:

To invite more abundance and wealth into your life, place a healthy plant or a symbol of wealth in this corner. Plants symbolize growth. Find a plant with lovely rounded edges or even a money tree (yes, there is such a thing). You can also place objects or images that represent wealth to you or something that you hope to afford once you’re abundant. Have some fun with it   Location: Upper left

FAME & REPUTATION

Boost your reputation by focusing your accomplishments here. Add a name plate, awards, credentials or a recent positive review. This is also the perfect place for a lamp or candle! Location: Upper middle

PARTNERSHIP

Place a picture of your business partner or a photo of your honey in this corner to help promote those relationships.  It’s the ideal location for a lovely vase of fresh pink/red flowers.  Location: Upper right

FAMILY & NEW BEGINNINGS

Keep pictures of your family here to boost your familial ties. It’s also a wonderful place to promote new projects you may be working on or want to work on. Add something made of wood or the color green to enhance and promote new beginnings.  Location: Center left

HEALTH

This is not only for the health of your business but also personal health. Keep it clutter free and tidy! It’s easy to have piles of stuff in the middle of your desk but it needs to be as clean as possible! You can add earth elements to enhance including rocks, stones or earthen items.  Location: Center middle

CREATIVITY

Boost your creativity by placing items here that inspire you. Keep your notebook or journal here to capture those aha moments. Boost the area with items made from metal such as gold, silver or copper.  Location: Center right

KNOWLEDGE & SELF-CULTIVATION

Are you ready to learn a new strategy or simply increase your knowledge? Are you looking to improve your mindset and boost your self-confidence. Keep your favorite books here that you refer to often. Location: Bottom left

CAREER & LIFE’S JOURNEY

Front and center! This is the perfect place for your computer. To further enhance your career have an image of water as your screensaver to boost abundance of opportunities.  Location: Bottom center  YEAH!  I got one out of 9!

HELPFUL PEOPLE

Keep your appointment book, calendar, client files, phone and list of people you want to connect with here. Location: Bottom right  YEAH!!! #2 out of 9!!!

You are thinking – I thought my desk would be clutter-free!  These items don’t have to be large. Believe it or not they are probably already on your desk.  Just moving them to  a different place can boost the energy of your business.  I challenge you to try this for 30 days and then let me know what happens.

Have a ThirtyOne-derful day!

Throwback Thursday

  

Throwback Thursday,,,,,

WOW!  Thirty One had lots of different gifts in the early years.  The picture of Cindy Monroe and I was taken at my Celebrate and Connect as a NEW Director with Thirty One.  It was actually Spring Premiere in Pennsylvania.  That picture was quickly taken before the flood gates opened and I was overwhelmed by emotion.  Cindy was wonderful despite the tears rolling down my cheeks.

I had flashbacks – the good kind – while cleaning off the shelves in my office.  I was running out of room with lots of binders full of training information from the last 3 years.  WOW!  You know those binders you create when you are training but then never really look at again.

It was great reminiscing and seeing how far I have come in my journey with Thirty One.  There was even notes from that “life changing” coaching call with Hope Shortt when I connected with my emotional why to promote to Director.  I was a sponge back then.  Reading everything that I could get my hands on.  When did I find the time?  I stuck to the basics (book, sell, recruit) knowing that in the end God would provide.  

I found my first DISC profile when I didn’t even understand what the results meant personally or to my business.  I was an “S” then and I am still an “S”.  I guess that never changes which is okay with me.  I LOVE being family-oriented, loyal and easy going.

I found my CORE value top 5 which are the same today as they were then: Family, Faith, Health, Charity, Finances.  What are YOUR core values?

I found my Gift Assessment which I did in March of 2013.  My Primary Gifts were: Culture and Help.  Reading over the explanations of these gifts, I was reminded of how I grew my business.  I was able to create a culturally diverse team by attracting a wide range of people with different ethnic and religious backgrounds.  My strong desire to help other people achieve their goals and dreams has lead to consistency from 95% of my team.  My secondary gift was Connection which is all about building relationships.  A gentle reminder that when I am true to myself, relationships develop and my business will flourish.

My favorite is the Love Language Profile.  My primary love language is “words of affirmation”.  I was skeptical about this test but once I did it, I totally understood why “kind, encouraging and positive words” sent my spirits skyward.  If you haven’t done this, check it out and then share the results with your spouse and even your boss.

What did this trip down memory lane teach me?  First, doing training and then letting it sit on the shelf doesn’t help but I think that one was a no brainer.  The real lesson is to take the skills learned and incorporate them in my business.  Knowing my core values along with my gifts and my personality assessment will help me to stay focused and grounded in the things that are important to me.  When I do that, my business will soar.

I challenge you to do any of these “tests” and see what you learn.

Have a ThirtyOne-derful day!

Will You Ask for Help

Today is the first “official” day of the Beacon of Hope Leadership Retreat and I am sure it will be a roller coaster of emotion for me.  How do I know?  Because we are going to be working on our vision and tying it to our emotional why.  YIKES!

For those who know me, they will probably agree that asking for help is not one of my strong points.  I will readily admit my weaknesses but I always feel like I am “bothering someone” when I ask for help.  I remember watching my dad build and fix everything when I was growing.  Mom never asked for help either – even when my parents divorced and things were tough.

I leaped into my first business “Special Tots”, handmade premature baby clothes with both feet.  I struggled because I had no real business sense.  I was a crafter who loved making the clothes and helping parents of prematures – long before there was a market like this.  I ended up closing that business because I was not ready for the next growth spurt AND I didn’t ask for help.

When Belinda arrived on the scene, I was a single mom working full-time and in the midst of my addiction.  Did I ask for help?  NO!  Family offered and in only extreme cases I did ask or should I say “drop subtle hints” for help.  I often felt alone and very unprepared for this season of my life.

Then came recovery from my addiction.  WOW!  If that wasn’t a wake-up call.  I needed to ask for AND accept help.  Although people were willing to help, on the outside I was gracious but on the inside, I was a mess.  I felt like I was a burden, inconveniencing people, whining and so unworthy of any praise for accomplishments along the way.

There’s a world of wisdom, open hearts, caring arms, and gentle smiles just waiting for an opportunity to give in some way. (Matthew 5:16)

How I wish I could have realized this truth sooner. How many tears I could have saved and how much stress I could have relieved myself from! Satan wants us to believe the lie that no matter what our “need” is, we are a bother to someone or an inconvenience. 

Whenever I hear that lie being whispered in my ear, I think of the people that I know who would drop anything and come running to help or encourage me.  I freely give the gift of me to others but when it comes to receiving, I definitely struggle.

So, as I seek my emotional why today and visual my goal; I will ask for help.  I will not believe Satan’s lie that I am a bother, a complainer or unworthy.  I will receive the gift of someone’s help so that they can feel the same blessings that I feel when I give to someone else.

All of this was on my heart as I prepare for today and I hope that it has touched someone who is struggling.  Struggling with asking for help whether it is in your personal life or your business.

We all fall short and sometimes it is not easy to admit that we need help. That we need someone to pull us out of a deep abyss.   If you are one in need, ask for help, trust me – someone is just waiting to be asked.

 

 

What is Your Anointing?

Good Morning.  I have been wanting to figure out what my anointing is but first I wanted to really needed to understand what the word meant. By definition it “is a gift that functions easily when it is operating in you to benefit others and the Kingdom of God. If one has to “work it up” one has probably gone outside one’s anointing“.

As I stopped to reflect and recharge this morning, I started wondering what my anointing really was and did I have one?  Honestly, this is not where I am looking for accolades not am  I sitting on a “pity pot” saying “woo is me”.  I really am not sure what it is.  My lack of personal confidence, an occasional lack of of faith combined with my blossoming growth as a professional in direct sales, often leaves me wondering what are my talents/anointing.  What gifts have I been given by God?

I have taken the Natural Gift Assessment by Lyndsey Baigent but is that the same thing?  According to this test my gifts are Culture and Help.  Simply put I find it easy to move freely in different cultures, feel fulfilled in sharing a variety of different cultural experiences as well as helping others to achieve their goals and dreams.  I guess my biggest PROBLEM is my lack of faith in my abilities.  When I get out of the way of myself, these natural gifts take over.  I don’t know about you but I over analyze things, want to look deeper into things.  Truth is I just need to trust and believe in God and the work that he is doing in my life.   As I look back on my life, the winding road through my addiction and subsequent work in social services brought me here.  Before my addiction, I am not sure if I would have found my gifts to be the same things.  From a very negative time in my life, God was able to put me on a different path that allows me to share my anointing with others.

“As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and  as that anointing is real, not counterfeit – just as it has taught you, remain in him” (1 John 2:27).

Where do you move naturally in your life? What do you do that you don’t have to work at it? Chances are that is your anointing. God wants you to walk in the anointing he has given to you.

Have a ThirtyOne-derful day!