In the past 12 months I can honestly say I’ve achieved more than I did in the previous 12 years put together.
After the birth of my first daughter, Mollie, in 2006 I started my own business. I was going to rule the world.
Working when and where I wanted, around my family, I envisioned making amazing money and lunching with other, successful Supermums. I would build an empire that ran itself while I visited playbarns and Wacky Warehouses (OK, in hindsight, not exactly idyllic).
Except that’s not how it happens at all, is it?
10 years on I was frustrated as hell. I’d left a successful career to embark on that exciting adventure, only to find that this self-employment lark was actually really hard work.
At least, it was if we were actually going to be able to pay the bills.
I had zero time to myself, was stretching myself thinly around those that matter most to me, struggling to get clients (and taking anyone who’d have me, frankly), being paid a pittance, and still fielding sly remarks about my fees.
I felt resentful when I had to take time off to look after my girls (the very reason I was doing this) then guilty when I was working and not spending time with them and my husband, Karl.
I was constantly stressed, in huge amounts of debt, never had enough savings to pay my own tax bill at the end of the year, no matter how much I earned (where the hell does it all go?)…and I’m an accountant!
I genuinely BELIEVED something was going to happen to make things work out for us…eventually.
But Karl had even given me the nickname ‘Del Boy’, after a character from an old UK TV programme whose catchphrase was “This time next year Rodney, we’ll be millionaires…”
Because every year I’d say ” This is it, this is going to be my year. I can feel it in my bones.” But it never was.
But because I’d had so much experience in my own business – and helping others build theirs from scratch – I was being asked by my clients to help them grow their businesses.
And you know what? It turned out I was pretty good at helping them.
I’d done so much marketing training, been on so many business-building courses, read so many books over the years that I had far more knowledge on the subject than any of them ever would.
They listened intently to me, totally respected my advice (for a reason I never understood) – and they were really taking off!
I could help THEM – I just couldn’t get a grip on my own life or business! But in the past 12 months everything has changed.
I have already doubled my income on the previous year, I have multiple streams of income (I sometimes forget where they’re coming from)…
Using the programme I now deliver I have trained myself to eliminate stress and worry at the flick of a mind-switch and to build a winning self-image that means I live with faith and self-confidence (instead of doubt and fear).
I’m not telling you this to impress you – I just want to impress on you that if I can do it anyone can. Frankly, ’m amazed that I’m still working for myself and have finally – FINALLY – sussed out how to make it really work.
And I don’t think it had one jot to do with the tens of thousands of pounds I had spent on marketing training…
How To Create Facebook Ads, Google Ads, How To Speak From The Stage, Direct Marketing, Online Product Launches, Offline Product Launches, How To Create And Fill Online Courses…the list goes on.
What I actually needed to change was deep inside me – not the things I knew or didn’t know. The skills I had or didn’t have.
I only found this out when I found Bob Proctor – he’s one of the world’s leading experts on human potential and growth, and he’s now my own mentor.
I joined his Thinking Into Results programme and then decided I wanted to work with him to mentor others to achieve the results they want in life. So that’s what I do.
I am a consultant with the Proctor Gallagher Institute and it has changed my life.
Don’t make the same mistakes I did for over 10 years. Here are the 4
best ways to actually get what you really want in life (and the 3
worst!):
Know What You Want
You’ll only ever achieve what you really want in life if you know what that is. And most people really don’t.
I don’t mean what you ‘think you can probably do, be or have’, I mean what you actually want. What do you really wish your life could look like?
Allow yourself to dream a little and write down how you’d be living, in detail, if there were no limits and no restrictions.
You’ve got to be serious about this – you need a goal that really stirs you deep down. A goal that, when you imagine having achieved it, gives you butterflies.
As Napoleon Hill says, you must have “a definite purpose backed by burning desire for its fulfilment”
A Plan That You Put Into Action
It doesn’t have to be perfect and you don’t need to know that it will work.
This is important.
You will waste so much time, energy and money on trying to determine whether something is worthwhile or not before you even start.
Don’t get bogged down in endless spreadsheets and ‘what if’ scenarios – if you have an idea, a basic plan, go for it.
Just start with something. You can tweak it as you go and when you see what works and what doesn’t work.
Maxwell Maltz said “A step in the wrong direction is better than staying on the spot all our life.
Once you’re moving forward you can correct your course as you go. Your automatic guidance system cannot guide you when you’re standing still.”
Selective Hearing
You MUST become immune to outside forces of negativity.
Well-meaning friends and family WILL kill your dream with negative thoughts, feelings and suggestions if you let them.
You must develop the faith in your own ability and the self-confidence to completely ignore what they say.
Of course, this is far, far easier if you have a step-by-step system to follow and a community of like-minded, uplifting, encouraging individuals who are all working towards their own big goals – which is what Thinking Into Results provides.
Other people have absolutely no idea what you’re capable of (and neither do you, incidentally) so smile politely and make the decision to ‘file’ what the ‘nay-sayers’ (or Muggles as I like to call them!) are saying.
You don’t need their opinions or suggestions so don’t ask for them. this is about your life, what you want and your potential.
Don’t even tell them what your plans are – there’s absolutely no need unless they have to be involved, logistically. Show them through your results instead.
Mix With like-Minded People
Ask any successful person what helped them succeed, and they’ll impress on you the importance of having a person, or persons, who believed in them.
It could be a friend, family member, neighbour, employer…nowadays it’s more likely to be a coach, mentor or mastermind group.
Having someone who is positive, encouraging and who is working towards their own big goal…
Being able to talk to them, discuss ideas and let off steam with them, without fear of judgement or being told to “just go get a job” when things get tough, is huge.
If you don’t have friends or family who fall into this category, it is imperitive that you either form your own supportive network or join one.
And I don’t mean a networking group where everyone just wants to sell to you. I mean a group that will teach, nurture and support you through thick and thin.
For years to come.
The 3 Worst Ways To (Try To) Get What You Want In Life
Trying To Change Other People
Not gonna happen.
If you believe that your life would be better if you could just change ‘this’ about someone else, there’s a good chance the problem actually lies within you.
This is usually a serious case of negative self-image cropping up.
Think about what it is you want to change about the other person and then take a really good look at yourself.
Is it something about them that needs to change or is it something about you?
Our outside world is a reflection of what’s going on inside us – are you taking actions or saying things that cause others to react towards you in a negative way?
Is it a lack of your own self-confidence and faith that is keeping you in a situation you shouldn’t be in?
Is it something inside you that needs to change? Probably.
Carry out a detailed self-inventory of all the things you really like about yourself, and the things you’d change if you could.
Start to really take notice of when these things crop up and take action towards changing them.
Self-image (and improving it) plays a huge part in how you become the person you really want to become and how you change your results for the better – permanently.
Banking On Winning the Lottery
What are the odds of winning the lottery? Well, it depends which lottery, but in the UK you’re talking roughly 1 in 8 million.
1 in 8 million.
And what are the odds of being able to earn the money you really want with other sources of income?
A hell of a lot better, I can tell you.
Especially as most people tell me they ‘don’t want millions – just a few hundred thousand would do me’.
And if they genuinely focused instead (I mean gave it everything they’ve got), just for maybe 12 to 36 months on that goal themselves, you know there aren’t many people in this world who really wouldn’t be able to achieve that.
But instead, so many people spend money on a game of chance, wishing they could win instead of using the faculties we’ve ALL been given to actually make it happen for themselves.
Because a) they want a quick fix or b) they just don’t see how it would be possible to achive any other way.
That doesn’t mean it’s NOT possible – just that they’re not consciously aware of how to do it.
It’s a crying shame and it’s one that we’ve been conditioned towards.
Decide how much money you’d really, genuinely, need to live the lifestyle you really want to live.
You’ll be surprised how much less you need than you think.
Why not start to think of different ways you could make the money to achieve that goal in the next 3 years.
Multiple Sources of Income (what we call you MSIs) are crucial if you want to earn a serious amount of money in a relatively short period of time.
You’re no different to the people on this planet who have already done this – I don’t care who you are or where you’ve come from.
Create your own purpose and see what happens.
Hoping ‘Something’ Good Will Just Happen
Everything changes all the time. We live in an ocean of motion of energy and, according to the Law of Creation, if you’re not creating you must be disintegrating.
If you’re not growing you’re dying. So which are you doing? And are you happy about that?
“Most people tiptoe through life hoping to make it safely to death.” – Bob’s own mentor, Earl Nightingale said that and it is so true.
So many people live day-to-day hoping to get safely through till night time with nothing too stressful happening…then wake the next day to so the same again.
What exactly do you think is going to change?
The Law of Cause and Effect means you need to DO something to cause a change in your own life. Nothing ‘just happens’.
So what are you going to do?
The world is full of people who ‘let’ things happen to them and then complain about it.
They blame their parents, the government, their employer, their children…
This is your life. Yours. No-one is going to make it better for you, you have to do it yourself.
So start today. Commit to taking control of your future and making it the best it can be.
Our physical time on this planet is short. Make sure you’ve given everything when you leave.