Network marketing companies are going to dig your grave… unless you know what to look for before you choose one.

There are thousands of network marketing companies out there, and so many of them never make it big and are quickly forgotten. This will be your fate if you choose the wrong network marketing company.

Or maybe, it’s not even the network marketing company that matters…

Visit http://www.GarfieldHerriot.com/free to get my FREE 7 day Mastermind Marketing Bootcamp (a $97 value) which will show you the exact blueprint that industry top earners are using to make a 6 figure, even 7 figure income, with network marketing and their computer…

Network Marketing Internet Basics are brutally overlooked.  That’s okay, people just don’t know any better, I didn’t know any better either when I started in the industry….how could we?

This video will get you or someone you know off to a rockin’ good start.

And always remember, this is just MY opinion and I can only come from my own experience.  Of course I only make 5 figure incomes in one week in network marketing….so what would I know, eh?

Last time, we talked about the beauty of small – small goals, that is.  Today we’ll talk about SMART goals.

SMART goals extend the idea of small goals; they turn your goals into precise, actionable tasks that you can pick up and do the moment you look at them.

Let’s go back to that 6-figure income we were looking at yesterday.  Aaaah, the 7-bathroom mansion with the big pool and the bar in the rec room with the surround-sound stereo … Only right now you’re in a basement suite with an evil landlady and more bills to pay than you can throw a stick at.

You can keep daydreaming or you can try something … hey, why not try something?  Wasn’t there someone you talked to at a networking event who wanted to know more about what you do?  He sounded interested, seemed like a nice guy, and most of all he had some really interesting contacts.

Right!  Here’s a goal!  Go and have coffee with … uh, well, that guy.

Wrong.

“Have coffee with that guy” is not an actionable task.  First of all, what’s his name?  What’s his email address, telephone number or twitter name?  Also, when you contact him, do you know what to say to him?

You see what I’m getting at, don’t you?

S

First of all, ask yourself, what SPECIFICALLY is the first step.  Something  you can get up and do right this moment.  That’s the S part of SMART.  Something like

“Find the green business card with the gold lettering.”

M

M stands for measurable.  “Measurable” tells you whether you’ve accomplished the task.  In the “S” above, it was pretty easy: you find it, you’re done.  But let’s imagine you found the business card.  Right!  His name was Frank!  The next step is to get a hold of him.  He’s super busy.  How long, how often are you going to try to get in touch with him?

“Call Frank three times a week for three weeks.”

You do this, you’ve achieved your goal (which is also Specific, by the way).   You have no control over whether he’ll respond, but you do have control over what YOU do.  A clear way of measuring your goal avoids disappointments.

A

Is this ACHIEVABLE?  Usually this means, do you have all the resources in place?  Let’s say you’ve reached Frank and he asked you to fax you a bio within the hour.  If you don’t have a fax machine, you can’t do it. But …

“Print out the bio for Frank and walk over to Susan’s to fax it.”

Ok.  Specific, Measurable and Achievable.

R

That stands for realistic.   It’s my favourite because that’s where things tend to get dicey.  Realistic means, your goal is not only achievable (i.e. you CAN attain it) but you also WILL do it.  What if Frank asked you to meet him at 12 midnight and you’re usually in bed by 9:30?  Of course you could go, and you probably would if your life depended on it, but it doesn’t, so chances are, last minute you’ll find an excuse not to go.  Why set yourself up for that?  For “R”, you need to think about your personal circumstances and decide how likely it is this will actually happen.  Here’s what not to do:

“Agree to meet with Frank at 12:00 midnight to go for a 1-hour jog through Downtown back alleys”

T

“T” means timeline.  When are you going to do this?  This brings in clarity and commitment.

“June 10 before noon:  Email and call Frank to remind him of our appointment at Blenz (6185 Smith Street) on Friday, June 11, at 10:30am.”

Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely.  Pretty hard NOT to do, is it?

Have you used Small and/or SMART goals before?  How did it work for you?  What Small and SMART goal can you set for yourself right now?

Isabella Mori has coached and counselled people for over 18 years.  She enjoys helping people make a better life for themselves, so that they can turn around and give a hand up to others.  Isabella blogs about psychology, creativity, spirituality and social justice at change therapy

Thank you, Garfield, for inviting me to write about goal setting – a fascinating and big topic.  In 2006, two researchers, Latham and Locke, found that over 1,000 research papers have been written about it!  So let’s pare it down a bit and discuss two areas: The size of the goal, and a method for specifying and tightening your goals so that they are within easier reach.  Let’s start with the first one.

Where do you want to be in five years?  Make a six-figure income?  Overcome your fear of heights and climb Mount Kilimanjaro?   Seriously reduce homelessness in your city?

Those are big goals, and important ones.  But you know what, somehow I find it better to refer to them as “Vision”.  For most people, that’s exactly what it is: They see something in their mind’s eye that represents these wonderful things.  For example, there may be an image of a fancy house with a pool, or a picture of someone climbing through the clouds on a high mountain.

Most people, however, when they think of the word “goal” have an image from a sport that involves balls – a golf hole, a basketball hoop, something like that.  Here’s the problem – where’s that tiny little golf hole in that far away 5-year vision?  Hard to see, isn’t it?

It’s so easy to lose a goal.

That’s why focusing on small things can be so helpful.

One of my dreams is to be host to a strong, big, supportive online community.  To be honest, I still don’t have a clue how it will happen, and it’s all very fuzzy yet.  But it is a dream that doesn’t seem to go away, so clearly it’s important, and I’m not going to disregard it.  What can I do to foster that dream, that vision?

That’s where small goals come in.  They have so much going for them.

Small goals are not just attainable; they are ridiculously easy to attain.  You want to meditate but just can’t get yourself to sit down for 20-30 minutes a day?  Ok – start with one minute!

Small goals don’t take a lot of time.  Often we don’t do things because we’re actually quite busy, there’s so much to do.  How can I write this blog post if I have to pick up my daughter in 15 minutes?  May as well not even start.  Interestingly enough, using small goals is exactly what helped me start this post.  I had about 5 minutes between two major tasks, so I simply told myself I’d write down three points I’d like to discuss in this post in my little note book.  Simply doing that helped me sit down later, when I had an hour, to flesh out my ideas.

The best thing : Small goals get the ball rolling.  Let’s say you want to overcome the fear of cold-calling (if you’re a small business owner, that probably sounds familiar to you).  You CAN set yourself a goal of calling 5 new people a day.  It’s clearly doable – how long does a phone call take, after all?  1 minute minimum, 15 minutes max – but if you’re afraid, they’re about as appealing as jumping off an airplane right into the Mojave desert with those barrel cacti all over the place.  But if you set yourself the goal of calling ONE person to ask them only ONE question, guess what happens?  Chances are your question turns into an answer, in return you say something, then the other person asks you something, and bang, you’re in a conversation.  All you needed to do was pick up the phone, dial, and ask one question.

Let’s recap, then:

Set small goals – the smaller, the better

1. Small goals are attainable – there’s no excuse not to accomplish them
2. Small goals can be attained by even the busiest people
3. Small goals get the ball rolling

Next time we’ll look at a method for writing your goals that will make it even easier to accomplish them.

Isabella Mori has coached and counselled people for over 18 years.  She enjoys helping people make a better life for themselves, so that they can turn around and give a hand up to others.  Isabella blogs about psychology, creativity, spirituality and social justice at change therapy

“What on Earth are ‘sacred gifts’?”

I’m glad you asked.  Sacred Gifts, as it turns out, are something I have been searching for for many, many years now.  I wasn’t exactly sure what I was even looking for.  My life’s purpose, some direction, some little clue that would let me know that I wasn’t just flailing about with no real reason for existing.

In her own words: “This program  serves anyone who is serious about learning if what they are currently doing, or planning on doing, is in alignment with who they truly are..”

You know how some people can just ‘do things’ and make it seem as simple as breathing or smiling?  Maybe it’s you, maybe someone else.  Perhaps you can easily lead groups of people and not only isn’t it that challenging but it’s fun, and you get a strong sense of fulfillment.  And yet someone else put in the exact situation would lead everyone off a cliff and there’d be a big ol’ mess to clean up.

Maybe your incredible ad administrative tasks that make others totally batty and pull their hair out (that’s me, the hair pulling “good God make the pain stop” struggler) and you do it with grace, ease, and joy.  You could be gifted in that area (and I thank the Universe for people like you CONSTANTLY!).

“But those are just skills, Garfield”, I can feel you thinking, so allow me to clarify.

Skills and talents are one thing, but “sacred gifts were placed in us at birth and can act as powerful guides if we pay attention to the signs of their presence. When we use our Sacred Gifts, we produce profound effects, far beyond what could normally create with simply a talent or a skill.” – Monique MacDonald

Monique teaches that we make better fitting life choices if we align our work and play with our unique Sacred Gift combo.  Once completing her live workshop I took a tally of the things I do in my business.  I found that the ones I absolutely hated and which would take me ludicrous amounts of time to complete were not only not related to my gifts, but were actually other people’s gifts.

Also, the things I did in my business that I not only thoroughly enjoyed but felt fulfilled and rewarded upon completion were in exact line with my unique gifts.   I cannot describe in such a short blog post what confusion and weight were lifted once I realized this truth.

One of my greatest take aways from the weekend was immeasurably freeing.  The duties required to run my business successfully, the ones I loathe and abhor,  are things like details, details, details.  My feeling has been that ‘I must find someone to outsource this to’ but I also felt like crap doing this because in my mind these were nightmare tasks that nobody should have to endure!

However, some people not only excel at these things and like them (shiver..) but they feel fulfilled!  And when I deny them the opportunity I am actually ripping them off!  What a freakin’ relief!

This workshop also went WAY beyond concepts such as the ‘passion test’, ‘enneagram’, ‘colour codes’, other such personality type tests and even ‘heart virtues’.  I’ve done these others, and I’m even friends with one of the facilitators of one of them, but none of them gave the clarity and guidance of Monique Macdonald’s Sacred Gifts workshop.

In fact, one weekend with Monique and all my skills, talents, and my personality type were given clarity and power.

I can not say thank you enough to Monique and how she serves others.

To start discovering your sacred gifts so you can fully live on purpose you can purchase the download of her audio course below.

Discover Your Sacred Gifts audio download

I’ve tried my fair share of time management ‘systems’ and ‘strategies’ in order to maximize productivity in my home business franchise.  No matter how I scheduled my days it seemed that it would suddenly be bedtime and I would look back on my day with tired eyes and and a big sigh….”where does the day go?”.

One day, like a bolt of lightning I realized the truth of the matter:

‘Holy crap, time cannot be managed because it doesn’t exist’.

Seriously, how can I manage something that’s an illusion?  Should it be super easy to manage because it’s intangible and non-existent?  Or Super challenging on account of its elusiveness?  Easy, challenging…I don’t have time for this crap!

No matter which system or strategy, this spectre we call time will slip by like a shadow assassin, undetected, and strike my business with well executed blows to vulnerable pressure points until it succumbs to the perpetual brutalization resulting in death.  I firmly believe that nothing has power except the power I give it, so I CHOSE to stop giving away my power to ‘time’ and utilize it for it’s only helpful purpose, as a practical tool.

Rather than cramming my schedule with tasks in an attempt to ‘free up time’ or ‘make time’ so I don’t ‘run out of time’ (anything look familiar?) and constantly checking the clock only to find out that ‘time has caught up with me’, I chose a fresh and radical approach.

‘Sweet Lord, Garfield!! Tell me your solution already, you’re killing me here!’

Okay gentle readership, because I love and admire you, here it is:

Stop busting your ass trying to manage time and start managing your strengths.  Yes, it is that simple.  Identify your strengths, manage those by ensuring that EVERY task you do in your day to day affairs in your home business franchise uses one or all of your top 3 strengths.

Then outsource your limitations to people who not only excel at them but literally experience fulfillment when given the opportunity to indulge in them.When you do this, you’re not only managing your strengths but also the strengths of others.  This is is bare bones leverage at work folks.  Productivity’s BFF (yes, best friend forever…).

Soon you’ll finish the day saying things like:

“Where did the time go, it sure flies when your having fun”.

Use ‘clock time’ as a tool to schedule and track appointments and such, but leave the ‘psychological time’ to the worry-warts.  Identify and manage your natural strengths and the strengths of others and manage the hell out of them.

In this practice you’ll start becoming detached from the ‘results’ of ‘all the time and energy’ you put into something and start enjoying the process a heck of a lot more.  Your home business franchise will become a game of great joy and fulfillment, and you’ll be able to help more and more people.

In the end, aren’t we entrepreneurs so that we can help others?

So tell me what you think…..I’ve got the time.

Put simply, overwhelm is caused by your mind.  Being overwhelmed is a feeling, and feelings are your body’s reaction to your thoughts.  So when you’re feeling overwhelmed take a moment to observe your thoughts and figure out where your mind is.  Chances are you are far from being present, and likely your mind is projecting into the future and making up fine stories in which your worth as a human (and entrepreneur) is diminished.

Your mind in all it’s protective excellence is likely telling you something like:

“You don’t have enough time!”

“Look out! If you don’t get this done something bad is definitely going to happen! BAD!”

“If you don’t figure this out on your first time, right now, and get it perfect also, then everyone will know the truth….you’re a big fat dummy!”

Yadda, yadda, yadda…

Whatever it’s moaning about is likely complete B.S. and quite fantastic.  I believe it was Mark Twain that said this:

“I’ve had thousands of problems in my life, none of which actually happened.”

A million times out of ten you’ll find that all the thoughts that cause you to feel the overwhelm are based firmly in fear. Afraid to fail, afraid to be judged, afraid to be ‘imperfect’, or that you will run out of time.  With Internet marketers one of the biggest fears is that they’re missing out on the single best way to promote and drive traffic so they keep psychotically buying the next great tool or system.

Maybe the fear that you won’t be able to prove you’re ‘worthy’.  The list is infinite and creative….just like human beings!

Now, how do you dissect and overcome fear in one blog post?

Presence.

Fear only exists in the future and the future doesn’t exist.  Ever.  Life is experience, and you cannot experience something in the future any more than you can experience something in the past.  The only time you can experience anything at all is the present.  If you are truly present you can make choices from the truth of the moment rather than some far-fetched story that is likely to never happen.

So my friends, I truly care for you and I truly care about this topic.  I believe that the world needs a shift in consciousness and I hope that at the very least this post will inspire you to seek the truth I have eluded to.

Always remember the process of manifestation: Thoughts lead to Feelings, Feelings lead to Actions, & Actions lead to Results.

Thoughts ==>Feelings==>Actions==>Results.

If you’re thoughts are fueled by fear and uncertainty, you will feel overwhelmed or completely lack confidence.  If you feel like a pathetic little scaredy-cat (this is not a judgment, I’ve been there and done that many times myself) what kind of action do you think you’ll be capable of?  What kind of results will spew forth?

Observe your thoughts and feelings WITHOUT JUDGMENT and be present.  Make real choices based on the reality of the moment and take decisive action with the intent to correct and continue until success meets you down the line.

Free yourself from being attached to the result and do the task for the sake of doing the task.  Your life is NOW, so experience it.  Much love.