Improvability Blog

Part 2/2

Over the last year and a half, we have got rid of loads of ‘stuff’ in our lives and in our business:

• I have been ruthless in getting rid of clothes, shoes, etc. that we never wear. They’ve been donated to people who can make much better use of them
• I thought it would break my heart to get rid of a pile of books because I am total book junkie. But, do you know what? It was incredibly therapeutic; it was great to see friends poring excitedly over the boxes choosing what they were interested in
• I’ve sorted out kitchen cupboards and got rid of crockery, pots and pans that haven’t been used in donkey’s years
• I’ve filled two full bin liners with old videos and DVDs that we haven’t watched in many moons
• I’ve even ditched a pile of rubbish that had been rusting away in the garden shed - and yes, of course I had my rubber gloves on at the time

Getting rid makes way for massive change

In our business, we’ve totally changed direction (as you may have noticed) and have got rid of a lot of the products and services that we no longer need or want to pursue.

We’ve still got a long way to go in both our lives and our business but we have made some massive changes during the last 18 months. 

One of my mastermind group members picked this up from a graph of our business turnover that I took to a meeting a couple of months ago.

She marked on the graph exactly when our income had started to noticeably increase.

She pinpointed that it all coincided with signing up with our new business mentor which also started us on our current clearing-out regime.

Do you want to know how to attract more good stuff in YOUR life and business?

Then prepare yourself for a shockingly simple answer.

You need to start making changes NOW because they don’t just happen all by themselves. 

As Tony Robbins is always saying, ‘”You must take some action.”

Just a little change here and there will make all the difference.  We know, because it’s happening to us personally and to our business right now.

If you want more abundance - money, great health, better relationships, etc. - then starting making room in your life and business for more of the good stuff. You can start by getting rid of the things that you no longer use, need or want.

If you WANT change, then START MAKING changes

Because if you carry on doing what you’ve always done, you’re always going to get what you’ve always got.

And that will be more than a tragedy… It’ll be a total waste of your talents and skills.

Read Part 1 ‘How to attract more good stuff in YOUR life and business‘

Part 1/2

Neil and I are covered in muck, dust, grime and filthy, dirty cobwebs. We’ve just spent two whole days clearing out our loft ready for some new insulation to be installed tomorrow. 

I’m absolutely shattered.  And, yet again, I conclude that I was not put on this earth for manual labour because, after all, I am a 4-star-minimum girl with beautifully manicured nails! And before you ask, Neil totally agrees with that statement.

We discovered all sorts of stuff that had been slowly rotting or rusting away for the last goodness-knows-how-many years:

• What made me think that a solitary black bin liner would keep a quilt and pillows clean and dry for the last 5 years?
• Why did I store my old Olympic typewriter up there without even a cover over it? This reminder of the ‘olden days’ when I had to keep my nails short or the heavy keys wouldn’t go down is now sadly covered in rust
• Why on earth didn’t I give them all to a charity years ago?
• And why did we save at least 20 humungous cardboard boxes from our last house move 16 years ago?

We now have a whole yard full of stuff to take to the tip, so that’s going to mean even more hard work; we reckon on 4 back-breaking car loads…  I’m beginning to feel faint at the very thought.

What a waste of our valuable time when we could have saved ourselves all this stress by not hoarding all this rubbish in the first place.

I know what you’re thinking.  You live and learn. But sometimes lessons like this cost far too much. I’ve got:

• aching limbs from running up and down our extremely steep Edwardian stairs carrying impossibly heavy boxes
• a throbbing head from constantly looking up just in case something should come flying out of the loft hatch without warning
• a sore throat from swallowing a pile of grit that DID fly out of the loft hatch without warning. I reckon that stuff has been up there since the house was built in 1906
• a very sore finger from having an extremely heavy dumb bell dropped directly onto it from a great height - and Neil had the audacity to laugh. Good job he was out of reach at the time or I’d be doing time now for GBH!
• and a scraped shin from sliding too fast down the loft ladder with a thundering great box in my hands

If only we’d videoed it all – at least I’d have earned £250 from ‘You’ve Been Framed!’

Unlike what those highly-suspect ‘dosh in the attic’ TV shows may suggest, hoarding hasn’t produced any little treasures for us. All it’s done is caused us loads of hard, physical, time-consuming work for no monetary gain.

And from a business point of view, it’s robbed us of two whole days which could have been spent creating or improving a product or service to help our customers and provide more income for our business.

Every cloud has a silver lining

But we have achieved an awful lot too.

We’ve started the clearing out process ready for our next house move and, in getting rid of the rubbish which was taking up valuable room, we’ve made space for a whole lot more good stuff to come in.

Part 2/2 - Getting rid makes way for massive change

What an absolutely fantastic day I had on the ‘3 Steps to Success for Image Professionals‘ last week.

The quality of the 10 fabulous consultants on the course kept me on my toes all day and I’m still mulling over loads of new ideas that came out of the questions and discussions that we had.

You’ll be able to see all this for yourself in the 6-DVD pack we’re putting together.

We’re already working on the ‘raw’ footage of the video recording so I shall be burning the midnight oil editing and writing extra notes madly for some time.

I’ve no idea how she found the energy but Carole sent this email the very next day:

“I thoroughly enjoyed the day and found the content inspiring and motivating. It was also great to network with other image professionals. I drove home feeling brain dead, but woke this morning, after a good night’s sleep, with my mind buzzing with ideas! Many thanks again.” Carole

You can still pre-order the 6-DVD pack ‘3 Steps to Success’ for delivery to your door wherever you are in the world. The special pre-order price finishes the minute that the pack is ready for despatch. As soon as we know the actual date, I’ll let you know!

It seems to me that women starting out in business bring so much unwanted baggage with them and, yet, we have so many innate skills that are just crying out to be made the most of. 

You would make an absolutely great business owner if only you stopped listening to the doomsayers and those who are probably green with envy at the very thought of NOT being brave enough themselves to do what you’re contemplating.

Look at what YOU bring to the business arena:

• Women multi-task - YOU do more than one job at a time brilliantly
• Women have brains - and YOU have the common sense to use them
• Women have compassion - YOU care and want to change other people’s lives for the better
• Women have the power - YOU could run your own business so incredibly well…

… and yet, there you are, listening to some grouchy old friend (or worse, a family member) rabbit on with such uplifting sermons as ‘most businesses fail in the first two years’, or ‘there’s already someone locally doing what you’re going to do’ , or ‘women round here will never pay that much’.

STOP listening to these sad people!

The statistics about whether businesses fail or not and when are not proven.  In fact one set of stats is always being dis-proved by another.  And quite frankly, you can prove anything with figures.

It wouldn’t bother me if there were image consultants living either side of me; there are 21 million women in the UK alone – how many clients can we all get round in one short lifetime?

And in any case, by the time I’ve finished with you, you will be able to charge what you are worth and clients will be queuing up to pay you.

START listening to these wise people!

The immensely wealthy Greek shipping magnate, Aristotle Onassis was asked, “If you lost all your money, Mr. Onassis, what would you do?” He replied, “I would pick up the crumbs from a rich man’s table.”

What he meant was that he would spend his time around and work for and alongside rich people. When you surround yourself with rich people, you become rich.  You meet other ‘rich’ people. You pick up their ‘rich’ ideas. You become exposed to and steeped in ‘rich’ thinking. 

And if you’re getting hot under the collar about money being seen as the prime motivator here, take a deep breath and read a little further. 

‘Rich’ doesn’t just mean having loads of money.  If it upsets you,  change the word ‘rich’ to ‘abundant’. 

Whatever you value in life – great relationships, financial freedom, excellent health – you need to be around people who are drenched in an abundance of what you are searching for.

So being around those poor, sad souls who constantly whinge and moan about life, money, the government, the state of the world and anything else they can think of is going to bring you down to their level (which is very, very low indeed).

Let them stew in their own sorrowful soup.

Move on, and up!

Instead, search out those people who are positive, upbeat, inspiring,  energetic, successful, and are drenched in abundance.

And then you’ll become as rich as they are, and as rich as you know you deserve to be.