They say the toughest part of climbing a mountain is when you’re right near the top.

There’s actually a statistic that tends to confirm that theory… it’s the fact that most people quit a marathon after they’ve already completed 80% of the course!

Whether it’s a grueling physical event or starting a new online business, the place where it’s easiest to give up is when you can no longer see where you began — or spot a finish line anywhere in the distance.

The biggest battle isn’t necessarily against time, money or bureaucracy — It can be against yourself!  Your attitude can definitely dictate how well you do — and how effective you are — in your daily tasks.

Here are a few things to consider

Are you expecting everything to happen immediately?

This can happen a lot if you watch too many TV commercials.  Everyone gets what they want in thirty seconds on those — but as we all know, life’s just a wee bit different.

Trying to make everything happen immediately just leads to frustration and mistakes.  Take things step by step — and you’ll eventually get to where you want to go.

Do you think nothing will ever work?

You could fill several libraries with books about ‘The Power of Positive Thinking’ — but it’s more than just a cliché.  How you approach your online business — or any life challenge for that matter — can mean the difference between failure or success.

When you hit an obstacle, know that it’s temporary.  You’ll get through it if you dedicate your time to finding an answer rather than focusing on the problem.

Are you doing too many things at once?

It’s so easy to become a victim of information and work overload when you first start your online business.

There is so much you feel you need to learn and to do.  More, I suspect,  than you ever expected to have to deal with.  This is where you need to focus, plan, schedule and prioritize.

Concentrate on tasks in their order of importance, and make sure you have enough time to finish them.  Let’s face it — we all have days where we can’t seem to catch up or get anything done.  But if that’s the case every day, then you need to take a good hard look at how you’re doing things.

Do you always have an excuse?

Yes there are those of us who try to do too much, and let’s face it, there are those of us who don’t do enough.  It may be fun to see what we can get away with in a regular job — but just remember, when you’re the boss in your own business,  you’re only cheating yourself!

Always remember… it takes time, dedication and persistence to build a long-term successful business.  Yes, you sometimes need to work like a crazy person, but you also need to take regular breaks from the day-to-day grind.  Going too far in either direction can just lead to failure.

Just pace yourself and you’ll make it all the way to the top!

We look to a dictionary when we want a definition of a word.  But where do we look when we want to define ourselves?

We usually only realize what our good and bad qualities are when we see how others react to us.

We find out that we’re funny if people laugh at what we say (hopefully when we mean to be humorous).  We find out we’re wise if people seriously consider our words.  We find out we’re caring when people are genuinely thankful for our thoughtfulness and we find out if we’re  cruel when people become angry with us.

Having said that, we also have to realize that others can bring their own baggage to our self-definition. Read the rest of this entry »

If there’s one thing we can count on in life, it’s change.  Even when we don’t see it coming.

Every day, there is a progression that is happening in our lives, even if we’re not aware of it. Either a relationship is growing stronger — or it’s growing weaker.  Either a work situation is getting better — or it’s getting worse.

Life is all about cycles and knowing how to deal with them.

Eastern philosophy teaches us to stay in “the center of the wheel”.  Meaning while the wheel of life is spinning, we shouldn’t allow our own personal emotions to spin around with them.  By keeping our equilibrium, we can clearly see the path ahead.

Unfortunately, this is an easy thing to talk about — but not so easy to put into practice.

To stay at the center of the wheel it takes a great deal of inner strength and courage.  It takes throwing off all that negative training from our childhood and adult life.  It takes choosing to focus on the positive things about ourselves and our ability to succeed… and not taking the downward movement of the wheel too seriously.

I’ve had a bumpy ride of late, personally, so I’ve had to work harder than ever to keep in the center of my own wheel.  Thankfully, I’ve also had a huge amount of support from the most important people in my life.

Another big help to me was an incredible course in self-esteem, motivation and personal growth titled  Journey, Life Destiny which was created by my good friend Gary Simpson.

This course has been a real eye opener for me, it not only helped to keep me at the center of the wheel, but also kept me rolling forward to my next exciting chapter.

Thank you, Gary — and to everyone reading this, I hope you can stay strong as your wheel moves forward and your journey continues.

Sometimes we need to be reminded how important each and every one of us are.  We are all unique, valuable and special in our own way.

The following poem was introduced to me by my good online friend Gary Simpson, an expert in Motivation and Self-Esteem… amongst many other things!

He includes it in the very first module of his new 12 part Personal Discovery and Self Awareness course -  Journey, Life, Destiny which I personally took and highly recommend you check out.

“The most important person in the whole world, to you, should be you.  Don’t ever forget it.  Let it matter not what anybody else thinks, it’s your opinion which counts when it comes to YOU” ~ Gary Simpson

Read the rest of this entry »

How many of us take the time to   ask  ourselves, “Is my life fulfilling?”

I’ve had to take a long hard look at my life recently and ask myself that very question.

I’ve always been a person who has had dreams and aspirations.  I love to set goals for myself.  Goals have given me a reason to get up in the morning -  I have always needed something to work towards and look forward to in my life.

Sometimes it’s a short term goal, something well within reach, other times it may be a few years down track before I can possibly reach it… but I always keep it firmly in my sight!

I’ve been taking a good look at my goals and dreams list that I’ve had over the years;   some I’ve reached and others I’ve abandoned along the way as my life  circumstances changed, forcing me to follow another path…  I’m sure that’s happened to many of you as well.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that – occasionally life just throws us in a different direction.  That direction might be an even better one than the one we had originally planned.   When that happens, I really think it’s crucial to create new goals to work towards, new dreams to reach… the important thing is to keep moving forward.

Life is not about finding one path and sticking to it for the rest of your life.  That’s impractical and probably not even good for us.

Use your dreams as a guide, but be prepared to recognize the changes that life sometimes throws at us.

As your life grows and changes,  so do your goals and what your idea of fulfillment is all about.  Go with those changes, accept them… and keep growing!

Too many of us dwell on our past.

If we insist on constantly looking back, we can sometimes find ourselves locked in a vicious cycle that simply reminds us of our hurts and disappointments.

On saying that, I believe there’s a huge difference between actually living in the past…  or just glancing back into it in an effort to resolve our past issues,  leaving us able to create a happier, healthier future for ourselves.

Why are we so wrapped up in the past?

It’s a time long gone… in fact, by the time you finish reading this article it will be in the past.  However – it’s not the immediate past that haunts us!

There is a certain lack of clarity when we try to relive past events.

To explain, let’s take an original document or photograph and make a copy of it.  Then take that copy and run it through the machine again.  If we repeat this process over and over we would end up with an image that looks very different to the original one we started with.

The same thing happens with our hurtful memories. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been many years since I watched the movie Forrest Gump, but I clearly remember him saying “Life is like a box of chocolates… you never know what you’re gonna get”.

A box of chocolates has many assorted flavors, there are some that are soft and creamy (my personal favorite), some hard and chewy, and some that are nutty.  We may not like all of the chocolates that are in the box, but we have to accept what we are given.

There are many different words to express how we feel when we don’t get what we want, or when things don’t happen the way we plan.   Some people may say they have failed, while others merely call it a setback, a stumbling block or just an unfortunate detour.

Whichever way you look at it, these are the road bumps of life.  Just imagine how poorly equipped we would be if everything always went smoothly and according to plan – the first time we hit a rough patch and we’d probably be carried off in a strait jacket. Read the rest of this entry »

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year and a great 2009!

I hope you all enjoyed the holiday break.  I know I did.

What did I do?

Well, I’ve spent the past couple of weeks relaxing with my family, catching up with friends and just taking advantage of the beautiful weather here in sunny Queensland.

And of course I’ve enjoyed lots of very yummy food… now comes the diet!

Read the rest of this entry »

Today I headed down to the Gold Coast to enjoy a coffee with a friend of mine, Andrew Hansen, the creator of Firepow, a niche blogging software.

We decided to catch up as Andrew and his girlfriend Elysia have decided to leave Sunny Queensland and move to Canada before the end of the year.

As I sat chatting to Andrew I was once again reminded how lucky I am to be able to enjoy this lifestyle, to choose when I work, (or when I don’t) … and how internet marketing has made this all possible.

Now I’m not saying that I only work 4 hours a day, three days a week —far from it — I work hard, really hard and I spend many hours a day in front of my computer.

Read the rest of this entry »

My name is Collette Jones and I live in beautiful Brisbane, Australia.

If somebody had told me a few years ago that I would be blogging, my answer would have been “Blogging?  What’s blogging?… Is it painful?”

Well, here I am… and welcome to my blog.

Back then I ran a traditional mainstream business. But after 10 years, the long hours and day-to-day drudgery of running operations meant that work was consuming my life.  It was “all work and no play” — something had to change.

Read the rest of this entry »