August

What do we have to celebrate in August? I believe that each month has something to celebrate about it, is this because I love celebrating? Or because the days, weeks, months and years are flying by quicker than ever and I want to slow down and enjoy and appreciate the present?

Either way, when I thought of August I released that I had a difficult time thinking of what I could celebrate so I turned to internet research and this is what I found:

In the Neo-Pagan wheel of the year August begins at or near Lughnasadh in the northern hemisphere and Imbolc in the southern hemisphere. Lughnasadh is an old Irish word with a modern Irish and modern Gaelic translation. This is a Gaelic holiday traditionally associated with the first of August celebrating the first harvest and the reaping of grain.

Here in Scotland (with a Gaelic history and tradition) we have our August bank holiday on the first Monday of the month (albeit a lot less taken, we wait for the last Monday of the month which the rest of the UK celebrates) and so for the first time, I wondered if the two were correlated?

It is also one of Scotland’s Quarter Days, one of the four dates in each year on which servants were hired, and rents were due. I take it people could now pay their rent (or not) as the harvest was now in. It is called a quarter day because it is halfway between the Summer Solstice (Litha) and the Autumnal Equinox (Mabon).

In some English-speaking countries in the Northern Hemisphere, August 1 is Lammas Day (loaf-mass day), the festival of the wheat harvest, and is the first harvest festival of the year. On this day it was customary to bring to church a loaf made from the new crop. In many parts of England, tenants were bound to present freshly harvested wheat to their landlords on or before the first day of August, although their rent wasn’t due as their quarter days are different to those in Scotland.

And then Christianity arrives and Lammas day becomes "the feast of first fruits" and it is referred to regularly in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The blessing of new fruits was performed annually in both the Eastern and Western Churches on the first or the sixth of August. Is this why I noticed much more fruit in our supermarket on Sunday? Usually the ‘offers’ are on the vegetables or the salad, but no, this week all of the ‘offers’ were on fruit. Lots of fresh, colourful, traditional and exotic fruit. It may well be coincidence or I am looking for evidence.

Today August is celebrated in Edinburgh with The Edinburgh Festival. This is an internationally famous arts festival. And across the globe August is celebrated by:

National Immunization Awareness Month

National Psoriasis Awareness Month

In many European countries, August is the holiday month for most workers

The Philippines celebrates August as the Buwan ng Wika ("Language Month")

In the United States, August is National Back to School month. Some US School districts and systems return to school in August.

So what is it for you? What is your celebration?

Is your first harvest in? Are you reaping the rewards of your sowing and tendering the seeds you have sown for your goals and dreams this year? Are you starting to see the light at the end of your tunnel? You are fitter, healthier, richer, wiser and happier than you were just a few short months ago?

Are you celebrating that we are no longer tied to Quarter Days? We can pay our rent when we choose. We can create our employment when we choose. We have a much higher standard of liberty and freedom.

Are you celebrating summer with an abundance of fruit? All of those fabulous vitamins and nutrients keeping us healthy and strong to keep our bodies in good working order?

Are you celebrating your health in general? That we can give of ourselves to others who are not as healthy as us?

Or are you celebrating your summer holiday? Is it finally time to rest, relax and restore?

Whatever August is for you, I hope you celebrate, and I wish you and yours the very best.

Last posted on 7th February! Goodness where has the time gone?  Well it has been invested in all sorts of areas plus a bout a sickness, from which I am fully recovered.

Lots has happened too, but mainly I have been focusing on the book.  This blog is to say that I have not renewed my blog hosting for http://www.lotsofconfidence.com/.  nor have I renewed my blog hosting for http://www.questforsuccess.co.uk/. 

This was a big decision for me and quite difficult to make.  In the end I let them expire because:

• Most of my writing was for the book not the blog
• I still own the domain names of course, this has not expired

and most importantly,

• I am not familiar with the easy use of blog sites, there are so many things I cannot do and I do not find them intuitive.  I have many materials and tutorials on how best to use them, which to me is a learning project in itself.

So I have postponed blogging on these sites until I am equipped enough to use them properly.

I am going back into my shell now, I have a presentation to deliver next week, (I am looking forwar to this very much) so I am working on that, there is LOTS of topical material around and so I am delighted to have a over abundance of exercises and materials to deliver from, and then back to my book.

See you all soon, and I won't leave it so long before another update.

Karen

WOW – what a few weeks. I have gone ‘Back To The Floor’

There were a number of reasons for this decision. One, setting up a new business requires time or money or both. Two, it is good business practice to keep your day job until your new business income exceeds that of your day job. Three, there is SO much material to use by going back to the floor.


We have all heard of sweat equity and I’m prepared to sweat as much as the next entrepreneur. This is the amount of time, effort and energy it takes to get a new business or project off the ground. It reminds me of the saying ‘The rich spend money to save time and the poor spend time to save money’. With a new business it is about getting the balance right between time and money to accelerate the success it deserves.


So unless there is enough money in the kitty to support a few months dedicated activity, it best to extend the timeframe of the business launch to work at it in spare time. This too is a balance. A balance between the pressure of having two jobs and the reward of knowing that you went for achieving your dreams. A balance between the time you give to your day job, your family and commitments and your dreams. Jim Rohn has some great material about the benefit of having a part time job with and income that exceeds your full time job. It starts all sorts of conversations, people want to know about you and what you do, because if you can do it, they can do it and you become the inspiration.


Working with large organisations and individuals with high level positions it is difficult to remember what it was like in the beginning. Whilst there are good people doing a good job it is not quite coming together. As a mystery shopper the gaps in the service of departments are obvious, the cohesive delivery of a professional image is limited and the values appear to be lip service only. And yet, these can easily be resolved, a few tweaks here and there and presto, 20% effort 80% return,


So I am walking my talk and gathering unrivalled insider information. I shall enjoy writing this chapter in my professional life the one called ‘Back To The Floor’

Helping my Perfect Customers find me

Yesterday was a great coaching day, slightly longer than usual and just as I used to when I was freelancing.  So  how do I turn that into a long term client for me?  And how do I get lots  more clients looking for similar coaching?  That is what today is all about so below is a list of things I am doing to turn these questions into fee paying clients.

* I listed all the ways I could replicate yesterday, 121, Group and Internet programmes - what parts need writing, what parts need fleshing out, what parts need video clips etc.

* I captured lots of questions like how do I add as hopping cart once I have written the programmes?  How many steps and sessions are in each programme? Do I write the programmes first and then add teh website and shopping page? and so on.

You will notice that I am capturing everything as later on I will start working through the list - and / or I will seek professional advice where necessary.  With the Law of Attraction tough many of these items and questions will have resolved themselves easily and quickly as I set my intention to resolve them.

* I am listening to Julia Stege - Social Networking and a quote form her I have captured is 'My Perfect Customers are trying to find me'  which is great - there are no such things as coincidences - this is what I needed today to answer the questions from yesterday.  http://www.graphicgirlz.com/teleconference.html

* I am working through business set up and I need to be sure that my email addresses are working.  Which they are because i resolved this issue last week.

So to summarise for you:

* Ask the questions, capture the ideas and seek out answers - they will come from many and sometimes unexpected sources

* Invest in in domain name that suits your business idea

* Invest in email hosting along with the domain name

* Make sure your email works (contact your providers help desk and work with them until it does)

* Listen to the advice from experts - you never know where more ideas and inspirations will come from

* Keep going - keep turning up - keep being prepared and you will be rewarded.

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race”  Calvin Coolidge

Enjoy today

Karen

Quick Update

Hi all,

Last week may have been quiet on the blogging front but it was definitely busy behind the scenes.  Last week was a week of planning and preparation and when I plan I always think of one of my favorite quotations from Abraham Lincoln when he said "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."

This helps me because half of me wants to just crack on with it and be an immediate success and the other half of me knows that it would be foolish to build a house (or business) on sand.

Some of you will recognise exactly what I am saying, some of you would have headed full on into action and pursue immediate results at any costs and some of you would have planned every detail and had started making some money before you gave up your day job - so what ever style is naturally yours I trust my story will help you decide where to plan and where not not to.

First I watched the video clip of The Last Lecture from Randy Pausch - what an inspirational man -and i thought of all mys childhood dreams.  Now if you did not have a great childhood as he suggested this is not the area to dwell on that - check out Sandy Newbiggins http://www.sandynewbigging.com/ who once said to me 'It's never too late to have a happy childhood' and this is so true.  So the childhood conversation can be had another day, with me or ro Sandy whatever suits you best.

Then I thought of all of the other things I wanted to do, all of the things I wanted to be and all of the things I wanted to have.  I wrote my list in colour, many many colours, as my future is bright and colourful, it has many turns and many shapes, it is not black and white, it is not a list it is full and rounded.

So create a full big list, put on some fun think music and enjoy :-)

I then prioritised the items on my coloured page into A's, B's and C's.  I took the A's and picked THE MOST IMPORTANT one, and this I have scheduled into my diary.

I doubled checked my plan thus far by reviewing Jim Rohn's One Year Success Plan and I refined my plan to reflect me and my dreams.  You find out about Jim's programme at http://www.jimrohn.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1306

Today I am working my plan and having a ball.  :-) Please write you own plan and if you have any questions about how to do this please drop me an email on karen@questforsuccess.co.uk (as I've not fully optimized, branded etc this page yet).

Watch this space for what happens next.

Kind regards and here is to our success.

Karen

I have all of the tools I need

This really is just a quick update.


I am working through my plan, this week it is a balance between writing the content for programmes and creating the pages on which they can be found (and have them be branded properly).

What I know for sure is that I have all of the tools and resources I need.  I have a great support network of fabulous friends and family.  I also have material from some of the best motivators, web designers and Internet marketers around. 

These people will be my guide and I now state my intention to use all of the tools that I already have.  I intend not to be distracted by gimmicks and quick win schemes (scams?) because like many of us, I know that 'All I need is within me now' - Anthony Robbins.

With love, Karen