StopDoingNothing.com is the project that I am the proudest of. It is a shame that it is the site I update the least. I love the concept. I love the site name. Yet recently I have been cursed by a lot of work. Work because of the StopDoingNothing mindset.
Where to begin:
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As I may have pointed out in the past 2009 was a terrible year for my main business Focus Consulting. Nobody should have to go through as much stress as my family has gone through in the past 18 months. Some people have it better and some people have it worse. But we had ours. And I think we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I just did our P&L & Balance Sheet for October and was pleasantly surprised. The numbers were almost all in the positive. I hope that your business is seeing the same if not better revenue than you did in 2009. I hope to be turning down some of the lower paying work. I’ve heard that when you are too busy you need to raise your prices or start turning down what you don’t want to do. I’ll do the latter if I have to, but I would not mind raising my prices either.
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I am starting to do more of what I want: Teaching and speaking. I am still heads down several hours a week in technical work because that is what pays the bills. But about every other week I have a speaking engagement. Sometimes two. This weekend I am crossing one of many milestones in my goals to do this professionally – I am giving my first keynote speech. Admittedly it is for Toastmasters – a group that trains others to speak better. But it is still my first keynote. Am I nervous? Yes. Am I prepared? I believe so. Toastmasters is a great group to speak to. And it is even better that I am not speaking about anything technical. The presentation is titled “Climber or Coaster: Which one are you”. In the presentation I am going to review some of the earlier mistakes I made when I was younger about apathy and associating with the wrong kind of people.
You have to believe. You have to have faith. Sometimes faith is all you have. You have to believe that things will get better. And you have to believe you are good enough to do what you want to do. You also have to realize that nobody is going to make you grow but you. Nobody is going to cheer louder for you than you are. I’ve learned to love and embrace the phrase “Shameless Self-Promotion”. I don’t see anything wrong with it.
Leave a comment below and let me know how your life is going. It is going in the direction that you want it to. If not, what are you doing to steer your ship the right direction?
xo – p