As much as I love personal development and the many benefits that it can provide in life, sometimes you also need to know when its time to let all the change go and just do some living, just the way you are!  The way you are is often something we forget to appreciate when we are striving to better ourselves and when that occurs, we can not only forget to appreciate ourselves but also how others are around us.  This is a short guide to some of the reminders we need to live life, just the way you are!

Live Your Core Values

Your core values don’t change easily and if you know them, they should be something easy to live by.  Doing so, helps you ensure you are living who you really are, not what someone else wants you to be, or what often shows up at the surface because of other people’s expectations.  Living who you really are means you are true to yourself, not others.  This of course is much easier said than done, however, the awareness of your own values and living them on purpose can be a huge shift to truly being who you are in life.  I have a couple preview articles you should find helpful to discover your passions and values.

Joy and Appreciation

These are very important to me and a big part of making life wonderful.  Living joyfully is hard to do if we cannot learn to appreciate what we have and all the amazing things that happen everyday.  Yes, life has its share of pain and struggles, yet it’s really just a choice what we want to recognize, think about and let influence our life.  There are often many more things to be joyful for and just a few things we could regret, dwell on or wish for that change the way we live and its the related choices that let us shape life into what we want it to be.  You have to choose to have joy and appreciation if you want them to exist in your life.  You probably know a some people who are happy or joyful despite tough circumstances? And how about people who seem miserable, while seeming to have everything they need in life with far less struggles and adversity.  Everyone I’ve met in my life with extreme circumstances are more easily affected by their choices of what they recognize from those circumstances and how they react to it, then the circumstances themselves and it makes a huge difference in the lives from person to person.  There is always joy to find, recognize and appreciate in life and making it at the forefront will free you to live the rest of your life how you want it, as yourself, instead of being caught up in the past or circumstances outside of your control.

Acceptance and Attraction

Living life, just the way you are means you have to also accept who you are.  Personal development is often seen as a place to change oneself but it isn’t really for that, its a place to discover yourself and recognize things to learn and change along the way.  This is what acceptance is based on as well, you have to accept yourself for the way you are and not burden yourself with overwhelming expectations of change.  If you know who you are now its much easier to decide what changes fit for you and to see the risks, challenges and work required to let them happen.  I’m certainly not saying that personal development is the opposite of living just the way you are, its that if you discover and truly know yourself the way you are now, it’s a journey of change through your life, not a specific target or point of change that you should strive for.

Accepting your own limitations and knowing your limits is important to let change happen naturally as well without forcing things that your body and mind will fight you on (perhaps even unconsciously).  Often what we learn about ourselves is useful to then understand our attractions as well.  Attractions certainly come in different flavors, some like minded and sometimes the old saying opposites attract is just as true.  Attraction can exist as well for things we already know and love, as well for things that excite us or fill a need that we are longing for.  This could be people, but often it is actions or activities as well such as bucket lists or life long dreams.  Attractions are useful to experience life by and they test our acceptance of ourselves and others in the process.  See that, can be a great reminder to accept what is and just keep on living life and the journey it presents.  The attractions will come and go, so let them.

Peace and Contentment

Finally, peace and contentment.  Living life as you are gives you freedom from the stress of change and expectations that do not meet who you are today.  The peace that this brings can be extremely satisfying in that it removes the distractions and burdens leaving you with clear mind and lets you be true to your soul with a contentment about life and living it, just the way you are.

Posted by Mike King under Life | 8 Comments »

This is a guest post by John Williams.

NOTE:  I, Mike King have no affiliation with John or his company.  I welcomed a guest post from him solely on his comments and messages to me about this blog with some sample writing which i liked and still do.

HOWEVER, since posting this, I’ve received many messages and warning about his work I wanted to put this warning at the top for people to read ALL the comments at the end of this article about John before following his advice.  This is not first hand knowledge from me, so I am leaving the post up, but please consider the comments and find out the truth before following this advice.

Ever hear about companies that were started on a shoestring? Well, there are more of them than you might think. In fact, most people would be surprised at the humble beginnings of what are now some of the largest businesses in the world.

Here’s a good trivia question: Name two giants of today’s technology industry that were literally started in a garage. Give up? Well, in 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen began writing a BASIC programming language for Altair computers out of a garage. They expanded their repertoire and began creating products for the software market, specializing in operating systems for the growing personal computer industry. Their company, Microsoft, is now an industry icon. So is Apple, which believe it or not also originated in a garage—the very same garage where Steve Jobs and his partners built the first prototype of a personal computer that would later evolve into the highly popular Macintosh line. Since that time, Apple has grown from a struggling startup into a full-fledged industry staple employing nearly 50,000 workers and generating over 14 billion in annual revenue.

Other large companies which are well known today had equally humble origins. The Mattel toy company got its start in the 1940s when one of the founders of a small Southern California picture frame business was inspired to make doll furniture from leftover scraps of wood. In 1948, a young fisherman rented a storefront for $300 and opened a small bait & tackle fishing supply store which soon evolved into Dick’s Sporting Goods.

The moral of the story: you don’t necessarily need a lot of start-up capital and a large footprint to make it big. In fact, a lot of people have misguided ideas about what it takes to start a business. The biggest key to success is not money or real estate at all—it is the dynamic combustion you get when you start with an idea and infuse that idea with the passion and drive to make it all work. Yet some would-be entrepreneurs are slaves to their own misconceptions. Here are five of the most common myths you run into surrounding business start-ups:

Myth #1: You need a lot of employees.

Always remember that your best employee is you! At some point in time, it may be a good idea to do some aggressive hiring but be wary of doing too much too soon. What you need in the beginning is not quantity but quality. That quality comes from you and maybe those that are close to you. Many top corporations started out as family businesses. Involving your family in your business as joint owners can be a great idea because you automatically start out with a leadership team which is dedicated, dependable, and trustworthy. And they are also personally vested in the business. The largest management expense in any business is usually employee salaries. So keep these as low as possible, especially in the beginning stages of the business venture.

Myth #2: You need to do everything yourself.

Now let’s look at the other side of the coin. Just because you don’t have a lot of employees, don’t think you need to fly completely solo either. You can’t do it all yourself and lurking in the background is always a burnout danger which you don’t want to be messing with. But there are smart ways of finding help. For one thing, you can outsource certain functions of your business (for example, marketing and phone support) to skilled yet relatively inexpensive specialists. In general, it is always smarter and cheaper to contract a function out as opposed to taking on permanent employees. You aren’t stuck with someone on your payroll and you have the flexibility of matching your costs to job performance.

Another good rule of thumb to consider when it comes to outside help is enlisting partnerships. When you hire an employee, they give you their time in return for their salary. But when you take on a partner, you get not only his time but also his personal commitment to the venture because he is vested in the business like you are.

Myth #3: The obstacles you see in front of you are immovable.

Make no mistake: there will always be roadblocks. But the true entrepreneur is the person who can find ways around them or through them. Very often the obstacles you see are more movable than you think. Remember, almost anything can be negotiated. Successful bartering is a skill, to be sure. But it is a skill worth learning and practicing.

Myth #4: You need to keep things the same and always stick to the way you do things.

One of the most prominent traits of a successful business is an ability to reinvent itself. When Netflix started out, it was strictly a mail-order business, where DVDs were mailed to customers. Yet its founders chose the name Netflix because they foresaw that eventually movies would be delivered over the Internet. They were astute enough to realize that change is inevitable and that their company would need to adapt to an ever-changing market. Never assume you can stay stuck in the sand. Flexibility is essential. Remember, your creativity is what you relied on to start your business so keep relying on it to carry you through.

Myth #5: Money is the motivator.

If your principal passion is the lure for the buck, then you will probably fail. The most successful entrepreneurs are those who start a business in a field they are already passionate about. To these people, financial profit is secondary. The pride and satisfaction of achievement in something they really care about is what drives them and in turn drives their customers to them. Successful business people also realize the value of free giveaways. Sure, some profit is lost initially but the long-term gain in terms of buzz about their product and word-of-mouth publicity more than makes up for it. When people do something primarily because of a love and passion for what they do, success usually follows in a business start-up.

Creating and developing a business often leads to wealth. But it doesn’t have to start out that way. Despite common misperceptions, the keys to success don’t lie in startup capital but instead in large doses of passion, perseverance, and dedication. Once you know the common myths and are able to debunk them, the road to success as an entrepreneur can become a whole lot clearer.

John is a veteran of over two decades in the advertising industry. He has published extensively on branding and now shares his thoughts and works in logo design.

Posted by Mike King under Business | 11 Comments »