This week marks the beginning of my favorite time of year: a time to purposefully re-set my focus on gratitude and giving. No matter how my life or my business looks in any one moment, I know for certain there’s always something to be grateful for — the insane luxury of a warm, safe house, a fridge full of healthy food, the presence and faithful love of a good partner.
Even when I’m struggling, I’ve found that the surest way back to flow is intentionally focusing on what’s working and how fortunate I am in that very moment of struggle. It’s counter-intuitive in many ways, but it’s been shown over and over again to work: when we set our sights on goodness, we nurture goodness and create a spiritual and emotional soil where more good things can grow.
The word grateful is one that holds a lot of richness for me. It’s not just a nice word — it’s a powerful word. It’s not just a feeling — it’s a way of being. Being grateful expresses an emotion, yes — being thankful for all that’s been given to us — but it also implies “the readiness to manifest that feeling by action,” even a long time after a favor has been done for us [Century Dictionary]. So by practicing gratitude, we are setting the radiant intention to demonstrate with our whole lives that we are spilling over with abundance and ready to share with others — and that creates more abundance, more gratitude, more of all that’s good. How amazing is that?
Napoleon Hill, in his famous book Think And Grow Rich, shows how powerful our line of focus can be. Canadian counselor Michele Crawford sums it up like this:
“[A] metaphor for focusing is the light on a coal miner’s helmet. Wherever it shines becomes most significant and the rest doesn’t matter as much. You make a choice on what you want to make important in your life by paying attention to it and letting other things fall into the background…If you “shine your light” on negativity, negativity will be everywhere. Conversely, if you chose to focus your light/attention on an optimistic view of events, encouragement and benefit will be everywhere. Your choice of focus, either positive or negative, is directed towards your surroundings. Then feedback from your surroundings is created as an accurate reflection of your attitude.”
So whatever you focus on grows BIGGER, and then reflects back, influencing your experiences, health, relationships and wellbeing. To those who truly embrace these notions with an open heart and mind, there often appears to be concrete evidence of reward.”
As entrepreneurs, there are days and weeks (and sometimes months!) where stress is high and payoffs feel uncertain. When you’re working so hard, setbacks can be massively discouraging. It can be hard not to get mired in the negative.
My challenge to you as we enter this season is simple, and is filled with my confidence in you and your good work:
When you’re tempted to fret over the feeling that you have too few clients, turn your light and focus on the clients you DO have.
When revenue feels sluggish and you feel stress rising, turn your light and focus on the revenue you DO have flowing in right now.
When it feels like things are moving too slowly, turn your light on all the progress you’ve made and all the ground you’ve covered in this past year.
When you’re tempted to be hard on yourself for one reason or another, to become your own worst critic, turn your light and focus on all the ways in which you’ve grown.
When you feel stuck, turn your light on the choices you have and the ways in which you can take action to get unstuck.
Start feeding what’s good, and just see what happens. And just imagine what our lives, our businesses, our relationships, and our world could look like if we adopted gratitude as a way of being, as a spiritual commitment to the action of creating and sharing abundance. That’s some powerful stuff.
I appreciate you, and I’m so excited for the year to come.
Love & Success,
Heidi and Your Marketing Team
P.S. I want to hear from you! What do you need to make next year your BEST year yet? Please take 3 minutes to tell me in the comments below. If you’re not sure, tell me the first things that come to mind (even if they are completely crazy and unrealistic!)
There is value in asking your subconscious that question and then writing out the first things that come to mind. Magic starts to happen. Don’t believe me? Give it try in the comments below.
To make 2016 my best year yet, are healing my sister illness, a grateful Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday, 5 amazing new clients to complete trips for and two new group (business, club, ect) to start developing travel for them in 2017.
Do you have a good form letter to send out to new group clients for clubs – Kiwanis, golf, garden, wine, ect.
Julie, I’m sending love and light to your sister for rapid healing! Congratulations on the 5 new clients and 2 group bookings!! Woo hoo!! We don’t have a form letter for that specifically, but I’ll add it our list of things to possibly create. Thanks for the suggestion.
What I want for 2016 is the last two months of the year is to progress in my business so quickly that I am making more that I made at my corporate job I had to quit because I could not afford daycare. I 2ant to double my income the last two months of the year.
That’s a fantastic goal Kennisha!!
One major accomplishment this year would be to choose a name and find a path forward for my new business!
Naming a business can be a challenge! I recommend starting by defining your niche and ideal client avatar, then select the destinations you’ll be booking. Once those steps are done, finding a name will be easier, and you’ll be more likely to choose one that resonates with your target market.
What I want for the last two months of 2016: To acquire 2 group bookings for 2017 with non-refundable deposits paid; 10 lb weight loss by December 31, and laser focus on my eating, exercise and travel business goals.
Those are great goals Regina – please keep us posted on your success!
To make 2016 great for me would be experiencing less pain & more mobility (car crash in Aug) restored to entire left side of my body, enjoy Thanksgiving with my boys, obtain 5 new clients to go out in a bang, residual monthly income restored to me to assist my son in college. Shalom!
Those are fantastic goals, Trish! I’m sorry to hear about your car crash – sending you lots of love for health and energy to end the year with a BANG.
To make 2017 great is to get my new business rolling. I started it around march and have grown and learned a lot. Figuring out marketing approach and client destinations.
Those are great goals Matthew! Let us know how we can help you with any of it!