Factors Influencing Entrepreneurship

By Brenda Crop

I took the plunge into running my own business fairly late in my life. That's not to say, however, that I only recently became interested in the subject. In fact, I have either invested or wasted a good amount of time and emotion envying other entrepreneurs. Perhaps, if you've been as tepid as I have, you may be more than a little amazed at the number of young twentysomethings who, usually while still in college or living out of a beach shack someplace, put together some kind of kiosk or something similar and made it work. Even more maddening has been that, at least from my perspective, it appeared as though they just up and did it - hardly a second thought about it. One night they are surviving on Ramen noodles, the next day features them on the cover of Inc. Magazine.

I am certainly not alone in asking "How did they do it?" I wonder, however, how many others ask "What let them do it?" What is the mental attitude which allowed them to jump into their new venture, when so many times in my life, I've been held back?
Of course, there are many factors influencing entrepreneurship. A lot of them are external. I friend of mine in the insurance business who almost launched a product which sounded too good to be true, at least to me. As of this writing, it's still on the drawing board. I hope it is not too political to say that the passage of the health care act gave my friend enough uncertainty that they wanted to wait a few years and observe the law's full implementation. Business experts alternatively call this either a changing political or changing business climate, neither of which is influenced by my friend's thinking. But what if I also told you that they had been thinking of this idea for a good ten years prior to the passing of the health care law? During the first seven or eight years of this, my friend's limitations were internal! They worried about what would happen if they would fail.
Here is a point I only understood as a theory until about a year ago. I respect it a lot more now because I have experienced it.
Once you have a good idea, of course it is good for you to test it. Get good counsel. Find whatever necessary financing you need. Minimize risks whenever you can. But once the season of planning is over, it is time to take massive action on it. Run into the fire, and run through it as quickly and completely as you can. Take record of your mistakes, make the necessary adjustments, and then run through the fire again. This one change has made almost the entire difference between the "tried to's" I have attempted in the past, and the success I have only begun to experience now.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6607963

Change: Friend or Enemy?

By Kac Young 

In life, something is always happening isn't it? Change, chosen or thrust upon us, is our constant companion - whether we like it or not.
When we are faced with making changes in our life - whether they are physical, spiritual or mental - it helps to ask ourselves the Twelve Top Questions For Change in order to sort out our thinking, make the most of the change impulse and prevent regrets like "What was I thinking?" Like tattoos, some changes are very permanent. We are well advised to consider the outcome before making a drastic move. Ask yourself:
Why am I really making this change?
Is my desire to make a change rooted in positive motives?
What does the new outcome, or result, look like to me?
How will it affect, or alter, my life as it is now?
How will it affect those closest to me?
How committed am I to the change?
How long will it take to make the change?
What are the biggest obstacles to making this change?
Who will support me the most in the process of change?
How much will this change cost? Really can I support it financially?
How can protect myself against naysayers and temptations that may sidetrack me?
When am I willing to begin?
If we ask ourselves those questions, and are honest about the answers, we will most likely be successful at making the change. If we discover, by asking the questions, that we have questionable responses, we might want to ask for outside advice, rethink the issues, or put the change "on hold" for a month while we get to the root of the issue.
If you are confident in your motives, by all means, step out and make the change. Invigorate your life with the excitement of all that is new. Fresh beginnings, enhanced experience, challenges, goal raising, health improvement - all of these are great incentives to keep you motivated while making a life-change. Go for it. Refresh your mind, body and soul with inspiration, courage and daring. Life will become exhilarating. Pass along your enthusiasm and encourage others to make change a friend and not a foe.
If you hit a bump, don't worry. Go back to the Twelve Top Questions For Change, refresh your rationale and renew your determination to make the change. By repeating this exercise often it will help you through the challenging moments and keep you motivated and moving forward.

Kac Young is a former television director and producer, has a PhD in Natural Health, is a doctor of both Clinical Hypnotherapy and Naturopathy, has authored 8 books, and is a Minister of Religious Science. Heart Easy™ is a cookbook and a way of life she has developed to save the lives of Americans through meals they can enjoy.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6504166

Everything Is OK Right Now

By Kevin Schoeninger 

Do you find yourself in a state of low-grade anxiety much of the time? Is there a sense of pressure that unrelentingly weighs down upon you? Maybe your mind is constantly busy with thoughts about what you "have to" or "should" do.
There are many reasons you could find to support feeling stressed or anxious-the state of the world economy, the prevalence of natural disasters, the news headlines, the rhetoric of our politicians, or predictions of what lies ahead for us in 2012. Perhaps your feelings come from the unremitting presence of your debts and bills or from your never-ending TO DO List. Maybe they come from constant concerns for your loved ones.
What is it that keeps you from being happy with life right now?
No matter what your answer to that question is, there is one simple action that can turn the tide and shift your experience right here and now-being fully present. When you do that, you realize that everything is O.K.
What does that mean and how does that work?
First, being present contrasts with being worried about what may happen in the future or beating yourself up about what happened in the past. When you are present, you temporarily let go of those two time zones to more fully experience "what is" inside you and right in front of you.
Being present begins within. You become aware of sensations and feelings right now in your body. If you are used to focusing on tasks or events outside you, feeling inside your body may seem a bit odd. You may not know what that would be like-to feel inside your body. However, awakening your inner senses is a profound way to be present and a key to accessing true happiness right here and now.
You can begin very simply by becoming aware of your breathing. Take a few slow deep breaths and feel the sensation of breathing in your abdomen, your chest, your nose, and your throat. Take a moment to really enjoy the feeling of breathing fully and deeply.
Now see if you can feel the space inside your skin. You could begin by feeling the space inside your hands and fingers. Then, allow this inner sensation to spread out into your arms, torso, and head. Allow inner sensation to expand into your abdomen, hips, legs, and feet.
You may find that you can feel some areas inside your body and not others. That's O.K. Center your attention in whatever sensation you can feel. Can you notice that your thoughts become quiet as you focus on inner sensation? Or, maybe, you have thoughts about if you're doing this right or if it is a waste of your time. It's O.K. Those thoughts are normal at the start.
Learning to be present is about becoming aware of present felt sensations and differentiating these from the interpretations that you layer on top of those raw sensations. This can be a profound realization-to understand that how you interpret things is not necessarily the way things are.
As you become more aware of inner sensations, you can expand your awareness to include outer sensations that are present in your environment. Notice the fine details of your surroundings. Notice what you might normally pass by in your rush to get things done. Allow the colors, sounds, smells, and feeling of the space around you to become brighter and more vibrant. Again, notice how your mind quiets down as you do this. Also, notice any commentary that goes on inside your head.
As you notice the details inside your skin and in your surroundings, you may begin to appreciate the beauty in "what is." I suggest you actively look for that. Look for the good around you. Then, take it one step farther and move into gratitude.
What are you grateful for right now? I suggest making a list of everything you can find to be grateful for. Taking a few moments to write these things down can really shift your perception. The more you find to be grateful for, the happier you'll be.
As you actively focus into present sensations, appreciate them, and feel grateful for them, your mind continues to become quieter and quieter. Freed from your thoughts about the future and the past, you discover that everything is actually O.K. As your worries and fears recede, you realize that right now you are fine. You can handle what is happening in this moment and you may even find that things are much better than you thought.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6501387

Three Things Most People Do Wrong When Trying to Release Emotions

By Dr Lisa Turner 

Emotions are good. They let us know when something isn't right for us. At least that's what they are meant for.
However all too often the emotion you feel now in the present is actually based in a memory from the past. When this happens it means you can't make the best decisions for yourself. You will find it hard to be 100% present and in the now, because the past is always pulling you back.
Sadly exactly how to recover from the past isn't well known and here are the 3 biggest mistakes that people make when trying to deal with their emotions.
1. Understand them
Do you know someone who knows exactly WHY they have their problems? They know the cause, the events that led to them, how it all happened. They will know and fully understand all the patterns and triggers, and often they will find every opportunity to share them with anyone who seems even remotely interested, they will launch into their "story". The problem is they still have the problem. Knowing why you have the problem and understanding it is a bit like knowing your car doesn't work because its fan belt has broken, but not actually replacing the fan belt.
2. Express them
Many therapies focus on crying, talking about your problem or even shouting and screaming.
Crying does not release the emotions, nor does it resolve the problem. Although crying can give temporary relief and release endorphins, this simply masks the problem and, in fact, reliving the painful event reinforces the problem and makes it worse, rather than better.
Rather than releasing the emotions this actually reinforces them in your neurology. Every time you think a thought, feel an emotion or recall a memory, the neurons fire in your brain along the same original path. Each time you do this you will actually be strengthening that path, making it easier for that pathway to be fired up next time. This is why small events in the present can trigger past trauma. Expressing emotions does not release them.
Therefore each time you relive a traumatic event, you will strengthen the neural pathway. But if you RELEASE the negative emotions new, positive and empowering thought processes can then be installed.
3. Suppress them
This is also called denial and we do this in a variety of ways. Most people will simply kid themselves or deny that they have any problems at all. Often emotions are suppressed or anaesthetised out of consciousness with addictions. Smoking, drinking, video games, TV, eating too much or a compulsion to eat a particular thing, even caffeine will anaesthetise your pain.
However, the pain and the problems are still there. The neurons are still firing, but out of your conscious awareness. So you are radiating out all that energy completely ignorantly until boom some big problem lands in your life and you can't understand where it came from or why it happened when you were thinking happy thoughts.
Telltale signs that you have suppressed emotions
A) Overreactions
You overreact to small things - this is known as emotional leakage. The emotions, denied in one area of your life, literally spill out in other areas. So if you are irritable, overly sentimental, get hurt by small things, even road rage, are signs that you could be suppressing emotions in another area.
B) Low or no Energy
Feeling tired - it takes energy to carry emotions (that's why it's called emotional baggage) and it takes even more energy to suppress them. If you are lacking in energy, need more sleep than most people or just have no get up and go. Many of my past clients were suffering from chronic fatigue or ME, which disappeared once they released their emotions.
C) You have physical pain or even illness
I've received a lot of questions about illness, heart problems, chronic fatigue, auto-immune, chronic pain and so on.
Pain, illness or physical discomfort is one of the ways our unconscious minds communicate with us. Your unconscious mind is communicating with your conscious mind all the time, but in the highly logical, rational, left brain society we have been conditioned to ignore those silly irrational feelings and only to pay attention to rational thinking.
But no matter how irrational they might seem they do have a rational cause. It's just that our conscious / logical mind doesn't have all the information. So it assumes the unconscious mind is wrong and overrules it.
This is what happens with our emotions and illness. Our unconscious mind will tell our conscious mind that something needs to change or move or it will just give us some feedback. But our conscious mind ignores it, so our unconscious mind gives it louder and louder and we turn it off and become numb to our emotions.
The problem is still there so our unconscious mind tries another way of communicating. The unconscious mind runs the body and it governs all those automatic processed like our immune system and muscles etc.
So if we ignore our emotions our unconscious mind gives us the messages as pain or illness. But when we pay attention to the emotions and release them the physical problem can disappear.
This is particularly true of all those psychosomatic illnesses. That doesn't mean they are not real. The pain and the problem is VERY real, but it is caused because we don't have a mechanism to release our emotions so we suppress them.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6432664

Attract the Universe and Achieve Your Goals

by: Donny Pazzero

The Universal Law of Attraction can be a very effective tool in making you achieve your goals and practically everything else you want to have in this lifetime. You will realize that desire should always start from within, and the world will just obey your thoughts, actions and ideas. Here are some guidelines on how to get your objectives just the way you want.

Ask the Universe

According to the Universal Law of Attraction, ask the universe and it shall give to you. However, to achieve your goals, you have to truly have an idea about what kind of thing or event you want to happen in your life. There are plenty of items that you can ask from the world. The most common are superficial things such as money, a new car, a new house, etc. More meaningful items include better relationships with your family or wife, happiness in your job and life, etc. All of these can be given to you at the time you want and in the extent you need. To help you work out what you want find a personal development consultant who will help you identify this at a very low cost for you.

The Way You Ask

The way you ask the universe will also matter. Keep in mind that the universe will immediately hear and respond in the manner you believe in. Your first thought might go, 'I want a brand new Ferrari.' The world will then respond, 'Your wish is my command.' However, other thoughts can still enter such as, 'But it may still be when I'm in my 40's.' or 'But it will happen when I get the promotion.' or even 'It can't happen.' The world will just say yes to everything you inject in your thoughts.

The time, extent, severity and other details of your wish will be determined by your mind alone. If you have any doubt or disbelief about the power of the universe to provide, then it will truly give to you accordingly. Make sure you clean your thoughts thoroughly so that you set your goals straight and allow the universe to perform the best way.

Your Actions

Once you and your personal development consultant have set your goals and asked from the universe, your mind, thoughts and body will start acting automatically to lead towards the goals and objectives. You will subconsciously accomplish small tasks and open up a wide array of opportunities that are meant to direct you to the ultimate mark. Renew your goals each morning as you wake up and your body will just function immediately towards these.

Work both consciously and subconsciously. Remember that it also requires effort and discipline on your part to receive the best things in life. Do not expect everything to just fall into place. If you want to land that promotion, then you should start going to work early, volunteer for projects and show that you are prepared for bigger responsibilities.

Staying Positive

The Universal Law of Attraction helps you achieve your goals, as long as you remain positive. Always believe that the universe is capable of providing immediately. Anything can actually happen, in the time you have set. Always be optimistic in the face of adversary. It is not impossible that you will encounter a few problems along the way, but what's more important is how you relate to the situation in a positive light. Be conscious about what's happening and act to alleviate the effects. If every you need support with any of this then take advantage of the amazing benefits of having a personal development consultant.

Does Goal Setting Work?

By Jeff H Grundy

At a time when just getting by seems to be a challenge, should you be spending your time planning the future? And if you should be setting goals, do they actually work?

Well according to the so called experts, only 3 to 5 percent of the people who set goals actually achieve them. So I guess the answer to the second question would be no. Yet if that is true, why are there dozens and dozens if not hundreds of people teaching goal setting.

Is teaching goal setting something like be a weather man. People want to hear what you say, but if you are right or wrong no one really cares. Well I certainly hope not.

Back to the original question, should we be planning the future while the present is so difficult. I believe the answer has to be yes. Certainly one way or another the difficult financial times of today will pass into a brighter future. And by planning for it, you will be much better prepared to reap the benefits while others are just getting going.

So what now, yes you should plan for the future, but no goals don't work. Or do they work but for only a small percent of people. So then the question becomes are these people different or are the other 95 to 97 percent of the people doing something wrong.

Since there are so many people teaching goals and all basically teaching the same thing, lets assume the process of setting goals is sound. Then the challenge must be the implementation of the goals being set.

I like this answer because it is fixable and leaves hope for the majority of us who have trouble accomplishing our goals.

Again almost all goals teachers teach we must have a strong unbending desire if we are to accomplish out major goals in life. That makes sense, yet lets look at the simple goals first. Like saving 10% of our income weekly or exercising 3 times a week or maybe hugging your family members 3 times a day.

These goals seem simple enough, yet why then do we have so much trouble accomplishing them? Basically because we will not hold ourselves accountable to ourselves. For some reason this is human nature.

So what do the 3 to 5 percent do that the rest of us don't do. They hire someone else to help hold themselves accountable. It could be a coach or an accountability partner, it doesn't matter as long as you have another human being tugging at your sleeve reminding you of what you have committed to.

It is amazing but we will do some much more for others than we will do for ourselves. My success has been with an accountability partner but you must choose what is best for you.

Are you having trouble finding your own accountability partner? Transform Goals Into Reality could be the answer you are looking for.

If you are like me and have spent $1000's of dollars on self help products, yet have not achieved the success promised in these products, come listen to our free podcast at 30 Wasted Years Podcast. I think you will find our perspective to be refreshing and entertaining.