ONE Is The Loneliest Number

One Is The Loneliest Number

You are a solopreneur. You start your business doing what you love and you figure out how to get people to pay you for your talent. For a while it is a blissful and rewarding experience. You get up every day with a passion in your heart and a quickness in your step.


Then the days get longer and longer as you figure out how to look after your books and do your taxes. You try to get your own social media marketing done. You hire someone to make your website but you don’t like it so you try to do it yourself. You look after customer service and it takes so much time, you don’t have time to get your marketing done. You are the chef, cook and the bottle washer in your business. You are doing it all. You are all alone. You are going to get tired, eventually.


This is a critical place for you. Do you stay here all alone? That depends, is it working? Are you profitable and happy with that profit? If you are, and you are saving and investing, then maybe this is where you want to be. Maybe you make a choice to stay solo if you are doing well. What if you want more though? What if you want to reach a higher goal? What if you want to take it to a whole new level? Can you do this by yourself? Who is the first person that you should hire?


One of the simplest things that you can do at this point is sit down and do an analysis of your time. Take a small wired booklet around with you for the next two weeks and write down everything that you do all day long. Don’t make any judgements, just write. Find out where you are spending your time. After two weeks, then get out a highlighter pen and highlight the items in your list where you make the most money. There is a good chance that those things take up about 20% of your time and they are producing 80% of your income. 


Look at the other items on your list. If you hired one person to take even half of the mundane tasks off your daily to-do lists could that give you the time that you need to double your activity that is bringing in the most money? If that is true, then this is a good time to hire someone at least part-time to help you do the menial tasks on your list. This will double the money you are bringing in. Then you won’t be all alone anymore. You will have a helper and a helper is a good thing. You will have a reason to get up again every day.


This person helps you with administration and it goes well for a while, but still you want more. Over time the two of you are getting stretched for time. You know you should hire someone else and you are thinking about it being a salesperson, but is that the best answer? Do you have enough work for a salesperson? Are you ready to train a salesperson? Have you created a sales manual?


We all get to this place where we struggle to get new business in the door, while we are looking after existing customers. Is a salesperson the next step though?

When Do You Hire a Salesperson?

First, you need to figure out how to automate some things. You need to create a few systems. Make marketing programs that work because you need to bring in leads to support a salesperson or a sales team. Where will you get these leads if not from marketing? 


The first person to hire in this scenario is not a salesperson. Bring on someone to help bring in leads first. Think about how you currently get leads. It is hard to train a salesperson first, think about the lead generation. You are likely doing that yourself right now. What are you doing? Can you train someone to do just that? Is that easier than training a salesperson? Start there. When you have too many leads to follow up with yourself, that is when you start looking at a salesperson or a team. Once you have a steady stream of leads and you know where to get more by scaling up the process, you can safely bring on a salesperson or possibly even a team.

How Will You Train Salespeople?

Everything must have processes. We need things like operational manuals, training manuals, training videos, and steps that can be managed and repeated. 


It takes time to train a salesperson. Then they quit. Every minute you are training, you are not selling. Therefore, you need money in the bank before you start, or some way to get a quick win, to keep yourself afloat as you go from zero to hero. This requires thought and planning before you dive right in there.

Make a plan. Get as much as you can on video to train these people. If you have videos for them to watch, then you can continue to sell while they are training. If you are doing all the training, then all income stops while you train people and that will become painful.

Is It Worth It?

To build a business that you can walk away from during a four week vacation, you will need to get to a place where you don’t have to be there anymore. It means you do need to duplicate yourself. To have a business that you can sell, there must be products or services being purchased, whether you go to work or not that day. If your retirement is based on selling your business, then you will need to build employees or some kind of team into the plan. 


If you don’t want to be a lonely ONE, then eventually you will need to go to TWO, and then THREE and so on. It is not easy, but it is doable, and YES it is worth it, in the long run. It takes a team to build an empire. You can't do that alone.

Start with baby steps, but get started...

Why You Need Email Marketing

Why You Need To Be Email Marketing

I don't hear too many people talking about email marketing these days. It is like they think it is no longer relevant. The chatter is always about Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram. Fun Fact - According to HubSpot research - Email marketing brings in at least 6 times the revenue of any of those. I would agree. There is nothing better if you are:

• Trying to keep your raving fans raving about you in a positive way.
• Getting one time lookers to be long term buyers.
• Turning one time buyers into consistent users.
• Wanting return business.
• Training your clients to use your products or services better.
• Training your sales staff to do the right things every day.

Maybe you are a little confused, so let me explain further...

Real Email Marketing Is Not:

• A nice monthly email newsletter.
• An email blast.
• A sales letter.

What Is Real Email Marking?

Real Email Marketing is an opportunity for building relationship. It is a beautifully designed communication system that blesses you with the ability to live in the hearts and the minds of your followers. You can be creative. You can win their affection, devotion, and loyalty through life, laughter, colour, and fun. It is a tool like no other, because it goes right into their in-box and if your marketing piece is good, it can stay there in a special place, called a saved file where it will be viewed again and again and again.

Most people never get to that place with their email marketing, and that is because they are viewing it like a sales tool or worse yet, an unwelcomed interuption.

Email Marketing Is Measurable

One of the reasons I love email marketing is because it is so measurable. It is an exact science. You can tell if it is working. You send out an email to 100 people and if 20 of them open, you have a 20% open rate. You work on it a bit and you get the subject line better so next time you have a 40% open rate. It is satisfying.

You send out a series to train your clients how to use your products. You make your automated series fun and colourful and you include video. The open rate goes up to over 100% because they keep it in a file and watch it over and over again. You can see what people are clicking on and what is giving you a return. You can count the clients who come in and ask a question about what they seen, or those who upgrade because they saw something that they liked in your video. You watch the subscribers go up on your YouTube Channel based on how many times you asked your email list to subscribe. It is rewarding.

You collect names and email addresses at networking events and ask those people if you can send them information, or you put up a draw box in your store where they subscribe. You watch those numbers go up. Then you create a lovely series for your prospects. Your series includes tips, videos, pictures, gorgeous backgrounds newsletters and the occasional offer. You can see how they are responding. Some email you back. Others call. You can put a code on your offer so you can be absolutely sure where every customer comes from. It is so measurable. It is perfect. It is profitable.

Every Business Needs Email Marketing

I highly recommend every business owner to use email marketing. We all have prospects we are trying to get to buy. There is nothing like sending something directly to their in-box. We all have clients that we want to buy again, and there is nothing like sending them tips to their in-box to get that to happen again. We all have followers that we want to lead in some direction. There is nothing better to get folks to walk the path behind you.

Every florist should be sending out beautiful pictures of their arrangements and fun facts about the flower of the month in ongoing monthly campaigns. Every business coach should be sending his coaching clients the quick tips he has that reinforce the exercises he gave us so we actually get that stuff done in auto-responders. Every accountant should be sending out tips to their clients about keeping track of mileage and putting those receipts in the right place for next year. Every car dealership should be keeping in touch with us with maintenance tips for our new car. Do you get a sense of what kind of loyalty this can bring?

Email marketing is permission based marketing. They have given you permission to send, so send something valuable and well-thought-out. Send it regularly. That is what they signed up for. Then enjoy the responses..

Getting People To Sign Up

Don't say "Get My Newsletter." Nobody wants that. Nobody is signing up for email either. Get them to sign up for tips. or offer them a white paper for signing up. Give them a reward. This works better.

Below you can sign up for Biz Tips from The CIBN and Kerry George. We have quick tips that will help you grow your business. You will also get information about networking events that we put on, and occasionally something from one of our Sponsors that will help you in your life and business.

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For Email Marketing you can trust.

Building A YouTube Channel

My YouTube Story So Far...

I have been thinking about building a YouTube Channel for my company CIBN for probably 5 years. Then Google bought YouTube. That made up my mind. Google is the largest search engine in the world and YouTube is the second largest. Google bought YouTube, and that is just more proof that they love videos. It is well known that they love fresh content, so videos will be the next big thing.

Before we started our YouTube channel Francois Alphonse, my beloved who is a videographer and I did a lot of research. We could see YouTube had made huge strides at the end of 2018 to make their platform more desirable. One can actually edit videos right in the channel now. We watched dozens of videos on how to build a channel. We followed some big players to see what they were doing. We read books, and we subscribed to some gurus. We could see that some local people were making money from having ads on their pages after only 18 months. We could also see that most people were doing nothing with video and that would create a huge opportunity for those who did something.

Our plan was to launch our CIBN TV YouTube Channel and get 100 subscribers as fast as possible so we could customize our URL. The CIBN has a few thousand people on an email list so a few email announcements got us up to 100 in no time. Step 1 accomplished.

The second 100 came over time. People found us, they liked us. We shared videos, it was not that difficult. We would really like 1000 though, and that does take a concerted effort. So we are still working on that.

Why YouTube Is Better Than Facebook

If you have put in the effort to make a YouTube Channel, you have to take the time to also populate it with more content. There are lots of good reasons to do so, including improvements to your business bottom line. The fact is, on Facebook or LinkedIn you can now do live videos, and you can post videos you made there as well. However, people don't watch long videos on those channels. They don't go to Facebook to watch videos; they go to YouTube and they watch videos there for hours. I was not the only one who figured this out. Social Media Examiner had a huge following of over 300,000 on Facebook and in the Spring of 2019 made an announcement they were moving all video to YouTube even though they only had 20,000 followers there. Why? People watched the whole video and they bought things. That was not happening on Facebook. Not that they are looking for my approval, but I totally agree.

We have not made much money in our B2B business from Facebook. Occasionally if we can get someone to sign up for the email send outs from one of the Facebook Groups we get a member but that only accounts for about 3% of our marketing return. LinkedIn still gets the highest at over 80% of the return but we can see YouTube is coming in as a player. All we need is the 4 Cs of marketing that I am always going on about: Content, Connections, Consistency, and Call-To-Action.

By the time we had a mere 200 followers on YouTube we were exceeding our Facebook returns, and I have over 15,000 followers on all of our Facebook groups and pages.

How To Get Weekly Video Content

That pesky second C is Content. That is important. One must have content and it must be consistent on YouTube to get any traction. You can do it yourself, but generally that will look like crap, even if you think it doesn't, and it won't be consistent. It also is going to take your valuable time as a business owner to get it done.

I use Francois at Exposure Video. He has a great plan to do 4 videos a month for only $1000 a month. He makes sure they all have a phone number and website and a call to action. He also posts them to your YouTube Channel and keeps the channel updated. Then even if I do get creative I can add more, but at least the basics are covered. It is a great deal! Now we put out new videos each week, usually on Monday and that really helps keep new people subscribing. Every month now we are getting a few calls because of the videos, so it is bringing in a solid return on our efforts.

What Is The Point Of Having A YouTube Channel? 

Of course we want more business. That is the main reason we have a YouTube Channel, but there are lots of other reasons:

• Our company The CIBN is getting found more.
• Our online offerings and masterminds are getting found more.
• My personal name Kerry George is getting found more.
• Our members are liking the extra material. It is a value add for them.
• We feature our Members and our Sponsors on this channel giving them more reach and exposure.
• The sales team is liking the videos, because it is making their job easier.
• I am repeating myself way less often because now we have a video that describes all of the things that I had to keep saying over and over for our team, our members, and our prospects. That is worth it all by itself. If one is trying to build processes into their business, I don't know how you will do it without creating videos.
• When we reach 1000 subscribers we should be able to monetize the whole thing by allowing YouTube to sell ads on our channel. In no time it will pay us back all of our investment of time and money.

Don't Wait To Start A YouTube Channel

Seriously, don't wait. Right now, many of your competitors are having a video made. Most however, do not have a YouTube Channel to post their videos. If they do, they have only created a graveyard where they parked their one or two projects. It is empty. Remember those Cs. That is how you get any marketing to work. Your competitor is not making ongoing content, posting consistently, to a growing number of connections, while using a call-to-action. The sooner you do, the sooner you steal the market!

Here are a few different kinds of videos that Exposure Video has done for me. We have had a lot of fun doing this and using different tools, but best of all, it has been profitable.

Some Video Examples

This video was filmed in front of a green screen. Sometimes I have him put a very nice lead in on the front of these or use nice music. This one however, was created with the intent of educating the network and/or our sales team to be able to network properly at a large event, so I had him not use so many bells and whistles. It gets it done and it is nice and simple.

This video is done with a drawing tool. It is mesmerizing. Even my 3 year old grandson is captivated for the whole thing.

This is called a Promotional Video. It is short and sweet. It runs nicely on Facebook as well when people are scrolling and don't want the sound on.

There are lots more on our YouTube Channel. Please Subscribe while you are there and ring that bell thing so you get notifications when our new videos go live.

Salesperson Wanted - Just Like Me - Kerry George

Salesperson Wanted - Duplicating Kerry George

Have you ever been told in business, you should just duplicate yourself? If you are someone who gets stuff done, then that is a great idea! If you are not that person, probably not a good idea. I remember years ago when I was building a network marketing business, my upline said "What would happen in your business if you had 12 people just like you?" Most would have to admit - NOTHING. I was not one of them then, and I am not one of them now.

I get sh!$ done. Lots of it. If I could duplicate myself, it would be so cool. I work 12 hour days on a short day. I can do marketing (that works). I am a speaker (that people seem to enjoy - that, or they are good at lying about it). I run an organization and I am good with people. I am kind of multi-talented. I am thinking, I am not finding 12 of me. So I am going to settle for just finding 12 sales people. Maybe we will stick to just one thing I can do, and see if I can get any duplication there.

I tried running ads that said "Shark With A Heart Wanted!" Nobody answered that. People just don't get me. Then I tried "Relationship Managers Wanted," and changed nothing in the description but that got me some real candidates.

Now I have been thinking of running an ad like this, but I feel it needs work. What do you think? These are the traits like me (Kerry George) that I need.

Salesperson Must Have:

• A winning personality. You read that right. Not a whining personality. That is not the same. People should like you, when they meet you. They should be okay with spending an hour with you without thinking about dousing themselves with gasoline and lighting themselves on fire to escape.
• The ability to talk, but not talk too much. You know what I mean right? You should be able to explain our services when it is time, but not monopolize the conversations and make it all about you. Interupters need not apply.
• Listeners with two ears. Yes, and they should know where to find their ears and have them turned on at all times. Listening for when business owners have needs. Listening for who needs what service so they can bring members collaborative relationships. Listening to the answers to the questions they ask and not just good waiting skills so they can blurt out what they were thinking about while they were supposed to be listening.
• Care for others. Yes. I want salespeople who actually care about entrepreneurs and business owners. I am hoping for those who want to build relationships and not burn bridges. It is a bad idea to return to current clients and say bad crap about your personal stuff, our stuff or any stuff. The right candidate should actually care about their customers, themselves, their family, and even us the organization of The CIBN. That would be really awesome.
• The willingness to eat and drink. They should like to drink water, coffee or tea, wine, beer or juice. They should enjoy eating food. We eat a lot of food at The CIBN. My business coach Rael Kalley says I feed more people than the food bank, so they should definitely like to eat.
• A desire to make lots of money, but not an overwhelming love of money that drives them to rape, pillage and plunder in the name of profit. No Vikings please. Just honest, hard-working folk, with good work-ethic. Farmers would be nice...
• A smart phone and fingers to dial with. They should love to dial and make it a habit every day to call at least 20 people who actually answer the phone. Leaving phone messages is a cop out and ineffective at best.
• Social media experience. We use a lot of internet tools and marketing so if one has a Facebook account and a LinkedIn account and knows where the "ON" button is on their laptop, this is good. I can work with this.
• The ability and heart to have fun. Our catch phrase is "Happy Capitalism!" No sour pusses please. You should be happy, and your face should show it. I crack myself up, and you should be enjoyable too. I am non-negotiable on that point.

For those of you reading this who think that I am full of myself, I wish to inform you, I simply know what I am good at. I also know that I am bad at many things. To preserve my self-confidence I have left those things out. Be assured, the list is significant.

For those who know me, you will get the humour of duplicating me - Kerry George. I am sure that you can think of some ways you would like to be duplicated too, and if you are honest, probably a few ways you are sure that would not be a good idea...

Oh and if you know someone who qualifies for the above have them call or text me immediately. I want to meet them. 403-397-1909 Even if they don't join my team, I think we will end up being long-term friends!

Using A Mastermind

Using A Mastermind 

When we first got started building The Canadian Imperial Business Network we wanted to help business owners, but really we did not know much about what they needed. We needed help as much as anyone. The Masterminds that we started back then we asked other people to lead because it would have been the blind leading the blind to ask us for any strategy. Every couple of weeks we would get together with people smarter than us and piece by piece we began to build an empire.

We worked on marketing, sales, structure, processes and more. Every time we met we would try to add just one more thing to our business. We couldn't do it all, but if we could do ONE THING maybe it would make a difference. Guess what? It did!

In those early days we made great friends and some of them had big plans too. Velda Paynter who owned Velda's Grower Direct was preparing to sell her business. She learned a lot in our mastermind group and was able to apply marketing and processes that yielded her a big return when she sold her business. It was remarkable to watch it all come together.

Today the masterminds are growing and we are gathering more and more members who are eager to see change in their businesses.

A mastermind is different than a referral meeting. Nobody is looking for a referral. They are there working "on" their business, and not "in" it. They are collaborating and building strategies. In a weekly referral club a member can get a good lead that will feed them for a month. In a mastermind they can create a process that saves them $20,000 a year or have an idea that makes them $80,000 a year. It is a masterful, life-changing experience every time.

We have 2 live ones every month and now online ones for those who can't attend them live. The sky is the limit.

As for me, I will still apply one idea from each time, and one brick at a time increase my empire.

I Go Out Walking

Francois and I love to go out walking most days, as long as it is not pouring rain. I must say though that right after a rain a walk smells delicious. It is late spring and almost summer so the Alberta Wild Roses are out. It was amazing to walk around a bend in the path a few mornings ago and be hit with the incredible floral scents. Lilacs are out in full bloom right now too.

Consistency is the new habit that I am building. It is a powerful habit. Doing something every day, day after day builds new pathways in the brain. Rael Kalley my habits coach has me working on creating this exercise habit over my 100 Days Of Fire. At first I hated it, but now I am actually looking forward to it. It seems to be working. I have gone for a walk at 10:00 PM to make sure it happened, so I must be committed to it.

The parks in Calgary are fabulous. There are so many great pathways to take. Lately we have been to Edworthy Park, Bowness Park, Bakers Park, Nose Hill Park and all of the other parks attached to it. I think though one of my favorites has been the park out at Cochrane. There is a path in the backwoods there that will give you quite the work out. I would not recommend going in the rain because you may slide ride off the trail but it is a very cool walk in the park. There are also these awesome stairs that you can climb to get right up to the big cowboy sculpture.

Each day that I go out walking I consider it a miracle. I really did not like to exercise in any way only a few short months ago. It took saying an affirmation, "I love to exercise," 6 times a day for four months before I was even ready to try it. Now that we do it every day we don't like to miss it at all, and I am still saying "I love to exercise." I am now starting to mean it when I say it. Learning to Lie To Myself has been a useful tool.

The journey of weight-loss is continuing one step at a time. Each day that I go out I get a little closer to my goal and the scale is showing it as well.

How is your journey coming? Tell us about it below and be sure to sign up for updates from my blog at the top right hand corner of the page.

Fitting In Jeans

There is nothing more exciting that pulling an old pair of jeans out of a drawer or a box in the back of your closet and putting them on to find that they fit!

Yay! I had to do a little happy dance and sing a skinny song!

Losing weight sometimes seems like a tedious uphill battle. You have to take a moment and enjoy the milestones.

I had these jeans that I have thought of giving away 100 times because I was too big for them. You know that sinking feeling that you have when you see them there again in the lonely rejected pile of clothing that you feel you will never enjoy again. That's the pile that you try to avoid. It is in the dresser drawer that you never open; or you only open when you can't find the one missing sock and then you remember, "Oh ya, that is the drawer full of stuff that makes me feel bad."

So the other day I was thinking that I really needed something different to wear. I was especially thinking it should be jeans, but I only have 2 pair of jeans and one of them is looking kind of sloppy and the other pair was dirty. Why are my jeans sloppy? Because I lost weight! I just had not drawn the conclusion that a pair of old jeans might fit. So I opened the drawer and stood there and went, "hmmmmm.... I wonder..."

It is such a satisfying feeling when you put those jeans on and they actually fit. Wow! It is like a chorus of angels all sing your name and the heavens open up, and the light shines down on you, and you hear God say, "This is my child, and I am well pleased with her."

Okay, well I was the only one who heard the angels. Still, I am pretty happy about fitting into those jeans.

I just made sure that I did not go looking through any other boxes yet, but I didn't want to lose my happy buzz. That day is coming though. Those boxes are destined for future glory.

"I am coming for you, my precious..."

Being Too Busy

Calgary View Nose Hill Park

There is nothing worse for creating new habits than being too busy.

Life is busy, isn't it?

All that being busy gets in the way of change. We have our routines and those routines are how we manage. Change means we have to disrupt the routines.

My routines prior to making these changes on May 1st were all BAD. Yep. No nice way to say it.

I got up as late as I could. I tried to squeeze the last few seconds of sleep out of my night and that caused pressure on my overall performance, but that was my habit. I was protective of that rest and would argue I needed my beauty sleep. Even though there was absolutely no evidence to support that it was somehow making me more beautiful, and perhaps there was even evidence to the contrary.

I would stagger down to the kitchen and let the dog out and then with my eyes half open I would feel my way around the kitchen and get a coffee into my miserable self. I would stand at the counter feeling gross and try to stir myself up to face the day.

The day then got very busy.

I would go up to my computer and try to get as much done as possible in an hour, get everything packed into my briefcase and rush out for the appointments, the training classes I would teach, or the schedule that I had set for myself. I was very busy. That amount of busyness was keeping me from reaching any health related goals. My days were going from one appointment to another. No time for exercise and no time for thinking about what to eat.

I didn't eat breakfast which kept my body in starvation mode. Then I was so hungry I would eat a heavy lunch that fed my soul. On cold days I wanted something hot so in the restaurants I was ordering the burger and fries with gravy and Reuben sandwiches . I smothered everything with cheese and sour cream. I didn't order salad because it was cold. Ew... cold...

I did not take the stairs. I did not like exercise.

When I finished up my appointments I went home and right back to the computer to do more work. My ass was getting bigger and bigger. Sometimes I was having trouble fitting into a chair in a restaurant. I did not like that feeling, but habit was keeping me there.

Working with my habits coach Rael Kalley has opened up my eyes. I realize now, I am my own worse enemy. I have this big gang in my head that has sprayed my thoughts with ugly graffiti and as soon as I try to clean it off or repaint they show up with bats and swear at me. They try to take back their territory. I have to fight for it every day. One of their tactics is to remind me just how busy I am. I have no time for exercise.

Whispering Walkway
Nose Hill Park

Since I started the 100 day program I am no longer responding to those gangsters. I am making time for exercise every day. We have been visiting the parks all across the city and taking pictures and videos of our experiences. We go for a walk either early in the morning, or in the evening, and we have been fitting it into our busy lifestyle with more ease than I thought possible. I am actually really enjoying the exercise. I would not have believed that was possible.

Following a plan for what I eat is also easier than I realized. It just requires some pre-planning. Once you get into the habit of buying fruit a couple times a week, it is not hard to juice each morning. Once you buy a few bags of meal replacement protein powder from Arbonne you have something around for those times when you are too busy to make good choices. Making a new plan priority is not hard once you have made it priority. The difficulty is in our mind before we get started. Once we get started it gets easier.

What are you too busy doing? What do you do now to overcome it?

Tell us about your changes, and subscribe to hear more about my journey at the top in the right hand corner.

Proper Fruit Consumption

There is a lot of controversy about fruit. Some people say that it is very good for you. Others will say that it is full of sugar content and that it is bad for people with diabetes and that we should all watch our fruit intake.

Fit For Life talks a lot about proper fruit consumption. Until I read this book and started applying it I had no idea that fruit could be eaten in a way that is not good for the body. For example if fruit is cooked obviously it changes the chemical composition of the fruit. Cooking fruit makes it very high in sugar calories. That makes sense because we all know if we sit around and eat apple pie or cherry cobbler all day it's going to definitely add some pounds to the waistline. I had not given it much thought before reading that book but having canned fruit in a little cup, would be the same as eating it in a pie. It is cooked. I grew up on home made jams, and we put fruit into all kinds of food that we cooked. It is sweet and delicious. In my early years I never thought about it.

Orange juice that you get out of a can, or even in a carton, or a jar, from the fridge at the grocery store is concentrated. That's a big fancy word that means cooked. When any kind of fruit has been cooked it turns into a sugary acid.

When Health experts tell people with diabetes that they should not be eating fruit, they would be correct if they were talking about fruit that is cooked. It is actually pretty nasty. When you think of a food that will spike your blood sugar level, that one is pretty guaranteed. What if they ate it raw though? Is it the same? The calories are similar when you compare concentrated orange juice to fresh squeezed orange juice, but what if it is not just about calories? The Canada Food guide does not distinguish any difference in cooked or raw fruit so I thought they must be the same. Now though I believe they are not the same because of what I experience in my own body when I consume them.

An interesting thing that fit for Life brought to my attention is what happens to a fruit that is eaten raw, but then has other food added into the stomach at the same time with it. This is something I had never heard any health experts say, but by experimenting in my own body I would definitely agree there is something to be said for this. Fit For Life tells us that if we eat fruit by itself but the fruit remains alkaline, and that alkaline is basically good for us. That lines up to other things that I have read that suggests that too much acid for instance in the system is a contributing environment in our body for diseases such as cancer. I think most experts would agree that alkaline is preferable.

How do we prove that it stays alkaline in the body when it is eaten raw? I am not a scientist, so I don't have a test I could run. I could however do an experiment in my own body. I could test how I feel after I consume these things on separate occasions. I could even log the results in a journal and see long term if there is any difference in anything that is measurable.

We have been trained to eat all kinds of things with fruit. My father told me for years that fresh squeezed orange juice, or any kind of orange juice would give him an immediate heartburn. That would suggest acid. So I had him do a little test. He knew that if he drink orange juice as he normally did, quickly followed by coffee and with breakfast that he would have heartburn. So I asked him to try it with only orange juice that is fresh-squeezed, and to have nothing else for at least an hour and see what that did to him. The result was he had no heartburn. In fact he realized afterwards that he could enjoy fruit by itself on an empty stomach first thing in the morning without any painful side effects. He could even drink grapefruit juice that was fresh squeezed. He also noted that if he ate anything else within 45 minutes of putting that fruit of his mouth that he would then be sick immediately. He definitely could not drink concentrated orange juice and concentrated grapefruit juice was even worse.

You've been eating fruit all your life. Try this. One morning eat fruit the way you've always eaten it. Put your bananas on top of your cereal, take your vitamins and meds with your oranges, have fruit inside of a protein shake, or put strawberries on your waffles with whipped cream. After you eat these things go sit on the couch quietly and think about how you feel. What does your stomach feel like? How is your energy level? Is there any gurgling going on? Could you go outside right now and go for a brisk walk?

Tomorrow morning have only fruit. Don't cook your fruit, don't add sugar to it. Don't drink coffee with it. Don't have toast with it. Don't take vitamins or medication at the same time. Just have fruit. Raw fruit. You can squeeze oranges for real fruit juice if you want. You can eat pieces of watermelon, or handfuls of grapes. After you have eaten your fill go sit on the couch. And think about how you feel. Does your stomach hurt? What is your energy level like? Could you go outside and go for a brisk walk or a run right now.

There is one side effect eating fruit, and you might find it to be a little inconvenient but it is very healthy for you. You're going to have to go to the bathroom more. You are also going to be hungry faster. That's not really a problem though, just take a mandarin orange or a banana with you. They travel real well.

I find weight loss to be very easy if I eat fruit all morning. It gives me lots of energy, and my mind is very sharp. I don't even feel like I need coffee.

In the past when I took off a lot of weight, I kept it off for 10 years, and I hardly did any exercise. The one thing though that I did do continuously, is that I ate a lot of fruit in the morning that was raw, and I didn't eat anything else. I ran on 4 to 6 hours a night sleep when I did that. I didn't seem to need any more sleep. I just naturally woke up after 6 hours.

I have recently gone back to doing this, and the weight is coming off. I feel great. I would encourage you to try it out. Tell us how you feel?

Also go up to the top right hand corner of the page and subscribe to receiving these blogs. I write one twice a week. If you have a blog go ahead and post in the comment section below.

Lie To Yourself

Apparently what we tell ourselves is important. We continually tell ourselves all kinds of things. Much of it is negative. Much of it is not true. We just think it is true at the time.

For instance we typically say things to ourselves like "I never am on time." Is that true? Are you NEVER on time? Isn't that an exaggeration? If you have a job, you must be on time some of the time or you would get fired. So that can't be true.

We all lie to ourselves continually so it is important to tell ourselves lies that bare good results. You have heard of faking it until you make it. Some people think that is not real. I happen to know that it works. There were lots of things that I faked it on. I pretended to be good a public speaking. I pretended over and over and over and over again. I faked it so much and I told myself that I was good at it. Now most people would agree. I rock at public speaking. That was not true the first time I did it. My knees knocked. I forgot what I was saying. I shook. I had no confidence. I just made myself do it and I told myself I was going to be good at it. Eventually I became good at it. I am sure you can think of something that you faked for a while too, and then you got good at it.

Affirmations can feel like faking it at first. I have heard folks say affirmations don't work. Well actually they do, but you also have to work. You have to keep saying them. If you write out one sentence and say it sometimes. You won't get much of a result.

A few years ago when I first went into business, I knew I had to change the way I thought about things considerably. I was making no real money and I had to change the way I was thinking about money. I had realized that I thought money would only come to me through hard work. Money came to others without hard work. Money came to others who were seemingly undeserving, so that meant it should work the same for me. I wrote down, "Money comes to me easily." I put it on the lid of the toilet seat so I would see it every time I went to the bathroom. I put it on my steering wheel in my car. I wrote it out in my journal and stuck it to the top of my computer screen. I said it several times a day. I doubled my income that year, and the next and the next after that.

Affirmations worked. I knew it. I had seen it.

Rael Kalley my habits coach reminded me of that when I started working with him last December. His plan was a little more radical so I decided to give it a go. He taught me to write out my affirmations with a lot more detail and to spend 5 to 7 minutes at a time thinking about how having that thing would make me feel. He also encouraged me to say them a minimum of 6 times a day. Things started to change right away in some areas.

I was saying "Money comes to me in an avalanche of abundance through my brilliant ideas." In less than 48 hours I had a really huge brilliant idea. It made me a bunch of money really quickly. That was very cool.

The affirmations that I was saying about what I ate took about 2 months to kick in. I wasn't ready for change immediately. My head rejected the sayings at first and recognized them as lies. I was saying, "I only desire foods that drive me closer to my ideal weight of 150 pounds." I laughed out loud the first few times I said that. I thought about the beer and pizza I was planning to enjoy and giggled as I ate them, but I kept saying it. Within 30 days I was desiring less pizza. In fact, I was rejecting milk products like cheese and sour cream without even thinking about it. I was not ordering them when I was at a restaurant, instead of insisting on them bringing me a vat for my baked potato. I stopped ordering extra dressing and condiments. I had 1 beer instead of 3. My cart at the grocery store was suddenly full of fruits and vegetables instead of processed foods.

My exercise lies took even longer. The first month I said "I love to exercise," and I physically grimaced when I said it. I thought of going outside and then I shuddered. Yuck. Who wants to do that? I did not even have excuses. I didn't need them. The answer was not even "No." It was a loud, "HELL NO!"

Kerry George
Walking at Nose Hill Park

I made my first commitment to exercise in January and by mid February I realized I was not going to do it. I was not ready. I decided instead to just keep lying to myself until the lie seemed closer to truth. It took a few months. In March I tried to go for a walk. I took 5 steps and went back in the house. Yuck. Then it snowed. That was a great excuse to put it off for a while longer. It was in April that I realized that I felt ready. May 1 was going to be the big day. Francois was going to help me. He was going to go with me. We were planning to do it 5 days a week. Now we do it 6 days a week. Last night we went bowling as well. It is awesome when you have a partner or even a friend who will support you. Now I had 1 less excuse.

Affirmations work. If you work the affirmations, they will work for you.

Write out your affirmations. Not just one line. Write out how you want it to be as though you already have it. Write about wealth, and health, and things you want to accomplish as though you already did it. Write out things you want to have, as though you already have them. It should be several sentences long. If you don't like to write, start with, "I love to write." Tell yourself some worthy lies that you want to become reality.

Now I love to lie to myself and the lies are good ones. I tell myself I am what I want to be so often, and so hard, and with so much emotion that I am becoming the lie. It is my new truth.

What kind of affirmations are you writing for yourself?

Tell us all about it below in the comments. In writing out your commitment and sharing it with the world you are one step closer to doing it always. Also please subscribe to these blogs on the top right hand of the page.

Whispering Walkway
Through the woods in Nose Hill Park

100 Days Of Fire

Have you ever felt like you needed to just burn some things out of your life?

Rael Kalley my habits coach in April was encouraging me to do a 100 Day Challenge. To me it seemed a bit extreme. I had to ask myself how badly do I really want change? Maybe I like the pain of not changing better than the pain of disciplining myself to change.

Slow and steady wins the race, right?

Good things come to those who wait.

Or is it only the things that are left behind by those who hustle?

I don't know, there has to be some good excuse for being non-committal.

Inside I know he is right. I just don't like it. I want to fight it.

Who wants to light fire to the way that they are and purge out all of the ugly at one time? That sounds painful.

I was in the army. It was about 100 years ago. Right after we all got off the ark. Things were different then. The grass was greener. The sky was more blue. It was easy to leap into the flame and get shot at, and swim the river, and get gassed with tear gas. That was then. This is now. I have a different body now. Invasion of the body snatchers came and stole that old body away. I could do 100 push ups back then. I could hang upside down on monkey bars and do 50 crunches. I could take a punch to the stomach and punch back. I could run 10 km before breakfast. Now I couldn't do one push up. Literally, not one. There would be much moaning and groaning and weeping and wailing and nashing of teeth if I tried. If you hit me in the stomach your fist would sink in about 2 feet and I would double over and die. I wouldn't leap into anything accept maybe bed, or perhaps the buffet line at a Chinese Restaurant.

100 days of discipline. 100 days of fire. Hmmmmm I think that I hear a pizza calling my name...

100 days of sticking to the program. I get to pick the program, but then I have to stick to it.

100 days of committed exercise. I have to decide. Is it 3 times a week? Is it 5 days a week? Is it 7 days a week? I get to decide but then I have to stick to it.

At military boot camp, I did not get to decide. I had to do it. They literally threw us out of the beds at 4:35 am if we did not respond to the 4:30 wake up call. We had to run 10 km even if we only felt like running 1 km. We had to keep up. If we puked, they did not care. If we cried they did not care. If we quit, they dragged us along. Then they punished our entire group for the one who was lagging. That was a great way to make friends.

I used to have that girls body in the photo above. That was me. Except I had dark hair. I carried a gun. I was in the army. I thought of myself as a superhero.

100 days of fire.

Okay I will do it.

For 100 days I committed to some business goals. I have to make 10 calls a day.

For 100 days I committed to my eating program. I went back to Fit For Life because it works for me.

For 100 days I committed to 5 days a week of exercise.

I started May 1st.

We have been walking 6 days out of 7. Sometimes more than once.

I am already down by 13 pounds.

Only 80 days of fire left. I am getting my body back!

What would you commit to for 100 days?

Changing Habits

For the last few years I have been using business coaches to help me grow my business www.cibnconnect.com

I am very blessed because as the owner of The CIBN I get introduced to the best of the best and over the years I have had some exceptional help that has given us wings even in a bad economy. In the network I also get to see who brings real results and who has practical techniques that are easy to implement. We have a few great coaches right now who specialize in different things but my main personal coach is Rael Kalley. Rael is worth his weight in gold.

Rael is primarily a habits coach. He is one of the most successful coaches that I have ever met and it is likely because he has mastered his own personal habits. He is not ruled by his habits, he actually rules his habits. As a result he makes really good money. I think that is an important quality in a coach because many of them want to give me all kinds of advice and they can't even afford a basic membership at The CIBN for only $700. If someone can't afford that little amount then I don't want to take business advice from them. I certainly would not introduce them to you either.

The first thing I noticed about Rael is that he did not blink when we told him the price for the MasterMind Program and he joined immediately. He has money. He takes his own advice. The second think that I learned about him was from one of his clients that was leaving his office one day. The man disclosed to me that he was making about 6 times the average in his industry. Rael also self-published a book a few years ago and has sold over 40,000 copies. That is unheard of. I decided last December I had to have him as my coach. I really need people like him around me.

An interesting thing happens when you hire Rael Kalley to be your business coach. You lose weight. No kidding.

The reason is because he is a habits coach and habits affect every part of our lives. Many of Rael's clients over the years have lost weight and more importantly they kept it off after they lost it. Some of his clients lost more than 100 pounds. That is not a common thing. Most people gain back what they lose.

When I hired Rael I was topping the scales at 244. It is the heaviest that I have ever been. I hired him in December of 2017 and by the end of February I was down to 230. I had not even changed much. I was not exercising yet at all. I was just changing the way I was thinking. After a few months, I had not lost more, but I had not gained it back either.

Because of Rael I was examining my habits. Mostly I was doing it to see gains in my business, which went up by $20,000 in monthly revenue in January of 2018.

By examining my habits I realized that I had set myself up for failure in business, in life, and definitely in weight-loss. Click Here to review my bad habits.

The first thing that I needed to change to get better results was how I was thinking about things. I had to change the way I thought to make permanent changes to my habits. I would like to tell you that those changes came overnight, but they did not. They took some time. In December 2017 on Rael's advice I started writing out affirmations and saying them 6 times a day minimum. Mostly they were about things I wanted to change for business, but Rael insisted that I look at healthier living choices as well. I did not want to. I did not care if I was fat. I like myself just fine. I was not motivated to be any different. He did raise a valid point though that I would not live to see the empire I built if I gave my body no further consideration. That was a good point.

I really, really, really had to start by changing the way I thought; especially about exercise. I had a lot of stuff in my head about how I hated exercise. I did not like it when:

• It was too hot
• It was too windy
• It was too cold
• It was too hard

I did not like to bike or walk, I really hated it a lot!

So the affirmations that I told myself went like this:

• I love to exercise (cringe).
• I love to go outside (groan).
• I only desire foods that drive me towards my goal (sigh).
• I enjoy walking every day (moan).

Most people would probably start a program a lot faster than me. I first had to defeat the demons in my head and my personal bad attitude.By January I was eating more salad and on a program for eating better. By February I stopped cringing when I said the statements about exercising. By April I was planning to actually go outside. It wasn't until May 1 that I started doing it. Now I am going outside for a brisk walk and even a little jog 6 out of 7 days in the week. I am making progress. Don't judge me.

Tell me how are you progressing? I won't judge you either.

Go ahead and click up on the top right hand of the page to get updates so you will see my next blog, and don't forget to write your comments at the bottom of the page.

Quick Fixes And Other Bad Habits

If you have been following my story you will know that 2 years ago I tried laser therapy weight-loss. Just so you know, it did work. It was a quick fix. It is however costly. I paid over $2000 at the time and it does reduce inches.

I wanted a quick, easy, painless solution. I wanted to beam it off my body like having a sci-fi experience of some type. Seriously, who wouldn't want that? That is why people go get their stomachs stapled and others opt for sucking out their fat. It seams easier than the alternative which is hard work. Nobody wants that program. Yuck. Exercise? Stop eating food I love? Stop drinking my calories? Who is signing up for that?

I guess people do sign up for that. Weight-loss centers around the world make money off us as we come in to buy the pills, buy the food, take the programs, and so on. The reality is, we do take it off if we use some of these things. We also can do it ourselves if we apply some hard work and actually exercise. The thing is though, we are not keeping it off.

I took off more than 20 pounds back in 2015 but I gained it back. I also gained an extra 30 just to be sure it stuck.

Recently I started examining why.

Apparently it is my habits. I have many of them. Most of them are bad.

I have had the habit of not exercising. I did not like it actually. I would even cringe at the mere thought of it. It seemed more distasteful than anything, except maybe eating properly. That was also distasteful... quite literally.

Rael Kalley is my habits coach and he started getting me to look at my habits. This is what they look like:

• I like to sleep until it is time to rush in the morning.
• I don't like to exercise at all. I hate all exercise equally. I don't even enjoy watching others do it. I don't watch sports. I think it is a waste of time and money.
• I like to eat no breakfast at all and then when I am starving for lunch I like to overeat heavy calorie foods with lots of fat. My favorite is sour cream. I prefer to smother most of my food in it.
• I eat in a restaurant several times a week. I like to put whatever I want into my mouth and savor the delicious food that my tongue wants and I don't usually care what my body has to deal with later.
• Fruit seems cold to me. I don't like it.
• Veggies seem too good for me. I don't like them.
• I don't like to drink water. It is too wet.
• I do like to drink coffee. I obviously need something to keep me going. I particularly love to drink Starbucks lattes. Especially pumpkin spice and other decadent 400+ calorie drinks.
• I don't like pop or sugary drinks. Thank God, I have one good thing going for me.
• I don't take the stairs. Those are for skinny people. I secretly am suspicious of skinny people. They are just way too skinny.
• My days are spent in restaurants and coffee shops.
• I come home and spend a few hours on the computer in a sitting position doing the marketing that I did not get done while at work.
• I like to overwork at work and then at the end of the day I lay around.
• I eat a home cooked meal twice a week. It is usually something delicious and high-calorie. I have several favorites like perogies smothered in sour cream or pasta with cream sauce. Mmmm mmm
• I like to watch TV at night and it is even better if I am eating chips with onion dip and a yummy craft beer.

How could I possibly gain weight on those habits?

I just want a quick fix, I don't want a long-term commitment. Apparently I have to change the way I think.

Life is not fair.

Go ahead and vent below. Tell me why life is not fair, and it is not your fault. We can agree together and support one another in our bad habits just for right now. Later I will tell you how I am overcoming these habits but for now, go ahead and wallow in it and get it off your chest.

If you want to come back for more, you can sign up for updates in the top right hand corner with your email address.

A New Plan

I have not written a blog here in about two years. I have been writing, just not here on my personal page. My business has been growing and I have had a lot of things to contribute to the blog on my website www.cibnconnect.com as well as on my LinkedIn profile.

I am going to start writing here again to talk more about personal matters as well as to track my ongoing weight-loss program and then weight-maintenance. I have discovered that weight-maintenance is actually even more important than weight-loss. I am making a new plan to take me forward to May 2019 one year from now.

Did you know that television programs like The Biggest Loser have a hard time planning reunion shows because the people gain the weight back? In fact, many weight-loss programs and dieting centers have the same problem. People do lose weight. Then they gain it back.

I too, have had some of these challenges, so I have been on the hunt to find out why and make some positive changes. I think I have learned a few things. I want to share them with you and maybe you can join me on this journey for a healthier life-style.

A pretty accurate picture of what I look like

Let's start with a recap. I gained weight for the first time as a newly wed. I was 25. I put on 30 pounds trying to impress my new husband with Ukrainian food and fresh baked bread. My aunt gave me a book that was popular at the time called Fit For Life. I applied the principles increasing fresh fruit and fresh vegetables and I lost the weight. Irritable Bowel Syndrome also vanished. I was back on track for several years. I also got rid of the husband. He was bad for my figure, my financial figures, and for me in general.

I was slender until my third child came into my life in my early thirties. That was my first real challenge. I think many women experience weight gain with having more children. After a few years of unhappy struggle I had a couple of girlfriends help me out by encouraging me to go back on the dietary plan I followed before and they got me out walking. I lost the weight and kept if off for about 10 years.

Many people talk about yo-yoing. I never really seen it as yo-yoing. I knew when I worked at it, I lost weight. When I stayed focused I kept it off. When I stopped eating healthy and stopped exercising, bad things happened. There was no real mystery about it. I knew what I was doing. I was making choices.

Lately I have realized most people are not thinking about it like that. They are not seeing daily small choices as being the leading cause of where they are at now. They seem to not see the correlation. Whenever I gained weight, I knew exactly what I was doing. Every time I put food in my mouth I knew if it was a good idea or a bad idea. Every day I opted for no exercise I understood I was adopting a Body By Pizza Hut attitude. Maybe that was even worse than not knowing.

When I hit 40 I suddenly found it harder to take weight off and keep it off. The metabolism was changing. It was even easier to gain weight. To make matters even more challenging I started a new business that was very demanding. It was hard to think about meal planning and even harder to plan exercise as part of a daily or even weekly routine. That was enough to start packing on the pounds but I had an even bigger problem. My business took place every day in restaurants. Suddenly I was eating in a way that was very different to my regiment. There was lots of salt, lots of sugar, and some places didn't even serve a proper salad. So I gave in to eating what my tongue desired, when it desired it. To top it off, I also began to enjoy more beer and wine. Yum. My taste buds were ecstatic. The rest of my body was screaming.

Fast forward to 6 years later. I have gained about 70 lbs. No joke.

My knees hurt. It is hard to exercise. My grandson who is 2 is outrunning me. I think it is time to make a change.

My business is no longer in a learning curve. We've got this. I don't have to be in a restaurant 5 days a week anymore, nor am I too weak-minded to create new strategies. So I have run out of excuses. I am making a change.

Over the next days and weeks and months and years I am going to be blogging here, because this is a life-long project. If you want to join me in the journey make a comment below. I will be sharing what is working and what is helpful. You can share your tips too. Let's do this together!

By the way, if you like this blog you can sign up for updates in the top right hand corner.

Cooking Joe Canadian #CASL

In 2010 I am a happy little frog named Joe Canadian who sits in a nice pan of cool water when bill C-28 begins it’s early progress through the House Of Commons. CASL sounds like a wonderful little piece of legislation to Joe Canadian the happy little frog. It is a law to protect Joe from spammers. It sounds so sweet. The government must have his best interest at heart. Joe does not ask who brings this law to the House. He does not ask how it will affect him. After all, Joe is not a spammer. Joe is a realtor.

Joe happily goes on his way and does not notice when the legislation gets a little more intense on January 1^st, 2014. The water is getting warmer in his little pan of water but he does not know it. It was so gradual and besides now it is quite comfortable. Surely the government is looking after his interests. He continues to do business like he has always done business. He has open houses, he shows houses, he has this nice sheet that he leaves out at the entrance where the guests can sign in and leave their email addresses. Later he will add them to his email list and send them updates about houses going on the market.

Joe learned all about content and adding value at a seminar last year. So his newsletter gives great tips. He shows people how to prepare their existing homes for the market. There are renovation tips. There are home decorating tips. There is information about the best areas in which to live and articles about the best schools. He has been getting great reviews from people who get it. Some even repost it to their social media sites. Joe has been very clever and used a system where he can actually see who opened his emails, who clicked on his articles, and he can measure their interest. Overall it has helped him to increase his sales by 15% last year and he can attribute a few of his latest deals to this process. He is quite happy.

Poor Joe does not know that the water is heating up in his little pan of water and that he is about to get cooked!

The Canadian Anti Spam Legislation is about to steal his hard earned list. Joe Canadian who is a realtor is about to be very effected by something that is way outside of his control. His sister who owns a spa is also about to be effected. His mother-in-law who owns a flower shop is also about to be effected.

CASL puts them all in very hot water indeed. Now they must prove consent. July 1, 2014 the water just went into a boil. The lists that they built from long term customer interaction, and adding value to content are just as “at risk” as the real spammers lists. They are told that they have 36 months to turn that verbal consent into a double opt-in, but what if one unhappy customer, or one devious competitor reports them in the meantime? The onus is on them to prove their innocence. Once they are in court being boiled away to nothing, they will have their chance to prove that they did indeed comply. It will only cost them thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of lost time, so why should they complain?

Joe found out about this just days before July 1^st. He should have been paying attention of course, so it is his fault. After all, everyone in Canada should watch every piece of legislation going through the House Of Commons daily because one never knows when someone with an agenda wants to boil you. So now Joe will get rid of several really good prospects from his list and comply with the theft of his hard work. He will hire a social media management team to keep compliant in the future. He will take extra insurance on, just in case of lawsuits or fines. One needs to be prepared, and it is only a few thousand extra money a year to do all of this. So Joe Canadian should just accept his fate and his little pan of boiling water and let himself get cooked.

Joe, pick up the phone and call your MP! Organize a protest. Write an article. Do something! You are getting cooked!

Always Loyal2U,

Kerry George

If you want tips on how to deal with CASL see our page at our Loyal2U site. There are also some great articles about this issue on LinkedIn.

Resolutions Or Goals?

My son asked me the other day if I had any New Year Resolutions this year. I responded that I don`t make resolutions. I make goals. I write them down and then I track my progress and I get things done. I may not accomplish every goal but I do seem to get more things finished than many people.

A resolution is a firm decision to do or not to do something. Shouldn`t every decision be resolute? Why bother making a decision if you are going to be wishy-washy about it?

Make A Decision

If I decide I am driving across town I do it. If I decide I will no longer smoke, I quit smoking. Why complicate the matter? A few years ago I did quit smoking. I was physically addicted so it was not an easy decision. I knew I needed to make the decision for a while, and I put it off because I knew it would be difficult. Once I decided though there was no changing my mind. Why waste time changing my mind? Addiction just meant it would take a few tries. I decided, therefore it was a done deal. I worked on it until I succeeded. That is what one does when they make a decision.

When I was in my early twenties I had a fantastic mentor named Russ.  He told me that people would follow me if I was resolute in my decisions. If I could not convince myself that I had the answer and continually changed my mind, why would anyone follow that? Why should they?

There is statement of wisdom that comes from the book of James in the Bible. It says that a double-minded man will receive NOTHING from God. Why? Because he can’t even decide what to ask? He can’t decide what he wants. He can’t decide what to work on. One day he is planning to buy a business. The next day he wants to move to another city. Then he thinks about getting a job, but first he will knit some slippers. Nothing gets done. He goes from one little task to another, perhaps completing a few things so he deceives himself that he is getting somewhere. No resolution in decision making brings nothing to fruition. This person can’t bless himself with anything finished, never mind have God bless him.

Resolution, Goals And Wasting Time

Firstly let your “yes” be a “yes” and your “no” be a “no.” Be resolute in that. You will get more done and others will at least know where you stand and then they can decide if they want to get on the wagon with you or not.

Secondly set goals that you actually intend on working on.

Recently I had Murielle Clements a very good life coach give me a consultation. It was amazing. She nailed the areas of life that I needed to work on and it was really a very productive time. I realized that I needed work in my family life, my relationships, my career, my finances and my health. However, I also realized that there was no way I could work on all of those things at once. I like to work on one thing at a time when it comes to self-improvement. So I picked one thing. One thing I will work on this year. There are other times when I can work on other things. She loved that I knew that. Most people think they can do it all at once, and most people are no better at all at once than I am.

At work or in business we need to set goals. In our personal lives we may be able to focus on one other area, but do one at a time. It makes your goals more achievable. You can’t train for a marathon, audition for The Voice, be a CEO of a start-up company, and be the dart champion at the local pub. So many people try to do all of that AND run 4 kids to soccer, volley ball, ballet, art lessons, and piano. What are you thinking? The kids will be more successful too if you teach them this. Pick one thing at a time and set goals with that one thing.

It is a waste of time to make resolutions and to make goals if I have no intention of changing. What is the point of writing my goals down if I am going to put them into my desk drawer and hide them away? Why say that my resolution is to lose weight if I know I am not going to make time to go to the gym right now? That is just a waste of time and money if I buy a membership and some diet shakes. I have zero intention of following through.

Ask yourself if you are serious and if it is even a feasible goal right now? Will it fit into your life to make the necessary changes? Would it be better to wait until spring when a brisk morning walk is a more likely exercise that will get completed?

Setting Goals Is An Easy Thing To Do

Setting goals is not rocket science. Just write them down. Keep them in front of you. Look at them often. It is actually like using a grocery list when you go shopping. Keep it simple.

Make a 1 year goal and then break that into 90 day chunks. So now what do you have to do in the next quarter to prepare you for success in the bigger picture of one year? Make a To Do List.

Use a journal. Write at the beginning of the journal “This year I am going to be a better ____________.” Every time you have a thought about it write it in the journal. Write your goals in there. Record a few lines out of a book that you are reading about that subject. Keep that journal handy. When you go to a course on the area that you need to improve, use that journal to keep notes. Ask your mentor questions about that area of life and write their answers in your journal. Use it all year. You will be surprised how much you change and how much closer you get to your bigger goal.

Get others to hold you accountable. Use a system for your business like Manifast to keep everything together and get it all done in stages, or join the CIBN MasterMind Level so you can get the help that you need to move forward at brainstorming sessions.

Failing At Goal Setting

Everyone fails at goal setting. Get over it. Stop beating yourself up for failure. So what!

Anyone who has never failed, has never tried anything worthwhile.

Why are people so afraid of failure? Why are they afraid to try? Why are they afraid to write goals down because it may be embarrassing if someone sees their failure? Why are they afraid that others will mock their goals? Why would you even care what someone else thinks?

I pay my bills. NOBODY ELSE. Who pays your bills? So why would you care what their opinion is? You have to look at you in the mirror every day. You are not competing with anyone but your own previous performance. You are not obligated to react to another person’s judgement of you. Their opinion is irrelevant. Most of them don’t care anyway, we just “think” they have an opinion. In reality we don’t even occur to them. We did not make the list of important things for them to interfere with today. We were not even in their thoughts. Our own vanity makes us think they are focused on us and our own fear keeps us paralyzed. (I know I am pretty harsh, but it is true, isn't it?)

Fear is faith in reverse. It tells you that everything bad will happen. It is irrational. It stunts your growth and binds you from succeeding. Get over it. Put one foot in front of the other. Write your goals down. Break them into nice bite-sized pieces and get going. One step at a time. You will fail. You will succeed. You will fail some more. Then you will learn and you will succeed some more. Two steps forward, and one step back. Over and over again until you winning more than you are losing.

Start Today

Get out your pen. Don’t just make a resolution. Make some goals.

Always Loyal2U,

Kerry George