To think about climbing the ladder of life is sometimes amusing. Everybody wants to climb up, nobody wanted to be left on the ground. But sad to say, not every one can get to the summit. Some may make their best rise in brief length of time and when they turn back and look at the distance they have come, they tend to forgot that they already had taken a lengthy step forward. Others may strive hard to achieve the summit but still they are not in motion. They become desperate and lose hope along the process. The reality is painful to grasp for us all.

For anyone to win over any difficulties in life is a remarkable achievement. Keeping ahead and continuously leading through living life even when you fell down at every step is already an accomplishment. Achieving success is not measured by how many times you fell down, but it’s how many times you rise from the ground and continue climbing the ladder of life. Life does not end at a single step of failure; it is a continuous process.

On the other side of success, you may get stuck on your climb. Still, continue taking one step after another, your time will come and the summit will be reached soon. Do not do things all at once or you will be overwhelmed with the great bulk of work you must perform along the process. Do not be greedy of taking your steps forward. Life’s success is not done overnight. Let every source of power you have work each day and enhance its golden opportunities. Appreciate and be grateful to others’ assistance. Continue climbing the ladder of life step by step.

Imagine life going with no right direction. You travel with no correct destination, spending resources without knowing the purposes. In this world, nothing is permanent, what resources you may have today may be lost tomorrow.

To achieve your goals and avoid getting lost, you must value the importance of understanding the process of climbing the ladder of life. From there, you will discover that “life is amazing!”. Live your life at the top.

Which way should you go?

When it comes to marketing do you promote your business or do you promote you?

It really does depend on your type of business and where you are marketing. So how do you know which is the right avenue to take? One thing to keep in mind is “People do business with People”. Here are a few key points to think of:

If you use a social media platform like LinkedIn you will find this is the place to market you… not your business. You profile will be all about you and your work experience. The discussions you have will be based around your topics of interest. It is about building relationships not marketing your business.

Facebook has the ability for both types of promotion. If you set up a business page you can promote your business and your products etc… and from your personal profile you can promote yourself, build your credibility and relationships.

I personally feel that if you business is service based – as in one on one consultation, coaching, mentoring, assistants etc, you should really be building up your brand as being YOU and not your business name. If you are more based in retail with products etc, then your marketing should be more BRAND/BUSINESS focused… apart from the social media examples above.

Of course everyone will have their own take and their own thoughts on this… I would love to hear your feedback!

So you have been in business for a while and you are feeling stale and maybe a little bored?

What are some ideas and strategies you can implement to keep your passion alive?

First of all you should write a list of the reasons you started the business in the first place. What was it that made you get excited about going into business for yourself? Was it the flexibility? Was it the freedom to do as you please, take holidays when you please? Was it the income you were going to generate? Whatever the reasons, are they still there, or didn’t they ever arrive?

Being in business for yourself is never easy, it never goes 100% to plan. There are always bumps in the road and sometimes large pot holes too. You need to ensure that you have a great support network in place for you and your business. A mentor is a great idea, as it gives you someone to bounce ideas off and they can give you some great advice on how to do things so that you don’t need to learn the same lessons they did.

So the big question is: Can you get back that exciting feeling you had when you first started your business? The answer to this question will be different for everyone.

YES – You can if you still have all the aspects in your business you wanted when you started it and maybe just you have gotten a little bored and needed to change it up a little. Some suggestions here are maybe re-branding your business; give it an image a makeover. Or maybe hire a business coach to assist you in taking your business to the next level. Mastermind it with a few key business people you know and see what ideas you can come up with.

NO – If the things you went into business for either have never been achieved or have changed. This can happen, things change, life changes, people change. Something you loved and had passion for 10 years ago may not be your passion anymore. Sometimes if the spark is gone, it is gone. It doesn’t mean that you have failed; it just means you need a new challenge, you need to reignite that spark, and it may just mean you need a new opportunity to do this.

Re-sparking that magic really is possible, but only if you really want it to be.

The key elements to any successful person and successful business is: Do what you love and Love what you do.. and if you don’t like what you are doing, change it!

You too can love your life today www.lovinglifenow.com.au

Even though you may be in business by yourself, it doesn’t mean that you are alone. There are so many avenues where you can combine with other business owners to share ideas, mastermind and ask for advice.

The first way I would recommend is getting connected online. There are so many websites out there where business owners can connect. You can Google search your industry and find a relevant forum… eg Finance or IT. You can also join some online networking websites. Social Media websites are the best. My favourite for business is Linked In. If you are not already on Linked In visit www.linkedin.com and set up your personal profile. The next step to get connected is to start joining some groups either based around your industry, location or even your interests… then get involved in the discussions; this is a great way to make some new connections.

Now if you want to get out and about, away from your computer for a change, you can head off to a nearby business networking event. There are so many different ones around. There are breakfasts, lunches, dinners, drinks and even speed networking. Once again you can do a Google search for networking events at your location and find one nearby. There are a few things to keep in mind when looking to attend an event:

1. Have plenty of business cards

2. Have a short business summary (that you have practiced, basically a summary of the key points on what you do) so you can tell people about your business easily and in a manner that is short and simple to make you impactful

3. Listen to others… networking is not about getting as many business cards out to others as you can, it is about building relationship and a strong business network.

Above are a few ideas on how to connect with others which I know always help me stay motivated. Some other ideas on staying motivated and excited about your business are to:

1. Write down your business goals and have some positive affirmations written in the sense that these have already been achieved, then print them out and stick them all over your office and every time you see them, read them.

2. A step on from that would be to build a vision board. A vision board is basically pictures of your goals in a collage stuck together on a board that you would hang up in front of your desk. You can look at your Vision Board all the time and think about the things you want.. But the key here is to imagine it as though it has already been achieved and feel the feeling of already having these things

Well, as you can see there are a lot of things you can do to stay motivated in business and personally… would love to hear your thoughts and ideas too…

What does Success mean for you?

For most people success is achieving all their goals and a lot of the time acquiring material assets. For you it may mean being admired and looked up to or it may mean happiness. Whatever it means for you the question is – well are you successful?

I personally feel success can be summed up in one thing – If you feel successful then you are. It comes back to the BE DO HAVE principle. If you are being the person you want to be, you will do the things you need to do, to have the things you want to have. Once you have achieved this then you will feel successful and will be successful. As success really is only a feeling. It is the feeling you get when you are happy, excited and loving life totally!

When you get to the place of feeling successful the universal law of attraction then attracts more success into your life and so on and so on. You have to love that feeling!

“Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become.” –Jim Rohn

What does Failure mean for you?

Failure to a lot of people means that they don’t have the things they want in life. They don’t have the job; they don’t have the nice car, the nice house or the loving relationship. But failure really is the road to success. Most people don’t see this.

As most of you would know, the people we see as great successes in life are only there because they have been through more failures in life. To succeed you are going to fail along the way, you are only successful if you pick yourself up and try again and learn from your mistakes.

So really the only failure in life is the person who fails to get back up and give it another go. They sit there and complain to everyone that they tried, but it didn’t work.

“Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don’t fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgment, repeated every day. “ – Jim Rohn

I would love to hear your thoughts on what Success and Failure mean to you