Live Into It!

What is the one thing we all have in common that brings everyone who does it joy?

Wouldn’t it be great if we danced our way to world peace and love???

Live Into It… :)CC

Christine Cibula, M.S.
Business Development Consultant
“Live Into The Life You’ve Imagined…”

Never stop learning…

At any given time I’m reading a handful of books, studying from carefully chosen mentors, and doing my own research on the topic of the day that seems to rock my world.

Today I tuned into a teleseminar from one of my online marketing mentors, Howie Schwartz. The guy is BRILLIANT. Plus, he’s a total sweetheart…

As I was on the call, he mentioned someone typed in NAMASTE to him. He got a kick out of it and encouraged everyone listening to look it up for themselves for a more personal experience of the true meaning. He mentioned how he’d been doing Yoga and had changed his eating patterns to green tea and live foods. Funny thing, because I’ve done the same in just the last month…

It is Saturday, Fourth of July weekend, and I’m chilling so I found myself GOOGLING NAMASTE. I found the Wikipedia definition and noticed the hand symbol in the photos. Namaste is a term from India, which made me think a lot about Siddha Yoga, a form of yoga that I’ve done with great success in quieting the mind and getting centered. Whenever I think of what I have learned through Siddha Yoga, I am filled with love and gratitude.

One more thing. My sweetheart, life partner, and fiance Thomas Gorgas, Ph.D., has always told me that I need to be a teacher at the “School For Love“. He keeps asking me what I’m waiting for, and well, I don’t have a great answer. When I watched this video today, I felt it through and through. I needed to share it with you…

So on this Fourth of July weekend, I wish you love and light as you live into the life you’ve imagined… :)CC

Christine N. Cibula, M.S.
Business Development Consultant
www.LiveIntoIt.com
“Live Into The Life You’ve Imagined…”

P.S. Just in case you are wondering, nothing is more irresistible to MANIFESTING THE LIFE OF YOUR DREAMS THAN LOVE, no matter what you are in the process of manifesting. Love… Health… Wealth… At the core in all of it and each other is LOVE… NAMASTE…

This morning my fiance shared a beautiful story with me about a documentary he saw about 10 years ago about MOVING THE MOUNTAIN. Michael Apted’s 1989 documentary was about the pro-democracy movement in China that later escalated into Tianamen Square and the courage of one man captured in a photograph before he met his death standing up for what he believed in…

In the end, Thomas shared that we can move a mountain ONE SHOVELFUL AT A TIME.  He then said that it is like he’s heard me say before, “Focus on base hits instead of home runs…”

We don’t usually win at the game of life in one full swoop.  Sure, some people win the lottery and then proceed to lose everything they gained, because they don’t know how to manage it.

Most of us build wealth steadily with some rather nice growth spurts at times, what Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazer refer to as THE PHENOMENON.

We’re creating our EXTRAORDINARY lives, so we talk like this most mornings, noons and nights. We’ve got our vision boards. We have our daily goal cards and action steps.  We’ve mapped our plan.  We make a point to only watch, listen to, and participate in INSPIRATIONAL activities.

So back to my story… He said,”You know, it is just like Jack Canfield says in THE SECRET that you have to have faith as you move forward only being able to see 200 feet in front of you because you will eventually reach your destination. Of course, you need to know where you’re going…”

Which triggered this thought I’ve literally run back into my office to share with you this moment!

Last weekend we were celebrating my Dad’s 65th birthday AND my fiance’s birthday, because they BOTH SHARE THE SAME BIRTHDAY!

All joking aside about how we eventually marry our fathers (or mothers), we were on our way to a really amazing restaurant called the Canebrake. It happens to be in the MIDDLE of the countryside in the middle of a small town in the middle of somewhere that for a minute felt like it might as well have been #%&*! Egypt…

TWO important points. One is that since I run an internet-based business, I can do it from HAWAII like I did last summer and I can do it from OKLAHOMA where we are now to enjoy some time with family. So when you read this, understand we’re in Oklahoma right now. The second is that I have an older ML-430 SUV Mercedes WITHOUT a GPS tracker and I was using a Google MapQuest map.

We knew our starting point (Tulsa, OK). We knew our destination (Canebrake in Wagoner, OK). We made it, but not without some challenges…

We got LOST… LOST… LOST…

LOST #1: I had the map in front of me, but did not follow it. I was supposed to get off at the first exit on the turnpike but I got off earlier when we were just merging with the turnpike and got on Highway 51. I asked Dad if that was the right exit by phone and he thought based on what I was sharing that it was, but it turned out to be wrong.  Even so, I was looking for a street intersection, found it, and ended up in a neighborhood with no restaurant to be seen anywhere. We discovered we had gotten off the turnpike earlier than anticipated and had taken a smaller highway so we went forward, reconnected with the turnpike, and followed the map.

LOST #2:  We followed the map, but the map was WRONG.  At one point, the map said highway 51 merged into a street called CHEROKEE, and that we’d take our next right after Spencer.  Highway 51 did merge into Cherokee if you proceed forward and ironically at a point where Highway 51 makes a SHARP RIGHT that the map did not mention.

A short distance down CHEROKEE, we did find SPENCER, the street that was supposedly right before our next right onto the street where the restaurant is supposed to be.

But we never found the next turn to the right which was supposed to be our destination.  Instead we ended up going WAY farther forward and dead ending at a street that ironically had the same intersection signs as the first time we got lost (on both signs).  But clearly, the restaurant was not there.

(I had a mini-breakdown on the cell phone realizing we were stuck at night in the middle of the countryside in the middle of nowhere not knowing where to go.  I was panicked.  My fiance made the honest observation that I was being a,  “FRICKIN’ NIGHTMARE” to which I promptly replied, “HAPPY FRICKIN’ BIRTHDAY!!!) We laughed about this publicly at the dinner once we arrived and had a little champagne!

LOST #3:  Not trusting the final set of directions.  We got the right directions but since we had chased our tails so feverishly twice before, I was starting to lose it.  We gassed up and the attendant had no idea where the restaurant was that I was talking about. I was seriously consider going back home.

I turned around two or three times (much to the dismay of my fiance) before proceeding forward cautiously and finally making it to the correct destination.

Jack Canfield calls this phenomenon “CORRECTING COURSE…”   He shares that most of the time a flight has the correct destination locked in on its computer, but the majority of the time, the flight is correcting course to reach its destination.

So we arrived at this beautiful spa, resort, fine dining location and enjoyed a beautiful birthday celebration and had a perfectly wonderful night.  Never mind that it took our friends one hour to get there and it took us two and a half hours to get there.

We reached our destination…  Actually, everyone marveled:

1. We STUCK IT OUT until we arrived.  STAYING POWER PAYS OFF EVENTUALLY!
2. We were able to figure it out despite a WRONG map and without a GPS SYSTEM (…Guess what I’m getting for my birthday from Dad this year?…).

3.  We were able to enjoy and celebrate a ONCE IN A LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY.

So the moral to the story is…

1.  KNOW WHERE YOU EVENTUALLY WANT TO END UP…  This is a critical key to your success and it is worth the time to get a clear solid and exact picture of where you are going. It saves a lot of time, headache, and heartache along the way.  Others in the group found it by actually going to the Canebrake’s website (better directions from the source) and relying on a real road map (yeah, the old fashioned kind that you keep in the car with you) instead of a Google or MapQuest map.

2.  STAY THE COURSE…  Despite being tested along the way, stay the course.  Correct course when you get off track.  Staying the course helps when you have a clear picture (not a foggy one, but a definite and clear focus) of where you are going.  It may take two to three times what you anticipate it is going to take before you get there, but you must stay the course in order to actually arrive.

3.  GO THE DISTANCE…  Remember that one of the Universal Laws is the LAW OF GROWTH.  If you retreat just before the seed sprouts, you’ll never see the flower.  In our case, we decided that even if we made it for dessert and coffee, we were going.  Turned out they had enjoyed appetizers and champagne and we were able to enjoy the remainder of the meal with them.  If we had given up, we would have missed a very special once in a lifetime night.

Live Into It…  :)CC

Christine N. Cibula, M.S.

The Manifestation Mentor

www.LiveIntoIt.com  

P.S.  And when in doubt, remember that one man can move a mountain one shovelful at a time…  This may not be ideal for fast business growth, but remember that base hits win the game steadily in lieu of home runs, and often times with a much better overall standing when it is all said and done…

I spoke too soon in my last entry. We were under mandatory evacuations in San Diego. The next day we were on the road trekking north after getting our reverse 911 calls. It is really scary to see a wall of black smoke heading your way. Luckily my girlfriend Jenny, Miss Bo Benny, was totally resourceful so we stayed at one of her friend’s homes up in Laguna the first night and then moved out to Palm Springs to a beautiful home… Like BEAUTIFUL… With a pool and spa…

I learned a few things in the process of the mandatory evacuations:

1. Remember your passport, birth certificate & social security card. You may not plan on international travel, but these items are hard to replace (as in time consuming), so be good to yourself and have that with you.

2. Take a few pics of the precious stuff. My girlfriend brought her photobook of her time with the twins and I was happy to see she had it with her. I realized I left every last picture in the house.

3. You can do a mandatory evacuation in beautiful locations with about as much ease as in really uncomfortable locations with a little resourcefulness and persistence. We were told to go to Qualcomm Stadium and I’m sure you’ve seen the reports on CNN. It reminds me of Hurricane Katrina and the Superdome. But honestly, all I could think of doing was driving to the beach or up North to San Francisco to my brother’s house. Instead, Jenny kept calling on this beautiful home and when he picked up the line he said, “Yeah, I have about 100 messages waiting I haven’t gotten to yet, so sure, it’s yours…” So persistence pays off.

4. Keep your most precious jewelry in one spot where you can easily access it on the way out and maybe even a little list including oxygen masks during fire and flashlights for nighttime, not hidden away, because you’ll forget where you put it and then be wondering what happened to it when looters are reported in your neighborhood.

5. Strong men with golf clubs can and do scare away looters, at least most of the time. Of course, if given the choice to be with your family or leave it, stay with your family, because they need you even if they don’t say it during the crisis…

K. Short post, because the owners of this gorgeous home are coming back tomorrow, so we’re heading out today to another gorgeous hotel that is comparable to the Hotel Del Coronado only in Palm Springs.

The funny thing is these beautiful places continue to anchor one thing in my mind’s eye… Success… Success… Success… Which is an irony in the middle of mandatory evacuations, threat of loss of home and looters and overall a really stressful time in San Diego history.

In an odd way, I am happy and grateful for this experience…

Live Into It… :)CC

P.S. The biggest lesson learned? I can take the entire core of my business with me in a backpack and still be working even when away from home. To learn how I do that and to work together to get you to that level of personal freedom, check out my PERSONAL COACHING.

We’re miles away from it (we live on the coast). But oh my goodness… The house smells like a wonderful campfire, the air in the house is actually noticeably dry and even a little smoky. I’m hoping the fire alarms don’t go off. The air outside is so thick with smoke, the moon is blood red tonight. The winds are whipping. Our Chief Meteorologist, Loren Nancarrow from ABC, shared that if the winds are 50mph, then that means that the fire moves at 50mph. Did you know that? I hadn’t put that together before. Earlier today the winds were 69mph, so the fire was actually moving at a rate of 69mph.

I find this interesting.

Simultaneously in the last 24 hours BOTH, not one but BOTH of our printers died. The first one had an irretrievable paper jam and after three years of service with my MAC, I let go without too much trouble. The Canon printer was affordable and came with my MAC but the ink refills were off the hook expensive and they needed to be replaced a lot. The second had a print head die after almost 8 years in service and it isn’t MAC compatible, so I decided it was time to let go gracefully. It was my HP Business Inkjet I spent $900 (a big business purchase at the time) when I lived back in New York. I really, really loved that printer and it performed exceptionally well for me on my projects and presentations.

A mutual friend had her printer die and her computer die all in the same 24 hours, too. Mercury in retrograde may be more than a KOINKI-DINK - just maybe…

Meanwhile, this weekend I purged. I went through most of my office and asked myself one question, “What is in these binders, in these drawers, on these shelves, in these boxes that will benefit me as I move forward in my business and in my life?” I dumped the rest. It was a brave move… Sometimes you need to let go of what no longer serves you to make room for what you are living into.

So the little lessons learned?

1. Back Up. Seriously, it is your business. If your computer dies, your business could die or at least be put on hold in a big way. Plus, who wants to tell a client that the projecct has disappeared? Who wants to wake up to discover the book they’ve been working on painstakingly for over a year of intense research and development has just VAMOOSHED?

2. When things fall apart, sometimes what comes out of it is so much better than you could ever anticipate. Let the old fall away and the new come into being. For me, the new is our brand new WIRELESS ALL IN ONE HP print, scan, fax, photoprints, legal prints, etc. printer… Prints 34 pages per minute in black and white and 33 pages per minute in color. I am so happy I’m thanking Mercury Retrograde for helping me out!

3. As yourself, “What’s important now for me to move forward with my current dreams, goals, and visions?” Be Brave. Dump the rest… Let it go, because it is an energy sapper and time vampire. If you haven’t come back to it, the likelihood that you will come back to it is sort of small. I’m not talking about your key educational materials that you reference. I’m talking about stuff that matched the old you but that doesn’t match or help the new and improved you that is taking charge of your business life.

A few more things I’d like to share?

* The notes they take at conferences or during discussions have the same light touch. Only the actionable items.

So I happily let go of two old printers and a desktop I’m no longer attached to in lieu of my laptops (both MAC & PC)… I shred 5 huge hefties full of stuff I no longer needed. I donated anything technological I own but don’t currently use. I cleaned up my vision boards.

This is too funny, so I had to share. A couple of days ago I shared the little business lesson of the Black Phoebe bird… Well yesterday, I made myself some lunch and went to sit and relax near the outside patio in the living room, and there he was again, sitting on one of the four chairs where I had been sitting outside the day I first saw him. We made eye contact for quite a while and then he headed off to do his thing.

The thing I find so interesting is that we spent about 10 minutes looking at each other, and in nature, that is quite a long time. I even went in search of some bird seed in one of the cupboards and came back to him and he was still there. He primped and stretched his wings to show me how beautiful he is. I think he really understands how much I appreciate him, which is a sweet human-bird or bird-human connnection. Gotta love his staying power…

Well, this morning, I was upstairs and kept hearing this bird song. When I found the illustration of him on the Internet, I listened to the Black Phoebe bird song, so I recongnized it. In wonderment, I went to the window, and from upstairs, I could see him sitting on the same spot on the chair again, with a huge fat worm in his beak. He was literally sitting there singing about it, holding it in his beak, looking toward the living room and waiting for me to witness it.

I called to him from the upstairs window, and he looked up at me and then he turned around few times, cocked his head up at me, and sure enough, he gobbled it. He fluffed his feathers and pushed out his chest nice and strong and kept cocking his head looking up at me in the window. He is such a special little birdie - an unexpected blessing who keeps putting a smile on my face and teaching me by example. I keep thanking him for my daily little lessons learned.

It reminded me that sometimes we need a witness to share in our experiences and to celebrate our success! Otherwise, it doesn’t always feel real. Or somehow it can feel hollow or less special.

It makes me think of my little brother in the summertime when he’d be doing water antics and calling across the pool, “Christine! Watch me!!!” Or when he’d be playing video games saying, “Watch this… Christine… Check this out…” The connection to what we’re doing often involves a witness.

I’m really blessed, because I’ve got the biggest cheerleading squad I could have ever hoped for in my life… My vision board in my office has love notes from the kids and Thomas reminding me to stay the course, go the distance, dream big, and be happy. Thomas tells me daily how proud of me he is and encourages me to keep going, even when I question myself. And we all do. Its natural.

My mom, Katherine Cibula - Madam Vice President & Most Valued Player (MVP), is always giving me feedback and cheering me on… Celebrating everything with me every step of the way…

Even as I write this, my MVP popped into my office this morning to share her AquaLogix workout with me. She’s so excited with her newfound discovery that she came into the office saying, “I want you to see my happy face… I had the best time today.” She laughed and even cried happy tears, because this experience is a confirmation of her living into her dreams here in California. We all need a witness…

My little brother is encouraging and sends me financial spreadsheets. His undergraduate degree in Business Finance & Japanese from Notre Dame University and MBA from Stanford Universtity gives him quite a foundation and I’m grateful for his guidance.

Dad says keep going… He belives in the power of my dreams and has always encouraged me to do what I love doing…

Lifelong friends who have no knowledge of the business per se encourage me all the time and have fun seeing me live into my dreams, even when the going has been tough. Somehow they seem to get I’m in this for the long haul and doing whatever it takes to make it work.

Friends who do have knowledge of the business, like Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero, Fabienne Fredrickson and Alexandria Brown encourage me to keep going through their enthusiasm, guidance and by their shining examples. It helps to have Ali say, “CC, you are so talented you should be a multi-millionaire. You’ve got everything it takes and I believe in you… I know you can do this!”

So yes, we all need cheerleaders, support and a witness as we live into the lives we’ve imagined… I believe we need it even moreso as Entrepreneurs because so many people don’t really get the life of an Entrepreneur and what it really takes in order to succeed in our own small business enterprises. One of the best places I’ve found is my personal coaching and mentorship connections with the people I admire and respect in our community.

So today, I encourage you to stay the course, go the distance and know I’m pulling for you as you live into the life of your dreams…

Live Into It… :)CC

Christine N. Cibula, M.S.
The Live Into It Expert
www.LiveIntoIt.com

There were times in my life when I noticed the computer would blow up or the car would break down or my cell phone would go funky. When we launched Strategic Living, Inc. two years ago, I was feeling rather vulnerable. I went to see an astrologer on the advice of a good friend who had great success with this woman. She was great. I’ve actually listened to my tape recording of that session a few times since and she was right on target.

One of the things she mentioned was that you should never sign a contract or start something new when Mercury is in retrograde. So I came home and did some online searches about “Mercury in Retrograde” and learned that most anything technological can and usually does easily fail. Then I started hearing other Entrepreneurs joking about it on group coaching calls or at seminars and so I began to take it a lot more seriously.

This time it is almost comical… I was smart and covered the bases. I backed up my computer and encouraged everyone else I knew to do the same. So what is happening this time around?

1. Our voicemail call notes died one day. Just plain dead. Sounded like we didn’t exist anymore. Turns out it happened over a large area here in San Diego and ATT was on it to get it fixed within 24 hours. It was a pretty huge outage. That has NEVER happened before.

2. My business partner and mom, Katherine Cibula, called me to notify me that her email disappeared completely. I download mine from the server into MAC MAIL, but she checks hers on the web. She lost EVERYTHING and called me in a panic saying she lost her flight information, client contacts, etc. and I gently reminded her that I did say to everyone to PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE back up their hard drives this last week before she left to go out of town. Luckily, GoDaddy had a back-up server with the emails on it. Whew…

3. They fixed the glitch at GoDaddy. But now I’ve had emails streaming into my email account over the last two days. I have about 18,000 emails that have continued to reload from 2005-2007. Not once, not twice, but three times… It turns out it takes a long time for the mail program to upload 18,000 emails from the server, so at some key moments I’ve turned my computer to sleep so that it can cool off. Of course, I turn it back on it and starts reloading from email NUMBER ONE… Ugh… I’ve even gone into my online email account and saved my 18,000 emails as “Mark As Read” but still no dice. Time to call GoDaddy in the morning.

MY MAC DIED???
In previous “Mercury In Retrograde” cycles, I’ve had my computer hard drive completely die. Luckily, I bought an external hard drive and backed up right before the computer died, so it was a great lesson without horrible repurcussions. Talk about being grateful… Now I have several external hard drives and back up regularly… When my hard drive died, it wasn’t pretty… Not once, but twice, so I do BACK UP, BACK UP, BACK UP… Hint: If you are reading this, BACK UP…

MY BLACKBERRY IS GETTING HOW MANY EMAILS INCOMING???
Year one I had just bought my Blackberry and was learning how to use it. It has something like 8 days of power to it, except when calling on it all the time. So at one point the battery died (during Mercury Retrograde). I recharged, turned it back on, and every single email from my OLD Yahoo account (much of it junk, junk, junk) uploaded into my Blackberry. It was a MESS… Thousands of emails… Slow uploads… Attachments… Ugh…

THE BANK COMPUTER & GROCERY STORE ATM TERMINALS BOTH WENT DOWN?
Yup. These are the days where you can’t make a deposit or take out funds because the bank’s computer system is down. This is the time where the computer places a hold on out of state checks when you’ve never had a problem depositing them before. This is the time when the sweet girl in the department store tells you that she can’t figure out what happened to the computer, but it looks like it is happening in several departments and of course it only happens after you’ve found the perfect ensemble. This is the time when the line at the grocery store is 10 people long and the automatic debit terminal takes a nap while the line keeps getting longer and the cashier starts to visibly panic. The same goes for ATM machines that are on the fritz…

I read a great post on what we should do during this time… It said anything having to do with “RE:” as the prefix… Review… Regenerate… Revise… Reorganize… Renew… Repair… Restore…

So on that note, I’m off to bed. I’ll make the GoDaddy call tomorrow to find out what the heck is going on with the email spool and how to handle it. Then I’m going to turn off the computer and focus first on my client coaching calls and then shift gears and focus on organizing my corporate papers and tie up any loose ends. After all, that is what this time is supposed to be about, so why not go with the flow?

Sometimes we need to regenerate to live into the life we’ve imagined… “Mercury In Retrograde” is a natural time to do that. Take advantage of the reflective opportunity provided and leave the technology for another day.

Live Into It… :)CC

Christine N. Cibula, M.S.
The Live Into It Coach
www.LiveIntoIt.com

P.S. If you’re up for it, please take a moment to share your MERCURY IN RETROGRADE story… We’d love to hear about it…

I was sitting in the back yard today relaxing and enjoying the cool morning. There is this perfect time of day when it is warm enough to sit outside, but the sun isn’t too hot or bright yet, so I love enjoying a cup of tea and sitting with my thoughts. Today I was mapping my business plan. Three times a year I revisit the model and make adjustments so I stay on course, or rather “correct course”, as Jack Canfield recommends. As I was looking at the plan I was mapping, I was thinking about what it is going to take for me to personally put myself out there in a bigger way in the next few months and especially in 2008. The backyard is full of beautiful tropical trees and bird of paradise, so our normal visitors are cheerful and chipper hummingbirds. But today I was greeted by the most beautiful Black Phoebe I’ve ever seen in my life.

Believe it or not, this illustration doesn’t even do him justice. He absolutely took my breath away he was so beautiful with a jet black head, slightly pointed crown, jet black wings with slight white stripes at the base of his wings and a pleasantly plump little snow white belly. He turned around several times to allow me to admire him. He studied me as he flittered from one leaf to another on the bird of paradise. He looked young, vibrant, healthy, curious and full of life.

Yoshi, my Shiba Inu, was sleeping peacefully in the sunshine about halfway between me and the Black Phoebe. He tested her a little to see if she would make any sudden moves or be quick to startle. She didn’t move. I was taking in his beauty and silently we studied one another, me smiling at him in appreciation and him taking a long moment to really study me.

Then it happened, he fluttered forward and then back once, then twice, and on the third flutter, he popped down into the fresh green sprouts of grass and back up onto a leaf of the bird of paradise proudly holding a very nice little worm in his beak.

He promptly threw up his head, released the worm mid air, and in one quick move it disappeared right there. He pushed out his chest as he celebrated his victory meal. In appreciation I responded aloud, “Oh, now you had to be BRAVE didn’t you?” He turned around a couple more times for me to admire him and then he flew up and away, stopping on the vines and foliage by the fence and turning one last time to look at me with a long gaze before he left.

I think God, The Universe or Source teaches us all the time if we’re open to it. In that moment, I learned a little (big) lesson of bravery. Living into our dreams means that we often walk right into the middle of our own 3-D dream, but the question is whether or not we have the bravery it takes to step out of our comfort zone (letting go of a previous sense of safety or security) and embrace a new sense of awareness and adventure as we live into the bigger us that we need to be in order to take on the life we’re living into.

What are the top 10 places where we need to stretch in bravery as entrepreneurs?

1. Converting your first one-on-one sale in person.

2. Converting your first online sale and making your first online income.

3. Following a system you’ve learned based on FAITH that it will work, and doing everything you need to do (trial & error) until it actually does work. If it doesn’t, it is time to revisit the drawing board until it does. Persistence and faith are essential elements of bravery.

4. Taking a deep breath and doubling your rates with your clients. Taking another deep breath and tripling them.

5. Mastering new technology or software that will grow your business substantially.

6. Admitting to yourself that what you’re doing right now isn’t working so that you can open yourself to find a path that will work.

7. Completing your first information product (creation, edits, formatting, graphics, order fulfillment, sales page, thank you page and customer follow-up). A lot goes into taking a dream from initial idea or concept to completion. Of course, when it is all said and done, it is very rewarding.

8. Marketing yourself and learning the art of shameless self-promotion.

9. Releasing control and hiring a virtual team while learning the art of delegation.

10. Feeling worthy to step into your greatness personally, professionally and financially.

The good news is that with perseverance and moments of bravery, you can do all of the above. Coaching is one method to overcome self-imposed hurdles faster and a good coach can really help to catapult your success. Sometimes is really helps to have someone who believes in you a little more than you believe in yourself and helps you stretch into the you that you both know you are becoming.

We’ve all known that the early bird gets the worm. However, we sometimes need to be reminded that the bird who tests the environment, assesses the calculated risks, decides to move forward and takes a deep breath in faith, perseverance and BRAVERY gets the worm, too.

Be Brave & Live Into It… :)CC

Christine N. Cibula, M.S.
The Live Into It Coach
www.LiveIntoIt.com

The life of entrepreneurship is quite a personal choice. If you haven’t made the leap, be aware. If you have made the leap, you know what I’m talking about.

In corporate, I wore many hats. At one time I was doing operations, training and development, and public relations all at the same time. I was also working 100 hour work-weeks. I sometimes worked 21 days straight without “overtime” pay. I thought this was a lot. I thought I worked hard. That life seems like a vacation by comparison to the beginning stages of entrepreneurship.

As an entrepreneur, I’m the “go-to-guy” for EVERYTHING…
1. Quarterly Sales Taxes
2. Annual Bookkeeping, Accounting, & Tax Preparation
3. Back-end business operations
4. Product Development
5. Marketing
6. Business Planning & Development
7. Shipping & Customer Service
8. Quality Assurance
9. Training & Development
10. ALL OF THE ABOVE…

I went from wearing many hats to wearing every hat. I learned a whole new meaning to the word “BURNOUT” even though I love what I do.

Every entrepreneur has a learning curve that is steep. One person may be great at shameless self promotion while another person may be great at product development. We’re not all good at the same things. So I’ve learned some lessons in the last two years that I’d like to share.

1. While you have millions of ideas, keep sifting it down to 10 ideas then 7 ideas then 3 ideas until you narrow it down to ONE primary goal. THEN really focus your energy until you accomplish that one goal.

EXTRA HELPFUL HINT? Make sure the ONE primary goal you choose has the greatest income generating potential. Save your philanthropic goals for after hours, because the ONE thing that will keep you in business doing what you love, is having the INCOME associated with doing what you love.

2. Focus on one system at a time. Find a role model that most closely matches your ideal business model. Learn the system. Master the system. THEN move on to add more.

EXTRA HELPFUL HINT? Model someone successful. Get whatever version of the system you can afford (home study, teleseminar series, one-day seminar or intensive seminar). Don’t give up until you’ve stepped through the system at least once or twice with your audience. If you run into a problem, rather than going on to the next ‘bright shiny object’, hire a coach who works with the system to work with you one-on-one as you implement the fine details in the context of your own business model.

3. As a California Girl turned Oklahoma Girl turned California Girl, I learned that sometimes you have to take one step forward and two steps backward. It takes a lot of skills to really be a successful entrepreneur. This means you sometimes hit a wall and have to stretch past those moments in order to succeed. Common examples include: networking challenges, shameless self promotion challenges, and the challenge of intiating and closing $ALE$ can sometimes be a big wall]. Be persistent. If you stay the course, then you keep moving across the dance floor.

EXTRA HELPFUL HINT? Focus on the rhythm of your song and just keep two stepping. Keep stretching. Have a good cry [ladies] or pound the desk [gents]… Then pick yourself up and keep going. Problem solve. Don’t let anything stop you. Even major setbacks teach you important lessons. At some point, you will go the distance.

Remember there is a gestation period as we live into the life we’ve imagined… Bamboo takes 7 years to sprout. Just like bamboo, most of the super successful entrepreneurs I know took 7 years to sprout and figure out their “overnight success” magic formula… ;)Truth is even overnight successes took time to live into their seeming overnight success. So be gentle with yourself, be persistent by taking daily action, and remember to keep your eye on the prize with full faith it is already yours…

Live Into It… :)CC

Welcome to Live Into It! This site was created with the intention of helping you live into the life you’ve imagined. Who am I? I’m the coach and consultant to get you from where you are now to where you want to be in the least amount of time by helping you find the most direct path and the exact training and information you need. Together we map the plan and plug in the necessary pieces you need in order to get you from where you are now to where you want to be. This means no wasted time and a fast track to your success.

Live Into It… :)CC
Christine N. Cibula, M.S.