How to Be and Get Dream Partners for Success: Secret # 25 Be the Only One

“Each one of you has something no one else has, or has ever had: your fingerprints, your brain, your heart. Be an individual. Be unique. Stand out. Make noise. Make someone notice. That's the power of individuals.” Jon Bon Jovi. Last week I was in one of those stores that had the large jungle gym for kids. There was one of those big bins filled with plastic balls for kids to jump in. There were hundreds, maybe even thousands of them in that bin. Now, imagine that each of those balls represents someone who does something similar to what you do. Let’s say you call yourself something like a Business Consultant, or a Life Coach, or a Writer. There could literally be thousands of balls representing people who do those general things. OK, so now, imagine that you represent one of those balls too. And, all of the balls are blue. Everyone’s balls are blue and your ball is blue. How on earth would someone find your ball in that bin?

What if your ball was the only red ball in a bin of blue balls? Do you think people would be able to find your ball then? The uniqueness of your ball color would certainly help. Even though you may do something similar to hundreds or thousands of other people, you really do it differently. In order for your ideal target market to find you, you need to be unique enough for them to notice you.

One way to separate you from the pack is to come up with an “Escalator Tag”. An escalator tag is your unique job title. I call it that because if you do it right, you will get a prospects attention in the instant that it would take to pass someone going the opposite way on an escalator.

Which would get your attention more: a Nonprofit Consultant or a Nonprofit Doctor; a Wellness Coach or the Personal Nutrition Guru; a Small Business Advisor or the Dream Partner Catalyst? Not everyone is going to like your unique escalator tag. But the ones that really want to work with you will. They will notice you and seek you out. Don’t worry if everyone doesn’t like that you are the Virtual Ringmaster. The one’s that do like it and get it will be the people that become your customers.

Marketing in this economy is hard enough. Why make it more difficult for your potential clients to find you in the bin of similar colored balls. Stand out, be unique and help your ideal customer find you.

Want to know how to create your escalator tag? The process is simple but not easy. Brainstorm a list of the biggest words you can think of that describe what you do, for whom in the most specific way, your biggest value and the ideal outcome that you hope for your customer. Play with the words on the list, making sure that you come up with the best metaphors to describe them. Come up with 2 or three words from the list that really get at your core purpose. Ask your closest friends and clients to help you, as this is somehow easier for others to do for you than it is to do for yourself. Keep working it until you think you have it. If you want help with this ask me in the comments box and I can talk with you more about the process.

No one does what you do exactly like you. Help your potential customers see that. Be the only one!

How to Be and Get Dream Partners for Success: Secret # 24 Set Outrageous Goals

“You have to set goals that are almost out of reach. If you set a goal that is attainable without much work or thought, you are stuck with something below your true talent and potential.” Steve Garvey. At a recent Redwood Sisterhood breakfast, I challenged the ladies to set an outrageous 90 day goal. What is an outrageous goal? It’s a goal that is so challenging, yet doable, that it nearly makes you want to throw up with anxiety. Why would I want you to nearly throw up with anxiety? Because stretching yourself to just beyond where you think you can go makes you get there.

Even thinking of a goal like that can be scary. Think of what you could do in 90 days. Here are some things that can be done in 90 days if you stretched yourself and put your mind and muscles into it: You could: create a CD product, write an ebook, put up a new website, start a blog, deliver a keynote address, teach a teleclass, start a radio show, design a webinar, create a newsletter, invent a new product, plan a retreat, launch a new business, write a business plan, create a joint venture opportunity, write or publish a book, hire a new support staff person. Pick any one of these things, or choose something completely different. But, challenge yourself to an outrageous goal.

“Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success.” David Joseph Schwartz.

The reason that we don’t accomplish much is that we don’t challenge ourselves to accomplish much. Do you believe that you could achieve one outrageous 90 day, or one year goal? Of course you can. “Crystallize your goals. Make a plan for achieving them and set yourself a deadline. Then, with supreme confidence, determination and disregard for obstacles and other people's criticisms carry out your plan.” Paul Meyer

If you really want to achieve your outrageous goal, make sure that you tell a dream partner. They will help you to be accountable to it and support you in it. Just saying it out loud increases its likelihood of happening. With the right support, you can achieve more than you may think that you can.

Remember too that your goal must be challenging, yet doable. An outrageous goal is not an unreasonable goal. Setting the bar too high may lead you down the road to discouragement. Setting a 90 day goal of becoming a millionaire by winning the lottery would be unreasonable. Make sure that your goal is something that you can do and something that you have control over.

What is your outrageous 90 day goal? Share it with a dream partner today and get going on it! Share it with me and I’ll give you a free 30 minute consult on how you can accomplish it. Just ask me for it!

How to Be and Get Dream Partners for Success: Secret #23 Get out of your Comfort Zone

“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.” ~Abraham Maslow. On vacation last summer, my family was planning a parasailing adventure. I was planning to sit in the boat and watch them go up. I am afraid of heights, so it just seemed too scary for me. That morning, while I was sitting by the pool, a lady in her 70’s was sitting next to me. We got to talking about parasailing and she said that she had just gone the day before at it was such a thrill. I asked her if she was scared and she said that she was, but it was just something she wanted to do. She chose to go out of her comfort zone to experience something new; something that she had never experienced before, for the sheer memory of it. Wow. If she could do it, I could do it. So, I did.

I was surprised that it wasn’t that scary after all. I had worked myself up to expect that the experience would be much scarier than it actually was. For those of you who are afraid of heights, there is no sense of falling at all when you parasail, just a slow, steady climb. The view was spectacular. We saw things that you just don’t get to see otherwise. And, I did make a special memory.

“Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.” ~Brian Tracy. I’m glad that I chose to go out of my comfort zone to try something new. Getting out of your comfort zone will be scary and uncomfortable, but you will experience something or learn something that will strengthen you.

“If you're in a comfort zone, afraid to venture out,
Remember that all winners were at one time filled with doubt.”
Author Unknown, from My Comfort Zone

What is that thing that you know you should try or do to move closer to your dream that is holding you back? Maybe you should learn more about internet marketing, or make more follow-up calls. Or maybe it’s putting up that website or asking someone to collaborate. You know what it is. Choose today to go out of your comfort zone. You will be blessed by it!

How to Be and Get Dream Partners for Success: Secret #22 Get Focused

“It's not what's happening to you now or what has happened in your past that determines who you become. Rather, it's your decisions about what to focus on, what things mean to you, and what you're going to do about them that will determine your ultimate destiny.” Tony Robbins.

My mother is a photographer by hobby. So, we always had cameras lying around the house when I was growing up. Not the kind of cameras that we have today that automatically focus for you. But, the kind of cameras where you had to dial the big round lens in your hand back and forth slightly until the image that you wanted to capture was in perfect clarity.

Wouldn’t it be cool if our minds had an auto-focus like the cameras today, and we would always focus perfectly on the goal, the dream and the possibilities?

Unfortunately, while camera’s today have auto-focus capabilities, our minds need some manual focus attention. Do you struggle with focus? Maybe you focus perfectly, but on the wrong things; like your fears and obstacles. You focus on the challenges and not the possibilities. Just like a camera, what you focus on is what you see clearly. If you spend all of your time seeing only the challenges, guess what? You will only experience challenges. First you focus on something, which focused attention brings it into your life, then that activity leads to your future.

Maybe your problem with focus has nothing to do with negativity or fears at all. Maybe your problem is that your dreams are simply too general to have any focus. That’s like looking through the lens of the camera and dialing the lens to blurry. There is an image there, but it’s too distorted to see. You are not going to move quickly toward a blurry future, so you don’t move. “Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of our resources on mastering a single area of our lives.” Tony Robbins.

Let’s get some focus here. Close your eyes and imagine yourself holding a camera to your dream. You are dialing the lens to see yourself being, living, blessing people and being blessed by your dream. Who do you see? What are you doing? How do you know that you are having the desired impact? If you start to see obstacles, see yourself overcoming them. Snap some pictures. cha chee… cha chee …cha chee .. (my sound affect for picture snapping in case you didn’t follow me. LOL)

Now journal or draw what you saw. Keep that picture alive and take one step toward it every day. You can live your dream. Get and stay focused.

How to Be and Get Dream Partners for Success: Secret #21 Take Responsibility

“This life is yours. Take the power to choose what you want to do and do it well. Take the power to love what you want in life and love it honestly. Take the power to walk in the forest and be a part of nature. Take the power to control your own life. No one else can do it for you. Take the power to make your life happy.” Susan Polis Schutz.

Have you ever met someone who always has an excuse for everything? They blame the economy, their boss, or their upbringing for all of the lack that they have in life. ...If only my parents had done this or that for me... Or if the economy wasn't so sluggish I could... Or, if my spouse...

The truth is that you can always find people who are succeeding at dreams very close to yours and you can always find people who are giving up. Everyone has circumstances, everyone has challenges. Are you going to let those circumstances define your success level, or are you going to take responsibility for your dream and do what you have to do to overcome them? Successful people do.

I know this lady that, by society’s standards, shouldn’t be successful. She was raised in poverty with a poor education and an unstable home life. Her very environment communicated to her every day that she was a nothing. But, she didn’t accept that future for herself. She wanted her dream and she worked hard, learned what she needed to learn and made something of herself. She took responsibility for her life and her future.

There are resources right under your nose to help you overcome your challenges. Libraries and the internet offer free books and articles. There are experts and people willing to help you along the way if you just take a minute to notice. There are countless rags to riches true stories out there on film and in books. In each case, the person in the story had to overcome great odds to achieve their success. What’s the difference between them and the average Joe or Jane? They didn’t look at where they had come from or where they were, they looked at where they wanted to go, and they did what they needed to do to move in that direction.

Taking responsibility is an active leap of faith. It is a choice to look from this day forward, not to look back, not to blame anyone or anything. (Not even yourself) Forget what has been. What do you want to happen? What would it take to get there? Take responsibility and do what it takes to move in that direction. Get an accountability partner to help you with this one. Have them point out any limiting words you say or excuses you give. Do the same for them. Don’t let yourself sink into the mire of restrictive thinking. What can you do today to take more responsibility for your dream?