vision « Lorin Beller Blake

Turn Up the Volume!

August 17, 2010

Filed under: goals, success, vision — Tags: Big Fish Nation, powerful women, successful entrepreneur, successful women, vision, women business owners, women entrepreneurs, women leader — Lorin Beller Blake @ 8:29 am

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Summer can be a tough time to make progress on our goals.

Summer vacations mean we are often travelling, schedules are inconsistent, and our attention is more naturally focused on things other than goals. Don’t get me wrong – it is definitely important (critical!) to take these breaks… but we still must remember to return to our goals.

We have a little more than one quarter of the year remaining, so we really need to energetically pick up speed so we can reach the goals we set for 2010. Or to put it another way, if your goals were a sound system, let’s get back up to surround sound, then turn up the volume for WILD success!

Here are some tips to help you “dial it up” to ACHIEVE your goals:

Change your exercise routine: If you are in a rut with your exercise, or not exercising at all, your energy may be low. Try changing it up a little to bring up your energy levels and give you more excitement toward achieving your goals. The body/mind connection is important.
Take a realistic inventory of your goals and adjust (or not) accordingly: Do you have enough time left in the year to achieve each goal? Are each of your goals still important toward making your vision a reality? If so, fantastic – keep moving forward! If not, consider revising goals to make them achievable this year and in line with your current vision. Just make sure your revised goals keep you stretching to accomplish what will make you proud and successful!
Post your written goals where you can see them each day: If you stop noticing your goals after a while, move them to a different spot whWhen we keep our goals visible, it is easier to remember what we are working towards.ere they will catch your attention again.
Read your vision story every Monday morning: Our vision story is meant to be a motivating tool, not just something we write then put away. Many Big Fish (myself included!) report getting energized by reading their vision story because it reminds them of the exciting big picture of their future. When our vision is fresh in our minds, each goal feels more meaningful and reachable.
Tell someone else your goals: Accountability is an amazing motivator – just ask any Big Fish! Sharing our goals with someone else makes it a lot harder to ignore those “stretch” goals, and helps hold our “feet to the fire.” It also gives us someone else to celebrate with when we reach each goal!
Sign up for a Big Fish program: If you are struggling to set and reach your goals each year, you might need the extra learning, support, accountability, and energy you can get from the Big Fish programs. Plan to attend the annual goal-setting teleclass in December, and read about the available Big Fish programs to see which one might fit you best for next year. We are here to help!

Are you ready to turn up the volume???

Let us know in a comment below!

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Live Each Day From Your Vision

July 13, 2010

Filed under: Mid-year Goals, success, vision — Tags: Big Fish Nation, successful entrepreneur, successful women, vision, women and business, women entrepreneurs, women leader — Lorin Beller Blake @ 7:22 am

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Like others of you, I enjoyed and appreciated last week’s blog post on goals, written by our regular guest-blogger Starla J. King. We all need those reminders (or as Beth said in her comment, “a kick in the rear”) to review and reset our goals!

It is also absolutely necessary to be clear about our vision and that it too is up to date. Without a clear vision, our goals can quickly become overwhelming out-of- control To Do lists.

The second principle of my 7 Principles to Wild Success is Live each day from your vision.

We often think of a vision as something that is only useful for the future, not for today, but a vision is actually about this moment!   It is about today and how we choose to live today! Today turns into tomorrow. Tomorrow is our future.

Therefore, it is critical that we live today in a way that will enable us to make tomorrow’s vision a reality.

When was the last time you read your vision story?   Do you have a vision story? If you need help creating your vision (it’s not too late!) read my earlier blog post about creating a clear vision.

Another great way to get (and stay) clear on your vision is to create a collage of your vision. This is a fun way to get an emotional and practical read on what you are drawn to, what you want (aka, your vision!) .

Go through magazines and cut out pictures representing:

things you want to do (travel, projects, accomplishments, adventures, etc)

things you want to have

the number of clients you want, or number of products you want to sell

the number of employees you want

where you want to be living

etc.

photo by Tory Johnson

Then put these pictures together on a poster board and hang it where you can see it every day.

If you already have a vision collage, take some time this week to update it – add some more photos and remove any that no longer speak to you or carry excitement for you.

As you review your goals, (see last weeks blog post), keep looking at your vision collage. Does each goal actually get you closer to your vision? If so, fantastic! If not, consider changing or removing that goal. Working towards goals that do not further your vision is wasted effort!

Each day, then, we need to ask ourselves, “Is what I am doing today, this moment, moving me toward my vision?”

Let us know what you do to help you live each day from your vision!

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Clear Vision

February 2, 2010

Filed under: success, vision — Tags: Big Fish Nation, roadmap to success, successful entrepreneur, vision, vision story, women and business, women entrepreneurs — Lorin Beller Blake @ 7:53 am

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“We [my family] all listen to ourselves as we do each other. We have adventurous human experiences and our moments are filled with many spiritual experiences each day. Life is decadent yet simple…”

These words are part of my vision story, the description of my life 10 years from now.

As you can see, this vision story is not just about what I will have accomplished in my business by then (although it does include that), it’s also about what my relationships and my life will be like.

*Having a clear vision is the key ingredient to a successful business.*

You see, (pun intended) a vision gives you something to look toward… and look forward to. It helps you “see” the path you need to take to meet your goals and get the results you pictured.

Coming up with your vision is a creative process, unique to YOU because we all have different definitions of success. You get to decide where you want your life to be in 10 years!

Don’t worry right now about how you’ll get there (that comes later), just focus on what the “there” will be and how the “there” will feel. Step into your WILDLY SUCCESSFUL life and describe it in your vision story.

It’s important to remember that rarely is success JUST about money.   Writing your vision story is your chance to discover other areas of your life to include in your definition of success. For example, consider what you want from/for:

Your health

Your relationships: with yourself, your significant other, friends and family

Your recreation/play time

Your community / environment

etc.

Write it all down, give yourself that roadmap to success then start making that vision a reality TODAY!   I’d love to hear how it goes!

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From Entrepreneur to Big Fish

RoadMap to Success

Need to get your “vision energy” jump-started? Try these books, From Entrepreneur to Big Fish, and Roadmap to Success, both available online (click here)!

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Work Life Balance, is there such a thing?

September 28, 2009

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: Expert, marketing, PR, sales, vision, women entrepreneurs, Work life balance — admin @ 10:57 am

Actually, I think there is but not the way you are thinking….. you see there is no such thing as work life balance if your basic life is not in order. You cannot compartmentalize each area of life and be sure it is all balance. Family can be a 24 x 7 ‘job’, work can be a 24 x 7 ‘job’, play could be a 24 x 7 ‘job’ — but if your basic life is in order you will naturally WANT to do a little be often, naturally having you feel grounded and balance. Let me explain further.
1. You MUST have a vision for your LIFE. It must be written down. By having a vision you more naturally say ‘yes’ to what you want and ‘no’ to the things that are not aligned with the vision. This happens naturally when you have an inspiring and compelling vision.
2. You MUST break the rules. As a women, it is not possible to do it in the normal 9-5 work hours…. Family pulls happen during that time and that is ok. That is why being a female entrepreneur in this day and age is so powerful. There are so many rules to break! I am just suggesting one. But there are others: Like needing to keep work at work and life in life, I do a lot of ‘business’ while I do life! Or Like you have to work 90 hours per week to make lots of money. These are all rules to break!
3. Do what you love and charge for it! We think that we need to fund our fun…. but I guarantee that there is a way to do what you love and charge for it, make a business out of it. You will be so much more excited about your work that way and do so much more business in a short amount of time and work won’t feel so much like work. You’ll b e having fun all the time.
4. Take full responsibility for your life. If you are not completely happy about various aspects of your life, ask yourself: What is your part? And make the changes you are able to make, design it to make you happy! Wayne Dyer says is best, ‘Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.’
5. Sales and Marketing: We must do a better job here. So many women do not see themselves as great at sales and marketing. If you have a vision for your life, sales and marketing is part of it. If you have trouble here I highly recommend our ‘Toes in the Water’ new program that is starting in early October. www.bigfishnation.com
6. Begin to see yourself as the expert in your niche….. After all if you aren’t who is??? If you are interested in how to do this…. Check out our newest program coming soon, our Starfish program! But ladies you are the expert in your field and if you do not see yourself as such, the world will not.
7. Support each other better than ever. I think there is room for much improvement here. We are very ‘shy’ about giving great leads to each other. We tell someone about this really great program, product or service, but we do not make a strong, solid introduction to people so that there is good follow up. Always, always, if you share information with someone, introduce both parties in email. Giving both parties and opportunity to follow up. After all, by raising someone else, you raise yourself up too.
Happy balance Monday! Enjoy it all, because it is ALL a part of your vision… and if it is not, redesign!

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Happy Memorial Day Weekend

May 22, 2009

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: culture, vision, Work life balance — admin @ 12:04 pm

It is the Friday before a long weekend. A weekend, which I used to really look forward to, because it was the ’start of summer’ in upstate NY, but now that I have lived in Austin for almost 4 years… summer has been here for a few months. So it is just a nice long weekend. I truly enjoy the balance of work and life these days. What does it take to find that perfect balance? I believe it takes a big vision! A vision of your life that is bigger than you are which includes the world. From this perspective all aspects of our lives are important and the tone of the day is actually the MOST important thing that we have control over.
Where does that tone or culture come from? Always us! So consciously decide what the tone of your days are going to be this weekend and in the weeks ahead. Name the tone. Write it down for yourself. For example it might be ‘summer time chilling’ — or next week at work, it might be ‘relaxed and productive.‘ Getting clear and conscious about the tone that we choose to stay in, is a leadership skill. It is about not letting the world knock you off your intention for that day or that moment.
From a place with a powerful vision… each aspect of our l lives deserves honor, respect and attention and there is no room for guilt and ’shoulds’. Go with the flow of life and enjoy the balance that life naturally creates when we let go of all the things that we ‘should’ do.
So on this Memorial Day weekend; be sure that you have a vision bigger than you are. The reason that we have a day called Memorial Day is for those that actually knew already that their lives were about something bigger than they were.
‘A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.’ ~Joseph Campbell
Happy Memorial Day weekend.

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