I had to write this message after realizing how much I’ve sabatoged myself over the course of the past two years. It’s funny how we always talk “thinking positive” and reading books about our attitude, all to realize that it still stinks sometimes.

As you may know, I’ve been living in Memphis since June of 2009.  My family and I relocated here after my husband gave up his job as  General Manager of a very successful restaurant in Atlanta, to do what he loved, which is work as a Director with Inner City Youth.  I admit, I was happy that he was shifting into an industry that I know he adores, but pretty disappointed that once again, after attempting to make Atlanta our home for the past 12 years, we once again were relocating to a city that I never even thought about before.

Memphis, Tennessee… what do you think about when you hear this city’s name?  I’ll tell you what I thought about, “Hustle & Flow”, “The First 48″ , Prostitutes, crime, jerry curls, violence and oh yeah, bar-b-que.

To say that I wasn’t fond of the city would be an understatement.  And fortunately, for the first 18 months of living here, I was never here.  I was always traveling to another city and using the airlines as my morning commute.

My Personal Reality Check

After slowing down last year, I became bored pretty easily.  Having a 3 year old (she was 2 at the time), made me want to be home with her more, and fulfilling more of my motherly duties, but Lord knows I’m just not the kind of kid that can sit still too long without screaming out “I’m Bored!”……

After 6 months of sitting however, and ending a few of my weekly training programs, Boredom became a thorn in my flesh and I was instantly ready to pack my bags and force my husband to relocate or I would apply for an airline stewardess position, just to get away.  Considering that I was talking out of the side of my neck…. he told me to go do something with myself and get over it cause we aren’t going anywhere any time soon.

After much pouting, shouting, kicking, screaming and verbally badgering my husband with questions like:

• “Do you really like it here?”
• “Can you see this place being home?”
• “Do you think we can start considering other cities?”

I finally got a good kick in the pants.  One of my good friends, who is such a “cup is half full” kinda gal, and I had a conversation of me complaining while she listened, she finally uttered the words that I needed to hear from someone else, other than my husband!! She said:

“Nic, you need to get a life.  The only reason why all this stuff is bothering you is because you have too much idle time on your hands.  Get out and get connected and see what the city really has to offer. I’m sure there’s a lot you can bring to the city, so go get your hands dirty, get off your butt, leave that computer alone for a little while and go meet some people!”

Instantly, I realized she was right.  I knew that living in a big city like Atlanta and Los Angeles tends to feel like there’s so many talented people already that are practically involved in nearly every industry possible, that you can often get swallowed up by the competition.

However, a city like Memphis may be small and a bit rural, but there’s so much opportunity and very little competition here that I truly do have an opportunity to contribute many of my skills, knowledge and talent to the city and easily have an impact on the business community here.

So that’s what I did.  I stopped complaining and started connecting.

The Opportunity Around You That Complaining Can’t See

I immediately joined an organization called Nexus, that’s designed to connect young business professionals with experienced mentors, with whom you work with over a 9 month period to help assist you with reaching your professional and personal goals.

I also began to get involved more with my church, which I totally love btw, who tends to do tons of community service projects and events every week, reaching to the community of people that could really use our help.

I am pleased to say that in the past week alone, I have literally been on a leadership retreat with my Nexus family, volunteered for 2 community service projects with my church, had 2 business meeting luncheons, hung out at 2 seriously fun networking events on Friday night (although I’m 5 months pregnant..lol), met about 10 new people that want to connect me with other leaders in the city to help me with promoting my business and services and I probably spent less than 3 hours on my computer in any one day this week, which is HUGE, as I’m usually on it working, literally 8-10 hours per day.

My point is this, we can all sit back and complain about what we don’t have, or what we wish we did have.  But the truth is, unless you are out there getting your hands dirty and connecting with those leaders and visionaries that you can partner with to turn your “complaints” into some form of “change”, then you’re wasting time and sabatoging your business.

Action is the key to experiencing success, and sometimes we just need to shut up talking about stuff, and start putting forth energy to take action and see them through.

Now that I’ve spent (just this past week) time connecting with what’s going on in this city, my outlook on this city has literally changed drastically.  Doors are beginning to open, new friendships are being developed, my daughter is connecting with more little friends for her to have playdates with and my husband is relieved that I’m no longer pressuring him to change our situation and cater to my misery and unhappiness.

I can now see how I can truly have an impact on this city in ways that can impact so many people and their businesses.  I have big goals for several different projects that I’ve always thought about, but never really took action on, and boy oh boy does it feel good to actually see those ideas be birthed and manifested right before my eyes.

Here’s What You Need To Do Immediately!

Today, I want to give you a kick in the pants to challenge you to get out of your house and be the change that you want to see. It’s so easy to expect others to do things, when in actuality, you’re the vehicle that God will use to bring those ideas forth.

Yes, it hurts, it’s outside of our comfort zones and at times, it can be a bit intimidating. But once you jump off that cliff of reluctance and complaining, you’ll be able to soar like a hot air balloon, while relieving yourself of the sand bags of misery, doubt and regret behind!

I hope todays message inspired you. Please share it with others, and feel free to give me any feedback you may have.

Have a great and productive week and go do something with yourself!

To Your Success,

Today is obviously a day of great celebration where so many people are lighting up the grill, spending quality time with family and soaking in the 3 day weekend with gratitude for a short week ahead.

As I sit here with my loved ones, hubby outside lighting up the grill and little one beside me as we scout out what matinee we’re going to catch today with Pumpkin (grandma), I can’t help but think about all the people that are rejoicing on this day, but have yet to live an “Independent Life”!

What does independence really mean? What is this holiday all about?

The historical reason for celebrating this date is to honor the day that America became independent from Great Britain as well as the date that the Declaration of Independence was actually signed. It’s great to rejoice as a fellow American for our countries independence, but my question for you today is have you officially become Independent?

With all the chaos in the economy and the battle for budget cuts, I grow concerned every day for the myriads of teachers, government workers and corporate employees who rose early, sat in traffic and geared their minds up for a hard days work all to receive a pink slip.

I don’t want to sound like a downer here, but what I want to bring to your attention is that despite today’s celebration, when will you have your very own personal independence day? When will you take hold of the dream that lies within and truly live.

Now more than ever, is the time to step out on faith and take risks that will give you total control of your life. Is it scary, absolutely. But it’s best to pursue the life that you choose rather than have someone choose for you.

Today, I want to encourage you to think about the words Independence, Freedom and Celebration and look introspectively to see where these words personally apply to your life. What is your definition of these words and how would you like them to shape your future.

I rejoice every day that I can take my time eating breakfast, spend time with my family and travel whenever I feel like it. It’s a true experience of having a level of independence where you can make your own decisions, and set the sail of your own boat.

This experience I desire to see for everyone, especially you! So take the time to reflect on these words today and seek guidance to reclaim your future.

There’s so much that awaits you and I can’t wait to celebrate with you on your Independence Day!

To Your Success,

Have you been struggling with your day to day calendar, and don’t quite know how to actually schedule your days to help you with Income Producing Activities?

That’s the biggest challenge with working from home and having all this “free time” on your hands. Considering that I’ve never been much of a planner, and never really knew firsthand, what to do even if I did want to schedule my day, I had to work very very hard at figuring it out.

After reading books like David Allen‘s “Getting Things Done” and Dan Kennedy’s “No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs“, I can honestly say that I’m slowly figuring it out.

The challenge with our growing To Do List these days is that it’s all over the place, and it tends to seem insurmountable to the point where we become paralyzed to taking action.

I have a few tips to share with you on how to confront this time sucking vampire of a habit, and want to guide you on a few things that you could do to slowly make progress with your business, and begin focusing on Income Producing Activities.

[...]

To Your Success,

Stuck in the Matrix

Does this sound like you?

Ideas racing through your head faster than you can write them down with inconvenient bursts of “Ah-Ha moments” popping up while you’re standing in the grocery store line.

You race home to start working on your “million dollar idea”, but the phone rings, or, your child hollering “mommy” suddenly interrupts you, causing you to say “I’ll get back to this later”. [...]

To Your Success,

The ‘Ah Ha’ Moment

I was spending some time this morning, surfing through the web as I seek to expand my team and add more back end support for my business, and I had a few “Ah Ha” moments that I had to share.

You see, I’m in the middle of seeking a team that provides Online Business Management Support, and have been combing through countless websites for the past 3 days.

I had never heard of this term until earlier this week, after purchasing a program from a young lady that I so admire in the Info Product Industry, who shared her Secret Weapon to getting it all done….. Her Online Business Manager. [...]

To Your Success,

It’s been a grueling past 4 months as I’ve been in the bat cave, reading my little eyes away, and I have to say that I feel like a Rookie all over again!

You see, we all hop online and just start doing stuff! We watch webinars, read ton’s of blogs and articles, buy hundreds of dollars in products and then, if you’re lucky, you actually start implementing some of this stuff.

The more you read, the more ideas you get to do more stuff. [...]

To Your Success,