Bill Platt

Posted on January 13, 2021 by Fran Watson

Lessons Learned From Failures by Bill Platt

“I will be honest… I don’t like talking about those times when I get things wrong… My screw-ups are instructional, but I don’t like dwelling on them too much.”

Bill shared the following in a recent email:  “When I first started producing training guides, I had one really embarrassing failure, which ended up teaching me some really valuable lessons.

In that case, I spent 26 straight days producing a comprehensive training program with Sam England… It was his first training product and my second.

We spent 26 days preparing the training, another 3 days setting up our sales page, and half a day trying to figure out how to set up a product on WarriorPlus.

When we launched that training and offered it for $17, we were really excited about its potential. Half way through, we dropped the price to $10. We answered all questions that came to us, and we were waiting for sales to take off… They never did… After seven days on the market, we had only sold 10 copies and we had earned about $60 each. LOL $60 for 29.5 days work! Oh my gosh… It was so disappointing.

If I would have given up at that point, maybe you would have never known my name.

A lot of the people who sent us questions pointed to how much detail we had included in the training. People seemed to believe that we were overwhelming them with information. And, I can see that. It was six hours of video, a 120-page PDF, and several cheat sheets, delivered over the course of four modules.

These folks made an interesting argument. They said they felt that even the $10 price tag was too much, because they would need to spend 6 to 8 hours going through the training to see if they had spent their money well. Of course, they could ask for a refund, but they would never get their time back if our training sucked.

Sam and I are not people who give up easily, and we were actually listening to people who offered feedback to us.

We figured we had enough material that we could actually split up the entire package into several smaller packages and offer people something that would take a lot less time to consume.

So we extracted the 120-page PDF from the big package, wrote a new sales page, then launched it again at $10. After just a few hours, sales were strong enough to try increasing the price. We eventually raised the price to $17, and we went on to sell nearly 500 copies. The training received outstanding reviews, and we had only three refund requests.

After our initial failure, we were able to sell far less information at a much higher price point.

LESSON #1 – The price people are willing to pay for your books is directly related to the amount of value the buyer feels they will receive from owning your book.

LESSON #2 – Shorter is often better.

LESSON #3 – You can often fix a failing offer, by making minor changes to your offer and putting a new sales page on it.

LESSON #4 – If you are willing to learn from your failures, you can often create better outcomes.

LESSON #5 – You can sometimes charge more money for less content, if you make a compelling case for someone to want to own your book.”

“Which brings me to the point of this email…

As book authors, we are in total control of our business, and we can change things as necessary to achieve the goals we want to achieve.

It is the amount of value that people will find, which will determine the success of my book.

If I give good value in my book, people will be happy to buy it.

This is the lesson I would like you to take from this email…

If I can deliver the information my buyers want in 10 pages, instead of 120 pages, then I can write and publish twelve books in the time it would have taken me to write one book.

And curiously, I can often charge the same price or more for the 10-page book, than I charge for the 120-page book.

I wanted you to understand these concepts, because they are key to getting the value from Paul Coleman’s “6-Page Amazon Royalties” training.

Paul has discovered a large number of books that are being sold on Amazon and Etsy, for 5.65 to 6.95, and the books are getting dozens and hundreds of 5-star reviews!

Inside this training, Paul explains what makes these books attractive to consumers, how to create them easily, and he also brainstorms dozens of potential angles that you could use to crank out these books quickly, with many links to sample books in each genre.

Think about this for a minute…

The authors of these books are writing 6-page books, selling them on Amazon and Etsy, and they are selling their books for 5.65 to 6.95 like clockwork.

One of the sampled books has over 900 reviews, 83% of which are 5-star reviews. It is selling for $5.65 and generating $1800 per month in author royalties.

Another sampled book is selling 500 copies per month.

Yep. I liked this training, and I suspect you will as well.

p.s. Paul’s “6-Page Amazon Royalties” demonstrates a lot of the lessons I shared with you in this email… His training is jam-packed, full of really valuable information, and completely contained inside of an 18-page PDF.

p.p.s. There are no up-sells with this offer.

Do check this out…

Click Here to Get Your Copy…

Sign up for your own emails here:

bill@plattpublishing.com

Bill Platt
Ponca City, Oklahoma USA

I hope you will check out Bill and all the great advice he has to offer on writing your books and take note of his advice on facing failure and moving on!!!

Fran Watson

Fran Watson, Career Counsellor

Here to help you

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Don’t Quit

Posted on January 8, 2021 by Fran Watson

Most Overnight Successes Are Years In The Making

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”  Thomas Edison

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Most, if not all overnight successes you see are actually years in the making. Sure it may seem that a group or a person becomes an overnight hit, or that a business owner hits it out of the park all of a sudden. It seems so easy, so effortless, and so lucky, doesn’t it?

What you don’t see is what it took to get to that point. You don’t see the years of practicing, trying, and failing. You don’t see the hundreds or thousands of times they had to try again. You don’t see all the sweat, tears, and disappointment of the overnight success. That’s why it’s easy to be a little jealous and to think that these people just got lucky.

The secret to becoming an overnight success, or have any type of success in any area of your life is to not let failure stop you. When you mess up, when people let you down, when things don’t work out the way you’d hoped, you don’t give up. Instead, you get up, your dust yourself off, and you try again. You gain experience, you learn from each failure, each mistake, and each disappointment and you get back to work. It doesn’t matter what area of your life you want to improve or what lofty goals and dreams you want to reach.

Start Small

The easiest way to embrace risk, and potential failure, is to start small. Learn to say yes to small things in your life, even if there’s a chance you’ll mess up or don’t get the results you would like. Say yes to a coffee date, say yes to work on a new project at work, say yes to try a new method for gaining customers.

Start small and you don’t have a lot to risk. If it fails, it’s not a big deal. But, if it works out, it gives you the encouragement you need to keep going and try something else.

Get In The Habit Of Taking Risks And Trying New Things

Starting small also allows you to get into a habit of taking risks and trying new things. And that’s a good thing. Make an effort to say yes more often and make it a new habit. It’s not easy if you’re a cautious person who likes to weigh the pros and cons and only commit to something new once you know you can do it. Breaking out of that habit isn’t easy, but you can do it by making an effort to say yes and take those risks on a regular basis.

As you start to embrace risk and fail more often, you’ll also learn that failing isn’t the end of the world. In fact, it isn’t even a bad thing. If nothing else, failing means you’re trying and sooner or later you will succeed.

Focus On What You’re Learning

Not only that but with each failure there’s a lesson to be learned. By embracing failure, and paying attention to that lesson you’ll get good at whatever you’ve set out to do and you’ll do it fast. The faster you fail, the faster you’ll learn, and thus the faster you’ll succeed. Start embracing those failures, take those risks and reach your goals in record time.

The secret to your success is to use failure to your advantage. Use it to push you towards trying one more time. Learn from the mistakes you make and learn to embrace failure. The faster you fail, the faster you’ll learn and get better. And that, of course, means that the faster you fail, the faster you’ll reach your goals in the end.

We think of failure as something negative, when it’s not. Successful people come to realize that. They may make it seem like everything is falling into their lap, but when you start to dig a little deeper they have their share of failures. What sets them apart is that they don’t mind those setbacks and mistakes. Instead, they use them to learn, get better, and stay motivated. And that’s what it takes for you to become an overnight success as well. Are you ready to embrace failure and try again until you too become an overnight success? If so, it’s time to get to work and start failing fast.

Never Give Up

The only way you’ll truly fail is when you give up. When you’re trying to get faster and better, when you’re working hard to reach your goals in life, giving up simply isn’t an option. You can’t let yourself get beat. Instead, you try again and again, learning from each failure and getting better at what you do along the way.

Here is a poem for you to live by for 2021!

Don’t Quit

 

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow–
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor’s cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out–
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit–
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.

– Author unknown

To becoming a success by failing!!

Fran Watson

Fran Watson, Career Counsellor

Here to help you

P.S.  Here is another of my friends who is failing forward:  Ruth Bowers of Ritchie Media

P.P.S.  Here’s an article from Arlene Dickinson of You Inc and Shark Tank on the benefits of failure

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Famous Failures

Posted on January 6, 2021 by Fran Watson

Walt Disney

Even the unhappiest of beginnings can’t hold you back when you have drive and determination.

Meet Walt Disney. You’ve heard the name before, whether from the beloved mouse who’s graced our TV and movie screens for almost a century, to Frozen and a whole slew of animated and live-action movies our kids beg us to watch repeatedly.

Disney never set out to become a household name, even though that’s what happened. In fact, his beginnings have a whole lot more to do with escaping from a bad situation and trying to find his place in the world.

Walt Disney grew up with a father so cruel and abusive that Walt’s elder brothers couldn’t leave home soon enough. Walt himself made his escape before he was even fully grown. He lied about his age so he could run away and join the army and became an ambulance driver in WWI.

With such rough beginnings, it should come as no surprise young Walt kept drawing as a way to hold onto his sanity in difficult times. After the war, he tried to make a living off his drawings, first as an apprentice to an animation studio, then later in a studio of his own, which he formed with the help of his brother. He failed dismally.

Not one to be easily put off by failure, Disney dug in his heels and tried again. He headed for California, which he felt was the future of the movie industry and set up shop. Here he had success with Oswald, a cartoon rabbit that the public loved. So did the unscrupulous people he was working with. His animators were stolen right out from under him, as was the very character he’d created.

Most people probably would have quit somewhere around here. Not Walt. He instead created a mouse named Mickey and kept going.

From there, Disney never rested. He tried his hand at a full-length animated film with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, which became very successful. On the other hand, he also tried things that were considered ‘flops,’ such as Fantasia and Pinocchio. His was a career full of ups and downs. When he opened Disneyland, just about everything that could go wrong, did. He simply dug in and worked harder to make it the success he knew it could be.

The life of Walt Disney teaches us many things. First, it doesn’t matter where you begin. The point is to get started. Second, you can’t let disaster get you down. You simply need to pull yourself up and move on without looking back. No matter where you are in life, keep going. The only thing that can hold you back is you.

Jello and more

It’s easy to become frustrated with something and decide to quit instead of persevering.  It’s easier to give up than to continue on, but the rewards often come when you keep on going.  For instance:  How many of you have eaten Jell-O?  In 1895 Pearl Wait invented Jello, but it didn’t sell and Wait sold the product rights to Orator Woodward.  It still wasn’t selling and Woodward offered the rights to a plant supervisor for $35, but he said no.  Just when he was about to write off his investment, people began to buy Jello and by 1906 he was selling nearly one million dollars’ worth a year.

Gail Borden had the following words inscribed on his tombstone:  “I tried and failed, I tried again and again and succeeded.”  Borden was over 50 years old before one of his many schemes finally paid off.  Although he drew the first topographical map of Texas and coined the slogan “Remember the Alamo!” he is primarily remembered for his method of preserving milk by condensing it.

In the early 1920’s a young man named DeWitt Wallace thought he could make money selling secondhand magazine stories.  He began publishing a monthly selection of stories collected from other magazines and called it Reader’s Digest.

Monopoly

Parker Brothers sent a personal rejection to Charles B. Darrow about his new game stating that there were dozens of reasons why it would never sell.  In the company’s opinion, his real estate board game was a model for everything that a game shouldn’t be.  Can anyone guess the name of his game?  Monopoly  A few months later they had to eat their words.  Darrow actually did not invent the game, he simply patented it.  It was actually invented in 1904 by a woman named Elizabeth (Lizzie) Magie.  She had offered it to Parker Brothers, but they turned it down.  Darrow was given a handmade copy of her game and then designed his own game board out of linoleum, and created the game as we know it now.  Parker Brothers bought the patents belonging to Darrow and to Lizzie Magie.

There are more stories about people who succeeded when everyone around them thought they would fail.  People like  Chester Carlson – Xerox,  William Lear – Lear Jet, Orville Redenbacher – Popcorn, Frederick Smith – Fed Ex, Colonel Sanders – KFC.

Come back and find out more.

So, the moral of this post is – keep trying, keep moving, keep working and you will succeed at your endeavours.

Fran Watson

Fran Watson, Career Counsellor

Here to help you

P.S.  Over the next few weeks I will also be posting about some of my friends who didn’t quit when things got tough.  People like Angela Wills and friends: How We Made the Best of 2020

 

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Sitting in sh*t

Posted on November 12, 2020 by Fran Watson

Sitting in Sh*t

Yesterday when I went in to see my mom at the nursing home she told me she had to have a bowel movement.  I rang the buzzer and two Personal Support Workers came but they told me that she now had to use the bed pan and that they checked her after lunch when they put her to bed….  If she had messed herself they would clean her up.

I had noticed a very strong odour as I passed through the halls.  I hadn’t noticed it as bad when I had been there before Covid, but I know that the health of many of the residents had gone down hill during this time when they have not been able to socialize.

This morning I also thought of a time when my mother-in-law was in a nursing home and she had messed herself and the nurse apologized to her and me and said she was sorry but she had to take her break right then or she wouldn’t get it.  She said maybe someone else would be able to help her, but no one did and she sat in her shit for half an hour.  I felt absolutely helpless.  She was wheelchair bound as is my mom.

I wrote this poem for both of them and many others in this situation.

We’re Sorry Old Lady

We’re sorry old lady
Just sit in your shit
We promise that we will
Be back in a bit.
But there are so many
And we are so few
We try but there’s only
So much we can do
So we’re sorry old lady
Just sit in your shit
We promise that we will be
Back in a bit
With people to toilet
And people to feed
We try to take care
Of everyone’s needs
But there are so many
And we are so few
There’s only so much
Work we can do
So we’re sorry old lady
To leave you alone
We’ll be back we promise
Oh..there goes the phone
Another emergency
Another quick call
We’ll be back don’t worry
Sit still don’t fall
“I can’t ring the buzzer
It’s too far away
I’ve forgotten how to use it
So here I will stay.”
We’re sorry old lady
Just sit in your shit
We promise that we will
Be back in a bit.

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Overwhelmed?

Posted on October 29, 2020 by Fran Watson

Are you Overwhelmed and Exhausted these days?

There are so many things coming at us – holiday preparations – Thanksgiving, Christmas, dealing with changes due to the pandemic.  And then in the U.S.A. there is all the drama around the upcoming elections.  It seems you can’t turn on the television or look at Facebook or anything without being drawn in.  It all becomes overwhelming and makes me want to just curl up somewhere with a good book and forget about things for a while.  How about you?

Do you find that you are tossing and turning at night?  Longing for sleep but your brain keeps running amuck?  A friend of mine told me about something she found that is allowing her to sleep finally after many years of being an insomniac.  You might want to take a look at it (I am not a doctor and haven’t tried it, but she said it is fantastic).  ” Terra Origin SLEEP It has melatonin, GABA, valerian, L-Theanine, and a bunch of other adaptogenic herbs. I am seriously sleeping through the night and waking up feeling refreshed, not drugged. It is a major change for me!! ” You can find it on Amazon (see below).  When you don’t get enough sleep it is even more difficult to overcome the feelings of overwhelm.

As an Internet Marketer I have been overwhelmed with the number of sales and bundles and the “buy now” ads.  Not that the products are not wonderful and beautiful, but there are just so many that I have almost stopped responding to them.  I look at what I already have and think do I really need anything more?  I have signed up for some membership sites that are all inclusive so that I don’t have to pay to download monthly packages or the latest thing because they are in my membership site.  It is important to know exactly what you get before you commit to a site, but one that I recently took advantage of was the Tools for Motivation membership.  (Check out this gift 5 Free Self Help Audiobooks“) I have been buying from them for years and it is the type of product that I use with my clients and myself.

I also love beautiful planners and it is easy to get caught up in buying another one and another one.  Today I sat down and looked at what I currently have on hand and how can I use them.  I will be sending some of my subscribers a journal or planner in the next week.  Let me know if you want to get on my list.

At one time I was trying to share all the wonderful notices I was getting with everyone on my list, but there were so many I just couldn’t keep up.  I ended up sending an email with the names of people I loved to buy from so that they could check them out.  If you are interested, let me know and I can share the list of my friends with you.

Speaking of membership sites.  One of my mentors, Angela Wills, is setting up training on how to set up a membership site.  She outlines what you need, who you need to be, what are the benefits and more and she is starting the course on November 9th.  She has a great deal for early takers and the price increases at midnight on the 9th.  If you are interested in checking it out, click here.

I hope to get back into the swing of things and be more active here on my blog.  I had intended to write a post on the weekend about Famous Failures, but it is still in the works.  Perhaps it will make it to post this weekend.  You may know about some of the people I will be mentioning like Walt Disney and Colonel Sanders, but you may be surprised about some of the others.

See you soon.

Fran Watson

P.S.  Starting your Christmas shopping?  Unique Gift Ideas From Small Brands

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Add Exercise

Posted on August 12, 2020 by Fran Watson

Exercise Helps Boost Positive Mood

When individuals are dealing with debilitating bouts of anxiety or depression, many doctors recommend exercise as part of their healing routine.

While exercise is just a small chunk of recovery, it actually provides a host of health benefits that aren’t just physical. In fact, engaging in exercise on a consistent basis has been found to improve mood, increase happiness and boost productivity! Who knew that hitting the gym a few times a week could be as effective as a therapy session.

In addition, exercise has been known to make individuals feel a sense of calm and relief. This control helps them deal with their everyday challenges without getting overwhelmed.

If you’re looking for ways to improve your self-development and seek happiness, check out why and how exercise is a great tool to implement into your recovery routine.

Exercise is Biologically Proven to Boost Your Mood

When you exercise, your brain releases dozens of hormones that contribute to your happiness. Of those hormones, endorphins and serotonin are the most important ones.

The hormones regulate your mood and help you to balance your emotions. IN fact, healthy doses of serotonin increase your happiness! Because of this biological boost, many doctors suggest engaging in some form of physical activity to increase the production of these hormones.

We’ve all experienced it – we set our alarm for 7AM with the best of intentions, but when the time comes, we hit the “snooze” button repeatedly and start our day much slower than we hoped.

Starting the day sluggishly sets a disappointing tone for the rest of the day. It’s hard to feel motivated and upbeat when you start your day behind schedule. Everyone wants to wake up with energy, but most of us start our mornings on a slow note.

Fortunately, it is possible to wake up early and have high energy to start your day. By making a few small changes to your morning routine, you can shake off sleep inertia quickly and tackle your day with enthusiasm.  It is important to Exercise as Soon as You Can.

It sounds counterintuitive but exercising soon after you wake up is a great way to energize yourself for the rest of the day. Exercising when you wake up energizes your body and mind, and helps you shake off feelings of grogginess.

Ideally, your morning exercise routine should take place outside (if possible). Sunlight and fresh morning air can play a role in waking up your mind and body, but indoor exercise can work just as well.

Exercising puts your metabolism in gear, which helps maintain your energy levels throughout the day. Any type of exercise will help you wake up in the morning. Whether you prefer jogging, yoga, or lifting weights, exercising after a night of quality sleep will refresh your mind and energize your muscles.

Eat a Healthy Breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Think of it like you’re fueling up your car before going to work. Your body burns calories overnight, and you need to replace them with healthy calories in the morning to maintain high energy throughout the day.

Don’t see this as an excuse to pack on empty carbs when you wake up. If you fuel your body with sugar and other empty carbs in the morning, your body will burn through its energy supply quickly, and you’ll feel worse once it does.

Eggs, oatmeal, yogurt, fruit, and turkey-based proteins are excellent choices for breakfast. By a large, nutritious breakfast in the morning, you’ll feel your energy levels rise quickly, and stay at a manageable level throughout the day.

Sure, exercising on a regular basis and eating well contribute to a nice physical appearance. That’s partly one of the main reasons why people exercise so often.

Be More Confident

However, did you know that regular exercise can make you feel accomplished, productive, and confident? How so?

Exercise isn’t an easy task. If it was, more people would actually enjoy doing it. When you push yourself to overcome your physical limitations and hit the gym, you’re giving yourself an immediate confidence boost.

Tackling those heavy weights or finally being able to run a mile on the treadmill are awesome accomplishments you should be proud of. Once you continue going, your strength will increase. This will make you more equipped to tackle other challenges in and outside of the gym.

It Makes You Feel Good Physically

When you aren’t happy with your outward appearance, it’s hard to feel confident on a regular basis. Exercise not only improves your strength, but it also improves how you look physically.

When you begin to see progress, you’ll begin to feel a sense of success and confidence. You’ll feel good about wearing that little black dress or fitting into your skinny jeans after 10 years.

Having a healthy sense of self-confidence helps you to develop lasting relationships with others and yourself. You’re automatically happier which obviously results in an increased mood.

Better Sleep

When you exercise on a regular basis, you’re sleep quality improves. This means you’ll have the mental and physical energy to take on the day ahead.

When people don’t get enough sleep, they usually experience a decrease in their overall interactions, productivity, and happiness.

Since sleep deprivations cause so many health concerns, it’s safe to conclude that proper sleep leads to an overall sense of well-being.

If you’re experiencing issues with falling asleep, why not try implementing an exercise regimen into your weekly routine. This will help your sleeping patterns increase thus making you a happier person.

Engaging in exercise on a regular basis does more than just improve your physical appearance. It makes you a healthier, happier, and well-rounded individual.

If you’re looking for ways to naturally improve your mood and increase happiness, try implementing a workout regimen. Within a few months, you’ll begin to see lasting mental and physical changes that are sure to last.

Combine exercise with good eating habits

Eat a Healthy Breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Think of it like you’re fueling up your car before going to work. Your body burns calories overnight, and you need to replace them with healthy calories in the morning to maintain high energy throughout the day.

Don’t see this as an excuse to pack on empty carbs when you wake up. If you fuel your body with sugar and other empty carbs in the morning, your body will burn through its energy supply quickly, and you’ll feel worse once it does.

Eggs, oatmeal, yogurt, fruit, and turkey-based proteins are excellent choices for breakfast. By a large, nutritious breakfast in the morning, you’ll feel your energy levels rise quickly, and stay at a manageable level throughout the day.

To Improving Your Mood with Exercise

Fran Watson

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Improve Your Mood

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Fran Watson

5 Easy Ways to Improve Your Mood

No one likes being in a bad mood, but no matter how much we hate it, it still happens from time to time. There are some things you can do to improve your mood and get yourself out of your funk.

Here are five easy ways that you can work on improving your mood and cut out that chronic bad mood once and for all.

1) Eat Healthier
Many people don’t understand just how much the food they eat affects their mood. If you eat a lot of junk food and aren’t getting the proper nutrition, chances are you’re going to be grumpy and fatigued a lot of the time.

Ensuring that you get the proper nutrition by eating right and getting your nutrients can greatly affect both your mood and your health daily.

2) Eliminate or Reduce Sugar
Sugar isn’t the best for us and it can exacerbate anxiety and depression. It can mess with your serotonin levels which can make it hard to balance your mood successfully. If you find yourself being highly stressed, irritable, and sluggish, you may want to see how much sugar and junk food you’re consuming.

A good way to swap out these sugary snacks is by replacing them with healthier foods like nuts, fruits, veggies, or hummus. Drinking water instead of more sugary beverages like juices, sports drinks, or sodas can also help to limit your sugar consumption.

3) Get Plenty of Sleep
Not having enough sleep can definitely affect your overall mood. Stress and anxiety can both manifest themselves in insomnia and other sleep problems, as well, making the problem an endless cycle.

Getting the proper amount of rest each night can help set you up for the next day. It can put you in a better mood and help your brain to function optimally.

4) Limit Caffeine
Caffeine can be the enemy of sleep and a source for a chronic bad mood. Many of us are more addicted to caffeine than we even realize. If you find yourself getting headaches in the absence of caffeine, you’re likely addicted.

Caffeine can make it hard for you to fall asleep or stay asleep, which can make anyone cranky, grumpy, and/or testy. It can also affect your mood directly, making you feel on edge, irritated, antsy, and even worsen anxiety.

Limiting your caffeine intake could help eliminate your chronic crankiness and bad mood.

5) Exercise Regularly
Exercising releases endorphins, which encourage a more positive mood. By regularly exercising, you can regularly introduce more positive energy into your body, improving your overall mood on a daily basis.

In addition to releasing endorphins, exercising can cause you to feel better about yourself and your appearance as well as feel healthier. This will help to improve your overall mood regularly by helping you to feel better about yourself and just feel better. The better you feel, the happier you’ll be.

There are a lot of things you can do to improve your daily mood overall that we haven’t mentioned in this list. For instance, spending more time outside can help to improve your mood daily. If this isn’t possible due to weather, you can get similar results by regularly taking vitamin D supplements.

These tips should get you some results in improving your bad mood, but if they don’t, you could always research more options. There are many ways to improve your mood; the hardest step is admitting that there is a need for it.

To improving your mood

Fran Watson

P.S.  Here are some extra tips for you 5 Meal Planning Hacks You Need to Start Using Today

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Feelings

Posted on August 2, 2020 by Fran Watson

How are you feeling?

A lot of people I have been talking to lately seem to have a general feeling of malaise (a vague sense of mental or moral ill-being – Miriam Webster) or angst (a feeling of anxiety, apprehension, or insecurity – Miriam Webster) as this pandemic goes on and on.

In the beginning people were hopeful that it would be over soon, but as we have passed the 6 month mark and things are still increasing, people seem to be unsure of what life will be like in the future and this is disconcerting.

I have read a number of articles and recently watched a video with Simon Sinek as he explored how he is feeling after 4+ months of isolation.  You can view it here:  Simon

One such article is from FastCompany.  The author Diani Shi states ” Many of us had high hopes at the beginning of quarantine. We’d read more books, tackle long-overdue home improvement projects, and make use of our now-free commuting time to get ahead at work.

But it hasn’t necessarily worked out that way. “People are realizing no, this isn’t the abundance of time and space we originally believed,” says Sarah Greenberg, a licensed psychotherapist and leadership coach. “Most of us are holding more than we’ve ever had before.”

Stress

Are you feeling a lot of stress? “Many of us are experiencing a high degree of stress right now, whether due to anxiety about the state of the world, social isolation, unemployment, additional caregiving responsibilities, and/or dealing with illness and loss.” (Diana Shi)

Many of us have to deal with working from home while also home schooling our children, or looking after our younger children who would normally be in day care while we work.  We might also have to deal with the stress of both partners trying to work from home with limited space to do so, while still dealing with the day to day chores of preparing meals and cleaning.

In addition, many others have been laid off from their jobs and are wondering if and when they will be able to return to work and to what type of work.  They are reviewing the job ads to see what might be out there for them and are becoming more and more frustrated as the time goes on.  Often times they are not sure how to express these feelings of frustration.

Zoomed Out

Another problem that some at-home workers are experiencing is Zoom burnout as they are attending so many Zoom meetings.  Often several in a day.  Some people may not have the best facilities at home for these meetings and children can be seen running through the meetings or other household members may appear in the background.

Workers are often expected to be available whenever they are called upon despite the other things they may have to deal with and often are required to be “on video” instead of being able to listen in or comment while in non-video mode.  You may have seen some videos of people who forgot their cameras were on while they were, shall we say, not prepared to be seen.

Isolation

People who are more extroverted are feeling the symptoms of isolation (detachment from others often involuntarily – Miriam Webster) and miss the day to day contact with their fellow workers.  The intense feelings of isolation can become a huge stressor, which can lead to procrastination as well as many other problems.  Those of us who are more introverted are often quite content to work from home, and have often wished we could do so. ”

“Procrastination can be a sign or outcome of burnout,” says Greenberg. This means, when we’re heading into a burnout zone, our reaction may be to avoid assignments we know are important.”

Now that employers are realizing that it is possible for employees to work from home and still get the work done, they are re-examining the way they will work.

“A recent Gartner poll showed that 48% of employees will likely work remotely at least part of the time after COVID-19 versus 30% before the pandemic. As organizations shift to more remote work operations, explore the critical competencies employees will need to collaborate digitally, and be prepared to adjust employee experience strategies. ” Mary Baker- Future of Work

Here is an article on Working From Home For Parents that you may find helpful.

To coping with feelings while working from home!!

Fran Watson

P.S.  Here is a list of feeling words to help you identify some of your feelings. Feelings Word List

 

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Emotions

Posted on July 23, 2020 by Fran Watson

The Importance of Positive Emotions

It’s certainly no surprise that positive emotions have the power to change lives. Emotions play a significant role in our daily lives. Brain studies have shown that having more positive emotions than negative emotions enable us to handle difficult situations more easily, and help us bounce back stronger from those situations, no matter the actual outcome. Feeling positive emotions helps us see options in solving problems, whereas negative emotions thwart that creativity.

As humans, we experience something called the negativity bias. This is our natural tendency to give more attention to the negative emotions we experience than the positive emotions. And from a scientific standpoint, it makes sense. Negative emotions generally point out a problem that needs to be fixed or figured out. They’ve arisen in our makeup to help us survive difficult and often life-threatening situations. That’s a positive side of negative emotions.

But even though these negative emotions are natural, the negativity bias can make it very difficult to let go of the negative thoughts that go along with the emotions. A bad moment turns into a bad day.  A small frustration turns into full-blown anger. So, it is useful to have the ability to call up positive emotions to help balance, and hopefully outweigh the negative emotions.

The most important thing you can do to enable your positive emotions is to practice them. That’s right – practice being positive! It’s okay to have the negative emotion or thought. Acknowledge it. Then, turn it around into something positive. Truly every situation has a silver lining if you look hard enough.

By practicing this simple switch-around when you have a negative thought, you are teaching your brain to habituate to positive thinking and positive emotion, thereby balancing the negativity bias. You’ll notice that this is difficult to do at first – the very first step is identifying your negative emotions. Once you can identify them, you can acknowledge them. And once you can identify and acknowledge them, you can then turn each around into a positive.

Creating Habits

“Positive emotions impact our lives. These outcomes are not limited to one area of life but rather, span across every nook and cranny of the human experience. Studies show that they improve relationships in the workplace, therapy and counseling, classrooms, families, and also help with individual development and fulfillment (Linley, Joseph, Maltby, Harrington, & Wood, 2009).”  from https://positivepsychology.com/benefits-of-positive-emotions/

Like most skills, this will get easier as time goes on, and you practice consistently. Soon, you will naturally begin to experience more positive thinking and emotions throughout your days, even though you haven’t had to identify and turn around a negative emotion to make that happen! This is because your brain has learned a new, positive way of doing things. The result is great feedback in the form of happiness, joy, love, and peace!

How are you applying positive emotions in your life? Let me know in the comments below.

As Mike Kemski always says – Highest Energy Wins.

Fran

P.S.  Need some more tips to bring up your positive energy?  Check out this article – 20 Simple Ways To Bring Positive Energy into Life Right Now

 

 

 

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Lifestyle Freedom

Posted on July 21, 2020 by Fran Watson

Does your business come before your life?

I have a friend, Angela Wills, who started a services-based business and quit her job to do that business. Within a few months she was overwhelmed, overworked and just plain burnt out. Angela told me she had actually been sitting at her computer for so many hours per day that her muscles had started to atrophy. It was embarrassing and she knew she needed to change.

That was in 2007. Angela stopped working for clients in 2012. She declared total lifestyle freedom at that time! She has spent the last 8 years working entirely on what she wants, for who she wants, where she wants and when she wants. Her whims can become reality. Her time is her own. Her family comes first, always.

And she’s just created a new program to teach you the Lifestyle Freedom Success Habits that got her there!

You’re not going to want to miss this new training and pre-launch pricing. In this training you’ll learn how to implement these habits:

  • Choosing Life First, Then Business & HOW to make it happen
  • Inventory Your Services, Offers & Affiliate Links so you know your business inside-out
  • Setting Your Daily Money Goal & taking action so that your consistency can take effect
  • Examples of Daily Moneymaker Tasks to do each and every day (plus a big list of ways to market your business all day long)

The Lifestyle Freedom Success Habits training will include a pre-recorded training you can access anytime you need it, with jump-links to jump to any specific section you need. You’ll also get an audio version to listen on the go (walking, in the car, cleaning house, etc). Also included is a printable version with notes of the training presentation.

This is an easy to consume program with valuable lessons you can take action on now and for years to come (as I said these have served her for 13+ years).

What is it worth to you to:

  • Stop relying on clients for your income and to decide how you get to live?
  • Have the freedom to stand and thrive through life’s challenges?
  • Knowing you can create income from anything at anytime from anywhere and take that peace of mind with you throughout life?

Only you can decide the value of this and how it can affect your life. Angela says it is priceless to her and you couldn’t pay her enough money for a JOB that would cause her to lose the freedom she’s created.

I highly recommend you soak up this info and USE IT. Now is the time to grab it in pre-launch pricing. It’s only $20 now and you’ll get the full product on Friday, July 24th.

Get Lifestyle Freedom Success Habits Here
$20 – no coupon code needed

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