Don’t be Afraid to Ask for What You Want Financially

One of the most common things I hear from business owners is they have a fear of asking for what they want financially. Whenever I challenge my clients with the question…”What do you really want to receive financially this year through your services?” There is normally a look that every business owner gets on their face; as they stall with the truth of their answer. Most of the time they will down-play what they really want to ask for with reasons why they are not ready right now.

Their answer generally comes out with a lower tone in their voice….”Oooooh $—,000 per year would be good”. I know they are not telling their truth because there was no excitement behind their voice. I find I have to challenge them by asking the same question again. This time using extra emphasis on ‘What do you REALLY want to charge for your valued services and give me a figure that excites you?”

The response this time is amazingly the opposite, as the tone in their voice is assertive and body posture shifts to an upright position. “I want $150,000 or more this year”…with a grin on their face expressing excitement.

It is amazing how many business people undercharge their services because they are too afraid to ask for what they know they are really worth deep inside. A contributing factor to this is generally some form of self-doubt about the value you are giving your clients. The “I’m not good enough” voice can easily come into play and take over your financial results. Take charge of this by knowing exactly the services, benefits and results you give your clients and write it down. Keep it in front of you each day as a valuable reminder when speaking with clients.

Create a new positive affirmation about how much you really want to receive this financial year and write it down placing it somewhere you can see it. Say it as often as you possibly can throughout your day. Have the courage to step forward and ask for what you know you are worth. Write it down and focus on this amount every day.

Take the necessary actions that inspire you to supporting your financial goals inside your business. For example; begin to package your services and raise your fees. Identify how many clients you want to work with and/or products you want to sell to increase your profits.

Enjoy creating your purposeful and profitable business…and living a soul-satisfying lifestyle.

5 Easy Steps to Start Handling your Money Better

1.   Become conscious about where you are spending your money

Get really conscious and honest with yourself about where you are spending your money. Carry with you a notebook so that you can write it down every time you take money out of your wallet or your purse. Keep receipts for everything as a reminder also. Notice whether you are reactional spending based on needs vs. wants. Instant gratification can be the make or break to your financial success.

2.    Incoming money vs. Outgoing money

It’s as simple as… Do you spend more than you are making? Identify how much money you have ’coming in’ vs. ’going out’. Maintain weekly records of what you are spending and do a comparison each week to become conscious about what is reality for you in your habits of spending. Look closely at what you have coming in financially and what you have going out financially

3.    Create an empowering budget plan (no depriving yourself)

Spend some time in working out how much you need to create a weekly or monthly budget plan.

Remember this is not based on depriving yourself, but more for empowering yourself around money and your financial situation for now and your future. Keep it really simple.

4.    Keep an eye on your budget comparisons weekly

It is important to keep an eye on your budget weekly to compare whether you are on track according to what you allocated in your budget areas. I found that if I did not do this on a regular basis, then I kept reacting from not being clear. When you are clear, it gives you space and freedom around your finances for you to move forward and grow financially.

5.    Start now – whatever your situation financially

Whatever your situation is financially, by creating a relationship with money and ‘being with’ exactly where you are right now, will create a spring board to where you want to go financially. Notice any negative head talk about yourself, about money and start changing your thinking to serve you. The key is patience, persistence and vision. Hold onto your vision and keep working it one step at a time.

Your Relationship with Money – What’s Holding You Back!

Have you ever asked yourself the question…”What is my relationship like with money”?

Financial freedom does not begin with your bank account – it actually begins with your thoughts. These thoughts generally stem from your past beliefs about money.
Do you wonder why your money situation in the present keeps showing up the same way as your money situation in your past? If so, then your future is more than likely going to look the same, unless you have a look into your beliefs about money and what might be holding you back.

The first step is to think back to the earliest memory that you can recall when you decided something about money and what it meant to you. Perhaps for you it meant creating pleasure; being about to have an ice-cream when you asked or going to the movies with your friends – or fights between your parents or maybe the feeling that there was never enough and you always missed out. Your own memories about money will tell you everything about who you were, and whether you are still living it out today.

Whatever your money messages were, notice what feelings come up for you today around money and are you still living with those feelings today. Become conscious about your money messages from the past and what beliefs might be holding you back from creating the life your desire now and for your future.

Here is a list of questions to ask yourself which may prompt your memory about money.

• Did you hear your parents fight about money?
• Did you bring friends back to your house or were you ashamed?
• Did you wish you had things your friends had?
• Did you get pocket money? If so, was it the same as your friends or siblings?
• What did your parents say about money and what didn’t they say?
• Did you have to make excuses to your friends when asked to go out somewhere?
• What hidden messages (emotional) did you receive about money?
• Did you get special treats as a child or did you have to be good to earn them?
• Did you feel like your friend’s had better clothes than you?

Remember, this is an exercise to support you in breaking through money patterns and habits – resolving any emotions holding you back – not to add to it. When you do this exercise, please keep this in mind because the people you grew up with did the best they could with the knowledge, awareness and resources. There is always a positive insight inside of every negative, if you look for it.

Look money directly in the eye and face your fears to claim your power back. Unconscious habits will always keep you in a place of self-doubt, unworthiness, insecurity and fear. This then paralysis you into thinking negatively about all the things you say you cannot do, have or be. This will keep you stuck with a feeling of lack and limited thinking which will hinder your success of attracting more money.

Once you have identified what has been holding you back, then create a powerful statement or affirmation for yourself. This will support you in creating a new truth for yourself when it comes to money. For example; I am successful and powerful now receiving $10,000 or more per month. Write your powerful statement out 25 times a day and/or say it at least 100 times a day until it becomes reality and keep going beyond.

Action steps to support your new truth are very important. Remember actions without belief are a waste of time because you will continually keep sabotaging yourself. Stay accountable by managing your money by becoming aware about your spending habits. Seek financial advice if you need it.

I wish you all great prosperity, success and abundance.

Real Productivity

Today’s Inspiration

To be productive and feel a sense of satisfaction throughout your day means to have a clear path of prioritising what it is you desire to achieve. If you truly want to know whether you are moving in the direction of your heart’s vision, then it is a must to set up your day taking specific inspirational actions towards actualising this.

Coaching Tip

Notice whether you are paper shuffling or jumping from action to action in a frantic manner feeling like you are keeping busy – yet not any further along your desired path. I know it sounds pretty obvious that if you want to achieve, then you must move towards it. What I want to know is ‘What stops you!’

Begin today to prioritise your top 3-5 actions each day and stay focussed on these until they are achieved. Get to know yourself and see whether you are the type of person who has high expectations on achieving certain things inside a time frame that is just unrealistic. Get to know what you need to delegate and what things you are truly good at; and best of all, notice the things you most enjoy doing and do more of those.

What’s your Life Theme?

Today’s Inspiration

What is your Life Theme? Do you have a supportive theme or one that keeps telling you that ‘you are not good enough’ and no matter what you do, you still tell yourself that ‘it is not good enough’? Create your supportive life theme today – one that tells you that ‘you are good enough’ and ‘it is good enough to deliver’.

Coaching Tip

My theme use to be “I’m not good enough” which would always take me into telling myself “It’s not good enough” no matter what I did. This would then create a life for me that felt like I was taking one step forward and three steps backwards. What’s your theme? Decide today to create a new theme for yourself – one that keeps you moving forward in the direction you truly want to go in life. One example that helped me was to put up a sign in huge letters in front of my computer that said “I am Good Enough” and “Progress – Not Perfection”. This helped to remind me that whatever I did, was good enough, in that moment and that every step I took was a progressive step in my right direction true to my heart. This was also a reminder that there is no such thing as perfection (it is only an illusion in ones mind that is self-sabotaging.)

Are you a Perfectionist and it’s driving you crazy?

Today’s Inspiration

Always think in terms of ‘Progress ~ Not Perfection’. There is no such thing as perfection because you continually keep evolving everyday finding better ways of doing things. That is why it is called Progress. So keep reminding yourself with a knowing that you are progressing with every step you take and breakthrough all thoughts and feelings of trying to always get things right or perfect.

Coaching Tip

Are you a bit of a perfectionist; just like myself? Then this is how I broke through from driving myself crazy with the habit of trying to get everything right and still thinking it was not perfect or good enough. When you have a clear vision and you take the steps that feel right to you in moving towards your goals, then just know that every little step you take is a major contribution to you reaching your fulfilling life and business success. Every time you hear yourself say ‘I haven’t got it right yet or it’s still not perfect’ replace it with ‘this step IS a part of my progressive bigger picture’.

‘Our Deepest Fear’

I was speaking with a client today who mentioned that she came across some very powerful words which she decided to start reading everyday because of the profound impact these words had on her life to remind her of the life that is truly possible for her to live. I quickly realised that they were the first few lines from the Nelson Mandela 1994 inaugural speech which was originally written by Marianne Williamson from her book called Return to Love. I mentioned to my client that this speech changed my life many years ago and I would email her a copy which I thought you may like a copy also.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually who are you not to be?

Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.

There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We are born to make manifest the glory of god that is within us.

It is not just in some of us, it’s in everyone! And as we let our own light shine, we

unconsciously give other people the permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others !”

 

Do not allow your deepest fear to stop you from living the life you truly want to life.

More about Positive Self-Statements

Much of your communication to yourself is through self-statements. These self-statements, which form part of the stream of your inner dialogue, determine how you will act out your future. The quality of your self-statements is that they either empower, or they limit you.

Words are the basis of all your self-statements. In your mind you link words to images that will be associated with past experiences, whether positive or negative. Words trigger off powerful associative images, especially if they are backed up by strong emotive feelings. Say to yourself, “I will never be successful”. Now say that again, with real emotion, and it becomes a powerful directive that will program your subconscious mind to create a limited behavioural pattern.

There is no way you can feel inclined to ‘be successful’ when you are making this kind of limiting self-statement. As your subconscious does not have the capacity to discern whether you mean what you say or not, it acts out ‘to not be successful’ as an action. Your subconscious mind is literally programmed by your inner communication. How you communicate with yourself determines your outcome.

You can see how imperative it is that you become aware of the statements you make to yourself. As you move through your day, pay attention to the way in which you talk to yourself, and to your choice of words. Remember – everything you tell yourself is acted upon, because your subconscious mind is unable to discriminate.

Self-affirmations send positive messages to your mind. When you are frustrated because you feel you are not achieving or moving forward in your life, or you find it hard to view yourself differently, or you are not losing the weight you are working hard at losing, or your finances are not improving – then improve your potentiality through affirmative self-statements! You can support your intention to achieve your goals by becoming aware of the limiting self-statements you make. The next step is to replace them with positive self-affirmations and take the necessary actions to close the gap each day.

From the Heart – Developing Your Attraction

“Be whole and present so that you effortlessly draw in to you what you want in life vs. having to sell, seduce or promote yourself” (CoachU 1999)

Attraction is the opposite to promotion or seduction. To be attractive means that good stuff naturally comes to you. As we develop personally and professionally, we prefer to become attractive to opportunities, others, potential customers, ourselves and the future, rather than being better at promoting, marketing, seducing, controlling or manipulating.

Actions to Develop your Attraction

• Create a strong vision of what you truly desire
• Set strong personal and professional boundaries
• Live your life with integrity
• Create a reserve of time, space, energy and money
• Take extreme self-care and invest in yourself
• Live in the present and act on what is important first
• Identify what you are ‘putting up with’ and clean them up NOW
• Acknowledge yourself for every little step you take
• Create a ‘done list’ - instead of a ‘to do list’
• Add value for the joy of it
• Acknowledge others around you
• Find what you love doing and ‘live to work’ – not ‘work to live’

Celebrating Success

In a moment of frustration, my coach said to me…. “Instead of focussing on everything you did not manage to do – I want you to acknowledge everything you did accomplish throughout your day.” This was a difficult concept for me at the time being such a high achiever and perfectionist – it was not good enough for me. Until the following week when I was working in my office and noted this same frustration of not feeling like I was getting anywhere. Then the tones of a supportive voice reminding me once again….”acknowledge yourself for what you have achieved today”.

I obviously was ready to break whatever the frustrated cycle was. I then took out an old exercise book I had sitting in my top draw and started writing what I had achieved.

“I acknowledge you Annette for….

*    cleaning out your filing cabinet and throwing out old documents
*    sending an email to my coach for support
*    making a phone call committing to learn new program
*    clearing email in tray
*    ringing my brother about invite to dinner
*    returning the phone call to client with clarity
*    attending network meeting and connecting with everyone
*    being real with coaching clients and holding their vision
“
As I wrote, I noticed how hard it was for me to look for what I had achieved. What I was looking for was the big accomplishments. Then I realised that the little accomplishments were the foundation of my business and the consistency of those little things creates the big accomplishments. Most of all I realised that I was acknowledging myself and developing a relationship between myself and what I was passionate about in my business.

I decided to use this as a supportive tool regularly and one of the first things I noticed was my list became longer and longer each time I entered into my exercise book – now called “Acknowledgements to Annette”. I discovered that as I acknowledged myself, my mind was open with enthusiasm to look for more positive actions which I had taken throughout my day.

Take time out of your busy day to create your own personal and professional acknowledgement list. You could even try a weekly one if you prefer. Give it a go and see what opens up for you. Enjoy celebrating your ongoing Success.

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“Success is neither magical or mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.”                                                                                                            
– Jim Rohn -
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