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Undervalued? Leverage the Skills You Already Have!

Guest post by: Kathy Paauw

Article Overview: Every now and then I get a phone call or an email from a friend of mine who has run her own consulting company for years and has achieved some great success in her industry. She has authored a book, is an international public speaker, and is sought after to provide her expertise as a consultant to professionals throughout North America. Last week I got an email from her, and she sounded very frustrated. She said, “I’ve been so busy with my business…working in it and doing it for others, that I’m getting tired. Same old story.” And it IS the same old story. She has called or written me with that same message at least twice a year for the last four years. This time she added, “You always give me something to think about. That carrot is always dangling in front of me...

Undervalued? Leverage the Skills You Already Have!

"The happiest are those who have made a profession and a lifestyle of being in touch with their bliss;

the most frustrated are those who have accepted one job or another because they didn't know what else to do,

and once employed have never had the time to figure how to get out."

-- John Lane, Timeless Simplicity

Every now and then I get a phone call or an email from a friend of mine who has run her own consulting company for years and has achieved some great success in her industry. She has authored a book, is an international public speaker, and is sought after to provide her expertise as a consultant to professionals throughout North America. Last week I got an email from her, and she sounded very frustrated. She said, "I've been so busy with my business...working in it and doing it for others, that I'm getting tired. Same old story."

And it IS the same old story. She has called or written me with that same message at least twice a year for the last four years. This time she added, "You always give me something to think about. That carrot is always dangling in front of me. One day I just might do something with it. I can see that you are truly having fun. I'm not. So only I can change that."

The "carrot" that my friend refers to is my "Plan B," which has enabled me to create incredible leverage while having a lot of fun in the process. There are only two ways you can leverage. You can leverage your money by investing it, or you can leverage your time. These days many people don't have extra money to invest, but we all get the same amount of time (168 hours/week) to invest as we choose.

Not so long ago I felt like I was a slave to my work. If you can relate to this, keep reading.

Right out of college I took a job that got me started in a 13-year career in non-profit work. I did not realize how stressed I was until I left that work behind and took a couple years off to do part-time temporary work while I sorted out what I wanted to do next.

Fourteen years ago when I started my own business, I thought I had it all figured out. I loved the work I was doing as a Productivity Consultant and a Certified Professional and Personal Coach. I thought that being my "own boss" would be the solution to many of the challenges I had experienced with my previous work.

Although I loved the coaching and consulting work I was doing, I allowed it to consume me. After 10 years in business, I had a full practice and could not take on any more clients. I was not generating the income I wanted, and I was running myself ragged working 12-15 hour days. Once again, I reached a point where I was not enjoying my work and I was burned out.

Okay, so working for someone else did not do it for me, and being my own boss was not a bed of roses, either. When you trade time for dollars, the only way you can make more money is to work more paid or billable hours. (If you work for someone else and are in a salaried position, you may have to get a second job to earn more.) Since you only have 168 hours a week to work with, you limit the amount of money you can make because you are trading time for dollars. That is, of course, until you've learned how to leverage!

To understand what I'm about to share, let's look at what many people refer to as "time management." Although you cannot manage time -- it will tick away no matter what -- you can manage how you choose to invest your time. There are two parts to managing this. You've got to manage your thoughts (self-talk) and your actions.

Your self-talk represents your beliefs about time. Do you repeatedly say things to yourself like "I am overwhelmed!" or "I am a poor time manager."? Or do you say things like "I have all the time I need for what's most important to me," or "I am a masterful time manager."? If you focus on being overwhelmed, you will get more "overwhelm" in your life. If you focus on having all the time you need for what's most important to you, your experience of time will expand. Whatever you focus on expands.

Your actions represent your ability to put into practice the techniques that are known to maximize productivity. Examples of productivity techniques:

• Delegation to people or systems
• Saying no to some activities
• Blocking protected time for important business and personal activities
• Clustering some activities together to save time (like running errands that are geographically near each other)
• Creating a written daily plan before your day begins

Okay, so let's say that you are already doing the best you can with both your self-talk and your actions. I've learned that productivity is not just about being efficient with your time. It's also about the results you achieve. I know some very efficient people who are not nearly as productive as they could be if they'd learn how to leverage their time through systems or people.

"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on

which to place it, and I shall move the world."

-Archimedes (Greek Philosopher)

Four years ago I chose to leverage my time by getting involved in a network marketing company. This has provided me the ability to generate passive income. I still love the coaching and consulting I have done since 1995, so I choose to continue doing this. Within two years of starting my new venture, I was able to replace the income it took 10 years to generate with my coaching and consulting business (trading time for dollars). Now I receive income on a monthly basis, and what I generate is far greater because I have learned how to leverage.

How would you like to invest one hour of your time and produce 100 or 1000 hours of results? If I invest an hour of my consulting time working with one client, the result is that I have provided one hour of expertise to one person. I am trading time for dollars. Now, let's say that I take that same hour and I teach a teleclass or webinar to 100 participants, thus producing 100 hours of results with that same one hour of time. I ask each person on the call to teach what they've learned to one other person, and that doubles my results and produces even greater leverage. I record the class and make it available to those who cannot be on my live call, thus leveraging my time even more over the coming months and years.

I love to travel and am doing a lot of it. A couple weeks ago I went to a resort near Park City, Utah for a company retreat. It was absolutely gorgeous. I went on my first hot air balloon adventure while I was there. As my webmaster loaded this article onto my website, I was in Las Vegas with my daughter (it's her Spring break) where we took in some shows and did some power shopping (just us girls - no men along to complain!). While there I had a working lunch with a group of my team members, so I was able to write off the cost of my travel as a business expense. I will be going to Cancun for a week in mid April with my husband - a trip I won for being a top income earner in the company I've been involved with for the last several years. The end of April I go to San Diego for a company seminar. While there, I am taking an extra day to do some training with my local team. In May I will spend three weeks visiting five cities in Australia and several cities in New Zealand. Although this is a business trip, I look forward to some fun experiences in that part of the world as I get to know team members face-to-face whom I have so far only known through email messages and Skype calls.

I tell people I get paid to play. I love what I do, so most of it does not feel like work! And I would never be able to travel like I am if I was working for someone else or if I was still working full time in my traditional coaching and consulting business. Before I learned about leverage, I had a limited number of hours to trade, with very little time or money left over for play.

I am struck by how many people live for the weekends because they dislike their work so much. Imagine how it would feel to have the kind of work that you were so passionate about that you woke up before your alarm went off and you looked forward to the day ahead! Imagine having the kind of work that allowed you to set your own hours, determine your own vacation schedule, and enabled you to generate income even when you were sleeping and vacationing!

Top income earners have learned how to leverage their time and their money. The vast majority of people are one or two paychecks away from financial ruin. I have friends and relatives who have lost their homes recently to foreclosure because of job loss or out-of-control medical expenses. Far too many people have learned the hard way just how financially fragile they are - people who were living comfortably until something unexpected happened.

Now is a good time to take stock of your own situation and decide if you want to keep doing what you've been doing. Even for those who currently live comfortably and love their present work, most people need a Plan B in place, too.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Am I doing what I love? Am I happy?
• Do I feel a sense of purpose and genuine passion for what I do?
• Does my work enable me to have the lifestyle I choose?
• Am I leveraging time and money so I am not completely reliant on the next paycheck to cover my basic expenses?
• If I lost my job or my ability to work tomorrow, would my family and I be able to sustain our current lifestyle?
• Will I be able to retire in the lifestyle I desire when I want to?
• Do I have a Plan B that can sustain me through unexpected circumstances?

If you answered "no" to any of the above questions, it's not too late to put your own Plan B in place.

Whether you are interested in what I am doing or not, I encourage you to find something that is a good fit for you and get started putting your own Plan B in place. I'm sure glad I did! I also encourage you to read a book that was just published by best-selling author Robert Kiyosaki (author of Rich Dad Poor Dad). His new book is called The Business of the 21st Century. Kiyosaki believes in the power of network marketing and he explains why this is the best time to start your own business and secure your financial future!

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Article Tags: career, generate more income, success, work from home, work less



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