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The Art Science and Grace of Thriving

Written by: Molly Gordon

Article Overview: Thriving is part art, part science, and part grace. A thriving business must not only accommodate but support life in all its complexity. A thriving business requires and provides resilience and continuity.

The Art Science and Grace of Thriving

Thriving is part art, part science, and part grace. A thriving
business must not only accommodate but support life in all its
complexity. A thriving business requires and provides resilience and
continuity.

How do you go about building a thriving career or business? Here are
some of the things I've learned and that I credit with supporting my
own thriving business.

1. Recognize that life happens. There will be ups and downs in your
personal life and ups and downs in business. When you can accept
these ebbs and flows of attention, energy, and focus, you will
better be able to adjust to changing conditions both in your heart
and in your environment.

2. Cultivate systems, practices, and networks that provide
continuity. For example, this newsletter and my Web site are ongoing
and reliable means of staying in touch with a meaningful network in
good times and in bad.

3. Pay attention to transitions. When change is happening, it can be
easy to get caught up in reactionary thoughts and feelings that can
muddy your thinking and make complex situations chaotic. Learning to
detach and observe your reactions, thoughts, and fears will help you
keep a steadier course without being rigid.

4. Learn to notice when things are expanding and when they are
contracting, and choose your strategies accordingly.

5. Learn to regard mistakes as stepping stones to mastery. Avoid
wasting time in needless guilt and defensiveness. Seize the
opportunity to correct your error and move on.

6. Listen to your clients and customers. Identify those who get the
most benefit from working with you with the least effort on your
part. This is not laziness. This is learning to operate from the
sweet spot – that place in which you add the most value by working
from your strengths.

7. Rigorously address personal issues that inhibit success. This
could mean seeing a therapist, paying off old debts, or starting an
exercise program.

8. Learn to listen. Listen for guidance from Spirit, from your
heart, from your environment, from colleagues, from clients.

9. Raise your standards regularly both for your own performance and
for the caliber of client or customer that you attract.

10. Periodically update and refocus your business plan, including
income, expense, and investment plans. Keep it simple. Distill your
plans into a sentence or two that summarizes your goals and
strategies so that you always know where you are going.

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Re: My own page - [quote="OmnivoreInk":2xk5rdol]I also have Google as my home page, because I've got about 8 different Newsfeeds on it, from Science and Discovery to BBC news (which for some reason never talks about news in England except sports, and while I like sports - I don't care for soccer which is all they ever talk about!)[/quote:2xk5rdol] I use iGoogle with a few different news feeds on it as well, including EvanCarmichael.com feed and Sitepoint.
Introduction - Hi Fellow Entrepreneurs, My name is Rita Cartwright, owner of RJ's Word Processing Services. I am a Professional Administrative Expert offering virtual assistant services. I have been in business for 7 years and specialize in Internet marketing and word processing services. I also offer bookkeeping, transcription services, website design and maintenance, and general administrative assistance. I'm originally from Phoenix and graduated from Arizona State University with Magna Cum Laude honors. My degree is a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing with a minor in Spanish. I look forward to networking with each of you.
My own page - [quote="JWDesignCenter":kjuv6z19]Mine is google. I used to have my own page on it.. but i felt it was messing up my stats. This way if i need to search for something, i can right when my internet opens.[/quote:kjuv6z19] I also have Google as my home page, because I've got about 8 different Newsfeeds on it, from Science and Discovery to BBC news (which for some reason never talks about news in England except sports, and while I like sports - I don't care for soccer which is all they ever talk about!) But I take the science related headlines and report them on my own science blog..so I find the google news pages invaluable.
Intro in doses - I think that has more to do with parental guidance rather than enforcing what they would like their child to be when he/she grows up. Parents need to take on a role as a Guidance Counselor would in High school these days - that includes introducing their children to new environments so that they are exposed to an environment they enjoy without enforcing it. e.g. Instead of a parent saying you should become a doctor! They could introduce the environment through "chemistry sets", the Science Center etc. etc. If the child automatically enjoys these environments and doesn't resist it then continue introducing the environment in greater doses. If they resist then continue exploring other environments. The caveat is that with today's lifestyles some parents can't commit to doing this.
Promoting Software On A Shoestring Budget - Once again, great comments enlivener! Boomer - my first company, Redasoft, was a biotech software company. We started with nothing and built it up to have clients in over 30 countries including NASA, Johnson & Johnson, etc so it is possible! SEO is a great option for you as it's cheap and can bring highly targeted people to your site. You should also look at print media. We've found that it works much better than tv or radio. We had the major scientific journals like Science review our software and it led to a lot of sales and traffic because our clients read those publications. If you sell one reporter on the idea of doing a review, they'll do the work of selling to 1000's of potential clients for you so it's a great ROI (as long as your product works!)


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