vision

6 Ways to Use Open Time for Inner Work

December 28, 2010 By Cara Lumen

The pilots call it “down time.” Musicians may refer to it as “between sets.” It could be the time between jobs or between tasks, but whatever you call it we’re referring to those unfilled moments in which you find yourself with nothing to do. How you fill those open spaces can make all the difference in what comes next. Here are six ways to use those open times for inner work.

1. Reflection: What did you accomplish?

I particularly like the week between Christmas and New Year. For me it is a time to examine the year just completed, to acknowledge what I accomplished and plan the year ahead. I begin by looking for what really worked. That acknowledgement is very important. If you take time to list all you have done you may be both surprised and pleased. Maybe you want to call it a “Gratitude List” rather than an “Acknowledgment List.” Write down your successes, you’ll find you have a lot to be grateful for.

2. Contemplation: What do you want to change?

Of course, some things didn’t work and we get to give gratitude for them too because they contained our lessons. We found out that we didn’t know how to do it, or people didn’t want it, or the timing was off, or, or, or… Looking at our less-than-successful ventures gives us insights into what not to do next time or how to do it differently if we choose to try it again. What lessons did you learn?

3. Decisions: What do you want more of?

Some things were absolute joys for us so of course we want more. What made them happen? What parts of it made it so invigorating? A little examination of what happened, what its components were and why it happened helps us take a giant step toward attracting more of the same. What do you want more of in your life?

4. Values: What qualities do you want to attract?

Whether you are contemplating next year or next quarter or next week or next day, what qualities do you want to be there for you? I’m a bit too much of a loner so I’ve decided to embrace the quality of willingness to be more social. Within 24 hours I had a most rewarding conversation with someone I knew only slightly. We deepened our understanding of each other and it warmed my heart. The next day another new friend felt comfortable in asking me to drive her somewhere. Another friendship expanded all because of my willingness to be more social. What qualities do you want to have evident in your life?

5. Choice: What you focus on you get

It’s very simple. What you look for you will see. What you focus on you will attract. If you look for negativity you will see a lot of it. If you look for positive reinforcement you will see how much there is of that around you. Notice the words you use. Are they “I can’t,” or “I can” phrases? Notice what you expect to happen – good things or bad. Once you are aware of what you are focusing on you have a choice to consciously start focusing on and expecting only the good.

6. Take charge: You are the director of your life

I play weekly cards with a woman that when I first started I found to be very, very judgmental about how I played the game that was new to me. It showed in the tone of her voice, in her judgmental sighs (you’ve heard those) and her attitude. Now I know that I always have a choice: I can hang out with people whose positive energy I like and not be with people whose energy is negative. I privately mentioned to another one of the card players that if that judgmental-ness kept up I might not play cards. It was just a concerned comment and the expression of an awareness on my part that I had a choice. I have a feeling she told the woman for the latter gradually began to change. And a few evenings later the woman said, “This is so much fun!” Because she had changed her attitude, that had changed our responses to her.

You are the director of your life. What you say, what you think, what you look for, what you do, all influence those around you and their reactions to you. If you do nothing else in those quiet, reflective spaces of time, look at what you want to change about yourself. What do you need to let go of? What do you need to do more of? How can YOU change? Then do it.

Use your open time to contemplate, to rest in the unfilled spaces and simply see what shows up. Look within and see how balanced you are. What does your body need? What does your soul need? Use these pauses to reflect and make new choices based on what you find within. Open spaces are for inner work. Use them wisely.

Chunking Up For Progress

October 6, 2010 By Cara Lumen

by Cara Lumen

If we think in bigger chunks, we’ll feel better organized. Four big chunks are Plan. Prepare, Produce and Learn. Here’s how that might work.

Schedule a Planning Chunk

You need to take time to work on your business rather than in your business. This means quarterly contemplation about what’s working and what’s not and based on that what to release and what to keep.

You need a chunk of time to plan a new project – do your research, create an outline, write a landing page to focus your intention.

You need a chunk of time to plan the topics of your blog posts or article submission.

This is brain time. This is time you stop doing and allow yourself to feel and think and observe and choose. Put a planning chunk on your calendar. Putting it at the end of the week gives you time to acknowledge what you have accomplished and prioritize for the next week. Project planning can be scheduled any time. Again, you need to mark off several hours so you can really sink down into your ideas and pull out the best ones. Schedule planning time on your calendar in healthy sized weekly chunks.

Schedule a Preparation Chunk

You need time to prepare. This is the time you spend writing the landing page for your new product or service. It is time spent designing a cover for your ebook, or writing a new worksheet for your coaching practice. It can be about outlining a new course, designing handouts for it, figuring out bonuses and schedules. It’s about brainstorming blog topics and product ideas. It’s based on planning but it is about moving your projects forward.

Schedule a Production Chunk

I try to blog three times a week but I write them in one sitting and post them for the week so I just need one chunk of production time for the major part of my blog. It’s important to me so I do it Monday morning. I want to continue to post articles to www.ezinearticles.com so in this blog producing chunk I now make time to post at least one article on line. Adding one small step to an existing time chunk can keep you moving forward.

Part of my producing chunk is about leveraging – turning a teleclass into a home study course for instance. Or taking a radio script and making three articles out of it. Fleshing out my Cornerstone Content. Seeing if I have enough blog posts on a particular topic to create a new ebook. Putting existing ebooks on Kindle. You can see how you need a good chunk of production time each week.

Schedule a Learning Chunk

We need to keep learning. Schedule time to be on a conference call that will bring you new knowlege, read a business book, go exploring on the internet, or take a tutorial in a program you already use. I’m reading the revised version of Michael Port’s Book Yourself Solid (I’m in it) and going to write a book review for Sharon Sayler’s What Your Body Says.” (I wrote the exercises) I want to order Mitch Meyerson’s “Success Secrets of the Social Media Superstars.” And I have several content development workbooks I want to study to enrich my “How to Craft a Magnetic Information Product” course. A learning chunk is vital to keep expanding our horizons. You should schedule a learning chunk every week.

Schedule daily Move Ahead time

What is important for you to accomplish this quarter? That is the one project you are going to focus on. Break it down into steps and schedule them on your calendar. Keep focusing on this one project till it is complete. It’s a Move Ahead Chunk on one outstanding project.

In my case it’s a content development course I am creating. My steps are:
1. Design the content, the experientials and the handouts
2. Decide how long the course must be
3. Decide what bonuses will go with it
4. Schedule the time to give it – allow time to begin marketing it 6 weeks out.
5. Write a landing page
6. Pick a price
7. Write the invitational emails that will precede it.
8. Expand the outline
9. Write the content
10. Produce the product
11. Promote the course

Some of this is planning, some preparing, some producing and some learning but you have to schedule 2-3 hour chunks of time for a Move Ahead time on a special project. This could be an information product, a new service, or even learning a new skill like more about video or audio. Mark off an afternoon to be creative. Then create. Give yourself chunks of time to plan, prepare, produce, learn and move ahead. Then notice how quickly your business takes off.

What Are People Willing to Buy in Today’s Economy

July 26, 2010 By Cara Lumen

by Cara Lumen

Our buying habits have changed – dramatically. Part of it is from necessity because money is tight. Part of it is because of our consciousness. We want to take care of our planet by not consuming, wasting and dumping. As entrepreneurs we have to look at our target community and see what we can offer them that they are willing to buy in today’s financial mindset.

People will buy hope

Change is inevitable and we all want it to be positive change. So if business is down we want to have hope that it will get better. Our goal in business has always been to be in service so what does our target audience need from us right now – today – that will give them hope? We each have to examine our business and see what that means to our particular community.

But if I were a betting woman I’d bet they want something that never wears out, grows stronger with use, and enriches their lives forever. Do you have any of that to offer?

People will buy Information

You bet you do. It’s in the form of what you know. Your unique take on your business or life or a particular topic that is dear to your heart is invaluable. That’s what you have to give right now. Information never wears out; it grows with age, and stays in service for a lifetime.

If you only had a few dollars to spend would you spend it on a gizmo that will wear out or an education that increases your value?

Signature Products are inexpensive to produce

Talk about economical – the only thing it takes to produce an information product is time. An ebook is a document written in Word and turned into a PDF. You can make an audio book with a small investment in a desk mike. You can do a radio show on www.blogtalkradio.com for free and put it on your blog as a podcast. You can blog – oh boy can you blog (see I can help you with that at www.magneticblogbuilders.com) and you can teach a teleclass on www.freeconferencecall.com and record it for part of your home study course. You can edit it yourself in Sound Forge or Garage Band. You’ll even figure out how to go to www.istockphoto.com and get graphics for your ebook cover. You can do video with an inexpensive video camera. Even the few investments you might make in equipment will rapidly pay for themselves as your information products begin to attract purchasers.

Signature products fill your sales cycle

And the beautiful thing about information products is that they can be any price range – from free to hundreds of dollars – perfect for your sales cycle. They are a perfect way to offer a price range of products as invitations to your work. Perfect in that they can be purchased online while you sleep and perfect in that they become on-going passive income. Once they are completed people can buy them online for years. Oh yes, and Signature Information Products position you as an expert, they add to your credibility and they help you gain trust with your target community. Pretty good, huh?!

People will buy empowerment

What is the mindset of your Target Community? They want to feel empowered to create their own destiny. So whether they are in a job now and want to increase their value by learning new skills like leadership, or content development, or a new technical aspect of their work or whether they are in business for themselves and wondering how to respond to today’s economy, education and information are the keys to empowerment.

You are the teacher

Information is everywhere. It’s easy to get and a lot of it is free. So how do you make a signature product to sell? You collect and organize information specifically for your target community. You sort it, offer comparisons, create exercises that help them own the material, keep it updated, make it uniquely suited for the needs of your target community and you present it to the people who want to learn it.

Your Signature Products are specifically focused on what your Target Community wants to know. They come to you because you’ve waded through nine books and umpteen articles on the topic and taken all sorts of workshops and researched on line and have organized all that information into something they can understand. It might be a series of blog posts, or it might be a six month course. You are the focuser – the selector of information. You are the teacher.

This realization of the current need for good information products was the catalyst for the new focus of my business. I have a gift for organizing ideas, I’m Your Idea Optimizer and I help thoughtful leaders effectively organize their ideas so they can educate and inspire their chosen community. (See: Create Information Products)

People will buy control of their future

We all want to have control of our future. So whether you become the consumer and invest in the courses that will add value to your body of knowledge, or you become the teacher and create information products that inspire and motivate, education helps you gain control of your future.

©Cara Lumen 2010

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Build your Online Business on What You Already Know

What You Need to Change Now to Get Ahead

April 12, 2010 By Cara Lumen

What got us here won’t always get us there. Let’s talk about what you can do to identify what you need to change and how to make those changes.

Passionately On Purpose Radio with Cara Lumen, Your Idea Optimizer, who keeps you passionately on purpose while you make a difference in your world. During these shows we’ll talk about how to uncover your passion, define your purpose, identify your path, make money from what you already know and attract the people you are meant to serve. But most of all, we’ll help you believe you can!!!

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Are You a Natural Entrepreneur?

March 5, 2010 By Cara Lumen

by Cara Lumen

It’s possible we are all born with the entrepreneurial spirit of curiosity and independence and a desire to learn, but not all of us keep it going for one reason or another. If you’ve kept your free spirit going, you may know yourself as a bit different, a lot curious, and having a great time in life.

An entrepreneur naturally looks for new connections, different ways to do things, and is always walking to the beat of their own personal drummer. Some entrepreneurs go into business for themselves. And others don’t.

There is more to being in business for yourself than the idea. YOU are the major factor in creating your own online business. Here are some of the qualities I think are helpful for entrepreneurs.

1. Entrepreneurs are Passionate

The whole point of being in business for yourself is to be able to follow your passion, wherever it leads you – to take your dreams and bring them into reality. So don’t choose an idea because it might make you money, choose it because you HAVE to do it, you NEED to do it, and you WANT to make a difference the lives of the people you will serve.

2. Entrepreneurs are Flexible

Entrepreneur Magazine says 2010 will be the year of the entrepreneur because unlike a large company we are fluid and flexible and can respond quickly. Are you flexible? Can you change directions easily? I sometimes get going so thoroughly in one direction that to turn me in another direction is like stopping a freight train. I could handle that if I would periodically stop and question my direction along the way to see how things are working. If I still want to go in that direction – great. If it needs tweaking – tweak. If it needs to be abandoned have the courage to drop it.

Do I dare bring up control issues? I have recognized that I have a need to figure out at least one way a project could be done so I can see that it can be accomplished. Then I’m open to the suggestions of others and am willing to go whichever way seems best. It’s a bit tricky to be controlling and flexible at the same time. Going with the flow, being fluid in your expectations is a helpful trait for an entrepreneur to have.

So flexibility is a necessary quality – the ability to change direction, to toss out something that isn’t working and expand on something that is. To respond quickly, to know your own mind, to make decisions quickly and surely, and be prepared to change direction if your choice proved to be wrong.

3. Entrepreneurs are Creative

In this instance, creative is not about drawing and painting, but it is about an art. It is about the ability to look for new ways to do something, new applications, new insights, and new approaches. There is a constant questioning quality here, of choosing everything with fresh eyes. The natural entrepreneur sees connections that others don’t and sees possibilities where none seem to be. He/she is flooded with ideas and has to work at choosing the best ones. Managing ideas and shaping them into form is very creative, whether they turn out to be organized ideas on a page or a gizmo that makes something work better. Ideas are the gift of possibility.

4. Entrepreneurs are Independent

The natural entrepreneur has a willingness to be different, to stand apart from others, to stand alone if necessary. The entrepreneur is seldom part of a herd – unless maybe it’s a herd of other entrepreneurs and then that’s like trying to herd cats. There is a bit of bravery involved here, to be willing to go it alone, or do it your way when no one else seems to be going in that direction. It can be a bit lonely, but with every step you stay true to yourself and follow your own passion, your own dreams and your own intuition.

The natural entrepreneur can manage criticism – if it is good they will absorb it and implement it. If it is not they will ignore it. They stay true to their vision while being open to change.

5. Entrepreneurs are Visionary

A visionary sees potential, explores possibilities, and always presses against their own boundaries. Seth Godin in Lynchpin suggested that working “outside the box” is not what we want to do because we are all alone out there. He thinks we should always work along the edges of the box – pushing those boundaries further and further out to expand the entire contents of the box – which includes everyone.

However, when we let our vision stay too close to what we know on the physical plane, we naturally accept the limitations of the physical plane. When we actually sit down to vision, we must allow ourselves to wander in the field of infinite possibilities and allow the connection to the earth-plane limitations to break so we can really go exploring into new territory.

If you’ve ever been around a visionary who is sharing a great idea, the worker bees are all sitting there saying “how do we get that done” And the point is, the visionary does not stop her vision based on how it can happen. If you think it can happen, it can.

6. Entrepreneurs Believe in Themselves

Natural entrepreneurs have a strong belief in their own value, what they have to offer and their ability to deliver it. They are tuned into their inner calling and simply go make it happen. They maintain a positive attitude and know that they can figure out how to do or get done by others, anything they want to accomplish. There are driven by their belief that they can! http://caralumen.com/wordpress/philosophy/do-you-believe-you-can-and-why-not/

7. Entrepreneurs are Constant Learners

There is a constant curiosity about a natural entrepreneur, they are always learning new things, taking classes, reading books and blogs on their topic, networking with others in their field. They try new ways to accomplish tasks; they look for and see new connections between the things they learn, and they rush out to share what they have discovered with others.

8. Entrepreneurs are Commited

Whether racing across the finish line in the lead, or consistently moving forward one step at a time, a natural entrepreneur maintains a steady and persistent forward motion toward their goals. They are not discouraged by small steps; in fact they break their work down into small projects so they can see a completed step and a steady progress. They keep their eye on the top of the mountain and move steadily and persistently up the path leading to the summit.

0. Entrepreneurs are Resourceful

There is always another way to do something that might be easier, faster, or more lucrative. The natural entrepreneur finds the way around the barrier, or a short path to the top of the hill. They are the scout that leads the pioneers across the mountains. They explore, they examine, they consider, and they choose. And if one way is blocked they find another way.

Are you a Natural Entrepreneur?

It’s OK if you’re not, but if you want to be you can always develop the qualities that will help you reach your goals. Look at your strengths. Build on them. Forgive yourself your weak areas. They aren’t really weak; they are for someone else to enjoy doing. Follow your passion, be flexible, know that bringing your ideas to life is an art form, keep looking for a new path, be resourceful and always believe you can!!!!