Oct. 7, 2008
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I'm PRO Life!!!
Yesterday I took an hour long bike ride instead of going to the gym. The sun was shining. The temperature is perfect. We slept last night with all the windows open, luxuriating and enjoying the crisp desert air. I love this time of the year in Arizona. After 5 months of temperatures over 100 most days, the air conditioners got turned off, the convertibles are cruising with the tops down and the kids can go down the slides without getting burned! Sometimes, it’s the little things that make a difference. Life is good!
My husband, Bub, accuses me of being an ostrich and tells me I should be worrying about the collapse of the economy and our way of life as we know it. Hmmmm…I think: Would it serve anyone or anything for me to worry about it? I think not. Now, I don’t want to sound like a stupid Pollyanna who is entirely out of touch with reality, but I know from all the study and work I have done around The Law of Attraction, if I get sucked into the reactionary fear, I do not feel better, do better or get good results.
My truth is: Today, at my house, all is well and life is good. We woke up on this side of the grass and that sure beats the alternative.
When I keep my eye on building from where I am, I make steady progress. While my results may be different than I originally envision or may far exceed my expectations:
I find the conscious choosing of my thoughts>
leads to my expectations and that >
leads to what I get.
ALWAYS!
So many people spend lots of time choosing their wardrobe or their menu items, but totally neglect to choose their thoughts! You have that power each and every moment, each and every day and the use of it can create miraculous results.
I am refusing to participate in gloom and doom. Even if it is just at my house (or just in the room which is my office), life is good! I intend to keep expanding reality and thinking with every article I write and each coaching client I touch so that we can emanate good that gets gooder and gooder!
One of the exercises in this month’s Relax and Attract class is called Virtual Realities. During the day, you envision for 30 seconds a scene that brings you joy, makes you feel good. Talk about an easy way to shift when you are feeling frustrated or scared or depressed….just 30 seconds of get into a scene that brings good feelings, picture all the details, then get out. Try that a few times a day and see what it does to your mood :>) Please RELAX and ATTRACT!!!!! And have some fun this week.
Letting Go
Two weeks ago, I shared some of what I did on my summer vacation. I found stepping back from the busy doingness and choosing which activities truly gave me joy was really, really hard. Much easier to just get up every day and do what presents itself. Manage myself from the to do list and plug away. There is certainly a feeling of getting things done in all that activity, but the challenge I gave myself over the summer was to start to notice what makes my heart sing and creates a feeling of bliss and what is hum-drum living.
I can relate to the quote of wanting to be burned up completely when I die but I don’t want to feel burned out at the end of each day.
So, what’s a person to do????
I spent the summer evaluating as went each activity and if it didn’t fit the heart-singing criteria, I gave some thought to whether I should keep this in my life. I whittled down what I was doing to give me space to have room for new things to be added.
I mentioned Tim Ferriss’s book, The Four Hour Workweek (some thought this was the 4 day workweek because 4 hours seems so ludicrous!). One of my coaching clients gave me feedback by saying there was some good, some useless and some thought-provoking. I thought that was a good assessment. I rarely find an author I BELIVE in 100%, but if they can make me think, I always find that valuable.
And, this made me think:
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Which of the things that I think I need to do, do I?
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Could someone else do it?
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What would happen if I quit doing it altogether?
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Which things are someone else’s priorities and not mine?
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What have I always wanted to do when…..(I have the time, the $ or whatever) that has gotten put off?
To tell the truth, I didn’t end the summer with this all tied up in a neat package, but I did make some decisions and have restructured. And, the process, now started will go on.
Some of this involves:
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More GrandMa Time. without worry that I should be working (my work, I see, is to help contribute to and mold these little souls-and have I told you Richard and Marie are expecting again in March?)
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More Travel. I found a travel club that I am very excited about that will be making this easier and will be providing another stream of income so LOTS of trips are being planned.
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Dropping the programs, clients and obligations that aren’t the highest and best use of my time. I’ve created some space here.
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I am saying no more. And I am not feeling guilty or afraid I am disappointing or letting someone down. That goes for serving on positions or going to dinners!
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And, probably one of the biggest choices is to appreciate what I am doing and to give up that I SHOULD be doing more. I have discovered I like the woman I have become and I know there are some who will like me and some that won’t and it will all sort itself out the way that’s best for all. With that knowledge, I can just play at being me fully and have a BLAST!!!!!
Business Planning for 2009
Now, is the time to be planning. You want to have this in place before the holidays so you can enjoy them . My Awesome Year Plan 2009 will be available shortly for sale. It is a great guide to help you.
Here are other ways to get yourself ready:
1. Join the 3-session Teleconference beginning November 5 for only $99 and you’ll get a free Awesome Year Plan and be led through the steps of getting it done! If you are a procrastinator-this is the way to go-you’ll have a structure and others to support you in getting it done!
RETREAT Dictionary.com NOUN A place of refuge, seclusion, or privacy
2. If you’d like to plan with me in person, there are 2 ways to do that this year:
- Come to Williams AZ November 16-18
- Very special guests and goodies planned
- There are FREE accommodations for the first 10 registrants
- A very special price of $297 for 3 days and all the materials
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- Take a look at the available dates, get some friends together and I’ll come to you! For details click here or call me to discuss it.
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3. Or, I have 1 more opening for a private coaching client. Call or email me to schedule a 30 minute complimentary call if you think this might be for you.
Tuesday’s Gift from Justin
My friend Justin Zimmerman, the creative force behind Good Morning Real Estate, has offered another goodie! If you are interested in lead generation, this guide has a lot of resources. Go here to download The Ultimate REALTOR Internet Resource Guide.
Tuesday’s Tech Tip-Sending BIG Files
Ever have a big file that you know the recipient may not get or may have problems downloading? My great Virtual Assistant, Annette Leahy shared this resource:
www.wikisend.com - Send files of up to 100 MB… it's free, you don't even have to register! Just upload it and they can go get it. Easy!
Tuesday Congratulations!!!
My very good friend, Frances Flynn Thorsen, has been hired as the Community Manager for Trulia. This is how they welcomed her!
If you aren’t using the Trulia blogs (they are as easy as setting up a quick profile and posting!)or answering questions for consumers there, you are missing out on 5 Million eyeballs a month! More to come…
Making A Difference
WebWomenGivingCircle is reorganizing and we’d love for your input and/or participation. As many of you know, because you helped us get there, the WebWomenGivingCircle has raised approximately $40,000 for CARE. It is our intention to increase this total to $100,000 and we have some good ideas, but we’d like yours. We know the more people that play on our team translates into more fun and bigger results! This is a chance for you to spend just a little time and make a very BIG difference. CARE has put together a short video called The Girl Effect . It explains better than I can in words what we are up to! On Thursday, October 16 at 5 PM PDT (8 PM EDT) Frances Flynn Thorsen and I will be hosting a conference call to share our vision and invite your participation. If you are interested and would like an invitation to the call, please email me with WWGC in the subject line, and we’ll send you the information.
Make it an EXTRAOrdinary Week…IT IS UP TO YOU!!!
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Sep. 30, 2008
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What I did on my Summer vacation
My Summer Sabbatical Has Come To An End!
Since June 21st, I have been experimenting and taking a lot of time to play. The purpose of the sabbatical was to step back and take a good look at what I really want in my life and what I am ready to let go of. So, I stopped doing almost everything that I didn’t already had a commitment for and decided to live each day like I was on vacation…or at least filled with the most amount of bliss.
I said I would be back this week and here I am! What a wonderful 3 months it has been. Now, I have to confess that much really wasn’t “different” because over the past 10 years, I have done a good job at living my “dream” life. However, my husband, Bub, retired 2 years ago and I am wanting to create a way for myself to transition to something like retirement. Defining what that looks like is what this summer’s work laid a foundation for.
Perhaps you also are Baby Boomers thinking about designing “what’s next”? At an ePRO presentation last week, I ran into Grace Hale a Realtor® I had met in southern California. She retired and moved to Phoenix to be near her grandchildren and is now back in the business…she says she was driving her husband nuts! For each of us, how we want our working life to look it is unique and different, but I seem to encounter many people feeling ready to reassess. Perhaps, that’s because I am a coach and people talk to me about their challenges, goals and dreams. But, I believe, making sure our life is our own choice (and we aren’t living a life that other people are designing for us) and truly having passion and fun spill out of those choices is our most important job.
In the week’s to come, I’ll be sharing some of my insights and my journey. And, the Tuesday Tips will continue to deliver a dialogue about living a life you love, no matter what that might look like. And, I hope, offering some alternatives, perhaps, you haven’t thought of.
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Sep. 4, 2008
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To Blog or Not to Blog….That is the Question!
Blogging has been touted as the new answer to giving the consumer what they want. The first 10 years of the web was all about static information. Many are barely keeping their heads above the rising tide of available information and have found without interpretation, it is something to fear downing in without finding the foothold that leads to knowledge. The web has entered what’s been dubbed as Web 2.0 and no, it isn’t a program to buy or download. It is a description of the new way the web is being used: as an interactive playing field where community and participation bring opportunities previously lacking.
So what’s this mean to you? NAR has estimated there are only 4% of real estate agents currently blogging. At the two largest real estate related platforms, right here at RealTown and over at ActiveRain , there are slightly over 100,000 members at each location. Many of these bloggers are using both platforms, so the numbers are quite small when compared with the 1,200,000 members of NAR. As with any new technology that is part of a larger, important trend, the early adapters have an edge.
At their most effective, blogs can give your business some solid benefits:
· Increase your status as a local expert
· Increase your website traffic
· Create interaction with your target market
· Provide the consumers with current, valuable information and resources
· Create prospects
But, blogging isn’t for everyone.
To decide if this is what you need to do, ask yourself a few questions:
· Are you willing to make a commitment to spend time weekly?
· Do you enjoy writing?
· Do you want to build some Internet business?
· Are you willing to invest in the learning curve to get up and running?
If the answer to most of these questions is no, blogging would probably turn into a chore that makes you feel overwhelmed and guilty. One solution would be to outsource it. There are ghost bloggers and ways to have others maintain and create your content. This is not as personal, but does give you a presence, although the costs will be much higher.
If the answer to most of these questions is yes and you haven’t started blogging, you should consider this a part of your overall marketing plan and see where and how it fits. If building Internet business is part of your business plan, blogging makes sense and would be a place to budget time and money that was previously being used in other ways, like print advertising or postcard campaigns. In today’s markets, a realistic appraisal of what is working and what isn’t and some new strategies might be the answer to staying very competitive. Blogs help you inexpensively create that positioning.
To Blog or Not to Blog? That is the question! I believe gives an agent the differentiation and positioning to be successful with what the public is looking for in 2008 and beyond! What do you think?
For a step by step webinar that will enhance your blogging, join my Fairy BlogMother, Frances Flynn Thorsen and me in NoBloggerLeftBehind
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Jul. 13, 2008
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You are perfect!
" Listen
Make a way for yourself inside yourself.
Stop looking in the other way of looking.
You already have the precious mixture
that will make you well.
Use it."
RUMI
I love Rumi! He was so wise and I seem to find quotes from him on the right topic on the right day.
Isn't life perfect? Mine is today. I hope you see yours is too!
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Jul. 8, 2008
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Message From The Universe
Every morning The Universe sends me a message. It is even better than reading your horoscope.
This is what I got today. I love it!!!!! Don't you? Which way are you living? I'm a Princess in training for this one.
| Tell me, when you think of taking consistent action in the general direction of your dreams, Joeann, do you imagine discipline, stamina, work, sacrifice, monotony, courage, and strategies, or are you thinking adventure, discovery, new friends, excitement at the crack of dawn, magic, surprises, fun, laughter, and, on occasion, the Macarena?
Cool! Me too, "HEY!"
The Universe
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If you'd like the Universe to send you messages each day, all you have to do is ask!
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Jul. 8, 2008
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My Summer Vacation!
I love that you have come to my blog! I am celebrating the Summer of 2008 by being on vacation. This doesn't mean I am on a long trip, but rather living every day with the giddiness and anticipation of those carefree days I remember as a kid on summer vacation.
My friend, Fran, has dubbed me Princess Singing Heart...a title I am embracing since, until September 22, I am only doing the work that makes my heart sings.
So you may see blogs posts of a more personal nature for the next couple of months, as I unravel from an over-scheduled life to one of blissfulness. If you've come here for business tips...I'll redirect you to my articles andnewsletter archives. I have written enough to keep you busy for the summer, if that's what you are looking for.
Otherwise, I invite you to be part of my summer inquiry of "what is essential to my life being blissful?" and "what isn't?"
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Jul. 4, 2008
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Summertime and The Living is Easy....
"Summer is the time when one sheds
one's tensions with one's clothes,
and the right kind of day is
jeweled balm for the battered spirit.
A few of those days and
you can become drunk with the belief
that all's right with the world."
- Ada Louise Huxtable
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Jul. 3, 2008
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Yes I still love him, though he's 64!
 I threw my husband, Bub, a not-surprise birthday party the night before he turned 64 at the Fox and Hound Smokehouse and Tavern at the Foothills Mall. They gave us a great private room with pool tables, couches and great wings and pizza. This started 4 days of celebrating. Bub's birthday wish was to go to Winslow, Arizona and stay at La Posada , the historic Fred Harvey railroad hotel built in 1930 . Bub chose the route, commissioned me to drive and invited Lily to come along to go back in history!
The day dawned a beautiful, cool Aizona morning. We went out to the tennis courts first, where he beat me a quick 6-0. His practice with my brother last week gave him a bit of an advantage, though we had some good volleys.
Home to pack and load the wagon to get on the road by 9:30. We were estimating arrival at 3 to answer granddaughter, Lily's, constant chorus of "when are we going to be there?" We headed north from Tucson on the Catalina Highway through the Junctions: through Oracle Junction, then Florence Junction, and Apache Junction.
 Bub had found a couple of roads he had never been on (and neither had I ) and wanted to see the country. So we headed towards Roosevelt Lake on Route 88. Looked like it was about 40 miles. Pretty mountains and cactus with bright orange flowers on agave blooms that were 20 feet high. Then the sign said "Next 25 miles unpaved road." Hmmm.....Bub says,"Oh, that must be what the dotted line on the map meant." LOL
We traversed a 12' wide washboard road with speed limits from 15-25. There were maybe a dozen other vehicles along the way, as we passed Canyon Lake, Apache Lake and Tortilla Flats before we got to the dam at Roosevelt Lake. It was gorgeous, wild country. It wouldn't have been surprising to have turned a corner to see a circle of tipis and indians....but lizards we about the only other life we saw. Though I think we probably had plenty of Indians spirits hanging out. It took quite a while and I had to recalibrate arrival time for the impatient backseat gal.
When we came around the corner to see Roosevelt Dam, I asked Lily if she knew what that was and without missing a beat she says,"The Great Wall of China?" We got her straightened out but I guess that means she is getting a little geography at school to have knowledge of such things! We'll have to add the Great Wall to the list.
Back on paved 65 mph roads....for a fast clip to Payson. The clouds had been building into beautiful thunderheads and finally opened up. We had planned a picnic under the pines when we got there but had to settle for a pullover between Payson and Pine to eat our sandwiches. Lily was more interested in her slurpee and Bub's Cheetos than her turkey. The temperature had been 102-106 since midmorning, but now dropped to 70.
It was 2:30.
DVD players have changed the traveling with a child dynamic considerably. I am not sure if this is a good or bad thing. It helped with the incessant,"when are we going to be there" and "I am bored" but we had to get her to pull the earbuds out and MAKE her look when we saw breathtaking scenery. Not a particularly good trade-off, methinks. I'm loving the concept of living that "it is the journey, not the destination" and having the concept be embraced by Lily would make me feel like a good grandma.
.jpg) As we drove towards Winslow, through the tall trees of Pine and Strawberry with their antique shops, then downthe mountain, the land became pretty barren and dry. The temperature was back up to 90. A perfect place to site a prison like the one we saw just south of town. I'd left my directions to the hotel at home, but told Bub we could pull it up on my Centro, but turned out there was no need. Winslow isn't that big and, of course, the railroad hotel is right next to the tracks on the famous Route 66.
La Posada Hotel Restaurant and Gardens didn't disappoint. I've used my Flip Camera to post a tour of La Posada. This was the masterpiece and favorite building of Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter, the greatest of all Southwestern architects. Really a museum full of art and artifacts, the hotel has been lovingly brought back to life by Allen Affeldt.
We have the Harry Truman room. It's one of the largest of the rooms. Gorgeous gardens  surround the hotel. I'm insired to go home and plant a rose garden. Bub says I'll have to stop travelling to stay home and water it (he's said the same about my desire to own a parrot). I imagine I could buy a fancy timer and set them to automatic.
We relaxed a bit. Lily and I put bubbles in the Jacquzzi tub and let the car kinks melt away. She and Bub walked the grounds while I cleared 125 emails (yes, I am guilty). Dinner was amazingly magnificent. The Turquoise Resturant was named one of the Top 10 AZ Resturants this spring by Arizona Highways magazine. The Mexican tiled floors, Navajo Rugs and dark wood create just the right atmosphere. Lily got her every wish: from hot rolls to start with, to mac & cheese for dinner, a Shirley Temple to toast with, crayons to keep her occupied, to adjusting the temperature because she was cold. This child is definitely NOT low maintainance!
 Bub got everything he wanted too! He choose a Chilean Shiraz from the extensive wine list. Our meal started with a soup duo: Corn Chowder and Mexican Bean soup-light cream on one side of the bowl and dark chili brown on the other. Definitely a taste treat for the palate. I ended up having this 3 times during our stay, it was SOOO good!Bub's Prime Rib came with fresh horshradish sauce, stemed vegetables, garlic mashed potatoes and gravy and I ordered Wild,Wild, Wild, which brought a trio of  game: quail, elk and a corn tamale with grass fed beef. Lily's Mac and 4 cheese was just to her liking.
The piece de resistance was the Chocolate Souffle for dessert, with chocolate Gran Marnier sauce and fresh whipped cream. A candle and Happy Birthday song by Lily embarassed Bub sufficiently to give us glee.
What a great way to spend a birthday. The three days on the road, taking us to places we had never seen, turned out to be a fun, summer adventure. Happy Birthday, Bub! We do still need you, we will still feed you and we still love you though you`re 64!
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About Me
Resources, articles and thoughts on being awesomely productive and creative while enjoying a life you love! Don't forget to visit my web site at www.joeann.com for even more information and resources. COMMENTS ARE WELCOME. Please notice the Post A Comment link at the bottom of the posting.
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I'll be traveling near you this month helping real estate agents tweak their technology skills and learn all about NAR's ePRO Certification! I hope you come by and meet me. I promise I'll be sharing some great tips to help your business as well as giving you a $25 discount on the ePRO Certification and a free website!
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