Interestingly mind movies have been developed by Ryan Higgins and Natalie Ledwell from Australia and the OrangePeel System or Vision Boards has been created by Cornelis Boertjens from New Zealand.  I will be doing  the Vision Boards system review soon.

But no matter what system you use, the key here is the visualization process and yes it is nice having a fancy system, but you do not really need one.

Just the old vision board on your wall or a frame is as effective as these ones. The key to achieving your goals is to know clearly what you want and to visualize it as if you already have it. Visualize it and feel it as if you already have it.

The universe has already provided anything you want. Whatever you desire it is in storage for you. All you need to do is to make sure that you want it, and to ask for it. You may say, but I have asked many times and nothing happens. To be honest it happens to me also. I ask many times and I do not get results. But to be frank when this happens to me is because my mind is not clear at all. When this happens is because I change my mind all the time and jump from one thing to the next.

The times that the visualization, vision boards worked for me is when I wanted something and my mind never changed. I wanted, I visualized it but I then released it and let the universe do its thing. So then, having asked, the universe just went to my warehouse and delivered what I already had in my warehouse.

Let me give you an example that occurred to me. I am a mature mother; I had my son at 40, but I always wanted to have another child. I had a photo of a woman with a son and daughter on top of my computer. But time was passing on and I just thought this dream would not come true.  I stressed, and nothing happened. At the end I just had that image on the wall, but I did not pay attention to it. I thought the universe would not deliver it. I just released it and I felt happy and resigned myself to the idea of just having one child. But then the universe went to work. One night in a meditation group I used to go, a couple of people felt the presence of a baby, and I also did, I actually saw the bay surrounded by light inside of me. I thought that was my imagination and that I wanted this child so much that I was thinking of it.  Imagine my surprise when the next day I discovered that I was indeed pregnant!!  I now have a lovely son and a beautiful daughter.  When I think of this I can see that visualization does work to attract what you desire. I do believe so when you take into account that I actually was 43 when I fell pregnant.

So I hope I give you the courage to start again your visualization process of what you want. Pull out your goals that you wrote at the beginning of the year, revise them, prepare a vision board with images from old magazines or from the internet and hang it where you will see it often. If you can afford it and want to then you mind consider getting the mind movies or vision board system. Visit my mind movies reviews site to read about it (remmeber I will keep updating as I evaluate the new version). Just a word of warning, no matter if you use your own vision board images or if you use a system, nothing will give you results if you do not take action. I could have had a photo of 10 children on my wall,  but if I ad not taken action I would have not fallen pregnant (you know what I mean).

So, get out there, have fun creating yoru vision board, but most importantly take action.

I personaly feel exhausted and not being able to cope and sometimes I wonder is it me that I am not apt to it? Then I realize that I have my negative thinking cap on and that I need to change it and do something to overcome that situation.  Then I realize that I have failed to set my priorities. Sometimes my priorities are all work and no time for myself and my spiritual nurturing. The thing I realize that it took me a long time to overcome certain issues, and I would not say I am there yet, but many times I just decided to hide behind my work and daily responsibilities instead of taking responsibility for my personal development. Yes personal development is a daily activity and we need to schedule it every day.

What I wanted to really talk to you today is about a technique that is easy to use and couldhelp you  deal with all your emotional stuff. That stuff that has been unresolved ofr years because we do not have the time to tackle it. Well I guessed I found out the hard way that if we do not tucckle it it will not go away. And to solve all that emotional stuff I needed to do something easy to do and I can do every day.

I was introduced to this technique years ago and then my lovely coach Kate Emmerson reminded me of it. I am talking about EFT  and not referring to Electronic Fund Transfer but to Emotional Freedom Technique. You can learn it fast and apply it whenever you want to as many times as you want to as it only takes minutes to apply it. But rather than explainig you the whole technique myself, I wated to tell you that there is a EFT World Summit starting on the 21st of February, and it is free to attend, yes totally free and is also online, so no need to travel. If you want more information you can read my review about the tapping solution.

I will check it out and make sure I can listen to it some of the days if not all. You have 24 hours to listen to each presentation, so check it out and make sure to register so that you can receive reminders of the daily schedule.

I came across Dani Johnson not long ago, and she immediately caught my attention.  Here’s what blows me away; in this crazy economy, Dani’s clients are landing the impossible to get jobs, her business clients are generating record profits and her people are being promoted while thousands are losing their jobs.

Her site is full of testimonials of people that have applied her teachings and have achieved success in all areas of heir lives, -financial, career, family, and spiritual.  Here is one of the testimonials  Dani has collected in just the last 6 years…

“I was in a full commission job. I woke up every month with a big fat 0, working 60-80 hours a week, just totally burnt out, hated my job, hated getting out of bed. Applying Dani Johnson’s strategies, her skill sets, the things that she teaches, we were able to make a $241,000 income in less than a year. I would highly recommend anybody, if you want to be a success, you can apply the principles that she teaches to anything you do and become successful at it. The skills Dani imparts into you will absolutely change your life.”
~ Kelly Parker

The reason I am writing about her is because she is having an influence in my life and I really think it is worth while having a look at her site. She offers free training in her site and you can listen her radio archives also, or even phone her on the radio and speak to her directly. I consider her a down to earth person, who has a passion to help people succeed as she has succeeded.
This is what makes Dani Johnson revolutionary and why you need to pay close attention…

She went from homeless to millionaire in 2 years at the age of 23. In the last 15 plus years, Dani has created several multi-million dollar businesses and developed a multitude of 6 and 7 figure earners in the corporate world and in private business. But she also has achieved success in her family and spiritual life.  Her story is very inspirational, and I do believe anyone can repeat it.

What I also like from her is that she gives you steps by steps instructions on what to do in all areas. She stresses that communication is essential to your success, and she goes in detail to explain you and demonstrate what she means by that.  She teaches communication techniques to be used in your business, career, with your  spouse and children.

Besides her free training she has several paid programs to train you for unlimited success in life, in your business or career, with your family with your children.

I honestly think you need to look at her site. Regardless of her views and beliefs there is lots to learn from her.

We live in a consumer based society, and we tend to consume without really considering. Some of us buy but never throw away. Why? It is probably due to the fact that most of us have a scarcity mentality. We scared that when we need it we will not be able to replace it. .

When we keep just in case, we are generally cluttering our space. You may ask what has to do with attracting things. Well remember we are all energy and everything has vibration, we are all connected, so it has lots to do with it.

How many clothes do you have in your wardrobe that you are keeping just in case you lose the weight you put on after your pregnancy? Last year with the help of a coach I had my wardrobe cleared of all type of clothes I hanged on for years. Most of them were out of fashion. Yet I was keeping them for different reasons. Some of them had sentimental value. In others cases, I was hoping I was going to fit in them after having two children and being 10 years older. Let me add that there is nothing wrong in believing I was going to fit in them, but my diet was not directed to ever fit in them.

My coach also helped me getting read of papers, and sorting out everything. But as I sorted out everything my mind also got clear and more organized. It was calming entering a room which was clear of clutter and organized. Today a year later I can see how many more things I have accumulated. I need another exercise to get rid of things that are taking my space and I do not need.

Clutter has many negative effects on us and yet we still collect so many things. Let me tell you about how clutter can keep you back:

1. You can never have a big enough house to keep all the clutter. Therefore your house would be always disorganized and messy, or you will be buying bigger houses and having thinner wallets.
2. A disorganized and messy house is in reality a reflection of the status of your mind. Is your mind cluttered? I find myself thinking clearer in a clear room/ I can just feel the difference in vibration.
3. If your wardrobe is overloaded with stuff, do you think you can find space for something new? Well the universe works like that. If you are trying to attract something new in your life but your space is cluttered the universe will not give it to you. You do not have the space for it. Trust me. You want more money. Then clear your space, throw away anything you do not need. And soon enough the universe will give you the extra money or extra thing you are wanting. This applies to love also. Are you wanting love to come into your life? Have you let go of your past relationships?
4. Is your bedroom cluttered? Your bedroom is like your sanctuary. That is the place where you are supposed to rest and recharge your energies. If your bedroom is cluttered you are not having a peaceful rest. You are most probably feeling tired all the time.  Your bedroom should be always tidy and organized like a hotel room. I always feel peaceful when I enter a hotel room. I must say I still need to master my bedroom organization.
5. If your desk is cluttered you cannot think clearly. Do an exercise and clear your desk you would immediately be able to work more productively.
6. A messy car also reflects your inner self. It stops you from advancing in life.

Clutter stops us from attracting love, friends, new things, wealth. I have never seen an untidy house of a wealthy person. All wealthy houses are completely tidy, nothing out of place. The truth is that in a cluttered house, car, or life there is no space for anything else. If you want to attract more you need first to get rid of things. This is not only a cleanliness matter. It is a self development issue. Your life will completely change if you can master having an uncluttered space.

Getting rid of clutter is contagious. Once you start you cannot stop. If you are one of these people, I would like to challenge you to take action this week. I will be addressing my paperwork.  Organize just one space, your desk, your car, or your bed side table. And then feel the difference. I look forward to your comments.

There are several universal laws and I will mention some of them only. The laws apply to all aspects of our lives, home life, work life, social life, self development, and all other aspects.

They are laws, and as such they always work weather we apply them or not. Even if we think we are not applying them we are actually are. For example someone could say “I actually do not care about universal laws but I hate my current job.” Well he just made use of the universal laws. He is focusing on the current job and will most probably keep the current job.

So let me introduce you to some of the laws. As said you probably know some if not all.

Law of attraction: It is the most known as it was featured in the movies “The Secret” and it states that whatever we focus on that is what it will manifest. It is not as simple as the movie makes it, but it is not complicated. The point is to know exactly what we want and not contradict ourselves.

Law of allowing: This law states that we need to allow things to be like they are supposed to be, without the need to control everything. Sometimes we need to let things happen without interfering. The universe knows best, things happen for a reason.

Law of relativity: Everything in the universe exists because of relativity. So bad exists because good exists, and big exists because small. SO much depends on how we perceive things, and how we compare with other things. What we thought it was a bad situation can be good if we compare it with another’s person situation that is worst than ours.

Law of detachment: This law works closely with the law of attraction and the law of allowing. It talks about trusting and believing. When you want something, you can ask for it, but then you need too detach form the results. You must let the universe work on it and trust and believe that whatever happens will be the best for you.

Law of abundance: This law states that the universe is abundant. There is enough of everything for everyone, enough food, money, water. When we stress because we do not have money, for example, we are actually telling the universe we do not trust there is enough and therefore we will not get the money we need.

Law of rhythm: This law states that everything in the universe flows. After the night comes the day, and after winter comes summer, after a bad moment comes a good one. If you are going through a bad moment you must get very excited because a good one is coming soon. This is law. Nothing lasts forever.

Law of cause and effect: This law states that every action produces a result directly proportional to the action that originated it. In other words whatever you saw you shall reap. If we think positively, positive things will occur.

This is a summary of some of the universal laws. As said, these laws apply to any aspect of our lives and as such can be applied to our online businesses. I will cover this more in another article.

I would love to hear your experiences with the universal laws. Tell me about a specific incident t in which these laws were working for you.

The Universal laws are based in the concept that everything is energy. Everything that surrounds us, including ourselves and our thoughts, is energy. We are a group of electrons constantly flowing and transforming. As we studied at school, energy never get lost, it just transforms. This energy circulates amongst us and as we are all interconnected in some way or another, we transmit this energy to others. You have probably experienced entering a room and feeling attracted to certain persons because they have a similar vibration to you On the contrary you will feel certain rejection towards people with different vibration, like negative people if you are in a positive mood.

Coming back to the universal laws, there are different laws. Most of them overlap, but they all work even if we are not aware of them.  For example, a person that is tired of his job and he only thinks “I do not want this job any more”, “I hate my job” will end up continue working at that job unless he changes his thoughts. Even if he is not aware, he is using the law of attraction to attract this same undesirable situation. But if on the contrary he had thought: “this job is only temporary because I actually want to be a pilot and he focus in what he wants, his dreams will eventually become true. Everything starts in the mind, positive or negative, and thereafter the thoughts become reality.  In this case this person is not aware that he is applying the law of attraction, but indeed he is. So, why not apply it in such a way that benefits him?

You may wonder when and how to apply these laws? The laws work in all aspects of our lives, from losing weight and keeping healthy, to relationships with partners, children, family, friends and colleagues, when we try to achieve success at work or when we want to live a balanced and happy life, or even when we try to find a parking space at the shopping mall entrance.

Let’s look at another example of how these laws influence our lives. One of the laws states that if we want to attract new things into our lives we should create a space.  This applies equally to material objects as to relationships. There are lots of people that want to attract the ideal partner or soul mate, but they keep thinking about the last relationship without letting go of it. Therefore they do not create the space to attract a new person into their lives. The same applies to objects. If a person wants to attract wealth, but he has accumulated clutter in his space, that person will have difficulties having a clear mind and attracting new things or wealth into his life.

You can now realise that these laws are constantly working in our lives and many times we are not aware or we do not want to be aware of them. But I want to remind you that if you use these laws in a beneficial manner you stand nothing to lose. Perhaps it takes you sometimes to get used to them, but after a while you will feel much better especially when you start getting positive results.

It is worth mentioning that sometimes we are not aware that we are applying these laws to our detriment. For example when someone wishes to be successful in his career, but intimately he thinks that “he does not deserve it” this person is really applying the law of allowance in a negative way. In this case he is not allowing his dream to become reality.

Consider the huge impact these laws have in our lives, I want to encourage you to be more aware of them and that you practice them daily in a beneficial manner. To do this and to learn more about the universal laws I would like to invite you to a free seminar that I will be giving next Wednesday the 30^th of June at 3:00pm Johannesburg time on Skype (skype name: coachtoexcellence)

I would also like to read your positive and negative experiences with the universal laws, so therefore please be so kind as to tell us about your experiences below, so that we can all learn from them.

It definitely has its benefits to be able to see what other person on the other side of the world is doing or attend a teleconference in the opposite side of the world. In principle it can help us to live a more efficient life, can make things easier and faster. We certainly do not have to wait ten days to get a response in the mail. We can literally get a response from someone else in 2 seconds. The internet has allowed us to learn about things and people that we did not even know existed. It has allowed us to check what other people do if they are presented with similar circumstances that we may encounter.

I personally when I have any problem I always research the internet to see how other people have resolved it. Internet, fancy cell phones, iphones, web enabled phones, blackberries, ipods, Gps, are all powerful tools.

Indeed very powerful. So powerful that many times they are in control of our lives, and we forget to enjoy the simpler things, to embrace the power of now.

The power of now? What is such a thing? I am always aware of the now, you might say…. Are you sure? Could you honestly say that when you are having breakfast in the morning you are savoring every mouthful. Are you feeling the spoon touching your lips? When you take a shower, are you aware of every drop of water on your skin? Or are you thinking of the next phone call you need to make, or how you are going to pay the bills this month?

When your child talks to you, can you honestly say that you have listened to everything he said, did you notice every single expression in his face, or were you too busy thinking what you would say to him. We think that because we have all these tools we need to be working or depending on them 24/7. But that was not the intention. The intention was to use them as a tool to carry out our work more efficiently, but keeping the control.

Unfortunately most of us have given our power away and we live depending on these tools. Being present allows us to enjoy every single moment, feeling every bit of our bodies reaction, feeling every drop of water. It is not easy, and we need to make a conscious decision every day to enjoy the present:

1- Do not multitask. Do one thing at a time and fully concentrate on that thing.
2- Sit down and have breakfast with your family or alone, but have breakfast, experiencing each spoon as a child would do. Do not read the paper or think about your day during this time.
3- Book yourself half an hour, just for yourself to fill up your cup.
4- When commuting, take 2 to 3 days a week, to just be present, do not listen to the radio or ipod, Just observe and enjoy your space.
5- At the end of the day when returning home, and having supper do not answer phone calls
6- Every morning make a conscious decision to enjoy the power of now.

Once you do this, please take note of your feelings. If you not feeling good, ask yourself why. If you do, then maybe you can look forward to other changes in your life. Whatever you do, do not beat yourself up. We are always learning.

The point here is that our thoughts are creating our reality, and our thoughts can be changed. I am not saying is easy, but it is a choice you can take whenever you decide to. Last week I was reminded that we never fail. Failure does not exist. And I do believe so. I do believe that we are in this world to learn, and we cannot learn if we do everything right from the start. We need to “fail” to learn. A baby when starts walking, falls all the time  but we do not label him as a failure. Why do we label us as a failure when we do not succeed the first time? Yes we may not succeed the first time, but you have an opportunity, like the baby, to get up again and try again. Never, ever give up!! And if you feel like giving up, bookmark this video below in yoru computer and take 5 minutes to watch it. I am sure you will think differently…

Enjoy it and have a great day!!

So when I say we need to plan our blog there are a couple of things we need to decide on:

1. Is my blog my  business. Is my business blogging, or do I have an actual business and I use the blog to interact with clients and market the business. Generally many people start blogging on something that interests them, like a hobby, a philosophy or just as a way to express themselves. With time the blog becomes successful and then they go onto earning money from  the blog and some become  full time bloggers.   Others, just keep blogging but are not really interested in becoming full time bloggers or they do not even bother with the monetization of the blog.  A third group is the people that have an offline business but want to use blogging to expand their business and interact with their customers.
2. Then you need to decide what type of blogging software you will use (refer to my previous post for this) and our domain name which needs to be strategically chosen.
3. Obviously if it is a new blog and business or if you are blogging for fum you need to decide what you are going  to blog about. If you are doing it for fun is one thing, but if you are planning  to create a business then you need to research the subject and be sure that there is an interest out there. There needs to be a tribe as they call it. Who will be your target market?
4. What is your blog mission and vision?
5. Then we need to think on how often you will blog. The more often you do the faster your traffic will increase. Ideally you should blog daily but if not a minimum of twice a week.
6. What strategies will you use to create traffic, how will you create backlinks?  Are you going to use articles, are you going to visit regularly other blogs where you will leave your comments? How much time will you spend in these activities?
7. Are you going to have guests writers in your blog? Will you contact other bloggers to post in their blogs?
8. Are you going to use social media to increase your traffic? How much time will you spend in social media? What applications will you use: Twitter, Facebook, etc?
9. How are you going to monetize your blog? Are you planning to create products to sell? Maybe interviewing interesting people, or creating a e-course, or maybe selling other products, or recommending other people products.
10. Are you going to let other people advertise in your blog.

The better prepared you are with a plan, and the more focused you are,  the greater the success. Just take teh time to learn about this points and decide what your strategy will be. It may take some time now, but it will save you time later.  In some instances there are bootcamps or courses that help you define all of this. The great thing about these bootcamps is that you are not alone. It is like a Mastermind group where you can interact with lots of people in the same situation and get feedback from them. You also increase your network. I have come to realize that without a network we do not go far. Networking is a subject for another post, but participating of this bootcmaps, gives you a chance of networking which could help expanding your business just as in the offline world. Leo Babauta’s bootcamp is a great place to learn more about blogging and to get in touch with other bloggers. Leo has attracted over 150000 subscribers in just 2 years for his blog Zen Habits and he is opening the doors to his bootcamp called How to make your blog pay the bills, May 16-20. The enrollment opens on Tuesday May 11 at 12:00pm Eastern time and closes on Sunday May 15 at midnight.  So if you were thinking of starting your blog, maybe this is your opportunity to do it, but if not get at least his free report on how he  got over 100000 subscribers in two years.

If you decide to enroll in his bootcamp through my blog, then I will give you one hour free telephonic coaching session for free. Just email me at andrea [ at] coachtoexcellence.com with your name and details.

First you need to decide what type of blogging software you will use. There are basically two options here. One option is to have a hosted solution which means that you can have a blog at blogspot.com or at wordpress.com. In this case Google or WordPress are hosting your blog. There are some advantages and some disadvantages to this.
The advantages with this is that it is free and quite easy to set up. Backups are done for you, and the server is quite stable.
The disadvantages are that you do not have your own domain. The address for the blog will be something like http://myblog.blogspot.com which it is not advisable if you are creating a blog for your business since it does not really look very professional. Another disadvantage that I see is that you cannot add plugins. Plugins are like extra software that helps with the search engine optimization or with other functions that you want to add. Lets say for example you want to have a box where to ask for the reader’s email address, to capture their data. You cannot really do this with this type of blogs.
But the biggest disadvantage is that you do not have control over your blog. If Google or WordPress decide that they do not want your blog, then they can delete it and you could lose your blog overnight.

The second option and the best one for a business is to use wordpress.org. This will cost you a bit of money, but it is certainly worth it. In this case you will need your own domain name which can cost you around 10USD a year depending on the type of domain you get, and then you need to pay hosting which will cost you around 10USD a month. So it is really very cheap.
The other issue with this type of blogs is that it is a bit more complicated to set it up. but nothing that you cannot do. There are plenty of videos that assist you with setting up this type of blog, or plenty of people that offer this service at a reasonable fee. Once the blog is set up you can go and modify it easily. Posting articles is very easy and everyone can do it.
The advantages definitely outweigh the disadvantages in this case:

• You have your own domain and therefore better branding.
• You do not need to hire a graphic designer these days because there are lots of  templates you could use. You can always get someone to do your own template later on when you have the funds available.
• You can use Google analytics to give you information about the traffic to your blog
• You have control over it. It is your domain and noone can really take your blog away. But you still need to do your own backups.

So if you now decide to go with wordpress.org for your blog the steps to follow are:

1. Choose a domain name that will represent your business or that is based in a keyword that people are searching for. See if the domain name is available and register it.
2. Choose a hosting company to host your blog.
3. Get someone to set up your blog or learn to do it yourself. There are some free resources that can teach you this.
4. Start posting. I will talk about posting in the next post.

This may be an oversimplified view of how to set the blog up. It is not difficult and as I said there are lots of free resources. But if you are still scared of technology or you do not have the time then I suggest you get someone to do it for you. Remember time is money and sometimes we need to acknowledge that we can not do everything ourselves.

Happy posting!!