I recently started something fun and new at {g}Collaborative! As a busy mom entrepreneur, life is hectic, but I am always looking for inspiration and motivation to keep me going, be more positive, better myself and my business and to strive for more. {g}Collaborative Daily are daily inspirational and motivational quotes with images to get your creativity and entrepreneurial energy flowing. You know how it goes...a small daily dose of positive reinforcement can truly make your day, motivate, and inspire you and others to do amazing things. Hey, it may even make you smile - sometimes that is all you need! Check out {g}Collaborative Daily on Instagram and be sure to follow us... |
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Let's admit it. We all have big dreams to do great things in our lives - start a family, start a business, or even pursue the career of a lifetime. We all have goals we want to achieve - we pursue some and others are put on the back burner for whatever reasons. Or, simply put, we just didn't have time or the timing wasn't quite right. Then, there's the old saying: "There's always tomorrow" which often leads to PROCRASTINATION!
I love Napoleon Hill's famous quote: "Don't wait. The time will never be just right." I look at my life now and I often wonder where I would be if I just waited for things to happen. What if I kept my idea for a round diaper changing pad - the patemm pad - to myself and never pursued to bring my idea from inception to market? Then, parents across the globe would have not enjoyed this essential baby item that I invented over 10+ years ago. What if I didn't start my consulting business (www.gcollaborative.com)? My dream of helping other aspiring entrepreneurs grow and promote their businesses would have not come to fruition. Admittedly, my timing on things wasn't always perfect but everything seemed to work out just fine. Yes, I have procrastinated many times before but I also have taken lot of chances - some good, some bad! Life it too short to sit around and wait for that perfect moment. You have to take chances. Some opportunities in life may never come again and in the end we only regret the chances we didn't take, right? Taking chances is what makes life interesting and exciting. Even if it doesn't work out - you tried. Learn from it and move on. Down the road, you don't want to say to yourself: "I should have or I could have..." If you see an opportunity, grab it and go for it! If you don't take a chance, how will you ever know? - As a mother and a businesswoman, the one word I dislike to hear is: Failure. When I say it out loud, it makes me cringe, I slouch, and it simply puts me down in the dumps. Can you relate? I was inspired to write this post after reading Jayson DeMer's article, 7 Failures Every Entrpreneur Must Eventually Face.
In my 40+ years, I have experienced a lot as a mother and as an entrepreneur. I have had many successes and failures. My successes were celebrated and cherished. My failures, on the other hand, I just wanted to run away or simply try to erase them from my memory. Failure is scary and EVERYONE experiences it at some point in their lives. It is how we respond to failure that makes us stronger as a person, a friend, a parent, and a business owner. Failure is a part of life and yes, once you fail, you begin to question everything you did to get to that point. But, what I realize now is that everyone fails at something. Failure makes you grow as a person and makes you stronger. Once you accept it, you must learn from it, and more importantly, move on. I now see failure as part of the process to success - to reset and move in another direction. Failure is not Final... People ask me all the time: "How do you do it all? - How do you balance being a wife, mother of 4, and running 2 businesses?" My simple response is (with a smile): "Balance -What does that mean exactly?" Ask any mother you know and they will tell you that being a mom is hard work - it's fun, challenging, but more importantly, rewarding! Now, throw in running a business or 2 on top of that!
Well, it is definitely not easy trying to do it all...and to do it well but I wanted to share some of my tips that could help other mom entrepreneurs in finding that 'right' balance. My Top 10 Tips For Balancing Motherhood and Being An Entrepreneur: 1. Family comes first, business 2nd. 2. Accept failure - Learn from it and move on. 3. Celebrate your successes. 4. Expect the unexpected. It is ok if you can't cross off those items on your to-do list...There's always tomorrow! 5. Ask for help. 6. Be flexible. 7. Plan ahead as much as you can. You know the old saying: "Poor planning leads to poor performance." 8. Make time for yourself - to reflect and re-charge. 9. Make the commitment to "unplug" to be with your family and friends. (This one is a tough one for me!). 10. Breathe, exercise, laugh (hard), and have fun. Hope this helps! Happy New Year! It is always the best feeling to start the new year feeling recharged and refreshed! 2014 is behind us and so a new adventure begins...Imagine. Believe. Achieve.
"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called "Opportunity" and its first chapter is New Year's Day." - Edith Lovejoy Pierce The best is yet to come... |
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Wife, mom to 4 kids, inventor, entrepreneur, + educational advocate. Archives
July 2015
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