Last night I had a profound dream.

When I woke up I thought the dream was so important I had to share.

The Dream

There was this woman who was showing signs of physical distress. I quickly realized she was showing signs of a heart attack.

My panicked mind raced with what I should do. I decided I needed to dash off to a cardiology office. Right when I entered I started shouting, “Help, she’s having a heart attack!”

After questioning me about the patient a nurse started to scold me. I came to the wrong place! I realized my mistake and that she needed to go to the Emergency Room.

So I raced over the hospital. I entered the ER room and started shouting “Help, she’s having a heart attack!”

The ER staff just stared at me blankly. Finally someone asked “Where is the patient?”

That’s when I realized I should have called 911. By the time I ran all over town trying to get her help it was possibly too late.

My mistake in this dream was that I felt in order to help her I needed to go to the cardiologist FIRST in order to save her life. I expended a lot of energy looking for the right people to help her when all I needed to do was pick up a phone. 

Of course this dream is an analogy of what was going on in my life professionally. I was so busy envisioning all the great possibilities for my clients I was failing to pay attention to the one thing they needed help with . . .

Their First Steps

In my dream the ailing woman’s first step was getting immediate medical help to save her life and get on the road to recovery.

Are you guilty of doing this in your business? In your desire to help your clients do you skip over the needed first steps to get your clients accomplish their goals faster?

An example would be a health and fitness coach who has a client that wants to lose weight. The coach could find out why the client is overweight first before they personalize a program they think the client needs. Weight gain is a very complex formula depending on the individual and the old model of calories in and calories out is outdated. Emotional, physical, and mental aspects of the clients could be addressed first for successful weight loss.

The problem with starting with the possible end results is that the person is suffering today and needs immediate steps to take before they can “recover and move forward.”

How about you? Have you noticed a disconnect between what your clients want and what they really need? Are you their best solution?

I realized I needed to make a choice. Focus what I offer on what my clients really need and not on what they think they want or refer them to someone else who better can help them.

Possible Solutions

Here are a few options that may help solve this issue.

1. Create a group of coaches or consultants that focus on a different stage of development and create a referral system for each step.
2. Create a series of programs that a client can follow, step by step.
3. Focus on one step and be known as the expert in that step.

Sherrie Koretke, Niche Clarity Coach. Certified Professional Career Coach, Law of Attraction Specialist, Small Business Coach and Consultant. Visit her at sherriekoretke.com

Photo Credit: Free Digital Photos

Don’t miss out on a single post. Receive blog posts via email.

Are you suffering from stuckitis when it comes to your business? Stuckitis is a term for the failure to move forward. When it comes to your business it’s affect can create financial, mental and emotional harm.

A few explanations for this condition happening when running a business are:

• Lack of Focus
• Poor or No Goals
• No Marketing Plan

But those aren’t the cause, they’re conditions created by the real cause. The real problem is those pesky little hidden personal wounds that you haven’t healed. They block you from making progress in all parts of your life, not just your business.

Let’s say you were . . .

• Criticized a lot for being a poor writer or speaker when you were younger.
• You never felt accepted and loved by your parents.
• Your creativity was never recognized or developed.
• You felt powerless and defenseless as a child.
• You were abused in some way.
• You grew up poor and felt a sense of lack.

I could go on and on listing potential hidden wounds. Most of us have them but don’t make the connection to what’s going on in our business lives. What these wounds are doing is sabotaging your progress because somewhere inside you don’t feel worthy in some way or another.

So for now, forget about time management strategies, planning sessions, and goal setting. Let’s get down to the nitty gritty first. What is your hidden pain? To learn what it is try this exercise:

When you have a chance to be alone, turn off everything electronic and get comfortable. Close your eyess and ask yourself “What hidden wound from my childhood or early adult life is holding me back?” Just sit there and wait. The answer may pop into your mind as a word or imagines. Don’t judge what you feel. You will know you have the answer when you feel a sense of pain or loss.

If you need a little more help discovering your Hidden Business Blocks I’m here to help. 

Sherrie Koretke, Niche Clarity Coach. Certified Professional Career Coach, Law of Attraction Specialist, Small Business Coach and Consultant. Visit her at sherriekoretke.com

Don’t miss out on a single post. Receive blog posts via email.

It’s the day of your funeral. (Don’t worry. It’s many, many years from now.) Your colleagues and the people you mentored love you so much they clamor to give a eulogy.

What are they saying about how you touched their lives?

Now let’s say this funeral is tomorrow. What would they say?  Not much? Maybe it’s because you haven’t given much thought about what your life’s work will look like at the end of your life.

What is a life’s work? To me it is a creative self-expression of yourself. It’s the body of work that you accomplished and a legacy is created from that work. The biggest factor of your life’s work is it revolves around something you love to do and takes advantage of your natural born talents. Here’s a few benchmarks that determine if you’re on the right track concerning your life’s work.

Dedication

How dedicated are you to your career? Can you take it or leave it? If another opportunity came along would you jump at it?

Love

Do you love your work? Is it something you can’t stop thinking about and love to share with others?

Joy

Do you feel joy when you work? Is this something you would do even if you weren’t paid for it?

Contribution

Are you making a contribution that changes lives for the better? Do you know who you are meant to serve?

What is your vision for your career? Does it have meaning and value? Or are you working day by day making ends meet so you can achieve mostly personal goals? If you believe that your life should have meaning in both your career and personal life it’s time to start crafting your life’s work.

This plan isn’t set in stone. It’s something that will help guide you and provide focus. It will ensure that your life and the work you do will have a deeper meaning and will have a lasting, long-term effect on the world.

And don’t worry about how old you are and that you haven’t even begun! Some of the greatest accomplishments have been contributed by people later in their life.

I love helping people find their life’s work and get them moving on their path fast! Be sure to enroll in your free E-course “Five Ways to Leverage the Power of You” to the right of this post. —->

I know the drill. You started your business so you could earn the kind of money you want. Does that mean you are waiting to earn lots of money to live a life of luxury? Since I’m a coach who is all about creating your dream business and dream life I thought I would talk a bit about living a luxurious life that doesn’t stress you out at your current income level.

Maybe you have set goals to earn x amount of dollars so you can buy your dream car, you dream house, and/or take your dream vacation. And then . . . the money hasn’t rolled in quite that fast.

But what if you could live a luxurious life right now? All it takes is a shift in your perspective about wealth and living a luxurious life.

First, let’s define luxury. I grabbed this definition off Dictionary.com:

Luxury: a material object, service, etc. conducive to sumptuous living, usually a delicacy, elegance or refinement of living rather than a necessity.

Notice that the description does not give any monetary value to what is a luxury. Only that it’s not a necessity. For this blog post I want to focus on the part about refinement of living. After all, when your necessities in life are met (Meaning food, shelter, medical care, etc.) almost everything you buy would be considered a luxury except for that detail of refinement or elegance.

Money wasn’t mentioned in the definition of luxury and it never defined exactly what is considered a luxury item. All you need to do is concentrate on is what is luxurious to you and remove the illusion that luxuries cost tons of money. Here are five ways to redefine luxury for yourself and start living the luxurious life you desire today:

• Change your view of what a luxury is and how much it should cost.
• Define what luxury means to you.
• Carefully choose things and experiences that meet this definition. Be sure the luxury is what you want, not what you think will impress others.
• Indulging in luxuries that create memories that can share with loved ones.
• Indulge in luxuries that raise your self-esteem. If you have to go into debt it’s not a true luxury. If you feel guilty indulging then search from within to find out why this luxury doesn’t match your values.

Look around and see what you have in front of you that could be considered a luxury. Bet you would find that you have already started living a life of luxury, defined by you. I’m a big believer in living life now and not waiting until everything is perfect. My beliefs are that you needn’t go into debt striving for a lifestyle out of your financial reach. You can start living a life of luxury now.

Do you see luxury in a new way? If so, please let me know what you consider a luxury, redefined on your terms, by commenting below. 

I love helping people find their life’s work and get them moving on their path fast! Be sure to enroll in your free E-course “Five Ways to Leverage the Power of You” to the right of this post. —->

Did I get your attention with this title?

Let me explain what I mean. My series on entrepreneurial motivations seems to intrigue people. I think it’s because business owners realized they started their businesses for a deeper reason than they thought.

The motivation that people respond to the most is the lifestyle/freedom lover motivation. Makes total sense since I hang out with coaches and consultants online.

The best way to describe the lifestyle/freedom lover motivation is to share where I am working right now. It’s Sunday morning. I’m on my patio typing away on my laptop and chatting with my husband in between writing spurts. There is a gentle breeze and the sun is shining bright.

I cherish the ability to be free to work where I want, when I want.

Freedom lovers like their lives to blend with their business and these days you can live this lifestyle prettty easily. With the invention of laptops, smart phones and wi-fi, working in coffee houses, by the pool, or even a hotel is made easy.

So what’s behind this motivation? On the surface it’s many different reasons such as:

• Parenting
• Love of travel
• Retirement
• Creating your own job
• Freedom to work with who you want to with

But if you look a little closer at freedom loving business owners you will find something interesting. What they really are is a group of REBELS. Yep, rebels. They are people who don’t want to be tied down by a 9 to 5 job and want to buck the tradition of typical work. They don’t like being told what to do, don’t like limits on their personal income, and most definitely don’t want to be told when and where to work. Freedom loving business owners are independent, creative, and value life experiences. 

The one thing Freedom Loving business owners need to be careful of is adopting someone else’s lifestyle thinking it is better than their own. We each define how we want to live. If you want to travel the world, go for it. If you want to stay at home with your kids, that’s great. I admit that one of the lifestyle choices I’m not fond of is running my business from a beach. Sand in my laptop? No way. But if you can handle working at the beach. Go for it!

So tell me. Are you a secret business rebel? If so, how do you define your ideal business and life?

Leave a comment below!

I love helping people find their life’s work and get them moving on their path fast! Be sure to enroll in your free E-course “Five Ways to Leverage the Power of You” to the right of this post. —->