The Million Dollar Challenge

All comments welcome!

After the decorations, celebrations and communion with family and friends, Monday morning will reappear.

My holiday gift to each of you: a few tips from the IndiBrand™ Individual Branding Workshop series.

Even in this economy. There is much to be grateful for:

The future is the present moving forward constantly. This means that whatever you envision for your future is being impacted by your choices right now—this very minute—and the next, and the next, and the next.

The future is connected to your present (which has just this instant become your past). As you consider what you want 2010 to be like for you, engage all of your senses. What do you want it to smell like? Taste like? Look like? Sound like? And feel like? The more visceral your imagination of your future, the more real it becomes and the easier it is to make choices in this instant and the next that truly support your goals for your future!

When I am considering my future I make sure I am specific and engage each of my senses across multiple areas of my life. Like good marketing, the more targeted I am in my focus on each area of my life, the more impactful my connection to it is! The more likely I will actually create it, and the more joy I experience in all areas of my life as a result. Following are some of the focus areas for my future. What are yours?

There is always room for changing one’s vision. Don’t let your fear of commitment or your belief that you cannot control what the future holds, or anything else, get in your way. It’s the distinction between making choices that lead to something that fulfills you or not.

Author: Michele Lando, president of Skilset Communications, Inc., and author of the internationally acclaimed IndiBrand™ Individual Branding workshop series. To reproduce any portion of this article, you may write or phone 626-792-0032.

Find an image of something that you really love:  flowers, a rainbow, a special song, a sport that you love.

Let that be the image that you use every time you start to scare yourself!

Life is a classroom.  When we are open to receiving wisdom from the people and situations we encounter every day, let’s recognize how much they teach us when we are open to receiving their wisdom.  How about the lessons we learn about the things we don’t want to do. Situations that occur in our lives, from the smallest and most insignificant to the largest and most important, have the ability to teach us exactly what we need to learn at any given time. A friend and associate of mine came up with what we call the “6 C’s”.  Commitment, Conviction, Consistency, Courage, Confidence, and Connected.  Pay close attention to these things as they occur in the classroom that is your life. Stop and think about each of these words and how they might guide your day-to-day lifestyle.  Are you committed to whatever you are doing right now, today, tomorrow or even next year?  Do you have conviction in your beliefs?  Are you consistent with your actions and words?  Do you have the courage and confidence to take the necessary action to accomplish your goals?  Are you connected to your life and your path?

I’ve found that affirmations can help me to remember this perfect teacher each day with a few simple words. Affirmations are a powerful tool and when consistently utilized can make a huge difference in your mindset and therefore your life:

I acknowledge and honor the teacher that is my life.

I am wise enough to recognize the teachers and lessons that I encounter today.

I am open to the wisdom I receive.

I appreciate what life is teaching me today.

I trust my intuition on the nature of the lesson at hand.

Guess what – Your life has all the answers. Your life is a movie and the cool thing is; it is written only up until today. Visualize the end.  You get to finish the movie however you choose. So, recognize that your thoughts lead to your feelings, which lead to your actions which create your results.

Start today on the completion of your movie.

With budget cuts getting worse every day and class sizes getting bigger, how can we get to these kids and teach them what they need to know about survival?  The teachers can’t do it, they’re stuck with curriculum that must be taught and then tested.  The curriculum is old and for the most part outdated.  The teachers are underpaid and have no incentive to inspire. The kids are bored and don’t listen and as a result our drop out ratio is higher than ever.  This is our future folks – these kids will one day be running our country and making decisions that will affect a lot of us as we enter the later years of our lives.  If you think life is scary now – just wait!

I’ve been taught that when you see a challenge, find a solution.  So that’s what I’ve done.  I’ve created a series of “classes” to teach life skills to teens. I’ve been fortunate, in that I have found a way to relate to teenagers, and they to me. Coaching and mentoring these kids feeds my soul, but more importantly gives them a new outlook with which to face life.  I’m not saying that they’re all a mess, but there are way too many who are.  I realize this is pretty brutal, but then, the truth usually is.

It starts with self esteem.  Who are their role models?  Who do you think are their role models and why?  Is it Eminem and his rap or Tiger Woods and his focus?  Are they listening and doing, or just doing without listening?  Are they aware of consequences?  Do they care?  Do they know what a goal is?  If so, do they know how to set and reach it?  These are just the first few questions and answers that we dig into when I’m coaching.  What makes a teenager tick?  How can we motivate them to think and do something positive?

Teenage is a tough time, but we can help them to develop a sense of self and future goals.  They can learn to think, act and even accomplish things they never thought about.  One of my first students was a 16 year old high school mother with absolutely no self esteem or thoughts that she could accomplish anything other than just getting through school, and even that would be a first in her family of 14!  She grew into a confident, skilled, smart young woman and worked for me personally for 10 years!  I’m so proud of her and who she has become, the family she is raising and the life she is enjoying.

If we can work together to produce a better curriculum for life then that’s what we must do.

Contact me: Tish@talk2tish.com or Direct 310.822.1978

Let’s work together to create a better life for your kids!  I know we can do it!