Successful Blog

  • Home
  • Community
  • About
  • Author Guidelines
  • Liz’s Book
  • Stay Tuned

Do You Sleep in the Freeze or Invest in the Spring?

January 22, 2010 by Liz

cooltext443860173_ive-been-thinking

about seasons of life and work.

When the sailors went home last fall, some cleaned up their boats and go involved in other things. Some might have figured they were done and sold their boats off. I suppose some “hibernate” — put their in storage because the season for sailing is over. They sleep in the freeze.

frozen_harbor_-112210

The sailors who love sailing know just saw it as part of the yearly progress of the sailing “routine.” Winter is a luxury of time to fix what was wearing, mend what was tearing, and replace the broken things. They assess, check, invest, and work toward the days that bring back the summer breeze. They invest in the spring.

It’s a fact that that eventually the ice melts, the harbor always comes back in spring.

But you has to work on your boat, study the climate, and live your goals to set sail even better than before the water froze..

Most work that we love seems to have some cycle with a winter and a spring. A downtime offers an opportunity to get us running sleeker, faster, and in a more stable fashion again.

Most who do well when spring returns have been working all winter on a plan. We use the time have to build our skills, restring our offers and invest in our networks so that when up time and sunshine return we are sailing again. It’s even more than productivity and good business, it’s being invested in ourselves, our lives, each other and our dreams.

What are you doing to invest in the spring?

Liz's Signature

Like the Blog? Buy my eBook!

Have you registered for SOBCon yet?

Imagine a elite weekend retreat where you can work on your business strategy and tactics with a mastermind team and these folks to help. Sign up for the newletter to get in on special offers.

Filed Under: Motivation, Productivity, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, goals, LinkedIn, Productivity

Do You Tune Your Goals to Get Maximum Opportunity Attraction?

August 24, 2009 by Liz

You Don’t Need Luck

My blog and my business changed when I wrote my blogging goal. Thing is I should have known that. Setting goals is one of those life lessons that I keep learning over again.

Sometime in college, I figured out that whenever I made a goal that was tuned tightly to who I am and what I do well, it easily became a catalytic action. Goals became my way of saying …

I don’t need luck, if I can make things happen.

What I realized was that goal set As Antoine de Saint-Exupery said …

A goal without a plan is just a wish.

Every successful and outstanding business, every well-conceived campaign or action becomes an opportunity magnet with goals that are

  • clear, concrete, and intentional — What will you accomplish? Why will you be doing that? Who or what will help yo?
  • measurable — How will you know you got there? What will count as a good score?
  • reachable — The strategy can be to get to the stars, but the goal should be the next step. What will you do to get there next?
  • matched to your skill set Great goals make us stretch enough to be challenged an interested. What will will you need to learn or put in action to achieve this?
  • time dependent — Place a time frame on what you’ll be accomplishing. Goals need focus and urgency to keep momentum. What is the end date?

(skills x passion) + problem solving = opportunity magnet

For a goal to be an opportunity magnet, it’s got to have some actionable attraction. Great goals use what’s uniquely our own — the strength of skills, the leverage of our situation, and the momentum of our passion.

Do you tune your goals to get maximum opportunity attraction?

I make connections.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!

Great resources:
Effective Business Process Solutions To Achieve Business Goals
Make good on new goals this year
If I Were Launching a New Small Biz Web Site Today
True goals are SMART.

Buy the eBook. and Register for SOBCon2010 NOW!!

Filed Under: Motivation, Strategy/Analysis, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, goals, LinkedIn, Strategy/Analysis, tactics

Would You Help Me Answer this Man Who Has a Dream?

October 1, 2008 by Liz

The Comment and the Dream

Personal Identity logo

In January, 2008, I wrote a strategy called How to Make Your Dream Come True — Thought, Strategy, Action. The article included these steps (abbreviated here).

  1. Define the dream.
  2. Define where you sit.
  3. Plot your strategy.
  4. Detail your needs.
  5. Determine your commitment.
  6. Enlist support and advocates.
  7. Write the story.
  8. Know how you’ll ask.
  9. Define yourself by the dream.

Yesterday. September 30, 2008, a man wrote two comments in response. I bring them forward here unedited.

September 30th, 2008 at 4:28 pm e
Pama said Hello,
I’m writing because I have nothing to lose except to not fulling my dream. I cannot allow my dream to just remain only my dream. I must make it into reality. About five years before 9-11-01 I had a thought, a way I could earn a living, travel and help our US Military families and our fallen hero families. I had defined my dream, worked up my plan of action, worked with success to make it all happen. Then as I was almost to seeing my dream to into reality two things happened to set me back lightyears. I was hit hard but not yet down. Rebuilt, regrouped and moved forward again. Life was helping me realize my dream again. Then like a bad storm, 2005 hit me slap in the face. Left with very little and a buring dream still not fulfilled. Its been years, stories, hopes, hard work and I am in my later fifties now. I have not giving up but the endless goals to reach my dream are showing its toll on me and my money stream. I have never once asked for money, nor have I asked for help from others out side of my mother (in her 80s now). I want to see my dream through to its highest potential. Any advise would be much needed and applied to my goal of realizing my dream. Thank you for your blog site and I have enjoyed your wisdom. Pama

September 30th, 2008 at 4:41 pm e
Pama said Please forgive me for all the misselled words and bad grammer, half thoughts. I was typing straight from my heart, not my mind. I knew if I stopped long enough to make the needed corrections I would chicken out and never hit the send Submit Button. Hope you understand, writing here is a huge step for me. Thanks again, Pama

military rose_from_geek_philosopher

Dear Pama,

I sit staring at the months-old blog post where you left this comment yesterday. I wish I knew more about your situation. I have many questions. I’ll simply respond this sentence that implies whether you should keep going on.

I have not giving up but the endless goals to reach my dream are showing its toll on me and my money stream.

Be certain that you’re not moving forward because you don’t want to give up. It’s human to hold onto a losing battle because we don’t want to think we lost. We put our head down and end up losing more because we don’t see that we’ve changed, the game has changed, and so has the world. So reevaluate before you keep go for that dream. Stop. Go somewhere. Sit on the side of a mountain. Think of life without it. Then if you go again, start from the beginning and know exactly what dream you’re going for.

That way you’ll be certain the dream is still out there. After all, once upon a time a boy could dream of leading a caravan across the desert. That choice has gone.

You’ve never asked for help. . . . why not?

Seeking knowledge and requesting someone’s aid in moving something forward is willingness to show a commitment to your dream and to yourself. Asking for help can be an investment in a relationship. It also allows the giver a chance to be generous and to contribute what they do far better than you ever will be able to do. Mostly importantly, it elevates your cause by allowing others to be part.

Asking for help is a sign of trust. Is your dream big enough to share? Can you trust folks to be part of your dream?

Those are my thoughts. I hope they’re even close to where you are.
I wish you hope, energy, and the wisdom you need.

Liz

If You’re Reading . . .

Please help me answer this man who has a dream. Add to my response or correct what I’ve gotten wrong.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Get your best voice in the conversation. Buy my eBook.

Filed Under: Motivation, Successful Blog Tagged With: advice, bc, Dreams, goals, wishes

Why It Takes a Personal Plan to Be Outstandingly Successful

March 4, 2008 by Liz

Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan

insideout logo

The road to success — We’ve all heard of that one. Do the things everyone does and you’ll probably get to something that’s . . . well, . . . not broken. But if you want to be successful and outstanding. Doing what everyone does won’t get you there . . . because to be outstanding, by necessity, you have to be individual.

To do stand and shine as uniquely valuable, a business or an individual needs a road that leads in a singular direction.

Note that I used the word leads.

A Plan to Be Irresistibly, Outstandingly Successful

Any effective, efficient project, business, or life has structure and direction. It starts with a destination — literal or figurative — and then a route to get there. Without a plan, we leave ourselves open to winds that push us toward distractions or detours. A plan, well thought and well provided for is the only way to get where we want to that shining end point.

Have a plan and work the plan is sage advice.

Why It Takes a Personal Plan to Be Outstandingly Successful

Last week we talked about making decisions. Here are the reasons that outstanding success demands a plan.

  1. If we don’t have a plan, we’re just wishing.
  2. If we don’t have a plan, we’re always here and success is always out there.
  3. Without a plan, we have no direction. Any road will take us anywhere, but we won’t end up there.
  4. Without a plan, every decision is likely to have as much power as a whim.
  5. A plan is the only way to benchmark our progress and to build on what we’ve accomplished.
  6. A plan is keeps us focused when other ideas tempt us away from our dreams.

Decide. Plan. Get determined. The plan makes a dream into an outstandingly success. It’s the plan — the decisions and determination — that fuels the reality. Distractions are easier to disregard when we can hold them up to a plan we know we can achieve.

Without a plan, we’re always getting ready to succeed. Christine Kane says it eloquently.

“How will you go the long, long journey,
if you’re always about to begin?” — Christine Kane, Falling in Love with the Wind

If you want to be outstandingly successful, plan for it. Outstanding is a stake in the ground that we keep our eyes on. It’s a path that we plot for the life that we want. It’s as easy as a decision.

Have you planned outstanding success into your life?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Need help deciding? Work with Liz!!
SOBCon08 is May 2,3,4 in Chicago. Register now!

Filed Under: Business Life, Inside-Out Thinking, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, decisions, goals, Inside-Out Thinking, planning

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4

Recently Updated Posts

Is Your Brand Fan Friendly?

How to Improve Your Freelancing Productivity

How to Leverage Live Streaming for Content Marketing

10 Key Customer Experience Design Factors to Consider

How to Use a Lead Generation Item on Facebook

How to Become a Better Storyteller



From Liz Strauss & GeniusShared Press

  • What IS an SOB?!
  • SOB A-Z Directory
  • Letting Liz Be

© 2025 ME Strauss & GeniusShared