Debra Kasowski

EPISODE 107 – Reasons for Failure

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“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill.

Recently, I went back to my old trusted and true resource of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill after completing a podcast with Nicola Grace – The Mission Mentor. We were talking about how “you cannot afford to have a negative thought.” Our thoughts are so powerful and can speak to your future. As I was flipping the pages, I came across 31 Reasons for Failure. Now, if you have not read this book, you must. I am not going to go through all thirty-one, however, I do want to touch on some significant ones I have seen in my coaching practice and people I interact with daily. I have overcome some of these too.

No Defined Purpose or Aim. One of the reasons for failure is that there are individuals who lack clarity. They have no idea what they want to do or what they are here to do. Without clarity, they wonder aimlessly through life and have no direction and hence no drive.

Lack of Ambition. Strive to Get By. There are so many opportunities available to excel. Too many people put in just enough effort to get by and settle for mediocrity. They do not put in the extra effort required to get to the next level. Effort cannot be taught; it must come from within. They lack the drive to succeed. If this is you, you need to tap into the “why” you do what you do perhaps your why is not strong enough.

Lack of Education. When faced with a challenge, I have heard people say, “I can’t do that. I do not know enough.” Today with the internet you have no excuses and even before the internet you could find a way to learn what you needed to. There are free courses offered by distinguished teachers and education institutions offered online 24/7 through websites like Coursera and Udemy. Then there is Google, type in the question you are asking and get the answer at your finger tips in moments. If you need to take some courses professionally, then do so. You can also interview people who have the education you are lacking to learn more. Don’t forget the libraries are full of books that can support you. You can overcome a lack of education. You need to push yourself to do it.

Lack of Self-Discipline. In my work with Emotional Intelligence, this is a hot topic as self- awareness is the key to transformational change. If you want to improve in any area, first work to improve yourself and your habits. You cannot control other people. You can only control yourself. When you develop self-mastery, then you can focus on how you interact with others. The biggest area of control for self-discipline is reining in the negativity and shifting and reframing into a positive mindset.

Procrastination. Some people work well under pressure and they find that procrastination serves them. Procrastination can quickly lead to missed deadlines and opportunities. People will avoid assigning projects or task to you because you are not reliable. Underlying procrastination is the need to have everything just perfect. Perfectionists are often waiting for everything to be “just right” – the timing must be right, the right people must be in place, or the right environment must be set up. The timing with never be just right. You need to get started and adjust the course as you go; better resources will appear as you start on your journey.

Lack of Persistence. My friend and colleague Lori Raudnask has a book called, Persistence Pays. She talks about how you can get what you want in life if you persist. It is way too easy to quit at the first sign of defeat whether you have been rejected by a publisher or the bank or getting your first sale. You have not failed if you discover the lesson. The lesson of how to improve. Failure cannot exist if you keep taking intentional action and stay determined to succeed.

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” Thomas A. Edison

Indecisiveness. The inability to make a decision is making a decision. Opportunities only last so long before they are taken away. If you are unable to assess situations and information and decide, you will have your future determined by other others who do. You need to learn how to become more decisive. Being indecisive is not different than procrastinating and waiting for someone to rescue you or do the work for you. Get going – do the work and make the decision.

These are seven reasons for failure. There are several others. Think of the reasons you have failed in the past. What did you learn? What would you do differently now that you have learned this? Now that you have the awareness, there are no excuses! You need to take different actions to get different results.

We would love to have you subscribe to the Success Secrets newsletter on my website at www.debrakasowski.com where you’re going to get us free MP3 download 10 Surefire Strategies to Power Up Your Productivity and Performance. I would love to hear about this podcast has impacted your life. E-mail me at Debra@DebraKasowski.com. Thank you for listening to The Millionaire Woman Show where we talk about leadership, business, and human potential to help you live rich from the inside out. Subscribe to The Millionaire Woman Show. Share it with Your Friends. Give us a 5-star rating!

DEBRA KASOWSKI, BScN CEC is an award-winning best-selling author, transformational speaker, blogger, and Certified Executive Coach. She has a heart of a teacher and is certified in Appreciative Inquiry and Emotional Intelligence. Her writing has been published in a variety of print and online magazines. Debra Kasowski International helps executives, entrepreneurs, and organizations boost their productivity, performance, and profits. It all starts with people and passion. Sign up the Success Secrets Newsletter and get your free mp3 download today! www.debrakasowski.com

Keywords: persistence, persistence pays, reasons for failure, Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich, getting what you want, procrastination

Episode 105 – Start Acting as If

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“Act as if! Act as if you’re a wealthy man [or woman], rich already, and then you’ll surely become rich. Act as if you have unmatched confidence and then people will surely have confidence in you. Act as if you have unmatched experience and then people will follow your advice. And act as if you are already a tremendous success, and as sure as I stand here today – you will become successful.” Jordan Belfort, The Wolf of Wall Street

 You have heard all the catch phrases – Think Positive, Reach Big Goals, and Live Big. It is great to think these great thoughts but if you don’t believe that you will achieve what you are thinking positive or reaching for, you will take actions that will end up sabotaging your success. How you think and feel impacts the actions that you take and ultimately your results would it not make sense to put yourself in the frame of mind to think positive and feel that your goals are being achieved.

Several years ago, when I was introduced to this concept I was interviewing a guest for one of my products and she said that her grandmother told her that when she walked into a room where she did not know many people that she should “act as if” she did and soon enough she would. Now let’s say you walked into a networking event and knew no one, what would you do? Would you high tail it out of the room because you were afraid someone would learn your name? What does a person who knows others do? Chances are you would gradually work your way to a table of people or a group of individuals and introduce yourself and at least say. “Hello”. Once you do that you are no longer strangers. The person or people you are speaking with may even introduce you to others.

Think about who you want to be, what you want to do, and what you want to have. Who do you need to show up as to do so? What knowledge, skills, or abilities do you need to learn to step into the person you want to be? What experiences would prepare you for your role? You have probably heard the phrase, “to get what you never had, you need to do what you have never done.” Stretch out of your place of comfort. When you are in your comfort zone, you are coasting through life and going with the flow. The only intention you have is that you are not putting in any work than the basics because you do not want to disrupt anything. Therefore, that space is called the comfort zone – you are comfortable so why tip the scale.

Name a time you stepped out of your comfort zone to achieve a goal. What did it feel like when you reached the target? I am putting it out there that you were on cloud nine. Even though you were nervous and excited with anticipation, you took the leap of faith anyway. You trusted and believe in yourself. After all, what do you have to lose? Everything fell into place just as it should.

When you start to “act as if”, you need to first see yourself being, doing, or having what you are focused on achieving. Act as if it is currently happening in the present moment. What does it feel like. Describe what you are hear, seeing, or smelling, touching, or tasting (depending on what is you are doing) in detail. Be as specific with every detail. Start believing it. Practice doing this for 15-20 minutes daily – repeat until you have achieved your goal. Once you see it, feel it, and believe it, start taking the actions you need to move toward that goal. Positive thoughts alone without action are simply thoughts that make you feel good.

If you catch yourself in negative thought patterns or self-limiting beliefs, start by noticing the thought. By bringing the thought to your awareness, you can now determine if you will keep thought or reframe the thought into a positive. For instance, if you are repeatedly telling yourself that you are going to fail at delivering your presentation and you did not prepare for it, chances are you will be creating your reality. Now if you plan and prepare, as well as reassure yourself with positive words that you will deliver a great presentation, you will. The thoughts you think and word you say have a great impact in the actions you talk and the results you will get. Choose wisely.

“Act as if everything depended on you; trust as if everything depended on God.” St. Ignatius of Loyola

We would love to have you subscribe to the Success Secrets newsletter on my website at www.debrakasowski.com where you’re going to get us free MP3 download 10 Surefire Strategies to Power Up Your Productivity and Performance. I would love to hear about this podcast has impacted your life. E-mail me at Debra@DebraKasowski.com. Thank you for listening to The Millionaire Woman Show where we talk about leadership, business, and human potential to help you live rich from the inside out. Subscribe to The Millionaire Woman Show. Share it with Your Friends. Give us a 5-star rating!

DEBRA KASOWSKI, BScN CEC is an award-winning best-selling author, transformational speaker, blogger, and Certified Executive Coach. She has a heart of a teacher and is certified in Appreciative Inquiry and Emotional Intelligence. Her writing has been published in a variety of print and online magazines. Debra Kasowski International helps executives, entrepreneurs, and organizations boost their productivity, performance, and profits. It all starts with people and passion. Sign up the Success Secrets Newsletter and get your free mp3 download today! www.debrakasowski.com

Episode 104 – Drive Your Marketing Strategy with Adam Urbanski

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Meet our Guest:

His clients and students often double, triple, and even 10x their business – some in as little as 90 days!

Adam started out with only $194 and a limited ability to speak English but was able to build and sell his first 7-figure business in less than 10 years .

Today Adam influences over 100,000 coaches, consultants, speakers, experts, online marketers and entrepreneurs world-wide, teaching them how to transform their limiting, time-intensive businesses into automated money making machines that Attract Clients Like Crazy®.

Episode 103 – Habits: Serving or Sabotaging Your Success

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“Good habits are the key to all success. Bad habits are the
unlocked door to failure.”
― Og Mandino

We all have habits. Some habits serve us and some habits sabotage our success. Some habits we are aware of and some habits we are unconscious of. Habits are often referred to as a settled practice or tendency in the way you do things. It is your usual way of behaving. It can be as simple as your morning routine or your night time rituals. Many of the habits you have developed you do not even notice until the results or impact start to show up. When things are going great, you feel good. If things are not going so great, you may start to realize that something needs to change.

There is no sense pointing your fingers at others blaming and complaining about why you got the outcome you received.  Don’t even attempt to come up with excuses. You need to start looking at how you are responsible for your results and making a change. What is working? What is not working? What do you need to stop doing? What do you need to start doing?

What makes a habit good or bad? Look at your outcomes. Bad habits are those actions or inactions you take, a negative pattern of behaviour, that do not serve you. Examples of bad habits are procrastination, overspending, gossiping, interrupting conversations, mindless eating, watching excessive amount of TV, staying up late and not getting enough sleep, skipping breakfast, and being short tempered and being reactive in situations. Good habits are those habits you have put in place to support you in achieving what you want to achieve. You plan, prepare, and execute. You work from a budget. You speak well about yourself and others. You actively listen and ask thoughtful questions. You eat to fuel your body. You limit your TV watching and use the time to read or get exercise. You ensure you get enough sleep to function well and you do not skip any meals. Before reacting to situations, stop and recognize how you are feel. You take a deep breath and wait a few minutes until you have calmed down to respond. In the meantime, you may be asking questions to gather more information so you can understand the nature of the issue or concern at hand. When you are angry or upset, your brain does not think rationally. It goes into a protective mode and shut down rational thought leaving you in a reactive survival mode.

What habits are serving you? What habits are sabotaging your success? Are you getting in your own way?

Here are more habits that can be impacting your success:

Being late to meetings Not being prepared Skipping the gym

 
Using your cellphone in bed Checking your cellphone compulsively Forgetting names
Breaking promises to yourself and others Spending too much time online Saying “yes” to everything
Criticism – negative self-talk Rearranging instead of decluttering Misplacing your keys
Blaming or Complaining Binge watching Netflix Borrowing and not returning things
Finishing people’s sentences Being a workaholic Emotional shopping

Changing a habit takes time. It is not an overnight fix. Many of the habits you have, have developed over time. The easiest habits to break or change are the ones that have the least meaning to you.

Ask yourself the following questions:

What is one change that would make the biggest difference right now?

Are you ready to make the change?

What is it costing you to not make the change?

What do you need to put in place to ensure the change is successful?

How motivated are you to make the change?

Why is this making this change important to you?

How confident are you that you can make the change?

What would make you more confident?

What are the barriers in the way of making this change?

What can you do to eliminate or navigate those barriers?

What benefit will you gain from changing this habit?

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” – Jim Rohn

Everything around you is a result of your habits. The every day choices you make. If you want to make a change stick, you will want to put reminders in place such as sticky notes with reminders written on them or setting a phone alarm. Experts say it takes 21 days to create a new habit, I say go for at least 30 days to help it really stick. You are creating new pathways in the brain embedding your new habit. Remember to help make it stick to reward yourself. The reward can be simply acknowledging your smallest win to purchasing an outfit or going to a game or show. It is all the small changes that you do that will make the biggest difference.

You want to start choosing new habits that will support the achievement of your goals. Print off a 30-day calendar to track your progress. Start with small changes. They are more believable and you are more likely to follow through. Let’s say you want to declutter a room. The thought of it seems decluttering the whole room feels over whelming and would take hours. Can you spend 15-30 minutes each day for the next week decluttering the room? Sounds doable, doesn’t it? What you measure gets managed. Changing a habit requires consistent action. If you fall of track, simply get back on the next day. The more you work the plan, the greater success you will have.

Let the habits you put in place serve you!

I would love to hear about how you have changed some of your habits and achieved success.

We would love to have you subscribe to the Success Secrets newsletter on my website at www.debrakasowski.com where you’re going to get us free MP3 download 10 Surefire Strategies to Power Up Your Productivity and Performance. I would love to hear about this podcast has impacted your life. E-mail me at Debra@DebraKasowski.com. Thank you for listening to The Millionaire Woman Show where we talk about leadership, business, and human potential to help you live rich from the inside out. Subscribe to The Millionaire Woman Show. Share it with Your Friends. Give us a 5-star rating!

DEBRA KASOWSKI, BScN CEC is an award-winning best-selling author, transformational speaker, blogger, and Certified Executive Coach. She has a heart of a teacher and is certified in Appreciative Inquiry and Emotional Intelligence. Her writing has been published in a variety of print and online magazines. Debra Kasowski International helps executives, entrepreneurs, and organizations boost their productivity, performance, and profits. It all starts with people and passion. Sign up the Success Secrets Newsletter and get your free mp3 download today! www.debrakasowski.com

Keywords: good habits, bad habits, change a habit, routines, success habits, changing a bad habit, stop limiting yourself, simple ways to change habits