How To Be the Best Worker Bee You Can Be... (or something like that)

I recently received an email from a YBR subscriber who commented that although she enjoys the information that YBR provides, she feels as though it is mostly geared toward entrenpreneurs and not for your average "worker bee" employee.

I must admit that while my hope and personal goal is that I, as well as all YBR women eventually become full time entrepreneurs, I do understand that this is not the goal for everyone.

Check out some tips on how to be the best employee you can be!

Tip 1: Get clear on your goals and objectives with your boss. Communication is key in any relationship and this includes your relationship with your boss. Many times, employees view their bosses as and all-knowing, all-powerful being that doesn't care anything about our opinions or desires. Although, this may be true some of the time, this is not the case of all bosses and the truth is you will never know until you open the lines of communication. Make sure that your boss knows exactly what your plans are for your career. Don't assume that he/she knows that you want that next raise or promotion. It may seem like common sense to you, but I've seen many people get looked over for many years simply because they did not make their intentions known to their supervisor.

Tip 2: Become an expert at time managment and productivity. One of the biggest complaints that employees have is that they feel overwhelmed with all of the tasks they are assigned on a daily basis. I know how stressful it can be when you are assigned ad hoc projects and reports to complete in addition to your daily functions. Noone likes being stuck at work until midnight trying to finish these tasks. It is important that you limit distractions (like checking personal email and surfing the internet) during your work day. Instead, focus on blocking out time where you can go through your tasks and responsibilities. Focus on one task at a time and don't wait for the last minute to tackle a big project.

The most important point to note is that although you may not be the CEO or President of the company you work for, you are still an important asset to the success of that business. Take pride in the work you are assigned and always put your best foot forward. It won't be long until you are recognized for your talents.

To Your Success,

Alecia D.

Finding Your True Calling: Part III

Persistence - Many begin the journey, but those who finish it are the ones who achieve success and fulfillment in life.
When you're living a life that is truly aligned with your passions, persistence gets a whole lot easier. You'll find that you don't want to stop, or that you can't stop, even if you think you want to. Your deepest passions will drive you onward.



The Importance of Staying on Course.

If you're like me, you want things fast. Not now, but RIGHT now. There's no time to waste--and since we're not getting any younger, we need to get what we can and move on to the next thing, right? WRONG. While instant gratification may be appropriate for some areas of your life, you definitely shouldn't be using this approach when trying to find your passion. Those of us who are lucky enough to be doing work that is in line with our life's purpose and at the same time fulfilling our financial needs know that this process consists of many ups and downs and that most times we will not see the fruits of our labor very quickly. Even though this may be true, however, we should not give up. If success was easy to obtain, then everyone would be successful. In order to live the life you want to live, you must be willing to remain committed even when you feel like jumping ship.

Oprah is a familiar example of someone who has obtained higher heights of success than most. If you have a conversation with her about the journey, I'm sure she will tell you that it did not happen overnight. Oprah's story begins over 30 years ago. She has gone through many setbacks during her career just as many of us do in our own lives. What has allowed Oprah to break through though, is her ability to push through no matter how uncomfortable the situation may be.

It is normal for you to get discouraged and for your motivation to waiver. But it is important that you do not dwell on the negative situations and instead focus on all of the possibility and promise that lie ahead. If you've already figured out what your purpose is, you should begin to visualize what it will be like once you get there. Whenever you feel down and want to give up, just remember the vision you've created for yourself. If you haven't identified your vision yet, don't fret- keep meditating and thinking until you figure it out. The beauty of this process is that no matter how long it takes for you to realize your passion, the feeling of finally finding it will put you at ease and provide motivation when you feel like you want to throw in the towel.

To Your Success,
Alecia D.

Finding Your True Calling: Part II

Integrity - Be as true to yourself as you are to others, and as true to others as you are to yourself.
The biggest challenge most of us face is to meet our responsibilities to others while pursuing our passions at the same time.
When you make commitments to others, make sure those commitments are aligned with YOUR passions. Then you can fulfill both your passions and commitments to others in one stroke.
And when you make a commitment to yourself, treat it with the same respect as a commitment to anyone else.

The Importance of Keeping Your Word.

As human beings, there are really only a few things we can say we truly have 100% control over, our word is one of them. In today's society, intergrity is often under estimated, however, it is probably one of the most important attributes one can have. As a Young, Black, Rich woman you should always aim to be a woman of integrity. If others feel they can trust you, they will begin to ask more of you and more and more opportunities will begin to be attracted into your life. This not only means that we should strive to be reliable to others, but we should also be able to rely on ourselves. If you make a promise to yourself you should fight to remain committed to that promise. Believing in yourself is the only way that others will begin to believe in you.

Think of the most successful person you know. Would they be half as successful if they were perceived to be unreliable or untrustworthy? Probably not. Once we can begin to be honest with ourselves and with others, we will find ourselves more in line with our natural flow. Once in this state, it will only be a matter of time before we will begin to find ways to develop our purpose and work with our passions to create our own successes.

To Your Success,

Alecia D.

Finding Your True Calling: Part I

After taking the last month and a half off to regroup and rethink the direction of YBR and my goals in general, I've found myself spending a lot of time contemplating new ideas, revamping old ones, and recharging my overall motivation. The next four posts come from an article I read on http://www.goal-setting-guide.com/ . I've highlighted a specific point and then reflected on it below as it relates to pursuing one's goals and purpose. What are your thoughts?



The importance of Keeping an Open Mind.

Stay Open - Your greatest good may not be what you think it is.
When you are open to whatever is appearing now, even if it's different than the way you think it should be, you release your individual will and open to God's will for you.
This is the path to living your highest purpose, and also the secret to overcoming any obstacle which may arise in your life.

As someone who gets caught up in lists, life plans, organizational charts, and time lines, I am finding it very challenging to relate to the idea of going with the flow. What exactly does this mean? Do you simply wait for life to throw situations at you? Do you go wherever the wind blows? It can be hard for some to wrap their minds around the concept, but it can actually do wonders for helping in the process of finding your purpose.

The success stories of many often start with the realization that the status quo simply was not working for them and it wasn't until they decided to be still and allow their hearts to lead that they were directed to their life's purpose. I recently had a conversation with a very successful wall street banker turned bed & breakfast owner, who came up with the idea for the latter while reading an ad in a magazine on a plane. Fast forward 17 years and she is living a fulfilling, peaceful, and successful life. I'm sure many scoffed when she announced she was leaving an executive position on Wall Street to move to the country to spend weekends drinking wine and entertaining visitors from all over the country, but her decision proved to be for the best and
my guess is she couldn't be happier.

The first step to finding your life's work is to listen to your heart. Don't think about money, resources, or eduction. Just focus on what career would ultimately make you happy and fulfilled. If you love what you do and are passionate while doing it, success will follow.

3 Secrets to Creating New Habits

We all know the value of constantly trying to improve on our habits and routines in order to become the best person we can be. Keeping in line with last week's post on the importance of writing down our goals, we should talk about what we do after we've decided what we want. What's the point of writing goals down if we are never going to do them, right? What are the steps necessary in order to implement these new habits so that we can achieve our goals?

There are three secrets to implementing a new habit:
Commitment - Clarity - Attention

1. Commitment - "Until you are committed, nothing will happen for you."

I once heard Oprah say that until you make an internal decision to change your actions you won't. It really is that simple. You have to make the decision for yourself that now is the time you will start working toward your goal and remain committed to it. There must come a time when you decide that you are ready and willing to do what it takes to make your goal a priority in your life. Whether you need to sacrifice sleep, going out, or shopping- make sure you are ready to do whatever it takes to succeed. There will be times when you will find yourself feeling down or un-motivated, however, if you are constantly working with the idea that you are committing yourself to fulfilling your dreams, the process will become much easier.

2. Clarity - "When you're clear, what you want will show up in your life, and only to the extent you are clear."

As you've probably already experienced at one time or another, it is very challenging to maintain motivation and discipline if you are unclear of why you are doing what you are doing in the first place. If someone asked you what exactly is it that your ultimate goal is or what the reason is behind your plans in the first place- would you be able to answer the question? So many of us think we know what we want or that we know why we are doing what we are doing, but do we really? Take a step back and be honest with yourself. What do YOU want to do? WHY do you want to do it? Is your action plan in line with these goals?

3. Attention - "What you put your attention on grows stronger in your life."

The basic premise of the Law of Attraction is that our thoughts become things. We are what we think about. We say that we want to be positive, successful, stress free individuals-- but is that what we are thinking? Pay attention to what you are focusing on daily. Be sure that your thoughts are positive and are in line with your goals. You will be presently surprised how quickly your situations will change after you change your thinking. The key is to become more aware of where your mind is wandering. Before you know it, you will begin to attract the right people, places, and things into your experience.

To Your Success,

Alecia D.

Write it down and Make it PLAIN: Paste Your Vision on Paper

How many times have you tried to start a new habit, break an old one, or pursue a new goal? You try your hardest to work at your goal and even tell others what you are trying to do. You may even seem to be succeeding at first, but after a few weeks (or days) you begin to fall back into your old patterns. It can be very frustrating, right?

What is it about those people that seem to succeed at every goal they set for themselves? What makes them different from YOU? Is it their discipline? No. Is it their motivation? Maybe. Or could it be something that although it is much simpler than these things, is something that is so often overlooked? More often than not, the difference between those who succeed and those who don't - is that one group of people write their goals down while the other group doesn't.

Writing down your goals on paper may seem very simple. But in fact, it has been proven time and time again to be the most important first step of achieving any goal. Why? Because when we write our goals on paper, the act forces our brain to VISUALIZE what we want. In essence, it gives our mind a concrete state to work toward.

Here are the four rules to writing down your goals that I got from The Goal Setting Guide:


1. Write your goal in the positive.
Work for what you want, not for what you want to leave behind. Part of the reason why we write down and examine our goals is to create a set of instructions for our subconscious mind to carry out. Your subconscious mind is a very efficient tool, it can not determine right from wrong and it does not judge. It's only function is to carry out its instructions. The more positive instructions you give it, the more positive results you will get.

Thinking positively in everyday life will also help in your growth as a human being. Don't limit it to goal setting.

2. Write your goals out in complete detail.
Instead of writing "A new home," write "A 4,000 square foot contemporary with 4 bedrooms and 3 baths and a view of the mountain on 20 acres of land". Once again we are giving the subconscious mind a detailed set of instructions to work on. The more information you give it, the more clear the final outcome becomes. The more precise the outcome, the more efficient the subconscious mind can become.

Can you close your eyes and visualize the home I described above? Walk around the house. Stand on the porch off the master bedroom and see the fog lifting off the mountain. Look down at the garden full of tomatoes, green beans and cucumbers. And off to the right is the other garden full of a mums, carnations and roses. Can you see it? So can your subconscious mind.


3. Write in present tense.
Write your goals down in the present tense. This is because the unconscious mind chooses a path of least resistance. If you write, "I will be slim" the unconscious mind does nothing thinking that the will be may be postponed until later.
A friend had a business, which was losing money. He set his goal to break even the next month. Every month the next month would come and be this month so his goal would be true to break even the next month, which would never come. Eventually he changed his goal to, "I am breaking even this month." That very month he broke even for the first time.

Write them in present tense, first person, as if they are currently true.


4. Re-write your goals.
When the words are written and then repeatedly re-written they have maximum impact. So don't be content with a first draft. Write down your goal. Then rephrase it, compact it, add motivating adjectives, make it pithy. A week later you may want to adjust it again. Keep on fine-tuning.

Writing your goals down is the first step to make the goals more real. Somehow having things in writing really makes them seem more important to most people. It will also make it easier to make the plans needed to reach your goals if you have something in writing.

What are some of your goals?

To Your Success,
Alecia D.