   Changing Course Newsletter: Issue 98Date: Sep 9, 2004
Subject: Changing Course Newsletter: Issue 98
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Changing Course Newsletter Issue 98 September 9, 2004
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The free newsletter from Brought to you by Changing Course
http://www.ChangingCourse.com
Dedicated to helping you:
~ Live Life on Purpose
~ Work at What You Love
~ Follow Your Öwn Road
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In this issue:
1. Featured Article: How to Make Möney by Breaking the Rules
2. Featured Resource: Mark Victor Hansen’s Mega Speaking Empire
3. Ask the Expert: Free Teleclass with Stacy Brice, AssistU
4. Guest Article: Why We Don’t Get What We Want
5. Products & Services You Might Like to Know About
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TODAY’S WISE WORDS
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Yesterday I dared to struggle. Today I dare to win.
~ Bernadette Devlin
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1. FEATURED ARTICLE
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How to Make Möney by Breaking the Rules
By Valerie Young
Too many people who want to work at what they love seem to suffer
under the misguided notion that there are certain “rules” that must be
followed. Let me give you a quick example. At the beginning of every
career consultation, I ask clients to describe their ideal life. To
prompt their thinking I pose a series of questions such as what time
do you want to get up in the morning, would you like to work at höme
or outside the höme, do you want to work with other people or do you
prefer to work alone? The question that gets the biggest reaction is,
“Would you like to have summers off?” Invariably someone will say,
“Oh, can you do that?”
I’m always tempted to say, “I don’t know, let me consult the official
Work-Life Rule Book.” The thing is I don’t know if you can have
summers off or not. But what I do know is this – if the desire to have
your summers free is not consciously on your mental radar screen, then
the likelihood of it happening is next to nil. If, on the other hand,
you were crystal clear that you’d love to take summers off, then you’d
be in a better position to make a conscious effort to come up with
ways to generate incöme that would allow for a lengthy work break.
This self-limiting belief that you somehow have to do things a certain
way also hampers to a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs. For example, this
week alone I’ve spoke with two people who had considered taking the
American Writers and Artists Institute course on how to become a
freelance copywriter (http//www.ChangingCourse.com/awai.htm). The
reason they decided against it was they didn’t want to have to write
promotional copy for products and services they don’t believe in. Who
would? I know I certainly wouldn’t want to pitch Dr. Zildo’s amazing
watermelon diet or some shady work from höme program.
But where is it written that you HAVE to take on clients you don’t
like? Just yesterday I worked with a client named Donna whose idea of
heaven on earth is to have some kind of a portable incöme so she can
spend months at a time with her daughter in England. Donna enjoys
writing and even has a background in advertising. She’d considered the
copywriting option in the past but again rejected it because she
didn’t want to write about products she didn’t believe in.
Instead of letting this values clash be a show stopper, Donna needed
to ask herself, “So, what do I believe in enough to promote?” For
Donna it’s the whole mind, body, and soul connection. In fact, her
dream job is to organize events for motivational speakers. Because it
would be difficult living in a relatively rural area to make a full
time living organizing events, we had to come up with a supplemental –
and portable – incöme stream.
This meant challenging the idea that to succeed as a copywriter, or
for that matter, in any business, you have to do things a certain way.
What if Donna intentionally structured her copywriting business to
focus entirely on motivational speakers and authors of mind, body, and
soul type books? This kind of niche marketing offers a whole host of
advantages.
For one, Donna would genuinely enjoy doing the research on topics she
finds interesting. She’d also get a great deal of satisfaction from
helping spread the word about concepts and practices she believes in.
Another highly practical advantage is that people in the same field
tend to talk to one another. In football terms it’s knöwn as going
deep and wide. In my small world, I get to talk to like-minded souls
like Barbara Winter and Barbara Sher. I’ve recommended good
copywriters to them and they’ve steered me in the direction of great
web masters and other vendors. In other words when you niche market,
ultimately you’ll have to do less self-marketing because your business
becomes primarily referral based.
Okay, so what misguided rules are you operating by? Do you think you
have to come up with just one way to make a living? Think again. Go
read my article on the power of multiple incöme streams at
http//www.ChangingCourse.com/careeradvice.htmThink you can’t turn
your hobby into your career, get paid to work with animals, or that
changing course means having to choose between möney and happiness? If
so, check my articles on these and other changing course related
topics at http//www.ChangingCourse.com/articles/
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. once said, “Man’s mind, once stretched by a
new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” How can you stretch
your mind today? Once you realize that some misguided rules about work
and life can, and should, be broken, it can open up a whole new world
of opportunity.
Off the beaten path career counselor, Valerie Young, abandoned her
corporate cubicle to become the Dreamer in Residence at
http://www.ChangingCourse.com ,offering free resources to help you
discover your life mission and live it. An expert on the Imposter
Syndrome, she’s presented her How to Feel as Bright and Capable as
Everyone Seems to Think You Are program to over 30,000 people. Find
more articles written by Valerie at
http//www.ChangingCourse.com/articles/
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2. FEATURED RESOURCE
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Learn To Be A Professional Speaker
Imagine being in front of hundreds of audience members listening to
the important message you have to share. Not only are you earning tens
of thousands of dollars a month in speaker fees but you also have an
excellent platform to do what the top speakers do… generate six or
even seven figures in additional incöme from the sale of your CD
programs or books, consulting fees, and other viable profit centers
available to every speaker. Learn more at
http://ChangingCourse.com/recommends/mvhspeaking
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3. ASK THE EXPERT
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Only a Few Seats Left!
Take Charge of Your Time and Life and Enjoy Success
Beyond Your Wildest Imaginings As a Virtual Assistant
How many times have you said, “I wish I had a more flexible work day
and more control over my time… and life.” If you want to work from
höme, have great organizational skills, like managing projects of all
sizes, genuinely enjoy helping others, and have the desire to be your
öwn böss, then allow me to introduce you to the fascinating world of
virtual assistance.
Virtual Assistants (VAs) are essentially personal assistants but with
two important differences. For one, VAs have made the huge life and
status changing shift from “working for a böss” to serving their öwn
clients. The relationship is one of partners rather than
böss-employee. And two, VAs wörk from höme. That’s because a VA’s
client – or often multiple clients – live and work in another city,
state or even country.
If you’re considering the possibility of being a Virtual Assistant, or
are just curious about the profession of VA's, don’t miss this
opportunity to speak one-on-one with AssistU founder Stacy Brice and
learn how you can have a new career wörking from höme, enjoying
freedom and incöme you had only imagined in our next Ask the Expert
Teleclass on Tuesday, September 14th from 8:00 – 9:00 pm EST.
Space is limited for this FRËË teleclass, so reserve your seat now at
http//www.ChangingCourse.com/courses.htm
You can read my complete review of AssistU at
http//www.ChangingCourse.com/assistu.htm
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INSPIRATION TO FOLLOW YOUR BLISS
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Do your work with your whole heart and you will succeed –
there's so little competition. ~ Elbert Hubbard
It takes as much courage to have tried and failed as it does to have
tried and succeeded. ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh
It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.
~ Anthony Robbins
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4. GUEST ARTICLE
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Why We Don’t Get What We Want
By Steve Bohler, M.S., JCTC
Repeat after me: “I will read this article”
Everybody wants something. People want a large house with columns, a
new partner, a different body and a vacation in Tahiti. They even want
a new life – at least a new work life. At least that’s what the
statistics and my observations reflect. If so many people are longing
to be in their dream career, then why have so few actually achieved
that goal? The answer, my dear reader, lies in the difference between
wants and commitments.
Want: n. the state of desiring something that is absent or
unavailable.
Wants are our hopes, dreams, ambitions and passions. Wants keep us
going, but they’re a dime-a-dozen. This is because they’re so easy to
have. Wanting does not require an action. You can lie on your couch
watching “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”, and all the while your
wants float in and out of your head as easily as fantasies, which is
about what they are.
Wanting lulls us into a false sense of security. A voice inside of us
says “As long as I want that, there’s hope for a better day”. Wanting
keeps our mind busy. It’s a kind of escapist hoping. “And because life
is so random, I hope that it gives me what I want this one time.”
Commitment: n. the act of binding yourself (intellectually or
emotionally) to a course of action.
Commitments, on the other hand, are requirements that you establish
for your life. They are solemn promises to achieve a specific outcome.
They supply you with the raw energy – the motivation – you need to live an
extraordinary life.
Anyone who’s ever made a serious commitment can attest to the power
such commitments can have. Simply uttering the powerful “I will”
forces you to take the road-less-traveled. Fortunately, in life, the
road-less-traveled is usually the one that leads to the pot of gold.
Most people avoid commitments. I believe it is because they know of
the power that a commitment holds over them. They have a natural sense
(possibly reinforced by experience) that a commitment equates to “a
difficult path with no turning back”. And not many people want to be
put in that position. But the history of human achievement has proven
time and time again that making a commitment can lead to greatness.
Compare the two statements:
Nancy: “I want to save möney”
Karen: “I will save möney”
Who do you think has a likelier chance of saving möney?
The bottom line to all of this is that if you want to achieve a
fulfilling career, you must make some commitments to yourself. There’s
no way around it.
Where to go from here?
The key to positive career choice lies in:
1. identifying your comprehensive list of wants
2. deciding which wants to commit to
The problem with most career choice programs is that they build an
incomplete list of wants and often no list of commitments.
I have found that the most effective way to accomplish the first step
is through a combination of (a) introspection, (b) personal
assessments and (c) exercises/inquiries. The result is a list of your
career dreams that fits your aptitudes, personality, values,
interests, goals and preferred work environment.
“Why don’t we get what we want?” Because life simply is not fair. In
fact, it can be döwnright crappy at times. Our odds of stumbling into
a wholly wonderful life are only slightly better than hell freezing
over. But the odds increase dramatically when you commit to having a
wonderful life.
As the Rolling Stones said “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”
Notice that they didn’t say “You Can’t Always Get What You Commit To.”
As the founder and head career coach of The Oxford Program of Career
Change, Steve's mission is to help program participants make
life-changing discoveries and lead extraordinary lives. Steve writes
career advice articles for top-tier websites such as AOL, Techies, and
ImproveNow.com He has also moderated career advice forums on
Monster.com and the Princeton Review website. You can find him online
at http://www.TheOxfordProgram.com
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