1. Add an activity into your daily routine that you would do if you were living your future life now. For me, it's living in luxury resort hotels. I can't afford to do that now, but I can afford to have breakfast there to start my day in the surroundings that I love so much. What activity can you include, without living beyond your financial means, to give you the feeling and aura in which you strive to bask?



2. Choose a mark of distinction in your appearance in context to whatever your work environment dictates. If you work in an office, do not dress casually. Take some advice from one of our master businessmen, Donald Trump, who has been quoted as saying that other than donning golf apparel for those outings, Mr. Trump wears business suits every single day because it gives him the look success. I've seen people who work outside, restricted to durable clothing, drive vehicles that are beautifully impressive and impeccably clean, as their mark of distinction.

Oprah Winfrey has shown us that the right hairstyle and makeup can transform anyone into a gorgeous, successful looking person. I think Oprah has displayed enormous courage by appearing on national television without makeup and hair attention. (Anyone see the John Travolta interview a couple years ago that started out early in the morning in the gym?) She looks completely different 'before and after' her countenance is puffed. That showed me that each one us non-supermodel people can look fabulous by investing in good hair styles and some type of facial enhancement. Do you have an icon at your place of business that always looks unique, distinctive, and successful because of the way they package themselves? What can you do to upgrade your look?

3. Accept in the present, the person you are working to be in the near future. Too often there is tremendous lag time in the acceptance of our career evolution by our inner consciousness. We seem to need tangible proof that we have accomplished the desired goal level before we conclusively embrace it. I contend that once the next level of the career evolution begins, we can justifiably define ourselves in that category. When I was in the process of writing my book, I eventually introduced myself as an author, instead of waiting until I finished the book to use that moniker. I noticed that my self-esteem rose when I started to claim that title before the book was completed. I think it helped me create a better product once I allowed myself to define my role as an author.

4. Rearrange your time to accommodate the change in your career. And stick to it. Once you are successful at achieving your next career goal, your time, and the way you arrange your day, will be effected anyway. Speed up the process by changing your timeplan as soon as possible. One of the things that you may have to eliminate is casual conversation with friends and co-workers. The most successful people don't have tangential conversations about non-business topics. Time is too precious when you're successful.

Down time, non-work time, is important. In the midst of a hectic day, we still need to take some personal time to reflect, to engage in exercise, and to eat. Strange as this may sound, everything needs to be scheduled, even those five minute breaks to decompress. A friend of mine lost 80 pounds last year by including an hour and a half each day for exercise. She said the hardest thing wasn't changing her eating patterns; it was religiously walking away from her desk at 11am each day to go to the gym - no matter how crazy her work schedule was. She also said that her greatest fear of losing control of her time, and consequently not getting all of her work done, proved wrong; her income increased because her improved physical state created a more confident mental and emotional fitness with which to deal with her business.

How can you rearrange your day to include personal, physical, and professional growth?

5. Accept the responsibility for failures along the way to career evolution, because they have to happen in order for you to learn. The bottom line is that you are responsible, to some degree, for every frustrating circumstance that every person creates, that you include in the developing stages of your career move. Don't place blame on anyone; just be as creative as you can be at problem solving. Blame placing sours relationships with people who are earnestly trying to help.

No one is perfect. Both you and your support service people make mistakes. Visions are misunderstood. But the buck stops with you. You are the one that needs to follow up with your support people and make sure everyone is on track. In this day of amazing technology and ever growing entrepreneurship, we have lots of small businesses participating in building parts of our projects. A helpful approach logistically is to have everyone who touches the same parts of the project be available for group meetings, even if by phone. This will minimize the time necessary to complete various phases of your project, while eliminating frustration.

Maintaining budgetary prudence is important, but you have to agree to waste a little money along the way to success. Success entails a learning curve; learning curves take time; and time has a cost attached. This will not ever change. It takes money to make money. Don't beat yourself up, or your loyal support services, for spending more time and more money perfecting your career. Enjoy the process of learning. Increased income will follow.