Feeling Discouraged?

One of my favorite online gurus, Tiffany Lambert of TiffanyLambert.com,  sent out a newsletter today that included a section about looking back and feeling discouraged.

I’m going to share part of it with you because I suspect that many of you need to hear this.  Here is what Tiffany wrote:

 If You’re Discouraged…

I keep hearing from so many of you that you’re ending your 2016 with a look
back and the dismal results of your efforts. Mind if I kick your butt a sec?

Thanks…just putting on my Texas cowgirl boots. Okay, so here’s the deal…

I want you to spend today not flailing around or beating yourself up. I don’t
want you comparing yourself or wishful thinking.

Instead, I’d like you to take a good, hard look at what happened in 2016.

Did you:

– Procrastinate? (FB a little too tempting?)
– Fail to put yourself out there so you flopped? (it’s scary, I know – tough)
– Act so stubborn with an idea that you didn’t see if it’d sell?
– Over-analyze your efforts so bad that you never got anything off the ground?
– Claim your dog/kids/spouse/weather/alien friends were too distracting to work?

I get it. I really do. I’m the excuse queen. But you are either going to be your
own boss or you’re not. You can’t half-ass it (sorry for the strong language but it’s
true).

I tell people ALL the time – would you accept your behavior if you were the boss and
PAYING a salary to someone who acts as if you’ve acted and performed this past year?

If not, then things have GOT to change. Consider it your warning. If you DID try your
best and are proud, but failed, then it’s time to find out what went wrong.

Like THIS week.

Because starting January 1st, you want to feel that refreshing spirit of
entrepreneurialship that gets infectious once you start seeing success.

Maybe you need to start off with something small. Or spend 30 minutes a day
educating yourself about something because your skills are lacking.

I don’t know.

But you’d better get it in gear, and I mean it. Because if you don’t, you’ll spend
the next 365 days wallowing in self pity only to arrive at the last week of 2017
beating yourself up again. Like ground hog’s day.

Get sick of it. Sick of yourself and your excuses.

“Wishing ain’t getting,” as some people say. ACTION gets you where you want to go.

I couldn’t have said it better.  I have heard from several of you who have said your sales were better than ever before and from others who did terrible and couldn’t understand why.  As Tiff said, if you did your very best (and weren’t distracted by Facebook and all the other distracting things you can do on the Internet), it’s time to find out WHY you didn’t do well and to do something about it.

And I’m here to help you.

I’ve written the ebook, Your Gift Basket Business: Good Enough to Great (Business Success Secrets) which outlines how I review and plan at the end of each year.  It is available on Amazon Kindle but it will cost you $5.00.

You don’t have to buy an email or anything else, however, to determine where you went wrong, and even more important, what you can and should do about it.

I have the January issue of the magazine GiftBusinessInsider ready to go into our subscriber’s email boxes on January 1st and it is a bit different from the previous issues.  Take a look at the cover and you can get an idea of what I am talking about.

I’ll be sharing what I have planned with you in that issue and will announce it to everyone else then as well.  Watch for it and join the Revolution.  It can make the difference between failure and success.

Here are some things to keep in mind as you celebrate the end of 2016 and the opportunity awaiting you!

• Run your business everyday as if you have to sell it tomorrow.
• There is never a better time than NOW!
• Marketing and money start with the same letter.
• Take failure as feedback and a need for change.

80% of startups fail in the first year.
Out of the remaining 20&, 80% will fail in year two.
Only 1% of them get to year five.
Even then, you may only be surviving and not thriving.

Until January 1st. . .
Joyce Reid