Tag Archives: Motivation

Moving Forward

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MovingForwardAfter attending the Duncan Family Reunion this weekend I know what we need to do in order to secure my freedom and give my family what they deserve, a full time dad.  I won’t lie, these major functions definitely have a motivational component to them and you know what? There isn’t anything wrong with that.  What’s the other option?  They bring some broke person who’s in debt up to his neck to motivate us?  They bring a divorced couple on stage to motivate us to have a great marriage? LOL umm no thanks.

Yeah, there is some motivation, who cares, sometimes people need some motivation and I’m fine with that.  To be honest I really really needed this function and needed the pick up as do a lot of people.  Life can get in the way and sometimes take you off track from whatever goals you have and its awesome to see how World Wide has strategically placed their functions to get things back on track.

Along with the motivational components, I wrote down 6 pages of notes and tidbits that I’ll take back to my wife and also use myself.  As my wife says you never know where your going to get that nugget and this weekend I got a bunch of nuggets to apply directly to our marriage and also our business.  It’s not always about your business, sometimes you’ll get tidbits for your marriage, for your family or even for your finances.  That’s what’s great about the World Wide Dreambuilders system, they stand on traditional values and hold those above all.  For those who are not close to it and only see it superficially, won’t know what I’m talking about. 

It was really cool this weekend to see the HUGE Canadian movement that is exploding.  New Silvers, New Platinum’s, new Rubies, new Double Eagle Rubies, new Founders Sapphires, new Founders Double Eagle Rubies (Founders Ruby is the hardest pin to reach in Amway by the way, harder than Diamond and that’s our Sponsors!), new Emeralds, and new Founders Emeralds.  To say Canada is exploding would be an understatement.  This is just one of the reasons why we’ve secured our very own major function in Edmonton next year, Spring Leadership 2012 will be in Edmonton! What’s funny is that people from the US kept asking myself and other leaders in the Canadian organizations what makes us different, why are we growing so fast.  The answer is simple, we are ALL-IN and don’t compromise.  We pay the price and because of that the prize is the growth and huge successes we are having.  It’s nothing hard, just simple success principals.  As they say a rising tide raises all ships! New Canadian Diamonds are coming soon!

Anyway it’s been a great weekend and I cannot wait to head home first thing early tomorrow morning to see my wife and son.  It was a tough weekend being away from them but they understand the reason for being here and I understand what is needed to move our business forward and we will move forward between now and Free Enterprise Day’s in November. 

Conferences and Motivation

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TENA2011_L_AttendingToday I booked myself into the Microsoft Tech-Ed 2011 conference in Atlanta later this spring.  This comes on the eve of Spring Leadership and had me reflecting again on the value of World Wide Dreambuilders functions. Now every company I’ve worked for has either sent me on optional conferences that I’ve asked for to help increase my knowledge or has sent me to motivational events also that I’ve asked for.  There have also been some mandatory courses and training that I’ve been on because the company has their own view of where I fit into their corporate training plan.

All of this corporate training and conferences that I’ve been on have all been worthwhile and while some of it’s applicable to what I do at work, some of it is not but I sit through it anyway.  You’ll never be able to apply everything that you learn in these events or retain everything you hear or see.  I believe the stat says you only retain 10% of what you read or hear.

I look at the motivational and teaching conferences that World Wide Group puts on and I get excited when tickets go on sale.  I get excited because I love the association and atmosphere of the whole event.  I have no idea what the numbers of attendees will be at Spring Leadership this year because there is a new function site out in Minnesota.  That’s a clear sign that people in World Wide Dreambuilders are growing.  Next year Canada will have their own function site I assume because of the amount of growth we are seeing.  I’m excited to hear John Maxwell teach on what he teaches best, Leadership.  After all it’s called Spring Leadership for a reason.  For those who don’t know who John Maxwell is, if you search for the top leadership guru’s you’ll find him at the top.  Check it out here –> Top 25 Leadership Guru’s.

Just to listen to John Maxwell speak for 20 minutes via a webinar in your city will cost you $90 dollars.  I know because when my wife was still working for those broke financial advisors that’s what it cost the company to send her to that event.  With that I take a look at the costs of what Microsoft Tech Ed is where there are some inspirational talks in regards to IT as well as a lot of training in various Microsoft products.  The cost of that is $1,995 USD and after February jumps up to $2,195 USD.  The cost for Spring Leadership is $125. Pretty significant price difference and the value for me personally is 10x’s more in the $125 event that WWDB puts on.  I’m not including travel or hotel costs because that’s a given for each scenario.

Many will say “oh well your company pays for your expenses”, yeah your right they do. But guess what, my business I’m building with my wife also pays for my expenses.  I’m very cost conscious and so is this group in Alberta, so with that in mind we organize coach bus’s to minimize the travel costs so people don’t have to fly or drive themselves.  That is a significant cost savings which helps our newest business builder SPLwhich is always the focus, how can we make this affordable for the newest business owner?

Either way I see training, conferences, motivation the same if it’s my day time job, or my part time business.  I know I get more value out of WWDB events as they help move our business forward and help motivate us for the next three months.  We need motivation, every one does, so what’s so wrong with that?  Many people make some good money with motivational speaking and I’ll gladly pay for that if it gets me moving. 

Reflections from Free Enterprise Days 2010

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Wowwowweewow. What an amazing 2 ½ days it’s was in Portland for my 1st official Free Enterprise Days. Last year I was here as a guest while I was “researching” what Lindsay was getting into. While I was supporting Lindsay during the last FED, I was also judging and scrutinizing everyone with arms crossed thinking I don’t believe that or this. This year I have new eyes, and went in with an empty heart expecting it to be filled up with diamonds and rubies. I went in with some ideas of what I wanted out of this function as I think it’s important to know what you want to get out of a function like this. I was looking for ways I could elevate my leadership and work habit but more importantly ways of how I could move on.

Moving on is key because in order for your team to know how to move on and become successful you yourself need to do so. It was clear by pretty much every person speaking this year that they are united in the fact moving on is key. We in this market are VERY fortunate that our coaches who have personally sponsored us have reached that “1st Vision” of Double Eagle Ruby. Because of that they can teach us what it takes to move on and secure that for our own self. However this business honestly is not about you it’s about others and being that example for others so that they can move on themselves. It was pretty amazing to see our coaches who have personally sponsored us and also their cross-line and their direct uplines speak in front of over 10,000 people. The impact they had was unreal and something you’d need to experience to fully understand. Canada is rocking the house and inspiring a lot of people!

The largest impact I believe was the bus ride down and back, specifically the bus ride home. 16 motor coaches from western Canada invaded the Portland area taking with it around 800 people, a few other hundred flew or drove themselves. The bus ride back, wow, you want an impact, well you don’t need Diamonds to do that. You sit on a bus full of your team members and other cross line team members and you’re heart will be full beyond imagine. People who are inspired for their vision, their lives, and their families are pretty damn impactful. 5-6 hours of sharing from each person makes for a very short bus trip. I don’t care what anyone says about this business, or what they have “heard” or what they experienced when they built it in the past, the people building it in this Alberta market ARE different. This whole market is on the verge of exploding and impacting thousands and thousands of people and we are able to be one of those people making the impact.

This event is a pretty amazing and while some say it’s a “motivational” event, motivation actually has to come from within you. Nobody can motivate you however you can be inspired and use that inspiration to be motivated to do good for whatever it is in life that requires you to be motivated. I would gladly pay triple what I paid to attend an event like this considering I’ve attended IT conferences that cost $3000+ and I get nothing out of them other than spam e-mails and people calling me to buy their products. I would have never had the impact I had this past weekend and there are really no words to describe it. This entry will never do it justice.

So for the people not in this business or people reading this blog to be inspired by whatever it is you need to be inspired, I’ll leave you with this. Find something that inspires you in life and do whatever it takes to achieve it. Stop with the excuses and put the work habit in and do it!

Motivation – Inspiration

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Earlier this evening Lindsay and I watched a few minutes of “The Biggest Loser” before heading out for the evening and while watching it they were saying some staggering facts where 2 out of 3 Americans are obese, not just overweight but obese!  They then picked three people from each city they went to so they could compete in this competition.  All the other people that were not picked were all saying how they were going to start to loose weight and get into better shape and all of them knowing they need to do that.  However most will just go back to the same thing they were doing before that caused them to be obese.  Now I’m not going to get into those reasons, that’s a whole other topic I’m not discussing on this blog.  They will loose motivation and the inspiration they got from being around the ability to get on the show will soon fade.  It’s that constant motivation and inspiration that keeps people going.

self-motivation So how do they people on the show loose weight?  It’s not just simply going to “The Ranch” it’s them constantly being motivated by Bob and Jillian that gets them going and helps them become successful.  It’s proven each season of the biggest looser and the ones that actually make it to the end of the competition are ridiculously thin because of the constant motivation and inspiration that the trainers have instilled into them.  Sure there are other factors like eating better, etc… but the fact is they have trainers that are helping them and keeping them motivated.  People need that “push” in life to actually get off their ass sometimes and there is nothing wrong with that.

I parallel the biggest looser to my own workout routine and I’ll tell you I am NOT motivated by working out.  However when I work out with someone or if I have a personal trainer helping me then I am motivated and I can keep on going.  One of my biggest goals is to have a personal trainer so they can push me and motivate me to actually work out and be healthy.  I’ll admit that it’s hard to stay motivated and the fact of the matter a lot of people are like that and that’s just human nature.  We all need to be motivated and inspired constantly with whatever we do, it’s what keeps us going.

I can parallel this motivation and inspiration to anything that I do, building this business, working out, my job (which at the present there is no motivation, not because of the business, just the way work is currently), etc… The interesting thing is when I am motivated and inspired I make things happen, however when the motivation is low, I look forward to that next opportunity to be motivated or inspired.  I will seek it out and make it happen, I’ll get around other people that are motivated and in turn I become motivated and again things will happen.  Its quite the cycle however you need to know how to master it, if you don’t then you’ll always end up de-motivated and that could have disastrous effects.

If your not motivated and inspired in your life, THEN GET MOTIVATED AND INSPRIED. Seek it out!