I’ve dubbed Wednesdays “Gratitude Wednesday” on Facebook.

Every week, my first status of the day on Wednesday is something like “Hooray! It’s Gratitude Wednesday, again.  For what or whom are you grateful today?”

A little tardy one week posting this status, I knew people had come to expect and appreciate this question (and the answers others posted) when a friend messaged me with “Uh, Tshombe.  It’s Wednesday.”

My Facebook friends keep me on my toes!

Another friend of mine sent me an article explaining how gratitude makes us healthier.

Clearly, there are many reasons to make feeling grateful and expressing gratitude as regular and intentional as eating right, exercising regularly, and getting enough sleep.

But, what if gratitude is eluding you?

What if it’s becoming too much work?

I think there are at least two reasons gratitude can be a challenge for us, one of which is largely unconscious because it goes against commonly-held (but erroneous, in my view) notions of why and how to be grateful.

I specifically wrote about this first reason 2 years ago in the article Why gratitude may not be working for you.

It’s the philosophy behind a statement like “You should be grateful for the abundance of food on your plate because there are starving people in Africa.”

This is inaccurate reasoning for at least 2 reasons.

1. If this were true, then the inverse would also be true:  “If there were not starving people in Africa, you shouldn’t (or wouldn’t have a need to) be grateful,” and
2. The definition of pure gratitude is acknowledging and feeling celebratory about/toward the good that has already come to you. It doesn’t come out of comparing what you have in relation to what another does not have.

If you’re finding being grateful challenging, inauthentic, or at best temporary, this may be at the root.  Gratitude and guilt cannot coexist.

The other reason gratitude may be challenging or feel like too much work to achieve is related to a misunderstanding of what it means to manage emotional states of being.

A colleague of mine is currently doing a series on Gratitude for the month of November and she received a comment from one of her followers on Facebook who expressed that, although he was well-versed in the “theory” of gratitude, ” ‘Faking it until you make it’ feels like deep lying when the gut is wrenched in anger!”

I can understand that.

Since all of us spontaneously generate thousands upon thousands of thoughts every day, the majority of which we are not even aware of, it’s not reasonable to believe that in every moment we can somehow raise ourselves out of depression by thinking ourselves happy.

So, what can we do to get into a place where we feel grateful when we’re not feeling grateful right now?

Try on this exercise:

When in your life DID you feel grateful?  What were the circumstances?  How were you standing?  breathing?

How did that feel?

As you really get into the emotional memory, realize that you are remembering it right now.  Whatever that gratitude felt like then, call those feelings forward in this moment.

This is just a brief example of a very powerful exercise where you can borrow a memory from the past, “chew on it” in the present, and then call up the associated emotions.

Doesn’t that feel great?

(In my view, this is what is meant by the NLP exhortation to “Act as if.”  For more information, read What “Act As If” really means and how to do it.)

You actually have practice with this already.  Unfortunately, human beings are quite adept at borrowing bad-feeling memories from their past so that they can recreate those events and associated feelings in their present.

Why not use this skill on purpose (rather than by default) to generate the feelings you desire?

Later in our exchange, the man offered that it was actually inappropriate to try to change the feeling we are currently experiencing to a “better” feeling, because in so doing, we fail to receive the wisdom ‘The Universe’ is trying to teach us.

Sometimes, we “spiritual folk” complicate things for ourselves!

Yes, he is correct.  Resistance to any emotion causes it to get “stuck,” even when we might think we’ve managed to think positively in “negative” experiences.

Thinking positively may make you more enjoyable to be around, but if you are resisting your “bad” feeling emotions, it is predictable that achieving lasting gratitude is/will be a challenge for you.

Contrary to what the gentleman who was having trouble feeling grateful thought, I am not suggesting that you try to change your feelings.  Instead, the suggestion is to allow your feelings, and only after allowing them, move on to another one (in this case, gratitude.)

Emotions are meant to be transitory.  We have a whole range of emotions available to us the remarkable human beings that we are.  The problem is that we not only observe, recognize, and experience our range of emotions, but to varying degrees, we label them as good or bad depending on their level of comfort.

We can’t think ourselves grateful, although “thinking” plays a significant role in gratitude.

What we can do is notice we are feeling angry, depressed, sad, disenchanted, or any other so-called “negative” emotion; feel it fully; and even perhaps send love to it, as we recognize it as legitimate as any other good-feeling emotion.

What we’re doing is allowing the emotion to flow through us, not get stuck in us.

All that any emotion wants (just like any human being) is to be acknowledged and validated, not ignored or suppressed.

I’ve used feelings and emotions interchangeably here, but to make a slight distinction, I offer that once emotions get (and continue to get) stuck because we keep suppressing them in favor of something that feels better to us, they become feelings.

This means we become attached or identified with the feelings, and now they become who we are.  So, instead of feeling angry, we become an angry person.

Clearly, holding onto any emotion is not healthy.

When we feel a feeling fully, it opens up a clear space to create something new.  Now, we are open to actually see and feel gratitude.

When a feeling/emotion is allowed to flow through us, there is little-to-no difficulty moving  to another emotion; no system or formula is needed because (when permitted) flow is the natural order of things when it comes to emotions.

However, sometimes exercises can be of help.  This is why I offered the exercise where you borrow the emotion you desire to cultivate in the moment by engaging your powerful brain’s capacity to conjure up the memories when you experienced the emotion in the past.

Does that make sense?

In sum, pure gratitude is not dependent on the lack someone else may be experiencing.  You may not have considered this before, but it can very well be the reason gratitude remains illusive or seems “fake.”

Secondly, it may appear to be a whole lot of work for you because you have been resisting “bad” feelings.  You’ve been struggling to think happy thoughts because that’s what you “should” be doing, not because you actually feel happy.  Ironically, by repressing what is bothering you, you are setting up resistance to true, lasting gratitude.

Being grateful and expressing gratitude doesn’t have to be work or feel incongruent, but it does take intentionality and effort (at least initially).

As you practice being grateful – and perhaps using the exercise here to help you in the process – let me know how it’s going for you in terms of ease and flow.

Do you already have a practice that facilitates feelings of gratitude?

Please share in the comments!

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flickr license: Some rights reserved by SnoShuu

You have a service that can really help people to improve the quality of their lives.

You’re working hard.

Because you are not seeing fruit from your labors, you are naturally discouraged.  Maybe you start to wonder whether this selling thing is really your thing.

Maybe you just aren’t cut out to be an entrepreneur.

Yes, we get discouraged, depressed.

But, don’t lose heart!

We need you to keep on keepin’ on.  The people you are meant to serve are looking for you, even if right now it doesn’t feel like it.

“The darkest hour is just before the dawn.”

Several years ago, I was talking with my sister about the exercise program and healthy-eating plan she had just begun.

She was getting discouraged because she wasn’t seeing any real progress on the scale.

I told her to stop looking at the scale (I really was thinking she’d be better off throwing it into the ocean!) because it didn’t accurately tell her the true story.

In fact, it kept telling her she hadn’t lost a thing, and some days (God forbid!) it told her she’d gained a pound or two.

Have you ever had this experience?

The truth is that eating the right foods in the right amounts, along with cardiovascular exercise and strength training may actually maintain or even increase scale weight when improvement has in reality been made in both heart health and weight (fat) loss.

In other words, you’ve got to believe you’re becoming healthier when you are eating healthily and exercising even when there is no external evidence or confirmation of the fact.

And, EVEN if it appears contradictory in the moment.

What does that have to do with you and me in our spiritually-oriented businesses we are growing?

It may be that we might need to adjust our approach or get coaching or additional training, if what we are doing is not working.

(Investing in coaching and continuing education is essential, by the way, in any case.)

That said, it does not mean to give up and quit on your dreams!

A teacher friend of mine once said that when we give up on our own dreams we give permission for others to give up on theirs.

Who wants that on their hands?

Let me tell you another brief story.

When I was living in Bellingham, Washington, I planted some flower bulbs in a pot on the deck of my apartment.  I used quality soil, and I made sure the bulbs had full sun and adequate water.

The funny thing is that the next day when I went out to look at the pot, there still weren’t any flowers.

Same story the day after that.

AND the day after that.

Truth be told, it was a couple of weeks before I noticed the first green sprout.

Wouldn’t you think it a little ridiculous if I gave up after a couple of days and through the pot out, convinced that nothing was happening and pissed off that there were no flowers, yet?

We don’t have difficulty understanding that growth is actually occurring even though the present reality would have us think otherwise, as far as planting a seed or a bulb is concerned.

Why do we have such a hard time when we are working toward losing weight or growing our business or achieving any other measure of success or joy or happiness?

Know that 90% of everything in the world is created long before you or I see any physical evidence of it.

To turn a saying on its head “You’ve got to believe it in order to see it.”

It reminds me of a verse from the days when I was a student of the bible, Hebrews 11:1.

Maybe you know it?

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (New International Version)

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Revised Standard Version)

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities though not beheld.” (New World Translation)

For spiritual and heart-centered sales professionals and entrepreneurs, we have a change-the-world vision as the reason for what we are up to in the world.

Allow THAT to call you forth powerfully through the challenges, disappointments, discouragements rather than trusting in the illusory mirage our eyes would have us believe.

The world needs you.

I need you.

That’s why you’re here.

And, that’s why you must never, ever give up.

That’s all fine and dandy, except that “perfect” is impossible.

And pretty depressing when you never quite reach the bar.

A few years ago, Seth Godin addressed this situation in one of his customarily pithy articles:  The problem of perfect.  This problem is no more in-your-face than in the competitive world of work:

“As the quality of things go up, and competition increases, it’s so easy to sell people on perfect. But perfect rarely leads to great word of mouth, merely because expectations are so hard to meet.”

Seth’s advice?

Focus instead on interesting, not perfect.

“I think it’s more helpful to focus on texture, on interpersonal interaction, on interesting. Interesting is attainable, and interesting is remarkable. Interesting is fresh every day and interesting leads to word of mouth.”

Wouldn’t you agree?

When you bite into the marrow of life, what you find is that it is exquisitly, interestingly imperfect.

Isn’t it a lot more fun to focus on that?

How can you inject more ‘interesting’ (and less ‘perfect’) into your business that’s worth people talking about?

For example, it isn’t unusual for one of the “gurus” to contact him to ask for his support to promote their new product launch just a day or two before the launch was to happen!

Or, they sit down to figure out what they are going to send to their newsletter list the day the newsletter is due to go out!

(Sound familiar?)

These Experts could take a lesson out of the Retail Industry Playbook, suggests Brendon.  They not only have mapped out what their seasonal promotions will be next season, but they’ve scheduled the season after that!

My partner, Chad Helder, who has worked in different independent bookstores confirmed that this is true in the book selling business, as well.

It brings to mind how the magazine industry is also like this.  If you get your hands on the media kit for most any magazine, and they’ve got the editorial calendar complete for the entire year.

This includes themes, focuses, articles topics, deadlines, and print dates.

Last fall, I attended Adam Urbanski’s Attract Clients Like Crazy event in Las Vegas, and he told us that he has the major live events and promotions in his calendar 18 months in advance, including when (and where!) he and his family are taking their vacations.

What if your business were set up to run like that?

Can you imagine?

What a sense of calm and peace you’d have because you know just what you are preparing for each week, month, quarter, and year.

You could approach potential marketing or joint venture partners well in advance to maximize everyone’s positive experience.

You could anticipate challenges and even deftly meet any unexpected events, because with advanced preparation comes flexibility rather than frantic freak-outs because you waited ’till the last minute.

You feel like your really running a fun and fulfilling business, rather than a by-the-seat-of-your-pants circus!

Perhaps you already have great systems in place, like the Brendons, the Adam Urbanskis, the Retail Stores, and the Booksellers.

But, if you don’t, what can you do to realize the peace and ease in your business that you deserve?

There are, of course, many different ways.  And, you may find that the best answer is to simply hire someone to come in to organize your office or help you create systems.

But, I want to share with you right now just of the very powerful things that is helping me right now that I began putting into place at the beginning of the year.

It’s Charlie Gilkey’s Productivity Planners.

You can get the free versions Charlie releases every month, but if you ask me, that completely defeats the purpose of PRE-planning.  No matter where you are in the year, honor yourself by getting the full-year Premium Version.

Heck, it’s only $12!

(Full Disclosure:  These links are affiliate links.  However, clearly, not even Charlie’s getting rich from $12/year purchases, let alone his affiliates LOL.  Even if he or I were, I’d never recommend something that wasn’t valuable.)

The planners take a bit of getting used to, but once you get the hang of the system, it’s great to be able to create major objectives for the entire year; then, break them down to quarterly projects; followed by more detailed monthly, weekly, and daily views.

*** Be forewarned:  Charlie’s Planners may seem a bit tedious and time-consuming, at first, and you may be tempted to conclude that it just doesn’t work for you.  I myself had several false starts.  But, stick with it and give it its full due before throwing in the towel, and you just might suddenly feel delighted to discover how beautifully your business fits together when you have both the big picture and the detailed views. ***

I know what it’s like to be overwhelmed in/by your business, where you realize there are a ton of things that just aren’t working for you in the Organization Department.

Where do you start?

My coach trainer, Terri Levine, says “One Goal, One Focus.”

Rather than be gripped by paralysis that Overwhelm can easily induce, start with one thing.

Don’t agonize over what to start first.  Just get started with something.

Systematize that one thing.

Then (and only then), move on to the next thing.

Before long, you won’t have to imagine a business that runs like a well-oiled machine.

You’ll have one!

Many entrepreneurs are expressing a bit of frustration with their progress over the last half year, and may find it outside the realm of reality when I assert that there are people out there who already want what you sell.

The reality may be that people aren’t buying.  That’s what you see, and that’s what you affirm.

Makes sense.

However, in this video segment on Vibrational Marketing, Abraham-Hicks offers that the problem with the obsession with affirming what is is that ‘If you keep affirming (it), you can’t budge from that spot.’  In other words, even when people DO express interest in buying from you, you simply cannot see it because your mind is still affirming “what is.”

I know I don’t do it justice with this introduction, which is why I invite you to invest a little more than 17 minutes to watch and listen to Abraham and Esther Hicks addressed this subject.

You’ll find it inspiring, I promise you:

What do you think of the video?

How might you include Vibrational Marketing in attracting ideal clients?

(Sidenote:  It’s serendipitous that the main theme for the month of June is Realignment.  From time-to-time, everything needs a tune-up, right?  Check out the Shamanic Forecast for the month of June 2011 for an thorough discussion of the meaning of Realignment and how we can embrace the theme as a focal point to support our personal and professional growth and expansion.)

Can the Law of Attraction support you in this?

Master Certified Coach and Law of Attraction (LOA) Expert Jeannette Maw says that it can. That is, if you’re deliberate about it!

Whether you are already familiar with LOA (“deliberate creation”), you are just beginning to wrap your mind around the whole idea, or you are simply curious about what the all the hubbub is around the subject (for some it’s quite controversial!), you have my word, you will come away inspired by this interview:

Here’s what you will learn:

• Why harnessing the LOA is so important for attracting leads, prospects, and clients that are perfect for us
• What the LOA really is (i.e., Is this a bunch of woo-woo huey?) and how you’re already using it, whether you are aware of it or not
• How to get started step-by-step with the process of deliberate creation, including what and how much action to take in securing the results you desire
• The typical challenges and roadblocks that can slow you down or even stop you in your tracks, and how to clear them all away
• Strategies specific to business, prospecting, and lead generation to help you fill your practice easier and faster than you previous believed possible

This is a free tele-interview as part of the Guest Expert Series of Interviews included in Prospectpalooza!

There is no opt-in required or registration to fill out to attend the Live Interview with Jeannette Maw.

(The Fine Print: For access to this replay recording, as well as the other Prospectpalooza! Guest Experts interview recordings, register at http://Prospectpalooza.com.)

The Details:

WHAT: Fill Your Pipeline by Using the Law of Attraction with Jeannette Maw
WHEN: Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 1 pm Pacific / 4 pm Eastern
WHERE: Your Telephone

=> Conference Dial-in: 712-432-3100
=> Conference Code: 174809

I hope to “see” you on the call

Well, that happened to me yesterday.

I can’t say that I wasn’t able to function, but it certainly was a bit of an inconvenience.

Hootsuite — a web-based application that helps you manage, track, and schedule all things social media — went down yesterday.

And it wasn’t pretty.

I’m not as addicted to Hootsuite as is one blogger, who wrote (perhaps tongue in cheek):

“I use Hootsuite everyday. As often as I eat food and use toilet paper. As often as I wash my hands and look out the window to check the weather.”

BUT, like him (her?), I have to say that

“Hootsuite has become an ingrained habit. I am dependent on it. Without it I am forced to camp out on Twitter and Facebook. To hurry up and wait all day long.”

Hootsuite has its own URL shortening service that is integrated in the application, which is so convenient and useful when adding too-long-for-Twitter web sites to status updates.

Unfortunately, it too was rendered inoperable.

Which meant that anyone clicking on any of the links I shortened with the Hootsuite service also were inoperable, returning them an error page.

Does wonders for your blog traffic! . . . Especially when you have people re-tweeting your links (that aren’t working!)

Needless to say, I wasn’t any too pleased.

I do have an account with TweetDeck, a similar service that is a desktop application.

However, I switched to Hootsuite because TweetDeck consistently slowed down my (already slow) computer, and every time there was an update from one of my networks (which happened every millisecond), it would render a popup of the event and sound its annoying chirp sound.

(I re-installed Tweetdeck near the end of the day yesterday because of the Hootsuite challenge, and fortunately I discovered that you can change the update notification settings.  This was a good thing, since I was this close to shooting the computer to shut up that asenine chirping LOL!  UNfortunately, TweetDeck froze up and crashed my computer, so that ended up being a big waste of time.)

Graciously, someone from the Hootsuite Helpers Twitter account sent me this message “We regret the inconvenience. Hope to be back up soon. Thanks for continued patience,” and directed me to the Mashable story that revealed the source of the challenge, which was the apparent crash of of the Amazon’s AWS services.

At first, I was like “Doesn’t Hootsuite have any redundancies or backups in place in case an emergency like this happens?”

(This from someone who only uses the FREE version of Hootsuite.  Some people.  Really.)

“Who in their right mind would be dependent solely on the stability of someone else?”

Then, I realized that I don’t have any redundancies or backups!

I am solely dependent on someone else’s stability for my own!

Can we say “Wake up Call?”

Who’s calling the kettle black, now?

I was just talking to a friend of mine about something I’d just read and that I wanted to send him the source, but I couldn’t remember whether I’d read it on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, somebody’s blog, or some other online source.

Or, the overload could simply be a product of poor filtering of what’s meaningful and relevant to us.

Of course, for that to be true, we’d have to be clear on what is meaningful and relevant to us, wouldn’t we?

Last year, my friend David Billings — the brilliant creative behind Sparky Firepants — took a month-long hiatus from Twitter.

This week, the Introvert Entrepreneur Beth Beulow, has proclaimed this week a “social media sabbatical,” which to her means no Facebook or Twitter.

Perhaps it’s time for you to enjoy your own Information Fast?

If you’re ready to take the plunge, here are my 4 suggestions to maximize the benefit during and after your Information Fast (of whatever duration you choose, preferably at least a week):

1. Enumerate all of your Information Inputs:  Write down every source of information that you are exposed to, whether it comes automatically (via an RSS feed for example or your home page when you open a web browser) or you access voluntarily.  This includes eLists and offline magazines.
2. Turn Everything Off.  If your habit is to read the paper first thing in the morning or to flip on the TV or radio to listen to the news, you may need to prepare ahead of time to manage your “fast.”  If practical, you might suspend (or even cancel altogether) subscriptions for the duration of this experiment.  If your podcast has business or productivity programs, switch it up to your favorite music.
3. Ruthlessly Unsubscribe from eLists.  I know this is difficult for some people, but you know you don’t read all those eLetters anyway.  Remember, you can always re-subscribe if you really miss the fabulous content
4. Enumerate All the Things Your Love to Do.  These often also fall into the category of “Things I never have time to do.”   Information Overload is like a cluttered environment.  Once you clean up your mental space, suddenly you open up space to pursue your other interests.

I guess there’s also a 5th step, and that is to evaluate your level of overload at the end of your Information Fast as compared to before you began.

You’ll undoubtedly find yourself feeling more balanced, as you strategically add back into your life only that which is relevant and meaning to you.

Whether it’s fear of success or fear of failure (or inadequacy) that keeps us from pursuing our dreams and becoming all that we are meant to be, Marianne’s words of love and wisdom still ring true.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?  You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Do these comments inspire you?  What do they mean to you?

What impact have they had on you, and how you’ve handled fear of failure or fear of success?

How might these words support you as a sales professional or entrepreneur?

There’s no escaping that, as a bi-product of being human, everyone of us experiences times of struggling, periods of self-doubt, and bouts of insecurity and even depression.

If you are an entrepreneur or salesperson, I think this is all the more true.

I find that with sales professionals in particular, the (self-imposed) pressure is intensified because they often feel they have to project an image of self-confidence in every moment, pretending that everything is awesome, even when it isn’t very awesome.

If you’re reading this blog, I know you are attracted to the concept of being a ‘Magnetic Entrepreneur,’ where clients and projects and opportunities are easily attracted to you.

While I believe that you and I are both magnetic, that flow in business and in life is the natural order of things, when we feel stuck in self-esteem issues or “stuff” happens in our life that threatens to derail us, and the prospects and clients don’t seem to be coming very easily, we may seriously question all this flow-attraction-magnetic stuff.

That’s why those who remain on top of their game in business and sales regularly guard what goes into their minds.  They actively and consistently read and listen to that which inspires them, and they surround themselves with supportive, on-the-move friends, colleagues and mentors.

These supportive friends, colleagues and mentors remind us of our value when we ourselves have forgotten.

This is because it’s just too easy to slip into thoughts and habitual patterns of being that are not supportive of the performance they desire in life and work.

I’ve previously discussed how remembering our value and boosting our self-esteem supports performance in the article on releasing The Rapuzel Complex.

I’d like to share with you today another story that I hope inspires you as much as it inspired me, a story that you can refer to when perhaps you’re not feeling in the moment very magnetic.

My storytelling here may not compare with the impact it had on me when Dõv Baron told it (on March 30, 2007 at his live 3-day event, called Attracting Force), but I hope you get the essence.

The year was 1957, and a new highway was slated to be built in the far East, right through the city of Bangkok, Thailand. The only problem was that there was a monastery in the way, and in the monastery was a hand carved and exquisitely hand painted Buddha.

It became clear that both monastery and Buddha would have to be moved to make way for the development of this highway.

Slowly and carefully, a group of monks hoisted hand sculpted Buddha with a crane to move it to its new location. Rainy and muddy, moving the centuries-old Buddha that weighed several tons was not an easy task. In fact, the great weight of the Buddha caused it to begin to slip off the crane into the mud. When it began to crack, the head monk commanded that the Buddha immediately be lowered to the ground. They left it in the mud, but covered it with a tarp in order to protect it and keep it dry.

Everyone went to sleep for the night. Except for the head monk. Tossing and turning, he worried about the safety of this most precious statue. In fact, the monk received a powerful vision that this Buddha was divinely inspired. Nothing must happen to it.

So he got up to check on the Buddha. Shining a light into the crack, the head monk was startled to discover a glint of light shining back at him.

Surprised by his own eyes, he went to get the other monks so that they could check out this phenomenon. They, too, were astonished to discover brilliant light pouring back out from the crack in the Buddha.

They made a decision. The monks would chisel the rest of the clay plaster that appeared to be hiding something underneath. They did this with care and diligence.

With the disturbance of each piece of plaster, more of the Buddha’s brilliance reflected back at the men. After hours and hours of tireless work, what was revealed was not simply a delicately-carved clay statue. They uncovered something far more precious. Standing before them was a magnificent, extraordinary Buddha of pure gold.

What does this have to do with the price of tea in China?

Well, YOU are the golden Buddha.

You’ve just been covered in clay, such that your brilliance is unknown to you.  You may even have a tendency to deny what’s magnificent about you even when it is pointed out to you.

When will you discover that beneath the weather and the wear and the cracks and the mud and the clay is you, brilliant you of gold?

If you believe in your product or service, and the value it gives to the lives of those for whom it is especially designed for, stand tall and unapologetically promote your offering.  The alternative is to shrink back and feed yourself and others reasons why you aren’t good enough or valuable enough to sell your products or services.

When you do that — make excuses why you cannot live your dream because you’ve chosen to remain encased in your facade of clay — you support others in also denying their dreams.

And, who wants that on their hands?!

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license (both images): Some rights reserved by elmar