Having a mentor is a KEY component to success! Isaac Newton says “If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.” This does not mean that Mr. Newton literally saw further because he literally … gosh, that sentence doesn’t warrant completion!

It means that our good friend Isaac had great visions and fabulous thinking capabilities that went so far beyond the box that the box itself faded from view.

Having a mentor, having strong collaborators, and building a strong team is critical for any entrepreneur!

Before deciding to seek out a mentor, you must first determine what you hope to gain from the relationship. That means you need to spend time thinking about both your short and long term goals. Once you’re fully clear on where you want to be, the selection process becomes that much easier.

When people think about mentors, they often visualize a classic business setting, where everything is formal and methodical, but mentoring relationships aren’t limited to business. Life balance is essential. Personal, professional, and spiritual all need to exist in harmony.

Consider these types of mentors:

• Life Guidance. These life mentors are often referred to as Life or Success Coaches.
• Spiritual Advisers. You can look to a priest, pastor, or friend to mentor you spiritually.
• Everyday Mentors. Sometimes we even have unofficial mentors who are simply people we admire in our community or peer group.

Choosing a Mentor

When looking for a mentor, seek someone who possesses the qualities, skills, and experiences you hope to one day have yourself. A mentor should be someone who shares your vision of success, has a positive attitude, and openly shares her knowledge and experiences with you.

You might want a mentor who’s at the pinnacle of success within your field so you can learn from the best. Alternately, you might want to select someone as a mentor who’s only slightly higher ranking than you, this way you can learn what you need to help take you to the next level.

The point here is to boldly REACH UP to where this one has gone before you!

Choosing the high ranking executive helps you with long term goals, while selecting the mentor who’s closer to your own experience level makes it easier to focus on a specific area of expertise so you can achieve your shorter term goals.

An ideal situation may involve both types of mentors. This way you get a well-rounded experience that allows you to benefit both in the short and long term. Either way, you should find someone who isn’t afraid to challenge you to reach your true potential.

Establishing a Beneficial Relationship

When you’ve selected your mentor candidate, draw up a plan to present to them detailing what you hope to give and receive from the relationship. This will help the potential mentor decide if they can provide you with the experience and knowledge you desire.

It’s only fair to both of you to be as upfront as possible about your expectations. If you aren’t clear on what you hope to gain, the relationship has little chance for success.

Successful Mentorship Begins with You

Once the relationship has been established, actively communicate your needs to the mentor in order to take the sessions in the direction you’d like to go.

You should be in the driver’s seat, even though you’re the junior party in the relationship. Without providing your mentor with guidance, the mentorship may not be fruitful for you. After all, if you don’t let your mentor know what you need, he can’t possibly give you what you hope to gain.

It’s important throughout the relationship for the mentor to be supportive. A good mentor will be patient with you. They’ll create an open and welcome environment that allows for earnest questions and concerns while making you feeling safe.

A successful mentorship will enable you to feel more confident, skilled, and knowledgeable. The reward for the mentor will be seeing the results of the positive impact they were able to make on someone else’s life.

Follow these tips to find great mentors in any area you’d like to strengthen and enjoy a relationship that brings fruits to your labor and greater life fulfillment to both of you.

To your forever growing success, dear entrepreneur!

Britt Santowski

What do you think of getting a low grade on a report card? Dropping out of school? Getting fired?

• My lowest score in school was actually the one I worked the hardest for (I was an A student with a “C” in Shakespeare)
• I dropped out of high school (still don’t have it) and went on to complete my Master’s degree with an overall average of 80%
• I’ve been fired countless times, and all have propelled me forward to fantastic places.

This isn’t to brag. It is to show you that while failure may involve negative thoughts and emotions, it can also make you stronger or wiser. I’m willing to bet that you have your own stories of so-called failures that have catapulted you to unexpected successes, whether it be as an entrepreneur or otherwise.

A simple definition of failure is: An act or instance of failing or proving unsuccessful; lack of success. Let me emphasis the word “simple.”

When I think of this definition of failure, I’m reminded of Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb. While there are many conflicting stories of how many times Edison “failed” at inventing the electric light bulb, most agree it was in the thousands before he found the right combination of materials.

One of Edison’s most famous quotes is, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. I am not discouraged because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.”

If you adopt this same attitude, you’ll overcome your feelings of failure and be able to see your dreams and desires come to fruition.

• Robert Schuller stated these famous words, “Failure doesn’t mean you’re a failure; it just means you haven’t succeeded yet.”
• Henry Ford said, “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”

When you consider those words from these wise and successful people, you’ll truly begin to understand the power of failure.

The truth is, you only fail when you give up! When you keep trying until you’ve found the answer or the solution, you’re successful.

You’d never say Thomas Edison, Robert Schuller or Henry Ford were failures would you? Sure, they were unsuccessful many, many times, but they didn’t give up until they found the answer, the right procedure or the right materials to solve their dilemma.

In case those quotes weren’t enough to make you believe failure has a positive power and strength, here are some more you might relate to:

• “Failure is an event, never a person.” – William D. Brown

The next time you try your hand at something and don’t achieve the desired result immediately, remember failure is an event; it’s not you.

• Bill Cosby also said it well when he said, “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”

If you’re trying to please everyone, you can’t possibly succeed!

• “Never confuse a single defeat with final defeat.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
• “You can’t have any successes until you can accept failures.” – George Cukor

Just because you’ve failed once, twice or 10,000 times at something, it doesn’t mean you’re a failure. You only fail when you stop trying.

Still not convinced? How about this:

• “You always pass failure on your way to success.” – Mickey Rooney

What do these words mean to you? No matter what you’re trying to succeed at, whether it’s a sport, project, career, invention, or at school, there will be times when you don’t succeed. But you mustn’t let that stop you from reaching your goals, dreams, and desires.

The common thread among all these famous people and their wise words is the same. You can’t have success without failure. Never give up and never stop trying. There is power in failure, you just have to give yourself a chance.

Keep trying, keep failing and soon you’ll find true success!

To your failing forward!

Britt Santowski

Tell me that you’ll miss me. Grin.

Have you ever wondered to speed up your path to success?

One of the smartest things you can do is to learn from someone else, someone who has already accomplished what it is that you are setting out to do. You MUST learn learn learn from someone who has traveled the road upon which you wish to go.

Thank god I practice what I preach (I mean teach!). I inundate myself with books and audio recordings (my car is traveling PDU — personal development university), and I take courses constantly. The list of what I have learned from who (whom?) is rather extensive, and if you’re into reading these dull lists, see my About Britt page, and check out my Books page — which is a list of books that I have personally read and endorse.

One of the most life-changing courses I ever took (and the course BTW that put me on my current path), is a local course taught here by an organization called Wealth by Design. They have a moneymatters bootcamp, and it offered to change our MENTAL relationship with money. My husband took the first-ever course, and I took the second. From there, armed with an alternative mindset, we catapulted into a new life.

Where we will land is still up in the air (I’m work with the analogy here), but it will be close to our destination. Funnily enough, I was at the Wealth by Design Expo just this Saturday, and one of their speaker’s made reference to mid-air adjustments. We are doing those too! Grin.

Life on our new path has been FAR from perfect. Failures abound. But having said that, the FIRST thing a pre-toddler does when she sets out to walk for the first time, she falls; the second thing she does is … falls; the third thing she does is … you guessed it … falls. Anyone watching an infant learning to walk knows that black and blue is their new and temporary natural skin tone.

Anything that you do for the first, second, third time is destined to fail (Colonel Sanders failed 1009 times in trying to sell his recipe; Edison failed anywhere from 200 – 2000 times with his lightbulb — depends who you read; while most of us give up on the first, second, if not third failure!).

Anyways, I’m not hear today to harp about failure (though it is my favorite topic!). I’m hear today to talk about learning, and how learning can shape your destiny. How it can CHANGE your destiny.

Once you have identified your passion and your niche, it’s time to get busy building buddies aka mentorship relations.

My next “speed injection” will be from Patrick Snow, author of Create Your Own Destiny.

I say “speed injection” as I have taken what Isaac Newton said to heart: “If I have seen further it is only by standing on the shoulders of giants.” I will learn from Patrick, who is only three degrees away Napoleon Hill, and four away from Andrew Carnegie. from That, my friends, is the power of mentoring! Find someone who has achieved what you want, and then learn from them.

Over the next few months, watch me grow new wings, flutter, fall, and get back up again. Rince and Repeat a few times. And then succeed. And flourish. And explode into the world.

The question you must ask yourself is: Do you want to climb the ladder to success, rung by rung, or do YOU want to catapult to the top, and reach new peaks and heights, more than you ever imagined?

I’ll take the latter, not the ladder!

So, shall I see YOU at the top too? Who can you find to mentor with? Better yet, who in your MIND would you like to mentor with? Set your sights high!

To your trip to the top,

Britt Santowski

Hello entrepreneurial women!

Today’s little tidbit is designed to help your mental health, and shape how you think about your business and entrepreneurial venture towards a more positive angle.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the proverbial glass: It’s the same glass, and when you look at it, is it half full or half empty?

Okay, so it’s a cliche and I too have heard it for years. So often, in fact, that I’ve stopped listening to it.

But recently I’ve had cause to revisit that phrase. And because I’ve had to re-hear it, so too do you my entrepreneurial dear!

My grandmother, who shall simply be referred to as “Nana” for the purposes of this article, recently suffered a STROKE. The term, stroke, immediately conjures up images of life-long debilitation, and I think of people who have lost significant functionality of speech or bodily mastery of half of their body.

Nana went to the hospital and spent three days in the hallways of emergency while the hospital tried to find a room for her. On the first day, she couldn’t speak. She had lost her ability. Prone to drama and unable to verbally impart her suffering to the world, this caused her HUGE distress. But by the second day, she could speak again (though when over-tired her language skills would slip, she would panic and the stress would further erode her language skills, and then she would FREAK). By the second day, she was wondering through the emergency halls and checking out everyone else’s distress. By the third day, she was talking up a storm. And walking. And chewing gum .

In other words, Nana had fully recovered from a stroke after only three days. The hospital eventually found her a real bed, kept her for two more days for observation, and then sent her back home, where she lives independently.

This was three months ago now.

Were her glass half full, she’d look at her experience and count her blessing. Not many 85 year old women get off so easily after a stoke! Many are wheelchair bound for the remainder of their lives, some are locked into their own bodies having lost the capacity to communicate through words, some have compound speech and muscular issues.

Nana is up and running, fit as a weasel. You’d never look at this woman and see any signs of a stroke.

But Nana, dear negative-bound Nana, is committed to reliving only misery. She remembers only her suffering. The inconsistant care (in emerg, the nurses rotate frequently), the roughness of one nurse, the panic of not being able to speak, the fear of that feeling returning, and on it goes.

The result is this: when she gets locked into her past experiential misery (and, yes, it’s true, it all DID happen) she spirals into the future possibility of the return of that pain.

The glass half empty is where you focus on the upper part of the glass, the content that has gone and will never re-appear in it’s original form. And you cling to holding on what is left. The scarcity mentality sets in. I can never consume this because LOOK WHAT HAPPENS it all disppears and my life depends on me hanging on to what is left. Wo! is me. In Nana’s case, life now begins and ends with her miserable hospital experience. Any little headache turns into weeping sobs. Any mention of hospital turns into a repetition of what was.

Many of you may know someone who has suffered a stroke, and may be amazed at Nana’s incedible outcome. She’s gotten away with suffering stroke, and being able to walk away in three days and lived to talk about it.

So the glass half full is where you focus on the wealth of what is left. You can still look at the upper part and savour the flavour of what was. And then you look at the remain part, and anticipate what joy it will bring you. The spiral here is a positive one. And as ANYONE who has ever drank a glass of anything knows (pay attention here!), that glass can always be refilled again.

• Abundance instead of scarcity.
• Joy instead of sorrow.
• Anticipation instead of fear.

And the only thing that is different, the ONLY thing, is how you think about it.

What you carry with you in the present is what your future will bring.

To your abundant world,

Britt Santowski

Life can be truly busy, hectic, and heck, even chaotic, if we don’t stop now and then to take a few minutes for ourselves. This is true for entrepreneus as well as anyone else! With the invention of computers, our working lives, our businesses, and our aspirations were supposed to get easier (just like the industrial revolution promised), but it’s gotten busier than ever before!

The original mentality was that computers would allow us to get the same amount of work done in half the time. That idea went out the window when we realized we could now get twice the work (or more) done in the same time.

Now our world has become so fast paced that it’s hard to keep up. If you don’t stop the pandemonium, you can begin to feel as if your life is descending into a chaotic jumble. Luckily, there are ways to deal with these overwhelming feelings and put some order back into your life.

Here are a few tips on how to re-learn how to relax, already:

1. Take a break. You deserve one, and no, I’m not just quoting some goofy clown. Give yourself a chance to take in everything going on around you. Even if your break is a nice hot bath instead of a shower, it can help.

• Find a little time here and there to get some peace and quiet while you reflect on the events of the day.

2. Meditate. Ooommm. Meditation can be very helpful in bringing you peace. Contrary to my opening grunt on this point, meditation doesn’t mean sitting uncomfortably and chanting like the monks in the movies. Instead, it’s a very comfortable and soothing way to calm your mind and bring you the serenity you desire.

• With a little practice, anyone can meditate. Just find a quiet, dark room and close your eyes. Begin at first by just focusing on your breath.
• Picture yourself at a black board. And on the black board are written all the thoughts that are in your head. Calmly, see yourself picking up an eraser. A BIG eraser. And begin erasing.
• This imagery will help you settle into your meditation. Once you’ve cast away your burdens, you can imagine how peaceful your life can be.

3. Find the positive. No matter how chaotic things get, you can always try to find something good and positive in your situation.

• Actively look for the silver lining. It could be something as simple as a favorite song, a picture, or the smile of another person that gives you some inner peace. Look for these things and you will find them. Relax, hun, it’s there. And you will find it.

4. Slow down. While we have to multitask almost constantly these days, doing so tends to wear us down even faster. Multi-tasking adds to the chaos around us. And while we women are great at multitasking, sometimes we neeed to let go. Of everything!

• Take one thing at a time and allow yourself to focus on that task alone. While you may be able to handle three or more things at once, the quality won’t be nearly as good as if you focused on them one at a time.

5. Don’t let anyone drag you down. Know that the very fact that you EXIST makes you a miracle, a piece of magic. Be wary when considering the (especially the negative) opinions of others.

• Don’t ignore everyone, but don’t let yourself get bogged down with other people’s baggage and their issues, either.
• Remove your personal chaos causers, even if one of the causes is other people.

6. Take out the drama. Eliminate the drama in your life, especially other people’s drama. It’s not your concern, so stay out of it and don’t get caught up in it.

• Focus on solving your concerns positively rather than enjoying pity parties. This will reduce the drama and turn your focus to something positive.

Everyone has some chaos in her life. It isn’t always a bad thing. Stress can be productive as well. In fact, without stress and responsibilities, some people would never get out of bed!

Life will always have stress and problems, but how you react to them can dictate the level of chaos in your life.

The first step is realizing that you need to make some time for yourself. If you don’t, nothing you do will really make that much of a difference. You can’t be there for everyone else if you aren’t taking care of yourself.

Use these tips every day to bring order to your life, and soon you’ll find peace instead of chaos. Comfortable relaxing, and getting on with life.

To your perpetual success my friend!

Britt Santowski

STOP THE PRESS! This just in …

Humpty Dumpty gives exclusive interview to the Wall Street Journal about the importance of earnest and accurate communications for entrepreneurs.

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty says, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.”

Okay, well maybe he didn’t really say it. Fact of the matter is this (close your ears, children!): Humpty Dumpty is a fictional creation. It was that real character, Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland, who forced those words into the hot little lips of that immovable and soon to be broken character, Humpty Dumpty.

Given that those words, then, are fictional and didn’t really come from the mouth of anyone truly significant, do they still matter?

Of course you know the obvious answer here (my readership, women — and possibly some men — from New Zealand through India to US and Canada are as smart as a whip!): Of course they matter, for there is (truly) no line between fact and fiction.

Refer to my earlier article on Closed Minds Live Quiet Lives (see the sixth paragraph) to see how fuzzy and blurry the line really is!

My father, who prides himself on his philosophical mind and has read (and actually understands) Nietzsche, would have a great debate with Humpty Dumpty. Well, okay, maybe not, as my father would probably refute the existence of Humpty Dumpty.

But let’s pretend here for a second! Let’s pretend the two entered into a great debate.

When I was growing up, my father used to harp (my word selection, not his) on the double negative. “If a man says ‘I ain’t got no apples’ he really does have apples,” my father would argue. His logic would confound my eleven-year old brain, because the laws of mathematics supported him. I had just learned that if you add -1 with -1, you will actually get +2. I didn’t (and still don’t) get how you could add one absense with another, and not just get something that exists, but something that exists twice. In fact, I’ve got a headache now, just thinking about it.

But, hey, it was a law. And the teacher would grade you based on your ability to memorize (not understand) the laws.

So there it was, my father was right.

Yet, I wanted to scream back at him: “Hey, if buddy says he ain’t got no apples, then he AIN’T GOT NO APPLES!” You could tie buddy up and hang him upside down and shake him till his wallet fell out of his pocket, but nary will ONE APPLE fall from the folds of his clothes or anywhere else.

But I didn’t, because the teachers were on my father’s side, and collectively they must have been more right than buddy with the bad grammar.

Now, thanks to the eternal words of my good friend Humpty, as quoted in the Wall Street Journal (oh wait, I made that part up), I now know that I WAS right. Because when buddy uses a phrase, it means precisely what he means it to mean. Nothing more and nothing less.

And, my friends, as much as I like to believe I’m right (along side with buddy), there is also the confounding truth that we live in a dual world. There is another law, the Law of Cause and Effect, that says that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. (Bear with me, folks, this does get dizzying!).

So as much as buddy is right, so is my father (and dammit all those fussy teachers too). For when my fathers HEARS a statement, that will means exactly what he chooses it to mean – neither more nor less.

And this duality, this existence of simultaneous truths, is what makes human communications so incredibly complex.

Between what I say and what you hear, in the invisible vapours of the air and in between my relationship with your words and my triggers, and your relationship with the same, the words transmute themselves. The intended meaning of whatever words were spoken are set free to the universe, and the receiver HEARS only what they intend to hear.

Understanding this will help you shift into the needs of your customers. It will make you a better business person and a better sales person. It will also make you a better partner, a better wife (or husband), a better mother (or father), and a better community member.

Humpty Dumpty is a sage old soul, and you need to both absorb what he says and DISCARD it. And then, and only then my friend, will you “get it.”

To your perpetual success,

Britt Santowski

The following article comes to you by way of I’m Allowed.com:

Entrepreneurs Must Master the fine ART of Self-Discipline

One of the greatest gifts any entrepreneur can give herself is learning to master the art of self-discipline. Learning how to tell yourself “NO” is an important step to become a stronger, wiser and more mature person. (And I thought saying “NO” to my five year old daughter was hard enough!)

While practicing self-discipline isn’t easy, there are many benefits to mastering this art of personal control:

Self-discipline can help you achieve your goals and realize your dreams.

Many times, achieving the goals you set for yourself requires you to sacrifice time, money and energy you might prefer to spend on other things. Are you willing to have this dedication?

• Self-discipline helps you get more done. By cutting out time wasters in your day, you can accomplish more every day and reach your goal sooner. Without the self-discipline to stick to a task, you can be easily distracted by less important details. Are you willing to remove these distractions?
• Self-discipline helps you have greater focus. By shutting out the things that take you away from your work, you can focus on what is most important. You can’t say yes to everything and everyone; you must be able to focus on one thing at a time and do it well.

Focus is nearly impossible to achieve without self-discipline, and goals are nearly impossible to achieve without focus. Are you willing to focus intensely on your goals?

The keys to self-discipline are simple. There are two rules you MUST adhere to:

If you make a commitment to someone, keep it. If you make a commitment to yourself, guard it with your life!

Part of self-discipline is self-respect. In order to live the life you truly desire, you need to care for yourself properly.

Respect every part of yourself:

1. Respect your body. Pay attention to the signals your body sends you. We’re masterfully created, and your body will tell you when something is out of balance. Listen to the signals and treat yourself with VIP handling to be the strongest and most productive you can be!

• Consider adding exercise or yoga to your daily routine to help you achieve balance in your body and mind.

2. Nurture your mind by filling it with positive, engaging information.

• Read books for the sheer joy of learning.
• Engage in meaningful discussions with people of all backgrounds and philosophies.
• Avoid negative people and conversations.
• Listen to joyful, uplifting music instead of letting the television flood your mind with commercialism and negativity.

3. Respect the spiritual part of yourself. It’s important to feel connected to something larger than you are. Connect with your Creator by meditating, praying or spending time in nature.

• Attend worship services at a local church, if that’s part of your belief system.
• Allow the spiritual side of yourself to become stronger and more important to you.
• Base decisions on the greater good rather than simply what feels good at the time.

4. Respect your physical health. Taking good care of your health requires self-discipline. Your body will help you accomplish amazing things if you treat it properly!

• Eat a healthy diet.
• Get plenty of rest and exercise.
• Strive to maintain a healthy weight.
• Refuse to smoke. (Or if your smoking, resolve to quit.)
• Avoid over indulging in caffeine or alcohol.

5. Respect your time. This includes your work time, family time, playtime and personal time. Make space in your life for every area. Schedule family time and alone time just as you do work time and other obligations.

• By adding everything to your written agenda, you create a priority within yourself and self-discipline helps you stick to your priorities.

If you want to live your life to the fullest and achieve your goals, self-discipline is a must. Learning how to control your impulses and make strong decisions is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Self-discipline can bring you the life you always wanted.

Brought to you by I’m Allowed.com, the entrepreneur maker!

Do any of these sound familiar?

• I’d love to explore my passion, but I don’t have enough time for another hobby
• I want to start my own business, but I need a steady and secure paycheck
• I should start on my business plan, but there’s show coming on TV that I just can’t miss
• I scheduled a highly productive day but got interrupted by too many phone calls
• I was going to be on time, but got stuck in a traffic jam

“But,” according to motivational speaker guru guy Les Brown, “is an argument for your limitations; and when you argue for your limitations, you get to keep them.”

IF you are going to be a successful entrepreneur, you absolutely have to

reduce the size of your but.

True, I LOVE how that sentence sounds. (In fact, I loved it so much I bought the URL ReduceTheSizeOfYourBut.com!) But beyond my little love affair with that skinny little ditty, it sure rings true, doesn’t it?

Do you find yourself falling into your big “but”? Time is a valuable commodity, and if you fixate on your limitations, then that will be what you produce. What you focus on expands! And when you waste your precious time, you’re actually preventing yourself from achieving the things you desire.

Below is a list of the top ten time wasters. If you find yourself spending too much time on these activities, try changing some of your habits so your time can be more productive and rewarding.

1. Wasting Your Worry. Many people will worry until doomsday about every little thing in their lives. This is simply unproductive and bad for your health, mind, and spirit.

• If you have something worrisome coming up, craft a plan of positive action on paper, then let it go. After all, worrying doesn’t accomplish anything positive.

2. Television. We’re a couch potato society! We schedule our lives around our favorite television shows and we spend less time doing more important activities like attending social events that could strengthen our relationships.

• Record your favorite TV shows and watch them during your leisure time, or limit your TV intake to just a couple hours a week. Or better yet, cancel your cable subscription! I freed up YEARS of my time by doing just that.

3. Video and Computer Games. This is becoming such a time waster that gamers are actually developing what is called “gamers thumb,” a repetitive stress injury. You can spend hours a day conquering giants and going to levels that don’t even exist or you can set about changing the world and following your passions. One will serve your spirit, and the other will get you divorced.

4. Internet time. Are you constantly browsing the Internet, Facebook or Twitter? Are your kids hearing you say, “In a minute,” much too often when they ask you to spend time with them?

• Keep your time on the Internet short and get involved in life. Instead of chatting with your online friends, spend more time with your real-life friends and family! Schedule online networking (eg, 20 minutes a day, from 9:pm to 9:20pm), and then STICK TO IT.

5. Telephone Chatter. Sure, we like to call old friends and chat, but do you chat on the phone all day long? If you do, you may find that you get hardly anything done all day.

• Keep phone calls to a minimum or set a timer to go off after 15 minutes. This way you won’t feel deprived of a good conversation, but it won’t take over your whole day.

6. Traffic and Commuting. Some of us spend an enormous amount of time traveling to and from work. You can turn your commuting time into productive time!

• Try carpooling or taking the bus, subway or train to work. You can use this time to read, plan your day, complete paperwork, or even relax your mind before a productive day.
 If you drive, turn your car into a mobile university by listening to inspiring and informative CDs. Where do you think I’ve done most of my learning?

7. Hobbies. Yes, there are people who are so obsessed with a hobby (see above, if your hobby is surfing the web or gaming) that they don’t make time to do anything else. They rush home from work to their hobby, even skipping dinner.

• If this is you, schedule your hobby time so you’re not skipping meals, missing time with your family, or cutting into other productive time.

8. Daydreaming. It’s fun and healthy to dream about career ambitions or future aspirations, but when those dreams prevent you from taking action in your life, then you’re wasting time. Avoid getting bogged down with too much dreaming.

• Make a list of your goals or dreams, then take action to make those dreams come true.

9.  Meetings. Although necessary, meetings can be one of the biggest time wasters of our workday. If everyone is wiped out from sitting in long meetings all day, productive time will be low.

• If you’re in charge of meetings, set and agenda with timelines, stick to your stated time.
• Limit the length of your meetings: be a pro-active facilitator, and keep needless chatter and agendas out of the meeting.

10. Planning. If you don’t take the time to plan your day, the important things you need to accomplish may not get done.

• Write down your daily goals and tasks.
• Schedule your day in the order of your top priorities.

Listen to your self-talk and when ever you hear yourself saying I ought to ____, BUT, remember that you too can reduce the size of your but!

To your success, and to your skinny but,

Britt Santowski

For those of you who don’t know, or have never heard of, Hafiz, you MUST Google him and check him out. He’s a Persian poet and spiritual rebel (c. 1320 – 1389) who is thought to have written 5,000 poems. His works have been enjoyed by the likes of Goethe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nietzsche, Pushkin, Turgenev, Carlyle and even Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock himself quotes the great Hafiz).

Poets, entrepreneurs, women, self-help junkies … you owe it to yourself!

A Hard Decree

Last

Night

God
Posted
On the Tavern wall

A hard decree for all of love’s inmates

Which read:

If you heart cannot find a joyful work

The jaws of this world
Will probably

Grab hold of your

Sweet
Ass

From the collection entitled The Gift by Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky.

To your perpetual joy (minding your own business!),

Britt Santowski