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I've been hearing a lot of people talking about taking stock of where they are in their businesses and lives.  There has been a great deal of soul searching recently.  It feels as though a shift is taking place and people are working to make sure they are ready. 

Whatever the reason, it's always a good idea to take stock.  Ask yourself the following questions and see where the answers take you.

1) Am I doing what makes me happy every day?

2) Do I love my work?

3) Is my home something I look forward to leaving work for?

4) Are the relationships in my life feeding me?

5) Am I the person I would like to be?

6) Do I treat myself as well as I treat my clients and family?

7) Am I where I want to be financially?

8) What am I putting up with that I don't have to?

9) If my life were perfect, how would that be different from the way it is today?

10) What one action can I take today to improve my life?

These questions will help you determine how you are doing in creating a life and a business you can love.

Are you where you want to be?  Most of us aren't.  Richard Bach in his book Illusions (one of my favorites) has a saying - and I'm paraphrasing here:

"If you want to know if you're done with your work try this simple test.  If you're still here, you're not done."

If you'd like to make sure that you stay on track in getting closer to where you want to be in your life, then consider joining us for our weekly coaching calls. 

Here's the link for more information.

If you notice at the bottom of each post, there is a section for comments.  These comments are the way in which you and I can interact.  So, if you have any thoughts about a particular post or podcast, leave a comment.  I'd love to hear back from you!

I got a note from Jack Canfield with a link to a movie called "The Secret" yesterday. I watched the movie last night and I just have to pass along the information to you. Here's the link to the website where you can get streaming video of the movie direct to your computer.

http://www.thesecret.tv/

Set aside some time when you will be uninterrupted. You'll also want to give yourself an hour or two after the movie to process what you've seen. I suggest having a friend watch it with you. It's so much better to be able to "what if" and "what did it mean by..." with another person.

This morning, my friend and I made gratitude pictures. We did artwork that depicted gratitude and then we went out and bought frames and put them up in the house. So now, wherever I look in my house, I see something that reminds me to be grateful. It was a fun project and it has long lasting benefits.

I got an email from Diana recently and it seems she's a bit swamped trying to clear things up before her vacation, so we have postponed the interview until late April. Once we have a date set, I'll let you know.

It seems that everyone is having major breakdown these days. My breakdowns are manifesting as website woes. Others are going through physical breakdown (roofs leaking, sewers backing up), emotional breakdowns, relationship breakdowns, mental exhaustion, getting sick, etc. Wherever I look, things are falling apart.

If you read my book, you know that I believe that it's breakdown before breakthrough. Which for me means that I am anticipating a great breakthrough soon. With the scale at which things are changing, we are all a little on edge.

My best advice (to myself and to you) is to relax and let go. I don't know about you, but I've been holding on really tighly for the last few days. The resulting stress has taken its toll on me. I'm exhausted. So today I decided to adopt a new attitude . Today I will just accept what happens. It's going to be what it's going to be and I'm going to roll with it. I have done everything I can to control things and it's been proven that this approach is fruitless. So today I'm just going to deal.

If things break down, I'll fix them - but I won't get upset about it. I've accepted that we're in breakdown mode. No point in being upset about it.

I'm not planning any big stuff for the next week or so. If nothing productive gets done, that's OK. I'll make progress as I can where I can and be OK with the rest of it.

My goal for this week is to relax. What's yours?

This month begins the blog and podcast portion of our program. I'll be signing on periodically (well, probably a lot - I'm like that) and chatting with you about real estate, life, and running our businesses.

I'm in the process of tracking down agents who have good stories for me to record for the podcast. I've also talked Diana Digirolamo (GMAC's National Rookie of the Year for 2005) into doing an interview with me sometime later this month. We haven't set the exact date yet, but I am assured it will be soon. I'm also trying to corner Adam Bellusci who was part of the winning team for the National Attorney Negotiation Contest. He has tentatively agreed to do an interview with me as well. I'll let you know how things progress.

It's coming up on the two year anniversary for Sparta Success Systems, and I've been doing a little soul-searching about what I want this company to look like. I really want to be able to reach a national audience, but much like the work that I teach, I want to be more personal. This blog is one of my ways of getting more personal with you, my subscribers and clients. I will be letting you in behind the scenes into the workings of my brain (scary, I know). I'm hoping that you will share your thoughts as well, so we can get to know each other.

Over the next year, I'm going to roll out a bunch more functionality on the website. I won't tell you what everything is (since I haven't finished my research yet), but it will all be designed to create a sense of community amongst the agents who I think "get it" in terms of living life and running our businesses in a more authentic and significant manner. In other words - I want to help you guys get in touch with each other and create your own caring community. And I want to be part of that community for my own selfish reasons (basically because you guys rock and I love you).

So, I think that's about it. I could go on and on (one of the reasons I write books), but this is a blog, so I'll sign off here. I'm sure I'll have more to say tomorrow. ;-)