How Do You Feel About Yourself?

Everyone has opinions. Everyone makes value judgments.

But not all opinions and judgments are valid. Does that stop anyone from voicing them? Of course not.

So it is imperative that you understand that there is no opinion and no judgment that has more value or validity than your own. This is very important to your growth and development.

Every minute you are awake, you are speaking to yourself within your own mind. It's called self-talk.

The most important conversations you will ever engage in are the ones held in the privacy of your own mind. What you tell yourself about you and the world is what you will believe. What you believe about yourself is what you will bring into your life.

I've always believed and told myself that I could virtually do anything I wanted. While it took time to develop myself, my thoughts, feelings, talents, education and expertise, I always inherently knew one day I would be a huge success.

Gratefully that time has arrived for me.

Without a strong belief in yourself, you will find it impossible to reach the pinnacle of success, no matter how much you want it and no matter how long you strive.

Building Your Self Esteem

Self esteem refers to how you genuinely and deeply feel about yourself.

Your personal self esteem is at the root of all of your behaviour. Always has been; always will be. So if you feel positive feelings about yourself, you will affect your life in a positive manner. But if you have negative feelings about yourself, you will affect your life in a negative manner.

Since you can never ever get away from yourself, doesn't it make good sense to become your own best friend? Doesn't it make good sense to continuously feed into your subsconscious and conscious mind good thoughts about yourself?

People who constantly speak negatively about themselves are people with poor self images. The very fact that they speak the negative all the time brings negative results. The negative results reinforce their negatives thoughts and words.

So it's like a vicious circle.

Break the vicious circle by making a commitment to speak only kindly about yourself, your life and other people. Practice it for 21 days. By the end of that time, you should have broken the cycle. Only then can really good things start to come your way on a regular basis - especially into your interior redesign business.

What you put out in life is what you get back. Remember that.

Winning Attitudes for Redesigners

Our talents and looks and other assets are not equal.

But we have been created with a priceless value. More value than we realize and more value than we could ever utilize in one lifetime.

The playing field may not be level. One person may have had a better opportunity for education, another had a more supportive home life, one may be more beautiful, another is smarter.

Regardless of what life has given you, you have been created with the qualities of a champion.

You were born a champion. But after that you may have turned yourself into a loser by the choices you have made, the perceptions you have about yourself, and the way you have reacted to life.

In other words, if you find yourself a loser right now, you got there by how you have chosen to perceive the world and your place in it and you have lost (or misplaced) your belief in your basic value.

Change how you perceive yourself and you will change your circumstances.

Impressing Others

How many braggadocio people do you know?

Do they irritate you?

I'm totally amazed at the number of people there are, who go on these reality shows or interview shows, and look right at the camera and just go off on themselves. I can't quite figure out if they believe that bragging is just a means of showing confidence for the show, or whether these people actually live their daily lives with such arrogant talk.

I've decided it's the latter of the two.

In reality, bragging is an indication of a poor self image. Bragging is not what self confident people do.

Well, I think I'll make an exception in the case of Donald Trump. Here's a guy who is obviously talented, wealthy and wise, yet he has built a career out of tooting his own horn. Certain personalities can get away with that kind of thing. Bragging has actually made Trump famous. But then, with your last name being "Trump", how can you not be a little arrogant?

For the rest of us, however, bragging is not an asset.

In reality, the LESS you try to impress, the more impressive you ARE.

We all get faced, from time to time, with the temptation to put ourselves up on a pedestal. But, in most cases, it should be avoided at all cost.

Wait and let other people sing your praises. It will mean far more to you when it happens and the positive effect will be far more beneficial to you than if you throw it out there yourself.

Criticism and It's Effects

From time to time I receive some pretty harsh criticism. Don't always know why. Don't care why.

Criticism is easy to dish out. And it usually comes from people who feel inadequate or who are jealous. By being critical, they feel better about themselves.

But it's a false attitude of superiority.

Critics are usually failures. And they are usually failures at the very thing they claim to be superior in. Strange.

They don't recognize that there is a difference between offering a helpful suggestion and making a criticism. They throw the dart because it "feels better". And when there is a reaction they didn't expect, they claim it was just "constructive criticism".

There is no such thing. Criticism is criticism. And it is especially brutal in writing because what is in written format takes on a life of its own.

Before you run out and criticize something or someone, ask yourself how you would react if you were on the receiving end. Think about the ramifications, if any, you might encounter if your comments are perceived as rude, uncaring or disrespectful.

Then ask yourself, "Is it worth it to me to vent on this person? What might I lose in the process?"

Becoming a Huge Success

Last night I watched this week's segment of "So You Think You Can Dance". Wow, what talent these young people have.

But I was blown away by the last couple to perform for the night. They both were exquisite and the judges were on their feet applauding at the end. Everyone went crazy.

So what made their performance so outstanding, to the point where Nigel said they were the new couple to beat? Had their technical skills risen to a much higher level than their other competitors? While technically they were excellent, that is not what made the difference.

The difference was their personal emotions while dancing. Both dancers were totally immersed in the emotion of the dance, the story, the song, the message.

Earlier in the competition, one of the female dancers was told that she looked like she was scared and that her smile was merely a mask to cover her true feelings. Contrast her "plastic smile" to the facial expressions and emotions of the last couple. There was no comparison.

You see you can't fake it.

Either you have the deep emotional connection or you don't.

What you show to the world on the outside is merely a reflection of how you feel on the inside. Anything else is a mask.

Fall in love with what you do and the world will feel that love and want to be part of it.

Interior Redesign: Going the Distance

Gold medalist, Mary Lou Retton, was the first American to score a perfect "10" in gymnastics vaulting at the Olympic games, this despite a serious injury just weeks before.

After she scored the perfect ten she could have stopped and won the competition. But she decided to take the second optional vault.

If she made a mistake, had a slip, had a slight distraction or any minor error, under the tough rules, she would lose her first ten and lose it all.

But she went for it anyway.

Champions don't operate by fear of failure.

They are willing to pay the price - the full price - for success.

You might not be old enough to have seen it. I was.

Mary Lou took the second vault and again scored a perfect 10.

Why the risk? If one has worked, and worked, and worked on their "game", it becomes second nature. Quitting is not an option. Failure is not an option.

Managing an Interior Redesign Business

You usually have to wear many hats as an interior redesigner. You are the designer, the marketer, the promoter, the accountant, the mover, the transporter, the janitor.

One thing is certain. To be ultimately successful, you have to take all of these "positions" and mold them into a unified force driven toward one goal. You have to take all that you are, and work your strengths.

You need to work smart and minimize your risks.

That's what I love about redesign. You can be very creative in a client's home, yet your risks are very, very low.

If you fail to direct all of your efforts into one cohesive path, however, it will be because you are not fully committed. This is one of the key components for anyone who wants to succeed.

Sometimes it might require a "moment of truth" in your life. Whether it is recognized as a moment of truth or not, it happens for everyone. It's that moment in time when you see clearly the path you want to take, and you either get motivated or you don't.

A moment of truth can be any event, good or bad, positive or negative. It's that moment when you have a chance to seize the opportunity and make the commitment.

Interior Redesign Success Thinking

There are no rewards out there for anything if you don't try to achieve them. And age should never be a barrier to one's full participation in life.

When I was in my late twenties, I had worked for a number of bosses I did not respect. So I eventually decided to strike out on my own with a typography and graphic design/printing business.

I'll admit it was a big scarey. I had no financial backing. No business background. No formal training in typography, design or printing, though I had been a secretary for many years.

I had a dream.

And I had the tenacity to work hard and never give up.

I didn't start my online business (Decorate-Redecorate.Com) until late in my fifties. While my contemporaries are thinking about retirement and grandchildren, I attended a Saturday class learning HTML and taking training via the internet in marketing an online business.

I have never let age be a factor - not when I was young and certainly not now when I am older.

If you're young, you'll get older and wiser. If you're old, you'll get older, but you won't be put out to pasture to leave this world as an unproductive participant.

So go for it. Live a full life. Participate to the fullest. You won't regret it.

Interior Redesign: Managing Competition

To more or lesser degrees, who isn't tempted from time to time to compare themselves against other people. The happiest people in life are those that refuse to compete against others.

Two days ago I watched an episode of Dr. Phil. Two of his guests were a pair of twins, somewhere in their late twenties or thirties. Both were quite beautiful physically and well spoken.

But all of their lives they had been competing against each other. Competing over beauty, athletics, weight, boyfriends, work, education and on and on. One twin in particular just thrived on beating her sister, spoke arrogantly and didn't seem to have a clue how she was being viewed by Dr. Phil or the audience.

How utterly sad.

The other twin wanted to end the competition but was at a loss as to how to get out of it. She had deliberately chosen not to ever have children because she did not want to compete with her sister over whose children were the cutest, smartest, etc.

I wanted to hug the second one and slap the first one.

Your success should be measured against your personal growth, your willingness to do your best and your own unique skills and goals. It should never be measured against another person, whether your twin or a total stranger.

Interior Redesign Commitments

Gail Devers, an Olympic Gold Medalist in track and field, began having acute physical problems in 1988, her final year at UCLA. She had migraine headaches, partial blindness, memory loss, sleep loss, fluxuating weight and convulsions.

In 1990 she was diagnosed with Grave's disease, a thyroid condition, which could have resulted in cancer. Undergoing radiation and chemotherapy, Gail had so much pain she couldn't walk. She was borderline in need of foot amputation to save her life.

In 1991 her therapy was changed and she began to improve. While the rest of us would have just been happy to be alive, Gail was not satisfied.

While other athletes were training on the track all around her, Gail trained on a stationary bike. Within one month, wearing sweat socks only, she was able to walk around the track.

A few months later she was running. A year later she was at the Barcelona Olympics.

And at those Games, she won the Gold medal in the 100-meter dash!

What a testimony of the agony of defeat and the thrill of victory. What unbelievable commitment to one's goals!

What is your commitment to your business success?

Failing at Interior Redesign

Failing at business is nothing new. It happens all the time. Interior redesign is no exception.

As good as my tutorials and courses are, I still have people who take the training with great enthusiam and I never hear from them again. While there are a myriad of goals that a person might have, and while timing sometimes plays a part, why do people fail to achieve their hopes and dreams?

Failed attempts are a part of the road to success. The failed attempts are merely attempts which brought successful people to the point where they succeed.

You see there are people who have tenacity and drive. There are people without that.

Then there's rejection. Failure usually brings out feelings of rejection and guilt. Often people interpret their failures as peer rejection or a loved one's disapproval.

Failure is merely that an idea didn't work. Or the process of creating the idea didn't work. Or the means to market the idea didn't work.

Clearly something didn't work out as planned, but it is wrong to view that as rejection by any one.

It is right to turn the idea over in your mind, look for ways to improve the idea, look for ways to to improve the processes or the marketing of the idea. And then give it time.

Gerald Fralick found himself flipping hamburgers in 1962, earning minimum wage. He decided to make a "career change" toward selling life insurance (which by the way is very difficult).

Twelve years later, after he had sold over $50,000,000 worth of policies, he was asked how he had become successful. He replied, "It was because I thought that's what you did when you had failed at everything else."

Making a career change is one thing. But maybe you just need to take a closer look at you, how you present yourself, your services, the benefits you're offering, your target market, your advertising message and methods.

It's a lot easier to improve what you're doing than to make a startling career change. But then no one should stick to flipping hamburgers for life.

Winning at Interior Redesign #4

The best incentive in the world for staying focused on your business is to enjoy what you're doing. When you enjoy what you do, you naturally will invest more time and energy into the tasks you must accomplish.

But that's not all. When you enjoy what you do, you will speak about it more enthusiastically. That enthusiam will spill over to the people you are talking to. They will become enthusiastic too.

That enthusiam will lead to you being hired by them or by someone they refer to you.

No one wants to hire someone who is disillusioned.

Years ago I was conducting weekly training sessions. One of my students chronically arrived depressed. I can't imagine anyone wanting to hire her because even I didn't want to be around her.

If you're depressed for any reason and you have an appointment, postpone the appointment until you feel happy and positive again. Believe me, it's not in your best interest (nor your client's) for you to arrive depressed and negative. You can't hide it. Don't think you can. People will pick up on your inner feelings and it will affect them.

Are You Right for Interior Redesign?

Have you ever measured how you feel about what you're presently doing?

Decades ago I was stiffled in a secretarial job for 5 years. I was appreciated verbally at times, but my paycheck sure didn't reflect that appreciation. The longer I stayed on the job, the less money I made because of inflation and the rising cost of living.

I finally had had enough! I looked closely at the talents I had, what I enjoyed, borrowed some money and struck out on my own. I won't say there haven't been some critical ups and downs, particularly in the financial realm in the early years. I had never owned a business before and there was a large learning curve.

But I hung in there because life took on new meaning now that I was doing something I thoroughly loved. No longer did I start dreading Mondays on Sunday afternoons. No longer was I dying for Friday at 5:00 PM.

No longer did my work feel like work. I just loved what I did.

Interior redesign is such a creative business, with absolutely very little risk, and so easy to get into. Isn't it time you discovered what you love to do - and then just do it?

Building Interior Redesign Business

Ever ride a bicycle? Or how about a skateboard?

It only takes one ride to figure out that if you don't keep pedaling, you'll soon stop. Or if you don't keep pushing the board along with one foot, you'll soon stop.

Coasting will only get you a little way.

The same is true in business. If you land a great appointment, that will give you a big thrill for the moment and no doubt increase your confidence. And you might even be able to coast for a short time off of that achievement.

But eventually you'll be out of work if you don't keep marketing your services and products to potential clients. This is the on-going, daily, methodical part of your business.

If you are spending all of your time "managing" your business and very little time is spent in "marketing" our business, you will be out of business soon.

You've got to keep pedaling.

Succeeding at Interior Redesign

Hard work isn't enough in and by itself. Sure it's important. All businesses take hard work to achieve success. But more is required.

You've got to be tenacious.

Many people who decide to start a business begin with unrealistic expectations. They think projects and income will magically appear just because they "hang out a shingle". All too often they quit long before their new business has a chance.

First you need to get educated. Then you need to jump in and get your feet wet. You might not be so good at first, but perfection comes with excersing your skills.

But a lasting business requires a solid plan of action: a strategy. The strategy will be made up of many different tactics, procedures and methods.

When those are in place, it just takes time.

You've got to set your mind to the task, steer your course, never look back (except to measure your progress), and be tenacious.