Tag Archives: perspective

My $2400 Lesson

3,859 Replies

 

If you take action when your head and soul aren’t aligned, it can be a risk. Like a $2400 risk. My $2400 LessonSometimes opportunities that are presented to you appeal so much to one part of the brain, you rationalize yourself into a decision. Has that ever happened to you? You bet your bottom dollar it has happened to me. Here is my $2400 lesson.

I was presented with an opportunity from someone I really respected. It was an opportunity to generate money by helping people save money when shopping online. And there was an ability to help non-profits in a huge way. Amazing right? It totally appealed to the left side of the brain. The data was there. Sales on the internet continue to increase, people love saving money AND I could give back to non-profits? I was sold. So, I signed up and spent $2400 to join. (Little did I know the fine print. That was another lesson.)

So I started telling my friends and family about my ‘new’ venture and started to sell memberships. Here are my lessons learned.

1. How NOT to Sell.

I was a mess. I ended up spamming everyone I knew. Reflecting back on it, here is an official public apology for my douchy, repelling marketing (I don’t even think it qualified as marketing) techniques. My heart was in the right place, but I did not think about the customer’s perspective. I hate it when people come at me in a spamy way and I did the same exact thing that made my skin crawl! It was a hard but necessary lesson to learn.

Tweetable: When you offer a product or service, always place yourself in the shoes of your customer. 

2. Importance of Personal Brand.

I thought this opportunity would be a great side business where I could generate income to support my start up business. The problem was I diluted my brand. I was doing so many random things at once, my vibes were all over the place. I was a mess.

Tweetable: When you are developing your brand, ensure everything you do supports that brand.

3. Be Congruent.

When you are congruent with your heart and soul that’s when the magic happens. When the work you do is aligned with your passion and purpose, you hit the sweet spot. The area where you can be confident in moving towards your dreams. It is a glorious feeling.

Tweetable: When you are aligned with your purpose and passion, success & happiness is organic.

Biggest learning I received in my life. Find the lesson in EVERYTHING!

Life happens. We can’t control what happens. But what we can control is how we react to it. We have a choice. We can choose to let it hold us back and keep us small and contracted in life, or we can choose to learn from it, expand and rise above it. I always choose the latter.

The best part is the choice we decide to make is 100% in our control. 

The $2400 Lesson was an invaluable one. I considered so many things. What I DIDN’T consider was my soul. Was this aligned with my purpose in life? Was I really passion about it? If I posed those questions to myself perhaps a different decision would be made.

What $$ Lessons have you learned?

Sending you Love, Light & Oodles of Positive Vibes!

– Indrani

Quality Will Always Trump Quantity

4,567 Replies

I had a rude awakening recently. It brought to life my new mantra. Quality will always trump Quantity.

Quality Over Quality

No it didn’t come from a seminar (which would be a great guess, as I am a personal development junkie). It didn’t come from an eye opening article. It didn’t even come from a client.

It came from my 9 year old daughter.

She said “Nope. We won’t have fun. Mommy needs  to work.”

My ego took over. I told her although I would love to take off and be able to hang out, I had a business (which I am giddy over) to run.

A few days later, as I was about to go to bed, it hit me. My kid wants to spend time with me. In a few years the roles will be reversed and I’ll be dragging her to hang out with me.

I have a business where I am always “plugged in”. I started my own business so I could spent more time with my family. A business where I could take off and spend a couple weeks with my kids before they go back to work.

I realized just because I was “physically” there, it didn’t mean anything. If I’m not present and in the moment with them, they may as well have a babysitter.

In the past, I would have overwhelmed with feelings of guilt, regret and feeling like a crappy Mom.

Not anymore.

Ever since I have been able to step into and release negative emotions, like has gotten so much sweeter (& productive).

So, I am going “dark” and unplugging from social media for a week. I turned off all of my notifications on my phone.

We get so caught up in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Periscope. I felt like if I was not checking it, I would miss out. So I would constantly be on my phone. I would “have” to see each notification. Check out all of the likes I would get. Somehow that proved my worth.

I realize that is silly. I realize I don’t need validation from any social media post, from anyone or anything. I am worth it. Period.

So, it’s time for a change. I am shaking things up and unplugging from social media. I am going to use that time to be present. I’m using the time to grow and realize how I want to contribute the world. I’m using the time to make some freakin’ rad memories with my kids.

I will post once a day to share my reflections but that’s it. Making that choice was so powerful (& will definitely be a challenge). But, I believe, what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.

Sometimes we work so hard to build a future for my family. It’s a great theory, but not at the expense of sacrificing unwritten memories.

It was a wake up call, loud and clear. And I’m doing something about it.

I’d love for you to join me.

Let’s do it together.

Sending you love, light & oodles of positive vibes.

– Xx

Indrani

 

 

 

 

3 Life Lessons My Kids Taught Me

2,594 Replies

As parents, we instinctively know we should nurture, teach and develop our kids. What I didn’t know was how much I would learn from them. Here are the 3 Life Lessons My Kids Taught Me.

 

Check out this replay I did on Periscope on this topic!

Perspective is Everything

1. JOY: When I take my 2 girls, Devani is 9 and Bryanna is 3, to the park, I love to watch them play. They have so much fun. The squeals of laughter and immense joy warms my heart. Earlier this week when I was at the park with them, I ask myself a question. “Where does the joy go?” As adults we are programmed and wired to take life seriously. We have more responsibility, but why does that have to limit our joy? The answer is, “It doesn’t!!”

But learning from our children, we can start finding joy in everyday life. From taking a work break to call someone that you know will have you squealing with laughter. Or indulging in a perfect cup of coffee or a piece of really good chocolate. Or immersing yourself in all the amazing things in your life you have gratitude for. Let’s start installing joy into our everyday practices so we can pause and see the beauty in life.

2. CURIOSITY: When my girls would try to figure something out, I would immediately go to assist them and show them the right way to do it. Now, I just sit back and watch them with awe. The way they look at it and come up with their own way using a kitchen utensil is amazing. I love seeing their brain work and use curiosity to figure things out.

We lose curiosity as we get older. It could be from a teacher telling us that we are not smart, or from our parents shutting off imagination. It could be from not asking the question in class because we don’t want to look stupid. Let’s change that. Let’s start answering the question when our kids ask us “why”. Let’s look at our life, techniques and routines to see how we can make things better. Maybe more efficient. Or streamlined. That is where we unleash our curiosity and tap into our genius. How do you think our innovators like Edison, Disney, Einstein & Jobs changed history? They got curious and looked for another way, another solution to make things better.

3. RESILIENCE: Watching my 3 year old mastering the monkey bars is freakin’ hilarious. She is so close to reaching the bar and her tenacity is remarkable. My older daughter is the same way. Our kids have so much resilience. They want to learn things, no matter how many times they fall on their cute booty. If they want to master something, they will get up and try again and again.

As we grow older, we can start losing our resilience. We can become paralyzed because we do not want to fail. We do not want to look stupid. We want to ensure the first time we will succeed. And when we do attempt to try it once, if we do fail, we let that lesson impact our future decisions. That failure is tattooed on our soul and it can stunt our future endeavors. Let’s learn from our kids. Let’s use their resilence to stay on our path to living the life of our dreams. A life we would not trade with anyone on the planet. When we fall, let’s learn from it and transform the “failure” into a “lesson”. We can then use that “lesson” to take try again until we succeed. It’s a magical thing.

Being a parent has been so rewarding in so many ways I could have imagined. I had learned so much from my girls. They have given me so many gifts. Patience, Gratitude, Joy, Curiosity, Resilience, Unconditional Love and so much more.

When I am stumped, stresed, frustrated or depleted, I look to my kids. I submerge myself into their reality. And it is priceless. They fill up my tank. They give me faith. They give me love. And then I can go back to my reality with a new perspective on life.

Sending you Love, Light and Oodles of Positive Vibes!

-Xx

Indrani