Have you ever felt tired? Like really, really tired? Like so tired you just want to shut the world out and chill out on your own? Yes? I’m pretty sure it happens to most people at some point in their life and that’s how I found myself feeling late in 2015.
 
Chester, my little boy, was not even one yet and I was trying to do so much – be a great mum and run a business. I kept myself so busy that I was working again pretty much two days after giving birth. I didn’t feel I deserved a total break so I worked whenever Chester was sleeping and I also got a nanny to come round for 10 hours a week from when he was about 8 weeks old.
 
Anyway, I won’t bore you with the ins and outs of my childcare routine all I’ll say is you can only do so much before your body says stop, NOW!
 
In addition to my Virtual Assistant (VA) who works 20 hours a week, I tried to hire a couple of people but it didn’t work out so at the end of January I thought, you know what, I’m going to retire. I’ll let my VA do what she normally does and I’ll do almost no work until I start to feel like it again and so that’s what I did.

Fact: you are capable of a lot more than you think you are capable of.

I was driving around with my husband one weekend looking at plots of land and various properties.In addition, we drove to a few car dealerships and asked for quotes on cars. Whenever I liked something I said, I want that orI’m going to get that.

Finally, after two days of hearing me say this so many times, my husband asks: with what money!

I smiled and said, “You don’t ever need to worry about that. First, you decide what you want and then the money somehow finds you!” It sounds crazy, I know, but if I limited my heart’s desires based on the funds currently available I’d probably be nowhere right now.

I’m sure I’ve written about this before but the first time I ever wanted something crazy, I wanted to go to The University of Cambridge. I told my friends what I wanted and only after I got in and got a scholarship to attend did some admit that they thought I was insane for wanting to go to this Cambridge place that many thought was unreachable.

Solution 2:just focus ononestep at a time and hope that I’ll save enough by the time I was ready to hire a manufacturer. So…I hired a formulating company. 

Do you know how silly I felt walking into a meeting I’d arranged at an established factory as the 30-year-old CEO of Neno Natural to an audience of 3 people ALL over the age of 50 with a long career in formulating and producing beauty products? Very! To boost my confidence I was dressed well and I looked good in my makeup.

I came out shining.

They thought I was smart and they said the business I was proposing excited them above and beyond many other clients they were doing things for.

Over the course of 12 months I paid for the formulation and as we approached the 15th month enough money appeared to enable an order. Some of my earlier investments paid off and I was able to pursue the dream. That’s life.

If you set your mind on something, you will get it, I promise you. That stuff they tell you about self-belief making things happen? It isn’t just “stuff”, it’s for real!

Anyhow, I’d love to carry on this discussion with you and help you realise your dreams, if you want to start a product business sign up to The Money Spot program. You can join for as little as £49.99/month or come to my upcoming workshop on How To Build A 6-Figure Product Business.

Want to Build a 6-Figure Beauty Business from the comfort of your sofa? Then my course is designed for YOU! 

"Beauty" includes a WIDE range of products from the not so obvious non-perishable foods and crafts to the more obvious hair, makeup, fashion, health & fitness.

Too many people try to solve every problem they encounter by themselves. This is not only a waste of time but it’s completely unnecessary. I came up with this insight as I watched my 8-month old son trying to solve his problems.

I noticed that every time he wanted to get to something, if there was an obstacle in his way he continually tried to climb over the obstacle or push through it when he could simply walk around the obstacle and avoid it entirely.

One time, there was a ball behind me and he kept trying to squeeze through my legs when there was ample space to crawl on one side of me. Another time there were some cushions in his way, and yet, another time his little girlfriend Maya was in his way; she really didn’t appreciate having a 9 kg boy trying to climb over her.

His problem solving skills are still in development, of course, but some people do exactly what he was doing throughout their lives.

Today’s tip is simple: Think about how you can avoid your problems. Instead of climbing over them, can you work around them? I’m not suggesting you take short cuts, no, I’m just saying the solution is sometimes a lot simpler than you think.

If I’m struggling with an issue I refer it to my mastermind group. I have weekly mastermind calls with my entrepreneur friends and often, we problem solve together. There’s nothing like a fresh pair of eyes.

Note that I don’t go to non-business friends to solve business problems; I only go to those of my friends that are in business because they are better equipped to give good business advice.

I started my business in 2012 and it took about two years to build a good quality, credible network of friends.

If you wanting to accelerate the growth of your product business with my coaching program, you can either join the online solution or come to my upcoming live workshop. Alternatively, call to discuss the best solution for you.

Your spending will always expand to match your income unless you specifically plan to live beneath your means. You can do this as a lifestyle choice or for short periods of time to save for something you really want.

Shop around to save money on the things that you buy regularly – buy in bulk, get products where they are cheapest instead of just going to your favourite shop, use coupons and take advantage of discount days at local stores.

However, there are some things that you can live without completely;that is the topic this blog.

We get so used to buying what we always buy that we don’t usually stop to contemplate what’s necessary and what isn’t. To help you think through your own shopping list I’ll go through some things my friends and I cut back on to save:

Rent

You could live in a cheaper area and save thousands immediately. I did this when I first started work. I was spending almost half what my peers were on rent just by living a little further out of the city. Of course, many of us are unwilling to compromise here so we have to look at the small stuff.

Juice!

For what you get, it’s not cheap at all. I was having a chat with one of my best friends about cutting back and she said, “Can you believe it, we’ve even had to stop buying juice!”

I was like, “You were still buying juice? I stopped buying juice ages ago because it contains way too many calories. I’ll only buy it if I have guests coming.” I also find juice to be poor value for money besides being completely unnecessary for the weight conscious. Juice packs in a lot more calories than one might suspect.

Restaurants

We spend A LOT of money on eating out every month. I personally find it very hard to cut back because I think of it as a “treat” after a week of hard work. However, right now my husband and I have just spent a small fortune renovating a flat that we just bought so we’ll use that thought to spur us on during our financial fast in September.

To stick to our resolve we add“treat foods” to our shopping list to encourage us to eat at home. For example, buying a frozen pizza that you just stick in the oven when you feel lazy is a lot cheaper than going out for pizza. We wouldn’t normally buy this type of food because it’s not healthy but it does the job of keeping us at home when we want to eat out.

Meat

News flash: you don’t have to eat meat every day. Some people would think this is unthinkable and perhaps an utterly ridiculous suggestion but it’s true. If your partner is against this suggestion remind them that desperate times call for desperate measures.

You can also cut back by eating less meat rather than cutting it out completely. For instance, unless it’s a very small chicken I only ever eat one chicken piece, I find two to be excessive. If everyone in your home has two pieces your chicken will immediately last twice as long by enforcing a one-piece rule. The same goes for sausages and other meats. I normally cook minced meat with beans to bulk it up. Less meat means a heavier wallet and a more attractive waist line!

You could go for offal aswell. Liver, oxtail and tongue are delicious.

Body Products & Makeup

There are so many options here. If you use a range of upmarket brands explore supermarket “equivalents” to see if they work just as well. You could save a tidy fortune here.

Take a close look at what you tend to spend money and see what else you could do without. Magazines? New shoes or clothes? And so on.

“Cut back on your rent or cut back on what you spend on food but never worry about investing money in a good book.” Robin S. Sharma 

How often do you think about how you're going to live life in your 60s? Here are alternative outcomes.

Living Off The Kiddies

Some will reach the age of 60 without a single saving. You will depend on your kids for money, for food and perhaps even need them to house you somehow – if they are willing. For many this will not happen because life has been unkind to you, it will be the result of a series of bad choices such as having more children than you can afford to support and not saving enough.

Be in no doubt that if you find yourself in this situation you will be a burden to your children. In the ideal world children don’t want to have to look after their parents financially and if they just earn enough to support their family will resent having to look after you because you didn’t plan for old age.

Could this be you?

POSSIBLE SCENARIOS

Oh, This Isn't My House?

Some will reach retirement age and realise that the bank or the company they work for owns “their” house and “their” car. It’s easy to forget such things when you are enjoying life but at this point you will be forced to either live off your children or invest your savings in a business.

If you’re lucky you’ll find jobs in retirement or positions on boards of directors that provide an income whilst you make up for lost time on the investment front.

Living Off The Rentals

Some will reach the age of 60 with a tidy property portfolio. You will own the house you live in outright and you will have at least two rental properties.

Your rental properties will produce enough money to cover all necessities, bills and wants such as holidays. When your children come to visit you, they will come with pride. Pride that they have forward-thinking parents that had the wisdom to cover their own retirement. You will have no unnecessary worries and will be safe in the knowledge that you never have to go to bed hungry or cold.

The Art of Visualisation

Visualising is like fantasising. You visualise a specific event in the future in very specific and detailed terms and think about how much you will enjoy it. Scientists have confirmed that visualising can lead to the achievement of real results.

In a well-known study on creative visualisation in sports, Russian scientists compared three groups of Olympic athletes:

• Group 1 received 100% physical training;
• Group 2 received 75% physical training with 25% mental training;
• Group 3 received 50% mental training with 50% physical training;
  

Group 3 had the best performance results. This indicates that some types of mental training, such as consciously invoking specific subjective states, can have significant measurable effects on biological performance.

Further to this, some celebrities have argued that they have achieved certain results in their life by visualising them first. These include Oprah, Will Smith and Jim Carrey.

Visualising helps you to focus on a goal. If you can find just ten minutes a day to meditate and visualise the things you want to achieve you will increase your chances of achieving them.

Most people don't think too far beyond the next couple of years, if that. Those that do are at an advantage. Of course you shouldn't live so far in the future that you cannotenjoy the present. That said, thinking about and planning for the future is enjoyable in itself –just do it!

"Ordinary people believe only in the possible. Extraordinary people visualize not what is possible or probable, but rather what is impossible. And by visualizing the impossible, they begin to see it as possible." Cherie Carter-Scott

Human beings are hard-wired to conform. Back in the hunter-gatherer days you had to conform because if you didn’t you’d become a social outcast and that basically meant you spent a lot of time alone. No one would make friends with the guy or gal that had been relegated as unfit for the community for fear that they too would be tarnished with the same brush.
 
Even now, the more homogenous a society is, the more you feel the pressure to conform. I grew up within a homogenous culture back in Malawi. Everyone pretty much had the same core beliefs so if you thought differently you just kept it to yourself. You wouldn’t admit you were an atheist or gay for instance, you would just keep it to yourself.

Even then, some of my closest friends were gay but it was a secret that you kept sealed tight. As for not believing in a God, I had such strong views on the matter (I didn’t understand why you wouldn’t believe in God) that it took me about 7 years of living in Britain – a very Cosmopolitan country – to get my head around it being acceptable to be agnostic or simply not to believe. Anyway, I digress.

WHY DO WE CONFORM?

We conform because we want to be liked. That is the key reason.

We want to be part of a community. We want social approval. Our own self-worth and value tends to be so wrapped up in what people think of us.

WHY COULD IT BE BAD TO CONFORM?

Unfortunately, conforming is what keeps many people in wage slavery or stops them pursuing their dreams – we’re afraid to take massive action or even to take small risks because of what people might say.

Quitting a job to start a business is a massive risk and a couple of negative comments are enough to discourage most people from taking the chance to create something special.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO GET RID OF THE FEAR OF DOING SOMETHING DIFFERENT

Stop caring what everyone thinks.

When someone gives you an opinion, you have no idea why they are offering that particular perspective.

• They may be basing it on their own fears and failures. 
• They may be jealous and not wanting you to succeed.
• They may care about you massively but be super conservative. 
• They might not be able to visualize what you can because they simply can’t get their head around your goals and plans.

Everyone sees life from a different point of view and everyone has different goals. Compromising your dreams based on other people’s opinions isn’t a good strategy for personal growth. Frequently, the people that will stop us are our very own parents; parents tend to be massively afraid of children breaking from societal norms.

Good examples of people who believed enough in their dreams to stop conforming.

Sara Blakely:

She is the founder of Spanx. In a Bloomberg Game Changers documentary I watched about her she revealed that she was so afraid of people thinking her idea was stupid that she told no one about it until it was already rolling. Now, she is the youngest ever female entrepreneur to build a billion-dollar company. She succeeded with real products when everyone else was going into tech. You have got to admire that.

Arunachalam Muruganantham:

He is a school dropout from a poor family in southern India and he completely revolutionised menstrual health for rural women in developing countries by inventing a simple machine for making cheap sanitary pads.

It took him years to get to the perfect design. People laughed at him and called him weird as he carried out research on menstrual periods and it all culminated in his wife leaving him because he had become a social pariah. The irony was he started on this entrepreneurial path to help his wife.

I have massive admiration for this guy.

I’m giving you just two examples here but I could give you many more. I could even talk about my own life and the mocking that I went through in high school but I chose to use third-party examples. I hope these people inspire you to take some risk, to stop conforming and to ultimately take the massive actions that will buy your financial freedom.

References:

The Indian sanitary pad revolutionary, BBC
How to fail your way to your first $1 billion, Entrepreneurs Institute