For my international readers, today happens to be Groundhog Day in the U.S. This is the day where Punxsutawney Phil either sees his shadow, indicating six more weeks of winter.. or he does not, supposedly an indicator of spring on its way.

I live in Wisconsin, so I can tell you that we’ll definitely have six more weeks of winter regardless of whether he sees his shadow or not.

Ground Hog Day Do-Overs

What I want to talk to you about today, though, is not so much about a groundhog that sees his shadow. In the 1993 film, “Groundhog Day”, Bill Murray plays a self-centered meteorologist who is covering the Groundhog Day story with his producer and cameraman. He winds up stuck in some kind of time warp and is reliving the same day over and over and over again.

I remember watching the movie, years ago, and tried to figure out exactly how many do-overs there were, and lost count. The movie is funny, although when you really sit down and think about it, the message is, well…not so funny.

Real Life for the Rest of Us

We don’t get do-overs like Phil Conners (Bill Murray) does. Sure, every year, January 1st comes around and we have our brand new business plans, our “This year is our year!” game-face and occasionally throughout life, some of us do get a second chance.

Unlike the movie, though, our second chances are not guaranteed. We don’t get to relive the same day over and over again until we get it right.

Lessons Learned

For me, the biggest takeaway is that THIS is it.. meaning today. I need to take each day, look at it squarely in the face and make the best decisions I know how, or seek those who can guide me, to achieve my business and personal goals.

What is it that is most important to you?

For us, tomorrow is not February 2nd .. again. Tomorrow will be February 3rd

Make the most of it! Enjoy the clip.

Welcome to 2012

I don’t make a list of resolutions, but I set goals and benchmarks instead. One of those is for my health & fitness.

It’s an area of my life that is very important to me. While I love to run, I’m not a competitive athlete. For me, it’s about lifestyle. I love to hike, bike, snow ski, and most anything outdoors.

I know what my drivers license says…(51, but who’s counting?), yet in my head, I’m still in my early to mid-30′s.

To me, being ‘old’ is a state of mind. I don’t know about you, but don’t you want to still be doing the activities you love today in 20 or 30+ years? I know I do! I plan on being the 80 year old still on the ski slopes at Breckenridge!

Real Life Isn’t PhotoShopped

I was thinking about this today as I started my workout for the new year. I don’t subscribe to so-called fitness magazines because real life isn’t photoshopped. Most of the women in today’s fitness magazines are photoshopped models with a few fitness articles sprinkled in-between the pages of the ads, and even the article content leaves much to be desired.

Where are the magazines with the real women who aren’t photoshopped or airbrushed tan?

Where are the women like me, in our late 40′s to early 50′s, who are heading toward a new season in our lives, who want to remain healthy and fit to live a life of adventure and refuse to grow ‘old’ gracefully?

I know those women exist somewhere. If this is you, please let me know!

Finding Clean Eating

One of my goals for 2012 is to be more consistent with my workouts and my clean eating. Last March, I stumbled upon clean eating as I was preparing to fit into the dress I wore to my son’s wedding in June.

(Honestly, finding a classy-looking dress that didn’t look like it was made for my grandmother was quite a challenge, but that’s another blog post!)

What is Clean Eating and Why?

Clean eating is a way of eating that nature intended. You eat the foods that help your body perform at its best. Basically, if it’s in a box, it’s not clean eating. Clean eating is not to be confused with a raw foods diet, though, and clean eating is NOT a diet… it’s a lifestyle.

When you eat clean, you eat more often and you combine foods so that your blood-sugar levels stay stable and you’re not hungry, and it works. (I looked pretty damn good in that dress for my son’s wedding, if I say so myself!)

Why Clean Eating?

I LOVE clean eating mostly because it’s normal food I can buy in the regular supermarket. I don’t have to buy anything I can’t pronounce and it’s food that fits right into our grocery budget.

Many of the recipes can be prepared for the whole family, so I don’t have to worry about cooking separate meals for Emily.

I don’t have to count anything! My life is hectic enough without having to count calories, fat, carbs, etc., etc., etc. Who has time for that? Not me! Clean eating uses portion sizes instead.

My Clean Eating Journal

So, I decided that for 2012, I’m going to keep a journal of my clean eating and workouts right here on this blog. If figure it will hold me accountable to my health goals of 2012 AND maybe by blogging my journey, it will help you, too.

I was doing really great from March until about August. Then, life happened.. we moved in September, business got crazy busy, the holidays just showed up and slowly but surely, I got away from consistent clean eating and my running.

So, here I am. I haven’t decided if I’ll journal every day or just once a week. I don’t have a scale, so I won’t be weighing in. I’m on a journey of a healthy lifestyle (and dropping a size or two) so that I can continue to live my life with passion and purpose and enjoy all of God’s blessings from above.

I’ll be sharing the stumbling blocks as well as my successes, resources, recipes and ideas.

Till next time, I’ll see you then!

Best,

It had its ups and downs, yet there was something truly special about 2011. It was the year that defined where I, my family and my business are headed into this next season of my life.

I got to thinking about all the amazing relationships and people I’ve met this year and how different things are than this time last year.

I also started thinking about the toxicity in my life. You know… toxic friends, toxic family members and toxic business associates. Essentially, the people that suck the fun out of life. They figure if they have to be miserable, they want everybody else miserable along with them.

You know who those people are in your life. Some of them we can avoid, some of them we can’t. I learned that I can’t control what other people do. I can only control how I react to what they do.

So, I came up with my own ideas of how to deal with them and it morphed into a “Life it Too Short For…” list.

Feel free to add your own in the comments below.

Life is Too Short for..

• Holding a grudge
• Being judgemental
• Not having fun
• Letting it (life) define you vs. you defining your life
• Dreaming small
• Letting other people tell you how to live
• Drama
• Allowing toxic people to effect your life
• Allowing fear to rule over your decisions
• Not taking risks
• Wondering ‘what if?’
• Waiting for the perfect moment to…. (there are no perfect moments)

and that’s what I came up with so far. So, how about you? What are some of your ‘life is too short for…”

Come meet sports celebrities, have your child’s photo taken with Santa by Gilbert Frenn Photography, create a Christmas card and lots, lots more.

For only $10, there will be breakfast, photos with Santa (by Gilbert Frenn Photography), many local sports celebrities, Christmas card contest and lots more.

The event is Wishes in Wonderland, hosted by Dave & Busters with all proceeds directly benefiting Children’s Hospital, WI and Make-a-Wish, Foundation, WI.

Details:
Sunday, December 4, 2011 from 9:00 am – Noon
Tickets – $10.00 (2 & Under FREE)

Tickets are on sale. You can purchase them at Dave & Buster’s, Elegance Salon and Spa, or by phone at 262.785.0880

This is the 2nd annual ‘Wishes in Wonderland’ event where all time and talent is 100% donated.

Click Here for specific details:

This is an amazing cause!

The conversation was about the latest social media project she was working on with a local business networking group and how it was going to be this, that and the ‘other thing.’

It really got me thinking…

Why can’t adults build their business on the lemonade stand principle?

Why do we have to make our business so stinkin’ complicated? Is it any wonder why many people struggle for years?

Here’s what I mean…

When my daughter and her friends want to make money, they get a table out of the garage, make some signs, grab some cups, make lemonade and go around the neighborhood telling all their friends and grownups.

They sell lemonade for the day, split the profits, put the table away and everybody goes home happy.

They don’t put together an 8 hour business plan, nor do they worry about the latest & greatest social media strategy, unless you consider yelling, “Lemonade for sale!” being social and they certainly don’t worry about what anybody thinks.

It’s simple… because kids don’t know any different. They don’t know how to make it complicated. They just want to make money, they figure out a way to do it and take immediate action.

Are You Making it to Hard to sell Lemonade?

I am guilty as charged as being one who, for years, made everything in my business way too complicated than it needed to be. Why? Because I thought that’s the way you do business. Boy, was I wrong!

I don’t know about you, but I am at a point in my life where if it’s not fun, if it’s not exciting or a new adventure, then forget it. That’s not to be confused with working for it. Anything worthwhile is worth working hard for and I am definitely a ‘roll up the sleeves’ kind of gal!

However, I am not going to waste my time with the trivial garbage that bogs down so many home businesses entrepreneurs. It doesn’t have to be that way!

So, how do you simplify so you can have fun?

Next week, I’ll post some really easy tips to get you started. See you next time!

Seriously, though, think about this for a minute. If you have been “at this”, meaning your home business, for years now and are still struggling, you have got to ask yourself some serious questions why.

What’s the Difference?

Why is it that “other people” seem to “make it” and some don’t?

It’s not because of a “magic button” product, it’s not because of a “push button system” or some so-called latest and greatest tool.

Forget about “underachievers”, “the lazy way to riches” or any other lame marketing tactic that preys on your emotions.

Do you really want to be an underachiever and have people call you lazy? I didn’t think so.

Here’s the deal and pay close attention.

The difference between people who are struggling and people who are not is those who are successful made a decision to be successful by getting in the right frame of mind and ther right training.

We all have 24 hours in a day, we all have circumstances and “stuff” that comes at us every single day.

It’s what YOU decide to do with that 24 hours and how YOU react to those circumstances which decides if you will move forward or stay behind.

A Simple Decision

That’s it. A simple decision to do whatever it takes to be successful.

It doesn’t matter how tall you are, how pretty you are or the kind of childhood you had. There are thousands of stories of famous and not-so famous people who decided to overcome their adversity.

I know you have a dream, a gift, a passion. If you’re still struggling and are looking for a way to get ‘unstuck’, I’d like to introduce you to my business coach. You may have already heard of her, you may not. All I know is that she’s the real deal and has the results to prove her training works.

So, what is stopping YOU?

Life isn’t a dress rehersal. This is the real deal, folks. You either make the decision NOW or you don’t. One day, you’re going to wake up at 75 or 80 years old and the last thing you want to say to yourself is, “I wish I would have…”

You can either create results or create excuses.

Are you fired up yet? I hope so because I know I am.

So, what’s it going to be?

Just go to www.DaniJohnson.com and get her 3 free videos.

Go there right now and don’t waste any more time. I promise you won’t regret it!

WOW! Has it been 10 years already? Where did the time go?

It seems like just yesterday that my daughter was in a baby carrier on my lap while I typed away on the computer.

Now, she’s a 10 year old pre-teen who has her own aspirations of becoming a young entrepreneur.

Techno-Challenged

Ten years ago, Mark Zuckerberg and his Facebook friends were still in high school, most of us were on AOL dial-up and a tweet was still something that only birds did.

Back then, I knew absolutely nothing about how to build a website and resources to learn (in language that I could understand!) were non-existent.

Today, we don’t build just a website, we create a web presence… big difference.

My, how times have changed!

What Makes Your Heart Sing?

What I did know, though, was that I saw other people making it work, so I knew that I could, too.

It takes tenacity to keep moving forward through the roller-coaster of emotions when building a business.

However, when you discover what makes your heart sing, you are willing to stop at nothing to make it work. That’s what I really want to address today and ask you…

What Makes You Come Alive?

Before you start building a blog or filling in your Facebook profile or describing yourself on LinkedIn… before all of that, there’s more… so much more that will drive every action you take, every email you send, every post you make.

What is it that keeps you up at night that you can’t stop thinking about?

See, before you join any company or start your own business, build a website or even create a fan page, what is it that you can’t stop thinking about?

I truly believe that everyone has been given a gift that has been placed upon their heart, their calling, if you will. It’s that one thing that you were born to do.

So, as we head into the latter part of 2011, I want to ask you to seriously consider this thought….

Maybe your current company isn’t working the way you thought it would. Maybe you’re stuck at what to write on your blog, or perhaps you’re overwhelmed by all the ‘how to’ social media.

Or maybe…. just maybe you’re not following your true calling.

Perhaps you already know what makes your heart sing. Maybe you’re still searching. For many of us, it’s a journey of discovery to finally realize what we were born to do.

It’s different for every one of us, but once you find it, you’ll feel like an eagle that can soar!

That’s what success is all about, your business, your way.

So tell me, what makes YOUR heart sing?

I know that sounds silly, doesn’t it? “But, Patty, of course babies don’t think about walking, they just do it!” (hmmm… sound familiar?)

Babies instinctively crawl, roll over, stand, walk and run. They instinctively do everything until adults put limits on what they can and can not do.

Which brings me to this…

What Limits Do You Place on Yourself?

I remember years ago, I swore I would never be in a position that paid me only with commissions on sales. Me? A sales person? No stinkin’ way!

Today, my business is built on achieving an income by either products I promote or services I provide.

How’s that for irony?

All That Matters are Results

So, going back to babies just ‘thinking’ about walking… they would never walk if didn’t take that first step all they did was think about it.

Ever watch a baby giggle after they fall down when learning how to walk? They don’t give up, do they? They keep going and going and going until they get the end result…walking across the room to the waiting arms of mom or dad.

Results are all that matter!

Stop Thinking and Just DO

I am guilty as charged for doing a lot of thinking and not taking enough action, especially in my business, but not any more. I’m so excited about new challenges and adventures that I’ll be diving into in the coming weeks!

How did I move past the ‘thinking’ stage? I started plugging into DaniJohnson.com several weeks ago an all I can say is WOW!

I’d love for you to walk on this journey with me, too! What challenges are you facing that you spend too much time thinking about and not enough time taking action to create results?

We can get there together if you’re ready to do.

If you have naysayers in your life, then this post is for you.

You know the ones I’m talking about. Those are the people who scoff at you starting your own business and say things like, “Oh, nobody buys that stuff any more” or “You’ll never make money at that” or “That’s just one of those ‘things’ that never work.”

They are the ones who try to squelch your dreams.

I call them toxic people, people who would rather whine and complain than actually do something about their circumstances.

My neighbor has had her own business since she was a college student. Ten years later, and she is now a wife and mom of 2 young children and has a very solid business.

It’s a good thing, too. Her husband is a local police officer and about a year ago, the police dept. was disbanded and outsourced to the county sheriff’s department.

Police officers don’t just go get another job. They go through a somewhat lengthy process to apply to other departments and that’s really only if there are any openings.

Regardless of how long you’ve been at your job or how secure you think it is, nobody is indispensable.

You have got to get in the mindset of doing whatever it takes to secure your own financial security, because there is no job or government program that is going to do it for you.

I am sure my friend has had naysayers in her life. However, she makes no excuses to make sure that she does whatever she needs to do in order to feed her family.

So, yes, having your own business works.. in more ways than one. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen as long as you put in the effort to make your business work.

Are you willing to do what it takes and ignore the naysayers in your life?

This isn’t going to be a very long post because it doesn’t need to be. Actually, it’s probably going to be the shortest blog post I’ve ever written.

Here’s the Deal

YOU were designed for greatness. YOU were designed to do amazing things on this earth! You will be amazed what you can accomplish in 84 days when you do one simple thing.

Just make a decision to stop settling for mediocrity and start living your life by design.

Can you challenge yourself to change just ONE thing in your life in 84 days? Of course you can! Make a decision, step up, invest in yourself and take action.