http://www.menshealth.co.uk/Nutrition/MHs-matchday-hydration-guide/v3

How often have you heard someone say “I’m working on my business”? How often have you said it? The reality is you need to be working IN your business. There is a big difference.

There are only 4 core activities involved in building a successful Networking or MLM business.

1. Selling your products

2. Selling your business opportunity

3. Training others to sell products or the business opportunity

4. Booking appointments to do 1 through 3.

That’s it. And the better you get at doing these, the more successful you will become and the more income you will make.

So what diversionary activities are you engaging in that are keeping

you stuck, or broke and preventing you from having the success you want in your networking business?

Here are some of the top distractions based on our experience:

1. Organizing your CD Collection.

2. Organizing your office and files

3. Playing an online Game

4. Watching TV

5. Listening to another “training Call” or tape

6. Honourable Mention: Calling a friend to talk to

Maybe you can recognize yourself in this list. I’m sure you can recognize others on your team or in your company.

So are you organising your CD collection instead of doing the 4 core activities above or do you just have to listen to that tape one more time so you know the sharp answer to overcome the ‘this looks like a pyramid scam to me’ objection? Or are you working on your list of goals? Or are you cutting out the picture of the Ferrari that you are going to be driving next year? Or are you getting out your spreadsheet to work out how many sales you need to make so you can be earning enough to fire your boss?

All of these things have their place. But nothing and I mean nothing is more important than doing your core activities. You do not get what you “think about” in life. You get what you earn!

The challenge that we have is that most people in MLM/Networking live the illusion that they are working in their business, when their activity is not income producing. If you are in any doubt about this have a look at your results, the only result that really matters is your volume for the month and the size of your bonus check.

The big question is this: Why do you avoid the activities that you know will benefit you?

Do you really want to know the answer to the question–or are you happy plodding along like you have been?

I base my answer on my own experience of being involved in MLM and other business settings over the past 15 years as well as having coached over 300 people over the past two years.

The reason you don’t do activities that you need to do, is that at some level: You don’t believe you are good enough or deserving enough to have the success that you want!

End of story.

I think that most people who read that statement will tend to agree.

There may be a small group who have a bit more bravado and are saying ‘no way, your wrong I am good enough and I deserve it’ If that is so, then why haven’t you done it? “Ok” you say “what about the real income producers and go-getters in the industry what are they saying the answer is?”

Answer: they are living the answer. Do you think they are even reading articles like this or are they too busy doing the 4 core steps?

Ok, But how do I start believing that I am good enough and deserving enough?

You must create experiences which reinforce that you are good enough and deserving enough. Affirmations and positive self talk don’t work by themselves. Experiences speak to us forever. Remember that.

Some action steps for you to take:

1 Identify the activities that you engage in that prevent you from doing what you need to do and being more productive. Here is a list that will help you get started.

a) Working late on your day job so you can blame your boss for not having enough time to make the calls you need to.

b) Organising your CD’s

c) Organising your prospect list

d) Research on the internet

e) Listening to CD’s

f) Reading books

g) Attending seminars

h) Reviewing your company website

i)’Googling’ your company’s name

j) Defending your company on anti MLM forums

k) ‘Googling’your upline’s name

l) Comparing your companies prices with the competition

m) Comparing your business plan with other companies

2. Tell someone about your time wasting activities and ask them to help you stop engaging in them.

3. Don’t react when that person does hold you accountable.

4. Have a Free Coaching Call with a Total Success Coach™ who will be able to help you identify the negative pattern that you have and break them.

Gavin Allinson

Total Success Coach™

Have you heard about the “Fat Man” who decided to walk across the US in order to lose weight–leaving his family behind—and camping by the roadside? You may laugh but he’s got a publishing contract, has been on the Today Show programme and next up it is Oprah.

"That’s absolutely nuts” you say.  Here is what Steve Vaught wrote about his coast-to-coast plan. "Well, maybe. But how nutty is spending a fortune on miracle weight-loss drugs or fad diets that never seem to have lasting results or dangerous surgeries that cost the same as a luxury car? Living your life without health insurance because you are considered too high-risk? What about the fact that only 3 percent of weight-loss attempts are permanently successful? What about the anxiety, depression and pain involved in everyday activities when you are fat? I don’t want to miss out on birthdays, graduations, marriages and grandkids because I chose not to take my life back. That, to me, is nuts."

His 3000 mile journey has been full of self-discovery and as much an emotional journey as a physical one.

Steve had been a marine and was in excellent shape.  I was amazed when I looked at the photo’s of him in his younger days http://tinyurl.com/heakr to see that his weight had ballooned to over 420 lbs as an adult. What I was struck by as I read the article was that he was able to trace his weight gain to a specific event. When he was twenty he was in a car accident in which he struck and killed two elderly pedestrians.  This lead to years of being depressed and comfort eating that resulted in massive weight gain. Along the way he got himself a job and got married and had two gorgeous kids.

The turning point for Steve in his battle with his weight was when he realised that he was out of breath walking across the supermarket. He realised that he would die if he did not do something about it. Just at the point that his kids would need him, he wouldn’t be there– ‘ what type of a coward does that’ he asked himself.

At the time of writing this in March 2006 he has completed over 2500 miles with just 500 to go, and he has lost 114lbs. But that is not his greatest victory: He has stopped taking his antidepressants and he is happy again.

When I read stories like this my role as a Total Success Coach™ comes to the fore and I try and work out why people become like this.  In Steve Vaught’s case my opinion is that he stopped living since the tragic accident which was a traumatic event in his life. 

The cynic might say that traumatic events like this happen to people all the time and that’s no excuse to start eating yourself to death or drinking alcohol to excess or taking drugs to numb the pain. I would have to agree, but what happens is that if people don’t have a supportive family or group of friends, it is easy to start the downward cycle into depression and self loathing.  That support structure is vital in helping the individual see what it is that they are doing to themselves and hold them accountable for being the person that they are not the person they think they are because of one bad decision.

What I admire about what Steve is doing is that he is no longer refusing to play the role of victim rather he is taking charge of his life.  For all the years he has felt badly about himself and what he did, he now he is adding countless positive experiences to redress the balance.  I’m sure he will become a hero to many for his ability to change his life by choosing to value himself.

Where would you be in your life if you truly were able to get over all the “bad mistakes” you’ve made and were to launch forward powerfully in your life without guilt and remorse?

A worthy question isn’t it?

Gavin Allinson is a Total Success Coach™  with www.totalsuccessinstitute.com

To start moving powerfully forward in your life sign up for a Total Success Coaching™ Call test-drive at no expense to you.