Self Improvement in Home Improvement

In this story, Annemarie is actually me, the author. My life was changing in amazing ways, in fact I was attracting success in areas I wasn’t even aware I had thought possible.

I had found my dream man, was enjoying the luxury of working from home and doing what I am born to do. I was also moving into the fabulous new apartment I had fantasised about as I passed by it looking at its For Sale sign every day for nearly a year.

Faced with the thrill of planning the interior design of my new home, the next block in my unconscious which had been withholding my divine prosperity revealed itself when I began to look for furniture and fittings.

I reiterate as I do with everything I write that everything on the outside along with how we describe it, use it and feel about it is a mirrored reflection of the dynamics of our subconscious. Asking the key question why about everything we do and own provides answers that years of self development and improvement can leave wanting.

That said, the process of buying our furniture was the process of “finding things to create comfort and happiness within myself” as my home is a metaphor for how I perceive and live within myself. Furthermore my partner gave me free reign which demonstrates that my husband (expression of my male (power)) trusts me to ‘build’ a comfortable me.

Observe what happens.  Watch how a powerful healing opportunity to life long self-sabotaging behaviour presents itself and how, once SEEN, can be eradicated so simply.

Self Improvement begins, but what do I buy?

I was staring at a blank canvas. Aside from the office (which I knew my partner would monopolise, fill with his boy’s toys and essentially fight for a colour scheme based on black and silver), I was excited about planning and designing another four beautiful high ceiling, classical and elegant rooms.

I was excited by the freedom to be creative especially as I was passionate about interior design and more importantly money was no option!

I had an idea of what I wanted already and set about looking for the essential items first; furniture, carpets and light fittings.

With a blank canvas, complete freedom to do what I wanted and plenty of money, this should be a breeze right?

I started with the LIGHT fittings (clearly light is a priority focus within me). I scoured the internet and found some gorgeous lamps in the U.S. I loved them because they were very UNIQUE and very ATTRACTIVE.

Having noted and listed them all in terms of what I wanted to order I then moved on to the FURNITURE. I wanted items that were both ELEGANT to match the chandaliers and high ceilings and were COMFORTABLE and perveyed HARMONY.

I was also aware that I wanted to keep the rooms clear of clutter and when it came to the dining room (AREA OF NOURISHMENT) I opted to keep the room simple with a BIG BOLD dining table that was STRONG and the main focus.

As I couldn’t find anything big and bold enough off the shelf so to speak I opted to have the table MADE TO ORDER. We knew about a shop that is passionate about wood and sculpts all manner of furniture to order.

When the table finally came it was exactly what I wanted and it really made the room. My partner was also wild about it; it was a roaring success.

Then I decided on two carpets.

One carpet was for the sitting room (CORE/CENTRE) which was big and needed a carpet to CONNECT the furniture together otherwise people sitting on the sofas felt too far from each other and disconnected.

The second carpet was for the dining room (NOURISHMENT AREA) which was to be the centre piece under the dining table and chairs.

I felt attracted to persian designs and surfed through hundreds of websites looking at carpets until my vision started to blur. That alone should have told me that some ‘discomfort’ was starting to creap in!

I was starting to observe that this process was starting to take A HUGE AMOUNT OF TIME and even my partner asked me what was taking me so long to decide. 

Once I had decided and wanted to order items I discovered that everything I had ordered was NOT AVAILABLE. I had chosen items IN OTHER COUNTRIES (outside myself) which meant that lamps were not compatible with the power outage where I lived in Denmark and the carpets were almost double the price to import!

I was so frustrated I burst into tears.

The key to releasing my success and more prosperity 

As I had planned my home (new version of myself) what I needed to change came to light.

I realised that I was still ‘looking for things outside of myself to cement my unique, attractive, elegant, comfortable self’. More specifically, that by looking for LIGHT (true self as we are originally light intelligence), I was creating a conflict with my POWER OUTAGE.

Furthermore, in looking outside of myself for laying foundations in myself (carpets) it had been costing me double (the price of the import duty).

I also observed that whilst I like “strong, simple and bold” I was not actually living out that truth. The process of homing myself in reality was still “long and complicated which brought about exhaustion and frustration!”

I also had learned that in terms of my nourishment process (dining room) it was important for me to decide what I wanted and not ACCEPT WHAT’S ON OFFER. It was time to live out this truth within me.

Once I saw this I knew what to do.

I realised that this process of creating a home was mirroring the process of creating and cementing the person I really felt I was. The only way to solve it was to complete this process more quickly, smoothly and more importantly, heal the main issue; I had to shop in my own country (from inside myself not outside!).

I know that anything physical in my life is actually my ‘mind in action’ broken down into particles of energy and that by playing with the physical I would in fact, reprogramme my mind in the same way.

Instant Self Development and Healing

I told my partner that I was going shopping at a store (which in fact was only a bus ride away). I told him that I would head over there and asked if he could join me later with the car to bring back some accessories which I anticipated buying.

I hasten to add here that I had no idea what was in the store so this was a decision based on trust that I would find what I wanted. I was tempted to go online and surf the store but I knew there was a possibility I would linger again and allow myself to procrastinate.

Within an hour or so I had ordered about $20,000 worth of items. I was shocked at not only how much I liked and enjoyed what I ordered but how I actually chose items completely opposite to what I had been looking at before (what a surprise).

Everything in the sitting room (CORE/CENTRE) gelled wonderfully and a good test was to see how people behaved when they visited. They would often put their feet up and curl up on the sofa and I knew this was a sign that people felt comfortable; I knew that if people were comfortable then it was evidence that I was comfortable within herself.

This new home gave rise to many important changes in my life although it took the realisation about the carpet I had chosen for the sitting room to help me see a self-sabotaging belief that now needed to be dissolved which you can hear about in this video clip.

The opportunities we have to unleash our success and eradicate blocks and contradictions withholding our divine prosperity are right under our noses. The solutions are more simple and more easily cemented into our reality than we realise.

If you haven’t already tapped into YOUR GENIUS VISION to see all YOUR answers, I would love you to have this resource and encourage you to download a copy of Home Your Wealth and start your life transformation today.

I feel sure it will get you all excited to read Power Surge too and revolutionise the way you live on a daily basis; it will stop you feeling out of control and have you realise that just as perhaps your instincts or the hoards of self development resources told you, you do in fact hold all the answers and can attract everything you want without needing anything more. Isn’t that the peace and happiness you really want?

Click here to find a quick list of Annemarie’s Articles

Jane’s Story – Key to her Prosperity

This story demonstrates how to take one simply project within a business and see clearly how we cause the circumstances we do. Jane’s story demonstrates that behind the seemingly insignificant situations, our answers are staring us in the face LITERALLY.

As you read the story do your best not to focus on the details so much as sitting back and seeing the story more as a metaphor of what was happening inside Jane’s unconscious mind. Look at the words in red to help you shape the metaphor.

Once upon a time there was a shoe store owner called Jane whose business was called The Unbelievable Shoe Store.

This shop was located on a very quiet side street about 30 metres off the main shopping street in the centre of a major thriving city. Furthermore, when you looked at Jane’s shop it was not obvious it was a shoe store as the window was essentially full of handbags with the odd shoe next to it!

One day Jane decided that she wanted to increase the prosperity of the business and so she decided to hire someone to improve her sales on the internet. The person she decided to employ was Paul whom she observed and felt confident that Paul knew what he is doing proven by his own prosperity on the internet.

The advice Paul gave Jane was to build a new online shop as it was actually easier to rebuild a new strong foundation that included flexibility to expand in the future rather than try to work with her old shop as it is.

Paul also advised Jane that she will get what she pays for when she invests on the internet (as the internet is a precise mirror of the physical world) and if she decides on choosing a cheaper option then she will not save in the long run.

The project began (with the procurement of a cheaper webbuilding option).

The project continued to hit problem after problem due to miscommunication, confusion and insecurity as Jane was withholding access of passwords etc. to facilitators so they could do the work for Jane without having to use up Jane’s time and focus.

The project’s deadlines came and went and although Jane had paid the investment it was still not bearing fruit. She was still working with the old shop online and though the structure of the new shop was coming along it was fraught with problems.

When Paul called Jane to see how things were progressing, he could tell that Jane was very upset and she didn’t want to talk about it. Paul called her on it and enquired “What exactly is the problem, what is holding things up now?”

Jane said that the webmaster was having problems integrating the fields for the new shop’s database with the old shop.

Paul made it clear to Jane that these must be resolved and a solution must be agreed upon otherwise all the investment in terms of time, money and energy is wasted. Jane was too frustrated to resolve it and instead went on to talk to Paul about employing his services in some other activities to increase the business until this was finished.

Paul made it clear to Jane that she was trying to sidetrack her own goals. Goals that would flourish if she completed the project. Paul was very keen to see Jane succeed. One of the reasons why he accepted the brief was because he saw Jane’s potential in the business and so encouraged her to stick with the strategy he foresaw would do just that.

Meanwhile Jane turned her focus onto other things, one of which included flying spending thousands of dollars flying to the other side of the globe to attend a healing and transformation course.

Seven months after the deadline and having made a large investment, the project was still unfinished and the new shop still a work in progress.

The Solution to Jane’s Hidden Prosperity

No activity, conversation or relationship in our life is random or coincidence. ‘We bring to us that which we are’ but because it is disguised, we can’t see how to retrieve what is of value and what is unfruitful and oftentimes we simply assume that the ‘stuff happens‘.

Jane’s story starts with a business that is UNBELIEVABLE.

Whilst you may have assumed another impression on “The Unbelievable Shoe Store” and immediately read into the name ‘An amazing shoe store, perhaps bigger, more interesting or better priced than others’, the truth is that all words ‘put into action’ the instruction of their meaning.

In the case of the name of Jane’s store this is “a store that is not believable!” or to be precise (as Belief means “to have confidence and faith in”) The Shoe Store that has no confidence or faith.

Taking a more realistic view of the shop name now you can see that Jane declared a statement. “The Shoe Store containing lack of confidence and faith”. That said I can imagine that Jane has had to work extra hard for any success and possibly why she wanted to save money on the shop update.

Jane has probably had to invest much more on every level that she would otherwise have had to. In fact Jane is a successful business woman so it is very exciting to ponder how much more fruitful she could have been if the mission had been more clearly intended in the first place.

Before you get sidetracked into protesting that you can’t just change the name, I agree and it is not necessary. That would be like saying “Dear God, I have the wrong name of my Birth Certificate, just knock me down and have me be born again and start from scratch”. If that were the case I would have been erased long ago!”

So if you have an Unbelievable Shoe Store then this would explain why the shop was on a side street away from the CENTRE OF THRIVING LIFE and the evidence of its lack of confusion and faith was evidenced in its front window in that what is was supposedly selling was not obvious. The lack of confidence and faith was now filtering through to the shop front just as the law of attraction dictates.

Perhaps you are already starting to see how the detail in what we do is significant and what we intend within what we do must be clear because it will either taint everything we touch or prosper everything we touch.

It comes as no surprise that Jane wanted to increase her shop’s sales. She trusted her instincts and opted for Paul whom she had concluded had proven results. As Jane has already proven herself a successful business woman, it was prudent of her to trust her instincts. The reality is that all our answers are often other people talking back to us but because they are separate we don’t claim the glory of accepting our own wisdom and genius.

Paul started a project transforming the dynamic of Jane’s OLD shop online into a NEW shop online but what ensued was full of confusion and mistrust. A couple of issues presented themselves which lead to ‘a problem integrating the OLD with the NEW’.

Many issues were caught up in this slow-down… namely choosing a cheaper option and therefore the webmaster was not the rightly qualified servicer, holding back access to passwords so people could get the job down without disturbing an already busy Jane, and confusion in the communication of the original project. All of these issues originate from a place of lack of confidence and faith!

I am guessing that Jane concluded that another expensive healing course would fix things. I guess she figured that when she came back she would be armed with a magic solution and everything would somehow have changed. Perhaps she felt she needed something extra when Jane had already proven herself a genius! I confess that I have been around the mountain a few times in this regard.

What actually presented itself to Jane with this new venture was an opportunity to ‘heal the lack of confidence’ and the only way to do it was to complete the transition from the old to the new shop.

This project was the physical manifestation of the belief systems within Jane’s unconscious mind and by focusing everything she had on completing this would have opened up a new chapter. Jane herself chose the ‘advisor’ and Paul advised the new shop so this is what Jane’s own instincts were telling her. If Jane hadn’t felt good about Paul and chosen him anyway then she would have been going against her instincts so what ensued would not have been successful.

The beauty of Jane’s story is that it is a perfect example of what we all do on a daily basis but that’s because we don’t necessarily know that what is happening outside is telling us what is happening inside and if we translate what we see using the words in the situation (precisely as they are uttered), we are able to see clearly what we need to do to flourish and cause a life transformation.

There is always a solution in every problem we face. It is a spiritual law. The Law of Polarity states that everything that exists has an exact and equal opposite. So where a problem exists, so lies the solution.

Jane’s story demonstrates how our mission in any given task, if not defined clearly, corrupts everything related to it to the exact same degree whether that be a business mission, a specific project or what we intend from a relationship.

Jane started out with an Unbelievable Shoe Store. From the onset it was clear that everything was going to cause circumstances not to become all that it could be.

The name caused the shop front to become visually another type of shop;

The name caused the shop to be located alongside the major thriving centre of life (close but still not on it!) which means that Jane (wether she was conscious of it or not would often have felt so much potential and yet frustrated that it never came to fruition the way her intuition was telling her was possible).

When she wanted to ‘upgrade’, the same dynamic expressed itself in the new online shop database in that it could not integrate with the old. It meant that somewhere in Jane’s subconscious there was a resistance about this transition. The new represented ‘improved confidence’ and so the resistance showed up in this project literally mirroring Jane’s mind.

In fact you could probably examine deeper and predict that the staff were also causing problems and when looked at more closely any disappointment would have originated out of ‘lack of confidence and faith’; maybe people were employed who were actually doing the wrong job because they didn’t feel they could do the job they were actually good at?

What could Jane do to power up her success?

So given these circumstances and not being able to just knock down the shop or easily move the location what could Jane have done to improve her success?

The New Online Shop Project

I explained earlier that as far as the project goes Jane needed to bridge and solve the ‘integration’ of the shop problem to a successful conclusion. The integration problem was within Jane’s subconscious and therefore if she resolved the outward expression of this disconnection she would in fact heal the integration within her mind.

However, going back to the source of the mission of the business which started with the naming of the shop this is what Jane can do to create a viral effect of prosperity and healing.

Shop Name

Jane could include on her site, shop window and merchandising a clear statement that COMPENSATES and REINSTATES the lack of ‘confidence and belief’ inherent in her business.

Keep in mind what I said that what happens in the physical is simply the outward expression of our minds and if we want to ‘cement’ a truth into reality we have to play with the physical objects, words etc. to mould them into what we clearly intend.

Jane could have addressed the ‘unbelievable’ with a statement like:

“The Unbelievable Shoe Store, the perfect place to find your perfect shoe.”

I have just taken an impulsive stab on one idea but you can see that the statement that is added includes confidence and faith. It redresses the energy instigated by ‘unbelief’.

If Jane did not believe in the statement she starts cementing into her promotional material then this would not be appropriate.

I suspect that this change would bring about a more fruitful business. This could manifest in many ways. It could mean that suddenly:

• more customers are hearing about her shop;
• a satisfied customer with a large customer list recommended Jane’s newsletter and her subscriptions have increased wildly;
• it could mean that the shop could actually change location and suddenly a lucrative location becomes available at a great price;
• she suddenly has an influx of new staff who are worth their weight in gold, etc. etc.

We cannot predict how our minds change the fibre of our circumstances but if we take control over what we see happening and re-programme it the way we want, we can be confident that what happens will be in alignment with the intention defined in the changes we made.

In Jane’s case it was to cement ‘belief’ and eradicate the ‘unbelief’ which meant this would have had a viral effect in every activity in the business from the shop window through to the accountant the business attracts. It would have cleared up the effects of “no confidence”.

Every aspect of our lives can be powered up and transformed by looking into the detail of what we are saying. Looking at what we are intending with the use of words… anything from what we chat about to the name of our company or what nickname we give to our car!

Uncover the destruction under your nose tainting everything your touch by taking a closer look into your Home and Office Spaces.

Getting Perspective for Online Business Success

Since the development of the World Wide Web considerably more businesses are conducting business online and like all new developments in life it can be many years before the realities of benefits and liabilities are realised.

Both my partner and I have been entrepreneurs now for fifteen years and we had some fabulously lucrative ventures and some serious learning curves which have been financially cripelling.

In the course of pursuing our businesses, we have had the opportunity to work with hundreds of entrepreneurs involved in startup and running a business which has given us some very valuable insights.

The most shocking breakthrough was looking at my own website and suddenly realising it was not even clear what I was doing for visitors!

Whilst being busy with other people’s business I had failed to focus on my own website and was doing the very thing that I had observed in many business owners.

I realised that the intention and mission of my business was not only unclear, a customer’s needs were not being met within that initial ten seconds of visiting my site. In short, I was not objective enough to see why it was a miracle my site was selling any products at all!

To this end I have provided the perspective below for you to become detached enough to gain a clear perspective from your prospective customers’ point of view and be more effective online before looking for ways to drive thousands more visitors to your site.

Please don’t shy away from reading on because of any irritations at the thought of making changes. I fully understand your position and have endeavoured to get you to look at the site carefully to make sure you see a few simple moves that can have the most impact as I will demonstrate with my example.

The Most Effective Online Perspective

Although a business is operating online the fundamental buying motivations and needs of customers are still the same. What has changed though is that people have less time and they can flit from one webpage to another with the click of a button.

It is time to stop distractions, stop buying into all kinds of business solutions which we believe will address the core problem which is converting visitors into customers when a simple but fundamental change in perspective can trouble-shoot very clearly a few moves that can address the site’s inadequacies.

It is time to see the solution in what you have already which is the focus of my whole teaching… unhappiness reigns in the world generally because we have all moved too far away from our mission.

This is the same for businesses with the introduction of the internet and the onset flood of differing opinions, ideas, views, sources of information and our ability to dip our heads into everyone else’s business so easily.

Adjust Your Vision

If you have a business online then the most successful perspective I encourage you to adopt is to start seeing your business as a highstreet shop.

Exercise

• Open up a browser of your website and imagine yourself as a prospective customer.
• As I have demonstrated in the picture below. Observe only what you can see onscreen without scrolling or clicking anywhere. Now, whilst sitting looking at the online page imagine this picture embedded into a bricked building on the high street.

• Keeping your eye on the webpage and imaging it is a shop you are standing infront of, ask yourself these questions (which you would want satisfying as a customer yourself):

Can I immediately see what this shop is selling?
Is it attractive and inviting, would I go in or is it boring and distracting?

This is a very important point to focus on, when you are walking along the high street you have the benefit of a third and fourth dimensional aspect of a shop in that you can:

1. Look through the window and see what they are also selling apart from the front window;

2. You can get a feel inside of the atmosphere by seeing how many people are in there, the attitude of the shop assistant, the quality of the shop etc.

With an online shop/webpage you are basing your purchasing decision on that space you first click on and the window of focus is usually a maximum of 10 seconds.

With regard to shops on the high street people will stay longer because the physical effort they imagine in going somewhere else motivates them to ponder a little longer but not when it is so easy to just click the mouse and go somewhere else.

Can I see how to buy easily (and have you actually tested your buying process to see how easy and obvious it is)?

One classic example of this is putting up a picture of a book and assuming that the customer knows to click on the picture. Never assume!

Can I see the owner (in other words is the contact page in an obvious place on the menu bar of the bottom of the page and do I have a name)?

If your shop is a book store, is it selling books or selling everything else. (Remember how attractive a book store looks on the high street; it is usually oozing books in the window and not adverts for other shop owners products or full of DVDs, movies etc.).

Have you identified and climbed into the hearts and minds of your prospective customer to know their needs, values and attitudes?

Examples:

• If your market is predominantly men do you have a ‘search’ button. The search button is effectively a ‘Shop Assistant’ and men generally want to go straight to the product as fast as possible, pay and get out.
• If your market is predominantly women do you observe whether your site/promotional material is colourful, vibrant and allows them to ‘shop around’ looking at/reading things. Women have more patience and will still walk miles back to the first shop they went in if it has what they want. If your shop satisfies their needs they will come back to you.
• You want to help Joe Average become a Millionnaire. You already know that:

1. He will probably have low self-esteem; it is fair to say that putting up videos of a perfect image of you in an Armani suit and sparkling white teeth WITHOUT instantly connecting with him enough to let him know that you know how to cry, be scared, be overweight, out of control, in debt etc., is not going to leave him feeling he can become what you are promoting.
2. This front page must provide a connection with him in a way that Joe can see himself benefiting from your product/service.
3. He will have to make changes in his life and so you do not need to take care of every detail for him. If you have a simple request for his name and email and he doesn’t want to go there then he is saying that he is not serious so no need to try to make it easier for him (great intention but you cannot compensate for the part the customer has to play). Keep in mind whether you are helping the customer – don’t try to sell him anything just because you can make a sale.

Simple and Effective Solution

As a business owner I appreciate the investment you make online and how once a web business is established it is not so easily changed. Either because of finances or because the good will of traffic and Google’s relationship has been established and so not wise to disturb what has been built up.

With these challenges in mind I realised that without having to re-create my site which would mean reproducing a huge amount of pages I decided that I had to find a way to address the needs of my prospective customers very effectively and simply right now.

A website is essentially the same as a bricked building in terms of investment and effort in that you can’t just take down a site and build a new one, there are costly consequences so we have to be smart and think before acting.

When I looked at my own site I realised that if I clearly added a Mission Statement I could compensate for some inadequacies. As my site was colourful I had to make the Mission very bold and recognisable instantly. I also added ‘Click’ text to my books and removed any links that was not relevant to my customers.

I realised that the confusion within my site was dynamically the confusion within me. It doesn’t matter how clear we are within our minds, the outside world must match what we want to achieve. It’s one thing to be aware of something but it is another to have that awareness put into practice in a physical way.

In fact, this clear mission statement alone lead to a whole new level of my life. The repercussions were tenfold; it birthed three new books, a whole new Online Center which I am now building and cleared up contradictions that had been withholding success in so many areas.

When I sat down and focused I realised that I had known for a while that I was very dissatisfied with my website as it was and when I started undertaking changes I began to feel the full truth of how often I had been running the words “…it’s not good enough, it’s not going to sell” through my mind.

Conclusion

• Start by writing out your Mission Statement if you haven’t already.
• Make sure you do the exercise above with your website(s) and see where you can make simple adjustments to address any points I raised earlier.
• Don’t give control to webbuilders or designers in that they will only be as effective as your brief. Furthermore, many webdesigners/builders can be employees and don’t know the true value of your invested money. When undertaking web services make sure those assisting you dig into who you are, your values, your mission, your market, your intended goals etc.

So many business owners whom I have have helped with mockups have no idea what they want at the onset but are happy to tell you what they don’t want once you spend days building something. Everyone’s time is wasted. In the past we have spent tens of thousands of dollars to have a project done and key questions have never been asked from us so we paid the price of not being in control as Project Managers of our business; it was our fault.

• Before investing in business online or undertaking more projects stop and think. It is time to slow down, get clear and shut out the distraction and insane amount of information from your world. Simply climb into the shoes of the customer and see your webpage from their perspective. Test your site with people around you who you know to be prospective customers but don’t ask people’s opinion because they will always have one and it will probably contradict yours every time!
  
• You are the genius in your business, you can get all kinds of help (in fact you are wise to source out any skills you are not good at) but if you are not clear about what precisely you want to achieve and are not in control of making sure what you invest in can produce the results you hoped for you will be disappointed, disillusioned and exhausted.

As much of business is now conducted online we have generally lost touch with the essential ingredients of the buying and selling process; in focusing on statistics we have lost sight of the core human aspect of a shopper.

As many new business owners have started up online the conversion from visitors to customers has stayed relatively unsuccessful causing them to look at all manner of solutions that actually could be solved by looking at the site as a human and not basing all the decisions on hearsay, statistics and what other people are doing. This is not to discredit the wealth of wonderful business helpers out there but to make sure as a business owner you are thinking about what you are doing more carefully BEFORE you make moves so you choose the most effective solutions when you invest.

Always keep in mind that a business is a mirror of the thoughts and feelings of the owner so take a look at your mission, values, passions and real goals before making any moves.

If you really want to know what is in your subconscious as opposed to what you think you are thinking, download yourself a copy of Home Your Wealth and regain control as Project Manager.