I used to believe it.  Because, after all, shouldn’t those running successful businesses and making millions of dollars know what it takes?

But as I struggled, my experience made me doubt the accuracy of this 90/10 rule.

I did all of the mindset stuff right.  I made it 90% of my focus.  And I was good.   Affirmations, meditations, visualizations . . . I was a 24/7 living, breathing picture of success.  In my mind.

Reality, however, was different.

The method wasn’t that big of a deal, right?  So I picked a supposed “proven method” and I did it.  Exactly as I was told.  Step-by-step.

I stuck with it.  Invested (or wasted?) lots of money, and time.

I didn’t achieve success.

Some people will say my mindset must have been wrong.  Or that I didn’t give it long enough.

But I struggled in this same spot for nearly a year.  Thinking my day would come.  In fact, knowing my day would come.  100% convinced.

Things really turned around for me when I started doing more and thinking less.  When I did more method and less mindset.

I began to question why the 90/10 rule hadn’t worked for me.  I believed and trusted those who preached it.

And, I’ve come to realize that those who preach it believe it too.  No one was intentionally trying to mislead me.

I think for them, it is 90/10.  Because once you have your “method” down, it is easy.

And then it really becomes about getting your head around the money, scaling your business, becoming not just a person who’s figured out how to do it.  Becoming a person who can successfully grow and sustain a profitable business.

It makes me wonder what comes first.  Do you develop a positive mindset because you are successful?  Or are you successful because you’ve developed a positive mindset?

The answer is neither.  While I have definitively concluded that success is not 90% about mindset, I also know that you can’t achieve success without the proper mindset.

On average, maybe it’s 50/50.  For some people, maybe 60/40 in favor of mindset.  For others, 60/40 in favor of method.

The specific numbers don’t really matter.

The lesson is – don’t just sit around visualizing your success for 2 hours and then working on your website for 15 minutes.

Thinking that the method doesn’t really matter is like saying any map will do when you set off on a trip from LA to New York.

As a disclaimer, I must say that I agree with Jim Rohn’s advice that you should work harder on yourself than you do on your job.

This may seem inconsistent.  But I think Mr. Rohn’s advice suggests something far different than much of the personal growth advice I hear these days.  I’ll explain why later.

JENNIFER HERNDON is a work at  home mom with three fabulous kids.  She has been enjoying the time freedom and financial benefits of working at home for over 12 years.  Jennifer’s passion is empowering others to personal and business success through a positive mindset and consistent action.

Don’t put it off until tomorrow.  Start your success journey today with Jim Rohn’s One Year Success Plan.

But more likely, a hospital?  Or a Department of Revenue office?  (Where you’ve just been lucky enough to pull number “99″ and look up to see that they are now serving number “36.”)

What do all of these places have in common?  They are generally all very “low energy” places.  People are grumpy, unpleasant, downright mean.

This can be said of almost any place where either

(1) there’s a long line,

(2) most people are physically or mentally not well, and/or

(3) people are being asked to part with their money without getting anything they really want in return.

The collective energy in these places is so low that you could come in having just won the lottery and leave depressed and angry.

But I have discovered a way to change all this.

To make everyone happy.  Or at least everyone you come in contact with.  And that’s all that really matters, right?

The secret is to simply . . . smile.  You’ll be amazed at what looking someone in the eye, smiling at her, and saying “thank you” will do for a person’s attitude and behavior.

Think about your life experiences.

From restaurants to gas stations to grocery stores, the employees are universally indifferent towards us customers, at best.

My usual experience with those in the “customer service” arena is that the entire encounter could occur without any words being exchanged.  I have to think that most business owners would be horrified by the number of their employees that don’t even say “thank you” to the customers.

And, for the most part, who cares?

Do you need to walk away from picking up your order at the local Chinese joint feeling all warm and fuzzy?

Probably not.  But, we have a lot of these individually insignificant encounters throughout our day.

And, at the end of the day, it feels better to have connected positively with the world.  It raises your energy level and that of everyone around you.

And, if you want to get something done, creating a positive interaction with the person who can make it happen is essential.

When I showed up at my gate at 3:24 for my 3:25 flight the other day, I knew it was going to take a lot of smiling to get the agent to re-open the door and let me on.  She was not happy to see me.

So I smiled a lot, thanked her a lot, and got on the plane.  By the end of our two minute conversation, she was actually smiling back.

Of course, some people are more challenging than others.  And I’ve found that it helps to assume that everyone is facing something tragic.

When I’m tempted to be nasty back to someone who’s “on the job,” I first tell myself — “I’d be grumpy too if I had to come here every day for just over minimum wage.”

I then run through some possible reason for such unpleasantness.

Maybe their partner just broke up with them.

Maybe a family member is critically ill.

Maybe the bank is foreclosing on their house.  Yeah, that must be it.

The point is, you don’t know what anyone else is dealing with.  Assume they really need your smile and your support today.

And ultimately, on the off chance that you don’t change the world, you’ll always feel better having smiled than having bought into someone else’s negative energy.

JENNIFER HERNDON is a work at  home mom with three fabulous kids.  She has been enjoying the time freedom and financial benefits of working at home for over 12 years.  Jennifer’s passion is empowering others to personal and business success through a positive mindset and consistent action.

Discover why personal growth is the foundation to your business and personal success in Jennifer’s free mini-course, Seven Simple Success Steps.  Get started today.

I can’t count how many times I’ve done some version of a goal setting exercise.  Usually this involves writing down everything you want in your life.  And it requires that you throw aside any limiting beliefs about what’s possible for you to achieve in this life.  If you want to own a private island, write it down.

I think this is a wonderful exercise.  I continue to do it on a regular basis.

But, honestly, I had written goals for at least a couple of years without achieving one of them.  And that got rather depressing.  I did as I was told.  I wrote down everything I wanted to be, do and have.  I read the list at least twice a day.  I was a good student.

After way too much failure, here’s what I figured out.  My goals list wasn’t getting me anywhere because it was really a list of my dreams.  And it’s a beautiful and motivating list.  The thought of a first class trip to the Figi Islands with my entire family makes me work an extra hour.

But looking at that goal tells me nothing about how to attain it.  My problem was that I could read my goals list all day long and it gave me no direction as to how to get there.

What I really needed was a list of goals that would allow me to be, have and do the things I dreamed about.  So I renamed my “goals” list my “dreams” list.

And I started fresh with a new goals list.  Try this if you’re struggling with the fact that none of your goals have been checked off the list yet.  Pick an item from your newly renamed “dreams” list.  It should be something you really want to accomplish, and something that is fairly attainable.  (For example, buying a private jet may not be your first pick).

Let’s say you dream of paying off all your creditors.  That requires $5,000.  You intend to raise that money by marketing a new affiliate product.  Or starting a new “leg” in your network marketing business.  Or creating a new product.  Whatever it is, it becomes your goal.

Each step it takes to get there becomes a goal.  Make a list of every step you’ll need to take to generate $5000 in sales from your new affiliate product — create a landing page, write some review articles, test a ppc campaign, create a bonus for your buyers, etc.

Put a deadline on each of these goals.  As you meet your goals, you’ll find yourself checking things off your dreams list.  And you can start to pick bigger and bigger dreams.  And write goals to meet those dreams.

Someday it will become a matter of just living the life of your dreams, almost effortlessly.  But let’s not get ahead of ourselves . . .

JENNIFER HERNDON is a work at  home mom with three fabulous kids.  She has been enjoying the time freedom and financial benefits of working at home for over 12 years.  Jennifer’s passion is helping others on the challenging and rewarding journey of entrepreneurship.  Discover the Seven Simple Success Steps for free in Jennifer’s mini-course designed to start you on the path to personal growth and home business success.

Being the ever-conscious parent that I am, I tried to seize the moment for a “life lesson.”  I told her that she was right, with anything she wanted to do she would be become better at it with practice.

For example, if she practiced being nice, it would become easier to be nice.  (A concept that needs practicing when it comes to her 2-year-old brother).

As I made the bed, I started thinking about how true this was.  And it doesn’t just apply to gymnastics and spelling and things of the sort.  It applies to being nice, and to treating people right, and to developing positive self-talk.

Our physical body gets better at things as we practice them, as does our mind.  It’s called developing habits.  It reminds me of a story Denis Waitley tells about his work with world class athletes.

This won’t be a perfect telling of the story, but Denis talks about conducting tests where they ask the athletes to visualize running the race they are training for.  When they monitor the athlete’s body during the visualization, they find that the same muscles fire as do when they are actually running the race.

The body is so conditioned by practice that the race can be run in the mind.  The body reacts automatically.

And so does the mind.  If trained properly.  Let’s look at a simple example.  Someone cuts you off in traffic.  You react to this without thinking — by laying on the horn, throwing up your middle finger, cursing the person who dared to interfere with your drive.

Try to stop yourself from this automatic reaction.  Instead, say “wow, he must be having a hard day,” or “she must be late, I’ve been there,” or “I hope nothing’s wrong.”

Instead of reacting to the jerk who cut you off, react to the person who’s somehow struggling that day.  Before long you’ll notice that you won’t have to make a conscious effort to lay off the horn.  Your automatic reaction will be one of compassion rather than anger.

You will find, with practice, that you can change your entire outlook on life.  At first it’s hard.  You have to constantly push the negative aside and force yourself to think positive.  Oftentimes you don’t even believe what you’re thinking.  That’s okay.  It will come.

I love music.  I used to force myself to sing happy Mary Poppins-like songs when something was bringing me down.  Now there are times that I realize I’m in the middle of one of those songs without having given it any thought.

With practice, positive thinking and productive habits become as easy as tying your shoe.  First, exercise your mind and train it to develop new ways of reacting.  You will find that new habits emerge.  And, quicker than you think, personal and financial success will become a way of life rather than a daily struggle.

JENNIFER HERNDON works from home with her kids.  She has been enjoying the time freedom and financial rewards of working from home for over 11 years.  Jennifer’s passion is empowering you to achieve success through a positive mindset and consistent action.

Get weekly exercises for your mind  with Jim Rohn’s One Year Success Plan, the most complete and achievable personal development plan ever.  Develop simple habits for a successful business with your free copy of Jennifer’s Seven Simple Success Steps mini-course.

This first got me thinking that it truly is time to take a vacation.  But it also made me think about how we go through so much of life on assumptions and first impressions.  We don’t even consciously think about things.  We just go through the rhythm of life.

Of course assuming someone’s been on vacation when they haven’t is pretty meaningless.  But as we work on self improvement and struggle to develop a consistent cash flow in our home business, forgetting to step outside the box of what’s expected can be fatal.

Let’s face it, the assumption when you start a work from home business is that you are going to fail.  Your family expects it.  Your friends expect it.  And really, who can blame them?  They don’t predict your failure because they have no faith in you.  But because in truth, most people do fail in their home business efforts.

And sadly, whether you want to admit it or not, at least a part of you assumes your business will fail.  I remember being in line to get in the doors of a network marketing company seminar I was attending.  Everyone there was paying for the seminar, airfare and a hotel room.  I heard someone in the line saying “if this doesn’t work, I’m going to try . . .”

I’m sure it didn’t “work” for her.  Because she didn’t expect it too.  And she was ready to “try” something else.  I highly doubt that worked either.  Even people who are willing to devote significant money and time to their home business expect to fail, at least on some level.

Most of us start a work from home business hoping to get rich quick, even though we know that’s not reality.  Very few stick around after they discover how much work it’s going to be.

Those of us who do persevere fall into the trap of “it takes time to build a home business.”  True, but, once you start thinking like this, you don’t expect to make money.  And, surprise, in fact you don’t make money.

I’m not saying you should ignore reality in your home business expectations.  But, as Tommy Lasorda says, “The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.”

The overwhelming majority of home businesses end in failure.  Knowing this fact, and likely being constantly reminded of it, you must take great care to overcome the failure assumption.  Because lots of businesses do succeed.  And yours can be one of them.  If you decide to make it so.

JENNIFER HERNDON works from home with her kids.  She has enjoyed the time freedom and financial rewards of home business ownership for over 11 years.  Jennifer’s passion is empowering you to success through a positive mindset and consistent action.  Discover the Seven Simple Success Steps for free in Jennifer’s mini-course designed to start you on the path to personal growth and home business success.

This “comfort zone” that we float through life in is seriously challenged by our desire for the time and financial freedom a successful home business will bring.

There’s a part of us that wants to change our lives almost completely.  And you may argue that it’s not just a part of you, that you – 100% all the way — want to change your life.  And maybe you’re right.  But what I have found is that most of us struggle between the comfort zone that is our life, and the desire to completely change our life.

One of the hurdles to home business success for many of us is that things in our lives just aren’t that bad.  We have a home, food on the table, a steady income, all the basic necessities of life.  We want a better life.  But fortunately, we don’t really need a better life.

I used to see examples of this in my life often.  And it always made me mad.  Yet, it took me years to correct it.  To get over it, or through it, or whatever.

I have an offline business that I’m reasonably happy with.  It more than pays the bills.  Whenever something happened in that business that really upset me, I would say to myself, “This is it.  I’m not doing this anymore.  I’m going to work my online business 24 hours a day until I make enough money to quit my other business.”

And then, a couple of days would pass.  Or something good would happen.  And my determination would pass.  I’d suddenly be too tired that night.  I’d go to bed before taking the steps I knew were essential to building a successful home business.  I’d slip back into my dreaded comfort zone.  My obsession with home business success would fade just a little.

So how do you get past it?  How do you get your lazy self up off the couch after a ten hour day and put in two or three more hours?

Not everyone will agree with this.  But I say the best way to really change your life is to kick yourself out of your comfort zone.  Don’t step outside it.  Run crazily from it.  Without looking back.  Burn your bridges so you’ll have no choice.  Grow a successful home business, or lose your house.  Because if these are the stakes, you’ll find a way to do it.

You might feel like it’s too risky.  Like the stakes are too high.  But, if you doubt you can do it, you’re right, you can’t.

All I know, is once I announced my intention to give up my other business, and took affirmative steps to do so, my online business started to take off like never before.  Because it had to.

Go do it!

JENNIFER HERNDON works from home with her kids.  She has been enjoying the time freedom and financial rewards of working from home for over 11 years.  Jennifer’s passion is empowering you to achieve success through a positive mindset and consistent action.  Learn how to get out of your comfort zone everyday with Jim Rohn’s One Year Success Plan, the most complete and achievable personal development plan ever.  Take action now by claiming your free copy of Jennifer’s new Seven Simple Success Steps mini-course.

Unfortunately, it hasn’t turned out to be that easy at all.  Instead of having an easier life, you’re likely feeling more overwhelmed than ever.  It’s not as easy as a couple of hours a night.  Not if you want to succeed in this lifetime.  And the work it takes to grow a successful work from home business is anything but easy.

A couple of years into my journey to grow a successful work from home online business, I realized something that troubled me a lot.  This new business that was suppose to bring me happiness and freedom and all things good, was actually making me more miserable than ever.

Once I realized what it takes to grow a five figure a month business, I was completely overwhelmed.  Yes, I’d finally figured out what I have to do, but I have no computer knowledge and am completely right-brained.

How would I ever be able to learn and implement everything it takes?  If you haven’t had this feeling of being completely overwhelmed, you are probably still deluding yourself as to the effort and skill necessary to successfully work from home.

Don’t despair.  As with most every problem, a little personal development and self improvement work can turn things around for you.

How you think about things is everything.  So the first thing you are going to do is stop saying to yourself, “There’s no way I have the knowledge, skill or time to do this.”

Instead, think about how working from home is going to simplify your life.  Working from home will give you so much more time.  I can throw in a load of laundry while I work.  And fold it during a break.  I can take my kids to activities during the day, freeing up the evenings for dinner and bedtime without all the rush.  And, I can go to the gym at night, which is a mental health break I couldn’t do without.

If I were slave to a time clock and a commute, there’s no way I could come home from work, make dinner, take the kids to gymnastics, go to the gym myself, and get everyone in bed before midnight.  I’m worn out just thinking about it.

Start using your visualization and affirmation time to focus on how simple your life is.  Not how simple it’s going to be.  You’re programming your subconscious mind to believe that you’re already living the life you want.

Tomorrow, we’ll talk about how to simplify your day while you’re still juggling your j-o-b and your work from home business.  Then, your mindset will match your actions, and you’ll be happily on your way to work from home success.

JENNIFER HERNDON works from home with her kids.  She has been enjoying the time freedom and financial benefits of working from home for over 11 years.  Jennifer’s passion is empowering you to success through a positive mindset and consistent action.  Start simplifying your life today with the Seven Simple Success Steps, Jennifer’s free mini-course designed to get you on track to work from home success.

I got an email from an internet marketer the other day promoting a training for people who aren’t having the success they want.  The email promised that the training wasn’t about that “mindset crap.”  Instead, it was going to tell me exactly what I need to do to achieve online business success.

Here’s my problem with that.  There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people who can tell you exactly what you need to do to grow a successful online business.  If you’ve been buying online marketing how-to products for a day, you probably own a product that gives you the mechanics you need.

The difference in those who succeed and those who quit is that the successful believed they would be successful.  And that belief translates into consistent, positive action.  Ironically, if you succeed with the course that doesn’t give you any of that “mindset crap,” it’s because your mindset is where it needs to be.

Here’s what happens if you don’t believe you can achieve success.  You buy a how-to course.  You start doing what it says.  You may follow the course for a day, a week, or a month.  But something happens somewhere along the way.  You don’t make money your first week.  This isn’t as easy as you thought.  It’s too hard to spend two hours a day on this.  You don’t have time.  You don’t have the technical skills required.  This doesn’t work.

And so you stop.  In your mind, it’s not your fault.  The course “didn’t work.”  The fact is, however, that about 90% of the reputable courses out there will work if you work them.  But if you don’t believe that you’ll succeed, you make an excuse to stop working.

If you do believe, it goes more like this.  You buy the same how-to course.  Initially, many of the same things happen to you.  You don’t make money the first week, or even the first month.  It’s harder than you think.  You become discouraged.

But the similarities in you and the non-believer end there.  You have a burning desire to succeed.  You are motivated by your family, your debt, your job . . .whatever.  Quitting is not an option for you because you know persistence pays off.  And you don’t quit until it does.  And so it does.

Many people have the attitude of “okay, I believe, now let’s get on with how to do it.”  That’s not enough.  You can’t just say it, you really have to feel it.

To become a believer in yourself you must consistently work on your personal growth.  Every day.  Before you buy another how-to course, develop a personal growth plan.  You will feel a difference in your life within days.  And the difference will change your life forever.

JENNIFER HERNDON works from home with her kids.  She has been enjoying the time freedom and financial rewards of working from home for over 11 years.  Jennifer’s passion is empowering you to achieve success through a positive mindset and consistent action.  Start believing in yourself today with Jim Rohn’s One Year Success Plan, the most complete and achievable personal development plan ever.  Take action now by claiming your free copy of Jennifer’s new Seven Simple Success Steps mini-course.

Time was always my number one excuse as I struggled to develop a successful work from home online business.  Still is if I’m not careful.

One thing I have learned is that there is no legitimate reason for failing in your work from home business.  There are a lot of excuses.  Not surprisingly, those who embrace the excuses quit in failure.  Those who refuse to hear the excuses that pop up daily, succeed.

Usually, not having enough time to work on your business is a pretty legitimate excuse.  But it’s still just that — an excuse.  And you’ve got to eliminate it or your work from home online business will fail.

You can first take comfort in knowing that it probably isn’t your fault.  Most of us are sucked into our first work from home business opportunity with the promise that we can build our fortune in our spare time.  Just turn off the tv at night and spend a couple of hours on your business and riches will overflow.

Not so much.  Do you really watch two hours of tv a night?  I probably had the tv on for two hours a night before I had kids.  But it’s not just as easy as turning it off, for two reasons.

First, you’re likely not just sitting there in a vegetative state watching tv.  You’re folding laundry, spending time with your family, getting ready for tomorrow — all things that still have to be done even if the tv’s off.

Second, if you are solely engaged in the mind-numbing task of watching tv, there’s likely a reason for it.  You’ve been up for 12 hours and multi-tasking for at least 11 of those hours.  To pull yourself out of the tv trance and into the grind of building a work from home online business is hard, to put it mildly.

My point is, the one thing most all of us have in common is that we are busy.  And that makes the claim that it’s “easy” to build your business “in your spare time” an absolute fallacy.

But don’t despair.  You can do it.  There are two simple but crucial steps to annihilating the busy excuse.

First, get your mindset right.  Never again say that you’re too busy to take steps towards your online business success.  As one of my affirmations, I often say “all the time I need is within me now.”  You may not succeed as fast as you would if you had 8 hours a day, but you will succeed.  And ultimately, isn’t that all that matters?

Second, reaffirm your burning desire to change your life, and put it into action.  Consistently make the time you need to do the things that must be done.  I generally sleep about 4 hours a night.  I’d like to sleep 6 hours.  But I can’t figure out how to make it work.  So until I find the 4 hour work week, it’s 4 hours a night.

You know what you need to do to find the time.  Reject the excuses.  Start doing it today.

JENNIFER HERNDON works from home with her kids. She has enjoyed the time freedom and financial benefits of working from home for over 11 years. Jennifer’s passion is empowering you to success through a positive mental attitude and consistent action. Start changing your life today while reading a novel with the Twelve Pillars Audio Success System.

Most of them had the typical “find your financial independence today” message. Most of them talked about the freedom of owning a successful online business. I got a couple of emails that claimed I wasn’t free at all unless I had developed a business that allowed me to do whatever I want whenever I want.

I obviously got the point of the emails claiming that if I was mired in debt, and a slave to a time clock and a boss I didn’t like, I wasn’t “free” at all. A depressing message that I am thankful not to have read over a nice holiday weekend. I question how much thought goes into such a message. Especially when the sender knows that 99% of his/her list aren’t “free” under this definition.

More important than questioning the wisdom of sending the message, however, I question the truth in the message. In fact, I absolutely disagree with the idea that you aren’t “free” simply because you can’t pick up and go whenever and wherever you want.

On the other hand, I completely agree with the emails I got encouraging me to declare my financial independence now. Because although you may not be financially free today, you are free to declare your financial independence today.

You are free to change anything you want today. Free to change your attitude to one of determination to not stop until you succeed. Free to start turning off the tv every night and working on your business instead. Free to learn how to put up your first website today. Free to start taking one step each day towards your success.

Suggesting that you aren’t free because you haven’t “made it” yet is so limiting. It’s exactly why most people never succeed. Because they don’t believe or understand that they have the freedom to do whatever they want to do.

And this is wrong. Whether you’re $100,000 in debt and have no business experience or knowledge, or you have lots of extra cash and are an experienced entrepreneur — it doesn’t matter. You are free to take the first step towards whatever you want to be, TODAY.

The holiday is over. It’s back to business. Don’t make excuses. Don’t wait to put it on your New Year’s resolutions list. Today is as good a day as any to start. Because if you start today, you’ll begin feeling the success you’re working towards one day sooner than if you start tomorrow.

You are free. Realize what a gift that is and take advantage of it. Today.

JENNIFER HERNDON works from home with her kids. She has enjoyed the time freedom and financial benefits of working from home for over 11 years. Jennifer’s passion is empowering you to success through a positive mental attitude and consistent action. Discover the Seven Simple Success Steps for free in Jennifer’s new mini-course designed to provide you the tools to change your life and find home business success.