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.

As a result I’ve been focusing a lot of my personal development efforts lately on raising my spiritual energy.  For me this involves seeing all people as being part of God.

Whatever your spiritual beliefs, becoming a nicer, gentler, more compassionate person is essential to your personal growth.  And the airport is a great place to practice this.

I’m at the airport about once a month.  There’s a personal growth opportunity about once a second at the airport.

The “old” me would say that the majority of the people that work at the airport and come to the airport to catch a plane are crazy.  Or mean.  Or seriously miserable.  And for some, all three.

Now I just view all of these people as beautiful souls put along my path to bring me valuable lessons.  (Most days, anyway . . .)  Without these fine folks, how could I work on my own enlightenment?

While at the airport, however, I often wonder — do only perpetually unhappy people go to the airport?  Or does the airport for some reason bring out the worst in otherwise fabulous people?

We’ll get to that.  For now, the point is that, if practice makes perfect, you can become the likes of Ghandi or Mother Theresa just by spending a few hours at the airport on a regular basis.

I have successfully learned how to smile and say “thank you” no matter what anyone does or says to me at the airport.

But not everyone is as seasoned as I am.

Here is one of the most useless displays of grumpiness that I witnessed yesterday.  A woman walked through the metal detector with her pager on.  The metal detector did not go off.

However, the TSA agent told her that she had to take it off and send it through the x-ray.  (Easy enough, huh?)

No, the passenger had to argue.  (Why?  Isn’t the TSA agent just doing her job?  Is it hard to take a pager off?)

Apparently so.  The offender’s next complaint was that there was nothing to put the pager in.  With a serious attitude, the TSA agent told her to get a bin and send it through.

As the passenger then proceeded through the metal detector, the TSA agent loudly and with anger recounted to her co-worker the woman’s reluctance to part with her pager.

Both passenger and the agent left the exchange angry.

Why?  How ridiculous is this?  The passenger was delayed maybe 30 seconds.

How differently could this have gone?

“I’m sorry, policy is that your pager has to go through the x-ray.”

“Okay, do you have something I can put it in?”

“Sure, just grab a bin.”

“Okay, thanks.  Have a great day.”  (smile)

“Thanks. You too.”  (smile)

Here’s the great thing.  It doesn’t take cooperation from everyone to make this work.  You can change the entire mood of the airport, almost single-handedly.

We’ll talk about how next time.

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.

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

As we pulled out the driveway and started up the street, I saw that my neighbor two houses down had a yard completely full of stuff.  His stuff.  Apparently the mortgage company had moved everything his family had on to his front yard and changed the locks.

I live in a nice neighborhood.  Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen a view of all of a neighbor’s possessions on the front yard.  Times are hard for a lot of people.

But today it struck me really differently than it has in the past.  I’ve been doing a lot of work on the practice of gratitude, and on changing the way I judge people.

Judging others as not as good as me in some way has been a lifelong habit (I’m embarrassed to admit).  It’s not an easy one to break.

But I feel like I made a real breakthrough today.  My initial reaction when I observed my neighbor’s plight was to feel really blessed to have what I have.

I spend a lot of time giving gratitude for the people in my life.  For all things “non-physical.”  But giving gratitude for my “stuff” feels like it places too much emphasis on material wealth.  Today, I gave gratitude for my stuff.  Lots of gratitude.

In previous days, I would have thought something like -  “how much of a pathetic loser can you be to go from a big house in a nice neighborhood to THAT?”  Today,  I felt true compassion for my neighbor.  I don’t know him or his family.  But combined with my gratitude were great feelings of sadness and empathy for him.  “But for the grace of God . . .” type feelings.  I wanted there to be something I could do to help.

While I am happy that these are my genuine reactions, I’ve got to admit, it’s hard.  What happened just two doors down has bothered me all day.  Just after 9:30 tonight the last caravan of cars and trucks full of stuff pulled away from his house.  It took over 12 hours to clean off his front yard.

And all the while I was spending a terrific day with my kids, topped off with ice cream to end our trip and a good workout at the gym for my peace of mind.  Truly I am blessed.  And, no matter what he’s done to “deserve it,” truly I hurt for my neighbor.

It was easier when I could just brush it off as something that would never happen to me.  When I could dismiss someone in that situation as an idiot, or something equally as derogatory.

I’ve always taught people that giving gratitude is “easy.”  Today, I’m not so sure.  Sometimes part of realizing how great your life is brings into sharp focus how tough someone else has it.  That can be really uncomfortable.

As is often the case, the easy path is not the right path.  Sometimes giving gratitude is hard.  But it is always right.  And the few who follow it will always live better.

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.

Want to learn more about the joys of giving gratitude?  Claim your free copy of Jennifer’s mini-course, Seven Simple Success Steps, and start your life on the right path today.

I go to a fitness club.  I have for over 20 years.  So I know this little graph to the right to be absolutely true.

I curse the full parking lot every January.  But take solace in the fact that it will only last a month or so.  And always, every year, it proves to be true.  By the end of February, we’re back to the old crew.

A few weeks ago during an aerobics class, I looked around at some of the people who had been attending regularly since the new year began.  And they were getting it.  They had gone from stepping on the wrong beat and looking around the room in frustration, to being in sync with the regulars in the class and in step with the instructor’s calls.

I also thought about the dozens of new faces that I’d seen once, and then never again.  They cared enough to show up.  But it was hard.  Others made it look easy.  But the newbies gave up in frustration, often even before their first class was over.

It occurred to me that my aerobics class mirrors life.  Those who show up — who keep showing up — succeed.  And, it becomes easy for them.  I wrote this post in my head while doing a fairly complex aerobics class.  Because I’ve been doing it for 20 years and it’s easy for me.  It became easy for me a long time ago.

The “just keep showing up” rule applies to most anything you want to succeed at.  As a baby, you just kept trying until you walked.  (Good thing babies’ brains are so undeveloped, most adults would give up after a couple of days . . .)

Musicians, athletes, even doctors.  When they started they had no idea how to read music, to hold the ball correctly, to diagnose disease.  But they kept showing up, and working at it.  Until they could do it in their sleep.

The same formula for success applies to your home business.  Show up at night after everyone else is asleep.  Work on your business.  You’ll learn how to succeed.

Nearly everyone who starts a home business fails.  And it’s always because they stop showing up before they start making money.  They’re looking for get rich quick.  They want to get their website up tonight and see $10,000 in their Paypal account tomorrow.

That’s not how it works.  Not for anyone.

The good news is, you probably signed a contract with that fitness club.  So it’s not too late to start going again.  Today.

But before you go, sign a contract with yourself and get back to work on your home business.  It’s not too late to be healthier, and wealthier, in 2010.

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 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.

I was introduced to Jim Rohn by my upline in my first network marketing company.  I will always consider my time with that company a success.  Not because I made a lot of money, I didn’t.  But because it brought to me the man who would become the most influential mentor in my life.

Over the past 13 years, I’ve learned lots about personal and professional development from a handful of people.  But for some reason — and I can’t even put my finger on exactly what it is — no one has even been a close second to the value I’ve gotten from Mr. Rohn’s books, CDs, and DVDs.

To this day, if I feel discouraged or beaten down, I pull Jim Rohn up on my IPod.  I’m pretty sure I own everything in the Jim Rohn library.  Jim’s style, his story, his words and the way he delivered them — all have a unique way of reassuring me that yes, anything IS possible.  And of motivating me to go make it happen.

What made Jim Rohn unique in the personal development world?  He taught fundamentals.  His foundation for success boiled down to basic principles.  What’s worked since the beginning of time.

There is never any fear of Jim’s stuff becoming out of date.  My great grandkids will be able to rely on it when learning how to succeed.  As fast paced as our world has become, that fact speaks volumes about Jim’s philosophy.

In the first days after his death, I found myself feeling really sad.  And, kind of embarrassed that I was so sad.  I didn’t know Jim Rohn personally.  To me, he was pretty much the same dead as he was alive.  Which sounds bad as I say it, but I knew Jim through his books, CDs, and DVDs.  These are all things I still have.

But I realize that somehow I was comforted by the knowledge that Jim was here in this world on the journey with me.  And knowing that he was part of the same journey, and such a good part of it, gave me hope, inspiration and self-confidence.

I’ve seen a lot of people touting the customary “Rest in Peace” when commenting on Jim’s death.  I have no doubt that Jim has found peace in his escape from what must have been an especially difficult affliction for a man who talked for a living.  But “rest,” I doubt it.  I’m sure he’s gone to a better world, and is hard at work making it even “more better.”

Enjoy, my friend.

JENNIFER HERNDON is a work at  home mom with three fabulous kids.  She has been enjoying the benefits of working at home for over 12 years.  Jennifer’s passion is helping others on the challenging and rewarding journey of entrepreneurship.  Take the first step by claiming your free copy of Jennifer’s mini-course, Seven Simple Success Steps.

See what a difference a year will make with Jennifer’s favorite Jim Rohn product, the One Year Success Plan.  (Yes, I get paid a little to promote it, but I also use it and it’s made a huge difference in every area of my life!)

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.

Of course, as with most things concerning kids, the direct approach is not the most effective. You don’t want to sit your children down and explain the idea of personal development to them and talk about why it’s important for their future. Unless you’re looking for a bedtime story.

Instead, you need to teach by being an example, using examples, and having a consistent mindset for self improvement. And, you need to think carefully about the message you convey.

As adults we define success as having a good job, having a lot of money, being in a happy marriage with the “right” number of kids, driving a nice car. And we traditionally expect our kids to follow a path that will lead them to have this type of success.

So we expect from our kids that they will get good grades, choose a good college, hang out with the other “good” kids, be in the band or on the sports team (and be good at it). We oftentimes push our kids to be the best that they can be. And because they’re our kids, that means they’ll get A’s, and go away to highly ranked schools with all of their friends. They’ll be first chair in the band, and first string on the team.

But not every kid will be all those things. In fact, few will. And many don’t even want those things. Which doesn’t mean they’ll grow up to be “failures.” Maybe that just isn’t where their focus is now. Or maybe they’ll take a different path to success. Or maybe, [shudder, shudder] that just isn’t their definition of success.

Instead of pushing our kids to meet a societal-imposed definition of success, we need to praise them for being who they are. Look for the positive and constantly re-enforce it. Even if the positive is the ability to find matching clothes and be ready for school on time.

If we constantly just push for more and better, our kids start feeling like no matter what they do, they’ve failed. If we praise their everyday efforts and re-enforce their positive involvement in the things that are important to them, then they will feel like a success.

If our kids feel successful giving their personal best in the things that are of interest to them, they will feel empowered to do anything they want to do in life. If we expect less and praise more, our kids will likely be happier and feel more successful in life than if we try to do them the “favor” of pushing them to be the best at something we find important to success.

Just something to think about next time you start to yell at your child for making a bad pass on the court.

JENNIFER HERNDON works from home with her kids. She has been enjoying the time freedom and financial rewards of working at 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 in Jennifer’s free mini-course designed to give you the tools to grow yourself and your home business.

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.

Many people dream of doing, being or having something different. But that’s all it is, a dream. Very few of us turn the dream into a goal by giving it a deadline.

If more people did live their dreams, what a crazy, happy world it would be.

Changing your life– creating the life you want — is hard. Most people don’t like “hard.” Society conditions us to seek the “get rich (and happy) quick” path.

What makes it so easy to say, “if you don’t like your life, change it,” and at the same time makes it so hard to actually significantly change your life? There are four big reasons that it’s so hard.

First, life is too busy. Most of us struggle to meet all of the daily obligations we have. It’s hard to fit in something more. It’s hard to commit to additional responsibilities — even if they are designed to make your life better — when you have to do things to keep your j-o-b, to take care of your kids, to keep your house from becoming a health hazard.

Second, is lack of belief. If I gave you a blueprint that was guaranteed to change your life, to bring you personal and financial success, you would do about anything to accomplish it. IF you were 100% certain that it would work.

Most people don’t believe they can make the changes that will bring them unlimited success. Either because that’s what we’ve been programmed to believe, or because we’ve tried so many different things and succeeded at none of them.

Third, changing your life is an overwhelming task. It requires a lot of work. We have to completely change our mindset. This requires consistent focus on personal development.

We also have to build a successful work from home business. This requires consistent effort. On top of the work you do from 9-5.

A lot of people never get past the “idea” stage, simply because they are so overwhelmed that they are literally paralyzed and can’t take the necessary action.

Finally, for most of us, things aren’t really that bad. We simply aren’t unhappy enough to have a burning desire to change. Yes, we may be struggling. But we’re not homeless and we have food on the table.

I think that’s why we hear frequent stories about people who couldn’t pay the rent or couldn’t support their kids, making it big. Because they had to. There’s a different motivation when it’s do or die. And, if you don’t have a job, you certainly have more time to work on yourself and your business.

If you see yourself in any of these four reasons, come back tomorrow and we’ll start talking about how to make the hard task of changing your life much more “doable.”

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.