Bill Clinton at bedtime

I read slowly.

There are a couple of reasons. Primarily, I am madly in love with words. I love how they sound, I love how they look, I love how they go together to say whatever you want them to. Words rock! So when I'm reading, I love to savour every word!

Also, reading puts me to sleep. Not because it's boring, but because it's relaxing. I love to curl up with the kitties and a good book, read about five pages and doze off. It makes it tough to get through a book in any reasonable time. And considering I have a terrible memory, I sometimes have to work to remember where the story started!

I love biographies.

I think everyone from the most famous to the least known of us has a story. A brilliant story. I have read biographies from Joan Rivers, Christopher Reeves, Nelson Mandella, Benazir Bhutto and many others. The most recent biography I picked up was Bill Clinton, My Life. Bill Clinton is a pretty amazing guy. Set aside the fact that he got a BJ in the oval office from someone other than his wife (I wonder how many presidents of the United States have done that and just never got caught!), he's a brilliant man and he has done amazing thing with his life. One of those things was write a VERY, VERY loooonnnnnnggggg autobiography. Have you lifted this thing??? It weighs a tonne! Hand this book to a slow reader and he/she will have nightmares for a month! I can't tell you how long it took me to read A Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela...and it was a real page turner. The behemoth by Clinton is a real killer. By the third chapter you know the middle names of everyone he went to elementary school with! If you think I'm kidding, check it out! Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it's a wonderful book, but I don't think I will ever know for sure, because by the time I finish it, I will be too old to remember!

So, as we have already established, I have abandoned biographies (for the time being) in favour of motivational, inspirational, educational and other "al" books which I truly believe are starting to change my life. For one thing, I am getting much less sleep! There is no way I am dozing off in the middle of a story by Robin Sharma...or my latest favourite "7 Simple Steps to end Procrastination" by Tonya Grimes...I know the joke...It must have taken a long time to get around to reading that one!!! Haha! The truth is, once I started, I couldn't stop.

Yesterday, I had an extremely busy day. I was really tired because I had been up reading to late Sunday night and I was really looking forward to getting some sleep. However, since I am trying to stop procrastinating, I stopped to have my car looked at. It's been rattling since I had a new muffler put on two weeks ago. Well, I wasted an hour waiting for my car as it sat in the parking lot completely ignored. Since I also hate wasting time now (yet another new thing for me!) I decided to make an appointment for another time and go home...to sleep! But once I got home I kept finding work to do. Returning e-mails, doing laundry, writing to-do lists so I can stop procrastinating, mostly important things!

When I finally decided to lie down, it was around 6. But by then I had a chill from sitting at my computer for so long and I couldn't sleep. So, up I get again thinking I would fill the tub with some nice aromatherapy salts and super hot water and read in the bath and that would surely put me to sleep. I brought my book...7 Simple Steps..well, you know...and I finished it. Bad idea!

The last chapter of the book is about facing your fears, and fear of failure. It tells a story about a group of kids teaching a friend how to ride a bike. They drag this poor kid up a hill, put him on the bike and give him a push. Of course he falls, so they drag him up the hill and do it again. He continues to fall, but each time he makes it a little farther. Finally, he makes it to the bottom of the hill and TA DA he knows how to ride that bike! What a great analogy in business and in life! And it was a story that really hit home for me. When I was about 6, there was nothing more I wanted in the world than to start school and learn to ride a bike. School would come on it's own, but I was determined to ride that damn bike! So I practiced and I practiced and I nearly beat myself to death on this frikkin bike. I hit my shins on the pedals so many times my poor mother started to worry, but I was determined to conquer that bike. And guess what...I did! I was almost completely black and blue, but even as a child I knew I could win the battle over the bike.

In my new business my fear is of rejection. Network Marketers have made a bad name for themselves over the years by hounding the shit out of people to buy their "stuff". I believe in network marketing. I believe in the relationships I plan to build and I believe in my product. I also believe people are just waiting for me to start with the phone calls, the e-mails and the huge pains in the ass. I believe they are prepared with their rejection lines before they even find out I'm calling to wish them happy birthday. I don't blame them, I used to feel the same. Now I know the difference. The point is, my fear is to contact potential new clients only to have them slam the phone down, say mean things or belittle my efforts and my faith in what I am doing. I have a wonderful story and product to share, and that's all I want to do is share. If people want to join me on my journey, FANTASTIC! If not, It was great to talk to you, let's chat again soon. The end.

So, I finished my book in the tub...devoured every word of the story about the kid and the bike and do you suppose I got a warm fuzzy feeling and curled up with the kitties and had a lovely snooze? Not friggin' likely! I got out of the tub, put on my fuzzy housecoat, dug out a list of contacts and made 14 phone calls! Yep, 14!!! And 13 were receptive and I have now sent them information about my new business! I felt like a friggin' genius! I even called the wonderful Kim to tell her because I couldn't control my excitement and my pride. I certainly didn't love every second of those calls. When I was done, I was emotionally exhausted, but I was also 10 feet tall and bullet proof! Who knows where those calls will lead? It would be nice if they all became friends and clients! But the main thing is, I learned something. I set my mind to it and I got it done. I didn't love it, but it wasn't so bad and I felt amazing when I was done! I can't believe I have been procrastinating on learning not to procrastinate all these years.

I learned something else...I can't read motivational books when I need sleep! Too much adrenaline and motivation...so from now on it's only Bill Clinton at bedtime!

Good Night!