"All kids will resist authority, starting at about age two! Don't expect your kids to thank you for the privilege of taking out the garbage or cleaning up their messy rooms. They're going to procrastinate, argue, and claim that you're the only parent on the planet who evens assigns chores!

It's natural for kids to argue and talk back, according to Dr. Kevin Leman. Recognize it as buying time and trying to wear you down. However, it takes only two phrases: nevertheless or regardless, followed by Do It Now!"

Raising Achievers: A Parent's Plan for Motivating Children to Excel I'm off to get my kids to do their chores! What do you think?

"Have you spent fifteen minutes in a conversation with your child today (the national average)? Read to the child? Discussed right and wrong and religion? Played together? Gone somewhere together? Listened? Hugged? Checked on homework? School attendance? Monitored (and limited) TV watching?"
    Raising Achievers: A Parent's Plan for Motivating Children to Excel

Are Your Beliefs About Money Holding You Back?

I'm currently listening to Suze Ormon's Financial Freedom Series as I cook and do other errands around the house. In it she talks about the earliest memories about money and how they have shaped your beliefs about money. And how those beliefs are currently controlling your failure (or success) with money today.

I grew up in a home where the man was expected to provide. My mom had no idea how to manage money, other than to spend, spend, spend. She's a real shopaholic. I grew up believing that good mothers and wives cannot be successful business women.

My friend's mother, on the other hand, had a successful business. She got a divorce and I remember thinking that her husband divorced her because she was successful. I also remember thinking that I never wanted to be like her and that men didn't want strong, independent women. I spent over a decade of my life bound by this limiting belief, but I've worked hard to change it.

What are your money beliefs? How have they shaped who you are today? What impact have those beliefs had on your current financial situation?

By the way - Suze Ormon's Program is a great resource for those who are interested in taking control of their finances.

Do Internet Marketing Guru's Practice What They Teach?

I'm currently working through Jimmy D. Brown's Affiliatenaire Program and applying the techniques to my ProCopywritingTactics.com blog.

This week's lesson talks about selling products related to your niche market on ebay and in this way capturing the postal addresses of the buyer and then following up with some sort of postcard or direct mail campaign.

Now I must admit that the idea sounds really good.....in theory. It could work. But it got me wondering 'Does Jimmy himself do this?' I can't see J. D. Brown holding auctions for products that sell for pennies in order to get mailing addresses.

(Don't get me wrong. I love Jimmy's products and own them all. I think he's a great teacher.)


But maybe I'm wrong. What's your take?

Time is Life!

I’m currently reading Focal Point: A Proven System to Simplify Your Life, Double Your Productivity, and Achieve All Your Goals
Great book. It suggests that 20% of the activities that you do are responsible for 80% of the results. And if you want to maximize your productivity and double your income then you need to focus on this top 20% and eliminate, delegate or outsource the remaining 80% of unproductive activities.

I’ve decided to apply this to every facet of my life.

Here’s what I’ve come up with:


HOME
As a wife and mother of 5 kids A LOT of my time goes into daily chores - cooking, cleaning and maintaining a huge 6 bedroom home. I would say that at least 50% of my waking time is taken up with these chores.

Another huge chunk of time goes to taking care of my 11 month old. Not that I mind, he's so adorable!!

A lot of the home care tasks are dull and mindless so I can easily delegate them to someone else.

So my task for this week is to find a domestic helper that I can train to take over a lot of these chores and who can work on a weekly schedule to keep the house clean and organized.

For the tasks that can't be delegated, such as orgainzing and cooking, I need to do 2 things:

1. Reduce it - Cook double and Freeze

2. Get 16 year old to cook on days when she is free - She loves cooking and baking so that's a great blessing

3. Train the maid I have to look after Ebrahim for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon to free up some more time for me to work.

4. Turn chore time into learning time by filling my mp3 with great Internet marketing, personal development and copywriting information.

5. Turn exercise time into learning time as well.

6. Keep evenings free to focus on the kids and on teaching them and spending quality time with them.

My Personal and Business Productivity Log

This blog is a chronicle for my personal and business growth journey and one that will enable me to share the wonderful tools and resources, tips and advice I discover along the way.

The reason that I started this blog is to share what I am learning with others who also want to improve their lives and their businesses.

I will be sharing personal growth tools, business resources and snippets of what I'm learning every step of the way. And if I enjoy this I might just register a domain in my name and start blogging there on a regular basis.