Ten Steps to Work-At-Home Success

Many people have told me they have given up their goal of working at home
because it just doesn't exist. When I tell them I work at home and over 50
million others in the United States also work at home, I'm told that working
at home doesn't work for them.

Perhaps you are thinking the same thing. I'm here to tell you that
working-at-home is possible for everyone. But you have to have the following
characteristics:

1) You have to want it bad enough.
2) You have to look in the right places.
3) You have to do the work.

If you have the above characteristics, then you just need to follow the 10
steps to work-at-home success!

1) Take 100% responsibility for your life. You are where you are now because
of choices you have made. I understand that life may be tough. Perhaps you
have been laid off. Or may be you or someone you love is ill. Life presents
challenges. But some of the most successful people in history have overcome
tremendous odds to achieve success.

Take Kyle Maynard. He was born without any arms below the elbow or legs
below the knee. Despite his physical challenges, Kyle was one of the top
wrestlers in Georgia in his senior year of high school. Kyle is now
wrestling at the University of Georgia and has begun training in Jiu-Jitsu
and competing in the sport of submission wrestling. He is also the author of
the book No Excuses, which is what this step is about. You need to give up
excuses that prevent you from taking action on your goals.
You need to refuse to let obstacles including frustration and discouragement
get in your way. When bad things happen, you need to CHOOSE to continue on.

While you can't control the external things in your life, you can choose how
you respond to them. By choosing to act instead of be acted upon, you will
be taking 100% responsibility for your life.

2) Decide what you want. That sounds pretty easy. More money. Better house.
More time. But, these are vague and don't inspire action. Be clear about
what you want. Be specific including what color, what size, what shape, what
brand...etc. How much money exactly do you want? What size and style house
exactly do you want? Where is it located?
On how much land? The more specific you are with your goals, the easier it
is to focus on them and be inspired by them.

3) Believe it is possible. This is similar to what I discussed about the
people who tell me, that working at home doesn't work for them. Richard
Bach who wrote Jonathan Livingston Seagull said, "Sooner or later, those who
win are those who think they can." Working at home is possible. Millions of
others have proven it to be true.
They are no smarter or more talented or luckier than you.
They just knew it could be done and figured out how to do it. You can do the
same.

4) Believe in YOU! Arthur Williams once said, "The number one reason that
keeps people from winning in the United States today is a lack of belief in
themselves." You are the one person you should root for the most, and yet
mostly likely you sell yourself short. Society trains us to be like this. We
are raised to be mediocre people. But you don't have to accept mediocrity.
You can do great things.

History is littered with people who had less than you and rose to great
heights. Helen Keller was blind, deaf and dumb living in a world in which
women were second-class citizens, yet she rose to become an amazing woman.
Abraham Lincoln was poor, suffered from depression, was not handsome, and
lost several elections before becoming president. Babe Ruth struck out more
times than he hit the ball. But he knew the ball was coming and kept on
swinging.
If you put your mind to it, you can work at home. I know it. But you need to
know it too!

5) Set goals. Goals help define where you want to go so you can develop a
map to getting there. "Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like
a ship that has set sail with no destination." Said Fitzhugh Dodson. To be
most effective, goals should be written, specific, realistic without being
too easy, and they must have a deadline. Once your goals are set, read them
three times a day. An easy way to do this is to have a copy taped to your
bathroom mirror, one on the refrigerator and one at your desk or any other
places that you will see it them regularly.

6) Take action. Having goals without action is like having a road map, but
not getting in the car to go anywhere. Mark Twain once said, "The secret to
getting ahead is getting started." Unfortunately, it's the start that stops
most people. Don't be one of them. Do something everyday that moves you
towards your goal. In fact, set out to do 5 things everyday that will move
you towards your goal.

7) Stop stopping yourself. How many times have you wanted to do something
but didn't because the timing wasn't right or things weren't perfect? In
order to be successful, you need to stop limiting yourself. Stop waiting for
the right time or the right situation. Success does not come when the time
is right, the stars align, and life isn't busy. It comes because of
consistent effort even though life isn't perfect.

You also need to stop limiting yourself because of fear.
Successful people step outside what is comfortable to make their dreams come
true because, "There is no money in the comfort zone." Stepping out of the
comfort zone can be scary. There isn't always a lot of support from friends
and family for doing something different. But if you were to study all the
successful people in world, you would find that in order to reach success,
they all had to stop limiting themselves and step out of the comfort zone.
Success is not the attainment of the goal, it's the challenges you overcome
to attain the goal.

8) Visualize your dream. At least once a day, think about what your life
will be like when you reach your goal. The more you think about what you
want, the more your brain gets active in trying to help you achieve it. Have
you ever thought about buying a car and all of a sudden you see the car you
are thinking of buying all over town? Are there really more of these cars
out on the road? No. It's just by thinking about it you notice them more.
The same thing happens when you picture your life as you'd like it. Your
brain will begin to pay attention to things that can help you reach it.

9) Feel the fear and do it anyway. Fear is best described
as:

Fantasized
Experiences
Appearing
Real

Fear is what keeps us in our comfort zones. What is there to fear anyway?
What people will think? Who cares? Odds are they don't have what you want
and can't help you get it. So why listen to them? To overcome fear, you need
to make your dream bigger than your fear. Your desire to work at home needs
to be bigger than the fear of what others are going to say about you (and
truth be known, people don't think about you nearly as much as you think
they do if at all).
Also, make your goals urgent and just as important as other things in your
life. When you MUST live your dream, you
will.

10) Be willing to pay the price. We aren't talking about money although
sometimes that is a part of reaching your goals. In paying the price, you
will need to sacrifice and work harder than you have ever done before.
Leisure activities like reading and watching television may have to go on
the wayside as you spend time working on your goal.

You may need to give up some extras like manicures, lattes, or dining out so
you can have the extra money to live on or to use to build your business. A
price must be paid but the payment is temporary, while the payoff is
forever.

Finding a way to work-at-home is a reasonable goal, but it won't happen
without purposeful effort on your part.
Nothing worth having comes easily. You need to plan. You need to work. You
need stop fear and a lack of confidence from stealing your dreams. In the
coming year, millions more people will finally do what it takes to
work-at-home.
Will you be one of them?

Leslie Truex is a work-at-home mom who has been helping people work at home
through her website Work-At-Home Success http://www.workathomesuccess.com
since 1998. Make
2007 the year you work at home! Mark your calendar for the Work-At-Home
Success Expo in January 2007 http://www.wahs-expo.com.