Be a blessing to keep being a blessing.
​
​The good news is that we have the option to change our focus, and change our future. We can choose to adjust our focus and begin to see growing prosperity in all areas of our lives. I like this quote I heard recently by Joel Osteen, When you focus on being a blessing, God makes sure that you are always blessed in abundance.

A great positive outlook has always made a difference in my life. I believe wholeheartedly that the full glass will always over flow. Powerful forces are released when we focus on the positive, and focus on being a blessing. And keep in mind: this is not in reference to the financial realm only, but all areas of life; spiritually, emotionally, physically, and financially.
​
Here’s 4 quick ways I like to stay focused on being positive. Everyday.

   1 .Focus on GIVING – Not Getting
​
God gave so we can give. None of the gifts and blessings we receive should be self-absorbed. Nothing we have is meant to be hoarded. We are told to be good stewards over all that has been given to us. Giving and sharing is a basic elementary principle. We are blessed to be a blessing.

“Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken
together, and running over.”
— Luke 6:38

   2. Focus on Serving Others
​
​God gave us family and friends, and our relationships come with the responsibility to help one another. Of course we all have needs, but the trouble starts when we put our focus on our own personal needs not being met. Soon frustration, bitterness, and anger creeps in because of what another person is not doing. But our focus needs to be on “What can I do to help meet their need?” and not on what they can do to meet mine. When our focus is on meeting the needs of others and trusting God to meet ours, we also live with a great sense of peace

“Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving
let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passes all
​ understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
— Philippians 4:6-7

   3. Focus on Living Life with a Positive Purpose

​Life is short. We should live with a purpose to be positive, godly examples and good stewards over the time we are given. It is important to be a life-long student and teacher; always learning and always passing on that knowledge. Ultimately, teaching others how to teach.

“That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born;
​ who should arise and declare them to their children.”
— Psalm 78:6

Empower your communication with purpose and be a blessing in words. Much of our communication today lacks power because it lacks purpose.

   4. Focus on Love

Live life with a purpose to do all things in love. Let love be a primary focus and measure of giving. Remember, God so loved that He gave. God gave first – let us focus on His example of abundant loving and giving, and follow it.

Bottom line: Focus on being a blessing and unleash powerful forces in your life! Be generous, serve, purpose to empower others, and love abundantly. May you be blessed to be a blessing and live a life of growing prosperity!

To Your Success
​
MG

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​
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Obstacles, Doubts & Mistakes…Oh My! 

We all have our own set of obstacles, doubts and mistakes, but we can overcome them all. I talk with many authors and entrepreneurs as we discuss the journey of being and indie authors. The truth is that choosing to self-publish means you’ve chosen a course that takes work; sometimes hard work. But we all can make it despite the work required. This week the focus is going to be on the tools we’ve share with you so far. It is our every intention that you make the most of the resources we share, ones you’ve heard about and even ones that may even seem farfetched. We are a community that is established to learn, share and grow together. You don’t have to know it all- just know people and you’ll eventually learn more to grow more. Here are three tips to help along the way:

• Share good information. Keep your content rich. Share from your experiences, ups and downs. We all can take a licking and keep on ticking.
• Connect with People. Don’t just sell books. Although you may have a great story, advice or coaching. People want to hear from the heart of the person speaking, if you’re always selling. People will never hear that and they’ll eventually unplug. Find ways to connect, not just contract.
• ​For the Business. It’s almost tax season. Do you have all your receipts for all your business transactions. It’s time to start getting all that together. Make it easy on yourself and your tax guy/girl.

​https://www.bookgrabbr.com/faq#faq-1​

Liking Yourself, What You do & How You do it

Success is liking yourself, what you do & how you do it. – Maya Angelou

People have a need for affection and being liked. But it’s very easy to make a mistake here and go about it the wrong way. As an author or aspiring author, there will be times when you’re uncertain about whether or not you’ll be received. Received as an author, as a speaker or as anything other than the person other people think you are. But the truth is who you are is as important to you as it is to everyone else. Actually, how much you like yourself is a good gage for how much others will respond to you. Here are 3 quick tips to strengthen your view of you!

 1. Like yourself. It gives you power and strength.

 If you go for trying to get people to like you you’ll most likely come off as needy and desperate a lot of the time. This is a bad position to put yourself in. Because liking and respecting yourself goes hand in hand with people liking and respecting you.

 2. People like people who like themselves.

 What is attractive to a friend, an employer or a potential partner? To me, it seems like a lot of this boils down to people liking people who like themselves. Someone who likes him/herself is positive, confident, takes care of his/her health and opportunities in school/at work/in life.

 3. More inner stability. Fewer rides on the emotional rollercoaster.

 Getting compliments and being liked is wonderful. The problem is just that if you rely too much on validation from others then you let the outside world, other people, control how you feel. And that can be a real rollercoaster.

 Because if you really need the positive validation from people then it’s hard to avoid listening to their negative input. Or you may feel bad when there is a temporary lack in the validation. So what do you do? You let go of focusing on needing that input and replace it with focusing on validating and liking yourself instead.

 Liking you, makes them like you too.

 To Your Success,

 MG

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It Wasn’t a Dream. It Was Work
​​​
I recently read an article on the fascinating Estée Lauder. She discovered the art of being a creative mixologist long before the term became sexy. Natural beauty is undoubtedly precious, but the power to 'create beauty' was her niche. What started in a tiny stable behind her family home, got upgraded to the stoves of Estee's kitchen and soon worked up all the way to a worldwide empire, currently valued at $32.1 billion.
​
So, who was the girl from Queens that dared to dream big and strived so hard to be ultimately transformed into the 'iron-lady' of the glamorous beauty world? One quote from her that I resonate with is ours this week which says,

“I never dreamed for success. I worked for it”. Estee lauder

​Estée Lauder was one of a kind. Early on, she discovered that she had one precious resource that would make all the difference – herself! She was a woman of edge and character, ambition and unwavering belief. She had a rare self-confidence and absolute trust in her instinct. She was a strategist at heart, with unstoppable drive to make her dream come true. I love that about a woman who had some tenacity, a little endurance and was willing to do what some others would not: work.
 
The intensity of her determination was such that in a way, there are no 'secrets' to her success. She says of herself, "I was a woman with a mission and single-minded in the pursuit of my dream". Her famous declaration sums-up the whole essence of her personality and thinking dynamics. Her crusade was targeted on shifting women's consciousness about the power of image and creating timeless beauty in a down to earth way. I enjoyed everything I read about Estee and I share her passion for doing the work.

​The Bible says despise not small beginnings and there’s always a beginning. If you’re just starting out or been thinking about venturing out, go ahead. There are my women who have paved the way for us to find and build our own empires and guess what, some empires are truly you family home. No matter what empire you’re building, do the work. It may be going the extra mile, spending a little more time, reading a little further or remembering to say goodnight to everyone you love.
 
Your success requires Your Work.
 
Enjoy this article? Let me know about it. Share. Like or Comment on Facebook.
 
To Your Success,
 
MG

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"To YOUR Success" Blog

Measure Your Life? Five Better Ways to do just that!

This world is infatuated with measuring up. Research suggests we are exposed to thousands of advertising messages daily—and hidden within each of those ads is a mistruth: “You don’t measure up until you buy our product.”

Ad agencies are good. Real good. They know how to sneak into our psyches and change the story we tell ourselves. Before long our brains begin to believe their lie—that our lives can be measured by what we buy, wear, drive, and live in. And while their bottom line bursts at the seams, the consumer is broke—financially and otherwise. The reality is that trying to measure up is breaking us up.

As a culture, we begin to measure our lives by the things we can buy, because others are buying it too. The nature of today’s world, being in constant reach of advertising through screens and print, demands our intentionality of focus on the true measures of life. That’s why I liked this week’s quote,
​
“Stop using other people’s measuring sticks to measure your life.”  Debbie LaChusa

I personally need reminders often that my worth isn’t found by the world’s measuring stick. I get to define my own success, and live a meaningful and abundant life under God and his measuring rod. I share this with my clients, my friends and certainly my family. God sets the standard and we have the opportunity to use His meaningful guidance in order to live it out. And with that, it’s enough. I want to tell you that “you’re enough”.  As you craft your book, your next project or even your very next email- remember you don’t have to be like anyone else, be better than anyone else or be larger than anyone else. Who you are is enough. Here are 5 gentle reminders I tell myself on days I forget I’m enough.

5 Ways to Measure YOUR Life

1. Gratitude.
With a measure of gratitude, you gain the world. When you are grateful for what you already have, you don’t need more. Gratitude is always enough. This perspective is a shield to the thousands of messages of ‘not enough’ we hear every day. Gratitude turns what we have into enough. We don’t need to have those shoes, that device, or even that new car.

2. Generosity.
“To measure the man, measure his heart.” Malcolm Forbes once said.
The infinite freedoms available when we design a life of less allows for infinite ways to be generous. Whether it’s with our time, money, talents, hospitality, donations, or airline miles—when the measuring stick of things ends, generosity keeps growing.

3. Contentment
Advertisers bank on the public’s perpetual discontent. In fact, they create much of our discontent through their stealth word play and product development
Contentment is not the satisfaction of want; it’s the pursuit of having enough.

4. Availability
Busyness is no way to measure a life. Busy is a thief. It’s a phantom measure of worth and success and it will never get as much done as availability will. Remain available. Learn to say no, and measure your life by the things you choose to say yes to.

5. Purpose
“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” Ralph Waldo Emerson is quoted as once saying.

If we pay too close attention to how the world measures life we will never understand the difference that our life, our one life, can make. We are purposed for much more than our net worth and closet size.
It helps to remember the best things in life can’t be pitched in thirty second ads. You’re worth so much more.
 
To Your Success,

MG

Author Feature: Areia Cobb​
​(OPEN IN BROWSER TO VIEW VIDEO)

Tools of the Trade
​
Meet “The Fussy Librarian”
 
The Fussy Librarian sends 120,000 subscribers a daily email, which is where your ebook will be featured once. The number of subscribers in each genre varies — you can find the latest stats on the prices page. Your book will be included in our searchable database for 30 days as part of your fee.
 
In order to be considered, you must have published an ebook with:
 
At least 10 reviews (can be a past book or the one you’re promoting).
An average rating of 4.0 on Amazon if you have 10-19 reviews, or an average of 3.5 if you have more than 20 reviews (to compensate for how having an abundance of reviews can sometimes drag your average down).
 
Reviews all must be from Amazon, but they can be split between Amazon’s various stores (like US and UK).
http://www.thefussylibrarian.com/for-authors/

Read more about Areia here.  
http://voyageatl.com/interview/meet-areia-cobb-ac-books-llc-powder-springs/
​