Three ingredients to success

Since I've started my goal of making $100 a day, there is one particularly defeating task to overcome: actually making money.

I have come to realize that it is in my best interest to not get discouraged, but rather stay focused on on three key ingredients that will inevitably lead to my success: Staying active, staying connected and produce something. Let's be honest, sometimes it is not possible to make money through your efforts, especially at home, but what is more important is to take on the day with the mindset that you are able to provide services that have value to someone out there in the real world.

For example, since I've started this goal, I've made a point to reach out to family and friends, asking them if we can have play-dates/work-dates. The kids can play and the adults can work. I don't expect to get paid through these efforts, but these efforts are keeping me connected, keeping my network strong, and keeping me active. It's funny how staying active is addicting, and leads to keeping active.

So, to reiterate my three ingredients to success:

1) Staying Active: When I sit around and do nothing, I seem to find myself repeating said inactivity again and again. My daughter gets super bored and acts up because she isn't being stimulated and on it goes. However, if we are active, going around and participating in the world, getting stimulated, etc., we see how great it is and keep staying active. It's funny how that works.

2) Staying connected, while simultaneously strengthening and building a network: It is one thing to be productive in your house, keeping the dishes clean and the floor swept (which I'm not always 100% good at), but it's another thing to stay connected to people around you. Do you know your neighbors? Who was the last person you called on the phone? There are a lot of people around us, and it is important that we stay connected with our people. I have been making an effort to stay connected with friends, family, people I used to work with, and people I have met recently. You never know what doors will open when you're connected with people.

I heard the other day that rich people build networks. It doesn't matter what you do, or how you do it. What matters is having a strong network of people. I have personally never been a "networking" kind of person. In a crowded room, I tend to either shut down, or find one person I know and stick to them. I recognize that networking is important, and that I should improve, and so I'm trying to reacquaint with old acquaintances. The more networking I do with my existing network, the more I open myself up to more people.

 3) Produce: I often confuse "staying active" and "producing" as the same thing. They are not. Active, to me, means keeping busy. But keeping busy can mean many things: taking out the garbage, reading a book, watching a movie, playing dolls with my daughter. "Producing" is where we create, or provide a service that has value or meaning. It is debatable that this blog is me producing something. I'm reaching out into the world. It may not be of any particular value to anyone, but it's something I'm providing. Going to my mother-in-law's house to weed her garden is producing because I'm providing a service of value that may not generate money, but feeds my other two ingredients of success. Selling things on ebay is a form of producing because I'm generating money for my family.

There you have it. A little insight into my thoughts. I sure do like to ramble. Stay active, stay connected and produce something of value. It will lead you to greatness, or at least that is my plan.