Editorial: What Makes You Tick?
By Daniel Pepper
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."
- Henry David Thoreau
Think about what really makes tick. What do you find yourself
dreaming about? What gets your heart pumping? What dreams
would you love to accomplish in your life time? If your lawn care
business success was guaranteed, what would you dare to shoot
for?
Where are you going to be in 2 years? 5 years? Life is going to
pass no matter what you do so you might as well pursue your
dreams. While everyone else is going to work every day, you'll
be going to work on your dreams.
Fulfilling each will bring you abundance of joy and an immeasurable
sense of purpose. You'll have a drive and a sparkle in your eye
that people will notice.
ALWAYS HAVE A DREAM
It is vitally important that you always have a dream in your life
as you pursue owning a lawn business or making the one you
already have even better.
Dreams push you through challenges. Dreams help put a skip
in your step and a smile on your face.
You cannot be living the best life you can if you don't have a
dream you're pursuing. Your lawn care business is the vehicle
to help you accomplish it.
IT CAN BE TOUGH
Dreaming can be tough for some. It may be hard to dream at
all or believe a dream can be achieved because we were raised
to 'come back to reality'. We were told we could never be that
person we dreamed of being. We became scared and decided
to give in to never putting our expectations out too far so we
would never be disappointed. This is a crippling mentality and
it's holding too many people back in the lawn mowing industry.
If you're at this place, you can change the way you've been taught
or the way you've been acting to not dream by changing your
thoughts. After all, isn't a dream but a thought.
Think about you going on that dream vacation. Think about you
actually buying that new truck. Think about growing your existing
lawn business twofold. Think about a marketing campaign so large
you advertise on prime time television in your city. Think about
you accomplishing all that you set your mind to.
Don't let your dreams die. Always have a dream
you're pursuing!
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AN EXTRA PIECE OF MARKETING ADVICE...
Emotion Plays a Part
Emotion always plays a part in someone hiring your lawn business. So never market without stirring up emotion in your readers.
The top selling emotions in lawn care business marketing are:
Love
Guilt
Pride
Greed
Fear
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The Economy and You
By Daniel Pepper
Several times each week someone asks me what do I expect to happen over the next several months in the economy and the industry as a whole? What should people do and not do? Will things change? Will all the rules change too? How should we prepare?
Well, I'm no psychic, but I can share with you my thoughts.
When preparing for anything I've found that there are key principles that we should follow and be guided by.
First, let me say that life is like the 4 seasons. Its about predictable patterns of change. Like blossums in the Spring. Heat in the Summer. Leaves coming down in the Fall. And snow in the Winter.
As we approach each and every day, a good economy or a bad one, the only constant and controlled factor in life is our feelings and attitudes toward the things we face. A big obstacle we all face is that we must learn to experience the changing seasons of life without being changed by them. This means we must make a continuous effort to improve ourselves in the face of ever changing situations and circumstances.
That is why I always bring up the value of attitude. It is our natural desire to grow, to succeed, to prosper, and to find happiness while we are here. But, as we all know, it can take considerable effort to continue towards our dreams when our results, as well as our family and friends, tell us to walk away and give up.
On the other hand, and this is key, it takes little to no effort to fail. It takes little more than feeding our fears and letting our attitude get to the place of giving up on life, on a positive future, and on ourselves.
Here's a thought to ponder: It is strange to think that of all the things in life that we have control over (our attitude), it is the one thing we act as if we have no control over.
You see our attitude determines if we press on or give up, we study or give into watching useless TV. By our attitude, we take responsibility for our mistakes and failures, or we point the finger at others. Our attitude determines whether we succeed or fail.
Your attitude in life determines your thoughts, and thoughts determine action, and action determines results. All that we are, and all that we can accomplish has been left in our hands. For the rest of your days, you have the chance to complete the work in and for yourself that God has begun for you. Whether you believe in God or not, in the seasons of life that we all face, your attitude is everything.
Until next time...
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