I’ve mentioned in the past that I scour several magazines each month. They are a great place to find hot trends that I can use for creating blog posts, niche blogs or PLR topics. In one of my favorite’s this month was a list of prayers for the holidays. I have always loved the following and hadn’t seen it around in a while. Keep it in mind the next time you feel things are unbearable.

The Paradoxical Commandments
by Dr. Kent M. Keith

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

From Anyway ~ The Paradoxical Commandments

Keep moving! It’s always going to feel easier to give up than to deal with the naysayers. But, where will that get you?

Don’t forget to check out my Pre-Thanksgiving Sale. That ends Wednesday night.

There is a little App on Facebook called “God Wants You to Know” that I hop over to first thing every morning. Every day there is a new motivational message to get me started. My message this morning was rather relevant to owning a home business.

If you worry a lot, then day after day you are learning how to worry even better. If you think about doing something a lot, then you are learning how to think about doing. Every moment you are happy, you are learning how to be even happier. Every time you act, you are learning how to take an action even better. What is it that you’ve been learning today? What is it that you want to learn tomorrow?

I have talked about “thinking vs. doing” in the past. It’s an easy spiral to fall into. I find myself in it often. You know what you need to do, but…

Image by Klearchos Kapoutsis via Flickr

• What if it doesn’t work?
• What if I don’t know enough?
• What if everyone thinks it is stupid?
• What if I mess up?
• What if…
• What if…
• What if…

The longer you sit around considering the “what ifs,” the longer you are putting off taking any action to get where you are going. Those questions are going to keep on coming eternally if you let them. There is only one answer to “What If?”

Then I will make the necessary changes to make it work.

You have to take that first step if you want to get anywhere. If you find that it wasn’t the right road, you can change your path. But, you have to get started. Every moment you sit there second-guessing yourself is one more moment you are now running behind. How long do you plan to wait?

Many home business owners struggle with work at home productivity. When no one is cracking the whip, it’s easy to let the hours slip away with nothing to show for them. A few quick and easy tips can help keep you on track throughout the day.

1. Don’t Fight Your Internal Clock – Some of us are early birds, many are night owls. If your brain is at peak productivity at 11 P.M. modify your schedule accordingly. If you try to fight it, you will lose. Work with your body, not against it.

2. Jammie Days Can Get You in a Jam – Get dressed. “Work in your PJs” is a favorite catch-phrase around here, but it can kill your focus. Start your day just as if you were heading to the office. Take a shower. Put on some fresh clothes. A fresh start can make a big difference.

3. Turn Off Desktop Email Notifications – You are cruising along, getting things done, and then a little box pops up in the corner of your screen. Your focus immediately goes to that box. Maybe it looks like it might be important. Maybe you didn’t quite catch it time. Regardless, you hop over to your inbox and lose 30 minutes, and your focus. Save the emails until you finish the project or take a break.

4. Shut Down Social Media – Like email, having the latest tweets and status updates running in the background can get you off-track quickly. Save social marketing or socializing to a couple of scheduled times per day.

5. Set Office Hours…for Your Family and Friends – The only people that will try to abuse your instant access more than your clients are your family and friends. Make your availability known. If they continue to call or stop over during your work day, don’t answer the phone or the door. This may seem a little harsh. But if you let the distractions continue, the more resentment you are going to have for people not respecting your boundaries. At the end of the day, who is responsible for those boundaries? You. Not them.

6. Be Conscious of Your Diet – If you feel the need to nap after lunch, take a look at what you are eating. Grabbing a quick, carb-laden lunch will kill your focus. Plan ahead. If you need to spend an hour or two on the weekends preparing light lunches for the week, by all means do that. And grab some fresh fruit and veggies during your weekly shopping trip for no-nap snacks. This is a one-two punch. It will also help you combat that “secretary spread” us chair-bound workers are at high risk of.

7. Take a Break – Whether you are fighting off the afternoon slump or just need a brain boost, get up and get moving. Take a walk around the block. Do a few jumping jacks. Hit the treadmill for 15 minutes. Tackle one quick household chore. Fifteen minutes can help immensely.

Above all, be conscious of how you handle your work day. If you need to start accounting for every waking hour for a few days to find out where things are going awry, make that effort. A little slip here and there day after day can cause a lot of unnecessary stress. You may be surprised at how much you can get done with a few minor changes.

What’s your favorite tip for work at home productivity?

How an employee handles a telephone call can make or break a business relationship. Essentially, you need to treat your clients better than the way you want to be treated when on the phone. And when your business is home-based, your communication skills need to be close to perfect.

The following are three calling situations where “phone system etiquette” is essential and can be the root cause of a beautiful business relationship:

Transferring a Call

Communication is key during call transfers. When you are working from home, they happen a lot more often than you anticipate. That’s why it’s so important to be prepared.

The first thing to do is to let the person know that you’re planning on transferring the call, and why you’re making the transfer – basically, why you can’t deal with their issue. This not only informs the caller for their benefit, but also gives the caller the information they need to explain to your colleague why they were transferred.

In the same respect, make sure you provide your name, title or department so the caller can explain who decided to make the transfer. This is helpful in the case that they need to get in touch with you again.

This is especially important for professionals that work from home because you aren’t seen as much around the office; therefore, your colleagues might need reminding of who you are.

Closing a Call

If you need to forcibly end a call, whether the caller is talking too much or your newborn started to violently cry in the background, always make sure to do it politely and professionally. Most importantly, always make sure that the “business” part of the call is complete:

Did you answer all of the caller’s questions?
Did you address the caller’s problem or issue?

If you’re unsure, ask the caller if there’s anything else you can do at this time. This phone etiquette protects you from getting negative feedback.

In addition, even if the call went horribly and you secretly wish to never hear from that person again, still offer the caller your contact information in case they need to call you back. It’s only polite and demonstrates that you do care and are a responsible employee.

Leaving a Voice Message

Fifty to sixty percent of business phone calls end up going to voicemail; that’s why it is essential that you learn how to perfect your voicemail message. The two most important aspects of a voice message come at the beginning and end of a call:

Always start your message by introducing yourself. This is especially important if you’re calling someone for the first time. In addition, always end your message by repeating your name and leaving your contact information – SLOWLY and coherently. If you work from home, you should also include when the best time to reach you is.

One of the biggest reasons professionals don’t get a call back is because they raced through saying their contact information. It’s also important to remember that when leaving a message, take a few seconds to summarize the nature of your call; think of it as a tweet and you only have 140 characters to use – or two sentences to say.

Having the best phone system or latest telecommunication technology is only a part of what makes a business relationship work. The biggest part of a business relationship, however, is getting them on the phone to begin with; and you will only succeed at that if you have the right telephone etiquette.

About the author: Sylvia is an online writer who enjoys writing articles about how business professionals can improve their daily work life, such as updating their telecommunications with the latest office telephone systems.

It’s time for the weekly round-up of the best blog posts I have read this week.

Reward Your RSS Subscribers With a Gift  – If you are a WordPress user, it is easy to give your RSS subscribers a little present for following your blog. You can also use this technique to add copyright information in hopes of fighting off those splogging (spam blog) content swipers.

How to Create a Client Pricing Package to Really Build Your Freelancing Business  – You shop. You know how retailers take advantage of bundling. Apply that same method to your freelance business for maximum profits.

Master List of Sites to Sell Your Books and Textbooks – There has been some big buzz around selling books for cash lately.

My first blogging guide review is up over at Work at Home Adventures. Thanks to everyone that has already purchased it. If you subscribe to receive my weekly updates via email in the sidebar, you will be sent a discount code that can be applied to your purchase.

10+ Email Mailing List Services – Speaking of mailing list, you have one don’t you? Even if all you are ready to do at this point is set it up to send out your posts to your subscribers automatically, do it. It is so important to get a band of loyal followers that revisit your blog on a regular basis. Why continually chase down new traffic when you can those already there coming back?

10 Must-Have Qualities to Succeed in an Online Career – Every so often it is good to take a moment to get your head on straight.

This Week’s Challenge: We have been doing so great with the weekly challenges and tips the past few weeks, why stop now? Schedule one hour over the next few days to sit down, write a nice little informative article and submit a guest post to the site of your choosing. I have been slacking in this department lately. This is extremely sad considering I am approved as a contributor on a few sites, and I have a nice big list of sites in my niche that accept guest posts. No more excuses. Just do it!

Did you read anything great this week? Are you up for the weekly challenge? 

I’m stealing a post topic from Miranda over at Work at Home Adventures and doing a little meme today.

Daily Prayer of a Work at Home Wife

I don’t know if it is my recent state of optimism, or if every other blogger out there is in a total funk. Regardless, I have somehow managed to land on every blog in a bad mood lately. I’ve seen reader berating, hopeless outlooks and just downright “grrr” attitudes out there.

Image by jugbo via Flickr

You have got to be careful what you are reading out there. It can suck the life right out of you. For example, I hit a blog yesterday that was on a “recommended reading” list. The first post on the homepage was talking about how there are only a few hundred people that are ever going to make money online. The rest of us are all wasting our time and energy for a few pennies. The next post was about wanting success. “Why do you even want success? All of your so-called friends are going to turn their backs on you. People are going to start nitpicking everything you do and laughing behind your back. Stay in your hole!”

Do you know how many posts I read on this blog? Six! I got sucked into this to the point that I could barely see over my keyboard. I think that’s the only reason why I stopped reading. I was unconsciously curling up into the fetal position because this guy had me feeling like such a loser. And I make money around here! I know several others that make money around here. I obviously know he is wrong!

When I sent out my latest little guide for peer reviews, there were a couple of people I specifically picked out to ask “Is this realistic, but hopeful”. I know darned good and well at this point that this is a very thin line to walk. One slip and you can crush your readers’ dreams, hopes and ambitions, or get them entirely offtrack with the success they may already be seeing. If I did that, guess where you are going next? It isn’t to my blog. Now you feel you need to start over and get a different plan. You are heading over to the guy that is going to tell you how to be successful in whatever path you have chosen.

If you have been getting sucked into this onslaught of “blogger blues” lately, you need to stop reading that right now. Find someone that is going to give you at least a ray of hope, even if it is a small one. Get on a blog that is going to provide you with some actual information to get there, not someone that is projecting their own fears or failures onto you. If you find yourself in the fetal position in front of your computer, get up, dust yourself off and ask yourself what the heck that guy knows about making money online anyway. He’s already told you he hasn’t attempted to monetize his blog at all. Why are you listening to his advice in the first place?

Are you in a funk? Have you lost all hope lately? Can you tell me why everyone is so negative? 

I read a post yesterday from Tiffany Dow that touched on such an important topic. We all know by now that you aren’t going to make a million dollars online overnight don’t we? But, we still are kinda holding out hope that we will be one of the lucky ones aren’t we?

It happens every day. We see something online that is the answer to all of prayers. We jump in with both feet, then we remember that actual work is involved. We forgot that part! So, what do we do? Quit and move on to the next thing.

Whether it is owning a home-based business, being a blogger, finding the work at home job of your dreams, it is going to take work. If you don’t figure out where things keep going awry, you are likely going to get the same result over and over again. This often means:

• Taking an honest look at what that profit system really entails. This happens – you really didn’t have a clue what you were getting into.
• Educating yourself more on the steps that are necessary. Take it from someone that got started around when Twitter and Facebook for business were hitting the scene, sometimes a little more information is needed to make things effective. I’m here! Now what? 
• Sometimes you have to answer that horrible question, “Did I even want to do this in the first place, or was I jumping on a bandwagon?”

Take a look at your abandoned projects this week. Dig out those that you still have an interest in. Figure out where it all went wrong. Decide what you can do differently this time around. Actually make a plan for your second attempt. You know it needs done differently, so how are you going to do it?

What do you have lying around collecting dust that you would like to revive? Where did it all go wrong the first time?