I Want To Stay Home After Maternity Leave

I Want To Stay Home After Maternity Leave

I remember after having my first child the thought of having to go back to work was extremely overwhelming. I felt guilty and questioned why would I have children if I was not going to be around for the most important part of the little one’s life.

There is no right or wrong answer here, and choosing one over the other doesn’t make you a better or worse mother.

At the time all I could think about was if I was to stay at home how could we afford it, what would my husband think, what would I be giving up by not going back to work, what would people think of me and how do I get a break if some of my connections where broken by not returning to the work force.

I made sure that I talked to my husband about my above feelings and we worked through the planning, number crunching and soul searching to allow me to stay at home to look after my beautiful little man.

Here are some great tips that I used to help make it easier making a decision to not return to work.

1. Could We Afford It

The most difficult thing to overcome was how would the family be supported financially when prior to having a child we had two incomes coming into the household and overnight we went to one.

Both my husband and I sat down and work through what it would look like. We considered the costs that would occur by not going back to work and were quite surprised how much it would cost by returning to work. Here are some of the costs that you may think about if you where to return.

• Daycare
• Commuting Costs (tolls, gas, public transport
• Cost of lunches
• House cleaning costs if you don’t have the time
• Cost of work clothing if you need it
• Incidental spending costs

2. Could I Work From Home

I remember thinking back to when I was a child and always had a dream of having my own business. Both my husband and I discussed this and decided to investigate opportunities of starting a small home business of some sort as long as it didn’t interfere with bringing up the young one.

Their are so many opportunities available out there that with a little bit of research you may find something that might be ideal for you.

3. Could I Still Have A Social Life

I am a bit of a social bunny so that was a real concern to me. Life as a stay at home mum is rewarding in many different ways, but I always wondered how lonely it would be as I was accustomed to having constant access to social interaction. I investigated network opportunities to allow myself the time to have that social interaction. Starting my small business helped with that but also connecting to other mums going through the same thing really helped.

Now I meet regularly for coffee catch-ups and have even formed a fitness group with a bunch of mum’s that get together 3-4 days a week to keep in shape.

4: Ensure You Discuss Your Partner’s  Wishes 

It’s extremely important that you share how you feel with your partner. Open and honest communication will help him share his feelings and you and your partner will be able to make the decision together and support one another in whatever you both decide.

5: What Would Your Schedule Look Like

Consider the time lost driving to and from work. That time lost in sleep can be tough on a mum. I struggled with how I could manage everything as it is a big change with having a child and managing the needs of a family.

You need to consider how long are your work days? How long is your drive? If you do go back to work, how will you and your husband coordinate day care pickup and drop-off?

Consider your commute. Is it taking up time you could be spending with your family?

6: Your Happiness

The most important thing was that I was happy with the decision I wanted to make and stay home and not return back to work. Someone said to me “You will know what to do when the time comes to decide, you’ll know” and they where absolutely right.

Before you make a final decision, be sure to consider what will make you truly happy in the long run.

I now have 3 children and have been fortunate to be at home with all of them. I have been able to attend their sports days at school, their dance lessons after school, coffee mornings with friends all while supporting our income with running a small business from home. You to can achieve this.

    

Setting Goals Is The Key To Successful Personal Development

Setting Goals Is The Key To Successful Personal Development

lf Help is a movement that has grown quite a bit in recent time. While self improvement is a noble goal, the process of self improvement can be met with many roadblocks to an individual who lacks the proper knowledge. This blog contains a number of tips on self improvement and how to succeed in your own self help journey. 

Be sure to treat yourself periodically if you are putting a good effort into your personal development. It is hard to make changes, especially if it is a habit that you have had for a very long time. It is important to make yourself feel good for doing all that hard work.

Seriously take a break during the day! Give yourself permission to do absolutely nothing for about ten minutes. You need to have this real quality time for yourself each day. “Me time” is going to help you be able to cope better in all the other situations in your life.

Like you would with any other goal, try setting a schedule for working out. A good weekly schedule can keep you on track and keep you from forgetting or having to reschedule your weekly routines. This is also a great way to stay motivated and reach your fitness and weight loss goals.

With regards to personal development in the professional field, it is essential to ask for things that are within reason. Unless you make the request your employer will never know you need it. Be sure that your requests are within reason and do not make you look foolish.

Write down a list of all of your most notable strengths and unique abilities, then select one or two and ask yourself how you can use that quality to improve some other person’s life. If you are a good listener, think of the different ways that you might help someone who might need a sympathetic ear. If you are a wonderful cook, surprise your co-workers with a home-baked treat for the whole office.

Try to reshape the way you think by using catchphrases. By keeping certain ideas at the front of your mind, you can begin applying them to the way you think everyday. Popular catchphrases include “Say yes,” “Fake it ’till you feel it,” and many others. Using these can help you think and feel better.

Setting Goals Is The Key To Successful Personal Development

Not taking things personally can be a challenge. This is especially true for artistic souls and sensitive people. Take yourself out of the comment or situation you find yourself in when you notice you are taking it personally. There is no reason to carry the weight of the entire world on your shoulders.

Get plenty of rest. A good night’s sleep will not only ward off illnesses, but will also make sure that your mind is crisp and ready for the daily tasks that lay ahead of you. Not getting enough sleep can make you irritable and cranky, and it can literally hinder everything that you do. Don’t skimp on the beauty sleep.

You should always have a backup plan for any situation in your everyday life. Having a good backup plan is a great way to ensure that you will accomplish your goals even if unforeseen problems arise. This is a great way to ensure that your personal development process goes well.

If you are looking to improve your life by utilizing personal development strategies make the decision to read a book on personal development. Make yourself read from the book every single day. Even if you are only to read a few pages each day you will be a lot farther ahead than someone who has never read the book at all.

When it comes to personal development be sure that are gracious for all there is to be gracious for. This is important because if you do not give thanks, than you are not truly showing appreciation for all that is good around you. This will bring you joy.

Embrace your emotions. Bottling up your emotions will limit you not only emotionally, but in all areas of your life. By embracing all of your emotions, including your anger, fear, and sadness, you can move through and eventually get past them. By accepting your feelings, you become the master of them.

Challenge yourself every day to be productive! Every minute you are able to give to your personal growth is valuable. The minutes add-up over time. In fact, they have a snowball effect. If you approach every day as having an opportunity for personal growth, then you will find at the end of the year that the overall end result of your efforts is greater than the sum of its parts.

Learn to take pride in what you do. Maybe you hate your job or feel frazzled being a parent. Remember that there are millions out there in the same boat. Be proud of your small accomplishments, even if it is just getting dinner ready on time or finishing the same mindless projects over and over again for your job.

Give yourself short-term goals of less than a month. This can motivate you and give you that extra spark you need to make that goal come true. Plan a great reward and watch yourself reach that goal in no time. Make new goals every few weeks and see how well you can do.

Go out and meet people. By making new connections whether it be finding a new friend or a new romantic interest, this can open up a new world of opportunities for you. Also, a great way to know yourself better and to make improvements is to see how others perceive you.

Do you become offended when other people insult you or put you down? Of course! So it is only natural that you should give yourself a break whenever you begin to have doubts about your looks, life, or abilities. If you cannot say something nice about yourself, then you surely shouldn’t say anything at all.

Hopefully you have found some new and helpful tips for you to use in your life. If you can find a way to apply what you have read in this blog into your everyday life, you are sure to benefit from many, if not all, of these well thought-out tips. Apply them to your life and reach your personal goals.

    

Image courtesy of stuart miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Be Your Own Boss

Be Your Own Boss

Opening and operating a business from your home doesn’t have to be a complicated thing. As long as you have the right information to help you out along the way, you should be able to go from being a start-up to being a successful business person. With a little time and effort, and some great tips like we have for you in this article, it’s definitely possible.

If you expect your business to be legitimate, then you have to make it legitimate. Make sure your business is registered per your particular state’s laws. This may require a simple registration and license, or you may have to go through a longer process depending on what your business is. Be sure to check your state law.

If you want to sell products, look for something you would consider buying yourself. If you do not believe in the utility of the products you sell or know the quality of the product does not match its price, you are in the wrong business. Test a product and read reviews before you decide to sell it.

Offer a discount for the customers that you have served if they send a referral your way. If you do a really great job for one customer, you are going to want them to spread the word about your business and offering them a discount on their next service is going to encourage them to tell their friends.

As long as your home business has its own online presence, you need to make sure that all business email goes through accounts that share your website’s domain name. Not only is this more professional-looking, it discourages confusion and even enhances marketing impact. Repetition builds familiarity, and this way your every email gets your customers to look at your business’s name again.

A great tip for your home business is to make sure that you spend plenty of time before even starting your business to make sure you are doing something in an appropriate niche for you. Start with you hobbies and favorite activities and determine if there are any ways that you can turn them into a business opportunity.

A great tip for your home business is to make sure that you are covered under a good insurance plan. This will help to ensure that your business does not fail if unforeseen circumstances should arise. You will want to protect your business in case there are any health problems that occur or disasters such as flood or fire.

Be Your Own Boss

You are likely going to need additional insurance to cover your home business. Check with your insurance agent to learn if there is any insurance that is required by law or that will protect you from any kind of financial fall-out if anything negative was to happen. Your agent will be able to help you or send you to a company that can.

Have confidence in yourself and your products. Have you ever felt like buying something from a salesperson that didn’t seem sure about the product? Even if it happens unconsciously, buyers pick up on your vibe when you represent your products. Develop real confidence in your products and your business. If you can’t do this, it might be time to find a product you feel confident promoting.

Make sure to read about Search Engine Optimization of your home business website to ensure that you’re driving targeted traffic who will want to buy your product or services. If you don’t know how to do this yourself, hire an expert who will gain you more than you’ll have to pay him in fees.

To ensure your cash flow is consistent, before delivering your product or service, require payment. If the service you offer is delivered over a period of time, it is not realistic to expect an advance payment, but you can divide the payments out over a period, and request the payments in advance of the period specified.

When it comes to home business it is essential to make a space for your business that is separate from your everyday life. This very important because in order to get down to business and concentrate fully on your business you need to have a completely separate work environment.

If you want to run a business out of your home, be sure to analyse your attitude about working from home. If you can’t focus on your work because you’re at home, or you think working from home means you can slack off whenever you like, a home business may not be right for you. A home business requires dedication and hard work, just like any job.

Every expense you pay for needs to be correctly logged no matter if you operate a live business or a web business. Make sure that you’re keeping receipts and transaction logs for everything. You’re going to have to divulge this information, so you need to make sure it’s all recorded.

A great tip for your home business is to make sure that you have a lump sum of money on hand for when tax season rolls around. This is extremely important to remember because sometimes it can be a large and unexpected amount of money that is required of you.

As you read, it doesn’t really have to be a complicated thing. A home business is going to take some time and effort in order to run efficiently, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to be trained on any particular methods. Just follow the tips you read above and going into business won’t be that difficult.

    

Image courtesy of Sujin Jetkasettakorn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

By Your Own Bootstraps: Tips On Personal Development

By Your Own Bootstraps: Tips On Personal Development

People try to find ways to make themselves better. They go to school to learn a new trade or skill. They go to the gym in an attempt to lose weight or tone and sculpt their body. They invest in stock to gain more money. All of these are considered personal development. The information in this blog will help anyone who wants to perform personal development tasks.

To achieve your goals, turn the necessary tasks to reaching your goals into a habit. Make the habit something that you do everyday without thinking about it, like brushing your teeth. Habits are hard to break. If you successfully turn your small tasks into habits, you will reach the end goal in no time.

Personal development is a very important part of being a human, both for personal reasons and professional reasons. It can help you to become more marketable as well as improve your interpersonal skills in your social life. This will lead to you having more confidence and a better life overall.

For a fresh perspective, try on another ideology for size. A Buddhist way of thinking often entails disposing of your ego and seeing the world as one thriving organism. In this sense, your impact on the world goes as far as your positive energy can take you. Try a new perspective to enhance your other personal development efforts. You might be surprised at how well it works!

Get rid of any form of “I can’t” from your vocabulary. If you keep thinking that you can not do something, it will become a ball and chain and keep you from going anywhere. Instead, put a twist on things and look at what things you can do and go after those first.

One of the easiest and hardest steps in helping yourself in life is to find your passion. Many people spend their lives working in jobs that do not give them a sense of fulfilment.  Fulfilment in life and our job go together because when we derive happiness, pride and emotional rewards from doing what you love, it shows.

If you have a hard time focusing, you need to learn how to do it. Shut out distractions. These distractions may be hard to pinpoint if you are used to living a life with a multitude of noises. Something as simple as fixing a faulty light in your office can help you focus. Learn to do one thing at a time as well, multitasking is over-rated.

A great personal development tip that anyone can use is that to recognize how you achieve your goals and then try and reproduce your strategy to succeed in other endeavours  Life always poses challenges and once you learn how to rise up and conquer one, it gets easier each time. So sit sit down and think about it for a while and make some notes. You may already have the key to solving many problems – problems that may be blocking you from living life as you truly can.

By Your Own Bootstraps: Tips On Personal Development

Building upon your goals and aspirations to become a better person or even to achieve and conquer new things, you must remain educated and keep your knowledge base expanding. This can be accomplished through tradition formal education or non-conventional methods. By stimulating your mind and body, you can be one step closer to becoming the person you want to be.

Personal development can be improved through the help of friends. Although you don’t want to do something for them it is great to do something with someone. This can help you to stay accountable about what you are trying to improve. When someone else is counting on you than you are much more likely to see it through.

Always strive to build positive relationships wherever you may go, since you never know where new connections can lead you. Every single person you meet should receive individual attention. People are often surprising, and you can never predict how a meeting will develop. Your positivity and extroversion may lead you to delightful new opportunities.

A great tip for personal development is to let love be a major reason you keep your faith. Don’t believe in something just because someone told you to, or because you are supposed to. Rather, make sure your beliefs are really your own and love the fact that they are.

A great personal development tip is to try to get the most precision that you can possibly acquire. If you believe in luck, then you should know that the people with the most luck are those that have the most precise calculations. Precision is key to success and personal development.

Learning how to manage your time is a part of personal development. Have you ever noticed that some people tend to get a lot more done during the same 24 hour period than others? This is because they have figured out how to manage their time and prioritize what needs to be done. A good way to start is by making a list of what needs to be done and then setting aside the time to do those things.

Even if your schedule is packed with things that you have to get done, be sure to fit in some time to spend with your true friends. Even if it is just time for a cup of coffee together, these friendships are going to make your life a bit more joyful and contribute to your well being.

While you should be looking to increase your personal development and motivation, remember that we are often unmotivated when we are doing things we feel are not worth our time. Take stock of what you spend your time on, and determine if this is truly necessary for the other parts of your life. We have a limited amount of time on this planet, so be sure to spend it wisely.

If you want to become a better person, do not be afraid to solicit honest feedback from others. Sometimes, you cannot see your own weaknesses because you do not have an objective view of yourself. Honest feedback from others can be constructive and can help you identify areas that you need to improve.

Personal development starts with a positive attitude. Having a positive attitude will affect every part of each day of your life. Everyone has their down days and troubles, but take a minute to step back, breathe, regroup, and tackle whatever situation with a calm mind and fresh outlook.

Happiness and peace are a state of mind that everyone would like to inhabit, but coping mechanisms from long ago may not be getting you the state of mind you are seeking. Developing yourself through avenues such as your senses and your intuition allows for a deeper sense of self and the peaceful state of mind you seek.

    

Image courtesy of stuart miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Make A Competitive Article Marketing Plan With These Suggestions!

Make A Competitive Article Marketing Plan With These Suggestions!

You may not think of it as a common form of marketing, but article marketing can actually be quite effective. When businesses write pieces directed to those in their industry, they are reaching an audience with prior knowledge of the subject matter. This Blog will teach you more about how to maximize your article marketing experience.

When writing an article, don’t overuse keywords. Incorporate them well into your article. Make sure they appear in the title, first paragraph and in the concluding paragraph. Don’t use them in the body of the article as this gets repetitive.If you want people to click on your articles, you need to write attention-grabbing titles.

One of the keys to article marketing success is getting people to click on your article from the search engines. The best way to accomplish this is with a well-written, eye catching title. Some effective techniques you can try include turning your title into a question or alluding to a secret that will be answered in your article.

By specializing ones article marketing to a select field or certain niche one can not only hone their articles to their best but also attract many viewers from that field. Apart from the ability to refine ones articles there is less competition within that articles marketing niche that one has found.

Providing links to other websites in your articles is a great way to market your own. How? By showing readers all the other resources they can use to learn more on a topic, you’re providing a central directory that they will return to check out time and time again. You may not have all the content on your site, but you definitely provide all the answers.

The more unique your content is, the better off your rankings will be in the search engines. Truly succeeding in article marketing requires you to learn about the principles of search engine optimization. The higher you can rank, the more eyes will be able to view your content.

Make sure that your target keyword for your article is something that people are actually searching for. You can create the best content in the world but if no one actually needs it, then your work is pointless. Use keyword tools to find subjects that people are searching for, to help you decide what content to create.

Write your articles using keywords with less competition. This gives you a much better chance of hitting the first page of Google with these articles. If you use more popular keywords, your articles might never make it to the first few pages of Google results, meaning you won’t get much traffic at all.

Make A Competitive Article Marketing Plan With These Suggestions

Use shorter, quicker articles for traffic generation. As you get deeper into article marketing you will get a feel for all the different purposes you can use articles for. The articles you send out to directories and indexes in order to build links and improve your search engine rankings do not need to be magnificent manifestos. Send your short articles out for these jobs and do not worry too much about their quality.

When writing articles with article marketing in mind, do not under any circumstances attempt to sell yourself through your articles. Providing your readers with articles full of useful information will act as an automatic selling point, rather than using shameless self promotion every chance you get.

Using the proper writing techniques, can be important for article marketing. The right style can attract readers, while styles that are too boring or otherwise undesirable can turn off readers and make them move on. One needs to think carefully about the writing technique they use in their article.

Make sure that your article is created with search engines in mind. This means that you need to include keywords in the title, first sentence and throughout the body of the piece. You also want to have keywords in the final paragraph and in any descriptions of the article that you have.

Avoid the temptation to break up one article and call the resulting fragments a series. From time to time in your article marketing effort, it is entirely natural for you to produce an article that is longer than you really need. Rather than chopping such articles up haphazardly, focus on developing each part into a high-quality stand-alone article.

Utilize the “advanced search” option on your search engine to get the best results for your search. This is especially efficient when doing academic research for a paper. In the “search within a site or domain” option, write “.gov”, or “.edu.” This action only pulls results from sites with these endings. This ensures that the search results come from academic or legal sources, which is crucial to writing a paper or official journal.

Article marketing is only successful if the content is fresh. You cannot let your content get stale on a website. It needs to be updated and added to constantly. Old content might attract new traffic to your site but it will lose repeat traffic. Attention spans are small these days and only new information will keep your audience engaged.

Spell check your articles before placing them online. Frequent misspellings send a message that you are not professional, and can indeed cause you to lose business. Your articles are a direct representation of your business, and should reflect you in the best manner. Even one error can result in the loss of a sale.

Perhaps the most beautiful aspect of article marketing: most of the working techniques used by marketers today were actually thought up and implemented by marketers. This means that any great idea you have that goes against the grain could easily become the next best-selling eBook on how to effectively market.

The beauty of article marketing is that these original articles, if published in the correct places, can bring a continual flow of traffic to your website. The best thing about the customers, which are brought to your site with these articles, is that they already have a pretty good idea about what you have to offer, and they are hungry to learn more.

Time is money, it is worth spending a little bit of time each day campaigning yourself across the internet. Backlinking is one of the most lucrative ways to promote yourself and it is entirely free if you do the work yourself. Get started today and do regular maintenance on all of your content and you will be bound for success. Good luck!

    

Image courtesy of ddpavumba / FreeDigitalPhotos.net