Tuesday, April 30, 2013

A little help from your friends.

Well, since I do blog about my goals, I figured why not ask for a little help from my friends? If I'm writing, I may as well as harness the power of the blog, right? 

As you all know, I run a business called Minneapolis By Bike! I give bike tours in the city. This is my third year in and I've been working hard! I've been doing the business and a full time job now for about 3 years. I've been scraping by on funds for the last couple of years but it's all been worth it to pursue my passions. Finally, I am able to cut my hours back at work and really throw myself into this season. I'm amidst a work transition now so that I can still do some work to pay the bills, but also dedicate some more days to my business.

I would love to be able to expand my business next season to St. Paul! For that, I need more equipment.  But I also need some more equipment for some shorties that show up on my tours. They are quite difficult to fit on bikes! :) 

With that said, I recently entered a competition sponsored by Intuit for $5,000 to a small business! If you are reading this and would love to support a Goal Getter, please click HERE to vote for my business! :) I appreciate any help or votes! The votes don't make it so that you will win, necessarily, however they DO help in making decisions and getting noticed. :) 

Once again - please click HERE and vote! You can do it once per day even! :) 

THANKS!

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Turning Leafs

I have big life events occuring lately! A lot of very exciting changes and I'm pumped for them!

BIG NEWS:
 
This week is my final week at my full time position at the food shelf!
 
Yes, I have officially left my full time job. Before your jaw drops to the floor, there are a few things I should mention. I have recently gotten another position with a freelance interpreting company. I will be doing intepreting part time (during biking season) and will be dedicating more time and days to my bike tours!

 

I'm very excited for this new change but I'm also very nervous! This is a big risk (even though I have interpreting as a back up job) with my business and I'm hoping for the best. I've been very busy working away at the business and my official start date this year is May 9th!
 
I've been able to add 2 tours to my schedule so I'm excited for the changes! I have a new coffee tour as well as I'll be working with another running tour company to do a duathlon running event! Can't wait!
 
IN OTHER NEWS:
 
Recently, I dated someone - albeit brief. It ended in a disappointing manner where he canceled a date on me and then blew me off completely. For the person that I thought he was, I expected more compassion than that. While it hurt my feelings a bit, I have to say that overall, it was a good experience and reminded me of something that I forgot about for a while - there ARE people out there that I will like and have a connection with. Yes, they exist. It reminded me to leap when I felt I had a connection and also to let go when you aren't being treated as you should be. Both of these things I did and I'm glad for the experience. Every experience in life is meant as means to learn.

Source: theberry.com via Berry on Pinterest
 
Given this - I've decided to take a bit of a dating hiatus. Not because I'm all bummed out and crying in my cocoa puffs each morning, but because I want to regroup and I have a lot going on in life at the moment. I've got a lot of new changes and new beginnings and I just want to have a bit of a break while I focus on all of that!

I'm also doing some new stuff this season of life. I find that during biking season, it's really hard for me to keep up at the gym. I am so busy every day that getting in an hour or more at the gym is pretty impossible if I want to have a social life too. I'm staring a new HIIT program that I'm enjoying and I'm going to stick with that over summer and will get back to weightlifting during the winter. I've been making some new health changes again - still eating clean but have just been playing around! A lot of fun new changes for me coming up, so stick around and keep reading.

 
 
I've STILL been working on goals on my goal board and I have yet to update you guys about some of them or they are still a work in process - I will be updating you all soon!
 
Hope you all find yourself busy and up to accomplishing some goals too!
 
 

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Vacancy

As I usually say, and it's always true, I've been busy. This keeps me away from blogging most of the time. I'm swept up in the momentum of accomplishing my goals, acheiving what I want to acheive, growing my business and then it's all too easy to forget or not have time to write about it. I want to write about it. I love to keep myself accountable, put my goals out there and show that you CAN, in fact, do anything that you put your mind to. Positive thinking, positive thinking, positive visualization, positive thinking! All of this, while still wanting to balance the normal things - working out, cooking and eating clean, social relationships and down time (a novelty that I don't give myself as much as I should!).

Despite looking out at a blustery winter day blowing outside my window, I know that the biking season, also known as my business and work season, is just around the corner. I should not be easily fooled by the cold temperatures and small snowfalls. It will be here, before I know it.

At the beginning of March, I learned that I no longer had a space for my business. I knew that biking season was 1-2 months away (but with this weather it may not be till June!). I just knew that I was pressed for time and had no location for the business. I had to move quick! It could have been quite easy to turn the situation into a negative circumstance, claiming that everything was working against me and I simply wouldn't be able to pull it all together...but that's just not reality nor how you become successful.



See, I believe everything happens for a reason. We are put in situations to learn, because there is something better that is meant for us, or even because a negative is to later show you a positive. That is life. Life happens...and it happens to us all. We all choose how to react to these things and I think that only the strong who can turn that one downer into a positive, are those that survive. What good is it putting your energy into being negative?

A lot of great things came from this occurrence! People that I do not even know from the community helped me search for a space. Friends went out of their way to help and support me. I'm even met and got into contact with more people and networking opportunities. I knew that out there, somewhere, was a place where my business would thrive.

In the midst of chaos, it appears that shiny happy occurences make themselves present. For example, despite the lack of business space, I was contacted more and more about my tours. I have people now wanting to refer me business! Out of that comes my own inner concerns; Can I keep up? Will I need to quit my job? What if I have to turn lots of people away? All of those, however, are very good concerns.

As luck would have it, about 3 weeks or so of searching and I found my new space! It's a garage that faces on a street and I have electricity! Exciting! A space to call my own! It doesn't look like much, but it's mine for my use only!



Ultimately and currently, I'm working on preparedness, positivity, and perserverance. The 3 Ps we'll call them. Now with a new space, I'm keeping optimistic about the upcoming season! I know big things  are on their way!

Source: tumblr.com via Alyssa on Pinterest


Hope you are all perservering in whatever situations you find yourselves - whether difficult or pleasant; it all comes with purpose.