Networkers - Get Yourself a Card Scanner

Here's a review I posted at CardScan about their product. thought you guys might want to know about it too...

Life Review

So if you've been reading my posts, you know I've been down with a terrible case of tendonitis for the last few months.  It got so bad for a while that I couldn't do my laundry, drive, or even cut my own food.  I wasn't sleeping for more than 2-3 hours at a stretch because every time I would shift positions, the pain would wake me up.  Even clicking the remote control or holding a book open was painful.

This process has done two things for me.  First, it showed me what great friends I have.  They have come through by doing my laundry, driving me to the accupuncturist, doing my dishes, and one person even drove me all the way to Providence and back so that I could do a speaking engagement I was scheduled for.  I have found myself firmly in gratitude at the great people I have around me.  The other thing this has done for me is to force me to do something I haven't done in several years - really slow down.  Not just take a little down-time to recharge, but really just sit and be in stillness. 

Stillness is the place where all spiritual practices begin and mine is no different it seems.  I have spent a fair amount of time just feeling into what I want from my life and just being present in the moment.  Thankfully, my feet have been fine, so I've been taking long walks (which have gotten more comfortable as Spring has begun to arrive).  And as I've been walking, I've been inspired by the things I've seen and people I've listened to along the way. 

And what I've discovered is this: I could die tomorrow and I would have no regrets.  I've spent the last ten years of my life doing exactly what I wanted to do - even if it scared me - especially if it scared me, and I'm looking back now and finding that I have had a very rich life indeed.  I've had experiences that many people haven't ever thought of.  I've known a wide cross-section of people than I've ever known before in my life.  And, as a result of meeting these people and having these experiences, I'm wiser than I've ever been (which means that I really understand how much I don't know).  ;-)

I still have many things I want to do and people I want to meet.  I have work left to do on this planet - don't you worry, I'm not done yet.  But I have no fear of dying.  I have no fear that I haven't yet become the person I want to be remembered as.  I've accomplished that task.  This is who I want to be.  Oddly, for many years I thought that I was working towards being that person.  But now I know that in that journey, I was already there.  It's a peaceful feeling.

Life Review

So if you've been reading my posts, you know I've been down with a terrible case of tendonitis for the last few months.  It got so bad for a while that I couldn't do my laundry, drive, or even cut my own food.  I wasn't sleeping for more than 2-3 hours at a stretch because every time I would shift positions, the pain would wake me up.  Even clicking the remote control or holding a book open was painful.

This process has done two things for me.  First, it showed me what great friends I have.  They have come through by doing my laundry, driving me to the accupuncturist, doing my dishes, and one person even drove me all the way to Providence and back so that I could do a speaking engagement I was scheduled for.  I have found myself firmly in gratitude at the great people I have around me.  The other thing this has done for me is to force me to do something I haven't done in several years - really slow down.  Not just take a little down-time to recharge, but really just sit and be in stillness. 

Stillness is the place where all spiritual practices begin and mine is no different it seems.  I have spent a fair amount of time just feeling into what I want from my life and just being present in the moment.  Thankfully, my feet have been fine, so I've been taking long walks (which have gotten more comfortable as Spring has begun to arrive).  And as I've been walking, I've been inspired by the things I've seen and people I've listened to along the way. 

And what I've discovered is this: I could die tomorrow and I would have no regrets.  I've spent the last ten years of my life doing exactly what I wanted to do - even if it scared me - especially if it scared me, and I'm looking back now and finding that I have had a very rich life indeed.  I've had experiences that many people haven't ever thought of.  I've known a wide cross-section of people than I've ever known before in my life.  And, as a result of meeting these people and having these experiences, I'm wiser than I've ever been (which means that I really understand how much I don't know).  ;-)

I still have many things I want to do and people I want to meet.  I have work left to do on this planet - don't you worry, I'm not done yet.  But I have no fear of dying.  I have no fear that I haven't yet become the person I want to be remembered as.  I've accomplished that task.  This is who I want to be.  Oddly, for many years I thought that I was working towards being that person.  But now I know that in that journey, I was already there.  It's a peaceful feeling.

Cool New Stuff

Hi all! Still battling with the tendonitis, so I'm going to keep this short.

My training coordinator and I met last week to lay out the National Training Program for Sparta Success Systems. It's going to be AMAZING! Now we're just looking for some good people to run pieces of it for us. We hope to be unveiling the program across the US in September. Stay tuned here for more info.

This brings me to my next point which is that this blog is going to go from being just me talking to being a company blog. First, my Training Coordinator, Chuck Webb, will be starting to post. And eventually, we'll have all of our trainers posting on here as well. (For those of you anxiously awaiting the return of the podcast, that will also return with the trainers in September.)

So I'll be replacing my face with the company logo and for each post, we'll sign it with our name and photo so that you know who said what.

I'm hoping that this change will allow you all a greater range of information, experience, and perspectives. (As you know, I'm all about finding new perspectives.) This will also free me up to talk more about personal growth and develpment, my passion. I don't know about you guys, but I can't wait.

So the next voice you hear on here will be Chuck's. Let us know what you think about the shift. You know I love to hear from you.

Kelle Sparta is the author of The Consultative Real Estate Agent - Building Relationships that Create Loyal Clients, Get More Referrals, and Increase Your Sales, as well as being a speaker and trainer specializing in the real estate industry. Kelle is the founder of Sparta Success Systems, a real estate training company that provides tools, products, and training to empower agents and brokers to create lives and businesses they can love. For more information, visit her website at http://www.spartasuccess.com/. © 2007, Kelle Sparta.

Quick Update

I just wanted to let everyone know why I haven't been posting recently. My tendonitis that started when I wrote my book 3 years ago has flared up again and I'm having a hard time typing. (In fact, my acupuncturist would flay me alive if he knew I was typing this right now.) But I didn't want you all to think that I was ignoring you. Now I'm off again to take care of myself. I'll be back online as soon as possible. Thanks for staying tuned...

Authenticity vs. Cynicism

Yesterday I sent out a Valentine's Day card to all of the people on my mailing list. In years past, I had done a "I love my clients" promotion with discounts, etc. This year I wanted to simply make a deposit into the emotional bank account and tell my readers what they meant to me. The card read simply:

"I just wanted to drop you a quick note to let you know how much I love and appreciate you.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Love always,

Kelle Sparta"

Five hundred and forty nine people opened the email. Six people sent letters expressing their gratitude for the card. I got one person who said that it was over the top and 9 people unsubscribed from the list.

For the record, love has many forms. The ancient Greeks understood this. They had three words for love: filios, eros, and agape. Filios is the love on has for one's family. Eros is the romantic love we usually associate with Valentine's Day. Agape is universal love. This is the form I was referencing when I sent the note. I was truly feeling loving and grateful that these wonderful people took time from their day to read my newsletters periodically.

What's my point? Well, the point is simply this: you cannot account for everyone's reaction. You can only choose, as I did, to be authentic in the moment. Not everyone is going to like you. Not everyone will believe you. But if you ARE being authentic, then those who are your clients will appreciate it.

(BTW - the same sentiment applies to you all as well. Thanks for reading. I love you, too.)

Spoiling My Inner Child

Today I have arrived in Sioux Falls, SD for an event I am doing tomorrow called "There's No Excuse For Having No Leads!" I am staying at the Ramada near the airport. The hotel was booked by the Sioux Falls Association of Realtors who has hired me to come out here. Evidently this is where they put up all of their guests - otherwise I would think that someone really did their homework to put me up here. It's 2 degrees below zero outside and I don't care because I don't intend to leave the hotel for the entirety of my stay. You see, there's this thing. It's called an indoor waterpark. It has slides and pools and a hot tub. I am in heaven. More importantly, my inner child is in heaven. I arrived too late this evening to slide on the slides, but rest assured that I will do so at my first opportunity tomorrow. If you're one of the lucky people coming to see me tomorrow - bring your suit. We'll have a slide together. Whee!

Sadness

For those of you who follow my blog, I thought I would post an update today. The man I was doing the fundraiser for to help pay for his medical expenses associated with his leukemia, my friend, Dale DeSharone, died today. He is survived by his long-time partner Robyn and his exwife Andrea and their children, Avital and Nadav. He passed peacefully in the night with his family surrounding him.

Thankfully the family has many friends to support them in this time of grief, including me. So I may be silent for a while as I take some extra time off.

That's all for now.

Freeing Up Your Energy

My friend, David Farkas, The House Healer (check him out at www.househealing.com) sent me this information about a Hawaiian process called Ho'Oponopono whereby through forgiveness and love we are healed. He suggested that I work with it to free up some aspects of my business and personal life that have been challenging. I started the process this morning, so I can't tell you the effect of the work on the outside world yet (although according to this process you all are merely reflections of me and vice versa - I can't think about it too hard or it makes my head spin.) But there are a few things I can tell you already.

I started the process with a particular person who has been a challenge in my life. But shortly after that, I went on to spontaneously apologize to myself for all the things I'd done and brought into my life this past year that made me unhappy. I apologized for eating badly, for not getting out to socialize more, for not showing up in my full power, for being afraid and for many other things as well. One thing led to the next and what I had planned to be a 2 minute trial process turned into 20 minutes of intense requests for forgiveness to myself.

Much like most other people on the planet, I'm much meaner to myself than I would ever be to anyone else. I also accept more abuse from myself than I would ever tolerate from others. I had a lot to apologize for. And I have a lot more to go, but that will have to wait for my next 20 minute window. I plan to continue this process daily. Already I am feeling more centered and grounded. My heart is open. I am at peace in a way that I haven't known before. If this is the result of 20 minutes of time, I can't wait to see what happens after a week of daily exercise.

Here is the information I used to begin this work for myself. Perhaps you might like to try it as well...

-------------------------------------------------

This article has been distributed on the Internet for years...

Sat Jul 22, 2006

HO'OPONOPONO
By Joe Vitale

"Two years ago, I heard about a therapist in Hawaii who cured a complete ward of criminally insane patients--without ever seeing any of them. The psychologist would study an inmate's chart and then look within himself to see how he created that person's illness. As he improved himself, the patient improved.

"When I first heard this story, I thought it was an urban legend. How could anyone heal anyone else by healing himself? How could even the best self-improvement master cure the criminally insane? It didn't make any sense. It wasn't logical, so I dismissed the story.

"However, I heard it again a year later. I heard that the therapist had used a Hawaiian healing process called ho 'oponopono. I had never heard of it, yet I couldn't let it leave my mind. If the story was at all true, I had to know more. I had always understood "total responsibility" to mean that I am responsible for what I think and do. Beyond that, it's out of my hands. I think that most people think of total responsibility that ay. We're responsible for what we do, not what anyone else does--but that's wrong.

"The Hawaiian therapist who healed those mentally ill people would teach me an advanced new perspective about total responsibility. His name is Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len. We probably spent an hour talking on our first phone call. I asked him to tell me the complete story of his work as a therapist. He explained that he worked at Hawaii State Hospital for four years. That ward where they kept the criminally insane was dangerous.

Psychologists quit on a monthly basis. The staff called in sick a lot or simply quit. People would walk through that ward with their backs against the wall, afraid of being attacked by patients. It was not a pleasant place to live, work, or visit.

"Dr. Len told me that he never saw patients. He agreed to have an office and to review their files. While he looked at those files, he would work on himself. As he worked on himself, patients began to heal.

"'After a few months, patients that had to be shackled were being allowed to walk freely,' he told me. 'Others who had to be heavily medicated were getting off their medications. And those who had no chance of ever being released were being freed.' I was in awe.'Not only that,' he went on, 'but the staff began to enjoy coming to work. Absenteeism and turnover disappeared. We ended up with more staff than we needed because patients were being released, and all the staff was showing up to work. Today, that ward is closed.'

"This is where I had to ask the million dollar question: 'What were you doing within yourself that caused those people to change?'

"'I was simply healing the part of me that created them,' he said. I didn't understand. Dr. Len explained that total responsibility for your life means that everything in your life- simply because it is in your life--is your responsibility. In a literal sense the entire world is your creation.

"Whew. This is tough to swallow. Being responsible for what I say or do is one thing. Being responsible for what everyone in my life says or does is quite another. Yet, the truth is this: if you take complete responsibility for your life, then everything you see, hear, taste, touch, or in any way experience is your responsibility because it is in your life. This means that terrorist activity, the president, the economy or anything you experience and don't like--is up for you to heal. They don't exist, in a manner of speaking, except as projections from inside you. The problem isn't with them, it's with you, and to change them, you have to change you.

"I know this is tough to grasp, let alone accept or actually live. Blame is far easier than total responsibility, but as I spoke with Dr. Len, I began to realize that healing for him and in ho 'oponopono means loving yourself.

"If you want to improve your life, you have to heal your life. If you want to cure anyone, even a mentally ill criminal you do it by healing you.

"I asked Dr. Len how he went about healing himself. What was he doing, exactly, when he looked at those patients' files?

"'I just kept saying, 'I'm sorry' and 'I love you' over and over again,' he explained.

"That's it?

"That's it.

"Turns out that loving yourself is the greatest way to improve yourself, and as you improve yourself, you improve your world.

"Let me give you a quick example of how this works: one day, someone sent me an email that upset me. In the past I would have handled it by working on my emotional hot buttons or by trying to reason with the person who sent the nasty message.

"This time, I decided to try Dr. Len's method. I kept silently saying, 'I'm sorry' and 'I love you,' I didn't say it to anyone in particular. I was simply evoking the spirit of love to heal within me what was creating the outer circumstance.

"Within an hour I got an email from the same person. He apologized for his previous message. Keep in mind that I didn't take any outward action to get that apology. I didn't even write him back. Yet, by saying 'I love you,' I somehow healed within me what was creating him.

"I later attended a ho 'oponopono workshop run by Dr. Len. He's now 70 years old, considered a grandfatherly shaman, and is somewhat reclusive.

He praised my book, The Attractor Factor. He told me that as I improve myself, my book's vibration will raise, and everyone will feel it when they read it. In short, as I improve, my readers will improve.

"'What about the books that are already sold and out there?' I asked.

"'They aren't out there,' he explained, once again blowing my mind with his mystic wisdom. 'They are still in you.' In short, there is no out there. It would take a whole book to explain this advanced technique with the depth it deserves.

"Suffice It to say that whenever you want to improve anything in your life, there's only one place to look: inside you. When you look, do it with love."

---

From David...

The words are...

• I love you
• I'm sorry
• Please forgive me
• Thank you

The way I understand the process is that everything in your experience is there because you called / attracted it to you... consciously or unconsciously to have and learn from the experience.

So, you ask Spirit / God / the Universe to forgive you because you are 100% responsible for everything in your experience. Whether you see that as 'attracting' it, 'creating' it, or just 'allowing' it, it is yours or it would not be in your reality.

My personal understanding is that there are other levels of healing as well...

A person who appears to be creating problems for you or is having problems themselves is actually performing a service to you. They are sacrificing being seen as a 'good' or 'healthy' person so that you can experience what you need to experience. They are voluntary participants in your drama to facilitate your learning / healing.

You apologize to them for having asked them to do be in your experience in that role. You love them for their service to you and because they are a part of you.

You are also apologizing from the part of yourself that created your difficulty to the part of yourself that experiences the trauma, drama and pain of the difficulty. It's all good, but sometimes it's also hard. You acknowledge that you experienced is exactly what you needed to experience. Life is not tidy.

This process is all about loving yourself and all that you create. Blessing yourself and everything in your experience. Someone said 'The only prayers you ever need to say are I Love You and Thank You. Perhaps enlightenment is when your response to anything and everything is 'I love you, thank you.'

To watch a video of Joe Vitale introducing the concepts of Ho'Oponopono...

http://www.allabout-energy.com/wealth_joy_abundance_now/2007/12/joe-delivers-a.html

The Book: Zero Limits: The Secret Hawaiian System for Wealth, Health, Peace, and More

Surprise Success

Last week I held a fundraiser art show in my home. (I've been really big on fundraisers recently. I've still got another going for a friend of mine with Leukemia.) My friend (the artist) and I spent several hours over the course of a couple of days getting the paintings on the walls and labeling them with the prices. The fundraiser was for a fairly small cause, so our mailing list was rather small as well. Subsequently, we didn't have a lot of people show up. All that work for nothing!

Or was it?

You see, now that the work is up on the walls, I'll probably leave much of it there (at least until my friend needs it for a show). Being the social butterfly that I am, there will probably be many people who will visit my home in the coming month who will see the paintings. And perhaps someone will buy one. And in the meantime, I'm getting to enjoy my friend's artwork (which I quite adore which is why I agreed to host the show in the first place).

It's funny. This week I started working on a joint venture business with another friend. I was feeling really overwhelmed with the amount of work it would take me to get this off the ground but then he asked me to send him everything I already had that might be cross-purposed for this new venture. 13MG of information and two links to another 80MG of information later and I was feeling not so bad about how much I needed to do. You see, it seems that I've been doing a little bit here and a little bit there and a lot for my primary business and it all adds up. Much of the stuff I sent him I would have told you was wasted effort on my part from years ago. But not so now.

The moral of the story?

Not everything you do will work right now. It might not even work next year. Some of the things you do will take you years to reap the rewards of them. And some might never work at all. But some of what you do will hit now. And some will come back later to fill your pipeline in the future as if by magic. Don't worry about it. Just keep moving forward. EVERYTHING you do puts energy into the process and will therefore bring good things to you, even if the particular thing you did didn't show immediate results. It's progress, not perfection that counts.

In short - keep on chuggin'.

Kelle Sparta is the author of The Consultative Real Estate Agent - Building Relationships that Create Loyal Clients, Get More Referrals, and Increase Your Sales, as well as being a speaker and trainer specializing in the real estate industry. Kelle is the founder of Sparta Success Systems, a real estate training company that provides tools, products, and training to empower agents and brokers to create lives and businesses they can love. For more information, visit her website at http://www.spartasuccess.com/. © 2007, Kelle Sparta.