During my entire lifetime I have felt “different.” I’m sure everyone feels this way at some time. By “different” I mean that I didn’t exactly look at the world as other people did and usually questioned things I was told.

Eventually, however, my parents and school system took me over and I fell into the pattern of “normalcy,” so I could function well in our society. I know my parents did not mean to harm me in any way, and, believe me, they were absolutely wonderful.

I lived on a farm near a small town in the upper Midwest. My parents wanted us to be able to participate in all school activities, so they sent us to a boarding school. I loved it there – it was a new adventure for me, but I soon discovered they, too, were very rigid, and again I felt suppressed.

Life went on – I went to college, got married, had children and was basically very happy. There was, however, this lingering desire to find out who I really was.

When I became an “empty nester,” I enjoyed the extra time I had to explore the ideas and things I had put on the shelf for “someday.” After reading some of the well-known personal development books, something within me really woke up. I began searching more seriously than ever for any and all books and programs relating to the human mind.

Many of the books and programs I studied on were not all that helpful. I spent LOTS of money and time on these programs and purchased them because the authors were well known and reputable and there was a lot of hype attached to them. I was frustrated because most of them skimmed the surface without showing us “the way” to make this work for us.?

One day a friend told me about Carol Tuttle and the wonderful work she was doing in uncovering the truths about the human mind and the falsehoods most everyone is living because of our upbringing. Our parent?s acquired them through their upbringing, and their parents before them.

I visited Carol Tuttle’s website and subscribed to one of her programs. WOW! What a breath of fresh air! For thirty years Carol has been studying the human mind, emotions and the relationship we have with our firmly entrenched beliefs about ourselves – most of them completely false and harmful. She has such a unique way of “getting the message across this threshold” so we can easily rid ourselves of these limiting beliefs. We don’t just read about it, we learn how to do it!

I began with Carol Tuttle’s program, “Energy Profiling.” I first wanted to understand who I really was. I now understand myself, who I’ve been all these years, why I do things in a certain way, etc. This course helped me identify my personality type, how to embrace it and how to deal with the pitfalls.

There are four personality types – we have some of each type within us, but we all have a dominant type that determines who we are, our personalities, the reasons we have strong attractions to certain things, etc. I didn’t figure this out the first time through the course, but as I continued studying and analyzing the personality types, the answer was all of a sudden there, plain as the nose on my face. I now understand and appreciate myself. I love being ME and love everything about ME! Even my “ooops!”

In addition to “figuring out who I am,” I learned through this program how to analyze the members of my family and determine what their personality types were. I understand and appreciate them so much more. I learned that knowing my true energy profile, and those of my children, spouse, work mates, etc. is critically important to everyone’s happiness.

There is, however, a problem with her programs – she creates almost a frustration within me because her programs contain so much material and content, you can’t possibly get everything out of the “first sitting.” So, if you’re the type of person who is still in the trap of thinking you can learn everything at once and all your problems will magically disappear just by reading about solutions for them, her courses are probably not for you.

I must admit, I was at that stage not too long ago, so don’t beat yourself up about that. I am now learning to practice the patience it takes to study and actually implement these wonderful solutions to the problems that exist for everyone in today?’s world. Do you know anyone who wouldn’t love to learn who they really are and what their personality type is? I don’t!

To learn more about Carol Tuttle and her programs go to www.powerimage.com/energyprofiling.html. I invite everyone to visit the website. Find the program that is calling to you. There is a lot of information there, and she also has developed a lot of freebies that are tremendous ? not the usual give-away stuff. Kudos to Carol – she has a way of zinging everything right into the brain!

If you want to regularly receive Business and Personal Success information from powerimage.com you can subscribe to the Powerimage.com Business Success E-zine at www.powerimage.com/sign-up. We have put together a whole bunch of tools and resources as our gift when you sign up.

Ahhh, that illusive term, Success. What does success really mean? Does it mean the same thing to everyone? Of course not. Each of us is an individual, and because of that, each one of us has a different concept of what it means to be successful.

Hmmm, what determines how we interpret success? Well, it could be how we were raised or the things we enjoy. Maybe it’s what we learned in school or church. Whatever it may be, our interpretation of success is personal to us. No one else can tell us what success is in our mind.

Now let’s take that a step further and apply our interpretation of success to our profession . . . business success. I caught some of you on that, didn’t I? If you are like me, you immediately associate business success with success in general. But, others may look at a broader picture. They may look at how successful their family life is, or their hobbies, or their relationships. Maybe they base their success on popularity or how many widgets they have collected. You see, it doesn?t matter what we identify with when we think of success. As humans we all are driven to some extent to achieve it.

Back to our profession. This is probably what the majority of people think of because we put so much emphasis on our careers or our professions, how much money we make or who we know based on our job. In the United States there is a strong emphasis beginning in early childhood to be productive and to develop a good work habit. As we grow into adults, that translates into our career, job title, or profession.

Unfortunately, as we are being taught to have a good work ethic as children, we aren’t taught some of the fundamental elements of business success. Some people are lucky and come by it naturally, while others struggle continually making small advances but never reaching their full potential. Fortunately, there are many tools available for people who want to improve their existing place in the business world or move into an entirely new career. But, it takes a commitment and time to make that happen.

If you are struggling and not reaching the success you desire, it may not be your fault. But, YOU are the only one that can change your results. You can take responsibility to make the changes needed to reach your full potential and become the person you were meant to be.

To your success,

Swanie Brandt
Carmen Brandt Wolf