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Today I want to encourage you to start with a seed to grow a large tree of wealth.

Often we get discouraged on our road to building wealth because we often start out on such a small scale. We have this goal of having $1,000,000 in our bank account and being able to retire and live off the interest, but at the moment we are in debt $3000 and are still paying 20% interest. We feel like we will never reach that goal we are so hoping for and working towards.

Well if you feel like this then today this is the message for you. Big things start out small. I am going to use my blog as an example of how big things start out small, however this also applies to any business or career you may have.

I am a blogger, as you may be aware I own this blog www.foolswealth.com and currently I post new articles about 4 times per week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday). I started this blog about 3 months ago (in March 2008) with a dream of making a full time salary from my online internet business and blog. The first month I made $0.03, the next month I made $0.50 and this month I have made over $80! As you can see I have started really small and I am growing my blog into a big thing. I plan to grow my income each month until I can afford to make blogging and working online a part time job, and then a full time job.

I started with a seed. All I had was a couple of hundred dollars, some writing skills and a dream to earn a full time income doing what I love to do (writing and communicating). This is all I started with, as I continue to pursue my dream I am learning more, picking up new skills and getting a few more successes under my belt.

So how can you start with a seed and grow it into something big?

Plant Your Seed

So you have a seed, maybe you have a few hundred dollars to invest, maybe you have some writing skills like me or some other skills that you could make some money from. You will never make any money unless you plant the seed in some good soil. You could invest the money you have to earn more money, or you could invest your skills and hire out your services or start a website like me to make some money. Don’t just hold onto your seed plant it into good soil.

Water Your Seed

Once your seed is planted then you need to water your seed so it can grow. This involves continually working hard to make more money. Mabye you need to save more money to invest from your job or you need to work hard at your business. You need to continually build and find ways to make more money. For me i am continually building by posting on my blog and writing new products and writing a weekly newsletter (get a FREE report “How to Become a Millionaire” whenever you signup for my newsletter, CLICK HERE to sign up). Work hard and water your seed so it grows

Sing To Your Seed

Haha this point may sound a little random to you but I thought that it was good because it brings up two points I want to mention.

You need to enjoy your seed, you need to have fun building wealth. Don’t take life so seriously all the time, lower your stress levels and have fun building your wealth empire.

You need to nurture your seed, you need to care for it and make sure you don’t forget to spend time working on your business or growing your investments. Nuruture them, take time to take care of them and give them the best of your time and they will grow.

Love Your Seed

Love what you do. Know why you are doing what you are doing. You are planting a seed and watering a seed not so it can stay a seed but it can grow into a great big tree which birds can live in and nest in. I want to become a millionaire because I have a vision that I will be comfortable with my lifestyle and that I will be able to help millions of people all over the world and stop a huge amount of suffering because of the money I give. I love working because I know why I am working and what I am working towards. Do You?

Daylight Comes

When daylight comes that is when your plant really starts to grow. You will water and sing and love and plant and you won’t see anything grow very much until it sprouts. A lot happens underground before you start seeing some success. For my blog I spent over a year starting and ending failed blogs trying to work out what I was passionate about and what I could write about. But once you work that out and once your plant reaches the sunlight, then you will be even more motivated because you can see it grow.

A year ago I didn’t see anything grow because I kept closing failed blogs, but this was the seed growing underground as I myself was being developed. Now that I have discovered my passion and started my business I can see it grow above ground and I get encouraged seeing my income increase each month.

So remember, big things always start out small. So start with a seed and take care of it and it will eventually grow into a huge tree of success

“Find your obsession, make it your proffession and you will never have to work another day again”

Passion, not money, is the true driver of success. If you are running a business, or even working a job, and you don’t have passion for what you do then you are not going to be successful. However, if you are passionate about what you do then you are more likely to become successful (no matter what it is you do).

Recently on Channel TEN here in Australia there was a news report on the increasing amounts of people making money online from ‘blogging’. One of the things that was said by one of Australia’s most well known bloggers is that you need to have a lot of passion and hard work in order to achieve success in this industry.

I can personally support that statement that it takes a lot of passion to drive a business. Especially when you are starting from scratch and building it up. When making money online the money usually starts really slowly and then builds exponentially as you increase in skill and fame. However, in those first months, even in the first year, money is hardly a factor at all (as you don’t make much), but passion is the driving force to your success.

In my first month of blogging on foolswealth.com I made $0.03 (not enough to buy anything really), then in my second month of blogging I made $0.50 (still not enough money for anything), it wasn’t until my third month of blogging I made some stronger figures where I made just over $80 (which still isn’t a lot of money for a business). I show these examples not to dishearten you but to show you that I am passionate about what I do and that is why I do it.

I don’t just do it for the money. I do it because I love to do it. Ultimately because I love to do it that is going to bring me success.

There are two ways you can be passionate about what you are doing

1. Start Doing Something You Are Passionate About

This is the method I would recommend to anyone starting a business of a career. Choose what you are passionate about first and then worry about the money later, this is the real road to success.

This way you don’t have to motivate yourself to go to work, you are just simply motivated already because you are doing what you love…and there will be times when you will not love doing what you ‘love’ to do..but these are often short lived.

So start by doing something you are already passionate about.

2. Choose to Become Passionate About What You are Already Doing

If you cannot do that (maybe you are already in a career path and you need to pay the bills), then you need to choose to become passionate about what you do. Find the value in what you do, find what it is about your job that you like and use that to motivate you to do really well. A friend of mine was a salesperson in a clothes shop, it wasn’t their dream job however they used their passion for people and relationships to drive their success. They became extremely successful in selling merchandise and became one of the top salespeople in the store. This is the value of finding passion in what you are already doing.

So remember, money is just a short term motivator, not a long term one, passion however is a long term motivator and will lead you along a path towards great success as you work hard at what you love to do.

A lot of people who are trying to make money online are seriously undervaluing how much they are worth. Many websites online focus on only one income stream that their website provides (and that is most likely advertising).

I am going to show you how to make the most out of each and every one of the customers that visit your website.

But in order to be extremely successful online you have to find more ways in which you can make money from your customers apart from advertising. On foolswealth.com I have only made $0.50 in my first 2 months, which is obviously not a lot to live off. However I have made over $80 for my first two months in order ways.

Now these are small figures and the longer you have your blog/website the more customers you can attract and the more money you make. But say you were making $1,000/month on advertising, I bet you could easily make another $1,000 or more just by making better use of your customers.

Here are a few ways to make better use of your traffic/customers

 On Site Advertising

Now I stated that this is the major stream of income for many websites and that often it is the ony stream of income. But possibly you do not currently have advertising on your website. I advise you right now PUT ADS ON YOUR WEBSITE. Advertising does not decrease your traffic (as many people believe), infact people understand why and even expect ads on your website. They understand that you need to make some money from what you do and they don’t really mind. So put some advertising on your website and start making money out of your everyday traffic.

RSS Feed

The best way to make money from the traffic that comes to your website is for them to come back. If you run a blog then offer a subscription to your RSS feed so that they can read your blog everyday. Offer them something free for subscribing, such as a report, a podcast or an e-book (this will be more people over the line).

Advertise With Links

People are numb to advertising. They avoid clicking on banner ads and they respond poorly to people and website they are not familiar with. Advertise in your content. If you write a post about making money online then recommend a course or website (such as Secrets of a Self Made Millionaire which is a phenominal product teaching your how to make money online). <— This is an example of advertising with links.

You might not get paid for every click but you can earn money every time someone buys the product you recommend. With enough traffic and great content people will buy what you recommend them. Also you could charge advertisers a fee to advertise their content in a link within your content.

Weekly Newsletter

This is a must do for all web masters (those who own and run a website). It is your TARGETED customer base that is going to make you the most money. It is your goal to get as many people to sign up for a weekly or bi-weekly newsletter as possible. Why? Because this means you get to have contact with these people every week straight to their inbox. Why is this good? Because people want to buy products from people they trust and if you make contact with them every week and give them great FREE content then they will trust you and buy from you.

You need to start by creating a database of people who willingly opt to receive your email (no spamming people). There are many services online that offer database and email services. I use and would recommend Constant Contact because they are cheap, easy to use, great reliability, lots of options and they offer a 60 day free trial. CLICK HERE to sign up

I wrote a full post on how to make money from a weekly newsletter HERE

Sell Other’s Products

If you don’t have your own products (or even if you do) selling other people’s products is a great way to make money online. On www.clickbank.com you can earn up to 75% commission for selling products that are not yours. These are great because you do not have to write a sales letter (it is done for you) all you have to do is send people to an affiliate website through a link (this tells them that the person came from you so if they buy something you make money) and then if they make a sale you make money.

Sound too easy to be true. It’s definately not.

I wrote a full post on making money through affiliates HERE

Sell Your Own Products 

This is the greatest way to make money online. Firstly it is great because once you have a trusting customer base, they will be so excited to buy your product as they already know that your content is always good. So you can make a lot of money through your current customers.

Also, you can have other people sell your product for you. People will happily promote your product if there is something in it for them (like a commission). Amazon.com run their own affiliate program if you have written a book, or use clickbank.com if you have an online product you wish to sell. You can give people 75% of the profits (this may sound like a lot to give away but if the product doesn’t cost you anything per purchase {say it was a downloadable e-book that cost you $0 in printing costs per person} then you make 25% that you never would have made otherwise.

So creating your own products is the best way to make money online. You can work once and make money for the rest of your life by continually selling the same product.

I wrote a full post of why you should create your own products HERE

So I hope that helps you understand more on how to use your customers more effectively. If you have any more tips then leave them in the comments box below.

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I am starting a new trend which I have learnt from a multimillionaire in australia, Jamie McIntyre. Jamie went from being $150,000 in debt to becoming a self made millionaire in his twenties. Now I want to have a story like that. This is Jamie’s principle:

“Every four weeks I have one week holiday”

He started living the lifestyle he wanted before he could afford it and he pushed himself to achieve his goals within the time he set.

Holidays are a valuable asset to building your business that the majority of people feel that they cannot do. The truth is…you cannot afford not to take a holiday. Many people run businesses 6 or 7 days a week and feel tied down to the business and refuse to take a holiday. One of my friends is this such person. He has worked 6 days a week for 2 years without taking a holiday because he felt that the business could not survive with him away.

However, I am of the mindset that a holiday is an important building block to any businesses succcess. I am personally going to implement jamie’s strategy “every four weeks, have one week holiday”. In the past I have not done this as I have been too ‘busy’ trying to build my blog. But the truth is I am haulting the growth on my blog by not taking a holiday.

Let me show you the reasons I believe a holiday is extremely important to your success and the success of your business:

You Stay Healthier If You Have Holidays

We cannot avoid the fact that ‘health is wealth’. If you are filthy rich but don’t have your health then you are not really rich at all. Stress is now a major killer in society today with people working overtime and becoming too stressed. You need to avoid this stress by taking a holiday every once and a while, you will stay healthier and live longer. Who doesn’t want that? Isn’t health a key aspect to success?

You Get Great Ideas on Holidays

When you are on holidays and out of your routine of having to work 9-5, or having to focus on coming up with great posts for your blog, or creating products for your business etc, you are free to think as you please. This is where the great ideas come. You know how I said that you cannot afford to not take a holiday. Well this is why…because the ideas that make you the most money will come while you are on holidays.

You Think Outside the Box on Holidays

When you are working you are trapping inside a thinking box, where you think a certain way everyday in order to get the job done. But when you are on holidays you can think completely different. You are no longer trapped into your everyday way of thinking, you can think outside the box. This will allow you to see the flaws in your business and will allow you to think of brand new ways you can improve your business. Thinking outside the box is so much easier on holidays you will wish  you had more.

You Are Able To Re-Assess on Holidays

When you are on holidays you are able to take time out and re-assess your situation. Do you still want to be running that business? Is it time to move on or to push forward? You can easily assess the pros and cons and then make a decision of your next step when you are on holidays. I always say that you need to take time to think about a big decision before you make it. Holidays give you time to think about these big decisions.

You Become More Passionate on Holidays

Taking holidays and taking a rest from work allows you to not loathe your work but allows you to become more passionate about what you do. It allows you to be rested and then excited to go back to work once you return home from your holiday.

In conclusions I will just remind you of my two main points “Every four weeks have a one week holiday”

and “you can’t afford to not have holidays”

Five steps towards a better body for you

1. Seeing is believing

It’s all about visualisation. If you can’t see it in your mind, you don’t truly believe it can happen. Sportspeople have known the benefits of visualisation for years and use it to conjure up success and raise performance levels. Try it yourself. Picture yourself standing naked in front of the mirror with the body you desire. Not your head and a celebrity body but the best body for you. Do this every day and believe that what you’re seeing can be a reality. This belief will give you the impetus to create a body that you can be proud of.

2. Do it often

It’s all about frequency. This is the first of the FITT (frequency, intensity, type, time) principles used by trainers the world over. Understand these and you’ll be on track to your best body yet.

Frequency is key to any body-changing goal. Put simply, if you’re not doing some form of activity five times a week you will struggle to see results. Three of these days should be designated exercise sessions. Try a mixture of strength, cardio and flexibility. The other two days should be less intense with a focus on fun. A walk with a friend on the weekend is perfect, but see what works for you.

3. Work it hard

Many of us have grand goals but don’t train with the intensity to make it happen. Unless you have a pre-existing medical condition your training should slowly build to a higher intensity. Your heart rate should be up, you should be sweating and you may find it a little difficult to hold a conversation. Higher intensity training will help you burn more calories and challenge your fitness.

To help you discover if you’re exercising at an appropriate intensity for you, subtract your age from 220. Sixty to 80 percent of this number is your heart rate range. Try 60 percent if you’re new to exercise and 80 percent if you’re more experienced.

4. Keep it interesting

Too many of us stick to only one exercise. You may be a walker so that’s all you do. Or you may be a gym junkie. While this may work for a while, it may not be the best long-term fitness and weight management solution. Our bodies react best to a variety of stimuli. If you only do one thing, your body becomes efficient at it and there’s no challenge. So mix it up, try something new and see if you notice results.

5. Give it time

The time you spend exercising is really important but it depends on the intensity. On the days you are exercising at a higher intensity you may only train for between 30 and 60 minutes. But on your fun, lower intensity days, try and stay active for over an hour. Maybe split it up into three 20 minute intervals.

There has seemed to have been a problem with the RSS feed lately in which it was linking back to the old foolswealth blog which I am no longer using. RSS Feed has now been fixed and you can sign up for it via the signup link on the right hand side of www.foolswealth.com

I am sorry for this inconvenience but the problem has now been fixed. If you have previously signed up before the date of the 5th/June/2008 then you will need to unsubscribe to the RSS feed and resubscribe via the website. Thankyou

Sign Up Today

There is a secret to making money online that millionaires all over the world are using, and that is this - having a database of targeted people who you have regular contact with through a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly email newsletter (e-zine). There is two reasons for the success of this method. The first reason is that you now have a (hopefully) large targeted audience of people who are all interested in the same thing (for me I have an audience of people interested in finances). The second reason is that you have a database of people who trust you.

Targeted Audience

People want to market their product to an audience who they know wants to buy their product. This is what you are creating. You are creating a targeted audience from your niche (area of interest) that you yourself can market with your products (or affiliate products…click here to read more on affiliates). This also allows you an avenue to market other people’s products. People will often spend between $0.10 - $0.25 per person to send out an advertising email to your targeted audience. If you have 10,000 people subscribing to your newsletter then you can easily make between $1,000 - $2,500 for each email you send (and you could send about one per week)

Trusting Audience

Studies have shown that people are more likely to buy from someone they trust than someone they don’t know at all. If you have an audience who you have contact with each week then they will come to know you and trust you. When they trust you they are more likely to take your advice and buy things from you…then you can make some money.

Now that you know the benefits of building a database and sending out a weekly newsletter let me show you
How to Build a Weekly Newsletter:

Join a Database Service

Many hosting sites have database services built into them from which you can collect names and send emails however their options are limited and can often take a lot of time to manage. There are many services online which offer you easy management of your database and many options for sending emails.
I would recommend to steer clear of the free databases, because even though they are free, they are limited and also your database is owned by them (not you). YOU WANT TO OWN YOUR DATABASE! and on many of the free services you cannot transfer your database to another service. So sometimes it pays to pay.
I use a service called Constant Contact and I would recommend it to anyone.

Have a Signup Form On Your Website

Your website attracts people (known as traffic). Your goal is to somehow convert your traffic into subscribers of your newsletter. In order to do this you need to have a simple signup form on your website where people can sign up for your newsletter. Have a link of every page of your website to a ’sales page’ which pitches your newsletter and gives people a way to sign up. Your goal should be to get 10,000 names…with 10,000 names you can easily become a millionaire.

Give Away Something Free

This is one of the most effective tools to get people to sign up for your website. People love free things and will happily sign up to receive your newsletter to get whatever you are offering. I currently offer a free report on my website as a reward for signing up…hopefully soon I will offer something of more value for free (an e-book or an audio teaching cd)

Send a Weekly Newsletter

Now that you have people’s names you need to be in constant contact with them (I recommend once per week, some people send newsletters bi-weekly or monthly). Send them a newsletter relevant to the website they signed up from. Give away FREE information in these newsletters. I know…you might be thinking how can I make money by giving away things…but you will. Give your people great content that helps their lives, make your newsletter valuable to them so they look forward to reading it every week.

Not Too Bad, Not Too Good

Offer content that is valueable to the reader. The worst thing that you can have is an email where people delete it straight away because they know it is useless to them. So have good content
The next worse thing is for someone to ’save’ the email because the content is too long, or too good to read now. So offer them good content but content that is easy to read and not too valuable.

So now that you know how to get subscribers and how to send out a weekly email lets go through the thing you will really really want to know and that is

How to Make Money From a Weekly Newsletter:

Run Advertising

You can run advertising on your newsletter and charge people for the ads you put in their. You can put ads which are 2-5 lines long, or you could put simple classifieds in your newsletter. Depending on how many people you have as subscribers you can charge accordingly. I am not exactly sure on the amount you can charge for an advertisement as I have not done it myself yet. But ask around and see.

Tip: Try to charge at a higher rate first. It is easier to lower your rate as you bargain than to raise your rate

Sell Affiliates

 Instead of getting other’s to advertise their products and make lots of money on sales, why not advertise people’s products for them and then take a commission for each sale? ClickBank offers up to 75% commissions for those who refer people a product and make a sale.

This can often make you more money when you start off. For example I made $80 from selling affiliate programs but only made under $1 in my first 2 months of my website.

Send Solo Ads

I spoke about this before when we talked about a target audience. People will pay you often between $0.10-$0.25 per person to send out advertising emails to the people on your database. If you have 10,000 people then you could quite easily make $1,000-$2,500 from one email…couldn’t you?

There are many websites out there that offer this service to you (renting your database out) and to those wishing to send the emails.

Sell Your Own Products

Selling your own products is a great way to both make money and to build your database. If you have an audience that know and trust you then you can fairly easily sell an e-book or an audio teaching series. Why not offer your subscribers a discount just for them (and for this week only) to increase your sales.

Helpful Tips:

• Make sure you grab the name and contact details of every person who buys your product so you can send them your newsletter each week.
• Give people a commission for selling your product, then you are not just limited to your database but you are unlimited.

So this is the secret to becoming a millionaire: Having a database of 10,000 and having regular contact with them to offer them FREE information and to advertise your products, affiliate products and other people’s products to make an income.

The funniest thing happened to me the other day. It was extremely random, but also amazing and you will want to hear this.

I caught the train home from church (where I played guitar at) and I was carrying my guitar. I was walking home and I was just opposite my house on the other side of the road when a car pulls up. I thought the guys were asking for directions so I went over to them. The man in the passenger side said to me “Hey man, do you want an amp?” and I was like “Yes!” and then he was like “How about a microphone stand and a microphone???” and again I was like “YES!”

Turns out on of the 2 guys (in their 20’s) was moving away to indonesia to live the dream and go surfing and just hang out. He just moved out of his house and was trying to get rid of all of this stuff. So I said “whatever you are giving away give it to me” so I got all of this free stuff.

Here is a list of everything I got for FREE

• A 70 Watt Guitar Amp
• A nylon String Guitar
• A kitesurfing kite
• A set of golf clubs and bag
• Snowboarding gear (boots, straps, helmet, goggles)
• Microphone Stand
• Microphone
• Dvd Player

So this was my lucky day. I was over the moon. But don’t worry I am getting to the point really soon. See the reason I was so happy is because all of this stuff I can sell on ebay and make a fair amount of money from. My capacity is that I can sell things on ebay, and it is this skill that I have that made this opportunity a lot bigger than if I was just getting free stuff.

I have no use for a kitesurfing kite, or a set of golf clubs or snowboarding gear. But because of my capacity to be able to sell things the opportunity increased for me. Instead of just getting some free stuff, I got stuff I could sell and get some money for. Now I really need the money badly so this came at the perfect time. I am hoping to make about $500 on all this gear and put it towards a ring I am saving up for for my girlfriend.

So as you increase your capacity then your opportunities will increase. You will go from just getting a guitar amp (figuratively speaking) to getting a whole lot of stuff and turning it into money.

How do you increase your capacity?

Increase Your Skills - My skills to use ebay and the internet/computers (which is not a skill to some, but some people find it very hard) increased my opptortunity. As you increase your skills then your opportunities will begin to increase. Look for areas you enjoy and increase your skills in those areas, that way when opportunities come you will want to take them because they are areas you are interested in.

Increase Your Ability to See and Take Opportunities - As soon as these guys started offering me stuff my mind wents like this “I can sell all this stuff on Ebay and make money”. I saw the opportunity to make a fair amount of money straight away and therefore I tried to make the most of it and get everything I could.
As soon as something comes your way be thinking “How is this an Opportunity” and then be thinking “How can I take this opportunity” for me it was getting EVERYTHING they were giving away. For you it might be something different.

Every situation is life can be an opportunity for something, you just need to be able to see it and act upon it and take the opportunity. Get good at seeing things for the opportunity they really are and taking that opportunity.

Give - Giving to others increases your opportunity. Because by tithing and giving you open room in your life for blessing to come. If you life is full then you can never take opportunities because you don’t have room for them, however if you give 10% then your life is not full and when opportunities come then you are there to take them and increase.

I am a christian and I tithe 10% and I recommend everyone who wants to be a millionaire starts tithing 10% of everything they earn to any church, charity or local community of their choice. Tithing opens up doorways for opportunity.

So remember every situation is an opportunity, learn to see them and take as many opportunities as you can.

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I just have to share with you an opportunity

Got free stuff from guys on the side of the road.

Because of my capacity to see the opportunity to sell things on ebay it made this opportunity much greater.

Without the capacity it would not have been an opportunity at all

This is a guest post from The Simple Dollar. Check out this financial blog today

Most career advice you receive focuses on the big picture: how to get ahead, how to “win,” and such things that are on a much larger scale than the daily grind that most of us face. In fact, it is that day to day grind that pulls down many of us - we go to work, come home exhausted, and often feel as though we’re just spinning our wheels.

If you want to get ahead in your career and in your life, you need to start small and look at the immediate things you can do to help out your situation. If you’re sitting out there at your desk, tiredly wondering if there’s something better that you can be doing with your life, start with these fifteen tips that you can start executing immediately that will lead you down a path towards a better career.

Make a list of all of the things you did today/this week/this month to help your organization, and file them away.
Whenever you have a few spare moments, make a list of all of the things you are actually doing at work. Date them and provide specific examples. When you’ve made this list, drop it in a folder and let it sit there until your next performance review - or the next time you ask for a raise or a promotion. I do this regularly, which has allowed me to build up extensive positive documentation about my career.

Send a thank-you note
If you’ve recently been assisted in your career or personal development by someone, spend a few moments and send that person a handwritten thank you note. The respect, kindness, and personal touch of a handwritten thank you creates an indelible positive mark in your favor in the recipient’s mind, which can do nothing but help you out in the long run.

Work on your writing skills
For me, The Simple Dollar is actually an active part of improving my own writing. Starting a blog related to a work-related topic that interests you is a good way to practice your skills. Don’t be lazy with it, though; focus on writing strong material that will engage others, because without it, you’re not really improving your skills at all, merely regurgitating facts.

Design some classy business cards for you
I have a small pile of business cards that are just for me (actually, they’re for The Simple Dollar), not for any firm I represent or work for or anything else. I drop these regularly, as envelope enclosures and in face-to-face opportunities. These cards are a reflection of me and what I wish to represent to people, and by getting quality ones, I create a positive impression on the recipients. Don’t go for the office store perforated ones, either; get them professionally done and in a high quality.

Send a quick contact email
Got any professional contacts that you haven’t touched base with recently? Send them an email letting them know what you’re up to - and ask them what they’re up to. By this, I don’t mean clients - I mean professional acquaintances in the same field as you (contacting clients should be a regular part of your workflow). A quick email to the people you met at conferences last year can be a very good thing, as you never know if they might have a great opportunity available that could really help you out.

Suggest a solution to a persistent workplace problem
This is especially true for smaller things, not necessarily big enterprise-wide issues. Are people always complaining about the printers? Spec out an additional printer and ship a proposal for a new printer by your boss. Workplace tensions between two people? Figure out how to most discreetly move them far apart from each other, write it up, and ship it off. The key is to make the solution as complete as possible, so that the boss can tell you saw a problem, looked into how to solve it, and came up with a solution on your own.

Pick up the phone and make a call
Keep in touch with what’s going on in the organization as a whole so you can be more informed when meetings occur. Pick up the phone and give someone else a call to see what you can learn, or take a stroll through different parts of the workplace to find out what others are up to. Don’t make a nuisance of yourself, but be aware of what is going on, how it can affect you, and how you might be able to leverage that to get ahead.

Work on your language skills
Are you a non-native speaker of the language in your workplace? Spend your spare time working on the finer points. I find that listening to audiobooks and podcasts is an incredible way to pick up on the nuances of a language given that you already know the basics. If you don’t know the basics, seek out some audio courses on that language and get started. For myself, I’ve found that a great way to pick up a foreign language is to read a translation of a work I’m already very familiar with, such as Harry Potter.

Make yourself more presentable
It always helps to have a clean, fresh impression. I keep a few hygiene products in my traveling bag at all times: underarm deodorant, toothpaste, a toothbrush, some mouthwash, some facial cleanser, a comb, and some cologne. I make sure to clean myself up at least once a day, and often twice a day, when I have a few free moments. That way, I look freshly scrubbed at the 3:30 PM meeting - and having just washed my face vigorously, I feel more awake.

Polish your resume
There’s never a bad time to give your resume a bit of a touch up. Make sure it has plenty of action words and documents specific results that you’ve produced. In fact, your personal work documentation is a great way to look for ideas to spiff up your resume.

Read something on topics you plan to be facing in the future in your career
Don’t waste your time reading PerezHilton (unless you work for People magazine or something); instead, find resources that are related to your job and focus on those. If you spend your spare time at work browsing the web, at least spend that time browsing items that can potentially further your career.

Prepare some comments in advance for your next meeting
Got a meeting later? Instead of dreading it, look at it as an opportunity to shine. Look at what the meeting agenda is and prepare some notes and thoughts that you can present during them. If you’re going to sit through someone’s presentation, find out what it’s going to be about and do some preparatory legwork in advance so you can ask a few astute questions.

Work on your public speaking skills
This seems like it would be difficult to do right now, but it’s not. Merely listen to the work of great public speakers on the internet, burn yourself a CD or two of speeches that really inspire you, then play them in your car on the way home and practice speaking along with them. You’ll learn a great deal about how to enunciate words to get your points across and influence others.

Clean your work area
Not only will this create a better impression of you in the eyes of others, you may also come across important materials that you thought were missing or lost. It’s also good to start (or enhance) a document filing system when you do this, so you can quickly find materials.

Figure out where you want to be in five years - and create a plan for getting there
Spend some time visualizing where you want to be, then think about what it’s going to take to get there. From there, keep breaking down each piece in the process until the pieces are things you can do quickly - and start doing them. Every mountain climb is just a series of steps, after all.