The Lovers at Work - Choices and Commitment

"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." Henry Ford

In Tarot, the Lovers are mostly associated with love and relationships.

In a reading about work/career issues, this card could indicate a love interest connected to work, or a choice you need to make that affects both your work and relationship.

But the Lovers is no automatic indication that you are about to fall in love with someone at the workplace :)

This card may well ask you to pay attention to professional relationships in your working life rather than the amorous ones.

• Collaboration rather than competition - healthy competition is good for you, especially when you use it as inspiration to improve your skills and find your own niche. Network and build relationships with professionals you admire; likewise if a less experienced person approaches you for advice, then offer all the help you can give. In the long-term this will pay off as you will gain a reputation of being approachable, supportive and generous rather than selfish, ruthless and arrogant. Who can you collaborate with for mutual benefit? 

• Teamwork - working in an office environment can be stressful at times mainly due to different personalities all trying to work towards the same goal and getting rewarded for it individually along the way. Effective teamwork is based on mutual support, respect and trust, individual accountability and constructive communication. What issues do you need to address to work more effectively in a team? 

• Communication - working with others requires clear, concise, honest, respectful and regular communication. This includes talking, listening and the written word. Avoid gossiping, back-stabbing and getting involved in dramas. Be careful what you write in your emails, letters, reports or articles that will be read by others. Stick to facts and evidence rather than assumptions, accusations and hear-say. Reduce the amount of emails; also try to limit their contents to up to five short sentences.  How can you improve your communication skills to interact more efficiently with others?

• Logic and Reason - keeping a cool head at times of stress and tension in the workplace can be hard, but it is important to avoid emotional involvement or reactions. How can you detach yourself emotionally from challenging situations at work? 

• Choices - you may have to make some important choices regarding your working life. Changing jobs, changing your entire career, moving to a different department, starting your own business...you will need to weigh up these choices carefully; they are likely to affect the rest of your life. What would you like to improve about your work? What changes are necessary for you to achieve your goals? What do you want to keep, and what do you need to let go of? 

• Love your job - Let's not ignore love totally, when the Lovers come up in your reading. If you are not enjoying your work, then this may be a good time for you to take the plunge and start afresh. If this is too radical for you, then the least you can do is explore what action you can take to feel more enthusiastic about your work. Sometimes it can be just your mindset that needs to change. What can you do to make your working life more fulfilling? 

• Balance - here in the UK, the highly demanding work culture is putting pressure on people to work long hours leaving them stressed and exhausted at the end of the day. If you are one of those people, then consider paying more attention to your private life. Spend more time with family, friends, pursue activities you enjoy and relax more. Effective work/life balance will make you happier and healthier. How can you help yourself to have the best of both worlds? How can your workplace contribute to implement healthier work/life balance? 

The Lovers in a reading can act as a reminder of how important it is to build and sustain professional networks and business partnerships based on co-operation and mutual benefit.

Re-evaluate your priorities including working less and living more.

Perhaps you will need to brush up on your communication skills to work more efficiently.

Heck, you may even get yourself into a fling or affair at work, and you will need to carefully consider its consequences.

Most of all, when you apply the energies of the Lovers well, it can lead to the essence of this card: you will love the work you do.

Warmest wishes,

Christiane

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Secrets of Success

You have a dream. And that dream is success.

But what is your definition of success?

Is it money? Wealth? Getting on top of the corporate ladder? Selling your Art? Public recognition? Earning a living doing what you love?

Success comes in many forms. Once you clearly know what you want, you can make plans, set goals and take steps towards achieving them.

But how do you actually make that happen? What are the practical steps you can take to turn your dreams into reality?

I call them 'secrets' of success, even though they are not intentionally kept secret from you, but not many people are aware of them or recognise them as vital components of the success formula.

These secrets of success are powerful actions you can take towards manifesting your goals:

1. Journaling

Journaling is about putting your vision, ideas and aspirations down on paper together with a step-by-step action plan on how to turn them into reality.

In the business world this is commonly known as a business plan, which is vital, if you need to apply for a start-up loan.

But as a creative and more intuitive soul, you can use more imaginative journaling. The key is to take stock every month and make adjustments if necessary.

If you want to use the Tarot for this purpose, you could try my Tarot for All Seasons workbook, which contains Tarot spreads through the year that help you focus and stay on the right track towards where you want to be.

For more intense and in-depth journaling, you can also use the Tarot Moon Journal to take into account astrological and in particular lunar influences.

If you don't yet feel confident in using the Tarot for life and business planning, then you might like the Shining Year Workbook.

Regular journaling is crucial not only towards success but also personal growth and development.

Quite often you will notice a pattern or habit that might help or hinder you while you are writing about it. You will reveal what is hidden and make what is unconscious rise to surface.

Don't believe me? I encourage you to give it a try.

Download my FREE Manifesting Change cards and use them to start journalling, and change your life at the same time.

2. Networking

Honestly, you can't do it all alone. You need to work with like-minded souls who are as driven and enthusiastic about achieving their dreams as you are.

There are some fantastic Mastermind groups out there, where individuals come together and support each other not only with helpful advice but also some emotional support when the going gets tough.

My online support group is the Shining Biz & Life Academy, where I've been a member since 2012, and over the last three years my Tarot biz has undergone a complete transformation. There are a wealth of eCourses and live training on offer. It's unconventional, but if you resonate with the design of what you see, then you will find that membership of the Academy may well be hugely beneficial.

Let's put it this way: I have renewed my membership since 2012 every year and will continue to do so in the future. I think that says a lot.

3. Perseverance

How many times have I seen people set their intentions, start their business and then give up six months or a year down the line, because they didn't make the money they hoped they were going to make?

Well, first there is a reason why they didn't reach their goal. See point 1 and 2. They probably didn't do regular self-assessment and tried do do it all by themselves without being accountable to a peer group that would actively support them.

Another reason can be they needed an income stream to sustain their livelihood. That's why it's unwise to give up the day job too quickly, and it may be necessary to combine your aspirations with a part-time job to keep you afloat.

Most of all, a sustainable business doesn't create itself overnight. It takes time. I started self-employment in 2006, and my income from my Tarot business was unsustainable until 2012, when I started to turn a corner. So until then I had to subsidise my income with other income streams and part-time work.

If you really want it, you can do it, but remember to implement these three secrets of success to give yourself the best chance to succeed.

Warmest wishes,

Christiane

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Social Networking Mistakes You Don't Want To Make

I'm not a social animal when it comes to maintaining my Facebook pages and Twitter account.

I admire people, who can always engage their followers with witty, imaginative posts several times a day.

Admittedly, this is still a big learning curve for me, but I do know what best to avoid when networking online.

Here are some of my pet hates I have come across that make me unfollow Facebook pages and Twitter accounts:

1. Lots of photos or status updates are posted in  a short period of time cluttering up my news feed on both Twitter and Facebook. I'm not talking up to 10 a day (already quite a lot) but something like 30 - 50 in a row...

Stop that spam! It's really annoying. There is too much noise and information out there already. Quality counts, not quantity. Just remember it's so easy to unfollow or block your updates.

2. Imagine getting this message: "I have just liked your page. Can you follow this link and like my page, too?"

Honestly...let me put this straight: I only want you to like my page, if you genuinely like it and want to engage with me. Expecting a favour in return only irritates me, but I do often reciprocate as long as you don't ask. And when I do, you will know that I genuinely like your page and want to interact with it.

Tip: If you want to promote your business with a Facebook business or personal page, increase your exposure by not only liking other pages but also engaging with them. A win-win for all.

3. Auto-scheduling self-promoting posts in public Facebook groups. 

Yes, okay, I did mention the benefits of auto-scheduling tweets and Facebook updates in one of my earlier posts, but you are walking a thin red line, when you are auto-posting to public groups.

What you do with the accounts and pages you own is entirely up to you, but please treat public groups with respect and show up in person when you post there. Otherwise it gives the impression you just can't be bothered.

And I know it's an auto-scheduled post, because it says via Hootsuite at the bottom, and it's always posted at the same time every day ;)

Furthermore, auto-posting the same stuff again and again is simply spam. I had to turn off notification of some Tarot groups on Facebook, because certain members keep posting links to their website, products and services every day.

Please don't ram your stuff into my face. It's irritating, and I just block you off my radar. And I guess I'm not the only one ;)

4. Addicted to auto-pilot

You still need to show up on your pages and respond to your followers. Don't lose the personal touch. Respond to messages and feedback in person rather than setting up auto-replies, so people feel valued and keep coming back. Automating social media tasks is helpful, but don't turn into a robot. You still need to engage with your followers.

5. Twit Validation "TrueTwit"

One of the most irritating things on Twitter. If you use this service, rest assured that you are missing out on loads of followers, because they can't be bothered having to prove they're not robots.

The moment I receive a direct message asking me to follow a link to confirm I'm human, I unfollow straight away. Not worth my time.

So, if you use TrueTwit, consider ditching it. There is no need to check, if your followers are spammers; likelihood is that not many are anyway.

6. Don't Rely on Social Networks

This is one of the worst mistakes you can make; relying too much on social media platforms to promote your business.

When you invest a lot of time creating pages on Facebook, Google+, Pinterest and so on, remember that you don't own your pages there, and therefore have no control over them. You could be shut down any moment, or your pages become less visible unless you start paying for ad fees.

Keep time you spend building your social media pages to a minimum, and instead focus on creating valuable content for your website. This is where you are in control, and eventually working on what you own will pay off.

What turns you off on social media? I'd love to hear from you.

Warmest wishes,

Christiane


Transform your life this year: 

Tarot Readings - Insightful guidance when you need it 
Learn Tarot - A magickal, inspirational tool for life.

For more inspiring quotes and affirmations for each card, check out my ebookEmpowering Messages from the Tarot 

Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

The Tarot Guide To Making Twitter Work For You

I'm no expert when it comes to social marketing, but I have learnt some valuable lessons over the last two years about what works and what not to do.

Twitter is one of those social marketing tools, I've recently rediscovered. I'm glad I did, because it has significantly increased the number of visitors to my websites and most importantly increased my earnings.

If you are serious about building a successful online business, then you cannot ignore Twitter as one of your major marketing tools to achieve your goal.

The Tarot is offering some valuable advice on how to make Twitter work for you:

1. Three of Pentacles (Earth)

Like with all other social networking sites, it is important to connect with the right people and interact with them.

If you only tweet about your latest offers and try to flog your stuff to your followers, you will be creating a lot of noise without anybody hearing.

Twitter is about teamwork and collaboration. Reach out to the people you follow by responding to their tweets; reply with a positive comment or retweet (RT). The idea is that they will follow you back, return the favour and this way you will gain exposure to their followers. 

Be patient. You won't gain thousands of followers overnight unless you are a celebrity. You need to be persistent and keep putting in some work every day. If you only tweet once a week or less, then Twitter will never work for you, and you might as well just leave it altogether.  

Don't be tempted to buy 10,000 followers for a Fiver! Yes, these offers can be found on the net, but believe me, it really is too good to be true. You just end up with low quality (often fake) followers.

2. Page of Swords (Air)

If you are new to Twitter, you might be wondering what to tweet. From a technical point of view, your tweet cannot exceed more than 160 characters.

When it comes to content, quality followers always value interesting, informative and humorous tweets. These are the ones that are most likely to be retweeted and ultimately gain you more followers. 

If you have a blog with valuable content, you can tweet links to individual blog posts. Example:

How to create your own Tarot deck: http://ow.ly/mFurM #tarot #spirituality #photography #art

Notice the hashtags; these appeal to people with an interest in those topics and are using the Twitter search facility to find related information.

Also notice the shortened link to my website, which is invaluable when you have to fit your message into 160 characters or less. Use hootsuite.com to shorten link addresses and schedule your tweets to save oodles of time (see my no. 1 Twitter efficiency tip below).

Even if you don't yet have a lot of content on your blog, you can always provide your followers with interesting retweets. But be careful: always check out the links first before you RT them to avoid sharing any content that is unsuitable or contains too much advertising or pushy sales hype. 

Twitter isn't an exact science, it's trial and error, so keep learning and refining your tweets and interaction.

3. Five of Wands (Fire)

Don't get involved in any negativity. Heated discussions, extreme opinions, nasty gossip and retweeting of unsavoury, possibly libellous messages won't help your business. 

If you disagree with someone, there is no point in responding with a dismissive comment. If I receive a negative reply to my tweets, I will unfollow and block the person without hesitation, so the same could happen to you. Not nice, so think before you stab!

And if you don't like what they tweet, you can always unfollow them without any fuss.

Keep it professional at all times. Remember, you're on Twitter to promote your business, not causing tension, getting into fights or legal disputes.

Avoid the idea of competition. I follow many fellow Tarot readers, who I admire and enjoy reading their work. I don't hesitate retweeting their valuable messages for the benefit of my followers.

4. Six of Cups (Water)

Be friendly and helpful. 

Spread happy vibes, joy and fun. 

Cheer people up. Encourage them. 

Respond to them, when they contact you or even retweet your messages. Nothing is worse than ignoring people, who support you.

Most of all, enjoy it!

It's easy to make conversation with people on Twitter. I have made some great Twitter friends and in the process learned a lot from the people I follow and won new clients, too.

When you do Twitter right and you stick with it, it's a win-win.

Finally, here is my number one Twitter efficiency tip: auto-schedule your tweets with a social media management tool such as hootsuite.com or socialoomph.com. You can plan, save, set and publish your tweets automatically, spreading them throughout the day and night (for international followers), while you do other things or are asleep.

It is important to keep your Twitter account ticking over with regular daily tweets (a minimum of 10 a day at different times) to reach as many of your followers as possible. All you need to do is spend five minutes to schedule your tweets for the day, and that's all. It doesn't take as much effort as you think.

As you may have noticed the four elements represented by the cards shown are carefully balanced, which contributes to a successful Twitter campaign.

Yes! Applying a little bit of Tarot and Woo Magick can make your working life so much easier and open doors to new opportunities.

Over to you:

Wanting to boost your Twitter marketing and networking?

Find out, which element you need to pay attention to at this moment in time to create a more balanced campaign.

Shuffle your deck and pull a card. Which element does it correspond with?
(Wands - Fire, Cups - Water, Swords - Air, Pentacles - Earth).

What advice does the card offer? What do you need to focus on?

Fire: vision, enthusiasm, leadership
Water: building relationships, social interactions
Air: communicating your business message clearly and effectively
Earth: perseverance, patience

Ready to make Twitter work for you? Then don't forget to follow me and send me a tweet. I'd love to follow you back! 

And please do share your Twitter tips here by posting a comment below.

Warmest wishes,

Christiane


Transform your life this year: 

Tarot Readings - Insightful guidance when you need it
Learn Tarot - A magickal, inspirational tool for life
Tarot eBooks - Great value, innovative Tarot study material

Make sure you subscribe to my updates via email or RSS feed to receive the latest content straight into your inbox.

You can also connect with me on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.