Here’s an ultralight backpacking list, an example of what I typically take on a weekend hike. We’re all different in our needs and skills, though, so please don’t take it as a recomendation. My list, with weights (not including what I wear to start):

*GoLite Breeze Backpack: 12 ounces

*Western Mountaineering Bag: 17 ounces

*Nylon Tarp: 17 ounces

*Frogg Toggs Rain Jacket: 7 ounces

*Groundsheet: 2 ounces

*Sleeping Pad: 4 ounces

*Bathroom Supplies: 3 ounces

*First Aid Kit: 3 ounces

*Knife, Lighter, Etc: 3 ounces

*Hat: 1 ounce

*Gloves: 1 ounce

*Poly Vest: 4 ounces

*Socks, 2 pair: 2 ounces

*T-shirt, long sleeve: 6 ounces

*Camera: 5 ounces

*Light: 1 ounce

*Water: 16 ounces

*Raw Sunflower Seeds: 16 ounces

*Fudge-dipped granola bars (8): 16 ounces

*Tortilla Chips: 16 ounces

TOTAL WEIGHT : 9 pounds, 8 ounces

This is a summer backpacking list, but it’s worth noting that my 17-ounce sleeping bag has kept me warm below freezing. The food adds up more than 6,700 calories, plus I tend to eat a lot of wild berries. I keep iodine pills for purifying water in my first aid kit, and stop often to refill the plastic water bottle.

This isn’t an exercise in deprivation. I have done that too, going out with just a plastic bag to sleep in and a few granola bars. This list is what I need for comfort, warmth and safety. It is actually very enjoyable to easily walk twenty miles through the mountains, with less than ten pounds on my back. With the right skills, equipment and preparation, ultralight backpacking is never about suffering.

A 10-step exercise for services professionals to evaluate clients…

Fly fishing — it doesn’t work, does it? When I first watched someone fly-fishing, they released the line and fling it far out into the water. No sooner had the fly hit the water was it being reeled back in. Even today, I still don’t understand how this method catches any fish. Yet it does. The results had an opportunity to occur because the line was pitched.

Fly fishing looks like so much more work compared to the worm, bobber, sitting on a camp chair, day dreaming, an occasional inconsequential conversation, sipping on a beer (okay root beer for family friendliness), relaxing and waiting for the bite. The energy is more comfortable yet the results less active — maybe, maybe not.

If you talk to a fly-fisherman, they claim there isn’t anything better. And the same is uttered from a by-the-seat- of-the-pants fisherman as well (cute description huh?).

Doesn’t this sound like one marketing pitted against the other.

What makes the two different? Technique? Yes. Water type — salt or fresh? Yes. Type of fish? Yes. Equipment? Yes. Supplies? Yes. Or is it the bait? Yes.

The right answer is “all of the above.”

You can also throw in the temperature, weather, and time of day. Everything depends on the right combination in the right order. You don’t want to toss out the fly before the line. Well, I guess you can. But you miz-as-well kiss it goodbye.

Or as my Grandmother used to say: Don’t throw out the bath water before the bath.

Marketing is not any different than fishing. If you are tossing out the wrong hook to the right fish, they are not going to bite. If you have the right fish and hook, and the wrong technique, maybe a prayer or two will work. The results might trickle now and then. Yet, not the results you need.

This is why marketing experts emphasize the importance of knowing your target market. If you don’t know who you are trying to catch, you are forever going to be trying different lures, hooks and techniques. Eventually, wearing you down and keeping you chasing the next best thing to come along that just might work.

You can’t catch flounder in fresh water or blue gill in salt.

Stop throwing out the fly without the line. Start knowing what bait they like to eat, what line spooks them, what is their timing for buying, and especially what type of fish.

Start with this exercise for service professionals:

Start the exercise by hand to get the “feel” of it. Then move the process into a spreadsheet to continue its growth and your clarity.

Step 1: Grab a blank sheet of paper. Turn the page sideways — landscape.

Step 2: You are going to making many vertical columns so write small.

On the left, create the first column. Record the name of each one of your clients that you remember off the top of your head. Keep it simple and write just the name you remember. It could be just their first name, company name, or a nickname or label you privately gave them. Don’t be kind be truthful.

Step 3: Second column, title it “M/F.” You guessed it, “male or female.” Now, proceed down the column and write the answer.

Step 4: Third column, title “M/S/D/U”=married, single, divorced, unknown. Continue down the column.

Step 5: Continue making columns for additional categories you know about your clients. Create a column for age or age group. Location, US, UK, Australia. If all the same, skip the column. Number of children. How long a client. Total revenue for the past year. Service type. How did they find you?

Step 6: Add new distinctions and details over the next few days or week as you remember. Set aside the first five minutes of the day to add to the list or as you remember.

Step 7: If you find some information missing, contact the client or past client and ask.

Step 8: Look for similarities, for instance, 90% males, single, or divorced. Some of these patterns are going to be obvious and some aren’t.

Step 9: Place a “*” or highlight your ideal client or clients.

Many times, and without knowing it, because you are just glad for the business, the fish pick you.

Step 10: If you couldn’t find “the ideal client” then for some reason you aren’t attracting them. There are some things you need to change, either inside yourself or out, probably both. Find the gap between the two? What do you need to do or be differently in order to attract the preferred type of clients?

Describe the type of ideal client you want. Place as much detail to them as possible, including revenue. What do they want that you aren’t expressing you have? What do they want that you don’t have and need to change?

At some point during this process you will want to convert this to a spreadsheet for ease of use. Start when the information feels it needs too.

This isn’t a requirement, you may want to stop as soon as you see that you aren’t expressing what the client is willing to buy or some characteristics or type of service you don’t provide that the client must have in order to do business with you. If this is the case, you can stop here and work on what needs to shift or change.

Feeling some reluctance in taking the time to do so? You will not be the first.

Jim, an insurance agent from Arizona, sent me an e-mail after his attendance on a teleclasses with this exercise.

“Darn, Catherine, you’re good. The exercise ate at me all night. I gave in and did the exercise this morning, even though last night I was convinced that I already knew all the answers. Today, I discovered major holes in my marketing. Just by closing one of these holes today sales increased. I look forward to continuing the exercise. Thank you for your patient e-mail and letting me move through my denial and seeing that thinking its all in my head and writing it down is two different things.”

This exercise deserves repeating regularly. You can use the results of this exercise as a measurement when reviewing your yearly goals. Or comparing one year to another.

For first year businesses, I recommend completing this exercise once every three months. After the first year, shift to twice a year. After three, once a year. Or before and after a new service or product is introduced.

Catherine Franz is a Marketing & Writing Coach, niches, product development, Internet marketing, nonfiction writing and training. Additional Articles: http://www.abundancecenter.com blog: http://abundance.blogs.com

Let’s go camping.

(If you have never been camping before then we recommend you suspend your disbelief and we’ll attempt to conjure up a likely image for you.)

It’s a gorgeous day, you’ve been wandering through the bush for a couple of hours looking for the perfect camping spot (yes, let’s make it an Australian camping story). You startle a wallaby as you turn a corner and she hops away as fast as her powerful legs can carry her. The white cockatoos screech at each other from towering gum trees and the exotic scent of sweet wattle hangs in the warm air.

Ahhh this is the life.

You’re searching for the perfect camping spot; one that will keep you safe and warm throughout the night.

On the other side of a great red boulder you finally see it… a clearing at the edge of a deep, vast valley with an uninterrupted panorama as far as the eye can see of the wild Australian bush and its turquoise sky.

At the centre of the clearing you notice a small clump of ashes with a log lying nearby that will be perfect for a fireside seat; you realise that someone has camped here before. This is always a good sign. You are not the first to have chosen this path, it must hold some merit.

You walk to the edge of the precipice. Breathe in deeply. You’re ready. All the equipment you need is in your backpack, you just have to make sure you use it correctly.

****************

Camping out could easily become an analogy for the wonderful world of Reiki. Or have we been too obvious already? Probably.

Choose your Reiki path with care. Will the course offer you the tools you need, will it build your independence and yet highlight a path that has shown itself to be successful for others?

Back to the story….

******************

You are at your chosen camping spot. While it is still light you begin to unpack your backpack. You have everything you thought you would need as well as all those things that your friends and the camping store had recommended. Most importantly you have the basic elements of nourishment, water, shelter, your torch and … for an emergency your charged up mobile.

But there is something special that you require when you go camping out overnight that you can’t buy. It’s something only you can make.

******************

Back in the world of Reiki you’ve paid for your course and you are being taught the basic elements of the system; hand positions, techniques and meditations, symbols and mantras, and precepts. You receive *reiju and you begin to feel ready to start your practice.

But there’s something more to this as well …

******************

Fire.

Building a good Reiki practice is like building a great campfire.

First of all your practice needs to be ignited. Without ignition the fire doesn’t burn and there is no promise of future warmth or wisdom.

Obviously, you need good solid material to begin your fire with - kindling, dry matches and the perfect position. If all you hold in your hand is a pretty piece of paper, it will go up in flames in seconds leaving you with a smattering of uninspiring black ash and sore fingers.

Ignition is therefore a direct result of your experience during a quality Reiki course. Something catches alight when you bring together the basic elements of the system along with an accomplished teacher and your fellow students. This magical combination creates an environment predisposed to fire.

It might be during the practice of *hatsurei ho or when you receive reiju that combustion point is reached; you glimpse a sense of inner peace or perhaps feel momentarily connected to everyone and everything in the room or, more intensely, the universe.

You have been gifted with a promise. This promise is a transaction between you and something deep inside you that is normally covered with a thick veneer of society. You have just been offered a view of something that is beyond imagining; beyond your daily routine of work, recreation and sleep. But it is up to you to fulfil the promise.

Do you want that sense of inner peace to return again and more regularly?

Imagine continuing the experience of connectedness with everyone and everything? Do you want to try to be always moving with the flow of the universe and simply Being?

Now you can. Your fire has been ignited.

You must, however, feed it. Go gather more sticks, keep your fire burning.

At your course your teacher hands you something to take away. A practice and full support. Know that if you practice too little - your fire will go out. At times of doubt grab for that lifeline of support - or else you will forget the promise and your Reiki course will become nothing more than a pleasant memory.

Extend your given practice from 5 minutes a day to 10 and so on. Be aware of balance in your practice; some days you need a bit more and other a little less. It all depends upon your inner barometer and you are paying attention now, tending your fire.

So find yourself a comfortable spot near your great campfire that will warm you, feed you and light your way through the dark night. Build the fire gradually with the appropriate size logs until its constant white heat warms your inner soul. This spot will be like no other - it is individual to you.

Sitting at ease on your log, you notice the firelight flickering against the mottled trunk of a nearby tall tree. You are reminded that the grand gum trees of the Australian bush purposefully litter the ground with their leaves to encourage fire. Fire offers this unique flora regeneration. It is when the perfect combination of eucalyptus oil and dry heat unite, combustion occurs and the bush is caught in the renewing force of fire.

Enjoy the night sky, watch the stars sparkle in the heavens and sip your *billy tea.

It is humanity’s innate ability to find peace within. Foster the right conditions, keep the fire of practice burning like a wonderfully controlled campfire, and enjoy the fruits of life in action.

GLOSSARY

*Reiju: In Japan, reiju is the name given to the method a teacher uses in order to communicate with individual students on an energetic level. In the process of moving from Japan to the West, reiju changed a number of its aspects including its name. In the West its altered form is usually known as an attunement, initiation or transformation.

*Hatsurei Ho: You will find versions of this technique here, in The Japanese Art of Reiki.

*Billy tea: Billy tea is created in a billy can or billy. This is a traditional Australian utensil for making tea over a fire. It is a cylindrical can with a lid. A stick is poked under its wire handle to enable easy movement on or off the fire. How to make Billy Tea: Pour water into a billy can, place in fire and wait for it to boil. Remove from fire and add a couple of teaspoons of black tea. Hold the billy by its handle and swing in a great arching circle from the ground to the sky a number of times. The pressure of the fast movement ensures that the tea remains in the billy and doesn’t end up all over you. Let it sit briefly before pouring. This unusual process ensures that the tea leaves settle well, yielding up a delicious cup of billy tea without having to use a strainer. Mmm mmm.

Reiki Masters Frans and Bronwen Stiene (pronounced stee-nuh) are authors of the internationally acclaimed The Reiki Sourcebook, The Japanese Art of Reiki, Reiki Techniques Card Deck and the A-Z of Reiki and are the founders of the International House of Reiki.

Their website is the http://www.reiki.net.au which is full of lots of articles and research into Reiki.

With over 16 years of combined experience as practitioners, teachers and speakers in healing and spirituality they have worked with, taught and researched healing in the USA, Europe, Asia, Australia and Japan. They are teachers whose passion is truth, education, support and spiritual development for all.