Welcome to my first post to the new "Motivation Mondays" blog series.

It's probably the first time in about 5 years that I walked into my office, pulled up my Outlook Inbox and had nothing I needed to do. Seriously if I needed to find motivation to do something, nothing is more motivating than having nothing to do.

I know this sounds a little strange because we are all used to being motivated by the mundane pressures of deadlines, bosses, clients, closing deals, having money in the bank to make payroll and the whole host of other things we keep pushing off. But in a surprising way, having nothing on my hit list today seems like more of a coincidence. Considering I was planning to start off my Monday with a Motivational post it seems like things are working out exactly as planned.

So in the spirit of motivating others I will start off my post with a pitch for being a better Rainmaker.

For those of us whose livelihood depends on bringing deals to the table there can be no better resource than LinkedIn. I spend most of my time networking with likeminded individuals, business leaders and professional services folk whose clients and customers look to them to solve problems.

So I am often put in the position of simply putting people together. It's the shortest distance between two lines approach. By listening to colleagues talk about business issues I have made myself available to them to help them have an ear to their problems. And by equally pursuing an understanding of how others are solving their problems I am able to connect the person with the problem with the provider of the solution.

LinkedIn provides a fascinating way to even facilitate this process. I found a new website today called http://www.rainmaker-network.com/ and I've just joined it too. They have a LinkedIn group and a forum with over 900 members including professionals who are responsible for bringing business into their practices and companies. My status is just pending as I've just applied but I'll keep you informed as to what I find out.

In the coming weeks each Monday I will share new strategies for using LinkedIn to grow your business. I know it's called Motivation Mondays and for that reason I'll end each post with a nice motivational quote too.

You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind.
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The bottom line is that it's all nice and dandy to talk about what you are going to do but seriously wouldn't you like to walk into work one day and have your inbox be empty too (and not because you didn't get anything done but because you actually did). The motivating answer then is to do what you have to do not merely talk or worse just think about it.

Thanks for reading. Jason.
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