Here's a strange paradox of the upward path that runs through Real Life: the more conscious we become of what limits us, the more limitless becomes our reality! So, take as long as you need to understand the following special lesson; it sheds much needed light on a certain dark state that stands between us, and the higher freedom for which we long.
The sole purpose of discouraged feelings is to keep your thoughts on what you can't do. And with your attention fixed in this fashion -- on what seems impossible -- there's no room for discovering what is possible -- for what you can do.
In other words, the only thing discouraged states do is to keep you busy doing nothing except feeling sorry for yourself...which is the perfect guarantee that your situation will remain hopelessly the same. Enough is enough! You don't have to put up with one more discouraging moment, let alone a life limited by its darkness. There's another choice you can make besides falling into those familiar feelings of being a "failure." The next few insights will empower you to start thinking about old discouragements in a new way.
Whenever we suffer over what we aren't able to do, create, or work through, where is our attention in these moments? It's riveted on our own thought-produced reality that's telling us we're stuck! Maybe you can recognize some of these heavy-hearted inner voices that come with being victimized by such dark thoughts. In one way or another, they say...
"I'll never get out of this mess."
"It's too late!"
"I'm too set in my ways to change.
"This is hopeless."
Now on the surface of things, these all-too-familiar whispers of defeat -- that speak to us with our own voice -- seem genuinely concerned about our unwanted condition. But a deeper look tells a much different story. These troubled thoughts are part of an unseen "conspiracy of limitation" taking place in our own consciousness! Follow the next four ideas to their stunning conclusion. They prove that self-illumination and self-liberation are one and the same power.
1. The more these gloomy voices talk to us, the more discouraged we feel.
2. The more discouraged we feel, the more certain we are there's no other choice but to feel that way.
3. The more convinced we are that we have no choice, the less choice we have.
4. The act of identifying with this dark inner dialogue actually produces the dead-end we fear!
And so it goes: now we're convinced of our own captivity! There's no way past the limitations we perceive as being real. The key idea here lies in the word "perceive" because it rhymes with deceive. That's just what this perception is: a secret deception. Here's the liberating proof.
There are no dead-ends in real life.
Of course you must prove this bright fact to yourself, and here's a good place to start: in any given moment there's always something higher to do with your life than sit there and suffer over what you think you can't have, do, or be. Why wallow this way when a small amount of interior work will forever change how you see reality? For instance, see that the "size" of your discouragement is directly proportionate to how strongly you insist life conform to your demands. Verifying this self-imposed limitation empowers you, immediately, to let it go and start over.
Here's another example: maybe you've felt discouraged because you wanted to learn something new -- a higher skill or a difficult lesson -- but felt sure that certain limitations of yours placed this possibility beyond your abilities. Now you can do something much higher than just resign yourself to feeling discouraged.
Instead of falling into those familiar feelings of futility over yourself, deliberately drop those discourage-filled thoughts telling you the limit of your present view is the limit of your possibilities. Who you have been matters only to those dark states that want you to remain that way so that they can continue to rule the day. Refusing to dwell in the world of discouraged thoughts and feelings is the same as opening the door to a new world without limits. Just start working with who you are now!
In other words, do what's in your power and refuse to be discouraged about anything else. Keep repeating this new action one step at a time until you've walked away from the whole false idea that there's no further you can go!
Here are three special key lessons to help you strengthen and then actualize your wish to live in a world without limits:
Any conversation you permit yourself to have with discouraging thoughts guarantees you'll wind up with a good reason for feeling discouraged.
When you know that what you're looking for is what you already are -- and not what you may become -- you stand on the threshold of the limitless life.
The universe itself is actually set up for you to succeed with realizing the limitless life, which means you are made for whatever happens to you!
*****
Adapted from Guy Finley's newest bestseller, "The Essential Laws of Fearless Living," a Red Wheel/Weiser publication. For a limited time, you can order this groundbreaking new book for a deeply discounted price, PLUS, receive over 108 free bonus items including Guy Finley's bestselling 60-minute DVD, "The Power to Never Again Feel Powerless." It's a complete life-changing package! Quantities are limited. Visit http://www.selfgrowth.com/products/essentiallaws.html right now to take advantage of this incredible offer.
About the Author:
Guy Finley is the acclaimed author of more than 35 books and audio programs on the subject of self-realization, several of which have become international best sellers. His popular works, published in 17 languages, are widely endorsed by doctors, professionals, and religious leaders of all denominations.
Finley is the founder and director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit center for self-study located in Southern Oregon where he gives talks four times each week. Visit http://www.guyfinley.org for a wealth of free helpful information, free audio and video downloads, and to request your free Self-Improvement Starter Kit.
Monday, June 09, 2008
Five Questions That Help You Make the Most of Your Time - By Rodger Constandse
Questions have the power to instantly change your focus and put you into a productive frame of mind.
These five simple time management questions will immediately direct your attention, your focus, and your thinking toward your top priorities and away from distractions.
Just ask yourself these questions habitually throughout the day, and you will start making better use of your time.
1. What is the most valuable use of my time right now?
This is a slight variation of a question developed by time management expert Alan Lakein.
The purpose of this question is to shift your focus to what is most important and valuable at this moment. It is a perfect question to ask whenever you are unsure about what to do next, whenever you face an unexpected interruption, or whenever you feel that you are not making good use of your time.
For example, let's say you find yourself with an extra 20 minutes of unscheduled time. Asking yourself "What is the most valuable use of my time right now?" will help you find an important task for the time you have available.
2. What am I ultimately trying to accomplish?
The purpose of this question is to focus your thinking on your real objectives and goals -- the real reasons you are working on your projects and tasks.
Asking this question habitually will help you avoid getting sidetracked, drifting into trivia, or falling into perfectionism. You can use this powerful question for all your projects.
For example, while preparing a presentation, you can easily get sucked into less valuable work when you start playing with the formatting, or adding bells and whistles, instead of working on the content.
The work seems important because it is connected to your presentation project, but when you take a closer look, you realize that you are wasting your time on details that don't really matter.
Asking this question will help you refocus your efforts on your real objectives and away from trivial matters. If it turns out that the formatting details are important for this project, you'll recognize this as well and give them the attention they deserve.
This question can also help you find and eliminate useless tasks that don't contribute toward your ultimate goals.
3. What am I giving up to do this?
Whenever you choose to do something, you automatically reject everything else you could have done during that time.
The purpose of this question is to help you realize what you are giving up in order to undertake a task or project. Once you recognize the true cost of an activity, you may decide that it is not how you really want to spend your time.
Asking this question before you take on a new task or project will help you stay focused on what really matters. It will also help you recognize when you should be saying no to that new request.
You should also ask this question about activities that you are already doing on a regular basis. These could be things like volunteering to do some work for your trade association, chairing a committee, or serving on the board of a community organization.
While all of these things may be valuable undertakings, you may be sacrificing something even more important to do them. Asking "What am I giving up to do this?" may turn out to be a real eye opener.
You probably wouldn't consciously sacrifice time with your family in order to participate in a committee you don't care about, but you might be doing it by default if you don't examine your existing commitments on a regular basis.
4. What are my three most important projects or tasks today?
The purpose of this question is to help you make use of the 80/20 rule every day. The 80/20 rule states that 80 percent of the value is contained in only 20 percent of the items. The top two or three projects and tasks in any given day could account for up to 80 percent of your day's value, so give them the time and priority they deserve.
If you practice weekly planning, you can change this question to "What are the three most important projects for this week?"
5. Should I continue doing this?
This is a slight variation of the first two questions, but shifts the focus toward what to stop doing rather than what to start doing.
Deciding to stop doing something that is no longer valuable is often more important than actually deciding to start doing something else.
This is a perfect question to ask whenever you feel you may be wasting time trying to perfect something that should already be done, or when you feel stuck in a commitment that is no longer serving your long-term objectives.
Keys to Success:
* Make it a habit. At first, you'll have to keep reminding yourself to ask these questions over and over again. However, if you keep asking consistently, eventually they will become a habit that will serve you for the rest of your life.
* Use these three steps whenever you have to make a time management decision: pause to think before you react, use questions to put you in the right frame of mind, and do the right thing.
* Keep asking until you get an answer. Sometimes you won't get an answer to these questions right away; just keep asking while you review your projects and task. The right answer will come.
About the Author:
Rodger Constandse is the founder of Goals to Action, a website that helps visitors reach their full potential and connect their daily actions to their mission, vision, and goals. http://www.GoalsToAction.com
These five simple time management questions will immediately direct your attention, your focus, and your thinking toward your top priorities and away from distractions.
Just ask yourself these questions habitually throughout the day, and you will start making better use of your time.
1. What is the most valuable use of my time right now?
This is a slight variation of a question developed by time management expert Alan Lakein.
The purpose of this question is to shift your focus to what is most important and valuable at this moment. It is a perfect question to ask whenever you are unsure about what to do next, whenever you face an unexpected interruption, or whenever you feel that you are not making good use of your time.
For example, let's say you find yourself with an extra 20 minutes of unscheduled time. Asking yourself "What is the most valuable use of my time right now?" will help you find an important task for the time you have available.
2. What am I ultimately trying to accomplish?
The purpose of this question is to focus your thinking on your real objectives and goals -- the real reasons you are working on your projects and tasks.
Asking this question habitually will help you avoid getting sidetracked, drifting into trivia, or falling into perfectionism. You can use this powerful question for all your projects.
For example, while preparing a presentation, you can easily get sucked into less valuable work when you start playing with the formatting, or adding bells and whistles, instead of working on the content.
The work seems important because it is connected to your presentation project, but when you take a closer look, you realize that you are wasting your time on details that don't really matter.
Asking this question will help you refocus your efforts on your real objectives and away from trivial matters. If it turns out that the formatting details are important for this project, you'll recognize this as well and give them the attention they deserve.
This question can also help you find and eliminate useless tasks that don't contribute toward your ultimate goals.
3. What am I giving up to do this?
Whenever you choose to do something, you automatically reject everything else you could have done during that time.
The purpose of this question is to help you realize what you are giving up in order to undertake a task or project. Once you recognize the true cost of an activity, you may decide that it is not how you really want to spend your time.
Asking this question before you take on a new task or project will help you stay focused on what really matters. It will also help you recognize when you should be saying no to that new request.
You should also ask this question about activities that you are already doing on a regular basis. These could be things like volunteering to do some work for your trade association, chairing a committee, or serving on the board of a community organization.
While all of these things may be valuable undertakings, you may be sacrificing something even more important to do them. Asking "What am I giving up to do this?" may turn out to be a real eye opener.
You probably wouldn't consciously sacrifice time with your family in order to participate in a committee you don't care about, but you might be doing it by default if you don't examine your existing commitments on a regular basis.
4. What are my three most important projects or tasks today?
The purpose of this question is to help you make use of the 80/20 rule every day. The 80/20 rule states that 80 percent of the value is contained in only 20 percent of the items. The top two or three projects and tasks in any given day could account for up to 80 percent of your day's value, so give them the time and priority they deserve.
If you practice weekly planning, you can change this question to "What are the three most important projects for this week?"
5. Should I continue doing this?
This is a slight variation of the first two questions, but shifts the focus toward what to stop doing rather than what to start doing.
Deciding to stop doing something that is no longer valuable is often more important than actually deciding to start doing something else.
This is a perfect question to ask whenever you feel you may be wasting time trying to perfect something that should already be done, or when you feel stuck in a commitment that is no longer serving your long-term objectives.
Keys to Success:
* Make it a habit. At first, you'll have to keep reminding yourself to ask these questions over and over again. However, if you keep asking consistently, eventually they will become a habit that will serve you for the rest of your life.
* Use these three steps whenever you have to make a time management decision: pause to think before you react, use questions to put you in the right frame of mind, and do the right thing.
* Keep asking until you get an answer. Sometimes you won't get an answer to these questions right away; just keep asking while you review your projects and task. The right answer will come.
About the Author:
Rodger Constandse is the founder of Goals to Action, a website that helps visitors reach their full potential and connect their daily actions to their mission, vision, and goals. http://www.GoalsToAction.com
Focus Your Efforts - By Kelley Robertson
In some of the sales training workshops I conduct, people express their concern about prospects who don't seem interested in the product or service that is presented to them. These individuals get frustrated because their prospect fails to make a positive buying decision.
Not everyone wants or needs your product or service even though you may think otherwise. Many companies could benefit from what you offer but some of them will never understand this. That's okay. It simply means you need to redirect your effort. Stop trying to sell to everyone. Instead, focus your energy on people and companies who recognize the value of what you offer.
The best place to start is with companies that are similar in nature to your best customers. During last month's "Cold Calling Made Easy teleseminar, Patrick Kilhoffer suggested that you contact your best customers and ask them why they like your product, service or company. After several calls, you will know exactly why people buy from you. You can then use that information to more closely target companies who have the same need.
Focusing your efforts on high quality prospects will help you generate much better results.
Have a productive and profitable week!
Not everyone wants or needs your product or service even though you may think otherwise. Many companies could benefit from what you offer but some of them will never understand this. That's okay. It simply means you need to redirect your effort. Stop trying to sell to everyone. Instead, focus your energy on people and companies who recognize the value of what you offer.
The best place to start is with companies that are similar in nature to your best customers. During last month's "Cold Calling Made Easy teleseminar, Patrick Kilhoffer suggested that you contact your best customers and ask them why they like your product, service or company. After several calls, you will know exactly why people buy from you. You can then use that information to more closely target companies who have the same need.
Focusing your efforts on high quality prospects will help you generate much better results.
Have a productive and profitable week!
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Quantum Leap Thinking - By Dave Carpenter
Since biblical times, the power of possibility thinking has been documented by innumerable authors. And, over the last century, authors and motivational speakers such as Napoleon Hill, Earl Nightingale, Zig Ziglar, Dr. Robert Schuller, Brian Tracy, Anthony Robbins, Dr. Wayne Dyer, and many more have extolled the virtues of believing that we, each and every one of us, are capable of achieving things far beyond the ordinary.
More recently, a smaller group of authors have taken to documenting the power of an even more potent way of thinking -- quantum leap thinking. Back in 1981, Fred Alan Wolf wrote a thought-provoking book, "Taking the Quantum Leap." In his book, Wolf suggested that the same force that had revolutionized physics in the early 1900's, the notion of quantum mechanics, could be applied to human behavior. Other authors, such as Dr. Price Pritchett ("The Quantum Leap Strategy") and James Mapes ("Quantum Leap Thinking"), subsequently moved Wolf's work forward with their writings on how quantum leap thinking could be a force more powerful than possibility thinking.
Quantum leap thinking is possibility thinking freed up (1) from the limitations of our assumption that things progress sequentially, and (2) from our fear of significant change.
The essence of quantum physics is that all things do not happen in a sequential or connected way. Those of us who are not scientists frequently view the world -- and therefore that which is possible -- as being very sequential. Most people believe there are limits to how much their income can grow in the next year, or how much revenues in their company could grow in the next year, or how much their golf game could improve, or how much their health could improve, or even how much a relationship with another person could improve.
The fact is that we can have a quantum leap in the results we achieve if we see such as possible and overcome our fears of making such a leap and take action by making the leap.
There are six steps to becoming one who consistently achieves the Quantum Leap:
1. Apply Quantum Leap Thinking Continually - Train your mind to see beyond the immediate and the obvious. Think big and avoid the natural tendency to prematurely conjure up barriers to attaining that which you imagine as possible. As Dr. Price Pritchett says, "Think beyond what common sense would allow."
2. Avoid Succumbing to the Attitude of Instant Gratification - One of the most formidable barriers to consistent achievement of quantum leaps is the desire for instant gratification. Many of the best things in life are not instant, quick "fixes." Attainment of the best things often requires consistent application of effort for which results are delayed -- albeit spectacular when finally achieved. Learn how to avoid developing the Attitude of Instant Gratification -- an attitude that frequently stops the quantum leap before it can even begin.
3. Reign in your F.E.A.R. - As much as we may want the results accompanying a quantum leap, we often fear the actions needed. And super results often create super fears. But risk is not always proportionate to return, for many risks can be covered or hedged. To be a quantum leap thinker, you must come to understand your fear mechanisms. You must be able to differentiate fear of real risks from False Evidence Appearing Real.
4. Take Action; Make the Leap - The world is full of dreamers... the "would haves" and "could haves" who are full of excuses why they did not accomplish that of which they dreamed. Quantum leap embodies action right in the words. Leap... take action! Not reckless action, but action that is planned with diligent attention to dealing with all real risks. Come to appreciate the power of failure when it does occur.
5. See Every Event that Appears as a Setback as an Opportunity - Learn to accept the bumpiness along the road of life. No mortal has a forever smooth road. No one! Because we cannot walk in the shoes of others, it may seem that others have it smooth. But in reality, no one has it smooth. Now, some do manage to make life smoother by learning to deal more effectively with the bumps. And the truly gifted develop the capability to take adversity and to channel adversity into positive experiences.
6. Surround Yourself with other Quantum Leapers - The people with whom you associate have an enormous impact on your life. Make the choice to surround yourself with people who are, at minimum, possibility thinkers. And seek out relationships with those relatively rare individuals who are quantum leap thinkers. How does one find quantum leap thinkers? Look to those achieving extraordinary success in any field.
Quantum leap thinking really can produce extraordinary results for you. And when transformed into Quantum Leverage, your strengths can be magnified many times over.
Open your mind to the awesome potential of quantum leap thinking!
About the Author:
Dave Carpenter's name is synonymous with corporate and personal peak performance. Over a 25-year career in corporate restructuring, Dave became widely recognized as one of the leaders in this field. As a result, he has long been annually recognized as an honoree in Who's Who in Law, and Who's Who in Finance. http://quantum-leap-strategies.com/
More recently, a smaller group of authors have taken to documenting the power of an even more potent way of thinking -- quantum leap thinking. Back in 1981, Fred Alan Wolf wrote a thought-provoking book, "Taking the Quantum Leap." In his book, Wolf suggested that the same force that had revolutionized physics in the early 1900's, the notion of quantum mechanics, could be applied to human behavior. Other authors, such as Dr. Price Pritchett ("The Quantum Leap Strategy") and James Mapes ("Quantum Leap Thinking"), subsequently moved Wolf's work forward with their writings on how quantum leap thinking could be a force more powerful than possibility thinking.
Quantum leap thinking is possibility thinking freed up (1) from the limitations of our assumption that things progress sequentially, and (2) from our fear of significant change.
The essence of quantum physics is that all things do not happen in a sequential or connected way. Those of us who are not scientists frequently view the world -- and therefore that which is possible -- as being very sequential. Most people believe there are limits to how much their income can grow in the next year, or how much revenues in their company could grow in the next year, or how much their golf game could improve, or how much their health could improve, or even how much a relationship with another person could improve.
The fact is that we can have a quantum leap in the results we achieve if we see such as possible and overcome our fears of making such a leap and take action by making the leap.
There are six steps to becoming one who consistently achieves the Quantum Leap:
1. Apply Quantum Leap Thinking Continually - Train your mind to see beyond the immediate and the obvious. Think big and avoid the natural tendency to prematurely conjure up barriers to attaining that which you imagine as possible. As Dr. Price Pritchett says, "Think beyond what common sense would allow."
2. Avoid Succumbing to the Attitude of Instant Gratification - One of the most formidable barriers to consistent achievement of quantum leaps is the desire for instant gratification. Many of the best things in life are not instant, quick "fixes." Attainment of the best things often requires consistent application of effort for which results are delayed -- albeit spectacular when finally achieved. Learn how to avoid developing the Attitude of Instant Gratification -- an attitude that frequently stops the quantum leap before it can even begin.
3. Reign in your F.E.A.R. - As much as we may want the results accompanying a quantum leap, we often fear the actions needed. And super results often create super fears. But risk is not always proportionate to return, for many risks can be covered or hedged. To be a quantum leap thinker, you must come to understand your fear mechanisms. You must be able to differentiate fear of real risks from False Evidence Appearing Real.
4. Take Action; Make the Leap - The world is full of dreamers... the "would haves" and "could haves" who are full of excuses why they did not accomplish that of which they dreamed. Quantum leap embodies action right in the words. Leap... take action! Not reckless action, but action that is planned with diligent attention to dealing with all real risks. Come to appreciate the power of failure when it does occur.
5. See Every Event that Appears as a Setback as an Opportunity - Learn to accept the bumpiness along the road of life. No mortal has a forever smooth road. No one! Because we cannot walk in the shoes of others, it may seem that others have it smooth. But in reality, no one has it smooth. Now, some do manage to make life smoother by learning to deal more effectively with the bumps. And the truly gifted develop the capability to take adversity and to channel adversity into positive experiences.
6. Surround Yourself with other Quantum Leapers - The people with whom you associate have an enormous impact on your life. Make the choice to surround yourself with people who are, at minimum, possibility thinkers. And seek out relationships with those relatively rare individuals who are quantum leap thinkers. How does one find quantum leap thinkers? Look to those achieving extraordinary success in any field.
Quantum leap thinking really can produce extraordinary results for you. And when transformed into Quantum Leverage, your strengths can be magnified many times over.
Open your mind to the awesome potential of quantum leap thinking!
About the Author:
Dave Carpenter's name is synonymous with corporate and personal peak performance. Over a 25-year career in corporate restructuring, Dave became widely recognized as one of the leaders in this field. As a result, he has long been annually recognized as an honoree in Who's Who in Law, and Who's Who in Finance. http://quantum-leap-strategies.com/
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Becoming A Master Of Persuasion - By Brian Tracy
Persuasion power can help you get more of the things you want faster than anything else you do. It can mean the difference between success and failure. It can guarantee your progress and enable you to use all of your other skills and abilities at the very highest level. Your persuasion power will earn you the support and respect of your customers, bosses, coworkers, colleagues and friends. The ability to persuade others to do what you want them to do can make you one of the most important people in your community.
Fortunately, persuasion is a skill, like riding a bicycle, that you can learn through study and practice. Your job is to become absolutely excellent at influencing and motivating others to support and assist you in the achievement of your goals and the solving of your problems.
You can either persuade others to help you or be persuaded to help them. It is one or the other. Most people are not aware that every human interaction involves a complex process of persuasion and influence. And being unaware, they are usually the ones being persuaded to help others rather than the ones who are doing the persuading.
The key to persuasion is motivation. Every human action is motivated by something. Your job is to find out what motivates other people and then to provide that motivation. People have two major motivations: the desire for gain and the fear of loss. The desire for gain motivates people to want more of the things they value in life. They want more money, more success, more health, more influence, more respect, more love and more happiness. Human wants are limited only by individual imagination. No matter how much a person has, he or she still wants more and more. When you can show a person how he or she can get more of the things he or she wants by helping you achieve your goals, you can motivate them to act in your behalf.
President Eisenhower once said that, "Persuasion is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do, and to like it." You need always to be thinking about how you can get people to want to do the things that you need them to do to attain your objectives.
People are also motivated to act by the fear of loss. This fear, in all its various forms, is often stronger than the desire for gain. People fear financial loss, loss of health, anger or disapproval of others, loss of the love of someone and the loss of anything they have worked hard to accomplish. They fear change, risk and uncertainty because these threaten them with potential losses.
Whenever you can show a person that, by doing what you want them to do, they can avoid a loss of some kind, you can influence them to take a particular action. The very best appeals are those where you offer an opportunity to gain and an opportunity to avoid loss at the same time.
There are two ways to get the things you want in life. First, you can work by yourself and for yourself in your own best interest. You can be a "Robinson Crusoe" of modern life, relying on yourself for the satisfaction of your needs. By doing this, you can accomplish a little, but not a lot. The person who looks to himself or herself completely is limited in his or her capacities. He or she will never be rich or successful.
The second way to get the things you want is by gaining and using leverage. Leverage allows you to multiply yourself and get far more out of the hours you put in rather than doing everything yourself.
There are three forms of leverage you must develop to fulfill your full potential in our society: other people’s efforts, other people’s knowledge, and other people’s money.
You leverage yourself through other people’s efforts by getting other people to work with you and for you in the accomplishment of your objectives. Sometimes you can ask them to help you voluntarily, although people won’t work for very long without some personal reward. At other times you can hire them to help you, thereby freeing you up to do higher-value work.
One of the most important laws of economics is called "Ricardo’s Law." It is also called the Law of Comparative Advantage. This law states that when someone can accomplish a part of your task at a lower hourly rate than you would earn for accomplishing more valuable parts of your task, you should delegate or outsource that part of the task.
For example, if you want to earn $100,000 a year, in a 250 day year, you need to make $50.00 per hour. That means you must be doing work that is worth $50.00 per hour, eight hours per day, 250 days per year. Therefore, if there is any part of your work—like making photocopies, filing information, typing letters, or filling out expense forms—that is not valued at $50.00 per hour, you should stop doing it. You should persuade someone else who works at a lower hourly rate to do it for you. The more lower level tasks you can persuade others to do, the more time you will have to do tasks that pay you higher amounts of money. This is one of the essential keys to getting the leverage you need to become one of the higher paid people in your profession.
Management can be defined as "getting things done through others." To be a manager you must be an expert at persuading and influencing others to work in a common direction. This is why all excellent managers are also excellent low-pressure salespeople. They do not order people to do things; instead, they persuade them to accept certain responsibilities, with specific deadlines and agreed-upon standards of performance. When a person has been persuaded that he or she has a vested interest in doing a job well, he or she accepts ownership of the job and the result. Once a person accepts ownership and responsibility, the manager can step aside confidently, knowing the job will be done on schedule.
In every part of your life, you have a choice of either doing it yourself or delegating it to others. Your ability to get someone else to take on the job with the same enthusiasm that you would have is an exercise in personal persuasion. It may seem to take a little longer at the beginning, but it saves you an enormous amount of time in the completion of the task.
The second form of leverage that you must develop for success in America is other people’s knowledge. You must be able to tap into the brain power of many other people if you want to accomplish worthwhile goals. Successful people are not those who know everything needed to accomplish a particular task, but more often than not, they are people who know how to find the knowledge they need.
What is the knowledge that you need to achieve your most important goals? Of the knowledge required, what knowledge must you have personally in order to control your situation, and what knowledge can you borrow, buy, or rent from others?
It has been said that, in our information-based society, you are never more than one book or two phone calls away from any piece of knowledge in the country. With on-line computer services that access huge data bases all over the country, you can usually get the precise information you require in a few minutes by using a personal computer. Whenever you need information and expertise from another person in order to achieve your goals, the very best way to persuade them to help you is to ask them for their assistance.
Almost everyone who is knowledgeable in a particular area is proud of their accomplishments. By asking a person for their expert advice, you compliment them and motivate them to want to help you. So don’t be afraid to ask, even if you don’t know the individual personally.
The third key to leverage, which is very much based on your persuasive abilities, is other people’s money. Your ability to use other people’s money and resources to leverage your talents is the key to financial success. Your ability to buy and defer payment, to sell and collect payment in advance, to borrow, rent or lease furniture, fixtures and machinery, and to borrow money from people to help you multiply your opportunities is one of the most important of all skills that you can develop. And these all depend on your ability to persuade others to cooperate with you financially so that you can develop the leverage you need to move onward and upward in your field.
There are four "Ps" that will enhance your ability to persuade others in both your work and personal life. They are power, positioning, performance, and politeness. And they are all based on perception.
The first "P" is power. The more power and influence that a person perceives that you have, whether real or not, the more likely it is that that person will be persuaded by you to do the things you want them to do. For example, if you appear to be a senior executive, or a wealthy person, people will be much more likely to help you and serve you than they would be if you were perceived to be a lower level employee.
The second "P" is positioning. This refers to the way that other people think about you and talk about you when you are not there. Your positioning in the mind and heart of other people largely determines how open they are to being influenced by you.
In everything you do involving other people, you are shaping and influencing their perceptions of you and your positioning in their minds. Think about how you could change the things you say and do so that people think about you in such a way that they are more open to your requests and to helping you achieve your goals.
The third "P" is performance. This refers to your level of competence and expertise in your area. A person who is highly respected for his or her ability to get results is far more persuasive and influential than a person who only does an average job.
The perception that people have of your performance capabilities exerts an inordinate influence on how they think and feel about you. You should commit yourself to being the very best in your field. Sometimes, a reputation for being excellent at what you do can be so powerful that it alone can make you an extremely persuasive individual in all of your interactions with the people around you. They will accept your advice, be open to your influence and agree with your requests.
The fourth "P" of persuasion power is politeness. People do things for two reasons, because they want to and because they have to. When you treat people with kindness, courtesy and respect, you make them want to do things for you. They are motivated to go out of their way to help you solve your problems and accomplish your goals. Being nice to other people satisfies one of the deepest of all subconscious needs, the need to feel important and respected. Whenever you convey this to another person in your conversation, your attitude and your treatment of that person, he or she will be wide open to being persuaded and influenced by you in almost anything you need.
Again, perception is everything. The perception of an individual is his or her reality. People act on the basis of their perceptions of you. If you change their perceptions, you change the way they think and feel about you, and you change the things that they will do for you.
You can become an expert at personal persuasion. You can develop your personal power by always remembering that there are only two ways to get the things you want in life, you can do it all yourself, or you can get most of it done by others. Your ability to communicate, persuade, negotiate, influence, delegate and interact effectively with other people will enable you to develop leverage using other people’s efforts, other people’s knowledge and other people’s money. The development of your persuasion power will enable you to become one of the most powerful and influential people in your organization. It will open up doors for you in every area of your life.
About the Author:
Brian Tracy is the most listened to audio author on personal and business success in the world today. His fast-moving talks and seminars on leadership, sales, managerial effectiveness and business strategy are loaded with powerful, proven ideas and strategies that people can immediately apply to get better results in every area. For more information, please go to www.BrianTracy.com
Fortunately, persuasion is a skill, like riding a bicycle, that you can learn through study and practice. Your job is to become absolutely excellent at influencing and motivating others to support and assist you in the achievement of your goals and the solving of your problems.
You can either persuade others to help you or be persuaded to help them. It is one or the other. Most people are not aware that every human interaction involves a complex process of persuasion and influence. And being unaware, they are usually the ones being persuaded to help others rather than the ones who are doing the persuading.
The key to persuasion is motivation. Every human action is motivated by something. Your job is to find out what motivates other people and then to provide that motivation. People have two major motivations: the desire for gain and the fear of loss. The desire for gain motivates people to want more of the things they value in life. They want more money, more success, more health, more influence, more respect, more love and more happiness. Human wants are limited only by individual imagination. No matter how much a person has, he or she still wants more and more. When you can show a person how he or she can get more of the things he or she wants by helping you achieve your goals, you can motivate them to act in your behalf.
President Eisenhower once said that, "Persuasion is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do, and to like it." You need always to be thinking about how you can get people to want to do the things that you need them to do to attain your objectives.
People are also motivated to act by the fear of loss. This fear, in all its various forms, is often stronger than the desire for gain. People fear financial loss, loss of health, anger or disapproval of others, loss of the love of someone and the loss of anything they have worked hard to accomplish. They fear change, risk and uncertainty because these threaten them with potential losses.
Whenever you can show a person that, by doing what you want them to do, they can avoid a loss of some kind, you can influence them to take a particular action. The very best appeals are those where you offer an opportunity to gain and an opportunity to avoid loss at the same time.
There are two ways to get the things you want in life. First, you can work by yourself and for yourself in your own best interest. You can be a "Robinson Crusoe" of modern life, relying on yourself for the satisfaction of your needs. By doing this, you can accomplish a little, but not a lot. The person who looks to himself or herself completely is limited in his or her capacities. He or she will never be rich or successful.
The second way to get the things you want is by gaining and using leverage. Leverage allows you to multiply yourself and get far more out of the hours you put in rather than doing everything yourself.
There are three forms of leverage you must develop to fulfill your full potential in our society: other people’s efforts, other people’s knowledge, and other people’s money.
You leverage yourself through other people’s efforts by getting other people to work with you and for you in the accomplishment of your objectives. Sometimes you can ask them to help you voluntarily, although people won’t work for very long without some personal reward. At other times you can hire them to help you, thereby freeing you up to do higher-value work.
One of the most important laws of economics is called "Ricardo’s Law." It is also called the Law of Comparative Advantage. This law states that when someone can accomplish a part of your task at a lower hourly rate than you would earn for accomplishing more valuable parts of your task, you should delegate or outsource that part of the task.
For example, if you want to earn $100,000 a year, in a 250 day year, you need to make $50.00 per hour. That means you must be doing work that is worth $50.00 per hour, eight hours per day, 250 days per year. Therefore, if there is any part of your work—like making photocopies, filing information, typing letters, or filling out expense forms—that is not valued at $50.00 per hour, you should stop doing it. You should persuade someone else who works at a lower hourly rate to do it for you. The more lower level tasks you can persuade others to do, the more time you will have to do tasks that pay you higher amounts of money. This is one of the essential keys to getting the leverage you need to become one of the higher paid people in your profession.
Management can be defined as "getting things done through others." To be a manager you must be an expert at persuading and influencing others to work in a common direction. This is why all excellent managers are also excellent low-pressure salespeople. They do not order people to do things; instead, they persuade them to accept certain responsibilities, with specific deadlines and agreed-upon standards of performance. When a person has been persuaded that he or she has a vested interest in doing a job well, he or she accepts ownership of the job and the result. Once a person accepts ownership and responsibility, the manager can step aside confidently, knowing the job will be done on schedule.
In every part of your life, you have a choice of either doing it yourself or delegating it to others. Your ability to get someone else to take on the job with the same enthusiasm that you would have is an exercise in personal persuasion. It may seem to take a little longer at the beginning, but it saves you an enormous amount of time in the completion of the task.
The second form of leverage that you must develop for success in America is other people’s knowledge. You must be able to tap into the brain power of many other people if you want to accomplish worthwhile goals. Successful people are not those who know everything needed to accomplish a particular task, but more often than not, they are people who know how to find the knowledge they need.
What is the knowledge that you need to achieve your most important goals? Of the knowledge required, what knowledge must you have personally in order to control your situation, and what knowledge can you borrow, buy, or rent from others?
It has been said that, in our information-based society, you are never more than one book or two phone calls away from any piece of knowledge in the country. With on-line computer services that access huge data bases all over the country, you can usually get the precise information you require in a few minutes by using a personal computer. Whenever you need information and expertise from another person in order to achieve your goals, the very best way to persuade them to help you is to ask them for their assistance.
Almost everyone who is knowledgeable in a particular area is proud of their accomplishments. By asking a person for their expert advice, you compliment them and motivate them to want to help you. So don’t be afraid to ask, even if you don’t know the individual personally.
The third key to leverage, which is very much based on your persuasive abilities, is other people’s money. Your ability to use other people’s money and resources to leverage your talents is the key to financial success. Your ability to buy and defer payment, to sell and collect payment in advance, to borrow, rent or lease furniture, fixtures and machinery, and to borrow money from people to help you multiply your opportunities is one of the most important of all skills that you can develop. And these all depend on your ability to persuade others to cooperate with you financially so that you can develop the leverage you need to move onward and upward in your field.
There are four "Ps" that will enhance your ability to persuade others in both your work and personal life. They are power, positioning, performance, and politeness. And they are all based on perception.
The first "P" is power. The more power and influence that a person perceives that you have, whether real or not, the more likely it is that that person will be persuaded by you to do the things you want them to do. For example, if you appear to be a senior executive, or a wealthy person, people will be much more likely to help you and serve you than they would be if you were perceived to be a lower level employee.
The second "P" is positioning. This refers to the way that other people think about you and talk about you when you are not there. Your positioning in the mind and heart of other people largely determines how open they are to being influenced by you.
In everything you do involving other people, you are shaping and influencing their perceptions of you and your positioning in their minds. Think about how you could change the things you say and do so that people think about you in such a way that they are more open to your requests and to helping you achieve your goals.
The third "P" is performance. This refers to your level of competence and expertise in your area. A person who is highly respected for his or her ability to get results is far more persuasive and influential than a person who only does an average job.
The perception that people have of your performance capabilities exerts an inordinate influence on how they think and feel about you. You should commit yourself to being the very best in your field. Sometimes, a reputation for being excellent at what you do can be so powerful that it alone can make you an extremely persuasive individual in all of your interactions with the people around you. They will accept your advice, be open to your influence and agree with your requests.
The fourth "P" of persuasion power is politeness. People do things for two reasons, because they want to and because they have to. When you treat people with kindness, courtesy and respect, you make them want to do things for you. They are motivated to go out of their way to help you solve your problems and accomplish your goals. Being nice to other people satisfies one of the deepest of all subconscious needs, the need to feel important and respected. Whenever you convey this to another person in your conversation, your attitude and your treatment of that person, he or she will be wide open to being persuaded and influenced by you in almost anything you need.
Again, perception is everything. The perception of an individual is his or her reality. People act on the basis of their perceptions of you. If you change their perceptions, you change the way they think and feel about you, and you change the things that they will do for you.
You can become an expert at personal persuasion. You can develop your personal power by always remembering that there are only two ways to get the things you want in life, you can do it all yourself, or you can get most of it done by others. Your ability to communicate, persuade, negotiate, influence, delegate and interact effectively with other people will enable you to develop leverage using other people’s efforts, other people’s knowledge and other people’s money. The development of your persuasion power will enable you to become one of the most powerful and influential people in your organization. It will open up doors for you in every area of your life.
About the Author:
Brian Tracy is the most listened to audio author on personal and business success in the world today. His fast-moving talks and seminars on leadership, sales, managerial effectiveness and business strategy are loaded with powerful, proven ideas and strategies that people can immediately apply to get better results in every area. For more information, please go to www.BrianTracy.com
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
The Perfect Fitness Schedule - By Joey Atlas
One of the most frequently asked questions regarding fitness scheduling is, "What's the best time for me to work out?" You hear and read so many different 'opinions' on this topic -- it's enough to drive you nuts. The truth is there is only one good answer to this question. Most people find that it's an answer they cannot only live with, but make great progress in both short- and long-term fitness goals. Read on to find out your best time to exercise.
Lots of confusion has come about in the past few years with many fitness pros endorsing the 'exercise in the morning' is the best. This concept is rooted in a fat burning technique that is supposed to help you lose body-fat while exercising on an empty stomach. There are a few other 'hypothetical' reasons why certain people may promote the 'morning workouts are best' theory. But, to simplify matters, I'm going to quickly get to the point and the truth about this misunderstood fitness issue.
The best time for you to work out is when you can most comfortably fit it into your schedule. The supposed 'time of day' differences in exercise effects on the body should be a distant second or third when you are planning your ideal workout routine schedule. Your number-one priority should be to plug your workouts into your schedule when it is most fitting for your lifestyle. And this can change on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis.
Career and family present various scheduling challenges at various times, and because of this, you want to factor in a degree of flexibility into your 'fitness planner'. In a previous article, I wrote about writing (or typing) your fitness activities into your daily/weekly/monthly schedule... of course, doing this with the foresight that you can move and shift your workouts around to fit into your overall life routine.
Shifting your workout 'times of day' does not take anything away from your progress and long-term success -- this is natural and perfectly fine -- and is actually one of the main reasons why certain people do experience fitness success.
Another issue is the 'duration of workout' challenge. Let's say you usually spend an estimated 50 minutes on exercise during your workouts. But you know on certain days of the coming week you only have 20-30 minutes to devote to your workouts. Instead of throwing in the towel and skipping the workouts (because you think it's not worth exercising for half of your normal time), you make the most of that 20-30 minutes -- by modifying your workout to fit the time you can devote to it.
For example, instead of doing 30 minutes of cardio activity and 20 minutes of resistance training -- you do 20 minutes of mixed cardio/resistance cross training and a quick 5-minute stretch. Or maybe you just pick one thing, such as getting on treadmill for 20 minutes at a higher than normal intensity (increased speed and/or incline) or strength/resistance training for 20 minutes.
Here's my point -- 20 minutes of something is a million times better than nothing, maybe even more than that!!
Another way to work your workouts into a tight schedule is by breaking them up into segments. For example, let's say your total workout time is 55 minutes. There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing 30 minutes of it first thing in the morning -- and then doing the rest at lunch time or in the evening.
The concept of fitness habits being so structured and regimented is one of the biggest reasons many people never even get started -- and it's also a big factor that 'gets people off their programs'.
Have a general schedule and program in place, but be sure to factor in time when you'll have to bend your fitness program to fit your life and all that goes with it. Giving some slack to your schedule does not mean you are slacking off -- but rather you are implementing the kind of creativity and forethought that is common amongst all successful fitness followers.
About the Author:
Joey Atlas is the author of "Fatness to Fitness," which was recently released on Amazon.com. To celebrate the launch, Joey is giving away almost $300 worth of bonuses with each book purchase, including a full body, home fitness DVD. Visit http://www.selfgrowth.com/products/yourfitnessbook.html for all the details.
Lots of confusion has come about in the past few years with many fitness pros endorsing the 'exercise in the morning' is the best. This concept is rooted in a fat burning technique that is supposed to help you lose body-fat while exercising on an empty stomach. There are a few other 'hypothetical' reasons why certain people may promote the 'morning workouts are best' theory. But, to simplify matters, I'm going to quickly get to the point and the truth about this misunderstood fitness issue.
The best time for you to work out is when you can most comfortably fit it into your schedule. The supposed 'time of day' differences in exercise effects on the body should be a distant second or third when you are planning your ideal workout routine schedule. Your number-one priority should be to plug your workouts into your schedule when it is most fitting for your lifestyle. And this can change on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis.
Career and family present various scheduling challenges at various times, and because of this, you want to factor in a degree of flexibility into your 'fitness planner'. In a previous article, I wrote about writing (or typing) your fitness activities into your daily/weekly/monthly schedule... of course, doing this with the foresight that you can move and shift your workouts around to fit into your overall life routine.
Shifting your workout 'times of day' does not take anything away from your progress and long-term success -- this is natural and perfectly fine -- and is actually one of the main reasons why certain people do experience fitness success.
Another issue is the 'duration of workout' challenge. Let's say you usually spend an estimated 50 minutes on exercise during your workouts. But you know on certain days of the coming week you only have 20-30 minutes to devote to your workouts. Instead of throwing in the towel and skipping the workouts (because you think it's not worth exercising for half of your normal time), you make the most of that 20-30 minutes -- by modifying your workout to fit the time you can devote to it.
For example, instead of doing 30 minutes of cardio activity and 20 minutes of resistance training -- you do 20 minutes of mixed cardio/resistance cross training and a quick 5-minute stretch. Or maybe you just pick one thing, such as getting on treadmill for 20 minutes at a higher than normal intensity (increased speed and/or incline) or strength/resistance training for 20 minutes.
Here's my point -- 20 minutes of something is a million times better than nothing, maybe even more than that!!
Another way to work your workouts into a tight schedule is by breaking them up into segments. For example, let's say your total workout time is 55 minutes. There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing 30 minutes of it first thing in the morning -- and then doing the rest at lunch time or in the evening.
The concept of fitness habits being so structured and regimented is one of the biggest reasons many people never even get started -- and it's also a big factor that 'gets people off their programs'.
Have a general schedule and program in place, but be sure to factor in time when you'll have to bend your fitness program to fit your life and all that goes with it. Giving some slack to your schedule does not mean you are slacking off -- but rather you are implementing the kind of creativity and forethought that is common amongst all successful fitness followers.
About the Author:
Joey Atlas is the author of "Fatness to Fitness," which was recently released on Amazon.com. To celebrate the launch, Joey is giving away almost $300 worth of bonuses with each book purchase, including a full body, home fitness DVD. Visit http://www.selfgrowth.com/products/yourfitnessbook.html for all the details.
Monday, June 02, 2008
Is "Earning a Living" Stopping You? - By Stacey Mayo, MCC
Every year, people resolve that this year will be different: "This will be the year that I write that book, start that new venture, double my income, take more time off to spend with my family," and the list goes on and on. However, when people think about pursuing their dreams, they often squash the idea because it doesn't seem practical.
Does this sound familiar? You have a dream, but are afraid that if you pursue it, you would risk giving up what you already have. It is easy to put it off to a later date -- a time when there will be more money, more time, and/or when the kids have graduated from college.
However, there is never a time when everything in your life is perfect for carrying out your goals. Don't wait for everything to be lined up. Once you actually commit to your dream, things will begin to fall into place. Know that is possible to live out your fondest dreams AND make a great living!
After supporting thousands of people across the globe in making their personal and professional dreams a reality, I have found the following strategies to be most effective:
* First, design your life around your priorities. Many people try to fit their dreams into their life and complain there are not enough hours in the day to make it happen. If you want your dream to become a reality, make it a priority.
For example, Stacy Allison, the first American woman to climb Mt. Everest, chose to live just outside of Zion National Park, so she could climb rock cliffs in her own backyard. Climbing was her priority for many years, and she made choices in alignment with that.
* Second, handle the basics (food, clothing, and shelter), then reach for fulfillment and self-actualization. If you can't stand your job any longer or have been forced out and you need a source of income, get a low-stress interim job to pay the bills while your pursue your dream.
* Visualize every step of your dream and watch the magic unfold. For example, an experiment conducted by Australian psychologist Alan Richardson found a 23 percent performance improvement among subjects who visualized every day for 20 days.
Mary Youngblood went from welfare mom to Grammy-award winner. Mary visualized herself out of welfare. She did this by writing a short story about a young welfare mother. It was her story, basically, and how she was discovered having great talent and was able to get herself up and out of welfare. She pictured it happening in her head and then took action in alignment with that picture.
* Laser in on one idea, business, or income stream at a time. One of the mistakes people make is diversifying too quickly. This is true whether you are trying to build multiple streams of income or are just working on several different ideas at one time. The key is getting the first stream or idea up and running and having systems in place so it will keep running without you before going on to the next unrelated stream.
This is one of my biggest lessons, as it is for many entrepreneurs and creative people. When I was writing, "I Can't Believe I Get Paid To Do This!" I was also looking for real estate investments, which was a new venture for me. I wasn't making much progress on either count. When I put the real estate to the side and committed to finishing the book, it happened quite easily.
* And last but not least, develop your resilience muscle by bouncing back from setbacks. You will very likely have setbacks along the way. Don't get stopped by these bumps in the road; learn from them.
About the Author:
Stacey Mayo established the Center for Balanced Living to carry out her life's work. She and a team of powerful coaches have counseled thousands of people to clarify and make their dream a reality. She is a Master Certified coach and has been featured on the CBS Evening News and Forbes. She is author of the award-winning book, "I Can't Believe I Get Paid To Do This" and "Is Your Ladder Leaning Against the Wrong Wall?" Visit http://www.balancedliving.com to subscribe to her FREE ezine, Living Your Dreams, and receive a free self-assessment.
Does this sound familiar? You have a dream, but are afraid that if you pursue it, you would risk giving up what you already have. It is easy to put it off to a later date -- a time when there will be more money, more time, and/or when the kids have graduated from college.
However, there is never a time when everything in your life is perfect for carrying out your goals. Don't wait for everything to be lined up. Once you actually commit to your dream, things will begin to fall into place. Know that is possible to live out your fondest dreams AND make a great living!
After supporting thousands of people across the globe in making their personal and professional dreams a reality, I have found the following strategies to be most effective:
* First, design your life around your priorities. Many people try to fit their dreams into their life and complain there are not enough hours in the day to make it happen. If you want your dream to become a reality, make it a priority.
For example, Stacy Allison, the first American woman to climb Mt. Everest, chose to live just outside of Zion National Park, so she could climb rock cliffs in her own backyard. Climbing was her priority for many years, and she made choices in alignment with that.
* Second, handle the basics (food, clothing, and shelter), then reach for fulfillment and self-actualization. If you can't stand your job any longer or have been forced out and you need a source of income, get a low-stress interim job to pay the bills while your pursue your dream.
* Visualize every step of your dream and watch the magic unfold. For example, an experiment conducted by Australian psychologist Alan Richardson found a 23 percent performance improvement among subjects who visualized every day for 20 days.
Mary Youngblood went from welfare mom to Grammy-award winner. Mary visualized herself out of welfare. She did this by writing a short story about a young welfare mother. It was her story, basically, and how she was discovered having great talent and was able to get herself up and out of welfare. She pictured it happening in her head and then took action in alignment with that picture.
* Laser in on one idea, business, or income stream at a time. One of the mistakes people make is diversifying too quickly. This is true whether you are trying to build multiple streams of income or are just working on several different ideas at one time. The key is getting the first stream or idea up and running and having systems in place so it will keep running without you before going on to the next unrelated stream.
This is one of my biggest lessons, as it is for many entrepreneurs and creative people. When I was writing, "I Can't Believe I Get Paid To Do This!" I was also looking for real estate investments, which was a new venture for me. I wasn't making much progress on either count. When I put the real estate to the side and committed to finishing the book, it happened quite easily.
* And last but not least, develop your resilience muscle by bouncing back from setbacks. You will very likely have setbacks along the way. Don't get stopped by these bumps in the road; learn from them.
About the Author:
Stacey Mayo established the Center for Balanced Living to carry out her life's work. She and a team of powerful coaches have counseled thousands of people to clarify and make their dream a reality. She is a Master Certified coach and has been featured on the CBS Evening News and Forbes. She is author of the award-winning book, "I Can't Believe I Get Paid To Do This" and "Is Your Ladder Leaning Against the Wrong Wall?" Visit http://www.balancedliving.com to subscribe to her FREE ezine, Living Your Dreams, and receive a free self-assessment.
Creating and Recognizing Opportunity - By Keith Matthew
The ability to create and recognize opportunity is very important for us if we want to start growing our personal lives, deepening our connections with people, as well as, of course, the money that's in our pockets. In fact, if you just focus on what we're about to talk about, and focus on no other part of this success system, you'll definitely get your worth out of it.
Get into the mindset of making sure that you get a return on your investment.
If it's an investment of energy into a relationship, an investment of your time into a project, or your money down on a personal development product, start expecting of yourself that you're going to get a return on your investment.
I went to a seminar and paid a couple thousand dollars just to get in. That doesn't even take into account airfare, meals, and all the other expenses incurred. I formed new relationships with people that could be very beneficial to my business -- to grow it.
When the seminar had ended, I returned home and the busyness of my life took over again. I have to be here, I have this appointment, I have these clients to work with -- you know how it is.
Two weeks...three weeks...a month went by. The bottom line is: I put several thousand dollars down as an investment in my business and in my position in my life, to better it, and I didn't take ACTION on it, so I basically threw the money away. Make it a mantra that when you do something, you're going to make a commitment and have the expectation that you're going to get a return on your investment (ROI).
Going along with that idea, of course, you're going to have to take action and have a plan, so you can make sure to have this ROI. It doesn't have to be money. If you have energy invested in a relationship and you're not getting your "ROI," you have to take a look at why. Is it because you're not putting something in that needs to be there to get the return back? Does the relationship have to be changed? Start expecting this. In talking about "Creating and Recognizing Opportunity," how do we prepare for something like this? We don't know where opportunity is, when it's going to show up, or what is going to be expected of you in order to take advantage of the opportunity. You don't know what the outcome is going to be if you do jump on and take advantage of an opportunity.
You also don't know if it's going to be worth your time or worth the risk involved, so there are a lot of unknowns with opportunity. You can't even see it, let alone quantifying whether it's going to be worth it for you. Yet, finding opportunity in your life and around you is very vital to your success.
Really good opportunities, a lot of times, come and go quickly. Either somebody next to you jumps on it, or it just passes by like a moment and then you're still in the same spot you were in before, which is not why we're here. We're here to learn how to move from spot A to B to C. The truth of the matter is, opportunity is everywhere. It's everywhere in your life right now -- all over the place. It's incredible how much it's in your life, but most of the time we don't see it. Why do you think we don't see opportunity?
We each have a perspective on our lives. Whatever your perspective is, is pretty much consistent from day to day because that's how your world is shaped, that's how you have shaped it. So we have this perspective, and we really have to work on changing it.
When you work on and start to be able to change your perspective, and you can see things in a different light or from different angles, different viewpoints, then you're starting to get on the right track to seeing opportunity. When you open up your mind and allow for these other possibilities, you start to see that they are all around you.
About the Author:
Keith Matthew has been teaching Law of Attraction and wealth-building techniques for 18 years. Visit http://www.selfmasterysecrets.com/ns-freecourse.html to sign up for a Free 7-Day Success Workshop or go to http://www.selfmasterysecrets.com/ns-freecd.html to get a Free 'Limitless Wealth' CD.
Get into the mindset of making sure that you get a return on your investment.
If it's an investment of energy into a relationship, an investment of your time into a project, or your money down on a personal development product, start expecting of yourself that you're going to get a return on your investment.
I went to a seminar and paid a couple thousand dollars just to get in. That doesn't even take into account airfare, meals, and all the other expenses incurred. I formed new relationships with people that could be very beneficial to my business -- to grow it.
When the seminar had ended, I returned home and the busyness of my life took over again. I have to be here, I have this appointment, I have these clients to work with -- you know how it is.
Two weeks...three weeks...a month went by. The bottom line is: I put several thousand dollars down as an investment in my business and in my position in my life, to better it, and I didn't take ACTION on it, so I basically threw the money away. Make it a mantra that when you do something, you're going to make a commitment and have the expectation that you're going to get a return on your investment (ROI).
Going along with that idea, of course, you're going to have to take action and have a plan, so you can make sure to have this ROI. It doesn't have to be money. If you have energy invested in a relationship and you're not getting your "ROI," you have to take a look at why. Is it because you're not putting something in that needs to be there to get the return back? Does the relationship have to be changed? Start expecting this. In talking about "Creating and Recognizing Opportunity," how do we prepare for something like this? We don't know where opportunity is, when it's going to show up, or what is going to be expected of you in order to take advantage of the opportunity. You don't know what the outcome is going to be if you do jump on and take advantage of an opportunity.
You also don't know if it's going to be worth your time or worth the risk involved, so there are a lot of unknowns with opportunity. You can't even see it, let alone quantifying whether it's going to be worth it for you. Yet, finding opportunity in your life and around you is very vital to your success.
Really good opportunities, a lot of times, come and go quickly. Either somebody next to you jumps on it, or it just passes by like a moment and then you're still in the same spot you were in before, which is not why we're here. We're here to learn how to move from spot A to B to C. The truth of the matter is, opportunity is everywhere. It's everywhere in your life right now -- all over the place. It's incredible how much it's in your life, but most of the time we don't see it. Why do you think we don't see opportunity?
We each have a perspective on our lives. Whatever your perspective is, is pretty much consistent from day to day because that's how your world is shaped, that's how you have shaped it. So we have this perspective, and we really have to work on changing it.
When you work on and start to be able to change your perspective, and you can see things in a different light or from different angles, different viewpoints, then you're starting to get on the right track to seeing opportunity. When you open up your mind and allow for these other possibilities, you start to see that they are all around you.
About the Author:
Keith Matthew has been teaching Law of Attraction and wealth-building techniques for 18 years. Visit http://www.selfmasterysecrets.com/ns-freecourse.html to sign up for a Free 7-Day Success Workshop or go to http://www.selfmasterysecrets.com/ns-freecd.html to get a Free 'Limitless Wealth' CD.
You ar Blessed - By Abraham-Hicks
You are blessed...
All the resources you will ever want or need are at your fingertips. All you have to do is identify what you want to do with it, and then practice the feeling-place of what it will feel like when that happens. There is nothing you cannot be or do or have. You are blessed Beings; you have come forth into this physical environment to create. There is nothing holding you back, other than your own contradictory thought. And your emotion tells you you're doing that. Life is supposed to be fun—it is supposed to feel good! You are powerful Creators and right on schedule. Savor more; fix less. Laugh more; cry less. Anticipate positively more; anticipate negatively less. Nothing is more important than that you feel good. Just practice that and watch what happens. There is great love here for you. We are complete.
Abraham-Hicks
All the resources you will ever want or need are at your fingertips. All you have to do is identify what you want to do with it, and then practice the feeling-place of what it will feel like when that happens. There is nothing you cannot be or do or have. You are blessed Beings; you have come forth into this physical environment to create. There is nothing holding you back, other than your own contradictory thought. And your emotion tells you you're doing that. Life is supposed to be fun—it is supposed to feel good! You are powerful Creators and right on schedule. Savor more; fix less. Laugh more; cry less. Anticipate positively more; anticipate negatively less. Nothing is more important than that you feel good. Just practice that and watch what happens. There is great love here for you. We are complete.
Abraham-Hicks
Enough About Me - By Kelley Robertson
What's the one thing most people like to talk about?
Give yourself a gold star if you said themselves.
Unfortunately, this concept prevents many sales from moving forward. In most sales conversations the sales person spends most of his time talking about his product, service, or solution which means he is essentially talking about himself. However, the prospect has the innate desire to talk about her situation, business, or circumstances. The longer the sales person drones on about his solution, the more likely the prospect will lose interest in the conversation.
The most effective sales people understand the importance of getting their customers and prospects to open up and they spend the bulk of their time listening to their prospect talk about their specific situation. They ask questions that encourage open conversation. They probe when they hear something vague. And they resist the temptation to talk about their product or service until they know as much as possible about each prospect.
The challenge is that most sales people feel that they aren't selling if they aren't talking. But remember, the more someone talks about their situation, the more information you will gain which will help you better position a solution.
Have a productive and profitable week!
Give yourself a gold star if you said themselves.
Unfortunately, this concept prevents many sales from moving forward. In most sales conversations the sales person spends most of his time talking about his product, service, or solution which means he is essentially talking about himself. However, the prospect has the innate desire to talk about her situation, business, or circumstances. The longer the sales person drones on about his solution, the more likely the prospect will lose interest in the conversation.
The most effective sales people understand the importance of getting their customers and prospects to open up and they spend the bulk of their time listening to their prospect talk about their specific situation. They ask questions that encourage open conversation. They probe when they hear something vague. And they resist the temptation to talk about their product or service until they know as much as possible about each prospect.
The challenge is that most sales people feel that they aren't selling if they aren't talking. But remember, the more someone talks about their situation, the more information you will gain which will help you better position a solution.
Have a productive and profitable week!
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Easy Living -- Good or Bad for Brain Fitness? - By Dr. Simon Evans
If you talked to a person from the 1950s about all the modern marvels we have today, they'd likely drool at the mouth. What? You don't have to get up to change the TV channel? You can reheat leftovers in 1 minute? You can access any information at any time without leaving your house? No way!
Be Careful What You Ask For
But are our lives really getting any easier? Do all these time-saving devices allow us to work less? Well, sort of. It certainly takes less work to do any specific task. When I was in graduate school writing my thesis, I thought of the poor slobs who had to do that without the aid of a computer or the internet. It must have taken people an entire day to go to the library to find references that I can now get in 10 minutes (God bless Google). The trade-off is that we are expected to do a lot more tasks as part of our normal day.
I was reading an interesting paper by Kelly Lambert recently that put some of this into perspective as it may relate to rates of depression in our modern society. Even with all our modern conveniences, high-end medical care, and plethora of designer drugs, we have a huge mental health crisis. In fact, today mental health accounts for about 15% of disease burden worldwide. So why are we so unhappy?
The Thrill is in the Chase
Dr. Lambert argues that one factor in our overall societal unhappiness is the fact that we have it too easy, especially when it comes to feeding ourselves. Years gone by, dinner was more than a phone-call away. We actually had to track our food across the tundra and risk death by saber-toothed tigers or violent weather, in order to feed ourselves. Even if we were successful, we had to do it again the next day. As time drew on, we learned it was much easier to plant food in the ground. But this still required intensive labor and patience to bring our sowing efforts to the fruition of harvest.
All of this effort made the reward that much more enjoyable. The magnitude of the reward may actually depend on the magnitude of the effort required to achieve it. Meaning the harder we have to work for something, the more we enjoy it when we are successful. Since successfully finding food is a major factor in our survival, and we used to work very hard to stay fed, we had ample opportunity for regular high intensity rewards.
Appreciate What You Have
Today, however, we take for granted this major facet of our lives. Finding food does not require much effort at all, at least for most of the lucky people living in our society. Because we don't need to put out effort, we don't activate reward centers in our brains that our ancestors activated on a regular basis. We are essentially robbing ourselves of a major 'happiness factor', and this, argues Dr. Lambert, may be a problem. It may be that today's lack of regular reward, due to lack of necessary effort, may be a factor in high rates of depression.
Whether or not she is right, I don't know. She provides many examples and scientific studies to back up her argument, and I thought it was a very interesting point worthy of a post. In fact, I have two cats that seem to agree with her. They are not content just eating their chow out of a dish. Instead, they enjoy scooping out one nugget at a time, batting it across the kitchen floor, and then pouncing on their prey before eating it.
There's not really much we can do about this unless you want to pull a Grizzly Adams and drop out of society, move to the hills, and live off the land. Alternatively, you could do all your grocery shopping in full camouflage, crawling around on your belly through the frozen food aisle. Or, maybe we can be more appreciative of what we have and not take all our modern conveniences for granted.
Reference: Lambert, K.G. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 30 (2006) 497-510
About the Author:
Dr. Simon Evans holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology with 15 years research and teaching experience in neuroscience, and is a current faculty position in the Psychiatry Department at the University of Michigan. He is a member of the Society for Neuroscience, the American Society for Nutrition, and the Michigan Metabolomics and Obesity Center, with expertise in neurochemistry and nutrition. He is the author of dozens of scientific publications on stress, depression, and brain function, as well as the public book, "Brain Fitness," published in the spring of 2007.
Dr. Evans also holds a national coaching license from the United States Soccer Federation and over two decades coaching experience, which enables him to help athletes find and use their full potential. Dr. Evans has merged his interests in brain function, health, and performance coaching in public seminars and workshops designed to educate audiences about brain health and motivate them to take action to achieve it. Visit http://www.BrainFitForLife.com
Be Careful What You Ask For
But are our lives really getting any easier? Do all these time-saving devices allow us to work less? Well, sort of. It certainly takes less work to do any specific task. When I was in graduate school writing my thesis, I thought of the poor slobs who had to do that without the aid of a computer or the internet. It must have taken people an entire day to go to the library to find references that I can now get in 10 minutes (God bless Google). The trade-off is that we are expected to do a lot more tasks as part of our normal day.
I was reading an interesting paper by Kelly Lambert recently that put some of this into perspective as it may relate to rates of depression in our modern society. Even with all our modern conveniences, high-end medical care, and plethora of designer drugs, we have a huge mental health crisis. In fact, today mental health accounts for about 15% of disease burden worldwide. So why are we so unhappy?
The Thrill is in the Chase
Dr. Lambert argues that one factor in our overall societal unhappiness is the fact that we have it too easy, especially when it comes to feeding ourselves. Years gone by, dinner was more than a phone-call away. We actually had to track our food across the tundra and risk death by saber-toothed tigers or violent weather, in order to feed ourselves. Even if we were successful, we had to do it again the next day. As time drew on, we learned it was much easier to plant food in the ground. But this still required intensive labor and patience to bring our sowing efforts to the fruition of harvest.
All of this effort made the reward that much more enjoyable. The magnitude of the reward may actually depend on the magnitude of the effort required to achieve it. Meaning the harder we have to work for something, the more we enjoy it when we are successful. Since successfully finding food is a major factor in our survival, and we used to work very hard to stay fed, we had ample opportunity for regular high intensity rewards.
Appreciate What You Have
Today, however, we take for granted this major facet of our lives. Finding food does not require much effort at all, at least for most of the lucky people living in our society. Because we don't need to put out effort, we don't activate reward centers in our brains that our ancestors activated on a regular basis. We are essentially robbing ourselves of a major 'happiness factor', and this, argues Dr. Lambert, may be a problem. It may be that today's lack of regular reward, due to lack of necessary effort, may be a factor in high rates of depression.
Whether or not she is right, I don't know. She provides many examples and scientific studies to back up her argument, and I thought it was a very interesting point worthy of a post. In fact, I have two cats that seem to agree with her. They are not content just eating their chow out of a dish. Instead, they enjoy scooping out one nugget at a time, batting it across the kitchen floor, and then pouncing on their prey before eating it.
There's not really much we can do about this unless you want to pull a Grizzly Adams and drop out of society, move to the hills, and live off the land. Alternatively, you could do all your grocery shopping in full camouflage, crawling around on your belly through the frozen food aisle. Or, maybe we can be more appreciative of what we have and not take all our modern conveniences for granted.
Reference: Lambert, K.G. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 30 (2006) 497-510
About the Author:
Dr. Simon Evans holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology with 15 years research and teaching experience in neuroscience, and is a current faculty position in the Psychiatry Department at the University of Michigan. He is a member of the Society for Neuroscience, the American Society for Nutrition, and the Michigan Metabolomics and Obesity Center, with expertise in neurochemistry and nutrition. He is the author of dozens of scientific publications on stress, depression, and brain function, as well as the public book, "Brain Fitness," published in the spring of 2007.
Dr. Evans also holds a national coaching license from the United States Soccer Federation and over two decades coaching experience, which enables him to help athletes find and use their full potential. Dr. Evans has merged his interests in brain function, health, and performance coaching in public seminars and workshops designed to educate audiences about brain health and motivate them to take action to achieve it. Visit http://www.BrainFitForLife.com
THERE IS ALWAYS ANOTHER CHOICE
You don't have to buy from anyone. You don't have to work at any particular job. You don't have to participate in any given relationship. You can choose.
You alone steer the course you choose in the direction of where you want to be today,
tomorrow or in any distant time to come. You hold the tiller.
You can decide to alter the course of your life at any time. No one can ever take that away from you. You can decide what you want and go after it. It's always your next move.
Copyright 2008 www.yourdailymotivation.com
Reproduce freely but maintain Copyright notice.
You alone steer the course you choose in the direction of where you want to be today,
tomorrow or in any distant time to come. You hold the tiller.
You can decide to alter the course of your life at any time. No one can ever take that away from you. You can decide what you want and go after it. It's always your next move.
Copyright 2008 www.yourdailymotivation.com
Reproduce freely but maintain Copyright notice.
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