Monday 27 April 2015

Be The You-Nique YOU!

Wherever you are right now, you are here for a reason. Behind you is the past with a whole set of memories but you have to remember that you do not live there anymore. Whatever you do, don't go back to the past. If you were sensible, you will have changed the locks.

Reference the past, think of the past but do not carry it around with you. Ahead of you is any kind of future you want. You just have to understand that you are the only You-nique you there is, and your future is in your hands. The circumstances of your life are your own creation.

If you can look in the mirror and say to yourself 'everything in my life right now is down to me. It's all my fault. It's all my doing. The good and the bad' then you become empowered. When you realise that everything in your life is the result of the thoughts you had, decisions and choices you made, and the responses you gave; You will have control and you have account-ability. You have the ability to account for everything.  That is what makes you You-Nique!

Many people get discouraged when they look at what has happened so far in their lives. They say, "I guess I just wasn't cut out to be a success." or  "I've never really made anything work for me."

Every successful person knows that when it comes to success, the past does not dictate the future. If you look at your current results to define who you are and how successful you can be, you may disempower yourself and even limit your future success. It's like driving to work and figuring out where to turn by looking into the rearview mirror instead of at the road ahead of you. It doesn't produce good results.

Your current situation is the direct result of your past thoughts, decisions and actions. If you look at your current situation and make decisions about who you are and what you can have based on those results, then you will repeat the same thoughts, decisions and perhaps even actions that got you where you are today. What this guarantees is that you will get the same results again and end up with more of whatever you have now.

When you change your thoughts, you will change your results. If you understand this principle, you can change your life. True success begins only when you turn away from the things you don't want and begin to focus on what you do want. Repeating affirmations, repeating empowering phrases and having positive thoughts is a waste of time if you are uncertain of your own true self's power and ability.  your words sound right, your actions seem true, but the message is diluted.

Saying things once, or hundreds of times, without passion, energy or ownership is pointless. Engaging with it, owning it, feeling it and using the energy of it is where the magic begins.

Saying something again and again, louder and louder will not make it the truth.

If you say it from a context of truth and authority just once, with conviction and authenticity, it will make it a reality.

The truth is always found in the circumstances you have, not the circumstances you had, or want.

Saturday 18 April 2015

Are You Bound By Boundaries?

Is it possible that having no boundaries  is enlightenment, and the freedom to consider and to choose and to own  the possibility of living powerfully with no boundaries is transformation?

Look at the sky at night and see worlds upon worlds upon worlds, galaxy upon galaxy, without end.  We are told that space is infinite, with no end...

What do you REALLY see?  
I see no boundaries. 
When I look at your face watching mine as I love you, I see no boundaries. 
When I consider what's absolutely possible for every single human being I see no boundaries.
When I imagine how life could truly be for every one of the billions of people in this world, I see no boundaries. 

Yet what would life in this world of ours be like with no boundaries? We have natural corporeal frames. We're not invisible. We exist.  We have zip codes, capital cities, states and counties. We have insurance numbers and passports.  We're expected to drive in our lane on our side of the road. We knock or ring the door bell when we arrive for a visit at someones home. We shake hands when we greet.  We kiss when we meet and say goodbye.  We have manners and we take or give right of way in everything from walking through a door to changing lanes on the motorway/ freeway.  Societal protocols guide us to agreeing that we don't enter someones personal space without permission.

So, evidently there are physical and abstract boundaries everywhere, and we've got no means to be without them or to avoid them. We haven't got wings to fly over them or past them, and we don't skirt around them. Where, then, is the context of no boundaries?

They are in our own being, in that profoundly moving moment of self awareness ... this is where there are patently no boundaries. There's no realm of 'no boundaries' to go to. There's no place without edges anywhere on Earth. The realm of no boundaries is a realm to come from

HERE IS WHERE IT IS, NOW IS WHEN IT IS, YOU ARE WHAT IT IS
In reality: This is where it always is. It's been here for all eternity right up until this very moment. It'll be here from this very moment to beyond the end of time. 

The physical boundaries of which side of the road to drive on, what zip code to mail your electricity bill to, the proper way to set a dinner table for your guests, the date by which to pay your property taxes on etc, and the abstract boundaries of being appropriate, respecting privacy etc, demand and command respect - or life doesn't work. 


But when I'm really with you in the moment, if I don't grant you permission to be who you really are around me, if I don't give you the space to have the experience you're having, if I am investing my time in you having another experience other than  the experience you're having, when I'm engaged in the boundaries you've determined for yourself, it is at that moment I become your co-dependent in keeping you small, limited, confined. If I have prevented from you from discovering who you really are I will be denying and precluding you from the possibility of transforming your life...and I cannot, and I refuse, to do that.  And you should refuse anyone from doing that to you.

Until there's transformation, the possibility of living a life with no boundaries is completely unreal. The miracle of transformation is it restores reality to no boundaries, and leads us to who we really are. It also allows us to conform to boundaries without seeing them as an intrusion on our own.

If a person intentionally drives on the wrong side of the road they are an idiot. And if they drive on the correct side of the road while resenting the rules and nature of boundaries, they're still a fool. 


Choose to live from no boundaries ... AND ... drive, without questioning it, on the correct side of the road because that's what it takes to make a life with no boundaries work. 

What is, is....and what isn't, isnt!


Friday 17 April 2015

Close But No Cigar!

Well...we tried...we almost made it...
close but no cigar...

Perseverance!!!
That's what we need.

Sometimes when the going gets tough the tough give up.  They throw in their cards, they fold 'em.

Many people have a default setting of:
If at first you don't succeed: Self-destruct!

There is the famous story about a gold mine somewhere in America.  The people knew the gold was there, they were digging and digging but...nothing.

They gave up!  They sold the land.

The people who bought the land dug three feet away from where the previous miners had dug...They struck gold.

The first lot of miners had no idea just how close they were to striking gold when they gave up!

When you think about giving in, giving up, throwing in your cards, folding them, cashing your chips in...whatever way you want to dress up the fact that you have given up, think of this...


De-Stress your Dis-Stress

"A psychologist walked around a room while teaching stress management to an audience. As they raised a glass of water, everyone expected they'd be asked the "half empty or half full" question. Instead they inquired: "How heavy is this glass of water?"

Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz.

The psychologist replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb and paralyzed. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn't change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."

Holding onto things for too long can have a detrimental effect on us.  We become attached to things that we shouldn't and also to things that don't, and will never, serve us.

What's more, how are we going to grab an opportunity when it appears if our hands are full from holding onto something for no valid reason?

The majority of people carry their past around with them.  This is EXHAUSTING!  What's more, as you look ahead to the future, you want a big, clear space to fill with all of your hopes, dream, ideas and aspirations.  Unfortunately, you have your past in there too, taking up space, because you insist on carrying it for too long.

"The stresses and worries in life are like that glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and they begin to hurt. And if you think about them all day long, you will feel paralyzed – incapable of doing anything."

"It’s important to remember to let go of your stresses. As early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don't carry them through the evening and into the night. Remember to put the glass down!"

Monday 13 April 2015

The Latest Endangered Species: Great Customer Service

You CANNOT survive if your business model is 'always look for new customers'  Service your existing customers. 

I am forever wondering the same thing...what happened to customer service?
In this fast moving, high energy, business world, when did we lose that good old fashioned 'customer service' option.

It's as if companies don't need customers!!
Has something happened that we have not been made aware of?  Have companies become omnipotent and just exist without having to have customers willing to buy their stuff to keep them in business?

Oh no...actually, they DO need us to buy their stuff but if you want after sales service it seems more and more likely that you will fall victim to the 'we have your money: tough' attitude.
A case in point is the automated service you get on the telephone with these places.  "Press 1 for... Press 2 for...." And then you get a voice telling you that you now have 8 more options...then 4 more options...and then...'I'm sorry, that department is not taking calls, goodbye'. (BT)  Or you end up in India, the Philippines or somewhere else in the world.  They ask you to tap in date of birth, account number, door number, numbers from postcode, dogs middle name and blood group and then, when you finally get through to a life form, they ask for all those details again!

I train Customer Service departments when I visit large companies...even small companies whose CS department is only three people...and there are some Laws....

DISCLAIMER!  These are not rules out of a book, a training manual or something from some school, college or University.  They are LAWS!  They come from EXPERIENCE, COMMON SENSE AND THE STREET.  YEARS of experience.  They Work!


BE THE BENCHMARK OTHER COMPANIES ARE MEASURED AGAINST!


Law 1
COMMITMENT
You MUST have a commitment to your customer. THEY, on the other hand, do NOT have a commitment to you! You need to create their commitment to you...start now!


One of the biggest challenges companies have is keeping customers.  It's quite easy for a company to mess things up once in a while or to screw a customer around for no reason.  It's done every day.  But some companies take it to an art form.
So many companies send their sales staff out into the big wide world, either door to door or by telephone, to 'get new customers' and completely forget that they already have a ton of customers.  It's far easier to get business from people who are already a customer than to get new customers! Duh!
If you look after your customer then they will be your customer for good.  By looking after your customer I mean: Do what you say you are gonna do, give them what they expect to get, and more...OVERDELIVER!

Law 2
SATISFACTION
You may think satisfying your customer is a big deal? Guess what? It's not a big deal...it's expected!   It is a condition of the deal.  It is expected by your customer, of course. They expect to be satisfied by your product.  They expect to be satisfied by you. You should see that as a matter of course.


Customer satisfaction is a priceless commodity.  If your customer has peace of mind, they won't give you a piece of their mind....Got it?  No issues, no complaints, no challenges.  Your customer isn't expecting a trouble or issue free time but they are hoping for one and they also want to know one thing.  If issues or problems arise, YOU are going to deal with them immediately!

Law 3
CONTACT
Remember all that work you did to get that customer?  Why did you stop?  You need to KEEP them.  The work STARTS when you get them!

A few years ago when working in the telecommunications field I was training sales people to switch customers from BT (The UKs biggest landline provider) to a cable telephone system.  One of the things I got the salespeople to make clear to the customer was that when they put the transfer in place they would be BOMBARDED by phone calls from BT asking if they could do something to keep them, or if they wanted different and more cost effective pricing plans.  I made sure that the salespeople asked the customer 'When was the last time they asked you if they could do anything for you?'  The answer was always the same.  NEVER!  Some of those people had been with that supplier for 25 years!  Many companies only care these days if you are going to leave them.  The art, or the secret, is to make sure that your customers are not even looking for a better deal.  You need to make them CERTAIN that you are the best, and you need to do that all the time.  Not just when a predator calls.

Law 4
LOYALTY
A Loyal customer is the best customer you can have.  Better than satisfied.  But then, they are only going to be loyal if they ARE satisfied.

Satisfied customers spread the word.  'Well, my provider is great'...or 'We never have that problem with (your company name)'.  And they tell their friends.  If you don't satisfy your customer, not only will they tell 50 times more people that they are not satisfied, they will not stay.  They will not be loyal.  LOYAL is where you want them.  Stuck to you like glue.  the way to get them like that is to look after them, answer their questions, call them, do what you say you are going to do and quick.

If you are still stuck on whether you want satisfied or loyal customers, think of this.  Do you want your spouse to be Satisfied...or LOYAL?  Got it?
                                                           ____________________

There are more Laws to this...and they really do work but, bottom line is simple....if you want a long term career, if you have kids at private schools, if you have a mortgage, if you want three holidays a year, nice cars, a great standard of living then you need to wise up.  If you lose customers ALL OF THAT CHANGES!

 Over deliver.  Involve them. Call them and ask what else they want.  they bought from you once, they will buy again.

I firmly believe, from my experience of training salespeople: "The salespeople give up selling LONG before
the buyer stops buying"

You cannot expect to mine for gold in the same place every day...one day it will dry up.  Service your existing customers.  Stop making it hard for them with your automated call systems, your hold music, exorbitant charges, ignoring their calls, emails, requests for help.

Be the company they believed you were when they became your customer.  It was you who told them anyway...don't lie.

Seeing Isn't Always Believing


Increasingly, people are becoming aware that we need to change our way of thinking, being and acting in the world.  We need to Transform our focus from developing the Material, and 'the Outer' to developing the Spiritual, 'the Inner'.

Each of us has a success blueprint already embedded in our unconscious mind. This blueprint, more than any one other thing, will determine our destiny.

We live in a world of duality: good and evil, up and down, light and dark, hot and cold, in and out, fast and slow, left and right. 

These are a few examples of the thousands of opposite poles. For one pole to exist, the other pole must also exist. You cannot believe in God without believing in the devil, and vice versa.

Consequently, just as there are outer laws for Transformation, there must be inner laws. The outer laws include things like knowledge, Skill, state management and belief strategies. These are essential. But the inner laws are just as important.

Having top quality tools is imperative to a carpenter but he must be able to use those tools in a masterful fashion.

It’s not enough to be in the right place at the right time. You have to be the right person in the right place at the right time.

So who are you? How do you think? What are your thought processes? What are your habits and traits? How do you really feel about yourself? How confident are you in yourself? How well do you relate to others? How much do you trust others? How do you rate your ability? How do you rate your ability to act in spite of fear, worry, inconvenience and discomfort?

Can you act or function at your highest level even when you are not in the mood?

The bottom line is that your character, your thinking, and your thoughts are a critical part of what determines the level of your success and how your blueprint pans out...

One of the Keys to success in anything is to raise your own energy, vibration and attraction; when you do, people will naturally be attracted to you, they will tune in to your frequency.

Most people do not reach their full potential. Most people are not successful in what they choose to do.  Research shows that 80% of individuals will never be free in the way they would like to be.
80% of people will never claim to be truly happy.

The reason is simple. Most people are on autopilot. They are asleep at the wheel of their own life and looking in the rear view mirror at where they were in the past too often. 

This is one of the points in the HPT-Transformation seminars that makes people feel uneasy but I am only interested in what works.  I am not saying any of this to make you happy, I am saying it to HELP you.


They work, think and behave on a superficial level of life – based on what they can see. They live in the visible world.

Imagine a tree. Let’s suppose that this tree represents the tree of life or living. On this tree are fruits. In life, our fruits are called our results or experiences. So we look at the fruits (our results or experiences) and we don't like them; there aren't enough, and they are too small, or they don't taste good.

What do we tend to do? Most people put more attention and focus on the fruit, the results or experiences.
They will clean the fruit, spray the fruit and nurture the fruit.
But what is it that actually creates those particular fruits?
It's the seeds and the roots that create the fruit.

It’s what's underground that creates what's above ground.
It’s what's invisible that creates the visible.
So what does that mean?

It means if you want to change the fruits (your experiences or results), you have to change the roots. If you want to change the visible, you must first change the invisible.

In my experience, what you cannot see in this world is far more powerful than anything you can see.

Try electricity. You can’t see it, but you can see its effect when you turn on a light. How do you know electricity exists? Because of the light? 
Put your finger in the socket and test if it really exists. I guarantee your doubts will disappear.

You may not agree with the statement about what you can't see being more powerful than what you can see but you will suffer if you don't apply this principle.

Why?

The law of nature determines that what's underground creates what's above ground. As humans, we are a part of nature, not above it. Consequently, when we align with the law and work on the roots, our inner game of our life flows smoothly and we are a magnet to opportunity. We bear fresh fruit.

We do not work or exist on just one plane of existence. We work in four.

Physical – Mental – Emotional – Spiritual.

Most people never ever realise that the physical realm, what we call reality, is only a printout of the other three.

Let’s suppose you have written a letter. You want to change the font or a colour on the letterhead.  You turn it Purple and into a flashy font that you like.  You hit print and out it comes. Whoops...no change! 
You try it again and out comes the letter without the change.
Whoa! I just changed that, so you check and...it has reverted back to the original version. 

You now study the six hundred page manual called 'changing fonts and colours'. You now have the tools and the knowledge you need. You make the changes again but this time you hit the button APPLY. You hit print. You look. Success! 

Things cannot be changed in the printout, the physical world; they can only be changed in the program: the mental, emotional and spiritual world.

Whatever results you are getting, be they great or bad, positive or negative, always remember that your outer world is a reflection of your inner world. If things are not going well in your outer game, it’s because things are not going well in your inner game.

It’s that simple.

What you hear, you remember; what you see, you remember; what you do, you understand.
Forget the magic bullets, punches and pills you seek. You are just victim of Loch Ness Monster disease.

‘I have heard of this phrase but no one has seen it. It's a great close which, if you say it, you get everyone to buy from you. If I could get hold of that I would make it'.

Wrong.
Once you sort out your inner game and realise that you control your energy, your state and your focus then you will get what you want in life. You will have your cake and you will eat it. What is the use of having cake if you can't eat it anyway? What are you supposed to do with it? Put it on the mantelpiece and look at it?

There is a major difference between the people that 'get it', the people that are not sure they 'get it' and the people who think they will never 'get it'.
1. 'Get it' people believe `I can have my cake and eat it'.
2. 'Not sure I can Get it' people believe `Cake is too rich, so I will only have a little piece'
3. 'I can never Get it' people don't believe they deserve cake, so they order a donut, focus on the hole and wonder why they have nothing'.

Which one are you?  

Saturday 11 April 2015

ADVICE!

Some great pieces of advice for anyone in Sales.

It isn't personal: if they tell you to go away 'or worse' they are talking to the product/ company, not you.

If they say 'No' it means 'not now', it isn't permanent.

If they tell you 'I am not interested' it's because you haven't told them anything to be interested in yet.

Don't fear the word 'No'. If you get a lot of 'No's' count them and see how many you get before someone says 'Yes'.  Next time someone says 'No' just think, 'I only need about three more and someone will buy'.

In fact, go out and see how many people say 'no', someone will ruin it and buy from you! ;-)

And above all else, always keep in mind, SWSWSWN

Monday 6 April 2015

Solution! Change the Context.

"Solutions come from people who do not accept the limits of the question or problem." ~ Dave Moore

‘How come all the commands for a computer come from a keyboard’ ...somebody already asked that one; hence they invented a mouse.

It is said that madness is a level very close to genius. People working in either of those contexts can sometimes look alike.

Both look at things in a very different way from your average person. Neither one accepts what is called the norm as being the only way to do things. They do things differently, some better, some silly, but always different.

Never be afraid to ask what on the surface may seem stupid.

Without the question you will never come up with an answer, and your brain will always come up with an answer. Do you think the Internet sounded like a good commercial idea forty years ago? But someone asked the question ‘How can we make computers talk to each other.’ Now when that was first said the reply they got was ‘Computers talk to each other, you must be mad!’

Another old saying “A wise man can learn more from a foolish question, then a fool can from a wise answer.”

Everyone can learn from a question that others fear to ask, or just cannot see. Solutions come from people who do not accept the limits of the question.





Added Bucky Moment: