Context/ Paradigm Shifting

No more effort or energy is required in order to aim

high in life, to demand abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty. Period!  That is a FACT!

You may even be aware of someone who has experienced a dramatic increase in their income, seeing them go from earning 25K or 30K a year … to 25K or 30K a month! I firmly believe that if you can earn £/$100,000, you can earn a million. The only difference between the two amounts lies in a person’s level of awareness. If and when quantum leaps of this nature take place, you can be assured that a serious paradigm shift that’s been made, meaning they are working out of a new context.

If you’re like most people, paradigms very likely are controlling every move you make.  They are also designing the context that you work from. 

A paradigm is a collection of habits. In most cases, these habits aren't even originated by yourself, yet they guide every move you make. They affect the way you eat, the way you walk, even the way you talk. They govern your communication, your work habits, your successes and even your failures in life. It’s also important to know, that, for the most part, these paradigms are other people’s habits – yet they remain the guiding lights in your life.

In order to replace an old paradigm that doesn't serve you (i.e., “I’ve never been able to make more than 40K a year), you must lay a new paradigm over that old one, ensuring that it’s sealed from “leaking through again". When you understand how to lay this floor, so to speak, you will expose yourself to a brand new world of power, possibility and promise.

Paradigms change you to the core

Think of how the world has changed. There are hundreds of thousands of people walking the street today who went to school, worked hard, studied long hours, graduated at the top of their class, secured employment with a major blue-chip company and bought into the promise that just about every major corporation offered: “If you give us loyalty, we will give you security.”

Twenty years later, as these loyal and misguided individuals stood proudly near the top of their corporate ladder, shouldering responsibility for big mortgages and small children, the corporate paradigm shifted. The ladder was yanked out from underneath them and they found themselves standing on the street, bruised, demoralized, unemployed and in a state of total shock.

Now, I know most people would say, “The problem is the corporation’s lack of loyalty” … but this is not the case. A job doesn't owe you anything. People work at a job or for an employer in a mutual sort of relationship, but that doesn't mean that one or the other party is utterly responsible for the other party’s livelihood. Ninety-some percent of the population keeps getting the same results—year in, year out!

This is as true for students in school as it is for the person in business. If there is an improvement in the performance of most people, it’s generally minimal—just a blip on the screen and not enough to make any substantial difference in a person’s life-style.

Is there a problem? An enormous problem! It’s called paradigms.

You are going to be delighted to learn that just changing a very small part of the old paradigm can make an enormous difference in the results you can enjoy in every area of your life.

Think of the areas in your life that money affects. Imagine shifting your paradigm there to substantially increase your income before year’s end. If you have difficulty meeting people and you alter the paradigm so that it’s easy and enjoyable to meet people, this could have quite an impact on your life.

These are just two examples of hundreds that could be done in YOUR life. Today!

There will be no permanent change in your life until the paradigm has been changed. Choose one or two limiting ideas that are part of your paradigm and replace them with ideas that represent freedom to you. Consciously keep those new thoughts in your head, and act as if those thoughts are already embedded in the foundation of your life.

It takes a high degree of courage to live with the contradictions between our old views and whole new horizons of living (especially when what we’re currently doing may need substantial “undoing”). Human beings aren’t genetically encoded with just one way of seeing things or one way of doing things—it’s not a matter of finding a better paradigm, but a matter of being able to move among them. It’s not a matter of getting rid of our knowledge and experience. It’s a matter of getting our blind spots out of the way so there is nothing between us and what we’re engaging with. 

Before you know it – you life will be transformed – and dramatically! The idea that we have a choice, or a say in the matter, is a central precept of transformation.

The Wake of a Ship

Are we truly, 100% in the NOW?

Time itself is very much like the course of a ship in the ocean.
When you look at a ship you can see the wake it leaves behind.
The wake fades out and that tells us where the ship has been in just the way our past and our memory of the past tells us what we have done.

But as we go back and go back into the past and we can even go back further by using all manner of scientific methods to determine what happened, we eventually reach a point where all records of the past fade away. In just the same way as the wake of the ship.

The most important thing to remember in this illustration of time, and this is important in life…the wake doesn’t drive the ship any more than the tail wags the dog.
Any more than your past determines where you will be or where you are going.

One of the real conundrums of life is what is NOW, does NOW exist?
Now does not exist. The present is an illusion
Everything we have said is in the past. What I just said then, is in the past. There is no current.

There is the past…and there is a future which we are all moving into.
Your past does not drive you into the future any more than the wake drives the ship or the tail wags the dog.

Time is a very difficult thing to grapple with and wrestle to the ground.

St Augustine of Hippo was asked ‘What is time?’ and his reply was ‘ I know what time is but when you ask me I don’t’.

Time is fundamental.
Time is money
Time drags

You have experienced time distortion all your life. Leaving a fast-moving motorway and driving on a slow road, you suddenly feel like everything is moving super slow. That's because your brain unconsciously adjusted to the speed you were travelling at. You can make that "speeding up" happen at work, so you get more done!

What about the Airport check in.

You wait and wait and wait. It takes three days for them to give someone a ticket to New York and then, you hit the desk and woosh...you are done and through customs...

There is no such thing as Time management. You cannot manage time, you can only manage your effectiveness of that time.

So, What is Time Distortion?
It is the slowing down or speeding up our PERCEPTION of time.

Back on that plane again. You have a comfortable seat and you are being attended to excellently and the food and drinks are great. There are a couple of great movies. You may want to make time go a little slower so you can enjoy and relax.

Then again, you could be sitting between two guys who weigh 300lbs each and behind you is some kid who's mother thinks he is 'soooo clever' because he can kick the back of your chair in time to some song playing on his headphones, which you can hear, again and again so.... You may want that flight to go by faster.

If you are enjoying a meal or night out, you may want that evening to go slower.
If the night isnt going well, or it's a bad movie or play...you may want to speed things up a little.

In NLP we speak of the Sub-Modalities of things and experiences.

These are the qualities of our thoughts.
Size and color of the images
Volume and tonality of sound
Time, intensity temperature….

When time moves slowly your mind has a way of perceiving certain qualities
Likewise when time is moving fast.

Once you can figure out which ones do which, you can speed up and slow down or change YOUR perception of time.

Your unconscious mind filters the differences when time moves fast to when time moves slow. Through meditation or trance one can get ones unconscious mind to make that ability of control available

An alternative to that is:
Work on the scale and size of your internal images
The larger the images you have the slower they will be
Smaller images will be faster

But where are we in time?

If you were at a crossroads with a lot of traffic and one car came from one direction and the other came from another direction and they hit each other. That would be in the past, immediately. You would even describe it using past tense: “That car CAME from that direction and that car CAME from that direction and THEN they HIT each other”

The NOW moment has gone, even though you perceive it as now, its gone.

That event, thought you perceive it as now, has happened, as has EVERYTHING in your life.

There is this moving moment in which we stand, constantly in motion as the earth moves and the universe rearranges itself. Something somewhere is always moving even if you believe you are not.

You stand in this Matrix and look at the past, and you look at the future, and we continue to move into that future.
We are ALL on a journey into the future, through time.

Create an Open Space

Transformation is a different thing entirely from change.  It doesn't take the past and
change it, add to it or re-organise it.  It creates a new context.  Possibilities that didn't exist now come into being.  The future is built on possibility.  The future is constant.

If we carry our past with us into the future, we are limiting the amount of space we have in our future because it is taken up with the past we bring into it.  If what we have in our future is our past, our future is going to be consistent with what we had in our past.

If we can take the past OUT of our future, we create an empty space which we can fill with all manner of possibilities and opportunities that are not governed or linked to any past activity. If you do not empty out your past from your future right now then all you are doing is changing your past.

Childhood experiences that have been traumatic.  It can be one experience that was big enough to be traumatic, or a series of experiences.

An example would be: If you have been bullied at school, it's probably not the one time but more likely a period of bullying over time.  That begins to shape who you are, and who you need to be, to become, to survive.  You can't do much at the time about that but you have to do something to defend yourself.  And that leads you into continuing to be that person who has built up defence mechanisms to deal with bullying but at some point you have to find a way to take that past OUT of your future and put it back IN the past.

We all have excess baggage.  We carry it around in our heads.  It's there even when we don't see it.
We are concerned about excess baggage when we go on vacation.  We don't want it then, so we weigh our bags to make sure we are below the requirement.  Trouble is, we carry it around at all other times.

At any given moment of any given day, we reference the excess baggage for information.  Even worse than that, we carry it into our future.  We expect to be able to function and plan and build strategies for a brighter future when we carry our past around with us.

I am not talking about forgetting your past, or where you come from, or your history, or the people in it...

I am talking about today being the day when you stop paying for your bags of excess baggage, and go forward with your hands open to grasp the opportunities that will come your way.

You CANNOT grab opportunity if your hands are full!!

If you see someone carrying a heavy box, ask them what the time is.  They will have to put the box down to tell you.  EMPTY YOUR HANDS!

We human beings don't leave the past in the past.  We carry the past into the future. When you do that it appears as if the past gives you who you are, and who you are in the present.

Lets imagine the past and the future as two filing cabinets.

If you take the past out of the filing cabinet marked FUTURE, and put it in the filing cabinet marked PAST, what have you got in the FUTURE?  NOTHING!  Which is wonderful. Fantastic!!!!

Why?

Because if, WHO I AM in the present, is determined by the future into which I am living, I can CREATE a future for myself that gives me, in the present, a life of being, joy, happiness, accomplishment...a life worth living.

We need a lot of space that we can fill with future plans and experiences...

Have YOU Got the Answer Yet?

Look around you, and tell me what you see on line...

So many Guru's telling you they are an EXPERT!

So many of them promising to tell you how to be successful, but then forget to.

So many of their books saying they are going to change your life but don't.

All those seminars that promise so much but deliver so little...

What about the ones that tell you they are going to 'show you' how to change your life but just go on and on and on about how they changed their own life without giving you ANY details you could take away and implement or any indication of what they did?

Or the people who tell you to just 'Make a Wish' or 'Ask the Universe' for what you want, as if that's all you need to do?

What about the ones who offer you a free information pack and THEN tell you that to find anything usable you have to buy the 25 DVD set or attend the £5000 Seminar to get the information you really want? And even THEN you have to sign up for numerous downloads and books....

What about the think and grow rich people?  OK I admit having the right mindset is key, but...that isn't all of it.  No amount of wishing for something is going to make it materialise.  I agree it focuses your mind on what you want but if you do nothing to go and get what you want, it isn't going to magically appear under its own steam.

'What you think about, and talk about, comes about!'  Have you heard THAT one?  That gem comes from 'The Secret' book and movie.

Here's a secret for you...it is wrong!  Here's the truth: What you think about, talk about, and get off your butt and DO SOMETHING about is what comes about!

You can touch yourself rich!  Really?.....'Touch Yourself Rich' is a program out there where people believe that 'you will get rich if you touch yourself in a certain way!'  Is that right?

You can touch yourself until you are happy, But,  YOU ARE NOT TOUCHING YOURSELF TO GET RICH!  If that worked I would have been a Billionaire by the time I was fourteen!!!!

What IS it with all this stuff?

These are people who got rich by writing books about how to get rich.  Most of these 'Gurus' were not rich, successful, happy or 'living the dream' before they wrote the book.  They wrote the book to get the money, the life, the dream.

Great ideas with the Missing Key.
Seminars that hold back the vital ingredient that makes it work.
Books that promise you something that isn't even in there, the answer you wanted.

These books are very good.  They explain a lot.  They show you what can be achieved.  But there is a problem with them…they ALL miss the most important secret key ingredient that makes the information REALLY work, and work FAST!

That’s why most people who read them do not get results. Most of the people who buy and read these books get all excited about their life changing, getting that new job, new car, new partner and that ability to have some salary left at the end of the month rather than some month left at the end of the salary!  Then, the reality sets in.  They do everything those books suggest and they wait, and they wait, and they wait…and NOTHING has changed! 

Quite naturally, people will believe that they did one of three things:

1. I did something wrong…You didn’t!

2. I didn’t do it right…You did!
3. I missed something...No you didn’t!!

The third one is almost right! In actual fact, you didn’t miss anything, it just wasn’t there!  

It’s very hard to miss something if it isn’t there in the first place.

The fact is that there IS a MISSING KEY that has been PURPOSELY OMITTED from these books and others like them! This KEY INGREDIENT makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE!

Within 24 hours I will tell you how to get it...and I promise...No long term, buy this, buy that, attend this, listen to this snake oil techniques.  Just a very simple 'Here it is'.

WE'RE HALFWAY - HAVE YOU MOVED YET?

The amazing thing is....we are ALREADY halfway through 2013?

I am looking at the itinerary for a small speaking and training tour I am doing that has come around very quickly.  A while ago it seemed a mile off!  NOW it's next week!

That got me thinking about my goals and I thought you might be thinking about yours too.

How's that diet going you started on January 1st?

Are you making more money?

Did you get that new car?

How is that new house you wanted?

Are your relationships improved?

Well, if your like 97% of the population your answer to the above questions will be one or all of the following:  no, nothing, not yet and it hasn't happened.

But, if you are like the other 3% of the population you've made significant strides towards (or maybe even achieved) your goals for 2013, and have already set new goals for the rest of the year and next year.

If you are thinking 'What happened to my goals, my dreams, my plans?' then rest assured you are not alone.

The thing about making plans is, unless we are VERY careful, 'life has a tendency to get in the way of plans'!

You can do something RIGHT NOW to make a difference. 

The answer is: UPGRADE!

But first...

Stop!
Don't fall for it.

Don't fall for making plans without committing to them.

Think about it....where are you right now? I don't mean your location on the grid or where you are in your home or office but where are you in LIFE?

Are you happy in that location or....yeah right!

So you assume that this is the time to change your life, go for what you really want, and get the life you want.

Didn't you say that last year?

And the year before that?

Do I need to write that sentence again?

There is a definition of madness or insanity which is: doing the same thing again and again expecting a different result.

I admit we all do it..."I am going to: drink less, exercise more, eat healthier, watch less TV, spend more time with family yadda yadda yadda...."

After a while....we slip back to our default setting. We have all the best intentions but its not enough.

It seems to me that the reason we fail so epically sometimes on resolutions is that we are throwing a behaviour or desire into a mix where it cannot survive.

I knew someone who had a very large fishtank.  He went online and ordered boxes of sand and rocks from Fiji, water solution mixes from Thailand and even had three men deliver and set up all the tank, sand and rocks for him.  It became his hobby with a vengence' because he really took it seriously.  He ordered fish from all over the world because he liked their color or shape(!) He bought hundreds of fish, hermit crabs and things none of us even recognized!

He never, ever, thought about whether they were compatible with each other. He bought a lot of fish. In the end, he had hardly any, because some ate others, some just killed others, some just died through being in the wrong mix.

Resolutions/ plans/ dreams/ aspirations can be like that. We have to change a lot more than just ONE behaviour to make our life better.

If you reset or reboot your life then all you are doing is tidying up and streamlining.  It's good, and it works to some extent but it doesn't bring the big rewards that you deserve.

The only way to truly advance, to move forward and be a person who does stuff that you never did before is to go for the UPGRADE.

If you upgrade you are saying to the world, the universe and everyone in it 'That was me THEN. This is me NOW. The New, Enhanced, Future-proof version of me.'

If you attempt to run the latest version of MSWord on a previous version of Office you are in for a surprise. For one thing, the upgraded version cant be run on the old software and secondly, it won't recognise the document.

If you try to play a Blue-Ray DVD on a basic DVD player....no chance.

All of those examples will work the other way around though.
The upgraded MSWord will upgrade the older document so it can be read.
The Blue-Ray DVD will play an older DVD.
A PS2 game will play on a PS3 console.

Why? Because it is the more powerful version of the old version.

The Upgraded you can still relate and interact with whatever you choose to from your past but to move forward you need to upgrade yourself and step into the future right now.

You must upgrade everything around you, important to you, loved by you, used by you, into the new mindset and decide right now that you are no longer going to be that person who 'settled' and 'accepted' what was handed to you. You are now going to go out and get what you want, do what you want, be what you want with and for who you want.

Want to start a new business - do it.
Want to add a few zeros to your bank balance - do it.
Want to travel- do it.
Want to be happy- do it.
Want to make 2013 your best year and the start of everything- Do it!!

Don't just do one thing, do a lot. Do them well. Grab every opportunity that comes your way. If opportunity doesn't come your way, go and find it. Surprise it.

You have every single resource you need to achieve what you want inside you. You have the key. the key is the desire, the will, to change. Decide to make that change, that upgrade, and use the skills that you have that have lay dormant inside you, untapped until now.

Life does not get better by chance, luck, resolutions or hope...it gets better by CHANGE.

You still have time to make 2013 the year of CHANGE, the year of YOUR change, and I will see YOU at the top!

Undercover Boss Vs Visible Leader

Whether it is a failing of mine or not, I had never seen a program called 'Undercover Boss' before. I had heard of it, but had never sat thru an episode to see what it was all about.

To be quite frank, I thought it was about the head of a company going to look at OTHER companies, the competition, to see what they were doing. That may sound ludicrous to many people reading this but in Sales, that happens. Maybe not the Boss but certainly sometimes you get someone come along answering an advertisement for staff and you take them on, train them up, give them all manner of resources like pitches and details about the company, even so far as giving them access to databases and then, one day...they are gone! They never show up again. They don't write, call or send flowers. It was a scouting trip. A reconnaissance mission for information.  It happens and is an occupational hazard.

I heard a story once of someone who had done just that.  They had arrived at an advertising company in London and had told them they had experience so their training was minimal. This was a spy from another ad agency.  They got a desk and a phone.  They started work.  During the first few days they got all the paperwork and all the information. In fact, they stayed there for two weeks because they had made a few sales and the company paid weekly by check, which the salespeople took to the companies bank and cashed them by arrangement..  On the Friday, once they had cashed their check, they decided to bail out.  They had taken paperwork home the night before and had everything on a memory stick.  They gave some excuse about going to Starbucks to get a coffee.  Suddenly, EVERYONE in the sales room wanted coffee. The order ended up as 9 cappuccino, 6 Latte, 5 Americano.  So another guy went with the spy to Starbucks.  Naturally, everyone paid up first.  Average coffee price in the UK: £2.50/ £3.00.  Many of the salespeople handed over a £5 note and expected change when they got back.  The two guys, the Spy and his helper, went to Starbucks with over £80 in cash.

Naturally, when they got to Starbucks the Spy gave the helper the paper with the order on it and went to the mensroom.  Never to be seen again.  He got the paperwork, the information, he got paid in cash and he got an £80 tip in cash.  The salespeople are STILL waiting for their coffee.

So with that in mind, going undercover, calling up other companies for information, sending an agent behind enemy lines, it all happens in the UK.

I was amazed at 'Undercover Boss' because this is the head of a company, and I admit that some of them are quite large, going undercover in their OWN company.

I can't believe that they could, even with make up and a disguise. pull this off.  What struck me more than that was this....

Why would you need to go 'undercover' in your own company to find out who, what, where, when and why about your business?

When I was the Sales Manager and the National Sales Trainer for Cable London/ Telewest/ Comcast I was never in my office.  I went out and saw people, I pitched up in offices and found a desk and a phone and worked there.  I got a feel for everything.  I was approached all the time, I was known, I was visible.

I couldn't have gone 'Undercover' no matter WHAT the disguise. 

The reason?  I think the clue is in the title.  Undercover BOSS!

Leaders cannot work undercover.  They can't function undercover.  Leaders lead alongside their people. 

Bosses are unknown and faceless.

Leaders are obvious, and recognizable.  That's why people follow Leaders, they recognize them.

Female Leadership

 

Over the 25 years that I have been in sales and consulting I have always noticed how difficult it was for any woman in a position of any semblance of authority.  Not only getting there but in dealing with the day to day agenda that being a woman can attract from 'colleagues'

In direct Sales, which is a tough, in your face, no holds barred, environment the level of sexism is high.  It is not as bad as it was in the 80's and 90's thankfully but it is still there.

I have never understood why the question arises about 'women having the right to be in charge, or get promoted etc.  Women have just as much right as anyone to be in a leadership position but a lot of the old 'dinosaur' managers and salespeople would want to make you think otherwise.

I have heard of and seen a few very competent and capable women be turned down for a sales job thru fear.  Not theirs; but the fear of the man recruiting them.  They were far, far more capable than any of the other candidates.  I checked the recruitment system of a major blue chip sales company in London once and when I saw the candidates that had been turned down for the role, and compared them with the candidates that had been employed, I was shocked.

I wasn't shocked at the decision after I heard the conversation that had taken place after the interviews.  the manager that had been interviewing had conducted the interview with his area Manager. 

The Area Manager had told him, "I agree that she is the best candidate but use your head.  She is married and 24 years old with no kids.  You are targeted for 12 members of your team.  She could get pregnant at any time and then have a year off at full pay and benefits and you have to make up the numbers.  She is probably looking for a job like this so she can do just that.  Are you prepared to cover for her for a year?"

There are worse stories than that, believe me. 

Door to door saleswomen being told to wear short skirts and unbutton their tops more so that they get attention and gain interest from the potential customers who open the door.

Derogatory remarks made about women at Director level.  Sexist remarks made during meetings.  Its a point scoring thing which, in every time I have heard it, I have called the perpetrator on their bullshit.  I don't want to hear it.  I don't think it fair.  It's unnecessary and quite frankly, as a man, I don't want to be associated with other men who behave like it.  It is unprofessional and not the kind of thing a leader or anyone who wanted to be a leader would think was correct behaviour.

There is always banter, and practical jokes and a few laughs to be had in any work environment but there is a line.

In this day and age there should be NO difference between a male leader and a female leader.  They are LEADERS.  They do their job, they do it with integrity, they do it with authenticity, and they do it brilliantly.  If they dont' it's because they did something wrong, it's not because they are a woman or a man. 

The more we can encourage women to make a name for themselves in business the better.  BUT we don't want anyone to go into business BECAUSE they are a woman.  I don't believe we should recruit women because we 'need a few to make it look good'.  People, whether they are male or female, should be employed, mentored, coached, and promoted thru a company because of what they can do, not what they are.

Plan Your Year and Change Your Life

So, how did your year go?

What happened to those New Year Resolutions?

New Year's Resolutions are a great way to set your intent for a positive, fulfilling year of growth and accomplishment. But, on the other hand, when the year ends, if you haven't completely fulfilled your resolutions, it can be frustrating.

This usually happens because New Year's resolutions are often too vague, and don't include practical steps that lead to a clearly defined goal.

So today, by all means, look at your usual big-picture resolutions. But, in addition, I'm going to suggest you make some sub-resolutions. Especially if your New Year Resolutions haven't...how shall we say...kicked in yet...especially this late in the year ;-)

Each of these sub-resolutions is designed to give you a long-term benefit (some of them even for a lifetime) with a minimum amount of time and effort. In fact, each of these sub-resolutions can be completed in anything from a few minutes to, at the very most, a few hours. And they're all either free or very cheap .For most of you, many of these items fall into the category of things you've "been meaning to do." Since chances are that you have already accomplished at least a few of the items on the list below, there's no reason why you can't take half a day this week and get at least six more of the items below done.

So, in the interest of the betterment of your future, the management of your life, and the fresh start of a new year that hasn't happened yet, here are

12 THINGS YOU CAN DO IN ONE DAY TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE (You could tick off ONE of these a month in the coming year if you wish but the sooner you do them the better!)

1. Register your full name as a web domain if you haven't yet. You never know when you're going to want your personal website. If www.[yourname].com is already taken, don't worry - there are alternatives. For example, who owns jamesjoyce.com? Answer: A bar in Dublin beat the author's estate to it. But there are always other options, like hyphenating the name and getting james-joyce.net or james-joyce.org (check those sites now if you'd like), or choosing less common TLDs (or end letters) like .ws or .me.

For more information, homestead.com is a great site to register and design your own website.

2. Call your cell/mobile phone provider. Ask if you can get a better calling plan based on your usage. This way you can afford to do the next item on this list.

3. Subscribe to a newspaper or magazine. Choose a topic that you don't know about - be it politics, fashion, culture, or technology- and sign up for the best periodical covering that topic. Rather than choosing the most popular magazine, select one that offers the most in-depth and interesting coverage, like Wired for technology or Foreign Affairs for politics or Mental Floss for culture. Yes, you could read it all online, but it's great to have a physical magazine to read when you're on the subway or on an aeroplane or waiting in line somewhere.

4. Get a passport if you don't have one. If yours has expired, get it renewed now. You never know when that great travel opportunity is going to occur, and you don't want to get stuck at home while your friends are at some great concert at the Acropolis in Greece.

5. Back it up. Most people don't take the time to do this, and regret it later. So copy your entire hard drive onto an external drive or USB stick immediately; if possible, download a program like Acronis True Image that will simplify the restoring process and regularly make backups (or for Mac owners, start using Time Machine or SuperDuper). Also backup your mobile phone, PDA, and any other personal-information-storing device.

6. While you're at it, make photocopies of your credit cards, passport, drivers license, birth certificate, and other important papers. If you keep a journal or anything similarly irreplaceable, photocopy that. Keep these in a safe deposit box, parent's house, locked file cabinet, or any other secure location, preferably outside your own house. They'll be invaluable in the event of theft, loss, fire, or any other unplanned incident.

7. Look through your refrigerator and cabinets. Read the labels on the food. Stop buying anything high in saturated fats, trans fats,cholesterol, and sodium. And start shopping healthier today.

8. Get business cards. Don't have a business? It doesn't matter. Sites like vistaprint.com will send you 250 free ones (though there's a shipping fee of under £6). Never hurts to look professional

9. Learn while you work: I'm often asked what books I found the most useful for learning Sales, NLP and Business. I will be posting my recommendations soon.

10. This is not for everyone, but some of you--and you know who you are--definitely need to do this: Throw out all your socks. Every last one. Now go buy new pairs that actually match and don't have holes in them. You'll feel like a new man. Remember, get black socks. White socks are for athletic activities only. I don't want to catch any of you guys here wearing white socks in the boardroom! ADMISSION! Ok, I admit it.  I ALWAYS wear purple socks...but they are Calvin Kleins!!!

11. Buy a suit. (Or a dress if you're a woman.) But don't just get any suit or dress. Get one that's slightly closer to the size you want to be this year, whether it be a little bigger or a little smaller than your current measurements. Try it on every Saturday morning as a reminder to yourself to get in shape this year; until, one day, it fits perfectly, and you wear it out and feel like a million pounds

12. Decide to actually become a millionaire.

2013 Resolution

LOST:  

One whole year. Last seen yesterday.

Contains uncertainty, lazyness and no achievement.

Could you place an ad like that on January 1st 2013?

Be ashamed!! Be very ashamed.
2012 is the year the world ended.

2012 is the year the Mayans said it was going to be 'game over'.

Errm...

Actually:

2012 is nearly ended.

2012 is nearly over.

BUT...it had nothing to do with Myans/ Shmayans

It's New Years Day soon. What are you doing about it?

Plan ahead!
You don't need the end of the world being averted to realise that you are standing on the starting line of a whole new opportunity.

Do you wake up and say 'I can't wait to be mediocre today!'. I could tell you to get a life but why don't you just change the one you have?

Is watching TV tonight going to earn you money? Get you new clients? Expand your business? NO! So...Turn off the tube and get out your Notebook/ Planner!

If you are sitting there thinking 'Wow, a whole year ahead of me'? I guarantee you will soon be saying 'Where the hell did that year go?' And you will say that sooner than you think!

Hold on...ARE you sitting there thinking 'Wow, a whole year ahead of me'?  Have you ever had a deja vu feeling?  Didn't you say that LAST year?

What are you doing today? Watching TV? Reading the paper? Sleeping? Get off your ass and make a to do list and put a deadline in there!

2013 can be the best year ever if you make it so!

Go and do it. I am!

"Those who merely hope that conditions will change, their luck turn, or the person in front of or above them will either retire or die, merely see instead the success of those who grasp the opportunity of the present.  If you waste the valuable time of today, awaiting the promise of tomorrow, you will inevitably, always, be second the the person who, yesterday, prepared for today!" Dave Moore

Countdown to 2013

It has been a very changeable, happy, difficult, rewarding, challenging and eye opening year so far.
Aside from the personal losses, such as my Mother passing away, this year has been one of positive change.  What I would call one hell of a roller coaster year.  I am SO ready to begin a new year I am buzzing with excitement....so much to do and so much energy to make it happen!  Now the good news for you.....It’s that time of year again!

'Hmmm, do all those online courses
in my email box work?'

THINK!.....

Have you noticed that beginning in November, your Inbox fills up with all kinds of programs the sender claims “will make 2013 your best year ever!” Some of the ones I’ve received involve three day live events where they help you dig through your past and release all the limiting beliefs and negative self-talk that’s holding you back; another offers a “once-in-a-lifetime, special deal that will disappear at midnight” (I got that one three days running! Go figure that!) on a 36 CD program, complete with transcript, workbook and two live group calls, blah, blah, blah, work, work, work; and my favourite, the people who guarantee they will reveal how The Secret really works and how to make it work for you (which leads me to believe that the real secret to The Secret is all the people who are making a ton of money from telling other people how to get it to work)

What all these programs have in common, is they’re all about telling you things you can do and actions you can take, that will somehow magically turn you into “a money-making magnet.” But at the end of the day, all these live events, these “secrets”, these CDs and workbooks fundamentally are, are strategies, strategies that will supposedly “release negative patterns that are holding you back”, “rewire your brain for success”, or some equally bogus hype.

Why is it that all these claims, promises and allegations don’t work?

It’s very simple: what these programs are all about is teaching you a method, a strategy whereby you take something you’re doing, stop doing it, and instead do something else. Like the bright, glossy, shiny CD/DVD program they’re selling you.

I have news for you! Replacing one behavior with another behavior is not going to change your life or make a long-term difference on how successful you are in 2013. Substituting doing something with not doing something is a STRATEGY, and will only work as long as you maintain the willpower, vigilance and discipline to continue to do that strategy.

So, what's the real secret?

The real secret to lasting success is;

• Become a person who naturally and instinctively does whatever needs to be done to be successful.
• Become a person who easily and effortlessly acts and behaves in a certain way because that’s who you are.
• Don't use a strategy to fix what you’re doing or not doing. This won’t work because you’re still the same person you’ve always been, you’re just forcing yourself to act in a different manner.

And, that’s why you, and everyone else, inevitably fails and reverts back to doing what you always do.

You go back to being who you really are.

I know, it can be confusing, you might want to go back and read what the Real Secret is again.

My early Christmas gift to you...

It actually is possible to become the person who makes the choices you’d really like to make, who does the things you’d really like to do, so that you can achieve the success you really want to have. And it doesn’t involve dredging up the past or listening to dozens of CDs and filling out workbooks or flying across the country and spending thousands of dollars on a live event. You don’t need to develop your willpower, walk on fire or glass, be relentlessly vigilant or subject yourself to strict discipline for the rest of your life either.

What you do have to do is be willing to keep an open mind, and allow yourself to consider that something that sounds like the 21st century version of snake oil could actually work,

We are closing in on the New Year, and you, too, are probably getting a lot of emails from people who have products, on-line courses, are holding live events, etc. that promise to “make 2013 your best year ever!!”

I’m sure they have the best intentions, but…

What none of them seem to understand is that replacing one behavior with another behavior is a STRATEGY, and strategies like this only work as long as you have the willpower and the discipline to do them on a consistent basis.

For example, a diet is a strategy, making and prioritizing the next day’s To Do list is a strategy, only checking Twitter/ Facebook and your email twice a day at a predetermined time is a strategy – you get the picture? As long as you can make yourself do it, it works. And we all know that pretty much nobody is able to keep doing it for very long.

Great… so what does work?

What works is becoming the person who instinctively makes the choices you know you need to make to get you the results you’re looking to get. In other words, doing what needs to be done because that’s who you are.

Do something SCARY!!!

As the season changes and we venture into autumn the nights draw in earlier each evening.  We are in the run up to Hallowe'en and this time of year always has that sense of the unknown about it.  We start to think of Hallowe'en and the trick or treaters, ghosts, spirits....and in some cases...FEAR.

What do you fear?  What scares you?

Is it that call to a nightmare client?
Is it that dental appointment?
Is it that meeting with your boss about your performance (or lack of)?
Is it the flight that you have to take?
Is it getting in that elevator?
Is it........

Well, whatever it is, it's personal to you.

But, do you know what?

That thing you fear, that challenge you have, that one thing you are DREADING doing...

...you need to do it right now, and get it out of the way.

Step outside that comfort circle and do something scary, risky, out of the ordinary tomorrow.  Then do something like that every day!  then watch as your confidence grows.

You MUST have seen the first Alien movie where the alien bursts out of Cains chest at the dining table on board the Nostromo.

I always think of how different it would have been if I had been on that spaceship. Just as the little alien runs across the table I would have smashed it with a sledge hammer and flattened it. Then, I would have said a line that would have probably been a classic:

“If we had let that out of the room it would have killed everyone!”

Roll credits! Shortest movie in history but...

If you Kill the Monster Early then you save a lot of time and effort.

Dreamer, Nothing But A Dreamer!

Roger Hodgson of Supertramp coined that phrase and what is wrong with that? It's a very good thing to be.

As I sit here with a mug of coffee, black, two sugars, stirred anti-clockwise (it improves the flavour) my mind wanders off. I'm not concerned, It's nothing unusual. It does that sometimes but it never strays far and it always comes back.

My mind is thinking of a hundred, a thousand, things at once. I get a bit of a glazed look on my face (not good when driving) and some people look at me and ask 'What ARE you thinking?' or the classic one; 'Penny for them!' A penny? They are worth more than that! People who really know me take no notice. They just wait to find out what direction I am now going to go in thanks to the thought.

I am a dreamer. A Day Dreamer. I think deeply and day dream. There is nothing wrong with that.

We have voices in our heads that tell us to do things. That is called THINKING. Part of my training program means I ask groups of people 'Do you have a voice in your head that tells you to do things?' A few people sit there and look at the ceiling and mouth the words 'do I?'

If people don't put their hands up I usually tell them 'The voice I am talking about is the one that said "voice in my head? Phuq that I am NOT putting my hand up for that one!"

(I once asked a group of people if anyone had a phobia about putting their hand up in public. One person put their hand up! - Unbelievable. You can't make this stuff up!)

If you dream at night you will be very lucky to remember it next morning. Well, you remember the bad ones, the nightmares.

People often say to me; "I can't imagine doing what you do, even in my wildest dreams!" Well, if you can't imagine doing it in your wildest dreams, how are you going to do it for real?

Dreaming during the day is just an extension of thinking. It's giving your imagination some time to wander around to see what it comes up with.

T.E Lawrence (of Arabia) wrote a book called 'The Seven Pillars of Wisdom' and in it he wrote the following....
"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible."

If you imagine it, dream it, see it...then you will achieve it. Naturally you have to take some action to get it but if you see it in your mind, you will receive it. Dream it, and do it.

 

If you think I am alone in that thought then let's leave the final word to the late, great, John Lennon;

"You may say I'm a dreamer, But I'm not the only one.

I hope some day you will join us, When the world will be as one."

Imagine!

The Difference that MAKES The Difference

What's the Difference that MAKES the Difference?

To me it's got to be attitude. That self assuredness, that energy, that belief that no matter what happens, no matter what obstacles appear, you will achieve what you want to achieve.

People always look for cop outs. Excuses. They have a but!

"I could have done that...BUT!"
"I would have done that...BUT!"
"I should have done that...BUT!"

That's the old 'coulda, woulda, shoulda' scenario. At the heart of that scenario is another word. 'Didna'.

I know that if you have the right attitude you can achieve anything.

I use myself as an example.

• I have an air of uninsultability. I don't care what people say about me. Why should I? They don't know what they are talking about! They must get my name right though!
• I decide where my energy goes, nobody else.
• Everything people say or do to me is energy, and it's just a toy for me to play with.
• I don't take anything that people say to me at first to be written in stone. In other words, what people say first can be changed.
• Nothing in life has any meaning except the meaning I give it.
• I never hate people who are obviously jealous of me. I respect their jealousy because they must think I am better than them or they want to be me!
• 90% of people are running on autopilot 90% of the time
• If I am told something can't be done it's because the person telling me doesn't know how to do it. So I go and do it.

It is also important to think different. A case in point.

I had a conversation the other day regarding work. Someone was looking for a change of career. It seemed that working from home might be better than going out to work. I made a quick suggestion.

"What about some form of MLM? Multi Level Marketing is booming. You could get on the vitamin and herbal remedy market. There are a lot of companies looking for people to sell products and you could have vitamin evenings and sell the products at home to people who come around for the evening party?"

What was the response...? Well...objection.....?

Before I tell you the response/ objection let me reframe it....

Throughout my career I have advised people on what to do for a business venture, in what to sell, and how to sell. In all of those areas I get the same response as I got here. The same! What amazes me is how the same reply from me always makes them realises what a stupid, dumbass objection it is...

The response/ objection?...

"Do you know how many companies there are out there selling that?"

Duh! Yes I do. Maybe not to the exact figure but I can hazard a guess...

My reply?

"Do you know how many people there are out there buying that stuff?"

Simple. There are millions of people out there. BILLIONS of people in the world. Are you telling me that they are ALL buying from these companies. No. They are not.

Advertising either works or it doesn't. If it didn't work then people wouldn't advertise.

I had someone tell me once, 'I don't advertise because I know it won't work!' 
I told them, 'You know when you will realise that it does?  In a years time when you place an advertisement that says 'Business for Sale', THAT is when you will realise advertising works!'

We all know Louis Vuitton, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Rolex, Breitling and all manner of stuff that we desire and /or buy. Why do they advertise? Why do they HAVE to advertise? Because it works.

Then I got this...

"If people want things like that then they would just go down to the supermaket and buy them."

No WAY!  People have to be TOLD what to buy. They have to be given options.

That's why you sell someone a years supply rather than a months.

What's more, selling things on the internet or at home is designed to undercut the big stores as well as the small exclusive ones. These MLM companies market stuff that you cannot buy in stores. The opportunity is there!

It's a matter of doing things Differently. Thinking Differently. Selling Differently. Being Different. And that's the difference that MAKES the difference!

If you let NOTHING get in the way of your target, nothing get in the way of your dream and nothing get in the way of achieving what you want then nothing will.

You have to change your beliefs, change your attitude and change your mind set.

You must not let anything get in your way.

Here's an example...This is someone who never let anything get in their way, never let anything stop them, adapted situations to suit and changed themselves...they know the meaning of the difference that makes the difference.

The man is Chaim Weitz.

Though he is from a Hungarian family he was born in Isreal and his Mother took him, at the age of 8, to live in America even though he was unable to speak English.

When older he made money selling comic books at conventions. He learnt to speak English, German and Hebrew as well as his native Hungarian and taught in schools in America under the name Gene Klein.

A few years later he picked up a guitar, changed his name to Gene Simmons and morphed into the guy in the pic at the top of this blog!

If he can achieve a personal metamorphosis like that...anything is possible. That's the Difference that MAKES the Difference!