(Taken from "Your Success Store")
Don't you just hate it when people make excuses for their failures? So do I. But do you know what I hate even more? Finding myself making excuses for my failures! I have a policy that I try to live by: No excuses.
Here are some thoughts on a "No Excuses" policy.
People will respect you...
When you say that there are no excuses, that you blew it, and that you take full responsibility to make the situation right, people will be astounded (since very few people make no excuses) and they will come to have a greater respect for you.
You will find yourself taking greater responsibility...
When you know that your policy is to have no excuses, there will be less room for error because you will be doing everything that you can to make sure the job gets done!
You will become the "go to" person...
When someone wants something done, they will turn to you because they know that they can count on you to perform. And they know they won't get any excuses! This will improve your level of success, and that is exactly what are aiming for, right?
Practice up: "You're right. There is no excuse for that. I will fix it immediately." Refreshing!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
5 Minute Creative Exercises
(Taken from "Seeds of SUCCESS")
It's all in your head, literally. Biologists think our brain's frontal lobe plays the most important part in the creativity, especially idea generation and the temporal lobes for idea editing and evaluation. Here are some tips to get your lobes going, so to speak.
Put on Your Headphones. Music, any music, can get your creative juices flowing. By canceling other noises around you, headphones isolate music, and in turn, isolate your focus on the creative task at hand. It even measurably activates the pleasure circuits in our brain's hypothalamus, which controls numerous body functions and moods. Good mood mean great creativity.
Say Anything. If you're expecting to write War and Peace, no wonder it's hard to render those first words. You're being too hard on yourself. You're expecting the first sentence to be the best one. So, write the seond sentence. Or the second chapter. Anything to get you past your pursuit of perfection and on a roll writing. That momentum will inspire you and help spur new ideas.
Reset. When you're lacking for creativity, hit your reset button. Stand up, stretch your arms and legs, and walk around. Clear the clutter from your desk (the empty Diet Coke cans, cold cups of coffee and such) and create a clean work space. Reward yourself with a small piece of chocolate or playtime with your canine companion. Set a timer for 5 minutes and indulge yourself in your favorite mindless activity - Bejeweled, TMZ, dancing in your living room, whatever moves you. We won't judge.
Oh, and One More. This tip has the SUCCESS editors buzzing: Change your socks. For an unexpected burst of energy and refreshment, slip into a new, clean pair of socks. It's worth a shot.
It's all in your head, literally. Biologists think our brain's frontal lobe plays the most important part in the creativity, especially idea generation and the temporal lobes for idea editing and evaluation. Here are some tips to get your lobes going, so to speak.
Put on Your Headphones. Music, any music, can get your creative juices flowing. By canceling other noises around you, headphones isolate music, and in turn, isolate your focus on the creative task at hand. It even measurably activates the pleasure circuits in our brain's hypothalamus, which controls numerous body functions and moods. Good mood mean great creativity.
Say Anything. If you're expecting to write War and Peace, no wonder it's hard to render those first words. You're being too hard on yourself. You're expecting the first sentence to be the best one. So, write the seond sentence. Or the second chapter. Anything to get you past your pursuit of perfection and on a roll writing. That momentum will inspire you and help spur new ideas.
Reset. When you're lacking for creativity, hit your reset button. Stand up, stretch your arms and legs, and walk around. Clear the clutter from your desk (the empty Diet Coke cans, cold cups of coffee and such) and create a clean work space. Reward yourself with a small piece of chocolate or playtime with your canine companion. Set a timer for 5 minutes and indulge yourself in your favorite mindless activity - Bejeweled, TMZ, dancing in your living room, whatever moves you. We won't judge.
Oh, and One More. This tip has the SUCCESS editors buzzing: Change your socks. For an unexpected burst of energy and refreshment, slip into a new, clean pair of socks. It's worth a shot.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Ask the Right Questions
We often use the 'doctor' analogy to illustrate the need for using thought provoking questions to determine the real need of prospects. This puts you in a position to have your product or service offering 'delight' and 'ease the pain' for the client. Wouldn't you soon lose confidence in a doctor who simply prescribed his or her standard treatment without listening to your real concerns? To make the correct diagnosis, they ask open-ended questions. Successful salespeople do exactly the same thing. They listen more than talk. They invest most of their time in the needs analysis stage, discussing buyer needs, wants and concerns.
A simple principle that will help you to formulate the right questions is to think in terms of determining:
Here are some ideas for questions that tend to elicit information you will need to generate a business relationship. These are hypothetical; you can use the ideas to create your own questions.
A simple principle that will help you to formulate the right questions is to think in terms of determining:
- What is the current situation?
- What is the desired situation?
Here are some ideas for questions that tend to elicit information you will need to generate a business relationship. These are hypothetical; you can use the ideas to create your own questions.
- What can we do to make your life easier?
- Please tell me what you want to achieve with this...
- How are you handling things today? (current situation)
- What are your goals and objectives? (desired situation)
- What is most critical to your success in this project?
- What would you like to be able to do tomorrow that you cannot do today?
- What kinds of problems do you experience with...
- Where are the major bottlenecks (obstacles)?
- What are your concerns about this new program?
- What is your biggest headache on this project?
- What's keeping you up at night?
- What is the one thing you would like to fix that would make your life instantly better?
- What is giving you the most grief at this point?
- If you could solve just one problem what would it be?
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Get Customers to Sell for You
This week's tip is from an article written by Brian Tracy.
Why People Buy
Fully 84% of sales...take place as the result of word-of-mouth advertising. Some of the most important sales promotion activities are those that place between customers and prospects, between friends and colleagues, in the form of advice and recommendations on what to buy, or not buy, and who to buy from.
Join the Top 10%
The only way that you can be among the top 10% of salespeople in your industry is by having your existing customers selling for you on every occasion. Because of the importance of mega-credibility in selling, your customers must be happy to open doors to new customers for you wherever they go.
Be Clear About Who You Are
One important point with regard to vision, values and mission statements: be gentle with yourself. It has taken you your whole life to become the person you are today. If you are like everyone else, you are not perfect. You have lots of room to grow and improve. There are many changes that you can make in your character and personality in the course of becoming the excellent human being that you aspire to. But change in your personality will not come easily, and it won't come overnight. You must be patient.
Persist Until You Succeed
The reason that people grow and become better and better over the course of time, is because they persist gently in the direction of their goals and dreams. They don't expect overnight transformations. When they don't see results immediately, they don't get discouraged. They just keep on going. And you must do the same.
Put Your Ideas Into Action
Once you have a clear idea of the person you want to be and the kind of life and career you want to create, just take the first step. Read your mission statements every day as you go about your activities, think of the different ways that you could practice the virtues and qualities that you are in the process of incorporating into your own personality.
Remember, it is only your actions with regard to other people that really demonstrate the kind of person you have become. And if you persist long enough, you will eventually shape yourself into the exact person that you have imagined.
Action Exercises
First, treat every customer as if he is going to be a great source of word-of-mouth advertising for you. Remember that every person knows about 300 other people.
Second, resolve to become better and better in your dealings with others but be gentle with yourself. Behave every day in every way the best you can be and you will sure to get results.
Why People Buy
Fully 84% of sales...take place as the result of word-of-mouth advertising. Some of the most important sales promotion activities are those that place between customers and prospects, between friends and colleagues, in the form of advice and recommendations on what to buy, or not buy, and who to buy from.
Join the Top 10%
The only way that you can be among the top 10% of salespeople in your industry is by having your existing customers selling for you on every occasion. Because of the importance of mega-credibility in selling, your customers must be happy to open doors to new customers for you wherever they go.
Be Clear About Who You Are
One important point with regard to vision, values and mission statements: be gentle with yourself. It has taken you your whole life to become the person you are today. If you are like everyone else, you are not perfect. You have lots of room to grow and improve. There are many changes that you can make in your character and personality in the course of becoming the excellent human being that you aspire to. But change in your personality will not come easily, and it won't come overnight. You must be patient.
Persist Until You Succeed
The reason that people grow and become better and better over the course of time, is because they persist gently in the direction of their goals and dreams. They don't expect overnight transformations. When they don't see results immediately, they don't get discouraged. They just keep on going. And you must do the same.
Put Your Ideas Into Action
Once you have a clear idea of the person you want to be and the kind of life and career you want to create, just take the first step. Read your mission statements every day as you go about your activities, think of the different ways that you could practice the virtues and qualities that you are in the process of incorporating into your own personality.
Remember, it is only your actions with regard to other people that really demonstrate the kind of person you have become. And if you persist long enough, you will eventually shape yourself into the exact person that you have imagined.
Action Exercises
First, treat every customer as if he is going to be a great source of word-of-mouth advertising for you. Remember that every person knows about 300 other people.
Second, resolve to become better and better in your dealings with others but be gentle with yourself. Behave every day in every way the best you can be and you will sure to get results.
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