For weeks now, all I’ve been hearing is people talking about how they can’t wait for 2010 to be over and a brand new year to begin. In fact, I joined in that chorus a time or two. No doubt, 2010 was a rough year.
But it’s over now.
We’re officially three days in to 2011, and from the looks of things, it has the potential to be a truly amazing year. Personally, I’m excited to be kicking things off in style with the International Consumer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas, NV. This will be my first CES, and I can’t wait to get there.
It also rocks because I’ll be making the trip to Vegas with my friend and fellow blogger, Ryan Snethen. Ryan is a very cool cat who knows his music and movies, and the more obscure, the better. His “Did You Miss It?” blog is chock-full of movies you might have missed. He’s also a writer and an entrepreneur. We’re making the 10-hour trip by car, so we’ll have lots of time to brainstorm new ideas. Can’t wait!
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OK. Enough is enough. I’m ready to be a blogger again.
Seriously. As soon as I take on this Blog Whisperer identity and the extra work starts rolling in, I completely abandon the one thing that’s made it all possible, the one thing that I love to do: blogging. Well, that’s over. Not the extra work, mind you…just the “not blogging” nonsense.
So I’m throwing down the gauntlet: here and now, I commit to writing at least one post per day, whether it’s on this blog or on The Blog Whisperer blog. In fact, some days it’ll probably be both. Even if it’s just one word (which would really surprise some people), you will see a post worth reading.
Don’t get me wrong, though; this isn’t about writing posts just for the sake of writing them. It’s about reminding myself that what I love to do more than anything else in the world is to share ideas.
So there you have it. Follow the madness here, and if you haven’t already, subscribe to the Blog Whisperer’s RSS feed so you don’t miss any of the posts. And don’t just stand there; feel free to join the conversation, or to start a 30-day blogging challenge of your own. Because I know you have great ideas to share, and I’m dying to hear them!
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“Today I will multiply my value a hundredfold.” - from The Scroll Marked VIII, The Greatest Salesman In the World by Og Mandino
What do you do when you’ve accomplished a goal? Hopefully, you take some time to bask in the warm glow of accomplishment…but not for too long. Hopefully, you also set your sights on something higher and start working on it immediately. Resting on your laurels and past acheivments will never get you where you want to go.
Success is like a muscle; stretch it and work it and eventually it rises to the occassion. If your goal is to be able to lift 200 pounds 10 times in a row, you can get there even if you start off lifting less than 100. When you hit your goal though, a funny thing happens: you plateau. The muscle stops growing because it’s no longer challenged. Step your goal up to 300, and you kick the growth cycle off again.
It’s the same with your personal growth. Once you reach a goal, you run the risk of stagnation if you stop there. Human beings have an amazing potential for growth that sometimes gets hampered because we’re unwilling to push ourselves to grow. Why? Growth is painful. It’s uncomfortable and scary. We set up all kinds of elaborate, unconscious schemes to avoid the pain of growth, and we seriously limit the results we can acheive in the process.
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As the name of this blog indicates, I believe that proper motivation is one of the fundamental building blocks of a successful life. In sales (a category which includes all you entrepreneurs and small business owners, whether you like to admit it or not), motivation is the key distinction between success and failure. It’s a simple formula: having the right motivation keeps you moving and in action. Without it, you stop. Over the past several days, I’ve shared five techniques that will help you stay motivated, no matter what is going on in the world around you. Let’s do a quick recap.
The first step was to start asking yourself the power question: “Why?” Why do you want to acheive a particular goal, a certain level of income or anything else? Asking “Why?” helps you identify the emotional component of your goals, which in turn engages your unconscious mind to help move you closer to their accomplishment. So stop asking yourself “How am I going to do that?” and start asking yourself “Why do I want to?” You’ll find the results much more satisfying.
Second, we talked about shutting off the news to create your own National News Free Week. This step will help you avoid distraction and stay focused on doing the activities that are in harmony with your purpose. While news overload can create anxiety, worry and despair, living a news-free life is liberating. You are far less susceptible to negativity and far more open to possibility and gratitude.
The third topic centered around the need for passion, enthsiasm and excitement for your work. Instead of being among the 87% of Americans who hate their jobs, finding passion for what you do puts you in the happy minority of people who actually enjoy thir work, even considering it to be a form of play. And if you can’t find passion for what you are doing now, remember: you are always free to pursue something that you are passionate and enthusiastic about.
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Question: What have you done this week to move yourself closer to your goals? Do you have a clearly defined, written plan to get you where you want to be? If not, what are you waiting for?!
We’ve all heard that what gets written down gets done, yet the majority of us don’t do it. It really amazes me how many salespeople I talk to who have no idea what they need to accomplish on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis to help them achieve their goals; in fact, I still encounter many people who have no idea what their goals are! I only have one question: if you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you’ve arrived? More importantly, how will you even know if you’re on the right course to get there?
Specific written goals are vital to your success. You know that. If you haven’t written out your goals for this year, stop reading and go do it now. Don’t come back until you’re done, because what I’m going to suggest next will require you to have your written goals in front of you. This is a powerful tool that will help you achieve any goal you set, and it is actually very easy to do. Unfortunately, anything that’s easy to do is also easy not to to do, so I want you to make a commitment, here and now, to try this method out for the next seven days. If it doesn’t work for you, you can stop; but you have to try it for at least seven consecutive days before passing judgment. Ready?
Looking at your list of goals, I want you to think of the six most important things you could do tomorrow to move you closer to their accomplishment. Limit your list to only six things, the six most critical. Now, prioritize the list in order of highest impact; in other words, the most impactful thing you could do becomes number one and so on. Now comes the hard part.
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Are you as tired as I am of all the bad news being offered up by the national media? If so, please join me in a special campaign this week. I’m officially designating it National News Free Week.
This is the critical second step in staying motivated to accomplish your goals: the ability to stay focused and avoid distraction! So I’m issuing a challenge to as many people as I can reach to turn off the news for one solid week. That’s right: no TV, radio or internet news for seven full days.
“But Jerry!” you ask, “How will I know what’s going on in the world?”
Good question, and the answer may shock you. Listen closely: it doesn’t matter! Yes, you read that right…it just doesn’t matter what’s happening in the world around you. The only thing that truly matters is what’s happening in the world inside of you.
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