“I will pray for guidance.” – from The Scroll Marked X, The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino

Man is born with an innate spiritual need, a hunger that longs to be fulfilled. Since the beginning, we’ve sought to fill that need by discovering the nature of God and the meaning of life. Everyone has, at one point or another, asked “Why am I here?” To deny the reality of that impulse is to deny our nature.

No matter what your belief system, I’m sure you’ll agree that we all want something more than to spend our days just providing for our necessities; we want to know that what we’re doing has a purpose, a meaning greater than ourselves. This scroll speaks to that part of you.

Mandino makes it clear that he’s not preaching religion; he’s simply speaking as a man conscious of his spiritual need. He points out that we all possess the impulse to cry out for help in times of need and, he reasons, we wouldn’t have that impulse if there weren’t some superior power able to answer. And when you stop to ponder the vast complexity of the universe, you probably agree; it seems reasonable to believe that there’s something greater than us. For now, let’s not get hung up on exactly what that something is or what it should be called; call it what you will, we sense it instictively.

If that’s the case, then, doesn’t it make sense to seek the guidance of that greater power? Whether in prayer or meditation or quiet contemplation, we can find that guidance. If we can quiet the noise of our minds for even the briefest moment, we can get a glimpse. Herman Melville said that “God’s one and only voice is silence”, for it’s in our moments of silence that we’re open to receive the guidance we seek.

What does this have to do with being a great salesperson? Just this: without a sense of something greater than ourselves, we tend to stop striving. What’s the point, after all? Why be great if it really doesn’t mean anything? If we’re nothing more than highly evolved animals, why try to be better?

What do we ask for, though? A promotion and a new Mercedes? Are we simply placing orders at the Universal Cafe? Here’s what Mandino suggests:

“Never will I pray for the material things of the world. I am not calling to a servant to bring me good. I am not ordering an innkeeper to provide me with room. Never will I seek delivery of gold, love, good health, petty victories, fame, success, or happiness. Only for guidance will I pray, that I may be shown the way to acquire these things, and my prayer will always be answered.”

What a fitting conclusion to this series of principles! We’ve considered 9 ideas leading up to this one that encouraged us to shape our character through patient effort, making tiny improvements, day by day, and never giving up in our journey.

We’ve learned the importance of qualities like humility, persistence, and joy. We’ve seen the necessity of mastering skills like controlling our emotions, laughing at ourselves and living in the moment. We’ve learned that procrastination is our natural enemy and that optimism is a precious asset. And now we bring it all together with a sense of reverent awe and an acknowledgement of our need for guidance.

The real lesson is that no matter how dark the depths we find ourselves in, we’re not alone, and no matter how great the heights we reach, an attitude of gratitude is always warranted.

“Let me become all you planned for me when my seed was planted and selected by you to sprout in the vineyard of the world. Help this humble salesman. Guide me, God.”

“I will act now.” - from The Scroll Marked IX, The Greatest Salesman In the World by Og Mandino

I love the way this scroll starts: “My dreams are worthless, my plans are dust, my goals are impossible. All are of no value unless they are followed by action.” There’s a cold shot of reality, eh?

Many in the “law of attraction” crowd would have you believe that dreams, plans and goals (mixed with positive thinking, of course) are all you really need to succeed. I’m reminded of a quote I heard a few years ago: “If all you do is sit on your couch and meditate all day, eventually they’re going to come and take your couch!”

You probably know by now that I’m a firm believer in the power of dreams, plans, goals and a healthy dose of positive thinking; you probably have also discerned that I’m a firm believer in activity. What you have to find is the right mix of inner planning and outward manifestation of that planning. Finding the right mix is essential.

If you’re going to err in favor of one or the other, though, make it in favor of activity. A great plan with no action gets you nowhere; on the other hand, activity without a well-thought out plan will at least get you a result. And results are feedback from the world around you that lets you know whether you took the right course of action or not, feedback that you can use to either take different action to get a different result or more of the same action if you want more of the same result. No plan or goal necessary.

Plans, goals and dreams are meant to help guide your actions. They aren’t an end in and of themselves; they’re a means to the end, the map that you follow to get the result you’re looking for.

Imagine you’re planning a trip to New York. You map out exactly the course you’re going to take. You cut out pictures of your destination and hang them on the wall, staring at them and envisioning yourself there, standing in the shadow of the Empire State building, walking in Central Park, seeing a show on Broadway…whatever. You spend hours every day imagining how it’s going to be and believing that it’s all going to happen.

Question: is all of that planning, goal-setting and positive thinking going to move you one inch closer to New York? Of course not. The only way you’ll ever get there is if you take some kind of action! Get in the car, buy a plane ticket, hop a train, thumb a ride…if you really want to get there, you’ll figure out a way, but planning alone isn’t going to cut it.

“But what if I can’t afford the ticket? What if my car breaks down? What if I get caught jumping the train? What if I get run down by an angry motorist? What if…?” You know the game, right? You probably also know that your “buts” are getting in the way of your success. Where do the “buts” come from, though? From that deep-seated fear of failure, the same fear each of us is cursed with from about age 7 on. How do you conquer the fear? Mandino answers:

“My procrastination which has held me back was born of fear and now I recognize this secret mined from the depths of courageous hearts. Now I know that to conquer fear I must always act without hesitation and the flutters in my heart will vanish. Now I know that action reduces the lion of terror to an ant of equanimity.”

In other words, feel the fear and do it anyway! Easy, right? If that were the case, there wouldn’t be any such thing as procrastination. It’s hard to act in the face of fear, so here’s a little extra help from the scroll:

“I will act now. I will act now. I will act now. Henceforth, I will repeat these words again and again and again, each hour, each day, every day, until the words become as much a habit as my breathing and the actions which follow become as instinctive as the blinking of my eyelids. With these words I can condition my mind to perform every act necessary for my success. With these words I can condition my mind to meet every challenge which the failure avoids.”

Conditioning. That’s what it takes. Procrastination is nothing more than a habit; it can be changed into action by repeated effort. Start today. In fact, start right now. Think of the thing you’ve been avoiding all week: the phone call you need to make, the conversation you need to have that you’ve been putting off…DO IT NOW! You’ll be amazed ath the power that immediate action will unleash in your heart and mind. Activity is the one and only antidote for chronic procrastination.

Whatever you dream of will only become manifest if you take action, any action, toward its achievment.

“This is the time. This is the place. I am the man.”

“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.

What if instead we were willing to shake off the self-imposed limitations of our pre-conceived ideas and hand-me-down beliefs? What if we were able to get beyond the fear and set impossible goals, continually stretching beyond our prior capacity? What then? Michaelangelo advised that “the greater danger is not that our goals are too lofty and we fail to achieve them, but that they are too small and we do.” Do you really want to look back on your life and wish you’d only tried a little harder? Neither do I.

The Scroll Marked VIII says that we’re like a grain of wheat; a single grain of wheat has the potential, when properly cared for, to grow into a stalk of wheat with a head full of grains. Each of those grains, in turn, has the potential to be planted and produce many more. Given the proper conditions, a single grain of wheat can produce millions of tons of wheat. And you are like that grain of wheat: you contain unlimited potential.

The Scroll points out one difference between you and the grain of wheat, though: whereas the wheat has no say in whether it’s planted and propogated, you get to decide whether your potential is realized or wasted. It’s a sobering thought, isn’t it? It means you get to take full responsibility for your success or failure in life. You don’t get to point to your circumstances or your parents or your government…only you have the power to decide your fate.

And how will you do it? How will “multiply your value a hundredfold”? The Scroll advises:

“First I will set goals for the day, the week, the month, the year, and my life. Just as the rain must fall before the wheat will crack its shield and sprout, so must I have objectives before my life will crystallize. In setting my goals I will consider my best performance of the past and multiply it a hundredfold. This will be the standard by which I will live in the future. Never will I be of concern that my goals are too high for is it not better to aim my spear at the moon and strike only an eagle than to aim my spear at the eagle and strike only a rock?”

The message is clear: continue to aim high, to stretch yourself, to strive to exceed your past performance. If you do, you’ll never stop growing, your value will increase every day, and you’ll be considered by those who know you to be the greatest salesperson in the world!

“And when it is done I will do it again, and again, and there will be astonishment and wonder at my greatness as the words of these scrolls are fulfilled in me.”

“I will laugh at the world.” - from The Scroll Marked VII, The Greatest Salesman In the World by Og Mandino

Is there any ailment in the world that a good laugh won’t cure? I don’t think so. I mean, the jury’s still out on whether Norman Cousins actually healed himself by watching Marx Brothers movies, but I’ll tell you one thing for certain: he sure felt better!

And that’s all that really matters, isn’t it? I know that when things are going great and I’m happy, I can be sick as a dog and it doesn’t phase me. I to recover a lot faster from any illnesses, if I get them at all. On the other hand, whenever I’m feeling down or depressed, the slightest cold can put me down for days.

Once again, we find that it’s all a matter of our perception of our situation and our chosen reaction to it. We can choose to be in a depressing slump or we can do something about it: laugh! Have you ever been in a situation where things were so bad, so depressing, that you didn’t know if you could endure any more, then caught a case of the giggles? How did it make you feel? At first it’s a little disturbing and you question whether you’ve lost your mind, then you start to feel a little better. The giggle turns into a hearty belly laugh and, before you know it, you’re wondering what you were so worried about!

It’s been said that tragedy plus time equals comedy, so why not shortcut the system? If you can see that you’re probably going to look back on a bad situation and laugh, why wait? Why not “laugh at the world” now? Mandino teaches four magical words that make this easy to do: this too shall pass. If you can always remember that, no matter what’s happening for you right now it will eventually pass, you can survive almost anything.

And remember: it’s not just your own circumstances that are improved by laughter. Laughter, like any emotion, is contagious to those around you, including your customers. Remember the famous Ella Wheeler poem that starts, “Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone. For the sad old earth must borrow it’s mirth, but has trouble enough of its own.” Your positive mental attitude will rub off on your customers; they won’t be able to help it! And happy customers are far more likely to buy than gloomy ones.

What if you don’t feel like laughing, though? Mandino provides a source of constant inspiration for laughter:

“And most of all, I will laugh at myself for man is most comical when he takes himself too seriously. Never will I fall into this trap of the mind. For though I be nature’s greatest miracle, am I not still a mere grain tossed about by the winds of time? Do I truly know whence I came or whither I am bound? Will my concern for this day not seem foolish ten years hence? Why should I permit the petty happenings of today to disturb me? What can take place before this sun sets which will not seem insignificant in the river of centuries?”

Let’s face it: we humans are a funny bunch. We’re the only ones on the planet with the ability to laugh at ourselves. Why waste this great gift and mope around in perpetual gloominess? Instead, choose to laugh at the world and bring a little joy along with you wherever you go.

“I will be happy. I will be successful. I will be the greatest salesman the world has ever known.”

“Today I will be master of my emotions.” - from The Scroll Marked VI, The Greatest Salesman In the World by Og Mandino

I woke up in a bad mood today. I was still tired from staying up until 1:00 AM writing a guest blog post, and I’d failed to meet my goal of getting this post finished in time for Wednesday morning . I must have slept in an odd position, because my shoulder was throbbing with pain. I left the house in plenty of time to make it to the meeting I was headed to, then got stuck in traffic. It seemed like a dozen or more bad drivers cut me off, and once I got off the highway every light was red. I ended up being 10 minutes late.

As I was parking my car, I stopped to check the rising tide of of frustration I was feeling. I realized that if I was going into this meeting under the control of the emotions I was feeling, I might as well get back in my car and head home; the meeting would be a pointless waste of time. Instead, I closed my eyes, took a couple of deep breaths and broke the spell of negativity I’d been under. The meeting turned out to be a success, and I was able to form an alliance that I believe is going to do great things for my business. All because I was able to master my emotions…this time.

Trust me: there have been many times that wasn’t the case, and I’m sure there are going to be many more. Why? Because I’m going to forget that I have the ability to control my emotions. I know I’m going to slip back into the illusion that all of us suffer under from time to time: the illusion that our emotions spring unbidden from somewhere deep in our hearts and that we can’t do a thing about them. It’s just an illusion, though. Our emotional reactions are programmed responses, and if they’re to be reprogrammed it’s up to each of us to get it done.

Why not just let your emotions run free, though? Isn’t it better just to let it all out and wallow in the emotions you feel? Not if maturity and success is your goal. Being at the mercy of your emotions is letting the monkeys run the zoo. Your emotions have no regard for your overall well-being; in that regard, they’re a little selfish. All they care about is their own expression. They are like children that need to be supervised and pointed in the right direction so they don’t end up in juvenile hall.

And for the salesperson, letting the emotions run the show is even more dangerous. Mandino nails it when he says:

“For unless my mood is right the day will be a failure. Trees and plants depend on the weather to flourish but I make my own weather, yea I transport it with me. If I bring rain and gloom and darkness and pessimism to my customers then they will react with rain and gloom and darkness and pessimism and they will purchase naught.”

Did you ever stop to consider that the reason so many customers are reluctant to buy right now is that they are catching the anxiety of the salespeople they interact with? That the Fear Fever you’re suffering might be contagious? Because it is, and it’s killing your chances of being great.

What’s the remedy? I always say to “mind the gap”, that is the gap between stimulus and response when you get to choose your emotional response to what happens to you. And when you can manage to remain aware, to simply observe, that you have certain emotional reactions to specific situations, the emotions begin to lose their power over you and you begin to take mastery over them. The Buddhists call it being mindful. They say that if you can just be aware of what’s happening in the moment, you’ll be able to exercise control over how you respond. That is true sales mastery!

Remember that if you can master your emotions, you can master anything. You will exert a new control over your life, your circumstances, and the universe around you. You’ll begin to experience the power of creating your reality to look how you want it to look. Because when you choose your reactions, you choose your destiny.

“I will become master of myself. I will become great.”

“I will live this day as if it is my last.” - from The Scroll Marked V, The Greatest Salesman In the World by Og Mandino

I’ll never forget the scene in “Dead Poets’ Society” when Robin Williams lines his students up in the hallway in front of the pictures of students from years past and whispers in their ears, “Carpe diem, boys…seize the day”. The Scroll Marked V reminds us of this valuable lesson in a powerful way: don’t just seize the day…seize it as if it were your last!

I encourage you to consider that everything you’ve ever been told about guilt and worry is wrong (that is, unless you’ve been fortunate enough to be told that they are both wasted energy). Unscrupulous and/or misguided parents, teachers, leaders and managers have for centuries used guilt and worry to manipulate those under their supervision to do what was expected of them; that kind of manipulation is certainly effective at motivating in the short-term, but the long-term stress it causes ultimately destroys any motivation and puts the subject in a state of constant, immobilizing fear.

Have a look around and you’ll see what I mean. Way back in 1854, Henry David Thoreau identified the cumulative effect of this kind of manipulation when he wrote that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desparation”. How many of your friends, neighbors and co-workers does that describe? The problem, of course, is fear. Fear that yesterday’s transgressions will somehow prevent us from succeeding today; fear, too, that we won’t be up to the challenges that tomorrow presents.

That’s all wrong, though. The sole purpose of guilt and anxiety is to motivate us to behave differently, not to paralyze us. Feeling guilty about some past wrongdoing is okay so long as it moves us to do everything in our power not to repeat the pattern; wallowing in guilt to the point that we can’t move beyond it is missing the point. And anxiety over our future should move us to do everything we can, so long as we can, to make sure that future is bright; becoming paralyzed by the anxiety and worry is foolish.

The past and the future have one very important thing in common: you have no control over either. Fretting about things you have no control over is self-destructive. Wouldn’t you be much better served if you expended that same energy on the now, the only moment you have any control over? Of course you would. And yet so many of us struggle with remaining firmly rooted in the present moment. What can we do to make the most of the now? Mandino tells us:

“I will avoid with fury the killers of time. Procrastination I will destroy with action; doubt I will bury under faith; fear I will dismember with confidence. Where there are idle mouths I will listen not; where there are idle hands I will linger not; where there are idle bodies I will visit not. Henceforth I know that to court idleness is to steal food, clothing, and warmth from those I love. I am not a thief. I am a man of love and today is my last chance to prove my love and my greatness.”

The key is to recognize the destruction wrought by guilt and anxiety and to seize each day, each moment as if it were your last. How do you want to spend your last minutes? Worrying about a past you can’t change or a future you can’t control? Those aren’t fatalistic questions; they’re a wake-up call that should cause us to stop and assess how we’re spending our minutes. Are you spending yours wisely?

If, for whatever reason, you haven’t been living up to your potential, you get to start again today. You can choose, right NOW, this very moment, to start again. That’s the beauty of being present: each moment is NOW and can be a fresh start on your path to success. All you have to do is decide how to spend this moment, then this one, and again this one.

If you’ll choose to exercise that control and to spend each day living as if it’s your last on this earth, you’ll live a life full of purpose. And whatever your chosen path or profession, pursuing it fully on purpose will make you a great success.

“I will live this day as if it is my last. And if it is not, I shall fall to my knees and give thanks.”

“I am nature’s greatest miracle.” - from The Scroll Marked IV, The Greatest Salesman In the World by Og Mandino

By now I hope it’s clear that the path to becoming the greatest salesperson (or anything else) in the world is mainly an effort made with your attitude and beliefs rather than your skills and methods. The greatest challenge a salesperson has to overcome to acheive success is the challenge of mastering his or her own mind! The first three scrolls have taught us the importance of optimism, love and persistence. The fourth scroll sets out the importance of a healthy dose of self-esteem.

Without a proper view of yourself, success is next to impossible. The person who constantly degrades himself is assured of fulfilling his own prophecies. I have a question for you: when is the last time you gave yourself a little encouragement? We are ususally so quick to condemn ourselves as failures that we often forget how truly wonderful and miraculous we are. Just the fact that you can breathe, beat your heart, convert food into fuel, ward off disease, think about a beautiful sunset and a billion other things all at the same time is a miracle; you should be constantly amazed at how incredible you are!

This isn’t an invitation to become an egomaniac; nobody likes a braggart. At the same time, though, you must begin to develop and maintain the proper level of self-respect. You are truly a wonder of creation, and you should celebrate that each and every day you live.

In many ways, you are no more or less wonderful than any other human being who ever walked the planet; on the other hand, the qualities and characteristics that make you unique are your greatest assets, and they do set you apart from the rest of humanity. Look at those traits as your allies; celebrate your individuality and use it to your advantage. You have strengths that no one else has; use them to the full.

Too often we focus on trying to be the same as everyone else. We mistakenly believe that the path to success is to follow the pack and do what they do, sacrificing our uniqueness to be more like the herd. In truth, though, that’s the surest path to mediocrity there is, for it hides our individual talents. We forget that we are special, and so we tend to sell ourselves short.

Remember this passage from The Scroll Marked IV:

“Since the beginning of time never has there been another with my mind, my heart, my eyes, my ears, my hands, my hair, my mouth. None that came before, none that live today, and none that come tomorrow can walk and talk and move and think exactly like me. All men are my brothers yet I am different from each. I am a unique creature.”

Be unique. Be yourself. The worst thing you can do for yourself or your career is to be forgettable. If you can get them to remember you, the chances that they’ll buy from you are greatly increased. Dare to be outrageous and to have fun and to celebrate your individuality. If you do, you’ll have the advantage of being memorable.

“I will persist until I succeed.” - from The Scroll Marked III, The Greatest Salesman In the World by Og Mandino

This principle has become my personal mantra over the course of the last few years. I remember a former employer whose favorite phrase was “Persistence overcomes resistance”, and that phrase has stuck with me through some pretty challenging times.

It’s a fact: the last few years haven’t been easy on anyone. The reason I created Motivation 101 and started this blog was that I kept hearing people around me talking like they were ready to just give up and run for cover; I knew that was the wrong response, and I felt compelled to jump in and do something about it. So I recorded an audio program in a friend’s garage. He produced it, and I started making CDs in my home office and handing them out to anyone who was willing to listen.

The feedback was encouraging: most of the people I talked to were discouraged, but not quite ready to roll over just yet. We would talk about their challenges and how the principles of positive thinking and persistence were the only things getting them by. Some of them had lost jobs, homes, credit scores and personal dignity. It had all taken a toll on their self-image, but they hadn’t given up. They wanted to keep going, and we were able to offer each other mutual encouragement.

The one thing I learned from these folks is expressed nicely in the words of the Scroll Marked III: “Always will I take another step. If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult.”

No, one step at a time is not too difficult. When crossing a great desert, it’s best to focus on only one thing: your next step. So long as you can put one foot in front of the other, even if it’s a weak and wobbly step, you survive. It’s only when you give up and stop moving forward that you doom yourself.

Success comes down to one thing: how many times you’re willing to hear “No,” or “Sorry, not today,” or “You’re not what we’re looking for,” or “You’re just not good enough,” and still come back to ask again. My friends at Go For No! call it your No Quotient, and I agree when they say that your NQ is far more important than your IQ; after all, we all know a few broke geniuses, people with high IQs and low net worths. The reverse is true as well, and we do well to pay attention to that lesson.

We talk a lot about “raising your tolerance for rejection” and “failing your way to success”, but there’s more involved than just blindly, relentlessly pushing forward. Sometimes life gives you feedback you need to pay attention to. In addition to persisting, you should also be willing to adapt and learn as you go. The ability to grow as well as persist is an unstoppable combination.

Mandino compares persistence to the series of single, weak axe-blows that fell the mighty oak, the tiny rain drops that wash away the mountain. No single blow or rain drop could do the job on its own; only their repetitive persistence will get it done.

Are you willing to take the persistence challenge?  If so, remember that there’s only one rule in this game: “So long as there is breath in me, that long will I persist. For now I know one of the greatest principles of success; if I persist long enough I will win.”

“I will greet this day with love in my heart.” - from The Scroll Marked II, The Greatest Salesman In the World by Og Mandino

Love can be hard to pin down to a single definition. In the second principle for becoming the greatest salesperson the world has ever seen, qualities like gratitude, passion, enthusiasm and optimism are grouped under the subject of love; each of these facets of love is required to truly succeed as a salesperson.

Think of the mental outlook this principle encourages the would-be salesperson to embrace: if you truly greet the day with love in your heart, do you think that a little discouragement or rejection will stop you? That’s the power of optimism, the part of love that’s always looking to the future with hope and a smile.

Mandino nails it when he says that “only the unseen power of love can open the hearts of men”. You’ve likely seen this in action. Think of the last time you were dealing with a real skeptic, a nay-sayer who had absolutely no interest in hearing about what you had to offer. How would you set about winning such a person over to your way of thinking? Would you try to persuade with logic and reasoning? Try that and let me know how it works out. Trying to convince another person they’re wrong with logic is like pushing a wheelbarrow full of bricks up a hill: no fun at all.

If, on the other hand, that same person was able to see your passion and enthusiasm for your offering in action, they might eventually warm up to hearing what you have to say. It reminds me of the Tom Sawyer story about the picket fence: Tom is able to convince the other kids in the neighborhood to pay him for the privilege of doing his chores, not by reasoning with them, but by demonstrating how much he enjoyed doing the task. And even though Tom was faking his enthusiasm for the job, the other children caught his enthusiasm and begged to be allowed to do the work. Imagine how much more effective sincere enthusiasm would be! That’s the power of love.

How exactly does one “greet the day with love”, though? I love Mandino’s explanation:

“Henceforth will I look on all things with love and I will be born again. I will love the sun for it warms my bones; yet I will love the rain for it cleanses my spirit. I will love the light for it shows me the way; yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars. I will welcome happiness for it enlarges my heart; yet I will endure sadness for it opens my soul. I will acknowledge rewards for they are my due; yet I will welcome obstacles for they are my challenge.”

Once again, it comes down to the choices we make. When it comes to feeling and expressing love, gratitude helps. If we’re grateful for what we have, even what challenges us, we can show it love. If we lack gratitude and are always wishing we had something better, love is going to be hard to find. And who decides whether we are grateful or not? I think you know the answer. Gratitude, like any trait, is something we have to choose to maintain.

A secret formula for expressing this love is to “in silence and to myself…address him (those you come in contact with) and say I Love You.” Why? because, “though spoken in silence these words will shine in my eyes, unwrinkle my brow, bring a smile to my lips, and echo in my voice; and his heart will be opened.” Master that ability, “and who is there who will say nay to my goods when his hearts feels my love?”

To quote Huey Lewis, that’s the power of love!

“Today I begin a new life.” - from The Scroll Marked I, The Greatest Salesman In the World by Og Mandino

Today begins our consideration of the 10 principles outlined in Og Mandino’s masterpiece, “The Greatest Salesman In the World”. The quote above, extracted from the first scroll is the perfect start to this process (which is probably why Mandino put it first, right?): Today I begin a new life!

I love the power of that statement. It says that even if I go to sleep a failure tonight, I can choose a different path in the morning. Imagine that: every morning, on rising, you have the power to decide! You can decide how you’ll spend the day, whether in activities that will carry closer to your goals or in procrastination, worry and anxiety; it’s entirely up to you. The question is, what will you do with your power?

I love the next line: “Today I shed my old skin which hath, too long, suffered the bruises of failure and the wounds of mediocrity.” That, dear readers, is the power of choice. The fact that you can, at any moment, shed the skin of failure and mediocrity and choose to pursue greatness. Each of us has that ability. I know that can sound like a load of new-age, feel-good, touchy-feely crap to someone who’s feeling down-and-out; I wish there was a way for me to assure you that you can do incredible things if you just want to badly enough, but that’s a lesson you have to learn for yourself.

Think of all the times you’ve ever faced a crisis situation, whether it was emotional, physical or financial. Let me ask you: how did it feel to be in that moment? Pretty desparate, right? And yet, looking back on it, how does it feel now? Time has a way of lending perspective, doesn’t it? Some of the most desparate situations seem laughable ten years after. We learn along the way that the only way to overcome lifes challenges is to continue to put one foot in front of the other, to lean a little harder into it, to get up tomorrow and start all over again.

This isn’t drudgery or resignation, though; it’s resolution. Do you have that kind of resolution for your business or your sales career? I hope so, because without it, you’re dead before you start. Life is going to hit you pretty hard sometimes. A friend of mine posted a quote on Facebook the other day, and it was incredibly moving. It was from the movie Rocky Balboa:

“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.”

And that’s how we start our journey toward becoming the greatest salesperson (or business person or artist or father) the world has ever seen: by deciding today to begin a new life. Whatever challenges you’ve faced in the past, let them live in the past. The ones who’ve done you wrong, let them go and send a little love their way. The circumstances that have held you back all these years, shake them off and start again. Whatever the mistakes and indiscretions of yesterday, leave them behind and embrace the gift of NOW. It’s the only moment that really exists, anyway, so why not direct all your effort and energy to making it the best NOW it can be?

“Today my old skin has become as dust. I will walk tall among men and they will know me not, for today I am a new man, with a new life.”