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One Of The Best In The Industry

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

One Of The Best In The Industry…..

If you are presently involved with, were at one time, or are looking to get involved with Network Marketing, then this blog post should resonate with you.

You see, I was fortunate, VERY fortunate to be in a conference room with 25 others for 3 hours with Mr. Randy Gage. Yes, you read that correctly…. 25 other individuals. If you don’t know who he is, google his name or visit his website at http://randygage.com

He could easily fill a room in a big center with hundreds of Professionals and charge handsomely for his knowledge but he did it for FREE. Now I am not here to tell you about my opportunity, I am here to share with you “generic” information that I learned from Mr. Gage recently and he did it for FREE.

Why is this a big deal?

Well, he used to train Professional Network Marketers, for hundreds and thousands of dollars for weekend leadership training seminars. He did that for a number of years before getting into his latest and last MLM company. Of which he has been building and training other for the past 5 years.

Does he need to train people? NO. Does he need the money? NO. Could he charge his team and all those in this company thousands of dollars for his Expertise? YES. However, he does it for Free

So, I want to share with you some of his ideas and insights into this industry of which he has been a part of for 31 years! This will take more than one blog post so here goes….

One of the very first things he did was talk about “Duplication”.

Is it real or simply a myth?

The underlying message is that Duplication begins with us. That is right, duplication starts first and foremost with us.

Network Marketing, no matter what the company or compensation plan is 99% of the time explained with “circles” and be it a matrix, unilevel, binary, quadra plan, etc…. it is all about circles and guess who is always at the top of your organization and in the very first circle? It is YOU.

So, Duplication which is real by the way, starts with YOU. How do we work on YOU? Very easily… It all starts with Personal Development…

I know this is no secret to many of you reading this but how easy is it to work on YOU? You NEED to start your day with PD. It could be exercise, reading, meditation, etc. but the most important part the we need to understand is that you need to control your attitude and your mindset and if you do this, your day will flow so much better than if you rush out of bed and rush to work, etc, etc, etc.

So here are my challenges for you today…. Begin to work on yourself. Begin to work on YOU. Go buy a book or go to your Public Library and sign out books on Personal Development, begin exercising, get your head right and do this in the early hours of the morning… get up 30 minutes earlier each day and you will begin to see results almost immediately.

Secondly, if you enjoyed this post, share it with your network and leave comments. I would love to hear your feedback. Stay tuned for more great Education to come as a result of my time with Mr Randy Gage. I will be discussing topics such as Culture, Getting Uncomfortable and Your Productivity….

Cheers – Steve

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Carrots, Eggs & Coffee…..Which One Are You?

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

A carrot, an egg, and a cup of coffee…You will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again.

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up, She was tired of fighting and struggling.

It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.  Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil.

In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.

Turning to her daughter, she asked, ‘ Tell me what you see. ‘ ‘Carrots, eggs, and coffee, ‘ she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.

The daughter then asked, ‘What does it mean, mother? ‘ Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water…….. Each reacted differently.

The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.

The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

‘Which are you? ‘ she asked her daughter. ‘ When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain.When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you.

When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity?

Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy. The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.

The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can ‘ t go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so at the end, you’re the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.

You might want to send this message to those people who mean something to you (I JUST DID); to those who have touched your life in one way or another; to those who make you smile when you really need it; to those who make you see the brighter side of things when you are really down; to those whose friendship you appreciate; to those who are so meaningful in your life.

If you don’t send it, you will just miss out on the opportunity to brighten someone’s day with this message!

May we’ll all be COFFEE!!!!!!

Cheers – Steve

ps My mom sent this to me via email today and I have no idea the author….just felt it was important to share

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Are you not reaching your goals?

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

Have you taken the time to reflect on your life and discover what your desires are? Your life is divided into different segments, which are all closely interrelated. This means that your health will affect your career family, and much more. Living a balanced and satisfying life isn’t about a goal of a million dollar it’s about taking the time to reflect on all the major segments of your life. This includes your family, physical health, finances, mental heath, career and family.

If you don’t have goals, then you need to set some. You need something to work towards. Put your own goals to the test. When you sit down and start recognizing goals, you will maybe end up with a long list. Choose what is most important to you in your personal lives. All goals do not have equal value. Some will be more meaningful to you. These are the goals to start on. Keep your list of the remaining goals to get back to later. Trying to do over at the same time can be self-defeating.

Write your goals down, as this increases obligation. Make your deadline for each goal reachable and realistic. There is no such right or wrong on how long you determine it will take to reach a goal. It will be different for each person and each goal. Whatever is comfortable for you is what counts.

If all this seems overwhelming or not easy, start with just one goal. Make it easy and short term. Once you have accomplished this, go on to another goal. Remember that life is a journey to be enjoyed. Be kind to yourself. You will find by setting goals and classifying what you need to do to get there, will cut down on a lot of stress in your life. At the same time, you will be making those visions a reality.

Take a bit of time to reflect on your life and decide which sections of your life need goals. With our fast paced, information overloaded society we certainly don’t spend enough time reflecting on our life.

Discovering and living by your core value brings us purpose and true meaning. By not holding yourself responsible to your own goals, you are not taking yourself seriously. Take pride in your future. Commit and follow through. It’s really not that hard.

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Learn how to Love Yourself

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Loving yourself allows you to see the beauty in others. It opens your senses to the vividness of divine light, to the sweetness of your own life experience and to the power of your focused incarnation. Loving yourself allows your consciousness to believe the shape of love, which makes you at once loving and lovable. But most of us are very mean with the love we tender ourselves.

Be kind and patient and gentle: Be kind to yourself.  Be patient with yourself as you discover the new ways of thinking.  Be gentle with yourself.  Treat yourself as you would someone you really loved.

Be loving to your negatives: Acknowledge that you made them to fulfill a need.  Now you are finding new, positive ways to complete those needs.  So, lovingly release the old negative patterns.

Be kind to your mind:   Self-hatred is only hating your own ideas.  Don’t hate yourself for having the thoughts.  Gently change the ideas.

Don’t scare yourself: Stop frightening yourself with your ideas.  It’s a terrible way to live.   Find a mental image that gives you happiness and immediately switch your scary thought to a pleasure thought.

Mirror work: Look into your own eyes often.  Express this growing sense of love you have for yourself.   Forgive yourself looking into the mirror.  Talk to your parents looking into the mirror.  Forgive them, too.  At least everyday, say: “I love you, I really love you!”

Praise yourself: Criticism breaks the inner spirit.  Praise builds it up.  Praise yourself as much as you can.  Tell yourself how well you are doing with every small thing.

Stop all criticism: Criticism never transforms a thing.  Decline to criticize yourself.  Accept yourself precisely as you are.  Everybody changes.  When you criticize yourself, your changes are depressing.  When you agree of yourself, your changes are positive.

Support yourself: Find ways to support yourself.  Reach out to your friends, and allow them to help you.  It is being strong to ask for help when you need it.

As you open to loving yourself in this way, you also develop your ability to love others exponentially. As you love others with more genuineness, you shine love’s light everywhere you go.

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How to control your Emotions

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

control-your-emotions

Millions of individuals suffer from fear, anxiety, depression, etc. Many of these persons however do suffer because they engage their mind with those emotional objects causing fear, anxiety, depression, etc.

If you want to vary your emotional approach – if you want to balance and heal your emotional life, then you need to focus on happiness, joy, love, you need to focus all your attention on the sunny side of life to attract joyful emotional energies within yourself. You are becoming what you feed yourself with.

Being able to manage your emotions is a massive step towards limitless happiness. For little things in your life, you will be able to use the following method to immediately change your thoughts and viewpoints. For bigger matters it might take more time.

Identify the emotions you need to control. If you are prone to angry break outs, then find coping systems that work for you. Focus on your breathing. Breathe slowly and deeply to help decrease your heart rate and take more oxygen to your brain. When you focus on your breathing, you change your ideas from the emotions you’re feeling, removing them from the forefront of your mind.

Use visualization imagine soothing circumstances or colors you find relaxing. This technique is a very effective way to control your emotions during stressful or high-anxiety times or if something has made you very angry. Concentrate on an item in the distance for several minutes. This focal point will put your energy on something other than the emotions you’re feeling.

Recognize the emotion you were feeling at the time when you couldn’t effectively express it. Usually emotions that you don’t want to let somebody see are negative and you need to acknowledge these negative feelings in order to deal with them. Ask yourself why you were mad or what strained you out about the situation.

Emo­tions are our ring­ing bell. When we are in a bad mood, it means we are ex­pe­ri­enc­ing bad emo­tions. When we are in a good mood, it means we’re ex­pe­ri­enc­ing good emo­tions.
This means what you do (your be­havior) feeds back what you be­lieve in. It’s a cir­cle. It’s a vi­cious cir­cle when emo­tions are bad and a vir­tu­ous cir­cle when emo­tions are good.

When you live out your emo­tions thru be­havior, you won’t be liv­ing out emo­tions, but rather con­firm­ing your un­hap­py think­ing pat­tern. In­stead of get­ting rid of the emo­tion, you’ll be feed­ing it. It will grow in you.


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Tips for Getting Organized

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

Organize, clean and purge your desk

Update your files and change all torn files. Purchase new files in different colors, and organize them by color: purple for clients, green for financial papers and so on. Be sure to label all the files, and then sort out them alphabetically within each color scheme.

Use only one calendar

Pick the one that works best for you: one on your computer, or a paper one on your desk. Then get rid of all your other datebooks and use just the one to record and keep track of everything. If you’re maintaining more than one person’s timetable, like your children, use different colored inks to record information for each family member.

Make a note in your calendar, one week ahead of any occasion or event, about what you need to do for that event

Do you need to send flowers for your mother’s birthday? Do you need to buy cake to bring to a housewarming party? Whatever it is, make a note of it in advance so you can stay of top of your tasks.

Make a list of your goals

Write down at least 10 objectives you want to achieve in your lifetime. Be definite. Then put the list away and update it again next year.

Choose one or two objectives you want to achieve this year with your business

Maybe it’s to land more clients or to make more money. How will you achieve that goal? What amount of money will you formulate this year? How will you do it? Type that information out in a clear sentence, put by your bedside, and read it every morning and every night to help inspire you to reach your goals.

Get rid any workplace supplies you haven’t used in the past year

Donate them to your favorite charity or return them to the store for credit. The less clutter there is in your workplace, the more happiness there’ll be in your life. If you buy a new printer, donate the old one.

Update your rolodex

Clean-up all the cards of people you never contacted last year. If a year goes by and you haven’t called them, chances are, you’ll never call them. If you feel you need to keep the information, put all the “I’ll call them one of these days” cards in a file and label it that.

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Steps to Boost Your Creativity

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

Think about it – being creative is described as “having or showing imagination and artistic or intellectual inventiveness.” Who wouldn’t want that quality?

Here are some of the secrets to help you get started.

Adopt a “the more the merrier” attitude

While we are in school, we are guided that there is only one right answer to test questions. And we implement that same approach to everything else in life. In order to improve our creativity, we have to consider that there is often more than one right answer. So, don’t just stop after you have one answer, sustain and see how many other ones you can come up with. Make it a challenge. It doesn’t matter how outrageous it is. The most important inventions seemed completely preposterous at the time they were first considered. Don’t start judging when you are in the brainstorming stage. That can come later.

Exercise your creative muscle regularly

There have been many studies on the human brain and evidence shows that our brains works very much like a muscle, which means that the more we use it, the stronger it becomes. In order to improve your creative muscle, start using it every break you get, especially when it is just for fun.

- Pick up some brain teaser puzzles and work on those

- Play games that engage the mind such as mah jong or chess

- Approach things differently – instead of writing down a list of words, try using pictures or symbols

- Instead of searching something or reading from a book, pick a toy from your children’s collection and make up a story about it at bedtime

Identify your Creative Environments and Schedule Time There

Do you know where you do your most excellent thinking? For most of us, it is not sitting at our desks. There is something about the seclusion and the relaxed state while engaging in some activities that allow your mind to come up with solutions to problems. So your assignment is to work out where your best creative environments are and schedule yourself to spend time there.

A word of caution though – once you have identified what these environments are, don’t spoil it for yourself by expecting that you will be doing creative thinking every time you are there. Look for it as a special bonus, like a reward you get when you open up the right bottle of Coke. If I went for a walk particularly because I need some creativeness, it doesn’t come as easily. But if I just let my mind amble to whatever it wants to think about, the ideas start to come. Learn to relax into your creativity.

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Reasons to Stay Positive

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

How to maintain a positive attitude is a subject for different articles as there are many methods to achieve it. However, choosing you want to do this is a key first step, and can lead you towards pursuing methods which work for you. A good second step is to begin to basically identify when you are not feeling positive, and pause to reflect on whether you want to choose to feel that way or not. Obtaining your mind out of autopilot puts you back into control, which is essential to changing your attitude.

Maintaining a positive attitude may lead to higher production, whether in your career or personal life. When you are negative, you have a tendency to give up more easily, get easily distracted, get frustrated, and drag your feet. A basic thing such as how you think can make a world of difference.

Who wants to be around a negative person? Do you? Do you want to attract negative people, or positive people? When you are negative, you are sending out signals to others to stay away from you, unless perhaps they are also negative and seek a similar mindset.

Ancient practitioners and medical providers have thought that your attitude can affect your health. Your body takes lines from your mind, and negative thoughts can be disruptive to your internal body processes. Handling stress is a challenge for us, to keep away from stress-induced illnesses. The overturn is also true that having good health will contribute towards a positive attitude, so take care of your body. A holistic approach is to focus on your body and mind together, ensuring you are eating well and getting exercise.

Happiness is perhaps one of the most significant things of all, what good are the other things above if you aren’t happy? Financial success doesn’t necessarily associate to happiness, many wealthy people are quite miserable. Happiness is really a mental state, and we have complete control of our own minds. Unluckily, many leave their emotions and thoughts on “autopilot”, never deciding for themselves how they want to think. Upholding a positive attitude connects to a decision to be happy, it’s your choice.

If you apply a religious belief, then you may also consider that remaining positive is a component of a spiritual growth path. Many religions teach this basic principle that we should stay positive and trust in our creator no matter how bad things may seem. Even if you don’t have spiritual beliefs, maybe you feel something inside your conscience that urges you to be positive, and thus have a positive impact on others in your life. Being positive makes others feel excellent, which is rewarding in itself.

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Be Your Own Success Coach

Monday, August 24th, 2009

Coaching is an important part of personal development. If you can’t hire a certified coach, you can coach yourself. There are many things that people can do to grow themselves personally, and they don’t always entail an outlay of cash.

Identify your values, and ally your life around those values.

Many individual’s lives are not familiar around their values, and they are frustrated trying to determine why they aren’t happy, or aren’t reaching their goals. When you are expressing your importance, you are being true to yourself. Pursuing goals that are not in line with your values leads to frustrations. Living in alignment with your values leads to fulfillment.

Develop the habit of extreme self-care.

Treat your body as a sanctuary, and it will carry you in producing extraordinary results in every other area of your life. Exercise frequently, in the form of power training as well as cardiovascular exercises. Drink lots of water. We know half of our body weight in ounces sounds too much, but it isn’t. Finally, give yourself the gift of privacy. Enjoy quiet time every day.

Attend courses, workshops and seminars regularly.

The design of such materials needs hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of hours to create. When you attend a workshop, you benefit from someone else’s efforts to distill the most important information on that subject. Although some occasions can be very expensive, many are also quite reasonable.

Plan your ideal life.

If life is perfect, what will it look like? What will you do, be and have if you could wave a magic wand, and make it so? What will you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail? Your ideal life is contained within your answers to these questions. Start today to paint the picture of what this ideal life would look like.

Just do it.

At some point, you will need to jump. It will not always be relaxed doing so. However it is only when you move outside your comfort zone that breakthroughs can happen. This is where fear frequently steps in, and puts up that big wall in front of you. So go around it, dig under it, climb over it, or knock it down. If you maintain to take action in the direction of your best life, your fears will eventually go away.

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Delivering The Difficult Messages At Work

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

Feedback is necessary to the personal or professional development process. As you progress professionally, you will be placed in more circumstances in which you will need to give feedback to others. Letting your through reports know how well they are doing is generally the pleasing part of feedback loop. It’s when a complicated message has to be given that many managers and leaders stumble. Whether the information needs to be distributed with an individual, a group or an entire organization, these instances can truly become an opportunity for all parties involved. Opportunity arises when the result of the interaction leads to greater motivation, learning, awareness, support and creativity as well as a call to action.

Faced with this dispute-cum-opportunity, how do you really do it?

Be timely – Although it is easy to defer on challenging tasks, this is one that is best done sooner than later for you and the person receiving the message. If the reaction is tied to a detailed incident, it’s best that both parties have it freshly in their mind. If it is more general, the sooner the feedback is given, the faster action can be taken to develop the situation. Never ‘save’ complicated messages for future annual reviews. It will decrease the significance of the original message since it was delayed and a ‘negative’ surprise in a review can significantly impair morale and motivation.

Be ready – Know the message that you want to send and the results you expect. Recognize and accept the painful feelings that you may have in taking on this role. If fear or anxiety is holding you back, change on the reason of this interaction and the value that will be provided to all parties involved, including yourself. For most, this is a chance to widen your communication skills.

Be concise – Once the discussion starts, allow it to finish quickly. If the recipient is having an emotional reaction, he/she may want time to reform as soon as possible. Save other business things for a time when they will be heard.

Be genuine – It’s okay to share how you’re feeling regarding the process and to acknowledge the other party’s feelings. A primary goal of this process is to develop and maintain the working relationship. Considering the whole person allows you to move outside this meeting.

Be compassionate and concerned, but don’t ‘step on eggshells’ – By using compassion and considering how the receiver may feel during this meeting, you can express your message so it will be heard and will uphold the self-respect of the receiver. Make sure the message comes across, though, and is not understood in niceties. And, focus the conversation on the work, not the person.

This process will also allow for faster action and resolution as well as more effective maintenance of the professional relationship. Difficult messages need not end professional relationships. When done with credibility, care and completeness, the outcome can lead to a more engaged colleague who feels supported and valued.

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