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Greetings!
Welcome to the premier email newsletter for referral-minded independent sales professionals who want the Big Picture.
*To guarantee that the most exceptional and motivated sales professionals and sales managers are not missing out on the excellent ideas from this ezine consistently, be a resource and please forward this on and recommend that they sign up on my website: www.thereferralauthority.com
Date: December 17, 2007
Word count: 877
Reading time: 2-3 minutes
Benefits of Taking Action: Huge
In this issue:
1. 3 Ways to Bring More Joy into Your Life.
2. Matt's Free Quote of the Day Program.
3. Seminars for You and Your Company to Get More Referrals.
4. What's your plan for getting more referrals in 2008?
3 Ways to Bring More Joy into Your Life.
So it's a Saturday morning as snow comes down in Madison, WI. It is very pretty. I'm sitting in a favorite coffee shop where it's very relaxing about a mile away from the mall traffic that was so intense and stressful last night, I could happily never return there. And I'm reminded that even at this festive season, most people are continuing to rush around like it's Monday morning rush hour. And I'm reminded of some words that dramatically improved the final quarter of my year.
I don't know who said the teacher appears when the student is ready, but I was supporting my local library recently by shopping at their book sale. I added to my pile a book (I would not suggest you buy it; the one key point is in this e-zine) that had a message I needed.
In Attitudes of Gratitude, the author M J Ryan made the familiar statement, "I was so busy climbing the ladder of success, that I took no time to enjoy the journey." I thought of my so-called summer where I paused for so little time before accelerating back into work mode, it was October before I realized I had not enjoyed the summer - barely even noticed it. I swear that everyone I asked; "How was your summer?" responded with one word: "FAST!"
Then she hit a nerve: "It was as if I was a machine, mindlessly churning out accomplishments and not stopping to relish the journey along the way. But I got so sick and tired of a joyless existence, and so have thought a lot in the past few years about how to bring more joy into my life."
Now I don't think I was quite at that extreme. The quotation above set in motion three powerful lessons:
1. Ask yourself better questions
I learned this from Tony Robbins. It is very powerful. Develop your own list. Mine includes starting the day with: How can I make today more fun? What am I excited about? (Or, if you're in a bit of a funk, "what could I be excited if I wanted to be?"). You might include: What did I learn today? How did I help others? What am I grateful for? How can I bring more joy into my life?
His premise is if we ask our brain a question, it will eventually come up with an answer. So if we ask a lousy question such as "why does this always happen to me?" our brain will tell us something useless like "because you're not very good at what you do!" or "because you're not very good-looking!"
I particularly like this list of questions for dealing with a problem. Not long ago I remember meeting with a prospect who was saying all the right things. It seemed like we were on the exact same page and I was all excited about the potential of working with his (national) company. Then after he met with the other two decision makers I got a very disappointing email that was sort of the equivalent of saying "we were thinking of sending you and a friend to Hawaii for a week's vacation but instead we're going to mail you a $10 off coupon for an oil change." Ever had that happen to you?
So, try these for any challenge in your life:
a) What's great about this? (Or, what could be great about this?)
b) What's not perfect yet?
c) What am I willing to do to make it the way I want it?
d) What am I willing to give up/no longer willing to do in order to have it the way I want it?
e) How can I do this/get this job done and enjoy the process?
2. Take time to list out what you're grateful for (either on paper or in your mind)
It is impossible for our minds to hold more than one thought at a time, so when it's a train of positive thoughts, guess how that helps you. I even bought a nice journal just to list these things out along with my goals.
Supposedly we have 90,000 thoughts go through our heads every day and for most people the majority of those thoughts are negative. I benefitted from this exercise more than I'd like to admit. Chances are high you will too.
3. Take time to acknowledge yourself for all the things you are doing right without berating yourself for not accomplishing everything.
Try this on paper for at least a week, preferably before you go to bed. I was surprised how enjoyable it was. After all, do you suppose you're more effective (and sleep better) when you feel good about yourself than when you're criticizing yourself because you only got to half the things on your daily to-do list?
These three actions have tremendous potential for anyone. I truly hope you use them.
Lastly, I'm not going to hit your inbox next week. I will be with my family in England. I'm going to take a break!
I would like to thank you for your support this past year and would like to wish you an enjoyable holiday season (hopefully) with your loved ones.
Be a resource. Who else do you think might get value from reading this? Please forward this on.
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