As a CEO, it doesn't matter whether your company is only “you” or you have a staff of one thousand. If you are the CEO, you are the visionary. You are all your company has, and your company will rise or fall depending on what you do with your “thought seed” or, inception, ideas.
You are the lid!
Limits, like fear, is often an illusion.
Michael Jordan
What we are today comes from our, inception, thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind.
Buddha (563 BC-483 BC) Founder of Buddhism
An, inception, story
Let's say you are a Law student at Harvard University; but your passion is writing software. You spend most of your time in the computer lab writing code. One day your friend and fellow computer enthusiast show you an edition of Popular Electronics magazine, featuring a kit to build one of the first mini computers, the “Altair 8800”.
You think to yourself, this new computer needs software to run, inception, thought, idea! I can write the code for the software to run this computer!. So you call the company and tell them that you have already written software that would run on this new computer. Not true, you don’t even have a model!
But you get them to agree to give you a meeting to demonstrate. You bust your ass to deliver; and you meet the deadline. Your code worked perfectly. The company gives you the contract. You quit Harvard and go full time into your own company; you call it Micro-soft! All because of an, inception, thought, idea.
Where is reality in this story? How many CEO’s operate in this space of total confidence, vision and action? The ordinary would have said, “We would need to get an Altair computer and understand the Bios before we can write code.” The ordinary would wait for the right time to make the call. The ordinary would waste this, inception, idea because they are waiting for the right time or the stars to line up.
You know the end of the story. Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft after that. At 23 years old, Bill had 25 employees and his company was grossing over 2 million annually. This was before IBM and MS-DOS. Today he is the richest man in the world with a personal fortune in the billions.
How to Care for your, Inception, or, Thought, seeds.
Care for your, “thought, seeds” or, inception, ideas. Ideas that are in alignment with your purpose will light you up and make you feel good. Most of us, you and me, when we get, “thought, seeds”, we filter them through our reality filter. We ask the question “does this make sense”.
“Dare to be unrealistic. Saying this is not realistic is the most commonly traveled road to mediocrity”
Will smith
What do you do with your, “thoughts, seeds“? Are you like the farmer from the scriptures? Do you sow some of them on rocks? Where the winds of negativity or your friends and family discourage you and tell you it would never work? Thoughts, are incepted into your mind so you can water them and make them grow.
Inception of thought seeds
“A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”………Mathew 13:4-9
Each moment as you move through this world, you are planting seeds. Those seeds are your, thoughts. Once planted, they take root and grow into a forest of reality which surrounds you. So how is your forest growing?
Is it filled with beautiful, productive flora, growing from a steady stream of, positive thought seeds,? Or is it filled with gnarled, thorny, tangled vines which hold you back in every direction?
The trees that grow depend upon the seeds that are planted. Though each thought is a small, seemingly insignificant thing, once it has passed through your mind it begins to grow into something real and substantial.
Each, thought, combines with the other, thoughts, that came before it, and the, thoughts, that come after it, to set the direction of your reality. Even the most secret, hidden thoughts eventually become obvious because of the direction they give to your life.
You can decide how to direct your mind, and by so doing you can profoundly affect the reality of your life. Plant row after row of positive, empowering, thought seeds, and these, inception, thoughts, will grow into a rich and magnificent forest of value and accomplishment.
So, when you have a, “thought, seed” or, inception, that excites you; you plant it in the ground, you cover it up, you water it and it WILL become a tree.
I started off talking about CEO's; but each and every one of us wants to grow up to be something.
Michael Jordon wanted to be the best at basketball. So he hired a coach and every summer he practiced and mastered one skill.
Coaching helps you take stock of where you are now in all aspects of your life, and how that compares to where you would like to be.
Elaine MacDonald
Join me for my new webinar workshop entitled “The Leader Within“. I am offering to HELP you either water the, “thought, seeds” already planted or plant new “seeds” to realize your vision. This webinar will be absolutely FREE!. Its purpose is to help you discover where you are today and plant your, inception, idea of where you want to be.
So if you want to be something tomorrow you are not today then: REGISTER FOR FREE!!
As a gardener of your, mind, you have to be vigilant about tending your, mind garden. Imagine your, mind, as a garden. Positive thoughts are the beautiful flowers that brighten your life. Negative thoughts are the ugly weeds that spread and suffocate your happiness, by cutting off sunlight. Just like plants we need sunlight to thrive.
All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become.” ~Buddha
Negative thoughts can take the form of fear, self-doubt, guilt, anger, blame, insecurity, prophesying or any thought that makes you feel bad!
Garden your, mind, to kill the ANTS, Automatic Negative Thoughts
The mind garden of fear
Fear – defined as false events appearing real, is the number one reason that we don't achieve success in this life, it grows when we don't tend our, mind garden. Fear of the unknown, that feeling of uncertainty. Our, minds, spin tales of past events when we failed or of someone we knew who failed. One way to Kill this, automatic negative thought, or weed in our, mind garden, is to imagine what is the worst that could happen.
If you hate your job and are afraid to leave for fear that you would be able to find another job that pays as much or more than you are making now; talk back to this fear and say that you are skilled and you would so get another job. If the worst that could happen is that you run out of money and can't eat or become homeless; then you plan ahead and either find another job before you quit or acquire the necessary skills to get the job you want. Doing nothing because you are afraid should never be an option. There is also a positive side to this ANT or weed in your, mind garden.
If you are afraid of losing something be it your spouse, your job, your home; it tells you that these things are important to you and that you should do the necessary due diligence to keep them. For example if you fear losing your spouse, then you should work on keeping the marriage fresh, you should keep yourself attractive and don’t let yourself get to 300 lbs and you should serve your spouse and make them feel special.
Self-doubt grows in your mind garden
Lack of confidence is a very powerful, automatic negative thought, or weed that could unchecked in your, mind garden. One of the most essential character traits to have is confidence. It is sexy and it allows you to command attention. When this, automatic negative thoughts, is telling you that you are not good enough, you will not get that promotion because you don't have a degree for example; talk back and tell it that you are the best person for this job and that it is their loss if they don't hire you.
Tend to your, mind garden, and pull up this weed. If you don’t, you will never move from where you are today. You will never be an over achiever or the top sales person on a team! You need self-confidence to achieve success.
Guilt is a weed in your mind garden
Guilt, is a result of your conscience in your, mind, telling you that you have violated your own core value. It is telling you that you did something that is moving you away from your predetermined goal. You can pull up this weed from your, mind garden, by telling yourself that you recognize your mistake and that you have forgiven yourself. Don't let the guilt and shame arrest you and keep your, mind, in bondage.
Anger – Anger ANTS, automatic negative thoughts, keep telling you that someone had no right to do something. The more you think about it, the angrier you get. Psychologists say that anger is like an iceberg, what you see is just the tip but there is more ice for miles below the surface. If you are conscious you have an Anger Management problem, then you should understand (with the help of a Therapist) what is causing your anger. You can pull up this weed from your, mind garden, by telling this , automatic negative thought, that you cannot control what someone else does; the only person you can control is yourself.
Blame – this, automatic negative thought, can be very destructive. When you blame others for the results you are having in your life, you assume the role of the victim. As the victim, you have no power to facilitate change. You pluck this ANT from your, mind garden, by becoming a player. As a player you take back control. Regardless of what the dealer is showing, you can still win! You are not the product of your circumstances. Everybody has a story, it is how you handle adversity and challenges that define and grow you.
Prophesying – the prophesying, automatic negative thought, talks to you about what it knows about the future! It tells you things like “you are never going to close that sale”. “The customer is going to string you along and they will never buy” or “it is never going to work out”. You remove this ANT from your, mind garden, by declaring that you cannot predict the future. You do not have a crystal ball!
Automatic negative thoughts are the weeds in your mind garden
My, Automatic Negative Thoughts, generally take the form of conversations. These ANTS usually starts crawling when I get a trigger. You know what happens when you step on an Ants nest? The Ants all run out at the same and start attacking, they bite!
Tony Robbins teaches about anchors and how to replace the negative ones with positive ones. If you have this problem you should check out his book “The Power Within“. The way I handle these, automatic negative thoughts, is by shaking my head when I become conscious that they are crawling around. I physically shake my head like I am trying to shake them off me, then I bring my attention to my breathing for a few minutes. If they come back again and they usually do, I download them in my journal and that usually takes care of the problem for me and frees my, mind. This is how I tend my, mind garden.
I tend the Garden of my mind by becoming Conscious of the thoughts that make me feel bad!
Positive thoughts on the other hand are like flowers, they beautify your gardens and bring smiles to anyone who stops and pays attention to their beauty; in a similar way positive thoughts make you beautiful to anyone who you have interpersonal relations with. But the beauty of positive thoughts is that they make you feel good. It is not only sex that makes you feel good!
Tending to the garden of your, mind, is an ongoing process.
I’ve seen firsthand how dangerous it is to let the weeds of negative thinking take over your, mind, and just like in your natural garden the weeds thrive more than the flowers or plants. In a similar way when you allow the, automatic negative thoughts, to run free in your head; they snuff all the joy out of your life. All you see is darkness, because they are blocking the sunlight from getting in! Let's look at a garden metaphor to bring an awareness of what happens when weeds take over a garden. Left alone the weeds flourish, creating a dark, tangled mess.
Is your, mind garden, full of weeds?
This morning I stepped outside and noticed one of the largest weeds I have ever seen. I didn't notice it before because it looked like a tree. It had a trunk, and was taller than the other flowers. I thought to myself; how on earth could a weed grow so strong and big? The answer is simple: their purpose is to take the nutrients from the plants, so they get big when your plants become weak and die.
So it is too with your, mind: An unattended, mind, can create havoc for you because your, mind, is amazingly receptive to whatever suggestions may be dropped into it. It has been said that the subconscious mind cannot take a joke. This simply means that whatever belief is introduced to it, it takes seriously as an instruction to grow that thought-seed into a full-blown plant–be it a rose or a weed, and it can’t tell the difference.
How to plant positive seeds in your, mind garden
When you stop and consider how many thought-seeds are purposefully planted in your, mind garden, on a daily basis, it may cause you to tend to your mental garden with a bit more regularity. This is in addition to all the seeds that were planted in your mind unconsciously. As you listen to the radio, watch TV or even sit in a restaurant where others are talking, your mind hears it ALL, irrespective of whether you are conscious of it or not. Given what’s going on in our world today with all of the talk that comes from fear and anger, this is a vital point to grasp. Even when you engage in gossip or negative conversation with or about others, your subconscious mind hears it all. Be careful of the seeds you let in.
A, mind, expanded with an implanted thought cannot be returned back to its original form. Leonardo DiCaprio starred in this complicated movie called “inception”, the implantation of another person's idea into a target's subconscious.[Hollywood understands this concept. The only way to avoid this type of mind pollution is to be consciously focused on positive activities and limit news and gossip.
There are some companies that have a zero tolerance for gossip. They treat it like a cancer and remove the gossiper immediately.
The action you and I need to take is clear isn’t it? It has been proven that the human mind thinks thousands of thoughts a day. Instead of planting a mixed bag of thousands of various seeds, from fearful to simply confused and unfocused thought-seeds, which will require a full time gardener to pull up the weeds, why not specialize in planting one or two types of seed? Plant thought-seeds about yourself and others that are rooted in reverence and loving-kindness.
Plant seeds that focus on God’s Presence at the center and circumference of all you say think and do, at work, home, or play.
Be mindful…be skillful in the seeds you plant and how you nurture them. Your life is your garden; keep the weeds out because that is one way in which you can personally beautify our world. You owe that much to yourself and to those who receive the benefit of the seeds you plant along the way.
Are you a, failure? Can you recognize your, failure, symptoms? How often have you said “life is short”?
Well It is! We are here on earth for a limited time to fulfill a purpose. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could go to the doctor and tell him our life symptoms and he would give us a diagnosis of success or, failure? For example if you go to the doctor today with itchy bumps and a fever, he would look at you and without running any tests diagnose you with the chicken pox.
Recognizing your, failure, symptoms early in life before you get to your 5th or 6th decade is the only way to take action to modify your behaviors. As we head into 2015, I would like to offer you the gift of consciousness. Do you have any of the symptoms below? If you do, call me for a free coaching session. Take control of your life and get a step closer to success.
Do you sleep more than 6 hours per night or day? Thomas Edison took only 2 hour naps on his desk while he was working on his inventions. He didn’t want to sleep because he was so invested in his work. He called sleep a waste of time.
I read Donald Trump’s biography and he said that he hated going to sleep because he was so excited about his business and he didn’t want to miss anything.
Donald Trump credits only sleeping for three or four hours with staying ahead of his competition. “How does somebody who's sleeping 8 and 10 hours a day compete with someone that's sleeping three or four?” he's said.
Political leaders across the globe run their countries on short spurts of shuteye. President Obama has said he can get by on a four-hour doze. Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher ran the U.K. for a decade, on four hours a night.
The saying “the early bird catches the worm” is meant to tell you that rising early is best if you want to catch the opportunities. If you go to bed early and sleep late, that is a, failure symptom, that you will not be successful.
A shy kid might look longingly at other kids playing in the schoolyard, afraid and unsure about how to approach them, but an introvert is perfectly content on her own.
Laurie Helgoe
Introverts, are sometimes called the “walking sleepers”. Introverts, usually allow activity to pass by them without participation, indulge in time killing pursuits, taking only the most minor role or unconstructive parts. Introverts, are also the solitaire players, the pathological bookworms, the endless crossword puzzlers, the couch potatoes. In order to succeed in business or life, you need to have the ability to sell yourself, you need social skills. You don’t have to be the life of the party; but you must be able to be comfortable at the party. Being an, introvert, and sleepwalking through life is a, failure symptom.
3. Are you drinking more than 2 drinks daily?
Drinking heavily brings on a waking sleep. Drinking affects your ability to think straight and handicaps the drinker. You will not be able to contribute fully in staff meetings, argue sensibly, plan or be proactive if you are under the influence of alcohol and thus could become a, failure.
“I always thought I was an extrovert until I became a theatre major. Then I realized I just didn't like silence.”
― Cora Carmack, Losing It
Do you count the day lost if you did not attend a dinner party, go to a movie theater, dancing at a club or hanging out with friends? To be successful you need time alone to plan, to be creative and to ponder your next move.
5. Having no goals could lead to, failure
Dr William Menninger says “a fellow must know where he wants to go, if he is going to get anywhere”
No goals are bad enough but low goals are worst. Is your goal to just keep your job and make just enough money to pay your bills? Is it to live to retirement and then collect social security? Or is it to be the top player in the “candy crush” video game?
The bible says “people without a vision will perish”. Not necessarily physical death, but spiritual death. It is exhilarating to work towards a goal. Happiness is defined as working towards a goal.
“We are at our very best, and we are happiest, when we are fully engaged in work we enjoy on the journey toward the goal we've established for ourselves.”
The great leaders and legends of our time, all had goals, vision, mission and as they achieved one goal, they started on the next.
10 Signs You Are Going To Be A, Failure
You love wasting money and expect your parents to foot the bill. …
You are not disciplined. …
You don't finish what you start. …
You love playing the blame game. …
You don't believe in yourself. …
You don't set goals. …
You care too much about what others think. …
You don't take care of your health.
Join me for a Free webinar on how to set and achieve clear goals, how to create vision and mission statements, how to motivate your staff to excel and how to create influence.
Greg Orme, Forbes contributor and Author of the Business book of the Year 2020 “The Human Edge: How curiosity and creativity are your superpowers in the digital economy” shares, leadership, tips on thriving in a world of accelerating change through, creative thinking, curiosity, and consciousness. Greg shares with, leaders, how to remove the threat of, ai, machines taking their jobs by excelling at the 4C's, consciousness, curiosity, creativity, and collaboration.
I'm delighted to be here Myrna, I think we first came across each other through my one of my Forbes articles.
Myrna – Yes, I was browsing through Linkedin and I came across your article on, gratitude, and when I clicked on it, I noticed that you had a book that was awarded Business book of the year. So, I decided to invite you on the show.
Listen the the Full Interview Here:
Greg – Well isn't serendipity great? Those algorithms brought us together. I'm coming from you Stratford in the UK and you're on the west coast in Florida, what an amazing world we live in. I'm very grateful for that.
How Can Leaders develop the Human Edge
Myrna – I am sure it was an honor to have the award of business book of the year. I know your book was specifically designed for, leaders, but we're all individual, leaders. We have to lead ourselves first before we can lead others.
Why did you write The, Human Edge? Can you give us a little background on your research for this topic and why we need a, human edge, in this digital and computer age?
Greg – That’s a great question, four years or so, I became really interested in one of the big issues of our lifetime. Which is our human relationship with this machine age of, ai.
We all have smartphones that we carry around with us. We never leave them anywhere; this thing called, artificial intelligence, is here to stay.
What skills Leaders need to stay Relevant
After a speech one day on, leadership, one of the female CEO’s came up to me and said Greg , I'm kind of interested in the, organizational change, stuff; but what skills do I need to remain relevant in the next 10 years?
That question led me to start the journey which led to the book, The Human Edge. Even though I'm in the, leadership, business the, Human Edge, is for anyone. It's a little manual for your own humanity that even if your boss is a bit toxic you can keep under your desk and it's hopefully the keys to some of your own potential.
Myrna – I remember when the digital age started about the mid 80s, I was working at a bank and everybody was really worried about the ATM machines replacing tellers in the bank; but banks still need tellers 40 years later.
Should we be worried about AI machines taking over our jobs?
Greg – Of course we have been worried about, ai, machines as a race of, humans, for a long long time. I think the first anti-machine story was written in the Greek age about a kind of killer robot, and of course we've had the, terminator, and all sorts of machines taking over routine jobs.
We're worried about these, machines, taking us over and being aggressive and of course somebody wise once said about, technology. We always overestimate the impact of, technology, in the short term; but underestimate it in the long term.
Technology, ai, in particular has long term implications for, leaders. Self-learning algorithms make, ai, smarter and smarter. It's very difficult for the human brain to really get our heads around, AI, but, leaders, are starting to get ahead of the curve.
I don't think most, leaders, should worry about, artificial intelligence, unless your job is simple and can be replaced by a, machine.
Computer scientists call this an algorithmic job i.e routine. You can plan out every keystroke and every process within that job.
An example would be telemarketers, people who are on a script, jobs like those organizing data in a library, even long distance truck drivers; because autonomous driving is really, ai, technology. Another job going to, ai, is customer service, you can never get someone on the phone when you call major corporations anymore. The, ai, machine can have a conversation with callers and handle most calls without the help of a live agent.
Ai , technology will slice away the very routine tasks that we all do, like booking flights or booking a haircut or booking a restaurant. What's interesting is it leaves a, human, shaped hole for our careers. We're seeing capabilities and skills that were admired as, leaders, in the early 80s to late 90s are now being admired again.
The Human Edge
Human Skills that can protect you against AI
Leaders, need Human skills, like:
passion,
gratitude,
empathy,
curiosity,
creativity, are valued.
LinkedIn looked at 20 million job applications in 2020. They noticed that employers are looking for , leaders, with , creative thinking. This is partly to do with, technology, coming into the workplace. Employers need thinking outside the boxes.
Myrna – What is the difference between, creative thinking, and, critical thinking?
Greg- Critical thinking, is being able to analyze a situation and come up with one solution. It has always been admired in the workplace. I think, critical thinking, is one of the top 10 skills employers are looking for in, leaders.
Creative thinking, is a way of connecting one's domain of knowledge over here with another over there and create a whole new innovation or idea. An example of , leaders, with , creative thinking, are Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google. Google is the creation of two ideas from different worlds that came together.
Myrna – In your book you talk about the 4Cs of the, Human Edge. What are they?
Greg – The first C is, consciousness. Consciousness, is the ability to find meaning in your work.
The second C is curiosity
The third C is creativity
The fourth C is collaboration
Ai machines do not have Consciousness
Myrna – I love the one that you started with, consciousness, because, consciousness, is the big word today and encompasses, awareness, and spirituality. It is a great, human edge, because obviously, ai, doesn't have, consciousness. How are using it in this context of the, human edge?
Greg – Machines that use, artificial intelligence, don't ask why? They ask “How do I do this, they ask what do you want to do, but they don’t ask why.”
Understanding why you do things has been a very powerful human trait especially for, leaders. Understanding and being able to articulate in some way your own why is hugely motivational. It releases huge power in yourself as a person. We've all met people who have a why and they've got shiny eyes and go the extra mile. They'll work through the night if necessary.
The science of neuroscience data shows that we can actually see the brain light up if you're living a purposeful life or your best life. The brain releases a chemical called, dopamine, which is the motivation molecule.
The other part of, consciousness, in my model is actually finding the time in your day to observe all the, leaders, and managers in your organization. I literally meet thousands of, leaders, each year through the London business school. If we're not careful the, ai, enabled algorithms that drive social media, our day is shattered into a thousand pieces and we never actually find time to be curious or creative.
Curiosity gives you a Human Edge
I talk a lot in, The Human Edge, about how you redesign your day to ensure that you have parts of it where you're not being distracted.
Myrna – True, your why is very important. It's the only thing that is actually going to get you to your end goal. If you know your why, you will persevere when life knocks you down.
How does, curiosity, give you a, human edge?
Greg – Organizations are asking for people who have built up their, curiosity, in order to drive their own learning. What we've seen during the pandemic is many of the disruptors that were moving the world forward at a lightning pace have been accelerated.
One of my former clients, the World Economic Forum, estimate that something like every 18 months or so about 40 percent of what we know becomes obsolete and we need to learn new things. So, the ability to learn rapidly and, curiosity, has become hugely important for any career.
So, the magical thing about, curiosity, is it's not a fixed trait. You were born with blue eyes and with certain physical factors that you can't do anything about. Curiosity, is something that you can flex, develop. Like the mercury in a thermometer, it goes up and down depending on what you're doing every day. It's like a muscle you can build it up.
Open Ended Questions foster Curiosity
One of the techniques I share for, leaders, in, The Human Edge, to help you build up your, curiosity, is the Five hour rule.
Questions are good for, curiosity; but only a certain type of question. Open ended questions, is preferred to, closed questions. I was a journalist once myself and, closed questions, are useful for checking information or sometimes you want a yes or no answer, but for, curiosity, you need, open ended questions.
Open ended questions, are really powerful for, leaders. Questions like:
What if we tried it this way?
Have you seen what those guys are doing over there?
Do you think we could do that too?
Open ended questions, not only to inspire your own, curiosity, but it sparks, curiosity, it in the people around you.
Ai machines can't come up with Creativity
Myrna – So now lets talk about, creativity. I know that it is like a top, human edge, because employers want, leaders, who think outside of the box. It is definitely a way to differentiate yourself from, ai.
Greg – Organizations need systems, they also need bureaucracy to run them because they're very large entities; but what most of the, leaders, that I'm working with across multiple industries are trying to do is trying to find the space where there are fewer rules.
They encourage, leaders, to come with their ideas and, creativity. You cannot really be creative unless you're first insatiably curious. Curiosity, is about asking questions, you're interrogating the world and challenging the status quo, but you're also importantly gathering cognitive fuel for your brain.
Creativity is the characteristic of the World's Wealthiest
This is why if you look at the life stories of highly successful people, they all talk about, curiosity, and their ability to learn as a foundational skill. Oprah Winfrey talked about, curiosity, and books getting her where she is today. Jeff Bezos was a was a curious learner.
Elon Musk is I think currently the world's richest man. He has as disrupted multiple industries; but it's important to realize that even Elon Musk talented he is. When he was as a young boy in South Africa before he came to Canada, he was not the finished product. Elon Musk built his ability to think differently and his, curiosity, through a lifelong of learning. Spacex which is one of his more interesting ventures to disrupt commercial travel to the moon and beyond, got that idea, because he was so fascinated in rocketry and space travel.
Myrna – Our last C is, collaboration. Collaboration, is a, human edge, of being able to bring talents together to create something bigger.
Collaboration, is what you need if you are creative, because you need to come together with other, humans, to get your ideas off the ground.
Greg – You're correct Myrna. Collaboration, is a very human trait to be able to gather similar or maybe opposite characteristics and bring them together to create something big.
We've talked about, consciousness, that gives you the energy and the motivation and the time because of focus. Then we touched on, curiosity, which gives you the fuel.
Collaboration, works when you have a large network of, collaborators. These people are more, innovative, because they've got these connections and people can help them with their ideas. So, how do you ensure that your network is big enough and varied enough to help you? Then I talk about experimentation, how you can take these ideas and test them very quickly get some data on it and feedback.
Business Book of the Year 2020 – The Human Edge
Myrna – Your book was awarded Business Book of the Year, because you were talking about, leadership, skills for people and preventing, leaders, from being obsolete by the emergence of ,ai. You mentioned in your bio that you were redundant in 2008 and that's basically what took you on this journey to discover the, human edge. If we learn these skills can they insulates us from being redundant?
Greg – Absolutely, my story like most people's, did not work out the way that I had planned. It's the parts where you go wrong in the creative process, where you can learn the most and move forward.
Myrna – Tell our readers how they can get a copy of your book. You also speak all around the world so tell us how organizations can contact you if they're interested in you speaking at one of their executive functions.
Greg – Thanks for the opportunity. If people want to check out my work it'd be a great idea to just go to my website www.gregorme.com there they can see some videos of me speaking and they can actually get in touch with me through the get in touch function on the website.
Conclusion
There's one other thing, I’ve just launched something that's really taking off. A newsletter called the CuriousHuman. This is a complimentary email sent straight to your inbox once a month.
This is the kind of byproduct you were talking about on your podcast. A byproduct of a business writer's life, because I’m always writing my Forbes pieces or my new books or I have got a great podcast I’ve heard or an interesting book I’ve read or an article or a video. What I do each month is I share that in a two-minute kind of bulletin to the people who have signed up for my emails.
You can sign up on my website, at the bottom of every page there's a space where you can sign up for the newsletter. If they'd would like to follow me on social media, I think the best place is LinkedIn, that is where I’m most active.
I’d be delighted to connect with people. Also, on Forbes I’ve got my own regular column. If you put Greg Orme Forbes in the search, I will come up. I'm writing regularly on Forbes.
The, power of Intention, is defined as a strong purpose or aim to fulfill your dreams. This power is an invisible force of, energy, in the Universe activating the, law of attraction. We access this force when we become inspired; dormant forces come alive in us and propel us towards our goals. That force is called, the Power of Intention.
Don't wait to fall through a hole to experience a new world, be deliberate about your life; intentionally create the world you want to live and play in.
Every baby is born with a purpose, every baby is pure intention. Even before the Seed is matched with the Egg; the, Power of Intention, sets in motion what you will physically look like at your birth. Your height, your bone structure, the color of your eyes and your non-physical attributes are also predetermined; ie your personality, how you will handle stress and your emotional IQ etc.
Babies are born with the potential to walk, speak, read, and do mathematics. Nothing is left to chance. It’s possible to locate which areas of the brain that will eventually produce these abilities, but until then, they exist as pure, power of intention, and potentials and intentions.
” I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations” ~~~Jeremiah 1:5
Here are 3 ways to access, the Power of Intention, energy field
The spoken word – is a powerful tool, by levering our voice we expand our dreams from internal thoughts to external possibilities. So speak freely of your dreams and visions. By verbalizing your thoughts out loud you are empowering your dreams to the universe. You are entering the field of all possibilities and activating, the power of intention. This is the predominant reason that coaching works. Inside the coaching conversation, you are speaking your goals and vision, sometimes for the first time.
Controlling your Thoughts – Wayne Dyer power of intention, when you are aware of the company you keep in your head, you take back control of your life by being present in the present moment. The friends in your head in the form of your thoughts, determines where you end up in life. Just like when we were kids and our parents told us not to keep company with certain kids because they would be a bad influence; in the same way if we keep company with negative thoughts, they become a bad influence.
Your parents did not know why but they knew that if you hung around bad kids then no good will come of you. In a similar way if you keep replaying negative emotions, doubt, worry, insecurities, getting even, discontent, fear, blame in your head then no good will come of you. The first step in activating, Wayne Dyer power of intention, is becoming conscious of your thoughts. Once you bring these thoughts from subconscious to consciousness, then you take back control.
Power of intention
Verbalize your vision – What you do and what you say are very important. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. When we declare our intentions to the Universe, we set the, energy, fields in motion. The bible teaches that words are carriers. Words carry the spirit of the person speaking. Spirit is the highest form of, energy. To access the, energy, field of the, Power of Intention, and, the Secret, we need to become aware of our, energy, levels.
Discover who you are and live your life on purpose! ~~~Dolly Parton
There are five, energy levels, in the field of, power of intention:
1: The material world – it is energy slowed down so we can see form
2: The sound world – faster energy. We can sometimes feel sound vibrations.
3: The light world – when the high energy of light meets with the low energy of darkness; the darkness becomes light. In the same way when we keep our energy levels high, the low energy fields of doubt, depression, obstacles etc. cannot reach us because our light converts the low energy fields of negative emotions.
4: Our thoughts – the, energy, of our thoughts are higher than light and sound. This is the foundation for the movie, the Secret. Every thought we have can be calculated to see if it has the positive energy to access the, power of intention, or the negative energy of doubt that impedes our forward movement and progress. That's, the Secret, of the, Law of Attraction.
5: The energy of spirit – The highest level of, energy, is that of spirit. Spirit is the, energy, force of Creation. Kindness, Beauty, Love, Expansion are also forms of spirit energy.
Make raising your, energy, levels a priority in life. Low, energy, is an attractor pattern. If you practice raising your, energy, then you will not attract low, energy, forms like depression, blame, loneliness, shame, anxiety etc.
Becoming conscious of your thoughts using the, power of intention conscious discipline.
Make meditation a regular practice. Meditation allows us to make conscious connection with our source. It also allows us to make conscious connection with our emotions, so that we develop discipline.
Use the, power of intention conscious discipline, to become conscious of the foods we eat. Processed foods lower our energy, while fruits, vegetables and greens raise our energy levels. Drugs and alcohol including prescription drugs also lowers your energy levels. Retreat from drugs and alcohol even prescription drugs.
Becoming conscious of the music you listen to. Rock and Heavy metal music lowers your, energy levels, while soft music about love, and classical music raises your energy levels.
Becoming aware of the energy in your home. Feng Shui is the art of choosing the right furnishings and accessories then arranging these furnishings to increase the positive energy in your home. Accessories can include paintings or photography.
Photographs of your loved ones smiling and laughing in happier times, photographs expressing love or showcasing nature also raise your energy levels. You should also become conscious of the energy from relationships in your home. Tension and strife in your home not only lowers your, energy levels; but it debilitates you. We cannot excel in any area in life, if we are not happy at home.
Immerse yourself in nature- experiencing the beauty of nature is a purely spiritual experience. The energy of spirit is the highest level attainable in the, universal laws.
Commit to helping people in need. Acts of kindness expecting nothing in return raises your, energy levels, because kindness, compassion and service are spiritual experiences and the highest of the energy states. The beauty of kindness and giving expecting nothing in return is that you get that energy back in spades.
The Bible teaches that in giving the tithe to God,” the windows of Heaven are opened and blessings pour out that you wouldn’t have room to receive.” In a similar fashion, when you give of yourself to the world, expecting nothing in return, the windows of Heaven open up and you get back more than you ever gave.
In the competitive landscape of business, your bait is your enticing offering that lures clients in capturing the attention and trust of potential clients. Your bait, plays a pivotal role in this delicate dance. In this post, we'll delve into 5 strategies that can elevate your bait, transforming it into a powerful tool to hook and retain clients effectively.
What are your clients biting on? What is your bait?
Years ago I watched the movie “A River runs through it”. I should confess that anything with Brad Pitt I watch with a big smile on my face! Anyway, in the movie Brad and his brother were fishing in this river. Brad's brother was catching a whole lot of fish and Brad had not caught one. After some time of being a spectator in this fishing expedition, he shouted to his brother, “What are they biting on?” His brother shouted back, “Pimento Bugs”. Strangest, bait, I ever saw, these bugs had wings! But sure enough, when Brad changed his, bait, he caught the biggest fish ever!
In sales, you are the, Bait!
Everything you heard is true! People buy from people they like, people they feel a connection to or with people who are like them!
Here are 5 Ways you can Improve your marketing Bait:
No tee-shirts and tattoos
1: Your Business Attire is One Hook
I will start with an Old Cliché “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” If you are going for an interview or meeting with a customer for the first time; look the part, and that is your best, bait. No tee shirts a, professional business attire, is required.
A few years ago, I went for an interview once at Apple retail Store and I was very confused. Apple, Google and Facebook CEO's have all made famous the tea shirt and running shoes mode of dress. But even is that culture, business casual attire, is recomended. So I was not sure how to dress; but I decided on, business professional attire. No tee-shirt and runners for me! Better to be overdressed than not get a job because you showed up in tea shirt and tennis shoes.
In the movie “the Pursuit of Happyness”, Will Smith was sleeping in bathrooms and homeless; but he made sure he had one, business professional attire, so even though homeless, he was always well groomed. That is all you need, one good outfit. It is suggested that for the man the color should be blue, black or grey for a suit. The, business attire for women, should be a pant suit or an A-line dress.
2: Your Profile picture is Also bait
Your, profile picture, is what everyone sees. Just a picture of your head and face, and they from that they form a judgement, whether consciously or not. In a recent LinkedIn training class, the presenter told a story about how he was about to hire someone for a service, then he noticed that their picture was dark and blurred. He said he decided not do business with them. He formed a judgement that if they could not spend $50 to get a good, profile picture, then they could not be successful. You might say that he was too judgmental; but you never know what is costing you business. It is best to button it up and have the best bait to hook your clients.
I personally would never connect with anyone who didn't have a, profile picture, because I made the judgement that they were either not active or not serious. Now I connect because I can offer my consulting services because they need Help! Spend the money to get the, best profile picture, and it will pay dividends.
3: Your professional image is your Hook
I could never understand the “shoe shine” concept. Why did men favor going to get their shoes professionally shined until it became a mirror and they could see their faces in their shoes?
Now I understand, those men understood the value of “the entire package” their, professional image, included the clothes, the shoes, the briefcase, the tie, everything. You can't show up in an expensive, business attire, and your shoes are not shined! You can't show up in an expensive, business professional attire, and your hair looks like a hippie; you can't show up in an expensive, business casual attire, and your car looks like you bought it from the scrapyard. People form the wrong impression and then you have to work doubly hard for them to hear what is coming out of your mouth.
For men, pay attention to the suit, shirt, tie, hair style, shoes.
For women, pay attention to your dress, your hair, your shoes and your pocket book! Yes, people now pay attention to what handbag you are putting your lipstick into!
4: Your Business card, your Website, and your Printed Materials are your bait
If you want to convey success, then you have to look the part.
Has anyone ever handed you a, business card, that was printed at home on cheap paper? What was your reaction? Did you want to run out and purchase their product? I am sure you didn't. Or you ask someone who has a service you are interested in for a, business card, and they tell you they don't have one.
I should even add a pen to this scenario. In the movie “the Pursuit of Happyness”, there is a scene in which a salesperson bent over backwards to get a contract with Will Smith to produce his story. He called him several times, he made him an irresistible offer, he tracked him down at the airport and when Will was about to sign the contract and he asked him for a pen, he did not have one! Will cancelled the deal. He felt that a salesperson should always have a, business card, and a pen if he is worth anything!
5: Your Speech makes or breaks you
I don't know if you have noticed, but most of the leading roles for movies and television commercials are going to actors who sound English! It is like a “cool breeze” to listen to someone with a pleasant voice. You don't have to have an English accent; but your volume should be right and your pace should be right. As a Toastmaster, when we are speaking, we are gonged when we add fillers to our speech. Fillers are so, umm, ahh, etc. if you are doing a presentation and you have too many fillers, your audience doesn't regard you as a subject matter expert.
Your, Bait, is you! Once you make a good impression and the fish are biting; then you can get on with the business that you came to do, and that is to sell your product or service.
In the movie, Inception, a thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a C.E.O.
Inception, are, thought seeds, and can be planted by a, thought. As a CEO, it doesn't matter whether your company is only “you” or you have a staff of one thousand. If you are the CEO, you are the visionary. You are all your company has, and your company will rise or fall depending on what you do with your, “thought seed,” or vision.
You are the lid!
Limits, like fear, is often an illusion.
Michael Jordan
What we are today comes from our, inception, or, thoughts, of yesterday, and our present, thoughts, build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind.
Buddha (563 BC-483 BC) Founder of Buddhism
Inception of thought Bill Gates
Let's say you are a Law student at Harvard University; but your passion is writing software. You spend most of your time in the computer lab writing code. One day your friend and fellow computer enthusiast show you an edition of Popular Electronics magazine, featuring a kit to build one of the first mini computers, the “Altair 8800”. You think to yourself, this new computer needs software to run.
I can write the code for the software to run this computer!. So you call the company and tell them that you have already written software that would run on this new computer. Not true, you don’t even have a model! But you get them to agree to give you a meeting to demonstrate. You bust your ass to deliver; and you meet the deadline. Your code worked perfectly. The company gives you the contract. You quit Harvard and go full time into your own company; you call it Micro-soft!
Where is reality in this story? How many CEO’s operate in this space of total confidence, vision and action? The ordinary would have said, “We would need to get an Altair computer and understand the Bios before we can write code.” The ordinary would wait for the right time to make the call. You know the end of the story. Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft after that. At 23 years old, Bill Gates had 25 employees and his company was grossing over 2 million annually. This was before IBM and MS-DOS. Today he is the richest man in the world with a personal fortune in the billions.
Care for your, “thought seeds”. Ideas that are in alignment with your purpose will light you up and make you feel good. Most of us, you and me, when we get “thought seeds”, we filter them through our reality filter. We ask the question “does this make sense”.
“Dare to be unrealistic. Saying this is not realistic is the most commonly travelled road to mediocrity”
Will smith
What do you do with your, inception, of, thoughts seeds? Are you like the farmer from the scriptures? Do you sow some of them on rocks? Where the winds of negativity or your friends and family discourage you and tell you it would never work?
“A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”………Mathew 13:4-9
Is it inception or just noise?
Learn discernment. You have to know you. You have to know when the, inception, or, thought seed, is a vision or it is just noise. You can tell this by paying attention to how your body reacts to the thought.
Think about how your body reacted when you first saw your spouse or when you first thought about marrying him or her. I am guessing that the thought made you happy and “lighted” you up. I recently saw a theatre production of the Buddy Holly story; apparently Buddy Holly proposed to his wife after meeting her for 5 hours; He must have been burning up!
So, when you have a, “thought seed,” or a vision that excites you; you plant it in the ground, you cover it up, you water it and it WILL become a tree.
I started off talking about CEO's but each and every one of us wants to grow up to be something.
An Entrepreneurial, leader, is defined as the owner manager of an organization or Business Enterprise with considerable initiative and risk. The risk and high volatility of the, entrepreneurial mindset, is the life blood of the capitalist society. Because of the high risk of failure of the, Entrepreneur, (statistics says 1 in every 10 businesses will succeed) it is of paramount importance to have an effective, Leader, at the helm.
Here are ten of the most important characteristics of the Entrepreneurial Leader:
Passionate - You must care about people above profits. People encompass the, entrepreneur, customers, employees community.
Driven - An Entrepreneurial, Leader , must be self motivating and have a burning desire to succeed
Humility - An entrepreneurial, leader, must be humble. "I believe the first test of a truly great man is in his humility". -John Ruskin Visionary
Vision - A leader, must have vision. Without vision his business will perish.
"The most pathetic person is a person who has sight but no vision". -Helen Keller
Where do you see your company in 5 or 10 years? Are you able to recognize trends? Are you able to be innovative and re-inventive? If not, your company will become obsolete.
"Where there is no vision, everything will fail. Your business will fail, your marriage will fail, you will stumble in your spiritual life, your money will disappear, you will get fat and flabby and you will go no where in life!" - Peter Drucker.
The bible teaches "people without a vision, will perish". Not in the physical body but you will become spiritually dead. Vision is the blood that circulates in the, entrepreneur's, organization and keeps it alive. Pull your dreams gently out of the clouds, write them down, work with an Executive Coach to design action steps; only then it becomes a vision.
Loyalty – Loyalty to customers and employees is a must for the, leader.
"A person who deserves my loyalty receives it". - Joyce Maynard
A, leader, who has no followers is only out for a walk!
5. Loyalty is the glue that keeps your employees and customers bound to you. Reciprocate it.
6. Charismatic - A Charismatic, leader, are essentially very skilled communicators. Entrepreneurial Leader, should be verbally eloquent; but also able to communicate to followers on a deep, emotional level. They are able to articulate a compelling or captivating vision, and are able to arouse strong emotions in followers. Charisma is not a must have characteristic but a nice to have.
7. Risk taker - Entrepreneurial leaders, are risk takers since the failure rate is high. With great risks come great rewards. Nothing ventured nothing gained. An, Entrepreneurial Leadership, must take risks to win!.
8. Strength and Courage - Courage, confidence, self reliance, and persistence are the characters, leaders, needed to overcome obstacles and reach the goals in life that really matter to you and your company.
9. Spiritual strength - which includes mental and emotional strength are also important characteristics to add.
When you are able to surrender to God, and have confidence that you are on purpose; you tap into the organizing power of the Universe. The power that supports all living things, the power greater than yourself.
As goes the King goes, so does the Kingdom. Your business and your career rises and falls according to the strengths or weaknesses of its, Leader. You are the lid! A Spiritual Life and Executive Coach can help you push past limiting beliefs, and help you build that courage and confidence muscle.
10. Maverick - Mavericks are talented and truthful to the point of bluntness. Mavericks break rules, not out of spite; but because the rules don't work. They are highly goal orientated, charismatic, and will question anything and everything! Mavericks are, Leaders, who eagerly make business decisions that fly in the face of business-as-usual. They deliberately turn traditions up-side-down or shut them out altogether, looking instead for new "disruptive" ideas and creative people, and in doing so find themselves on a joyous ride to success. Steve Jobs (Apple) and Richard Branson (Virgin) are often marked as 'mavericks'.
Passionately Serving - You have to be a servant to lead effectively.
“I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.” ― Albert Schweitzer
What, communication skills, are important to Entrepreneurial Leader success
Let’s talk about, leadership, and then this broaden it to a straight talk between peers. Talking straight is really a sign of respect to everyone in your life. We’ve all met people who say they call it as they see it, that is actually quite selfish. Talking straight is when you are able to base what you’re saying in fact. When you talk straight with someone, you don’t postulate, you don’t pontificate, you don’t technically tell the truth, but you kind of leave the wrong impression. No you just you say straight up what is true.
As a life coach, I would use something called the, sandwich technique, which means that you package that talk with something positive like a sandwich.
I would not advocate the, sandwich feedback method. I think it’s generally disingenuous. I think the better technique is to first declare your intent, because the moment there is suspicion about your intent, everything you do becomes tainted. So be very clear on what your intent is. Say what is uncomfortable straight, no chaser without any bogus compliments and no hidden agenda.
The, Law of the Harvest, is one of the, Universal Laws. We are all familiar with the, universal laws, like the, Laws of Gravity. We know that if we jump off a building, we will fall to the ground. We know that if an apple rolls off a table it will fall to the ground. Only in space we see things floating around. I was watching a movie recently where someone vomited in space and the vomit well ….you get the picture. It did not fall to the ground! The, Universal Laws, of the Harvest can literally be referred to as the Power of the seed. You can’t harvest without first planting a seed. See an excerpt below on planting and harvesting Lettuce.
Universal Laws of the Harvest is the reaping and sowing Principle
The, Universal Law, of the Harvest, can be demonstrated with planting lettuce. Lettuce can be started from seed or from plants. Some gardeners like to direct seed their lettuce; but many prefer to start transplants and then move them into the garden after they get off to a good start. Lettuce seed germinates best in moderate to cool temperatures with soil temperatures of 75 degrees being about ideal. The seeds are small and flat so some seed companies now offer palatalized seed for easier more accurate seeding and germination.
Lettuce seed won't germinate well if buried too deep, so you must cover them with about 1/4 inch of light sand or screened compost. Press them lightly on the surface to firm soil or growing media against the seed and then mist them well to thoroughly moisten. One mistake many gardeners make when direct seeding lettuce out in the garden is to not prepare a fine textured, smooth seed bed. Scattered into chunky, crusty soil lettuce seed will seldom make a good stand.
Keep the seeds moist until they sprout and get off to a good start. If a seed dries out at any time during the germination process it will die. If you start seed outdoors it helps a lot to place a row cover fabric over the seed row, suspended to prevent the row cover from getting pressed into the soil surface with watering or rains. The row cover helps to keep the seeds from drying out quickly in the sun and drying wind. Remove the cover to water the seeds once or twice a day to keep them moist. Use a mister nozzle on the water hose to prevent blasting the seeds away. Gardeners often tend to plant more lettuce than they need.
Your harvest is a direct proportion to what you plant
Think about it. How many heads or plants of leaf lettuce do you eat a week? Plant enough to last a couple of weeks and a few extras to allow for some that won't make it. Scatter the seeds one half to an inch apart. It is really easy to plant them too thick. Then when you try to thin the seeds it's difficult not to do significant damage to the remaining plants. Plant Care Lettuce performs best if you keep it growing well with adequate soil moisture and moderate fertilization.
Water transplants in with a dilute solution of soluble fertilizer according to label instructions. Repeat this application twice weekly for a couple of weeks to ensure the new plants are off to a good start. A light application of dry fertilizer when the plants have been in about two weeks should take them on through their harvest time. Sprinkle one half cup of a 3-1-2 or 4-1-2 ratio fertilizer per 10 foot of planting row. Then lightly scratch it into the surface and water it in well. Lettuce is shallow rooted so avoid deep cultivation. Stay ahead of weeds so you don't disturb the lettuce plants later when removing large competing weeds.
Light, shallow cultivation is best. You can mulch the best when plants are well on their way. This will also help prevent soil from splashing onto the leaves during rain or irrigation. Problems Lettuce used to be plagued by several diseases that could wipe out plantings. Most modern varieties have some good resistance built in, but at times during wet periods some fungal rots and mildews may show up. I suggest that should such a problem arise just pull out affected plants and keep the new plantings coming rather than resort to sprays, especially since by the time some rot shows up it is too late to do that plant much good with a spray. Lettuce is fairly cold hardy and will tolerate light frosts with little to no damage.
Young seedlings are more prone to freeze damage. Harvest Head types are best harvested after they develop a firm head. Bibb lettuce is ready to harvest when the plants have reached about their full size and the leaves are just starting to cup inward slightly as if to form a loose head. Leaf lettuce can be harvested at any time from when you are thinning young plants on. But is it best to either harvest older leaves, leaving the plants to grow for later harvests or cut entire plants out when they reach near full size for the variety. I generally make harvest decisions based on how much other lettuce is coming along for later harvest. If I have plenty on the way I'll pull more plants when they are younger. If not then I may just harvest outer leaves to get more later on from the older plants. The, law of the harvest, is finite. You have to plant the seed and let nature do the rest. If you don't plant, you cannot get a harvest.
The, Universal law of the harvest, can be applied to all areas of life.
The, Universal Law, of the harvest, most popular text reference is from the book of Galatians in the Bible which reads,
Most people are inclined to ask the “why” question when things happen to them. In most instances the answer is found in the, law of the harvest. You are simply reaping the harvests of what you have previously sown. Whenever you get results you do not desire, begin to interrogate what kind of seeds you have been planting. From the lettuce illustration above; if you plant lettuce seeds, you will not reap or harvest cabbage. Thus the reference that you always reap what you sow!
The reason why some probably do not have happiness is because they don’t sow happiness. When you sow strife you reap strife. This is why it is necessary to carefully analyze what seeds you plant in your relationships, be it with your friends, family, or business associates. The quality of that relationship is solely premised on the seeds you plant with your actions and words. If you plant mistrust, you will reap mistrust. One of the best advice I have every received on seed planting in relationships was
“treat your marriage and relationships like a bank account, you have to make more deposits than withdrawals or you become overdrawn”.
Every time you give of yourself or serve another, you are planting seeds that will grow into a harvest. I believe that even if you are planting into a relationship now that does not bear fruit, you will still harvest in another relationship or in your job or in your children! So keep planting the, law of the harvest, is truth.
Another, law of the harvest, is that you will reap according to the measure that you sow. The Law states that: “He who sows sparingly and grudgingly will also reap sparingly and grudgingly and he who sows generously will also reap generously and with blessings.”
Once you have identified the kind of harvest you desire, it is important to realize that again you determine the amount of harvest you receive with the amount of seed you plant. In the illustration above the farmer planted much more seed than was necessary for the harvest because he knew that some will die, either from decease, from thinning, or from rocky soil. If the seed you are planting is for the harvest of a promotion then you have to work harder than the rest and stand out. If the seed you are planting is to harvest a spouse, then you have to plant trust, service, love, affection, stability, and much more seeds than the other suitors.
It is like the seed put in the soil – the more one sows, the greater the harvest. ~~~~Orison Swett Marden
The, Law of the Harvest, says We Reap In Proportion to What We Sow
The promise and warning of Scripture about, sowing and reaping, is that we reap what we sow. This means that life’s choices are filled with consequences both good and bad — Reaping what we sow means we reap only what has been sown, we reap in kind as we sow, we reap in a different season than we sow, we reap more than we sow, but we also reap in proportion to what we sow.
We also can reap more than we sow. No fact is more significant and sobering than this one. When we sow good, we bountifully receive from the hand of God who is debtor to no man;
The, universal law, of the harvest states that the, harvest, is always greater than the seed planted.
If this were not the case, no farmer would ever plant a thing; if he only got back what germinated in the ground. He would be on the losing end and spend his life in utter futility. Reaping more than we sow is fundamental to the, Universal Laws, of the Harvest and this is not just true for the agricultural world, it is true for nearly every aspect of life: for the physical and the spiritual, for believers and unbelievers alike. The, Universal law, of the harvest, works in reverse as well. When we sow evil, we will generally reap more evil than we sowed as well. This is one of the most important of the, universal laws.
Application of the 7 Universal Laws
There are, 7 Universal Laws. Some people are in the habit of expecting way too much than what they give in. A salesperson who does not do the activity of calling on customers or engaging in the sales activity; but who hopes to get lucky by customers falling in his or her lap soon finds out that the, universal Law, of the Harvest is finite.
“You can't reap what you don't plant”
Only miracles supersede and defy these laws. The effort you put in determines the outcome you receive. Always!
Another, law of the harvest, is that the harvest follows planting and not vice versa.
Some people are naïve to say the least. They expect to reap first then they harvest. That is absurd. The Laws of, sowing and reaping, says you first sow then you reap. How miraculous would it be that you find a field of lettuce and no one planted any seeds or seedlings? I would bet that you would not eat that lettuce because you would be suspicious of where it came from. So expecting the rewards before you do the work is ludicrous.
You have to plant the seed,
you have to water every day,
you have to fertilize,
you have to make sure the plants get sunlight,
you have to protect from pests;
only then you can taste the sweetness of the, harvest.
You must have seed for your harvest. Are you eating your seed?
Most average and poor people are guilty of this statement, “we don’t give because we don’t have.” The reality is the opposite however; you don’t have because you don’t give. The, universal law, of the, harvest, says you have to give to get. Someone told me a great analogy once at a party.
“If your hands are closed, then not only can you not give, but you also cannot receive”
So make sure your hand is open to give and to receive. Everyone has a seed which will take them to a next level of plenty (with regard to the seed sown). The problem is most people think they should have plenty in order to plant. That is why some people need thousands to start a business while some can start from just a few dollars. I read about a lady who borrowed $3000.00 from family and friends to start her own business as a pottery consultant. I don't remember the name of her company, but she purchased pots and pans and taught people how to cook in those pots and pans.
She had just sold her Company to Warren Buffet for 900 million! God can do a lot with very little!
The last, Law of the Harvest, I will share states that,
“There is always a time interval between planting and harvesting.”
Sowing and reaping happens in different seasons
You sow in a different season from the one you reap in. Most people cannot endure the season of waiting for the, harvest, which is why they do not plant at all. They seek instant gratification so they would rather eat the seed, rather than plant it and wait for the, harvest. They do something today and expect results tomorrow. There is nothing like that! You can't circumvent the, Law of the Harvest! You miss or eliminate a step and you get no lettuce or fruit.
If you decide that to plant and not water, your seedlings will die. If you start watering and caring for the soil and there is no seed planted you reap nice dirt! You have to plant, water, protect and wait for the harvest. You plant your seed in the spring and, harvest, in the summer or fall. Remember that for everything you need in life, there is a seed that you can plant. Everything that you have ever wanted in your life can be planted and you will begin to enjoy the benefits of the, laws of the harvest.
If you plant nothing you reap nothing.
Start planting the seeds that give you the results you require. Remember if you eat your seed, there can be no, harvest. Everyone has something they can plant!
The, law of the harvest, can be applied to your Academics, Spiritual life, Finances, Relationships, Career, Business and anywhere else you desire to see results.
It is like the, seed, put in the soil – the more one sows, the greater the harvest. ~~~~Orison Swett Marden
The Law of the Harvest and Seed Planting is one of the Universal Laws.
We are all familiar with the Laws of Gravity. We know that if we jump off a building we will fall to the ground. We know that if an apple rolls off a table it will fall to the ground. Only in space we see things floating around. I was watching a movie recently where someone vomited in space and the vomit well ….you get the picture. It did not fall to the ground!
The, Law of the Harvest, can literally refer to the Power of the, seed. You can’t harvest without first planting a, seed. See an excerpt below on planting and harvesting Lettuce: Lettuce can be started from, seed, or from plants. Some gardeners like to direct, seed, their lettuce but many prefer to start transplants and then move them into the garden after they get off to a good start.
Lettuce, seed, germinates best in moderate to cool temperatures with soil temperatures of 75 degrees being about ideal. The, seeds, are small and flat so some, seed, companies now offer palatalized, seed, for easier more accurate seeding and germination. Lettuce, seed, won't germinate well if buried too deep so cover them with about 1/4 inch of light sand or screened compost.
Press them lightly on the surface to firm soil or growing media against the seed and then mist them well to thoroughly moisten. One mistake many gardeners make when direct seeding lettuce out in the garden is to not prepare a fine textured, smooth, seed, bed.
Planting Seeds of lettuce
Scattered into chunky, crusty soil lettuce, seed, will seldom make a good stand. Keep the, seeds, moist until they sprout and get off to a good start. If a, seed, dries out at any time during the germination process it will die. If you start, seed, outdoors it helps a lot to place a row cover fabric over the seed row, suspended to prevent the row cover from getting pressed into the soil surface with watering or rains. The row cover helps to keep the, seeds, from drying out quickly in the sun and drying wind.
Remove the cover to water the, seeds, once or twice a day to keep them moist. Use a mister nozzle on the water hose to prevent blasting the seeds away. Gardeners often tend to plant more lettuce than they need. Think about it. How many heads or plants of leaf lettuce do you eat a week?
Plant enough to last a couple of weeks and a few extras to allow for some that won't make it. Scatter the seeds one half to an inch apart. It is really easy to plant them too thick. Then when you try to thin the seeds it's difficult not to do significant damage to the remaining plants. Plant Care Lettuce performs best if you keep it growing well with adequate soil moisture and moderate fertilization. Water transplants in with a dilute solution of soluble fertilizer according to label instructions.
Repeat this application twice weekly for a couple of weeks to ensure the new plants are off to a good start. A light application of dry fertilizer when the plants have been in about two weeks should take them on through their harvest time. Sprinkle one half cup of a 3-1-2 or 4-1-2 ratio fertilizer per 10 foot of planting row. Then lightly scratch it into the surface and water it in well. Lettuce is shallow rooted so avoid deep cultivation.
Stay ahead of weeds so you don't disturb the lettuce plants later when removing large competing weeds. Light, shallow cultivation is best. You can mulch the best when plants are well on their way. This will also help prevent soil from splashing onto the leaves during rain or irrigation. Problems Lettuce used to be plagued by several diseases that could wipe out plantings.
Most modern varieties have some good resistance built in, but at times during wet periods some fungal rots and mildews may show up. I suggest that should such a problem arise just pull out affected plants and keep the new plantings coming rather than resort to sprays, especially since by the time some rot shows up it is too late to do that plant much good with a spray.
Lettuce is fairly cold hardy and will tolerate light frosts with little to no damage. Young seedlings are more prone to freeze damage. Harvest Head types are best harvested after they develop a firm head. Bibb lettuce is ready to harvest when the plants have reached about their full size and the leaves are just starting to cup inward slightly as if to form a loose head.
Leaf lettuce can be harvested at any time from when you are thinning young plants on. But is it best to either harvest older leaves, leaving the plants to grow for later harvests or cut entire plants out when they reach near full size for the variety. I generally make harvest decisions based on how much other lettuce is coming along for later harvest. If I have plenty on the way I'll pull more plants when they are younger. If not then I may just harvest outer leaves to get more later on from the older plants.
The laws of the harvest can be applied to all areas of life.
The Law’s most popular text reference is from the book of Galatians in the Bible which reads, “For whatever a man sows that and that only is what he will reap.” Most people are inclined to ask the “why” question when things happen to them. In most instances the answer is found in this law. You are simply reaping the harvests of what you have previously sown.
Whenever you get results you do not desire, begin to interrogate what kind of, seeds, you have been planting. From the lettuce illustration above; if you plant lettuce, seeds, you will not reap or harvest cabbage. Thus the reference that you always, reap what you sow!
The reason why some probably do not have happiness is because they don’t sow happiness. When you sow strife you reap strife. This is why it is necessary to carefully analyze what seeds you plant in your relationships, be it with your friends, family, or business associates.
The quality of that relationship is solely premised on the, seeds, you plant with your actions and words. If you plant mistrust, you will reap mistrust. One of the best advice I have every received on seed planting in relationships was “treat your marriage and relationships like a bank account, you have to make more deposits than withdrawals or you become overdrawn”.
Every time you give of yourself or serve another, you are planting seeds that will grow into a harvest. I believe that even if you are planting into a relationship now that does not bear fruit, you will still harvest in another relationship or in your job or in your children! So keep planting.
Another, law of the harvest, is that you will reap according to the measure that you sow. The Law states that: “He who sows sparingly and grudgingly will also reap sparingly and grudgingly and he who sows generously will also reap generously and with blessings.”
Once you have identified the kind of harvest you desire, it is important to realize that again you determine the amount of harvest you receive with the amount of, seed, you plant. In the illustration above the farmer planted much more, seed, than was necessary for the harvest because he knew that some will die, either from decease, from thinning, or from rocky soil.
If the, seed, you are planting is for the, harvest, of a promotion then you have to work harder than the rest and stand out. If the, seed, you are planting is to harvest a spouse, then you have to plant trust, service, love, affection, stability, and much more, seeds, than the other suitors.
We Reap In Proportion to What We Sow
The promise and warning of Scripture is that we reap what we sow. This means that life’s choices are filled with consequences both good and bad — Reaping what we sow means we reap only what has been sown, we reap in kind as we sow, we reap in a different season than we sow, we reap more than we sow, but we also reap in proportion to what we sow.
We Reap More Than We Sow
No fact is more significant and sobering than this one. When we sow good, we bountifully receive from the hand of God who is debtor to no man; for the harvest is always greater than the seed planted. If this were not the case, no farmer would ever plant a thing; if he only got back what germinated in the ground.
He would be on the losing end and spend his life in utter futility. Reaping more than we sow is fundamental to the Laws of the Harvest and this is not just true for the agricultural world, it is true for nearly every aspect of life: for the physical and the spiritual, for believers and unbelievers alike. This law works in reverse as well. When we sow evil, we will generally reap more evil than we sowed as well.
Just knowing these alone alone is not enough! Application of the Laws and conforming to them will always give the expected result.
Some people are in the habit of expecting way too much than what they give in. A salesperson who does not do the activity of calling on customers or engaging in the sales activity; but who hopes to get lucky by customers falling in his or her lap soon finds out that the, Law of the Harvest, is finite.
“You can't reap what you don't plant” Only miracles supersede and defy these laws. The effort you put in determines the outcome you receive. Always! Another law is that the harvest follows planting and not vice versa. Some people are naïve to say the least. They expect to reap first then they harvest. That is absurd.
You first sow then you reap. How miraculous would it be that you find a field of lettuce and no one planted any, seeds, or seedlings? I would bet that you would not eat that lettuce because you would be suspicious of where it came from. So expecting the rewards before you do the work is ludicrous. You have to plant the seed, you have to water every day, you have to fertilize, you have to make sure the plants get sunlight, you have to protect from pests; only then you can taste the sweetness of the harvest.
Are you eating your seed?
Most average and poor people are guilty of this statement, “we don’t give because we don’t have.” The reality is the opposite however; you don’t have because you don’t give. Someone told me a great analogy once at a party. “If your hands are closed, then not only can you not give, but you also cannot receive” so make sure your hand is open to give and to receive.
Everyone has a seed which will take them to a next level of plenty (with regard to the seed sown). The problem is most people think they should have plenty in order to plant. That is why some people need thousands to start a business while some can start from just a few dollars. I read about a lady who borrowed $3000.00 from family and friends to start her own business as a pottery consultant. I don't remember the name of her company but she purchased pots and pans and taught people how to cook in those pots and pans. She had just sold her Company to Warren Buffet for 900 million! God can do a lot with very little!
The last Law of Harvests I will share states that, “There is always a time interval between planting and harvesting.”
You sow in a different season from the one you reap in. Most people cannot endure the season of waiting for the, harvest, which is why they do not plant at all. They seek instant gratification so they would rather eat the seed, rather than plant it and wait for the harvest. They do something today and expect results tomorrow.
There is nothing like that! You can't circumvent the, Law of the Harvest! You miss or eliminate a step and you get no lettuce or fruit. If you decide that to plant and not water, your seedlings will die. If you start watering and caring for the soil and there is no seed planted you reap nice dirt!
You have to plant, water, protect and wait for the, harvest. You plant your, seed, in the spring and harvest in the summer or fall. Remember that for everything you need in life, there is a seed that you can plant. Everything that you have ever wanted in your life can be planted and you will begin to enjoy the benefits of the laws of harvests.
If you plant nothing you reap nothing. Start planting the, seeds, that give you the results you require. Remember if you eat your, seed, there can be no, harvest. Everyone has something they can plant!
These laws can be applied to your Academics, Spiritual life, Finances, Relationships, Career, Business and anywhere else you desire to see results.
Myrna Morris Young is a Spiritual Life and Executive Leadership Coach And President and CEO of Myhelps Inc. You can reach her by Phone: 954-999-6125 by Skype at Myrna.Young.3 Or by Email:[email protected] Web: http://myhelps.us She is also the Author: “Becoming Conscious, My Awakening”
As a, sales manager, you have a team of 10 sales persons: Two are overachievers and the other eight are happy being average. You know they have the potential to do so so much more… What do you do?
• How do you find out what really motivates them?
• How do you offer, feedback, that inspires instead of deflates?
The Sandwich Technique of Giving Feedback
Think of your favorite sandwich… It has bread on top, lots of juicy meat and condiments in the middle and bread at the bottom again.
In the, Sandwich technique, of giving feedback, the top of the bun represents the good things you see your salesperson doing.
Eg “Patty you did an awesome job on that PowerPoint presentation. You kept your audience interested, you listed facts and supported them, your tonality was awesome and you had good volume. Excellent job; BUT….”
Now you get to the middle of the, sandwich technique, the meat. This is where you offer, feedback, on what Patty could have done better to close the sale. Phycologist’s reports that people are more receptive to hear negative, feedback, after you make them feel good with a positive comment.
The reason men in bars lead with flattery!
Feedback must be genuine
However, Your, feedback, is not going to get the desired result if you are not genuine with your praise, the same way if you use a tired overused line at the bar! You get nowhere and the party feels insulted. So dig deep and find something genuinely good to lead off the, feedback. In our case study, Patty gave an awesome presentation, but she did not get the sale. So we pick up at:
Excellent job Patty but; the customer said that they needed to check out other suppliers before they made their decision. It might be a good idea to ask your salesperson what she feels she did wrong. If she says that she felt the customer needed to compare before they bought, you can tell her that they would have made a decision if she had SOLD them on the product by offering a solution to satisfy their real need behind the want.
The meat: Excellent Job with the presentation Patty but the customer did not buy. I believe the reason is because you did not identify and therefore could not offer a solution to the real need.
The customer told you they needed to purchase a new computer system because their old system does not give them enough storage capacity. Your presentation focused on listing our product with features highlighting our iCloud storage. If you had qualified the customer more thoroughly and understood why they needed more storage, you could have tailored your presentation to highlight the unique features of our product to satisfy the real need and eliminated our competitors.
I have a suggestion, for the next month, when you meet with customers for the first time, I want you to really understand their needs behind the want. Ask questions like “I understand your need to have more storage. What would more storage really give you?” The customer may say, something like “We would be able to look back at data for 5 years and understand our customer's buying history. We also would be able to really identify trends and analyze what worked and what did not work.”
No, sandwich, is complete without the bread at the bottom. So you end with encouragement. To finish off your, feedback, you could say something like “You can become the star on this team, you just need to tweak your qualifying questions to understand the customer’s needs and you will see your close rate shoot through the roof.”
This, sandwich technique, is the best way to give, feedback, to your subordinates. It motivates instead of deflates!
Spirituality, allows us to tap into awareness to overcome life's difficult moments. Why is life so difficult? It can be said that if you are not facing challenges, you are dead! The bible says teaches “like fish caught in a net, problems show up unexpectedly.” Somehow life manages to bring difficult problems, the causes of untold suffering and struggle.
How you, solve problems, makes all the difference between the promise of success and the specter of failure. Successful people look at solutions while unsuccessful people only see the problem.
Eckhart Tolle says “we should live life accepting what comes our way; not being too happy when good things happen to us and not being too sad when bad things happen to us. Live in the now”.
What is spirituality?
Spirituality, begins with a decisive answer to that question. Spirituality, or of the spirit are our thoughts. The concept is that life isn’t random, there is a pattern and purpose to every existence. Deepak Chopra calls this Synchro-destiny. Every moment is pre-destined, it is as it should be. The reason that challenges arise is simple: to make us more aware of our inner purpose and Destiny.
When your awareness expands, events that seemed random begin to arrange themselves in a pattern; you become aware of a larger purpose and notice these events are actually related to the greater whole. Just as our bodies operate in a state of Homeostasis; in a similar way events and coincidences are all connected and are part of God's plan for your purpose.
When you become aware of that purpose (which is unique for each person) you become like an architect who has been handed a blueprint. Instead of laying bricks and fitting pipes at random, the architect can now proceed with confidence that he knows what the building should look like and how to construct it.
Spirituality and Awareness
The first step in this process is recognizing what level of awareness you are working from right now. Every time a challenge comes your way, whether it is about relationships, work, personal transitions, or a crisis that demands action. There are three levels of, awareness. Become aware of them, and you will take a huge step toward becoming a sorcerer.
Level 1: Contracted Awareness
This is the level of the problem, and therefore it immediately grabs your attention. All you see is the problem. Something has gone wrong. Expectations have turned sour. You face obstacles that don’t want to move. As resistance mounts, your situation still doesn’t improve. If you examine the level of the problem, the following elements are generally present:
Your desires are thwarted. Something you want is meeting with opposition. You feel as if every step forward is a battle.
You keep doing more of what never worked in the first place.
There is an underlying anxiety and fear of failure.
Your mind isn’t clear. There is confusion and inner conflict.
As frustration mounts, your energy is depleted. You feel more and more exhausted.
You can tell if you are stuck at the level of contracted awareness by one simple test:
Do you feel like the more you struggle to get free of the problem, the more you are trapped in it? In addition the law of attraction states that what you think about you bring about. The end result is that you get on the wave of negative thoughts that attract more of the same so not only does your problem not get resolved; but you attract more problems into your circumstance. Meditating on positive thoughts, smiling, prayer, repeating positive mantras or scriptures are ways to create positive energies and break the negative cycle.
Level 2: Expanded Awareness
This is the level where solutions to, solve problems, begin to appear. Your vision extends beyond the conflict, giving you more clarity. For most people this level isn’t immediately available, because their first reaction to a crisis is to contract and feel the pain of the situation. They become defensive, wary, and fearful. But if you allow yourself to expand, you will find that the following elements enter your awareness:
The need to struggle begins to diminish. You put the problem in God's hands.
You start to let go. You stand on the principle that all roads lead to your destination
More people connect with you. You get council
You approach decisions with confidence.
You meet fear realistically (fear is perceived) and it starts to lessen.
With clearer vision, you no longer feel confused and conflicted.
You can tell that you have reached this level of, awareness, and, spirituality, when you no longer feel stuck; a process has begun. With greater expansion, unseen forces come to your aid. You move forward according to what you desire from your life.
Level 3: Spirituality is Pure Awareness or Enlightenment
This is the level where no problems exist. You have transcended suffering as Buddha did. Every challenge is a creative opportunity. You feel completely aligned with the forces of nature. What makes this possible is that awareness can expand without limits.
Although it may seem that it takes long time to have true mastery of your mind and get on the spiritual path to reach pure awareness; the truth is exactly the opposite. At every moment pure awareness is in contact with you, sending creative impulses. All that matters is how open you are to the answers being presented. When you are fully open, the following elements will be present: There is no struggle.
You are present in the now. Your mind is not busy with noise about the past or anticipating the future.
Desires reach fulfillment spontaneously.
The next thing you want is the best thing that could happen to you. You are a benefit to yourself and your surroundings.
The outer world reflects what is happening in your inner world.
You feel completely safe. You are at home in the Universe.
You view yourself and the world with compassion and understanding.
To be completely established in pure awareness is enlightenment, a state of unity with everything in existence. Ultimately, every life is moving in that direction. Without attaining the final goal, you can tell that you are in contact with, pure awareness, if you feel truly yourself, in a state of peace and freedom.
Each of these levels brings its own kind of experience. This can be easily seen when there is a sharp contrast or a sudden change. Love at first sight takes a person without warning from contracted awareness to expanded, awareness, and is a spiritual experience.
Instead of relating in the normal social way, suddenly you see immense appeal, even perfection, in one other person. In creative work there is the “Aha!” experience. Instead of wrestling with a blocked imagination, suddenly the answer presents itself, fresh and new! No one doubts that such epiphanies exist.
They can be life changing, as in the so- called peak experience, when reality is flooded with light and a revelation dawns. What people don’t see is that expanded awareness should be our normal state, not a moment of extraordinary difference.
Spirituality does not mean no problem
Listening to people tell their stories of problems, obstacles, failure, and frustration (an existence trapped in contracted awareness) one sees that reaching a new vision is critical. It is all too easy to get lost in particulars.
The difficulties of facing each challenge are often overwhelming. No matter how intensely you feel your situation, which has its own unique difficulties, if you look to the right and left, you will see others who are just as caught up in their situations.
Strip away the details, and what remains is a general cause of suffering: lack of awareness that everything is impermanent. Unless you are shown how to expand your, awareness, you have no choice but to experience the state of contraction caused from pain and suffering.
Just as the body flinches when faced with physical pain, the mind has a reflex that makes it draw back when faced with mental pain. Tony Robbins says that “people move away from pain and towards pleasure” Here again, a moment of sudden contrast makes it easy to experience what contraction feels like. Imagine yourself in any of the following situations:
You are a young mother who has taken your child to the playground. You chat for a moment with another mother, and when you turn around, you can’t see your child.
At work you are sitting at your computer when someone casually mentions that there are going to be layoffs, and by the way, the boss wants to see you.
You open your mailbox and find a letter from the Internal Revenue Service and you remembered that you do not have your receipts.
While driving you approach an intersection when, out of the blue, a car behind you swerves past your car and runs a red light.
You walk into a restaurant and see your spouse sitting with an attractive companion. They are leaning in toward each other, holding hands and talking in low voices.
Changes in awareness result in Anger
It doesn’t take much imagination to feel the sudden change of, awareness, that these situations provoke. Panic, anxiety, anger, and apprehension flood your mind; these are the result of brain changes as the lower brain takes precedent over the higher brain, triggering the release of adrenaline as part of an array of physical responses known as the stress response.
Any feeling is both mental and physical. The brain gives a precise representation of what the mind is experiencing, drawing on infinite combinations of electrochemical signals coursing through one hundred billion neurons. A brain researcher can pinpoint with ever-increasing accuracy exactly those regions that produce such changes.
What cannot be seen on an MRI is the mental event that incites all these changes, because the mind functions at the invisible level of awareness or consciousness. We can take these two terms as synonyms, but let’s explore them a little.
Spirituality, deals with your state of awareness. It isn’t the same as medicine or psychotherapy. Medicine deals in the physical aspect where bodily changes occur. Psychotherapy deals with a specific difficulty, such as anxiety, depression, or actual mental illness. Spirituality confronts awareness directly.
It aims to produce higher consciousness. In our society this is seen as less real than the other ways of approaching problems. In times of trouble, people cope as best as they can with a swirling confusion of fear, anger, mood swings, and everyday struggle. It doesn’t even occur to them to pair the two words, spirituality, and solution in the same sentence; this points to a limited vision about what spirituality really is, and what it can do for you. We must incorporate our non-physical being with our physical body to solve everyday problems.
The, subconscious mind, is a data-bank for everything, which is not in your, conscious mind,. It stores your beliefs, your previous experience, your memories, your skills. Everything that you have seen, done or thought is also there. It is also your guidance system. The, subconscious mind, can also be described as a tape recorder and it just plays back what it records unless you make the conscious effort at, subconscious mind reprogramming, and erase the tape and record new messages. That is the only way to affect permanent change, erase and re record.
Today on the, Transform your Mind, to Transform your Life Radio show and podcast, Coach Myrna Young interviews Neuro Linguistic Programming, NLP, Coach Van Henry. Van tells our audience why he became an, NLP, coach. He was on assignment as an engineer in South Africa during the Apartheid regime, when he had a conversation with a Black man who told him that he was told at a young age that he was unteachable, because he had a smaller brain than the white man.
Van of course told him that was a lie, that he himself was an educated black man with an engineering degree. He convinced this man that his brain was the same size as the White man, the Chinese man and all other races because God created us all equal! That was indeed, subconscious mind, programming.
This Black man was convinced, because he was looking at the evidence, Van Henry himself. He then changed his, subconscious mind, programming by rewriting the tape and re recording new information to believe that he could be educated and that he had as big a brain as the White man. This Black man went on to have a college degree and become a supervisor, leading a fulfilling life.
So as a Transformations Coach, I would like to do the same for you. The lie that you tell yourself can be anything. It does not have to be that you are not as smart enough, pretty enough, thin enough etc. ; you could believe that you are limited by any other belief that is holding you in bondage.
Your, subconscious mind, is an unquestioning servant that works day and night to make your behavior fits a pattern consistent with your emotionalized thoughts, hopes, and desires. Your, subconscious mind, grows either flowers or weeds in the garden of your life, whichever you plant by the mental equivalents you create.
Your, subconscious mind, has what is called a homeostatic impulse. It keeps your body temperature at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, just as it keeps you breathing regularly and keeps your heart beating at a certain rate. Through your autonomic nervous system, it maintains a balance among the hundreds of chemicals in your billions of cells so that your entire physical machine functions in complete harmony most of the time.
Your, subconscious mind, also practices homeostasis in your mental realm, by keeping you thinking and acting in a manner consistent with what you have done and said in the past.
Neuro Linguistic Programming, is the art of training the, subconscious mind, to achieve a goal.
The first thing you have to do to, subconscious mind reprogramming, is to Master Self. Master your self talk, master your beliefs.
Then you have to write your goals down and give them form.
Once you give them form, you have to tell someone who can hold you accountable.
This does two things. Firstly, once you speak your goals into the atmosphere you activate the, Laws of Attraction, and secondly it motivates you to not look like a failure to the person holding you accountable.
The forth thing is to access your values to be sure there is no conflict with your beliefs. This is where awareness comes in. You have to know who you are.
For you to grow, to get out of your comfort zone, you have to be willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable doing new things the first few times. If it’s worth doing well, it’s worth doing poorly until you get a feel for it, until you develop a new comfort zone at a new, higher level of competence.
Subconscious Mind Reprogramming
For those looking to expand their realm of comfort zones, I highly recommend considering the habits of successful people as they are the patterns commonly adopted by the minds of great leaders and thinkers. Unlocking the power of these behaviors will put you one step closer to being able to make the same things happen in your life.
Learning techniques for, subconscious mind reprogramming, will help you believe in yourself because your confidence will no longer be challenged by fear of the unknown. But more importantly, doing so will train your brain to be in line with your true desires, dreams, and life goals and a mission driven life.
The more in tune with your, subconscious mind, you become, the closer you will be to breaking through to success. For example, you might have an idea for a book that has been on your back burner for years. With the right level of confidence, you’ll take the next step in learning how to write a book, rather than clinging to the dream, but never acting.
Listen to this YouTube video and hear directly from, NLP, coach Van Henry on How to Program your, subconscious mind, for permanent change. Once you believe, then you can achieve!.
You become a master builder, as your coach I will give you the tools to help you build.
How to Own the Sales Process from Prospect to Client. i.e How to meet a prospect and walk out with a client!
In this episode, Coach Myrna Young interviews Elizabeth Gifford Maffei. Elizabeth was a multi-million dollar sales producer as a Real Estate agent, she is now a health and spiritual advocate and business coach.
Show notes Sales Process
* What is a Challenge that entrepreneurs and business owners experience when trying to close a sale?
6 tips to close a sale quickly and effectively
Identify the decision-maker and start a conversation. …
Accurately qualify your prospects. …
Pitch your solution (not just the product)
Create a sense of urgency. …
Overcome their objections. …
Ask for the sale.
* What is the difference between making a sale and creating a loyal client?
* What is the first step in having a successful meeting with a prospect?
How to Prepare for a Sales Meeting As a Real Estate Agent
To be fully prepared for a successful customer meeting, you need to answer these questions:
Who are you meeting with?
Why are the two parties meeting?
What is the objective of the meeting?
When and where will it take place?
What is the agenda for the meeting (How)?
* How should you prepare before meeting with your prospect?
* How should a successful meeting be conducted?
Using Body Language during the Sales Process
How does the use of, body language, help, close a sale?
While it’s important to know what you should do in meetings and negotiations, knowing what you shouldn’t do is often just as important – and it begins with bad, body language.
The best sales managers know that while you may have a polished sales presentation, tasteful attire, and a product that practically sells itself, you can still miss out on, closing a sale, if your, body language, is out of sync with your words. While it’s true that first impressions make a lasting impact, cumulative, body language, is important. If you are in the habit of demonstrating any of the following, body language, in the, sales process, it could be enough to hurt your sales performance, turning a potential yes into definite no.
* What is the most important step that many business owners leave out?
* An example of a successful prospect meeting that resulted in a closed sale.
The four Stages of the Sale:
1: Qualify – Your, prospects, must have the money, the time, the need and the want to contract your services.
2: Build Rapport – People buy from people they like!
When you meet a, prospect, for the first time, it is important to find common ground. Look for similar interests or experiences and chat about them before getting into your, sales pitch.
3: Tell a story – Showcase how your product or service helped another client. It could also be a personal story of your journey to your current vocation.
4: Closing the Sale, – If you followed the first 3 stages then you don't even need to close, just ask them to sign!
If you get to the end and you get objections, then you missed the qualify or selling the benefits.
Success in life depends on your ability for, self leadership. You may say I am not a, leader, I am not a manager or a CEO true; but, self leadership, is more important than how many people you lead in your home or place of work.
Self leadership, is the answer to how do we develop ourselves to survive and thrive in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous world.
Self leadership, is the Critical Success Factor for individual and organizational success.
Here are 5 Essential Disciplines for Self Leadership
Discipline #1 Accountability
You must learn to take full responsibility for everything on your watch. This means that the fish stinks from the head down! A great way to do this is with, self leadership, because those who follow you are watching your, leadership.
Discipline # 2 Focus
As a, Leader, you will wear many hats. Success comes from knowing where to focus your attention. Everything is important.
Acquiring the skill of discrimination allows the, leader, to discern what is most important and least important.
Discipline # 3 Organizational self leadership
Organizational, self leadership, is the skill through which chaos is turned into order.
Discipline # 4 Innovation
As a, leader, you will begin to consciously focus your attention and discriminate where the maximum leverage is.
You will recognize the need for continual improvement and for innovation in your processes.
Discipline # 5 Communication Skills
Communication skills, are evident in how well you communicate your passion, vision, and mission to your employees, customers and self.
Here are 3 types of Communication Skills
The three primary means of communication are verbal, nonverbal, and visual.
Verbal Communication. Verbal communication depends on words to deliver meaning.
Nonverbal Communication. Nonverbal communication occurs when meaning or messages are sent or received without the use of words like body language.
Daphne's talks to us about the keys to a successful mission driven life or business.
Since 90% of startup businesses fail, Daphne believes that the quality of life and business, leadership, is at the root of success or failure.
She believes that, leadership, is about using the most effective strategies to conquer obstacles while taking consistent steps to move forward when tackling your vision, whether that vision is within the workplace, as a leader of a business or, self leadership.
Show notes:
. Daphne explains what is true, self leadership.
. What sets successful startup businesses apart from those that fail.
. How a business coach helps clients.
. What does a thriving business look like.
. What are some of the biggest mistakes companies do with their sales and marketing efforts.
. What are some of the characteristics of successful leaders.
Here are 11 strategies for effective, self leadership, from Young Entrepreneur Council:
When managing my team, I use a tactic from Dale Carnegie: Think in terms of the other person's wants. The goal is to align a team member's natural talents and preferences with the company's goals. What do they want? What motivates them? What do they like to do? Then manage them to reinforce what they want and how they can achieve those things through their work.
