Here’s to Reality TV

Reality TV is highly profitable for tv producers and the networks. It may be entertaining (depends on your definition of entertainment), but how real is it? Most people watching these shows wish they could be on the show. Some surely have tried out. But how many have actually tried out for the shows compared to how many simply wish they were on the shows?

Here’s the REALITY SHOW you should be watching. It is called Your Life! What are you doing to achieve your dreams and goals? Instead of watching other people eat lizards and other despicable things, do whatever it takes to get yourself on the show. There are too many people watching life from the sidelines. As we get older, we realize more and more how precious each day really is. Regardless of your age, you can bet that the highly successful people do not spend the majority of their time watching other people do things. They spend their time playing the game.

With life being your REALITY SHOW, what are you doing to make it a hit? Watching or participating? Only participants have a chance to win. If you want to win, you have to play the game.

Abraham Lincoln once said, “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.” When you read about Lita Rosario above and analyze all of the superstars in sales today, you realize that Lincoln’s quote is still relevant to our success.

The passion to follow through on your resolution to achieve a desired outcome is critical to your success. It is your passion that forces you day in and day out to do the little things that count. To achieve success in sales, the little things include: consistently making the number of calls to succeed; leaving customer focused messages so they will return your calls; and grounding yourself before each sales call to make sure you are operating out of a customer focused mindset versus a self focused mindset.

To sell value, you must be passionate about making a difference in people’s lives. Finding out what’s missing for them and filling in the blanks. How strong is your passion? If it is not strong enough to motivate you to consistently do the little things day in and day out, then you probably should re-evaluate your mission. Too often I see sales people going through the tasks of making sales calls, but without a strong sense of purpose. These sales people are simply playing the numbers game that produces mediocre results.

Ensuring your passion is strong enough to achieve your desired level of success is something we must constantly test and monitor on a daily basis. To sell value, we must be passionate about the impacts we provide our customers.

Recently, Charles Schwab was quoted as saying that families are not spending enough time talking about money. He feels more time should be spent on this subject since money is crucial if you are going to fund your dreams.

I agree with this and will take it one step further. We don’t spend enough time having the right conversations with ourselves regarding money. Most of the time, we are trying to find ways to acquire more funds to support future purchases. But how often do we take time out to figure how we can save just a little bit more for our financial well being.

Living life close to the edge without a strong enough financial cushion to help survive difficult times is very risky and stressful. You can increase your profit by one of two ways: Increase your revenue and/or reduce your current spending. Being an individual who loves to buy new “toys”, I am not suggesting you should not live life to the fullest. After all, you can’t take your money with you when the earthly journey is complete.

Imagine if you managed to save the money you would have spent by not buying just one or two of those toys. Add those up over a period of time and you will find yourself having more money in the bank for those rainy days. As your reserve fund increases, your financial well being is being strengthened and you will find your stress level going down. If your financial well being is taken care off, you will be liberated to use your energies in other areas of your life.

There are several paths many of us are on, most of which will not get us where we want to be.

Do you ever feel like you are running around in circles? Many times this results from not having a clear vision of what you are after. A clear and powerful purpose that is strong enough to keep you focused, regardless of any obstacles that are in your way.

Ever feel like you are sliding backwards or hitting a wall? This occurs from a lack of motivation to do what it takes to reach your next level of success. You are working in a comfort zone and what worked yesterday may not necessarily work today, or you slack off on the efforts that brought to where you are today. Hence, you start sliding backwards. No one can motivate you to do anything if you don’t have any desire to do it. If you have the desire, then other people can help create the environment that will lead you to produce at optimal levels.

Ever feel like you are on speed, just racing forward with no time to stop and smell the roses. This also comes from a lack of focus. The focus is different here. We are now talking about a focus on having balance in the four key areas of your life: Professional, personal, financial and spiritual. It’s great to hit your goals in any of the above areas, but not at the expense of all the other areas.

You can plan for your success or you can plan to do nothing and fail. Either way, you plan for something to happen. Might as well plan on how to reach your next level of success. This means establishing a clear vision of what you want to accomplish and make sure your actions support this purpose. Measure your results in a timely fashion to make sure your actions yield the results you desire. You must strive to maintain balance in all areas of your life. Otherwise, you won’t be able to celebrate your accomplishments.

With the new year only one month old, it is a good time to check to make sure you are heading down the path to your desired destination.

Next stop on this train: Your Future Success!!! ALL ABOARD!!!

A few years ago, I participated in a 9-week seminar that met on Wednesday nights. It was a huge commitment considering my travel schedule and many participants found it tough to give it their all.

Half way through the program, a young college student got up and suggested that we end the program that night. She claimed we were getting nowhere. People were not giving their all and to her, she was wasting her time. As she was saying this, several executives and I complained how we were so busy. She then looked at me and said, “ That may be so, but right now you are physically here. All I am asking is that you become mentally present for the time we are here”.

Those words hit me in the forehead like an arrow hitting a bulls eye. She was right. If I am physically there, stop complaining and be present for the people who are also giving up their time to participate. What immediately flashed through my mind was how many times I was in the company of others and was not mentally present. How did they feel? This is a situation all of us deal with on a daily basis as we are all trying to process our thoughts, actions and just figure out how we are going to do everything we have on our plate. Yet, as we entertain these thoughts, we are robbing the people we are with of our undivided attention, thereby not being present to their issues.

As we prepare to spend time with family and friends this holiday season, remember your physical presence is not enough. While we may not have the time we want to spend with certain people, we do have the power to make sure the time we have is nothing but quality time. For this, your mental presence is required.

Best wishes to you and yours for a joyous holiday season!

The Weight Watchers diet revolves around a point system. Depending on whether or not you are a male or female, you are allotted a certain amount of points each day. Each food type is rated in terms of points. People simply have to count their points on a daily basis. Each day, you know whether or not you are on target or off on a wild goose chase. (Note: In this case, wild goose chases may be tasty, but often come with consequences.)

One of the reasons this diet is so successful is it offers the participant a simple way of measuring results every day. You don’t have to weigh yourself. Just follow the point system and you will see the results.

Establishing a measurement system to rate your level of activity/productivity is crucial. The measurement system should be broken down into as small a time period as possible. If you know at the end of a day or a week that you are behind, you have a lot more time left to make up your deficiency than if you waited a month to measure your activity/productivity.

Keeping score in small time periods also helps keep up the motivation. Every time you hit a target, you feel energized by the accomplishment. Hitting targets every day becomes contagious and provides a positive environment from which to operate.

Have you identified the levels of activity/productivity and set up a measurement system to track your results? It is critical to get to your next level of success. If not, you may want to get started on this. With a new year coming up, this is a great exercise to get involved with. It can be the difference between having a good year and having a great year. Once again, it’s the little things that count!!!

A man and a woman are walking down the street and see a for sale sign on a six story apartment building in a less than desirable part of town. The man comments on how foolish anyone must be to spend their hard earned money on a building in such disrepair in a bad part of town.

The woman, on the other hand, imagines what the building would look like if it’s original beauty and charm were restored. Then she thinks further out in time and imagines the value this building would command once the neighborhood rebounds.

The man never gives it a second thought. The woman calls in her financial and legal advisors and calculates the perceived risks and rewards if she goes through with the transaction. Convinced the potential rewards outweigh the risks, she moves forward and buys the building.

Which type of person describes you? In today’s tough times, people are becoming more conservative and less willing to take risk and make things happen. This is the time to start setting yourself up for the large rewards when the economy finally turns around.

For example, do you wait for better times before you get your marketing systems in place and improve your quality and service? Do you wait for business to get better before you will
go out and invest in honing your skills?

The time to get ready and prepare for your success is now, especially in tough times! Not when the good times appear. If you wait for the good times to come, you will not be in a position to jump out of the gate and reap all of the potential rewards. You will be busy getting ready to succeed.

Times are tough. But there is business to be done NOW!!! There is also a lot work to be done now to get geared up for the good times!!! What are you going to do today? Complain or take advantage of the opportunities that arise out of tough times?
Only you can decide this.

“Success does not happen out of thin air. It is created.” That’s a quote from me, Ron Karr. That’s a quote you can take to the bank

Recently I received an e-mail from a friend. She forwarded a message from a client whom she trusted. The e-mail claimed that Microsoft will send you over $200 for every person you forward this e-mail to. They are doing this as an experiment. I checked it out and of course it was not true. (By the way, if you want to see if any e-mail is true or fiction, check out this web site www.truthorfiction.com.) In talking to my friend, she said, “But imagine if it really worked and I got this check one day.” My response, stop dreaming! You want the money,
go earn it!

My friend happens to be a very sharp lady. But like all of us, she gets stuck in the emotion of wanting to side step the actions it takes to succeed. For the most part, there are no short cuts. We are tempted to take short cuts and cut corners here and there. Unfortunately, the Wall Street Journal is littered with stories of people trying to short cut our laws and ways of succeeding. Just ask Dennis Kozlowski and our friends at Enron!!!

So what should you do when the urge hits to score big and fast? You should stop wasting your time trying to cut corners and take it one step at a time. Carry out the actions it requires to succeed on a daily basis. Your payback will be more substantial, consistent and fulfilling. Best of all, you will be able to enjoy it by staying out of jail.

You ever wonder if peak performers ever get nervous? Just ask Rich Beem, the 2002 PGA Champion and a virtual unknown to the golfing public. Unknown at least until last weekend. He is now well known for taking Pepto-Bismol to calm his stomach down. Bob Hope was asked how he gets rid of the butterflies. His answer was you don’t get rid of them, you just have them fly in formation.

With a roaring Tiger (that’s Tiger Woods of course) chasing him all over the golf course, Rich Beem continuously carried on internal conversations that helped him focus and calm down enough to hit the right shot at the right time and hold off the hard-charging Tiger Woods by a single stroke.

When you go into your next meeting, presentation, etc., don’t worry about being nervous. It is a common reaction. In fact, I worry more about people who are not that concerned than those who are. The concerned people are definitely taking it seriously and thinking about what they are going to do.

Being nervous is not the issue. The issue is how you control your nerves and not let them get in the way of your performance. The good news is you have the power to control your nerves. Just ask Rich Beem.