What kind of messenger are you?

Did you ever think what kind of messenger you are?

Do you realize that every one of us is a messenger? We all received a story from our parents and after we received that story we began to send it out. We sent it out to everyone in our world.

We in essence have become their messenger and we deliver the same message to our children, to our family, to our friends, our colleagues, our bosses, our bankers, our children’s friends, their parents, strangers we meet in our day, everyone who comes into our lives.

Most importantly this is a story we tell to ourselves.

What kind of message did you receive from your parents? Ask yourself do you deliver truth or do you deliver lies? Think about it, whatever message you received from your parents you deliver to your children, at the subconscious level. Even if you think you are not, you are telling that story until you begin to change it.

No matter what family background we have come from, this message has been tainted. It is not authentic. It is not the truth. The message could have been "you are not good enough, not beautiful enough, not smart enough, not strong enough, not organized enough, not creative enough, not deserving enough and so-on-and-so-on-and-so-on." You convince yourself that you are not going to make it, or that it will be tough because life is so hard. And in the process you create all the situations that confirm the story you are telling. And then it allows you to say, “See, I told you so.” We probably see this better in other people than we do in ourselves.

Think for just a moment. Stop reading and sit back and close your eyes and think about your life. How do you truly see yourself? What are the messages or inner chatter, that self-chatter that continually talks to you in your head? What is it always saying? What is it constantly telling you? Is there self-doubt? Are there fears that you know are not true? Be honest, because when you begin to be honest with yourself, and really become aware of the lies you have been telling yourself, then you can begin to change your ‘story’ and in the process begin to change your life and allow the real authentic self to emerge.

When you look that deeply and honestly into yourself, you may find that fear is one of the largest obstacles in your way. Fear of taking a chance, fear of asking for what you deserve, fear of being honest with someone in your life, fear of allowing the real you to come forth,  fear of…fear of….(you fill in the blank). You will find that your fears have made you reject yourself before anyone else did. When you face your fears, and really sit with the feelings of fear, and go ahead and do what you are afraid of anyway, you will see it is all an illusion. You will see and feel a clarity that was not there before and all the lies that have built up over the years around this part of your story will instantly vanish. You will realize it is the lies that have kept you in your story for all these years and that the ‘real’ you will come forward and begin to change everything around you because now that lie is not part of the story you are telling.  

As don Miguel Ruiz, in the book ‘The Four Agreements” says “always be impeccable with your word.” In other words be impeccable with your story, your truth, with everything that you say. When you can master that then you will take the next step in your growth. Your life will get even better, you will be even happier, your relationships will be better, your children will benefit from it – in fact everyone will benefit from it. Most importantly, you will benefit from it.

Begin to change your story. Consciously become the artist of your life. Begin to paint a better picture, and if you like, please share it with everyone.

Have a great day. And before I leave you – here is an amazing individual with a gift unlike anything I have ever seen. Enjoy and have a great day.

Ken

...how big is the hole created by your absence?

There are many spiritual lessons in just observing the landscape of nature and her wildlife. You will notice, for example, how obvious a mark a pack of elephants leave in their wake. You KNOW when an elephant has been around. You see its droppings. You stand in its footprints. You reel in the trees and bushes knocked down in its path.

Conversely, baboons leave no trace of their presence. Or at least none perceptible with the five senses. They tread lightly. They are not heavy-handed in their impact on the forest.

So my question to you this month is:

Are you an elephant or a baboon?

In other words, if you were to be plucked out of your life today, whether by alien abduction or otherwise, how big is the hole created by your absence? How much does it take to replace you? What is the legacy you leave behind?

On a simple level, you can apply this to business. Let's say three people are partners and one decides to move to another city. If the business suffers in their absence, it shows how much they added to the company.

And I don't mean who is there to replace you. In the big picture, there's always someone to fill our roles — in work, at home, with friends.

I don't ask this question to depress you or create stress. I use this question on myself, like a barometer. As I grow myself, increase the size of who I am — I take more. I need more. More knowledge, more energy, more accomplishment. I'm not satisfied with what I did before. But to balance that growth, I also need to make sure that I give more. As I expand my potential, I must also expand my value — in the world.

This question should either make you appreciate what you are doing, or make you realize you're not doing enough. It should then inspire you to consider how you can contribute more to the various aspects of your life.

Its not about how much money you make or your bottom line. We need to feel our value, and if we don't feel it is enough, that needs to motivate us to work.

Am I more valuable to this earth this year than last year?

If last year I was ME version 2.0, this year I want to be ME version 3.0. If we are not focusing on giving more, chances are we are taking.

Sometimes we have to ask the tough questions. But in asking them, we arrive at destinations that are sweeter, more fulfilling and more impactful.

Ask away!

Here is someone who is starting to make a huge imprint at a very young age. At 13 she stopped the United Nations for 5 minutes. I hope you watch it and ask yourself can I do more for our world? Can I be better today than I was yesterday? Can I make more of a difference? Will there be a hole created by my absence?


Have a great day. You deserve it.


Ken

Just get rid of it!

I’ve been dealing with the clutter in my life. It is amazing how much clutter we have. It is incredible what we collect over the years. Ticket stubs, birthday cards, clothes we think we will use again, dishes we can’t seem to throw out, books that collect dust in bookcases, and then fill boxes because there are no more bookcases. My garage is so full I can only put one car in it. It’s a two car garage. It amazes me that the stuff in my garage seems more important to protect than that expensive vehicle that sits in the driveway.

Then there’s the attic. I don’t even know what’s up there. And of course, the basement. Yes there’s stuff down there too. And finally, there’s the junk room. How many of you have a junk room?

I’ve been reading about Feng Shui. Feng Shui is all about creating a living space that allows positive energy to flow freely. Practitioners of Fung Shui believe that what you see on the outside, in your homes and in your offices is in fact a reflection of what is on the inside. And if you want to blame all this stuff that clogs up your home on other people, remember that you attract those people into in your life so take responsibility. It’s yours.

Donald Trump believes so strongly with Feng Shui that he used it for his living quarters and offices when he started back after losing his first billion dollars. And of course we know the result of this.

Even if you don’t believe in Feng Shui, clutter has a huge impact on your life. It drains your energy. Effects your ability to be organized and more efficient. And I have to believe if you take a % of your house that is devoted to things that you don’t use anymore, you probably would be pretty surprised just how much space it takes.

I met a wonderful woman recently who told me she sold everything she owned, bought a small home and now is mortgage free, debt free and feels like a huge weight has been taken off her shoulders. The freedom she feels from shedding all these things has transformed her. She can now do whatever she wants, when she wants how she wants and no matter what difficulties come her way, she can easily handle them. Doesn’t that sound liberating.

Her goal now is to enjoy life and bring on new experiences. It is nothing to do with collecting stuff, getting a bigger car, and so on. She is free. She is happy. She is open to whatever opportunity presents itself and she can easily accomplish it.
And just think about your stuff for a minute and how useful it would be if you gave it to other people to use...or donated all your old books to a library, or gave your old magazines to a long term care home.
Let’s get unstuck.

Life is a wave of transformations. It’s about clearing out so we can have room for more. More growth, more experiences, more abundance and more happiness.
It’s about taking risks and letting go what we think is our security and understanding that happiness comes from freeing ourselves of the things that block our energy, about holding onto too much of the stuff that represents our past, our not-so-good memories. That’s not to say we shouldn’t have some memories, but maybe we hold onto too much.

Free yourself. Find the energy. It’s in us but for some it is buried beneath stuff, both physical and emotional stuff. Do the physical and you will be surprised the amount of emotional bloodletting that happens.
Begin today and free yourself from physical, mental, emotional and spiritual clutter.

On a different note, there are many sources that promote formulas. Formulas for success. Formulas for wealth. Formulas for happiness. The list goes on. Here are three gents from Australia with a humorous formula for creating a hit song. Enjoy.

Have a great uncluttered day.
Ken

The Power of One

Picture for one moment, sitting in a stadium with 100,000 people. There’s a black-out and the entire city is thrust into complete darkness. Everyone in the stadium has a candle but no light, except for one person. One person has a lit candle. Everyone else is sitting in the dark. He or she can withhold the light. He or she might do this because they are afraid of losing their light. Or through an act of giving they can choose to share the light by lighting other candles and as other people share the light they receive, the stadium begins to light up and before you know it everyone’s candle is lit.

Everyone can see and the light from the original candle has not been diminished in any way.

In fact the person who gave the original light is now benefiting hundreds fold or even thousands fold because they can see so much better and so much further and all they gave was their original light.

This demonstrates the power one individual can have on our world. This demonstrates the law of giving. Religions often talk about the law of tithing, and even the Bible points out that the return from tithing, of giving 10%, is at least ten-fold, and even greater.

Giving comes in many different forms. Giving of your time, sharing a smile, making someone feel good about themselves, giving guidance to help someone accomplish something, giving a listening ear to a person with a problem, giving time and effort on a project that will be good for the team and the company, giving expertise or time or effort to make a difference, giving of your time and effort to change something that needs changing in your company and how people perceive it because it is the right thing to do. Giving comes in so many different ways.

Whenever you give, you feel good. But it is the hardest ‘giving’ that gives you the greatest rewards. When it is the hardest because maybe you don’t have the time, or don’t have the heart or don’t have the money, or whatever it is that makes giving truly difficult, that is the giving that will give you the greatest rewards, the greatest personal growth and provide the greatest benefit.

If everyone did one act of giving today, think of how many people you would touch and think of how they might respond to other people and make their day a little brighter. As with the candle, giving does not diminish your light. In fact it makes it brighter.

I think it is an old Chinese proverb that says if every person went outside and cleaned the front of their house everyday and the street in front of their house every day, we would live in a completely pristine world and all of this would be accomplished by one little unselfish act at a time. Collectively the power of one would have the capacity to transform our world.

I hope you go out and do one act of giving today. The Power of One can accomplish so much when the power is focused on making a contribution without any strings attached or any need for recognition, just an act of unselfish giving to make a difference.

This month’s video is a short conversation with Dr. Michael Beckwith on what we can do, in fact how, even in a small way; we can contribute to our world. Enjoy.

Have a great, fulfilling, giving and miraculous day.

Ken

Are you living in a toxic environment?

Lately, I have been working in a toxic environment. Almost everyone hates their job. They hate the hours they work. They hate the conditions they work in. They don’t like the equipment they use, the offices they work in or the feeling of the place. They don’t like the way they are treated. They don’t like the people that run the company. They don’t like how they are paid. They don’t like…they don’t like….they don’t like…you get the point. And it just keeps spiraling downward.

This is an environment doomed to fail. Work doesn’t get done right because nobody cares. No-one does anything more than they have to. They complain to anyone that will listen. That includes each other, their friends and families, vendors, suppliers, and most troubling, their customers. The energy is toxic. Negative energy is low energy. It has an edge to it that feels bad and it brings everyone down that comes into contact with it. It creates confrontation, indifference, back biting, destructive activities, and breaks the company apart. It impacts productivity, cooperation, sharing, respect, harmony, growth, profitability, success, and even people’s health. People become defensive, distrustful and build barriers to protect themselves to the detriment of everyone else, the company and their contribution to the company.

Is there anything positive about it? Yes. If you work in an environment like this it has huge benefits for you. We are here on this planet to grow, to improve, and to make a difference. The more difficult the environment, the greater the opportunity along with challenge, to find the positive, and the greater the opportunity to grow and evolve. If you are in an environment that even remotely resembles this, take the initiative, create a difference and bring positivity into the organization, positivity in a way that is not judgmental, not accusatory and not confrontational. That is the trick. And difficult though it may be, the greatest gains are made in difficult situations.

You can’t change people that do not want to change. But you can start by being the change – as Mahatma Gandi said. It starts with you, your attitude, your behavior and your thoughts. Guard your words, see the good in where you are, the good in the people you are dealing with and find the higher purpose in what you do. Begin to demonstrate passion toward everything and everyone in your day. And little by little you will change and you will see them change. As the soothsayers and Kabbalists say, ‘bring the light into the world’ and in the process you will have a positive impact on everything and everyone in your day. Your positive energy will be far reaching. YOU WILL BEGIN TO CHANGE. YOU WILL CHANGE EVERYONE THAT COMES INTO YOUR SPHERE OF BEING and all will appreciate your contribution. And eventually, you may see change in people around you, or an opportunity may present itself for something better.

I would love to see someone take the challenge and begin to turn a negative organization into a culture that promotes cooperation, sharing, respect and harmony. I would be the first in line to help and together we would make a difference.

Have a great day.

Ken

The Power of your Beliefs.

What are your beliefs? How do you see yourself? Do you ever wonder why some people always have bad things happen to them while others seem to lead a life as if there is a silver spoon in their mouth? Why is it that Donald Trump can become a billionaire, lose it all, and then become a billionaire again?

Here is a great interview with Dr. Bruce Lipton, Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Lipton is a distinguished Professor of Medicine and cell-biologist whose research has opened new doors and started to change our thinking on the power of belief and how it impacts everything. Everything we are, everything we do including our health. Give it a watch. It may change how you see yourself.



As Bruce pointed out, this is more than the power of positive thinking. This is profound change at the core of who you are. This is change at a level where our energy, or as quantum physicists would say, our frequency of vibration, resonates at a level where we can change our lives, our relationships, how teams work together, the environment at our places of work, and the degree of success that we enjoy.

There are techniques that can help people get there. EFT is one technique that is connected to this interview – there are many more. The first step is to take ownership of your personal development. Take the time to begin to change and I guarantee if you take that step, you will begin to see and feel a change in you and as you transform you will begin a path of Mastery that will make your life even better than it is now and give you a sense of who you are, what you want out of life and how to get it.

I wish you a glorious day and until next month, take care.

Ken

The Olympics, then...now...and the Edge.

Thousands of years ago, armies put down their weapons, battles and wars were put on hold, so everyone could attend the Olympics in Greece. It was a celebration of athletic excellence and greatness that we still honour today. Athletes have always been searching for an edge that will help them be triumphant. In Greece, one such athlete lost his garment in a race and won. All the athletes thought he had an advantage over the rest of them, so they took off their clothes and competed naked. From that point on all athletes competed naked at the games. I can’t imagine competing in the nude and the thought of being in the audience – well, not something I can imagine either.

Today’s athletes use all the tools from science, diet, how they train, and their equipment to maximize their performance in their sport. “Own the Podium,” a program the Canadian Olympic team implemented for this Olympics has been a huge success and included the use of sports psychology for all the athletes.

You may have noticed skiers performing their visualization of the course and their run just before their actual run.

The Americans first started using this in the 80s. NASA had been using a technique for years called Visual Motor Rehearsal. The U.S. Olympic team hired Dr. Denis Waitley to teach athletes the power of Visual Motor Rehearsal. Here are the observations from Dr. Waitley. “Using this program, Olympic athletes ran their event –but only in their mind. They visualized how they looked and felt when they were actually participating in their event.

The athletes were then hooked up to a sophisticated biofeedback machine, and its results told the real story about the value of visualization. The neural transmitters that fired were the same that actually fired the muscles in the same sequence as when they were actually running on the track!

This proved that the mind can’t tell the difference between whether you’re really doing something or whether it’s just a visual practice. Dr. Waitley says, “If you’ve been there in the mind you’ll go there in the body.'

Visualization is a powerful tool that most people accept as part of an ongoing athletic conditioning program. Most professional athletes use it on a daily basis. Most sports psychologists teach their clients the value of creative visualization. Most Olympians, golfers, football players, soccer players, even hockey players us it before major contests. Why? Because it works – proven over and over to have significant impact on an athlete’s performance.

I ask you then, if it is such a powerful tool for athletes, why don’t we use it and benefit from it in conditioning our minds for success.

Here is what science has shown us. Visualization, or imagery or feelization strengthens the neural pathways (ie psycho-neuromuscular explanation). When you imagine performing a particular sport, your muscles fire in the same sequence as if you were actually performing the skill. Second, imagery may function as a coding system in the brain to help form a plan or mental blueprint; imagery strengthens the mental blueprint, enabling the actions/ movements to become more familiar or even automatic.

Recent research (Taylor 1995) has focused on the effectiveness of imagery as an important self-regulating skill – ie the ability to set goals, plan and solve problems, regulate arousal and anxiety, manage emotions effectively.) The key is to program your mind and emotions for success, and to make your imagery as vivid, realistic and detailed as possible. When you vividly imagine yourself accomplishing a plan your central nervous system becomes programmed for success. It’s as if the activity you have visualized has already happened.

Imagery can also be used for relaxation or to improve interpersonal communication skills – visualize yourself asking someone a difficult question, asserting needs to a boss, or when recovering from an injury – direct healing thoughts to an injured part of the body – and there is enough anecdotal evidence to show that actual healing results. Chronic patients use it for pain management.

What we have discovered is that the imagery must get as close to real as possible in terms of thoughts, emotions, the feelings, senses and actions. You must feel yourself moving, hear the sounds, smell the smells and create the feeling in your visualizations. It may seem foreign at first, because this part of our brain has atrophied. But with practice your visualizations will become more powerful.

You can use visualization for just about any change you want to make in your life. It is more than just positive thinking or using positive affirmations. It is one of the tools you posses to create the world you want to live in.

So the next time you want an edge, think of using visualization.

Until next time, enjoy the celebration of the moment, enjoy this short video on visualization and have a great day.

Ken

Why must we do the dishes?

Procrastination is like doing the dishes. The longer you take to wash the dishes, the harder it is to get the food off?

Most of us at one time or another have procrastinated. And like washing the dishes, the more we procrastinate on things, the more the sink fills, the larger the pile, the greater the stress and the harder it takes to tackle all the work.

Take a look at your in-basket. Is it full? Are there items that have been there for too long? Have you put some piles aside to get to later and later never comes? Does the pile keep getting bigger and bigger?

Time management consultants will tell you the best system of handling your in-basket is to only touch things once. They will tell you there are only 1 of 3 ways everything should be handled.

1.) Act on it immediately.

2.) Put in a file to be read later. (plan on reading this pile daily)

3.) Throw it in the garbage.

I guess you could handle your inbox in your email, in the same way. A study done by Queen’s University in Canada, a few years back discovered that the average business executive spends one day a week (8 hours) handling emails and mail in their in-basket, most of which is non-actionable. That’s 20% of your time in a week, and it may be even worse thanks to today's Blackberry and iPhones.

And procrastination only makes matters worse. I am finding that people are taking much longer to get back to me, or to make decisions, or to move some of their projects forward. They tell me they are so swamped, there are not enough hours, they can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, and the pendulum of balance has shifted so far to work, that entertaining personal hobbies or quality family time is just out of the question. And they seem to be so buried in paper, systems, procedures, and detail that does little to make a significant contribution.

PLUS - Procrastination can keep us from our greatness. As the saying goes – and I don’t know who to attribute the credit to it, “Boldness has genius power and magic in it.” We all have gifts to share in this world. We all have something to contribute. We often are holding back the success of something that could make a difference in our lives, in other people’s lives and even our world, but we are reluctant for a myriad of reasons, and so we procrastinate, even to the point that the “window of opportunity” closes, or someone else finally does it. We are reluctant to follow our intuition. We are afraid of being bold and taking action. I love one of Albert Einstein’s quotes – and it seems even more relevant today than when he wrote it many years ago.

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift

and the rational mind is a faithful servant.

We have created a society that honors

the servant and has forgotten the gift.

— Albert Einstein

So the next time you are thinking of procrastinating on something, remember there is a good reason to wash the dishes immediately.

Have a great, stress-releasing, mind changing, transformational day.

And before I forget, I usually like to end with a video of some sort. Here is an amazing 3 minutes by the BBC that makes you realize how incredible our universe is and the wonder and miraculous joy there is everywhere. As usual, sit back, turn on your speakers and enjoy.

Ken

Inspiration versus motivation versus perspiration.

"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart." Nelson Mandela

Great leaders, and Nelson Mandela falls into this category, understand that when an individual understands with their head, they must be continually motivated to behave in the manner the leader wants. This person requires constant motivation to think, feel and act in the right way. Whereas if you reach the heart, an individual’s actions come from a place of inspiration, from within and inspiration does not require motivation. A true leader understands this and when a group of inspired people operate from the right level within a company, growth, creativity, maximum efficiency, peak performance, superb customer service, and so on-and-so forth become instinctive - become the personality of the company and running an organization like this becomes easier, less stressful, less challenging, and just plain fun.

Motivation is an overused tactic that we have grown too accustomed to using in our world, I guess because it is an easy tactic to implement, it is measurable, its’ cost is quantifiable, it’s ROI is calculable and the results are predictable.

But motivation comes from an exterior trigger -through reward, or recognition, or even fear, or penalty. People will be motivated and behave appropriately; however, motivation only succeeds in accomplishing what you asked for. People will do no more. And motivation requires continual promotion and even continual change and improvement – more – more - more. What motivates today will not work tomorrow. If it was $5 today, will it be $7.50 tomorrow and $10 the next day.

Inspiration requires no improvement. Inspiration requires no motivation. You are inspired – period – or not. When people are inspired they work with intention and a sense of “purpose” where actions are positive, people are passionate, creative and driven and this energy is contagious. Their intention is inclusive, caring, sharing and empowering. There is no place for competition, politics, greed, ego or any fear-based feelings and behaviours that push people away and compromise success.

People that are inspired are open, authentic, respectful, sharing and cooperate as a group for the attainment of their mutual goals.

A company with inspired people attracts other good people, attracts good customers or clients and attracts vendors that work to help instead of just delivering a product.

And that old saying that success comes from inspiration, motivation and perspiration? Inspired people require less perspiration because quite frankly the work from inspired people doesn’t feel like work to them.

If you look at companies with the fastest growth, and the strength to maintain their position indefinitely, you often will find a company with a team of inspired executives and a culture that supports this.

Google is one example that many hold up as a model culture for today’s progressive companies. lululemon, MacDonald’s back in the Ray Kroc days, Richard Branson who believes in creating companies that fill a need, hiring good people to run them and then letting them run them. General Electric under Jack Welch; Steve Jobs at Apple; John Chambers at Cisco; Steve Ballmer at Microsoft.

Inspiration begets inspired creative thinking, begets passionate purposeful action begets brilliant innovation begets large leaps in progress – and it’s a circle that just keeps going.

You know when you are in the presence of inspiration. If you have ever had the pleasure of walking into a church that was designed and built in the 1400’s, 1500’s or 1600’s you can sense, see and feel inspiration. The same can be said with poetry, writing, music, a great painting and, of course great people who are inspired and aligned with their higher self. It’s genuine and you just know it.

I had a few of you comment on a group of Norwegian lads that sang in a blog I posted a few months ago. Here is a song from them with an arrangement that is truly inspired. It is a well-known U2 song but after you listen, you will hopefully agree with me. They are inspired. They have made it their own song.

Turn up the speakers, sit back, let go of the stresses of the day, relax and enjoy.

Have a great, glorious and inspired day.

Ken

The quality of your tools can mean the difference between success and failure.

I was golfing with my in-laws one beautiful day this past summer, and my Mother-in-law kept harping on me – “try George’s driver---try George’s wedge---try George’s five iron---and so on.” So finally I relented on a short par 4, asked for his driver and proceeded to blast the longest drive I had ever made. It was beautiful to watch. It kept climbing and climbing and climbing and went completely over the green. Wow! I knew that new clubs were better---the sweet spot was larger---and your accuracy was better but I had never experienced it myself. I can only imagine the difference the quality of equipment could mean between winning and losing at the professional level.

Then I started to think of the importance the quality of tools can have in business, especially when the margin between success and failure is razor thin. Tools that improve efficiency and productivity are easy to understand, but the less tangible tools that create impressions can still mean the difference between getting new business or not, or getting the fees or prices we set or not or getting approval or not.

I just recently started using a new LCD projector. It’s an Epson PowerLite projector. I need a fairly versatile projector because I can find myself in large and small rooms, in front of large and small crowds, I fly a lot, and since one of the courses I teach is presentation skills, my equipment better be right up there with the best. I noticed immediately that the colours on my laptop were the same as the colours being projected on the screen. I had never seen colour accuracy like this before. And the picture quality was amazing. An added bonus with this model is that I did not have to travel with my laptop – this projector works with my memory stick or even via the internet – and it makes life just a little bit easier. I wondered how this projection of quality could impact on the perception, albeit subtle, of quality on my business. I have to believe there is a co-relation.

People form opinions of you quickly, and connecting with the right impression is what it is all about. Project your self image in a way that breeds confidence in others; a perception of being the authority in your area, and more times than not, you win. And even though first impressions are not always correct, they are the ones that stick in people’s minds until corrected. What is the image that you have of yourself? What kind of image do you think you project?

There are 7 observable behaviours that help people form their impression of you and when you are aware of and control these 7 behavious, you create the impression you want, purposefully and this can mean the difference between success and failure.

Here are the 7 observable behaviours, in no particular order, that create those impressions:

1.) DRESS & GROOMING - Your dress should be credible and appropriate. Think about the impression you are trying to create and dress accordingly. If you are trying to create the impression of a leader or an authority, dress “one up” from the person(s) you are meeting.

2.) STANCE / POSTURE Posture should be upright, not round shouldered, like you “own” the place where you are standing. Stand tall and confident, like you’ve just won the lottery. Look like you want to be there. Stance does so much for your presence.

3.) GESTURES They should be fluid, smooth and not repetitive. WATCH FOR ANYTHING THAT SUGGESTS YOU ARE INSECURE. Should be more expressive. Gestures done poorly can give the impression of being unsure.

4.) MOVEMENT Should be fluid, confident, purposeful. Movement can give the impression of being in control, relaxed and confident. The happy wanderer can make you appear unsure and nervous.

5.) VOICE – VOCAL VARIETY Should project an air of confidence, filling the room. Voice should be full sounding, and be commanding and compelling. Watch for filler words such as ums, ahs, you knows, like, and other repetitive phrases that add no meaning to what you are saying. Remember that pausing also adds to the impression you are creating.

6.) FACIAL EXPRESSION & EYE CONTACT Your face should say “I am interested”, even excited. Direct eye contact is one of the most important tools to connect with the other person. Watch for the feeling of nervousness. Don’t try too hard. Your ability to look someone in the eye as you speak to them is a tell tale sign of our own self-respect. It’s not only a display of confidence, it is a DISPLAY OF TRUTH AND A DISPLAY OF RESPECT for the other person.

7.) WORDS & LANGUAGE. How personal or impersonal your language is has a direct bearing on connecting with the other person and creating the right impression. Your language should be appropriate, educated, decisive, certain. There should be directness in your speech; your tone and your words.

You can control these “tools” and create the right impression with the people you do business with. And the quality of everything else serves to enhance that image right down to the picture quality of the presentations you make.

Take a look at yourself in a mirror. What type of impression do you think you make when you meet people? Can you improve it in any way and increase your chances for success, and professionally with your career?

People, rightly or wrongly, form opinions and judgments quickly. Help them make the right decision. If you feel like a success, look like a success and act like a success, then …..by golly….you will be a success.

And the next time my Mother-in-law says “Try George’s 5 iron," I’ll quickly say – "Dad, please pass me your 5 iron.”

Have a great day.

Ken

Let's create a dynasty!

It was spring in 1956. Bill Russell, an NBA Hall-of-Famer, was signing with the Boston Celtics of the NBA. Red Auberach, the coach looked at Bill and said, “If you focus on helping your team mates, elevating their game, finding the open man with the best shot, then I will never care how many points you make in a game, when it comes time to re-negotiate your contract. If you just focus on yourself, at the expense of your team mates, then that will change how we approach your contract. The choice is yours.”

This was the entire focus of that team. It was one of camaraderie, cooperation, sharing and respect. The older players shared information with the younger players, information that would help them with the teams they would play. They cooperated and helped each other on the floor, respected one another for what they brought to the game and respected each other as human beings. They even liked each other.

From 1957 to 1969 the Celtics won 11 NBA titles, a span of 13 years: a dynasty that has not been surpassed or even approached in the NBA. And during that span, they only let one player go.

This is a perfect example of a team culture that fosters success. The positive energy of a vision – in this case to win – combined with a personal sense of purpose by each member, wrapped in cooperation, sharing, respect and harmony.

We see examples of this in the sports world all the time, but for some reason, we find it difficult to apply these principles to our everyday lives and in our businesses. We get too focused on looking out for ourselves, trying to get our fair share, protecting our own turf, or the dynamics of politics and competition creep into the fabric of our team culture.

We spend more time judging individuals, being critical of one another, controlling and getting our own way and creating an energy that pushes people away, puts up barriers to success, and fosters negativity instead of the attractive, inspiring and imaginative feelings that come from positive interaction.

Success is amplified by the creation of a group that likes one another, that cooperates, shares responsibility, shares ideas, and understands that the success of the team means everyone wins.

Teams that approach a project with this energy can work magic. Out of this harmonious blending, the minds connect in a positive energy, and draw upon creativity, imagination, inquisitiveness, cooperation and respect. Almost anything is possible and this is how great leaders impact on the teams in their company and create success in gigantic leaps and bounds. On top of this they are fun to be part of, stimulating your thinking in addition to being very inspiring and motivating.

It is the organized knowledge of the group, expressed through intelligent effort that creates the success. The individuals in the group engage in an effort that coordinates their knowledge and energy in a spirit of harmony. Lack of this harmonious coordination of effort is one of the main reasons for practically every business failure.

It is the collective intelligence, effort, passion, and knowingness to succeed that creates success. Success is not a solo project. It needs to be shared. There’s plenty to go around. You have to work with a team that shares the same dream or objective. A team is part of your lever. It makes success quicker and easier. It’s all about synergy. There is an incredible power when people work together.

Associating with like-minded, success-oriented, joyful individuals – a Dream Team – is one of the most exhilarating feelings and an amazing tool to achieve success.

Anyone can create a dream team. Look around. Think about something you want to accomplish and then approach the people you think would make a positive contribution towards achieving that goal. Help members work together in an effort that combines their personal sense of purpose, with cooperation, sharing, respect and harmony. Then watch as your success begins to materialize. And who knows, you may begin to build a business dynasty and your business and your career will take off.

Teams are like musical groups where everyone has their own part to play, and when they master their own role, and work in harmony, the resulting collective effort is a piece of music that is magic to the ears.

Much like these four young chaps from Norway who are playing a Leonard Cohen piece that was in Shrek 2. Turn up the speakers, sit back and enjoy and most of all,............ have a great day!

Ken

"If they had listened can you imagine our world today."

“But what is it good for? Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM commenting on the microchip in 1968.

“We don’t like your sound and guitar music is on the way out.” Decca Records rejecting the Beatles in 1962.

“This telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” Western Union internal memo in 1876.

“Hey we’ve got this amazing thing, even built it with some of your parts, and what do you think of funding us? Or we’ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary and we’ll come work for you.” And they said, “Hey we don’t need you. You haven’t even finished college yet.” Hewlett Packard rejecting Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, founder of Apple Computer about their idea of a personal computer.

“You will go broke trying to run a store on five and ten cent sales.” People trying to convince F.W. Woolworth not to go ahead with his plans for Woolworths Five and Dime.

Vision takes guts. Positive living takes discipline. Negativity is everywhere. There is no legal protection against those who, either by design or ignorance, poison the minds of others by negative suggestion.

Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich once said, “ This form of destruction should be punishable by heavy legal penalties because it may and often does destroy one’s chances of acquiring material things through their success.”

People with negative minds tried to convince Thomas Edison that he could not build a machine that could record and reproduce the human voice. “Because” they said, “no one else has ever produced such a machine.” Thomas Edison knew that the mind could produce anything the mind could conceive and believe, and that knowledge was the thing that lifted him above everyone else.

Doubting Thomas’s scoffed when Henry Ford tried out his first crude built automobile on the streets of Detroit. Some said the thing would never become practical. Others said no one would pay money for such a contraption. Ford said, “I’ll belt the earth with dependable cars,” and he did. His decision to trust his own judgment piled up a fortune for generations to come.

Protect your mind. Be guarded with your thinking. Positive thinking begets positive feelings begets positive actions, begets positive circumstances, begets positive opportunities, and so on and so on. This is a discipline that many of us find hard to do because there is negativity and doubting Thomas’s all around us. Negativity is toxic. It squelches great thinking. And mediocrity will attack brilliant thinking every time.

People who do not succeed have one distinguishing trait in common. They know all the reasons for failure, and have what they believe to be airtight alibis to explain away their own lack of achievement. You know…the list of “If onlys…..

It’s time you stopped listening to the conditioning you grew up with. It’s time you stopped listening to the world around you and realized just how perfect, how ingenious, how creative, and how fantastic you are. It’s time to realize that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to, and with vision, passion, and of course, a plan, you can succeed at anything you put your mind to.

You are an amazing human being. You are here to accomplish great things. You are here to grow, to be inspired, to create and to be happy, joyful, and prosperous beyond your wildest dreams. When you decide to change your thinking and picture your reality as you dream it and find the passion that sets your mind on fire, then your soul will shine, the nay-sayers will have no impact on you and you will create wondrous things and help multitudes of people and feel fulfilled, satisfied and alive.

Have a great day.

Ken

What does Bob Doyle have to do with fishing?

It often amazes me how small we think. The universe is constantly presenting us with a smorgasbord of lasting fulfillment, yet we tend to settle for scraps.

There is a story of a man who goes fishing. After he catches the fish, he measures it up against a ruler and if it's bigger than the ruler, he throws it back. By the end of the day he has thrown back quite a few, and a fellow fisherman asks him why. He explains, "The pot I use to cook the fish is only 12 inches wide. I have no use for the bigger fish."

Life wants to give us everything, but, when we're stuck with our small desires, it's like we are throwing it away.

Today, rethink what it is you want out of life. Expand your desires. Imagine that you can do or have anything and allow yourself the courage to go for it.        Yahuda Berg

Bob Doyle's name might sound familiar to you, it might because he was one of the teachers from "The Secret" and he's well known around the personal development community for his expertise in the Law of Attraction.

Here’s a brief video to help you think about a bigger pot to cook your fish in. It's a re-iteration on the principles to expand your thinking and create a life where your attraction to everything is limitless, eternally expanding, positively energetic, contagiously prosperous and gloriously enriching.

Have an amazing day.

Ken

"Be the change you want to see in the world." Mahatma Gandhi

I believe these are among the most powerful words ever spoken.

Before we proceed with our session this week, I would like you to view this clip that wasn’t in the movie ‘The Secret.’ It was edited out – for whatever reason – and I guess left on the editing room floor. It’s now a secret I guess, because they did not include it in The Secret.

For those of you who have never seen The Secret, I recommend it – it is inspiring, uplifting and has been one of the most talked about and viewed movies around the globe the last couple of years that never hit a theatre or television screen. 

We’ve talked about this before. Whatever you focus on expands into your reality. Whatever your thoughts, you attract more of the same thoughts, and situations, people, behaviours and events that support your thinking. Like energy attracts like energy.

There is no question about this anymore. It is a proven scientific fact. It is being tested over and over and over and over and over by our leading edge quantum physicists in Universities all over the world. Now is the time to harness the power you have in you.

Now is not the time to sit idly by and add to the energy that the people of this world are generating right now.

History shows that change – truly significant change – comes from individuals with a vision, with the right tools and the commitment to make things happen and create something new that changes the course. Be the catalyst to the change you want to see in your life, in your home and in your business world. Let’s begin to make the change now.

There is a woman whose name is Deborah Powell. She is the Principal of a school in our area - my daughter went there. She has a vision about creating the right environment for kids, an environment where kids want to learn. Her vision is all about creating a culture of cooperation, sharing, respect and harmony.

This is in an environment – our school system today – where bullying has become rampant. Where bullying that disguises itself in many forms, such as teasing, name-calling, sarcasm, making people feel like they don’t belong in the group, not letting people play with them, laughing at their clothes, or their hair, or their speech, or their work, racism, sexism, machoism, ageism, genderism – the list goes on, - but all this behaviour tears people down, hurts them, makes them feel less than they are and creates feelings that push people away instead of pulling them together as a team. All of this generates a feeling of negativity.

Deborah has created a school where kids respect one another, help one another, feel good about themselves and you can tell as soon as you walk in the doors there is happiness and joy in the halls of this school. People feel good about coming here every day.

She changes behaviour by telling people over and over about her vision. She tells them every moment she can, every day and even in formal assemblies every week. She tells them what is acceptable behaviour and what is not and she rewards good behaviour and penalizes bad behaviour. She has made it clear that there is zero tolerance for bullying. And when there is any bullying behaviour, she stops it dead in its track. Deals with it swiftly, even calls in the parent when necessary and tells the student and the parents that the behaviour will not be tolerated and if it continues they will be suspended from school and lose privileges, including bussing which has an impact on the parents too. The changes have been remarkable, and our daughter excelled in this environment.

Deborah is the catalyst. She is the change she wants to see. And her world and everyone in her world is benefitting form it.

So this week, look at yourself. Be bold. Take the step. Change how you see your world. Look at how you can help people around you. If you are a leader, of a group, a team, a department, a division, a company, take the steps to change what you see. Create an environment that pulls people together. Where a sense of purpose, cooperation, sharing, respect and harmony begins to change the old energy of crisis, conflict, competition and scarcity – energy that needs to change in our world.

And finally think about this. There are three groups of people in this world. The first group makes things happen. The second group sits there and says ‘it can’t happen and the third wakes up one day and says ‘what happened?’ Let's get ourselves into this first group.

Have a great week.

Ken

Transformation in 21 days.

Lose 20 lbs in 20 days. Create wealth in 30 days. You can have beautiful abs in 7 days. We hear these promises all the time. We have become addicts of the “instant” gratification syndrome. We expect results from everything immediately.

Well, here’s a promise to you to transform yourself in 21 days – all you need is to get a bracelet and follow the instructions in this week’s blog.

In one of the courses I teach, I give all the participants a bracelet (my apologies for not giving you one, but the mechanics and size of this blog makes this impractical.) Attached to each bracelet is a piece of paper that reads as follows:

Positive Vibration Transformation Bracelet

This bracelet has the power to create joy, happiness, and bring everything positive into your life. Psychologists have long known that it takes 21 days of consistency to change any behaviour. If you can create positive energy in every thought, every comment and every action for 21 days you will begin a new behaviour, a new approach, a new way of dealing with life in a more positive way.

Wear this bracelet for 21 days and consistently think and hold positive, non-judgemental thoughts, comments and feelings. If you think or express any negative thought, don’t worry, put the bracelet on the other wrist and start again. Keep this up until you complete 21 days. It will transform your life.

 

The principles of the discipline behind the bracelet are solid, well accepted psychological truths. We now know that behaviours create neuro-passageways in your brain. Like a road map, a behaviour always follows the same neuro-passageway. Over time, the passageway gets a little stronger every time you exhibit that behaviour.

For example, if your significant other pushes a button, your reaction is immediate, it is the same every time because you have gone down that familiar passageway a thousand times and it gets stronger every time. They have learned, through testing, that in order to form a new passageway, and make it more familiar, you need to exhibit the new behaviour for 21 days and create a new neuro-passageway with enough familiarity that the old one closes off and the new one becomes the pattern.

So if you want to break the habit of negative thinking, or making judgments on the world, or people, or just discover how much of this comes to the surface, get yourself an inexpensive bracelet and try this exercise. Most of my participants tell me that they become shocked at how negative they are – that they were completely unaware of their negative attitudes towards many things and they feel a release; they feel lighter, an increase in energy and a whole lot more happiness and joy, all as a result of this bracelet exercise.

Try it out. Let me know. Pass it on. Discover that the negative energy in you and in the world can be tamed. And the reverse – what is our true selves – is positive, attractive, loving energy that will change – make that transform – you and your world into the loving, prosperous, exciting and stress-free world you deserve.

Have a great day.

Ken

Here's a short video - actually a commercial - that inspires. Have a great day.