The Reason You Don't Succeed - Part 2

Earlier today we said...

The reason you don't succeed is because you are too comfortable.

Recently I came across a classic example of a person not succeeding because he was too comfortable, and then through necessity, turning it all around.

The young man's parents were getting on in years, and were moving out of the city to retire in the country, while the young man had to stay and finish his higher education.

His mother did everything for him, and provided him with the necessities of life, but not an extravagant lifestyle by any means.

When I saw her recently, she was so happy that her son had finally got motivated. He had got himself a job, had been learning to wash and iron clothes, and learning how to cook some basic dishes.

She couldn't see the reason for the sudden turn around in his attitude and fortunes, but really its a classic case of  'the stomach and the backbone'. 

To paraphrase Newton and Zig Ziglar - "A person at rest will remain at rest until his stomach hits his back bone!"

In this case, the young man was smart enough to get moving before the crunch came, and luckily he had a lot of encouragement from his friends.

The crunch could come in many forms. A financial setback, losing your job, a stock market crash, losing a partner, a heart attack, etc.

The key here is to look far enough ahead and visualise what might happen if you don't take action now, attach so much pain to that event, and then start taking actions to avoid the inevitable.

To your success,
Trevor Long

Experience Is A Great Teacher...

...But Let It Be Someone Else's!

80% of small business fail within the first year, and 95% fail within 5 years. Horrifying statistics.

How do you increase your chances of success?

Well apart from doing all the things suggested on this blog...

Get some High Level Mentoring, and create a Mastermind Group.

Find an expert who has been there and done that, someone who's done it all before, and been successful at it. 

Don't reinvent the wheel.

What will it cost you, in time and money, if you have to make all the mistakes yourself, before you learn how to do it profitably?

You might have to pay handsomely for your mentor, but it will be surely worth it.

That brings us to the Mastermind group. 

Surround yourself with people who are experts in all the areas you are weak in.
Take property investment for example, something I am passionate about.

In my first attempt at property investment, I had the idea that I could do it all myself. I'd read the books, been to the seminars, it seemed easy. Well I bought at least one dud property that cost me years of heartache, and probably hundreds of thousands of dollars. I also left a lot of money on the table by not structuring loans properly, not getting depreciation reports, etc. etc.

Luckily I had the opportunity to start all over again. I know a few people who either went bankrupt, or died way too early, from (I hallucinate) the stress caused by bad investments.

Second time around I got a mentor, someone who had done it all before, and was continuing to do it. And I surrounded myself with experts, a mastermind group. I got someone to find the locations, someone to manage the building contractors, a lawyer to handle the legals, a mortgage broker to handle the loans, people to manage the properties, and an accountant to make sure I'm reducing my tax and have the proper financial structures in place. These weren't the cheapest people I could find, they were the best. What do I do, you might be asking? I check my bank accounts once a month, and answer the occasional email from the real estate agent.

I've never been inside my properties, and I don't intend to, that's what I pay the real estate agent to do. If I have any questions or challenges, I pick up the phone and call one of my mastermind group. They deal with investment properties every day. They have the answers. They've done it all before.

Similarly in my business, I surround myself with experts. If I have questions on how to put a package together, or promote a seminar, etc. I call or email a few people, discuss what I want to do, and listen to their advice. I don't try to re-invent the wheel. Yes I'm smart and I could probably figure it out myself eventually. But the really smart way is to find out what has already worked and do that. Once I know how to do that, maybe I can make it better.

Be smart. Get a Mentor. Get a Mastermind Group.

To your success,
Trevor Long

Keep Trying!

Well said, Nelson Mandela.

As a coach I often have the conversation about "Trying", and I always quote Yoda - "Do, or do not. There is not try."

However, I'm prepared to let Nelson off the hook on his language this time, as the wisdom of the quote is worth noting.

No one is perfect. 
No one. So you don't have to be, and since no one is perfect, what's stopping you?

Failure is part of success.
In NLP we say "There is no failure, only feedback."
Well, that's right. And still sometimes it feels like we have failed. You tried and it didn't work.
Big deal!
Do it again, or do it again differently. Keep doing (or trying if you must) until you can do it.
You didn't walk perfectly first time, you probably fell over more times than you can remember, but once you learned to walk that didn't matter.
You were really bad when you first started driving a car.
If you've ever learnt to play an instrument, you were terrible at the beginning.
Could you touch type the first time you saw a keyboard?
Could you stand up and ride a wave on a surfboard the first time?

Whatever it is you are trying to achieve, if you didn't succeed the first time, why is that a surprise to you? Keep doing until you can.

To your success,
Trevor Long

10 Steps to Successful Goal Setting - Part 1 - What Do I Really Want?

10 Steps to Successful Goal Setting - Part 1

We've talked a lot recently about just choosing a goal, anything, and heading towards that. New ideas and goals will come to you once you get moving towards success. Your goals are merely signposts to success.

But then how do you actualize that goal? How do you write it? How do you visualize it? How do you affirm it?

That's what we are going to talk about in the next series of posts, starting right now, with Part 1. Enjoy!

1. What do I really want?

Brainstorm - Just write stuff down, anything you want to do, be or have. Go to fantasy land and let it fly. Brain dump it onto paper. Use mind maps to trigger new ideas. Keep going. Keep coming back to it and add more to it.

It doesn't matter if you turn these into goals or not, if you achieve them or not. That's not what we are doing here, just get everything thing out, then keep dry reaching until you get more.

No need to be specific at first. Just rough ideas will do. The tallest skyscraper started with a simple sketch, the biggest business started with a simple idea of providing a product or a service. The details get worked out later.

What would you do if you couldn't fail? Ask yourself that question. If you couldn't fail, had all the time, money and resources, what would you do, who or what would you be and what would you like to have... or give. No limits. Richard Branson is getting set to take the first tourists into space. This guy started off selling records by mail order! There are no limits to what you can dream, and no limits on what you can achieve.

Don't think about how its going to come about just yet. Again, that's not what we are doing here. If you knew how to be, do or have your goal, you would have it already. Forget about HOW you are going to do it for now.

Think about all the major areas in your life. Most people want to get thin, get rich, get love, or get a lifestyle (houses, cars, holidays, handbags, etc). Think also about what you would like to learn, and what you would like to contribute.

What would you do if the world was going to end in a week? Another powerful question. If you, or the world were going to end in a week, would a shiny red sports car be important? (Hey, it might be, I'm not judging here!)

Create a rich internal experience. Start day dreaming. Make your pictures big and bright, turn up the colours. Listen to the sounds around you, notice what people are saying to you, and about you, and what you are telling yourself. Be aware of the feelings you are generating, and turn them up too. Really get into this dream of yours, make it bigger, better and more sensory than you ever imagine you could. In NLP we call this VAK, Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic. Turn up your VAK like they were knobs on a TV.

NLP Presuppositions – 9. The meaning of communication is the elicited response

Neuro-Linguistic Programming Presuppositions – 9. The meaning of communication is the elicited response

A person’s response shows you their meaning of your communication. When you understand the difference between sending communication and receiving communication, you open yourself to intimately understand people. You become aware that people need to verify their understanding of your message, which allows you to adjust future communication with them.You just gave a brilliant presentation to a board of directors about a new project. Or so you thought. They rejected your idea. Why? There could be many reasons, but the underlying concept I’m painting here is the message received differs to the message sent.

This presupposition encapsulates another NLP presupposition: failure does not exist, only feedback exists. Every piece of feedback you receive is treated as an achievement because it takes you one step closer to what you want. If something does not get you the results you want, it only means you need to correct what you are doing. You eventually create the reality you want by having the flexibility to change.

More presuppositions to follow....

Credit to Joshua Uebergang aka "Tower of Power"
http://www.towerofpower.com.au/nlp-presuppositions

NLP Techniques: How to apply NLP presuppositions to yourself fast

What do you think are the presuppositions that define you?

How To Use The Ultimate Success Formula (made famous by Tony Robbins)

What do you think is the best way to make sure you achieve your goals?

1. Know your OUTCOME.
2. Take massive ACTION.
3. Notice the RESULTS you are getting.
4. Have the flexibility to CHANGE what you are doing.
5. Always operate from a PSYCHOLOGY and PHYSIOLOGY of excellence!