“Plant a tiny seed in the right spot and it will grow without coaxing.”

~ B.J. Fogg

The Motivation / Willpower Problem

One of the principles I teach in my NLP classes is that your willpower is finite. This is important because it helps people understand why it’s so easy to break your exercise, diet, or productivity chain when you’re tired, unhappy, or otherwise under stress. It’s also why I periodically run courses and challenges on building habits because the more you focus on creating constructive habitual behaviours, the less friction there is between you and your goals.

Unlike willpower, motivation isn’t finite, and your motivation goes a long way toward keeping you focused, but motivation has to be supported too. One of the biggest ways of keeping your motivation high also comes back to creating habits – like reviewing your goals and reminding yourself why you care in the first place.

I’ve noticed that the biggest reason why people don’t sell is… They’re depending on finite (or exhausted) supplies of motivation and willpower and they haven’t developed the mindset, habits, and tools to help them sell effortlessly!

Why Did I Lose THAT Sale!

Have you ever gone through your sales process…

Seen the enthusiasm and buy-in in every line of your prospect’s face and every word they spoke…

Then waited… And waited… And waited for a “Yes, we’re in” that never comes?

It’s true, even I don’t get a 100% close rate if you count every appointment I schedule, but I do get a 100% close rate on every appointment with suitable prospects – and I can see those rejections in advance.

Effortless Selling is not about forcing people to do business with you, or only selling to people who are certain to buy (often people teach this practice and suggest you lower your prices) – it’s about understanding WHO will benefit and HOW they will experience that benefit and setting up a system that HIGHLIGHTS those things.

When you apply the Effortless Selling Formula you’ll be able to know without question who is going to buy now, who needs more time, and who will never buy – so you can tailor your follow-up accordingly.

This is critical information because it falls into the ‘trash-talk prevention strategy’ playbook. Sales people have exceptionally high burnout and turnover because every time they lose a sale, what I call the itty-bitty-shitty committee kicks in and tells them what went wrong (usually focusing on ‘what you did wrong’). This saps your motivation and your willpower.

The Effortless Selling Formula nips that trash-talk in the bud by providing a framework for assessing your process and specific tools to help you improve if you realise that there’s something you need to change.

How Habits Help You Sell Effortlessly

There are specific habits you need to incorporate into your sales process if you want it to be effortless, but in this article I’m going to focus on how these habits support your selling process. Your effortless selling habits address your:

  • Mindset
  • Preparation
  • Questions
  • Presentation
  • Close

When each of these becomes part of a process that is at once automatic, rigid, and flexible then your path from the start of the sale to the close is like one of those ‘choose your own adventure’ games. From the inside there are infinite options, from the outside everything is clearly programmed.

Since you are on the outside, you can see clearly what is going to happen next and one action or reaction triggers the next step in your process right up to the sale.

Effortless Selling is NOT a Natural Gift

The old adage, “Salesman are born not made;” is simply not true.

ANYONE can learn to be an effective sales person – if they choose to apply themselves – and it’s one of those skills (like riding a bicycle) that you never lose.

I could go over all the things that effortless selling is NOT (eg. Pushy, obnoxious, manipulative…) but I’d rather focus on why it’s imperative that you learn to sell effortlessly right now…

You see…

…In the Industrial Age selling was the province of sales people – that’s where the whole pushy, sleazy, manipulative idea came from, but in the Knowledge Age (now) it doesn’t matter what profession you are in, sales is a skill you must develop and integrate into every part of your life unless you want to be left behind and deprived of opportunities not just to succeed, but to contribute.

I talk about this extensively in my sales trainings because sales skills are now imperative in everything from IT to Banking, medicine to construction and that’s why it’s so critical that you learn to sell with effortless authenticity and skill.

“The biggest obstacle to making sales is confidence and the greatest confidence booster is the awareness that you haven’t seriously considered all the possibilities yet.”

~ Chandell Labbozzetta

IF 'Perception is Projection’ is True, THEN...

… it logically follows that your outcomes and results will be limited by your perception of what is possible.

But…

What if your current view of the possibilities is limited?

This would mean that you won’t be able to see past your current reality and shift your thinking, so you really will be trapped at your existing level. This is a real problem, and the saddest part of it is that it makes people feel helplessly trapped in whatever their current situation may be even when people outside can see things that can be changed.

It’s true that you can’t see what you can’t see, but what if there was a way to change the possibilities you can see, and open up your perception to a whole suite of new opportunities?

Do You Value Your Own Insight Enough?

Alden is one of my Confident Conversion: 90 days to More Cash, More Clients, More Impact self-study students and recently he sent an email with his take-away from one of the sessions. He realised that he was spending the bulk of his time and energies on low-value prospects and over-delivering to clients who didn’t value the extras he was adding.

Once he became aware of that, new possibilities opened up that enabled him to raise prices and also split off his products and services in ways that gave him more time, more money, and helped him solve problems for more clients.

That particular module includes an assignment that helped Alden evaluate all his activities and made decisions about which ones should be eliminated, which ones he could delegate, and (most importantly) how to discover the ones in which he should invest heavily.

Alden realised that he simply didn’t value his unique genius enough – it was something he’d been doing for years, and it was so obvious to him, that he couldn’t see how unique it was until he went through this exercise.

Are You a Victim or a Victor?

Whether you’re directly in sales, own a business, or are employed by another person (or even if you’re a stay-at-home parent or a student) you have a choice to make: will you react to whatever comes… or will you be resourceful and take control?

On the surface, it may not make a difference. You do the same tasks, say the same things, stick to the same schedule. Underneath, however, many things change. One you decide that you’ll be a victor and take control of the situation, your attitude shifts and you become much more aware of possibilities and resourceful about following your options.

I see it all the time in my sales trainings and in people’s actions during my courses. Nothing externally changes about people’s situation, but their results sky-rocket and they shape the demand and lead people where they need to go.

As Michelle put it, “Where have you been all my life, Chandell? When I listened to the session and decided that I was going to take control of my sales call rather than just listening, suddenly I was closing sales left, right, and centre – and even telling people that I couldn’t help them. I wasn’t rude, I just took control of the process and stopped being needy.”

Michelle’s example is not unique. Neediness kills sales, and nothing yells ’Needy!’ Louder than letting your prospects take control of the conversation.

It’s not that you don’t listen. Listening is vital if you want to learn what the market needs. But you also need to be ready to interrupt when you have the information you need and resourceful enough to guide the conversation.

Changing Your Outcomes

These three principles of action are just part of the journey to dauntless determination in life and sales on which I lead my students and clients.

You see, until you are aware of the possibilities that lie just beyond the horizon of your current visions it doesn’t seem as though change is possible. You can’t see or feel it, and you can’t even hear it calling you, so how can you respond?

Social media and sticking to just a few news sources or guides puts us in an echo chamber of both opportunity and tactics and this will always limit your perception of reality. That’s why it’s important to look outside your current experience for solutions when you want to change.

Expanding your perception of possibility also helps you identify where you are undervaluing the true contribution of your expertise and that helps you take control of your market, workplace, and family, and act constructively.

Confident Conversion

My flagship program, Confident Conversion has changed the lives and transformed the results and businesses of students. It’s unique because it focuses on mindset, sales, and business simultaneously providing a powerful context for personal and life transformation in the broader sense.

From C-suite executives and department managers to beauty therapists and sales teams in just about every industry and company size, this strategy has enabled people to increase their income and impact, while spending more time doing the activities they enjoy with the people they love most.

To learn more visit: https://lifepuzzle.com.au/confident-conversion-find-out-more/

“Confident people are made, not born… And that means that Confidence is something you can build  and strengthen for yourself!”

~ Chandell Labbozzetta

Two Teachers - Two Approaches to Confidence: What do you think?

Teacher #1:

“Carly has clearly outperformed the other children in her spelling performance and she should be recognised for both her hard work and her achievement. Recognition will build her confidence and spur her on to keep working hard.”

Teacher #2:

“Carly won the Spelling Bee by a mile and knows it. She has had all the recognition she needs. The next child in line should also be recognised so Carly doesn’t get puffed up and John feels a sense of accomplishment too.”

This is not just a school-based attitude, it happens all the time in workplaces, too. I have heard managers use these same two arguments with respect to their teams, especially when it comes to sales personnel.

BUT… There’s a problem with both of these approaches. They place you at the mercy of the kind of manager you have, and their philosophy of recognition and praise.

That’s why my goal is to instill the kind of elemental confidence that is fueled every day by your own actions and responses and is not dependent on anyone else. Because even if people are not deliberately unkind, they’re busy – and often they just don’t stop to think about what kind of boost your confidence might need.

Four Stages of Confidence Building

Why do you feel nervous when you walk into a new job, client, or situation?

It’s usually not because you’ve lied about your experience and skill and don’t know how to do the things you’re claiming you can do, it’s because you (wisely) recognise that you’ll encounter some things that are different or challenging.

In my NLP courses I talk about the four stages of learning – and your confidence follows the same pattern:

  1. You don’t know what you don’t know. In this stage you are simply unaware of any gaps in your skill. Depending on your personality you might bound in filled with unfounded confidence or you might be scared and nervous because you’re expecting to have some level of ignorance exposed and you have no idea what that will be. Being ready to admit what you don’t know and tie it into what you do know will build your confidence because whatever it is, you know you can figure it out!
  2. You know what you don’t know. Now that you are aware of specific things that you know you don’t know, you can have confidence that you won’t be taken by surprise when those areas come up, you can even prepare some questions to help fill in the gaps in your knowledge which builds your confidence in two ways: first, you are prepared to admit your deficiency; and second, you know what you will need to learn and master.
  3. You know what to do, but it takes conscious effort to accomplish it. This is a big confidence booster because you know that you will succeed. It may be hard work, but you know what it will take and you’ve done it before.
  4. You are thoroughly familiar with this, and have a deep seated confidence in your ability to perform with effortless excellence. At this stage, your confidence is unstoppable! You have done this so many times, that you know that you will be successful.

That’s the kind of confidence that people who have attended my sales trainings and done the work achieve – they know, beyond any shadow of doubt, that any given sales conversation will end up as a win. Either the sale will be closed, OR both sides will realise that they are not a good fit for each other.

Yes, there’s still plenty to learn, but you can be sure of your ability to learn it, and confident that you know the stage you are in and are able to grow further.

Confidence and You

Did you know that confidence is one of the biggest indicators of success or failure in an activity at any stage of life?

That realisation amplifies the importance of getting this right, doesn’t it?

If you think about it, you probably know it’s true. You can remember times when you started out doing something hesitantly, and if no one encouraged you, you quickly gave up and decided you weren’t cut out for that pursuit so you quit. At other times you started with a great desire to learn that gave you the confidence to persevere and figure it out and set you on the path to mastery.

More than 80% of our communication is non-verbal, so even if your words express confidence, any inner hesitancy will communicate itself to your clients or colleagues. That’s why it’s important to be ready to ask for help and acknowledge the things you don’t know – other people will pick it up, even if you don’t tell them. And trying to pretend will only erode their trust.

Confident Conversion

As you can see, confidence is one of those things you simply can’t fake. Yet, many people are dependent on external affirmation and recognition to bolster their confidence and, particularly at work, that is often insufficient.

I first started running my Confident Closing workshops, to help people work towards stage 3 and 4 levels of confidence in sales. I quickly realised that there was an even greater need: the need to develop unstoppable confidence about every aspect of the sale – including your results and outcomes, your product, and your process.

The Confident Closing online program is designed to make every part of your selling process effortless… And it also ensures that you have everything in place in your business to make those sales profitable and delivery seamless.

“Resourceful people are happier, more successful, and have more satisfying relationships.”

~ Chandell Labbozzetta

Yes, You CAN Become Resourceful… if You Want To!

Before you waste your time reading this article, let me ask you a question:

Do you actually WANT to become resourceful?

Not too long ago… In fact, not much more than 12 months ago, most people who read this article would have said, “Yes!”

These days, I’m finding that people like the ‘idea’ but not the reality.

It’s amazing what uncertainty, a global pandemic, and government interventions can do!

Here are three quick questions to test your mettle:

Are you willing to own your current results… Or do you blame others for them?
Do you take action… Or do you wait for direction, permission, or circumstances?
Are you ready to change your behaviour… Or do you hope that you can keep doing the same things and yet achieve different results?

If your answers were weighted to the right hand side, and you are happy with those behaviours then you’re probably not ready to make the shift from reactive to resourceful. On the other hand, if you still think that you’d like a little more control over your life, then maybe you should rethink your willingness to change.

What Does This Change Demand of You?

Resourcefulness is really about control and ownership.

One of my favourite sayings is, “You can’t control the wind, but you can control the sails.” In today’s terms that means that you can’t control what governments, authorities, and germs will do to your circumstances, but you can control your actions.

So, creating change demands VISION, COMMITMENT, and ACTION.

The surprising thing for many people is that you can become more resourceful just by practicing a few tiny (but transformational) habits.

Step #1: VISION

What was the first thing you did when you arrived at work this morning?

If you opened emails or other communication channels to decide what you would tackle first, then you’re becoming the victim of other people’s priorities and the chances are you are not completing your own high value activities.

This usually happens because you don’t have a clear vision or goal for your role, or at least for your day.

  1. The first step to becoming more resourceful is to clarify your vision and then make sure that you set your task for the first hour of the next day according to your goals before you leave (or stop) work each evening.
  2. When you do this, you are telling yourself that you have something important to do… And you are also triggering a resourceful response to interruptions, distractions, and derailments.

Step #2: COMMITMENT

Start by taking control of your day in small steps. You can commit to one hour of self-determination for a month (your first hour) even if you aren’t yet ready to take control of a larger chunk.

Once you see how effective that mental decision is and how it helps you discover resourceful ways of deferring interruptions, you’ll be motivated to take bigger steps, but it’s important to start with a “No matter what” commitment… And I really do mean, “No matter what!” Unless you are dead or dying, don’t let anything derail that commitment!

Step #3: ACTION

Just do it!

Don’t think about it. Don’t write about it. Don’t talk about it. DO IT!

… Now notice what you accomplished.

  • Was it enough?
  • Was it more than you expected?
  • Was it less than you expected?
  • What will you change about the way you set your goal tonight?
  • Will you do something different tomorrow?

Spend a few minutes journaling about your experience, then feel free to go back to your usual schedule – until tomorrow morning.

You’ll be surprised at how your entries change over the course of the next 30 days… And you’ll be ready to decide whether resourcefulness and control is something you want to pursue, or whether you’re happy reacting to whatever the universe sends your way.

“Either you own your work, your time, and your results, or you delegate ownership to other people. When you take ownership, you become resourceful because success or failure are in your own hands.”

~ Chandell Labbozzetta

Your Actions Tell the Story

If you wanted to predict the long term success of an employee, colleague, family member… or even yourself, you might be surprised to learn that there’s an easy way to do it.

Find out if they’re reactive or resourceful.

Resourceful people are generally happier, more productive, and more likely to achieve their goals than those who spend their days reacting to people, news, and circumstances.

Let’s start by defining our terms:

A reactive person:

  • Keeps an eye on their email or message system to discover what they need to work on each day;
  • Is easily interruptible and highly distracted because they make other people’s problems their priorities;
  • Often fails to complete their tasks and meet deadlines causing problems for colleagues;
  • Has a long list of excuses (or reasons) why things didn’t work out.

A resourceful person:

  • Starts each day with a plan (often formulated the night before) – which might involve troubleshooting an issue or responding to someone else;
  • Focuses on the most important things and responds to emergencies appropriately and decisively because they have clarity;
  • Meets deadlines consistently and makes their colleagues lives’ easier;
  • Takes responsibility for failures and mistakes and makes a plan to avoid future occurrences;
  • Celebrates successes.

Which group did you fall into?

Attitude Underlies Action

Your actions show your resourcefulness. Your attitudes determine your resourcefulness.

IF you believe…

  • That other people should pay the price for your mistakes
  • That you should follow instructions blindly even when there is no urgency about the situation
  • That it’s not your place to make suggestions or point out potential pitfalls
  • That you should wait for direction and not proactively look for tasks that need to be completed…

THEN… you will always have a long list of reasons why things do or do not work out.

That may shield you comfortably from any blame, but it will also erode your self-esteem and make long-term success unlikely. It may be a sliding scale, rather than a binary choice, but most people are consistent through all areas of their life.

Reactivity and the Erosion of Self-Esteem

When Adrian came to see me, he was worried about all the work that needed to get finished so that he could support his family and spend more time with them. He felt as though he was struggling to perform at work and at home and every day he felt more of a failure. It was clear that he was so busy reacting to the world around him that he felt totally unresourceful and it was also clear that his diminishing self-respect was going to catch up with him even though he presented a confident and decisive face to the world.

As we talked about what was going on at work, it was clear that Adrian was showing up each day and checking email to decide what his first task would be. By the time he got around to the tasks that would create momentum (when he was able to do so) it was already late in the day, time was short and his energy was at a low level. He knew that he was not making the contribution he wanted to and day by day his self-esteem was slipping away. Toward the end of our first session, he finally shared the incident that was the tipping point for him – the evidence that he needed outside help:

“You know the old joke about ‘the dog ate my homework’? I’ve found myself tempted to make excuses and blame other people whenever there’s a stuff-up.

Once upon a time (not very long ago), my attitude was, ‘If I worked on it, then I own it.’ Now I’ve slipped into the habit of ‘shared work, shared responsibility’. The problem with that is that if no-one honestly owns the work, then you can’t fix it.

I don’t want to be that person because:

1. It really does affect the way I see myself and flow over into all my relationships; and

2. I get mad when I hear other people shifting blame.”

Can you help me go back to where I used to be?

Adrian’s Intervention

I was impressed by Adrian’s openness and self-awareness.

He had seen the erosion of his self-esteem and decided to ask for help because, although he had identified his unwanted behaviour correctly, he wasn’t sure about the cure. In addition, he was worried because the behaviours he hated in himself were evident in those around him as well: blame shifting, making excuses, wasted effort…

I shared with Adrian a simple, yet powerful technique that I teach in my coaching and online programs that helped him become more resourceful… And the results were fast and fantastic!

Within a month his:

  • Depression vanished;
  • Interest and engagement with his wife and kids was renewed – along with an increased awareness of their respect for him;
  • Productivity skyrocketed;
  • Sense of self-esteem, purpose and clarity increased;
  • Work offered him a promotion and pay rise.

And do you know what… When his inner landscape changed, so did his income and;

Internal Accountability

All the talk of the Pandemic and the many ways that governments have intervened to overturn previously autonomous businesses has eroded people’s sense of resourcefulness and personal power at an alarming rate. I’m concerned about the impact on businesses and even more concerned about the effect on people’s mental and emotional health that is evident in the way people are responding to challenges.

At the end of the day, the only person whom you can really be accountable for is yourself. Internal accountability is hard work, which is why most people turn to coaches and mentors for external accountability. The problem is that sometimes a coach or mentor will take your excuses and the stories you tell yourself on board because they don’t want to be the bad guy. That’s why my programs provide accountability, but are designed to help you become your own accountability partner: aware, determined, and resourceful rather than dependent on an external source.

Next week we’re going to talk about how you can change those unresourceful attitudes and actions so that you can create the success you want, and build your self-esteem quickly, without expensive therapy.

Discover what’s next – https://lifepuzzle.com.au/3-steps-to-becoming-resourceful/

“Do not let yourself be a slave to chance, but let your dauntless mind shape the triumphant future you choose.”

~ Chandell Labbozzetta (paraphrase of William Shakespeare)

You: A Walled Fortress

In one of her essays, Simone Weil, Jewish-French philosopher and holocaust survivor reflects on the role of walls in our lives. When I read her thought-provoking reflection, I was reminded of many clients I’ve worked with over the years. Some used walls as an excuse to hide, others used them to communicate, still others smashed the walls wide open.

This is a paraphrase of Weil’s thoughts applied to people I know and clients I’ve worked with – including the ones who choose NOT to CHANGE.

When you are shut up in a row of cells, there is a wall that separates you from the prisoner in the next cell. Sometimes prisoners develop codes for communicating with other prisoners, creating a sense of community in their suffering, Sometimes ,prisoners are able to tunnel under the walls and communicate secretly, but more extensively. Sometimes, a miracle happens, the walls disintegrate, sunlight enters, and the prisoner is freed.

When that happens, the question is: how will the prisoner respond to freedom?

My goal (and the purpose for which I built LifePuzzle) isn’t to ‘influence’ people.

It’s to create change!

I’ve seen too many people who had all the resources, gifts, talents, and time they needed, choose to stay inside the walls of their self-confessed prison to think that ‘influence’ will be enough.

The Cost of Security and Self-Protection

For a prisoner, a wall can be frustrating as it stops them from building relationships and achieving their dreams.

So… Maybe you have built walls around you like a fortress, for protection from your fears. Unfortunately, the walls that shut others out, also shut you inside and stop you from achieving your dreams – or even setting your feet on the path toward them.

I’m not suggesting that you ignore precautions and recklessly go out in search of danger. Fear is an appropriate response to danger. The challenge lies in learning to trust yourself enough to distinguish between the fear that tells you to run from danger, and that which you need to over face and conquer.

The Call of Freedom

The history-makers of this world – those dauntless men and women who refused to be tamed by fear, bullied into silence or suppression of their gifts are the ones who are free. Free to serve others, free to share with others, and free to change and grow.

There is a price to be paid for that tantalising prospect of freedom. That price is CHANGE.

Do YOU want to be free?

Like anything else that is worthwhile, the price is high.

I train people to speak in public as well as providing sales training. In the context of developing both of those skills, I frequently share the statistic that over 70% of the population fear public speaking more than they fear death.

It’s an interesting contrast… because both of those dreaded outcomes involved a willingness to change, to grow, and to face the unknown. Neither of them ignore the reality of fear, but they both involve applying dauntless courage to that fear and moving forward in the face of it.

That is the cost of freedom.

Dauntless: Overcoming Fear

What is stopping you, from being, doing, and having everything you want?

It’s usually fear. That might be fear of:

  • failure,
  • others’ mockery or criticism,
  • yourself,
  • hunger, misery, poverty…

BUT… Imagine what YOU could accomplish if you were dauntless – experiencing fear, but not letting it tame you.

  1. What goals would you set?
  2. What risks would you take?
  3. What tasks would you accomplish?
  4. What would change?

And finally…

What is stopping you from being that person and doing those things?

All it takes is a willingness to step out and be yourself with dauntless determination.

“Momentum is what makes an avalanche so dangerous, a galloping horse so unstoppable, and social movements so powerful.”

~ Chandell Labbozzetta

Your Three Minds… the Key to Your Success and Achievement

In Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) we illustrate the concept of your three minds with three intersecting circles shown below:

The3minds 768x744

The 3 Minds

As shown these three minds are the critical faculty, the conscious mind, and the unconscious mind and at the intersection of these is our true self which grows and develops in accordance with our decisions to trust and honour ourselves (which leads to growth) or to distrust ourselves (which leads to diminishment).

Any time you successfully harness the power of all three minds in your efforts, you create a degree of momentum that virtually ensures successful completion. So, the question becomes…

How does each of these three minds contribute to my success, and what steps do I need to take to shift from striving to achieving?

Your Conscious Mind: Goals, Plans and Actions

Setting goals has to do with vision and it’s helpful if your goals have a sense of inevitability. An avalanche heads downhill, following the line of least resistance until its momentum is exhausted. A galloping horse runs for the horizon until it can run no further. A social movement grows in noise and power until it achieves its object. In the same way, your goals, plans, and actions provide you with a destination and a path to follow.

The biggest reason why people don’t make progress toward their goals is that they lack a clear picture of their destination and path.

This leaves their conscious mind without direction and makes them easy to distract.

Your Unconscious Mind: Motivation and Emotional Connection

Have you noticed how much harder you are to distract when you are intent on getting an answer or achieving something you really care about?

One of my colleagues is always jumping around and never seems to get anything done when you ask her to submit reports and complete administrative tasks. However, put her in front of a room of c-suite executives to sell her ideas, or ask her to prepare a sales presentation and she is focused, insightful, and 100% engaged.

What’s the difference?

The difference is the emotional connection between her actions, goals, and effort. When she is preparing a presentation or delivering a sales pitch she is totally invested in engaging the audience and delivering a result. Admin is just a chore.

With her permission, we decided to run a test and create an emotional motivational connection between submitting those reports (which are tied to her presentations and sales results). The difference was phenomenal!

Your Critical Faculty: Formed and Filtered by You!

Psychologists tell us that until the age of seven our minds uncritically accept whatever ideas they are fed. After that we develop the ability to filter ideas and decide what to accept and what to reject. However, we are still dependent on the outside world to present ideas to us.

You’ve probably heard people talk about the echo-chamber effect – which can be exacerbated by AI on the internet. Facebook uses this extensively and it is the reason why you see more of certain people and related ideas and less of others. Every time you respond to a post, you increase the probability that you will see more posts and products along those lines. The problem with living in an echo-chamber is that your critical faculty is being conditioned to only accept certain lines of thinking.

This also presents an exciting opportunity for you to determine where your thinking will take you. The more you present yourself with material that affirms your goals, supports your belief that they are both possible and desirable, and directs your course of action towards them, the more probable (even inevitable) it is that you will achieve them easily and effortlessly.

Your True Self: Integration of Desire and Reality

Fantasies are fun to indulge… But Fairy Tales are even better because they could actually come true.

When you harness the power of your three minds, deliberately set out to design your success and create a path that leads to that success, you are creating your own fairy tale and making yourself deliberately lucky.

You have more control over your future… and even your present… circumstances than you imagine.

What will you make of them?

“Energy flows where attention goes so focus on what you WANT to see realised.”

Angles, Perspective, and Results

One of my hobbies (and teaching techniques) is drawing. When you are drawing something or composing a picture (or a photograph) it’s fascinating to see how what you see and the meaning you attach to it changes when you look at the same subject from different angles or perspectives. When you move close to a glass of wine and look up through the bulb it looks quite different from the way it looks when you back away and set it behind a vase of flowers or something else.

This principle is equally true when it comes to the angle from which you view events, people, and circumstances. A new angle provides new insights, learnings, and opportunities.

Several months ago, I attended a personal development course and we were exploring our attitudes and reactions through a series of games that challenged us to shift our focus. The exercise forced me to look at particular behaviours from a different angle, and that caused my behaviour to change… in an empowering way.

What fascinated me, is that the change was brought about not by focusing on the behaviour itself, but simply by shifting my point of view.

This is just as true in my coaching and sales training courses. Sometimes a person will come in with the ‘been there, done that, teach me something new’ attitude.

I love that! And what gives me even more joy, is at the end of the session or quarter, when they say, “I may not have learned anything that is stunningly new, but the way you helped me see and do things has transformed my outcomes and made selling effortless.”

Deep Cleaning Does Wonders

Most years I run a workshop early in January to help people release the previous year and set themselves up for the new year. One of the most powerful sections of this workshop is the one that uses Time Line Therapy® practices to release the emotions and limiting beliefs that many people picked up over the past 12 months.

This year, that practice was especially transformative given the turmoil of 2020 (global pandemic anyone?) and the uncertainties we still face at the start of 2021.

This makes complete sense when you think about it.

You know how, when you are applying those 3M sticky pads to a surface, or putting a screen protector on your phone, they instruct you to clean the surface thoroughly first?

If you ignore those instructions, things don’t work out so well – the adhesive doesn’t stick as well or else there are annoying bumps and irregularities on the screen that don’t show up until after you’ve applied the protector, but then they are incredibly obvious.

Well, your goals and plans are like that, too. When you acknowledge and clean up the negative emotions and failures, affirm your positive results and progress, and celebrate your wins, it’s like cleaning the surface before applying a new screen protector or placing a sticky pad: you can see more clearly and plan and act more decisively because you have more angles to view from.

How Could this Be Different?

As I’ve been discussing goals, planning, and habit practices with business owners and sales professionals over the years, I’ve noticed a few common approaches that you may recognise:

  • Everything is changing so fast that systems, plans, and habits are only marginally helpful – you really need to do everything on the fly and you’ll be disappointed if you have clear goals;
  • There is so much turmoil and uncertainty around that you need to exert iron control over the only thing you can – your routine and habits must be set in stone and your plans and goals non-negotiable;
  • There are no guarantees about anything, especially in business so I’ll just do what I feel like and hope it works out;
  • I know that what worked before will work again, so I’ll just keep on doing it even if I don’t see the results I’’m used to seeing.

Actually, there’s a place for most of these attitudes in your success – the challenge is to get the right mix and you can only do that if you are able to see from a variety of perspectives.

What’s Stopping You Cold?

Often there is just one thing that is stopping people from achieving their goals. Usually, it’s something that other people can see, but you can’t.

It might be a:

  • Habit
  • Relationship
  • Limiting belief
  • Lack of skill
  • Lack of resources
  • Mistaken focus
  • Distraction of overwhelm

In my experience, it’s usually something that you are completely unaware of, because as soon as you become conscious of this particular thing, it ceases to be a problem.

Nathan couldn’t work out why he kept getting appointments with people, but was never able to close the sale until we worked together while his colleagues were easily able to sell to the same prospects. By the end of the first session, I knew why he couldn’t see the product: every unrehearsed word that came out of his mouth screamed, “This is way overpriced!”

He didn’t have a clue about what he was really communicating until I pointed it out to him. Once he saw that, he was ready to drop his attitude about ‘lousy prospects’, ‘poor sales scripts and tools’, and ‘no money’ and he quickly became the company’s star sales person.

What Will You Do?

You can blame your misfortunes and lack of success on other people.

You can get angry with the WHO, the universe, and your political leaders.

You can grit your teeth and keep doing the same old things.

You can quit.

OR

You can find different ways of seeing, new angles and approaches to old problems, and solutions that really work and make selling effortless.

Sometimes, you need to learn from someone new because your existing teachers have become too familiar. Sometimes you need to make an appointment and sit down with an experienced coach or mentor who will help you see old problems in new ways. Sometimes, sitting with a group of people like you and hearing their problems, perspectives, and solutions are what it takes to get unstuck.

If you’re interested in a new approach my program, Confident Conversion: 90 days to More Cash, More Clients, More Impact, offers 3 different levels of engagement.
Schedule a call to learn which one is best suited to your needs.

“The formula for disaster is: Could + Should + Won’t.”

~ Jim Rohn

… When Life Throws Curve Balls!

Do you like it when everything runs smoothly and you can pat yourself on the back and tell yourself what a great job you did and celebrate your achievement?

I do… But that doesn’t always play out for me.

Frequently, just as I’m gearing up for a challenge something happens that makes me wonder what I should do. I could give you lots of examples (some of them are funny in hindsight) like the time where:

  • My computer crashed just before an important presentation and I had to present without any slides or visuals. I thought about rescheduling, but my colleague told me to go ahead any way and I closed the deal. In fact, the client said that is was my determination and readiness to innovate that was the clincher.

Or when:

  • I was on a plane headed up to Sydney for the day to speak at a conference without a change of clothes and my seat mate spilled her meal tray over me. I was able to hide clean most of it up and borrow a shawl to hide the rest and I learned to always pack something to change into for emergencies.

Or when:

  • My internet cut out part way through a webinar – everything just died and the platform I was using wouldn’t let me restart using the same link so I knew that even if I got back online with my phone I wouldn’t able to restart it in the same room. That was the time that I received a flood of emails telling me how valuable my teaching had been and asking how they could work with me.

Last year threw most of us a number of curve balls… and I’m willing to bet that this year will probably be eventful, too.

Are you prepared for that?

The Formula for Success is…

Could + Should + Will!

In the examples above, something went wrong that I couldn’t control so I asked myself three questions:

  1. How could I approach this situation?
  2. What should I do in response to this situation?
  3. What will I do now to resolve the situation, make things right, or get things moving?

This formula for success, achievement, and happiness is available to everyone. Many people are good at finding answers to the first two questions, but a lot of them stumble when they’re asked if they’re willing to do what it takes next.

Why?

Well, it’s like people’s answer to the question: “Do you want to be rich?” Around 90% of people will say yes, but there is only a small percentage of those who will do what it takes to achieve their desire ethically.

How could I approach this situation?

This is about exploring options and it is deliberately a ‘how’ question.

There is rarely only one way to solve a problem, so as you consider this question be prepared for objections and energetic discussion. In fact, if you can only find one viable solution then you are almost certainly kidding yourself.

If you have the opportunity to discuss your situation with other people, you should be looking for several possibilities and taking as much time as you need to pick holes and find advantages of each different path.

Whether you’re thinking about business problem or a personal one, it’s wise to remember that if you can only think of one solution, then you need to ask others for help because when you broaden your thinking you increase the chance of finding a solution that you are willing to implement. Many Victorians faced this last year during the lockdown – most came up with innovative solutions with potential to kept them afloat.

What should I do in response to this situation?

This is the time to come up with your preferred approach and to think about your strategy… the steps and actions you’ll take, people to talk to, and so on.

Your goal here is plan a ‘best approach’ that will take you from your current position to your desired goal. You don’t want to over-complicate your approach, but neither do you want to over-simplify things to the point where you can’t actually arrive at your destination, or to the point where you create massive headaches for your colleagues.

Once you get to this stage, you really need to commit to a single approach – you will get in trouble if you keep zigging and zagging around. Of course, if new information comes to light and you realise that you need to change course that is one thing, but that is all the more reason to consider a variety of possibilities at the start.

What will I do now to resolve the situation, make things right, or get things moving?

This is the step that divides failure from success.

You thought about your options.

You chose your path and developed a plan.

Now it’s time to execute: will you? Or won’t you?

There’s a catchy saying: “If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.” It has a certain amount of truth in it, but and even more potent saying would be: “If you fail to act, then failure is certain!” It doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, but it is 100% true.

Plans without action aren’t worth anything at all and decisive action simply doesn’t happen unless you choose to say, “Yes, I will execute this plan.”

Are You Ready to Create Your Own Success?

If I asked you whether you had the support and information you need to make this year incredible no matter what curve balls are thrown, would your response be, “ABSOLUTELY!”

If not, I’d like to invite you to make this the year you stick your neck out and ‘go for gold’?

If you’d like some help on the business side of things, you may be interested in my new online Confident Conversion program. Discover the details here

“It’s easier to turn a moving ship, but if you’re heading for an iceberg that may be the wrong response.”

~ Chandell Labbozzetta

Don’t ‘Just Do It’!

Speculation about the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 is unending. One recent documentary hypothesized that if the helmsman had not turned the ship, but had hit the iceberg head on the ship would not have sunk.

I don’t claim to be an expert on that particular strategy, but I do have personal experience coaching people who have taken a firm stand on Nike’s ‘Just do it!’ slogan and then sought my help to get them out of the personal or business mess they’ve ended up in.

My advice to you is: Think and plan before you take any action!

Here’s why…

Before You  Deepen the Rut Any Further...

Habitual actions are like well worn pathways for the brain. It’s usually easier to walk along a pathway than over untracked wastelands where you can trip and fall so before you start a new course it’s important to ask some questions like:

  • Will this take me where I want to go?
  • What are the unintended consequences of this course of action?
  • Is there a better way?

This is not the same as analysis paralysis, it’s simply setting aside some time to examine your strategy and roadmap before you set out on a course you may regret.

You probably know someone who habitually reaches for M&Ms or other sugary treats to beat the 3pm energy slump and stay productive… And maybe that person has a weight problem as result of that habit. Many smokers gain weight because they swapped the habit of smoking for the habit of snacking or nicotine for drugs – partly because they didn’t think far enough down the track.

Even if you are starting a positive habit or stopping a negative one, it’s worth asking yourself the questions above so that you can strategically develop your plan for substitution.

An equally important question is:

  • What is stopping me (or has previously stopped me) from doing this?

If you’ve ever tried or watched sports like acrobatic snowboarding or BMX, you’ll know that heading for an obstacle can be dangerous – the faster you are going and the more momentum there is driving you, the greater the risk of a nasty accident.

This is just as true with personal and business growth as it is in sports.

That’s why it’s important to…

Review the Past

Look back at your previous attempts to change or grow in this area and see what you encountered.

In my business and sales coaching, I’ve noticed that people who don’t take a look at their results and outcomes over the past quarter and year before they plan the next one, frequently keep making the same mistakes.

The same is true when it comes to reaching personal goals like exercise, flexibility, weight, career development, skills improvement and so on… When you look back and determine what derailed your efforts in the past, you can often find different strategies or ways to remove the barriers, so you don’t hit them at speed next time.

Every quarter, Alison set herself a sales goal and every quarter she failed to meet that goal. As a result, she was disappointed in her performance and embarrassed when she had to say to her manager, “My goal was $x and I only managed to close $y.” As a result, she was constantly beating herself up mentally and emotionally. When Alison and I sat down to talk about what was going on, it was immediately clear that she never asked herself the critical questions about why this kept happening, she just kept right on following the ‘Just do it!’ method.

We were able to identify the barriers that had derailed her performance and discover ways to remove or work around them, but that wouldn’t have happened without our review.

Review the Past

Look back at your previous attempts to change or grow in this area and see what you encountered.

In my business and sales coaching, I’ve noticed that people who don’t take a look at their results and outcomes over the past quarter and year before they plan the next one, frequently keep making the same mistakes.

The same is true when it comes to reaching personal goals like exercise, flexibility, weight, career development, skills improvement and so on… When you look back and determine what derailed your efforts in the past, you can often find different strategies or ways to remove the barriers, so you don’t hit them at speed next time.

Every quarter, Alison set herself a sales goal and every quarter she failed to meet that goal. As a result, she was disappointed in her performance and embarrassed when she had to say to her manager, “My goal was $x and I only managed to close $y.” As a result, she was constantly beating herself up mentally and emotionally. When Alison and I sat down to talk about what was going on, it was immediately clear that she never asked herself the critical questions about why this kept happening, she just kept right on following the ‘Just do it!’ method.

We were able to identify the barriers that had derailed her performance and discover ways to remove or work around them, but that wouldn’t have happened without our review.

Reset and Remove

Every time you do something you create pathways in your brain and muscles that make it easier to follow the same path again. This means that if you want to change your habitual patterns of thought or action it gets harder the longer you’ve been following your current path.

Your mind is like a piece of paper that has been written on and erased so many times that there are little pathways going in every direction. That’s why a reset is so important: it’s like taking a fresh sheet of paper and starting again.

After you’ve done your review and identified what barriers might be in your way I use a variety of NLP, Time Line Therapy®, and other techniques to release emotional, mental, and physical hindrances and barriers so that you can set out on a fresh journey that is less likely to be derailed by your past actions and experiences. I help my clients do this as well and it’s often the difference that makes the difference.

Without this reset and removal process it can be hard to envision a different outcome, let alone plan and sustain your journey to the goal.

Quest for Your Best

Every day I work with people just like you who are sick of mediocrity and are on a quest for their best. I don’t believe that January 1st is a magical date, but I do believe that having time-based intervals for achievement is a proven and powerful tool.

Actually, I break my year up into intervals and I schedule time each day and week for mini-review and reset breaks because that enables me to catch myself up quickly and stay on track. I also include bigger reviews and planning sessions on a quarterly and annual basis to set the direction against which I can measure my progress and make sure that my sights are set on the appropriate target – sometimes targets change based on life-circumstances and opportunities that arise.

If you’d like to experience my Quest for Your Best process in person you can join me for a 4-hour journey in which we…

  • Reflect on where we have come from and what needs to be learned, strengthened, or changed;
  • Revisit our personal wins and integrate them into who we are and who we are becoming;
  • Regroup and Reset by releasing our past failures, disappointments, and disasters and giving ourselves a fresh start;
  • Refocus on our goals and ensure that they are still sufficient for where we are today;
  • Refresh our plan and design the actions and habits that will unerringly take us toward our goal.

I will lead you through my own proven process and share the tools I use including the activities and exercises I use to eliminate friction and give me a fresh canvas that keeps momentum and enthusiasm high.

If that sounds interesting… Go to https://lifepuzzle.com.au/business-development/quest-4-your-best/ 
for more information and to reserve your spot or take advantage of our special Christmas offer.

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