Posts Tagged ‘Emotion’
Are you Dreamer or an Achiever?
In the 1920′s and 30′s, a young journalist called Napoleon Hill, interviewed 500 of the most successful people in America. He found that people who create success have many things in common. These are some of them as described in his best-selling book, “Think and Grow Rich”
- Decide what you want. Desire is the starting point of all achievement. Desire is a crazy mad emotion that you absolutely have to satisfy, not a rational reasoned argument for doing something.
- Believe that you can get what you want. Self doubt will prevent you from taking action. No-one is born with a sense of what they can’t do. Limiting beliefs are learned and they can and must be unlearned. It is usually easier to overcome other people’s judgements than our own.
- You don’t have to do it all yourself. As Mother Teresa famously told Bob Geldof, “I can’t do what you do and you can’t do what I do but together we can change the world.” Surround yourself with people who can do what you can’t and who respect you for what you can do. Start or join a MasterMind Group with like minded people.
- Make practical use your imagination. Work out how to turn your dreams into reality. Everything, everything, starts out as an idea. Ideas are the beginning point of all achievement but they need to be harnessed into practical action.
- Create a plan, organise your ideas and take continuous action. Most people put more effort into planning a holiday than planning their life. Successful people don’t just react to things that happen to them, they question whether something will take them closer to their goal before acting on it or rejecting it.
- Avoid procrastination and make decisions. The ability to make decisions comes back to understanding exactly what it is that you want, to the burning desire and definite purpose that underpins all achievement. Successful people in all walks of life decide quickly and firmly and the world has a habit of making room for the person who knows where they are going and why.
- Persist. Things will go wrong, people will let you down. If your desire is strong enough you will find a way through all difficulties to achieve your desire. Don’t keep doing the same things and expecting different results. Find different ways to achieve your goals. Paulo Coelho was committed to a mental asylum by his parents three times and subjected to electro-convulsive therapy because they thought he must be mad to want to become a writer instead of a lawyer. He persisted and his book, The Alchemist, sold over 40 million copies.
- Aquire power and learn how to use it. The ability to lead others in a spirit of harmony to achieve a definite objective is a major source of success but successful people say that personal power and self mastery are most important.
- Understand that sex is the most powerful of human desires. When this desire is harnessed into a creative process it can be the source of genius. It can also be a huge temptation and has destroyed many great people. Successful people say that they are able to transmute its power into a creative force that helps them to produce and action ideas that in many instances makes their fortunes.
- Learn to use the power of the subconscious mind. Everything we have ever experienced is kept in the vast storehouse of our sub-conscious. It can work for or against us but when we learn how to harness this power it makes us unstoppable. What we think of the world and ourselves makes us not only who we are but who we can be.
- Develop and learn to trust the ‘sixth sense’. Intuition can help us to avoid dangers and grasp opportunities. Intuition is part of our nature and many successful people admit that intuition is a big part of their success including Donald Trump, Oprah, Richard Branson and even Bill Gates. Einstein and Edison described their creative process as having original ideas that didn’t come from the rational foundation of the mind. Jonas Salk, the inventor of the polio vaccine, says, ‘The intuitive mind tells the logical mind where to look next.’
- Deal with fear, the major obstacle to achievement. Almost every feeling of fear we experience is as the result of an IMAGINED situation, not a real one. In almost every case, the imagined situation that we most fear never happens. When a situation that we had feared actually materialised, most of us deal with it without any real consequences. The only thing holding most people back is their own imagination!
Is it ever too late to do the things you once dreamed of doing?
Mary Wesley, best-selling author, took up writing at 70
Charles Darwin’s first book wasn’t published until he was in his 50’s
Colonel Sanders was in this 60’s when he franchised Kentucky Fried Chicken
Ray Kroc was in his 50’s when he launched McDonalds
Agatha Christie was 62 when she wrote The Mousetrap
Julia Child was 50 before she took up cooking professionally
Benjamin Franklin was 78 when he invented bifocals.
Life expectancy has doubled in the last 100 years. There is no longer an official retirement age. If you go to college at 40 and qualify at 45 you could still have half your life left to work at what you love. It’s never too late to become an achiever instead of a dreamer!
Posted in Inspiration | 
Tags: Best Selling Book, Bob Geldof, Burning Desire, Continuous Action, Decisions, Definite Purpose, Dreamer, Emotion, Habit, Journalist, Judgements, Like Minded People, Many Things, Mastermind Group, Mother Teresa, Napoleon, Napoleon Hill, Nbsp, Procrastination, Self Doubt, Use Your Imagination, Walks Of Life | 
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Remove the technology
I’ve just read a great blog about marketing by Mitch Joel (you can read the original post here: http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/removing-technology/ )
Mitch suggests that the rise in Social Media is obscuring the real issues of marketing and I agree with him.
The rise in the use of Social Media means that more people are doing their own marketing (or they think they are). Often what they are doing isn’t marketing at all, they’re just producing noise and wondering why it doesn’t work.
To build awareness of your business you need a consistent marketing plan and social media is just part of the picture. If you have nothing to say or say the wrong things, you’re just going to let more people know it, faster than ever before.
Lets pretend the technology didn’t exist – here’s what’s important:
- Tell a compelling story.
- Real relationships are not built on offers… they’re built on long-term value.
- Create emotion. If it’s a ‘so what?’ you’re wasting your time.
Forget the technology – get the message right and then look for the right media to help you to share it.
Posted in Social Media | Tags: Com Blog, Emotion, Marketing Plan, Own Marketing, Relationships, Social Media, Technology, Wasting Your Time | 1 Comment »
Hope and optimism
One of the highlights of my week is a video blog called “Optimistic Monday” . Its by my friend Phil Begnett of WTV Media and has a loyal following of people like me who love the random upbeat messages that Phil posts on the theme of “every Monday is a fresh start”.
He even entitles one post “CTRL+ALT+DEL” as a way to show that we can escape and start again!
Last week, Phil, like many other folk had been badly affected by the terrible news of what was happening in Japan and thought it was inappropriate to goof around on his video blog so he just acknowledged how he was feeling and signed off.
Full marks to Phil for being true to his feelings but it left me feeling slightly let down and pondering the way we deal with terrible news and the role that hope, optimism and especially laughter play in helping us to deal with them.
Hope is THE most important emotion for human beings to have.
Without hope we can’t live for long. Optimism is closely related to hope and I believe that is why Phil’s Optimistic Monday video is so popular.
I don’t want to diminish the awful situation that survivors of tragedies have to cope with but the truth is that many people do more than just cope. It is only because they have hope and optimism that they can move forward and, in many cases, rebuild lives that are even more meaningful than the ones they had before.
Laughter is the currency of hope
Laughter is one of the most powerful healing experiences. It is contagious and relieves isolation and loneliness. It is impossible to laugh and feel afraid at the same time which is why I value people like Phil Begnett who have a natural ability to make people feel good.
We need to feel pity and sympathy for the survivors of tragedies and do everything in our power to help but it is even more important to bring hope, optimism and laughter.
More Optimistic Mondays please Phil!
You can see more of Phil’s Optimistic Monday posts on the blog page at http://www.wtvmedia.co.uk
Posted in Inspiration | Tags: Currency Of Hope, Emotion, Experiences, Feelings, Fresh Start, Friend Phil, Human Beings, Isolation, Japan, Laughter, Loneliness, Natural Ability, Nbsp, Optimism, Survivors, Sympathy, Tragedies, Truth, Upbeat Messages, Wtv | 4 Comments »
How to create an EPIC Brand
Why a strong brand can help you build a strong business.
It is estimated that we are bombarded with over 10,000 marketing messages a day so how can a small business get noticed in amongst all this noise? A strong brand is one of the best ways to build a business. It needn’t cost a fortune and these tips are just as applicable to a small SME as they are to a multinational corporation.
What can having a good brand do for your business?
All of the strong brands we see around us every day started out as small businesses selling a product or a service. It is awareness of the brand that brings increased sales, a loyal and long term customer base and perhaps even premium pricing. Staff members become dedicated employees because they understand the brand, believe in it and feel a part of it. James Hammond “The Brand Doctor” of Brand Halo has spent almost 30 years helping businesses to create all the benefits of a strong brand with some innovative ideas.
A brand is not a logo or a strapline
He is adamant that a brand is NOT a logo, a colour scheme, a strapline, a mission statement or a promise. He puts forward the idea that a brand is the total experience that a customer has with your company, its product or service. In other words the brand belongs to the customer and resides in only one place: the long term memory of the customer. 
Andrex (a British brand owned by an American company) has been the Number One best selling toilet tissue all over the world for 37 years, often selling for four times the average price of other brands – all because of a puppy!
James has a simple formula for creating an EPIC brand: Emotion, Perception, Innovation and Communication.
E All sales are made from EMOTION and justified by rational thought, therefore all strong brands need to create an emotional response. James suggests that determining the emotional benefit of our product or service is the starting point for creating a strong brand.
Instead of a USP define your ESP (Emotional Selling Point).
P As all emotions are the response to a PERCEPTION and we form perceptions from our senses, checking out how our products look, sound, smell, taste and feel is important, especially to check if these are giving messages consistent to the emotional benefit we’ve already identified. The visual sense is probably the easiest to check: what emotions does the look of your product or service trigger? What does your website / office / shop / printed material look like and are these images consistent? What do you and you customer facing staff look like? Are all of these consistent with the emotional benefit you offer? Do the same with the other senses. What emotions do the sounds of your business trigger? (Telephones, voices, background music.) How does it feel? (Do you use or allude to tactile sensations?). How does it taste? (Even an allusion to taste can be very powerful.
A recent Skoda campaign that used pictures of a car made out of food and refered to the Fabia as a ‘tasty’ car increased footfall in dealerships by over 600%).
The sense of smell is the second most powerful after sight. It is estimated that 75% of our emotions are influenced by what we smell and yet this is often a neglected part of brand awareness. We all know that the smell of sun lotion evokes feelings of warmth, relaxation and well-being and that the vanilla smell of baby powder is comforting.
The reason that many household products have smells associated with nature is because most of us enjoy these smells and so we use more of them.
The reverse of this is that most of us will experience a stomach lurch when we enter a hospital, dentist or school because of the smells we associate with unpleasant experiences. Checking the smell of your product, your premises and yes – you and your staff is important. Are all of these smells consistent with the emotional benefit you offer?
Warm, happy people
I INNOVATION is the third ingredient in an epic brand. The Innocent drinks range is a superb example of this. Innocent asked fans to knit and donate woolly hats for their little bottles. For every bottle sold with a woolly hat, Innocent and Sainsbury’s donated 50p to Age Concern. This so caught the imagination of the public that almost 500,000 hats were knitted last year and over £250,000 raised for Age Concern.
Every business, product and service has a story worth telling
C People are interested in people and while we can’t all be larger than life Richard Branson type figures, who you are, and why you are doing what you’re doing, is a major part of your brand and another way to engage the emotions of your customers and clients, so COMMUNICATE this in a way that lets people see the human side of your business.
Don’t SAY you are passionate, convey it in your message. Don’t SAY you are trustworthy, let your customers give their testament.
A strong brand is one of the best ways to survive an economic downturn so instead of tightening your belt, strengthen your brand! To read more about creating EPIC brands see James Hammond “The Brand Doctor”
Posted in Steps to Success Events | Tags: 37 Years, Colour Scheme, Customer Base, Emotion, Emotional Benefit, Emotional Response, Innovative Ideas, James Hammond, Long Term Memory, Mission Statement, Multinational Corporation, Perception, Puppy, Rational Thought, Small Businesses, Sme, Staff Members, Term Customer, Toilet Tissue, Usp | No Comments »
Do big goals lead to big success?
"No Hands" by Adam Hawkins http://anodizeproductions.com
Should you set big fat hairy audacious goals or stick to the reasonable, more easily achieved variety?
Many interviews with highly successful people reveal that they set themselves huge goals, fired by a burning desire to achieve something specific and that these goals determine their direction and purpose in life and colour all their decisions and actions.
They also freely admit that when they set these goals it’s usually without any clear idea of how to achieve them.
What they do have however, is an unwavering belief that they CAN.
What happens is that when a goal excites you enough, you start to live every day in a way that makes it possible to achieve it and obstacles don’t seem so daunting. Setting reasonable goals rarely leads to that sense of excitement so there isn’t the same incentive to overcome obstacles and the goals just becomes another “so what?”
All great achievements begin with an idea, a want, a longing, a desire.
While she was still Posh Spice, Victoria Adams said she wanted to be “more famous than Persil”. As Mrs Victoria Beckham she got her desire but many of our wants and longings never get past the wishing and dreaming stage.
If you’ve ever had your dream laughed at, if you’ve been told to ‘get real’, keep your feet on the floor, your shoulder to the wheel and your nose to the grindstone (ouch!) you’ve probably let go of that dream and it may now be just a vague longing.
How would you feel if you re-ignited that flame? What’s stopping you from blowing on the coals of your burning desire and setting off on an adventure of achievement?
My guess is, that interfering with your thinking, your determination and your belief is a very small word called FEAR. It may be fear of failure, fear of success or simply a series of “what if’s?”
Fear is a tricky emotion. Most of the people who have achieved big fat hairy audacious goals say that the magnitude of what they were trying to achieve scared them – but they did it anyway.
If you knew that you could not possibly fail, what would you attempt?
On June 16th in Cambridge, Andy Gibney will be leading an interactive session on “How to set and achieve audacious goals and create a sense of purpose. Details here >>
If you can’t be there, join in the debate by telling us your views here – it would be great to know what you think – especially if you have a big fat hairy audacious goal!
Posted in Steps to Success Events | Tags: Burning Desire, Coals, Desire, Emotion, Fear Of Failure, Fear Of Success, Flame, Guess, Hairy Audacious Goals, Longing, Longings, Magnitude, Many Things, Mrs Victoria, Nose To The Grindstone, Obstacles, Persil, Posh Spice, Purpose In Life, Shoulder To The Wheel, Spice, Unwavering Belief, Victoria, Victoria Adams, Victoria Beckham | No Comments »
Putting Desire into Action
Here are the pictures from the event
According to Napoleon Hill ‘Desire is the starting point of all achievement’. Bob Garbett takes it one step further and says ‘Desire is nothing without passion’.
Passion was in evidence in every word of Bob’s presentation as he explained how his military training is easily translated into taking action to get a business idea working.
His main points are:
*If you aren’t passionate about what you’re doing – do something else. He describes passion as a crazy mad emotion that you absolutely have to satisfy, not a rational reasoned argument for doing something.
*Aim for complete success – why would you settle for anything less?
*Don’t do it for the money.
*Don’t listen to reason, just the facts. There will always be people who tell you it can’t be done and why – you may even tell yourself this but if the facts add up and you’re passionate enough you’ll make it happen.
*Make decisions not deliberations. Don’t spend so much time weighing up the pros and cons that you drive yourself mad. Just get on with it.
*Never give up. You may need to find a way around obstacles or take a different route but keep going until you get there.
*Think fast and move fast. Don’t look back in ten years time and wonder why you didn’t get anywhere.
*Manage the risk. What will you need or risk in terms of money/ getting the right team/ the right environment?
*Just do it. We regret the things we didn’t do more than the things we do.
*Follow through. It will get rough, you will get criticism, you will fail occasionally, but if you follow through you cannot FAIL.
Inspired events are very different and very special – join us at the next one on November 18th when Andy Gibney will be talking about“How to Master Procrastination and Overcome Obstacles”
Posted in Steps to Success Events | Tags: Aim, Andy Gibney, Business Idea, Decisions, Deliberations, Desire, Emotion, Garbett, Mckendrick, Military Training, Money, Napoleon, Napoleon Hill, Obstacles, Passion, Procrastination, Pros And Cons, Risk | 1 Comment »
Influencing the subconscious
What an inspiring night! To me, what made a huge impact were all the possibilities in terms of personal development that were expressed in Sanjay’s talk. The networking was great, but this profound understanding of the human mind by Sanjay and Billy was very impressive. I took a lot of lessons home, and I’ve decided to start applying them right now! :o) Marie Luccetta www.e-translationservices.com
Look below the surface – you’ll be amazed at what you find!
Napoleon Hill suggested that one of the things that successful people do is use their imagination to create a belief that they can have what they desire and to communicate between the conscious the subconscious mind.
The subconscious mind is protected – which is usually a good thing as it contains all the things we have ever learned and we wouldn’t want to have to re-learn most of them. However, it also contains less useful things that may stop us from achieving all that we might otherwise be capable of. Fear of failure, of taking risks, of criticism, of losing, of being thought pushy or arrogant or proud are all stored there along with beliefs about whether we are entitled to expect, or deserve, more than we already have.
Anything that comes to us through our five senses is unlikely to affect the subconscious so how do we reach and change those things that are not useful to us?
Hill suggests (long before NLP was invented) that in order to create the belief that we can have something we must imbue it with emotion, imagine that we already have it and create the experience of already having it.
Vividly imagine having whatever it is you desire and experience how that will feel and what you will see, hear, taste and smell. The emotions and physical reactions caused by these thoughts are generated internally rather than coming to us externally through our senses (and could be described as non-sense) and so are more likely to escape the gatekeeper of the subconscious mind.
The subconscious has no critical faculty. It doesn’t decide whether a thought is good or bad, useful or destructive and so once the thought is lodged there it can be useful as a new belief enabling us to do things we previously thought impossible.
There has been vigorous research into how emotions cause physical reactions, how physical sensations trigger emotions and how both emotions and physical reactions can be produced by thought alone. Belief may not move mountains but it can remove limitations and control physical experiences.
Our speaker on the third part of Napoleon Hill’s Steps to Success was Sanjay Shah. Sanjay offers a quick route to change by employing NLP, firewalking, Enneagram analysis and emotional freedom techniques, all of which are based on this psychology.
One of the most popular sayings arising from these theories is that “Thoughts Become Things” and while it is undoubtedly true that this can be the case, it can also be too simplistic. I have seen already distressed people puzzled and hurt at the implication that they have brought misfortune on themselves because their thoughts are not positive enough. Moreover, if we all got what we focused on most of the time, teenage boys would live in a constant state of bliss!
However, that doesn’t change the fact that we are still discovering amazing things about the power of the mind and by using it to create useful thoughts and emotions there is no doubt that we can make life easier and more satisfying.
For more information on Sanjay’s work see www.pslifecanbeeasy.com
Our next speaker, on July 15th is Dr Michael Sanderson, CEO of 1Spatial.com http://annhawkins.com/inspirational-events/
Here are the pictures from the June event: http://tinyurl.com/m49cxr
WONDERFUL evening.Very much enjoyed, and learned/cemented a lot of useful practical information. Great motivation. Also networked bringing me contacts not only for the Lady Florence River Cruise Restaurant, but also giving me contacts for computer systems, possible franchising etc. Compliments to the chef also.An evening that had so much to offer and well worth the three hour drive from the coast. MANY THANKS. John Haresnapewww.lady-florence.co.uk
