Blog Category: personal development

The easy organizing steps for more time, focus and success

01 April 2011

The subject matter of this post may as well be called the Holy Grail of every businessman, or rather, every living individual. It is, after all as elusive and as coveted as the challis. Scores of authors have penned self-help books that readers have devoured, speakers have held entire auditoriums in rapt attention and counselors and advisors have made a lot of money all in an attempt to profess the secret to organizing ones life.

Before you brand this as another brick in the wall, please take a look at the points listed out below. While not life-changing or profound in anyway, these tips are full of common sense. They are also extremely simple things that one can do without much fuss. So here goes-

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Improve Your Results through Personal and Spiritual Growth

02 February 2011

In this article I will look at both spiritual and personal growth and how together each will have a positive result on your life.

Spiritual and personal growth has a common aim of you becoming a happier, healthier and stronger person. Although spiritual and personal growth has fundamental differences the goal is the same and will only lead to be better results in life and in business.

Spiritual Growth and development is not the same as becoming religious, it is simply developing you as a person through using faith, interaction with others and through the use of spiritual practises including, prayer and the study of scriptures.

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How to Navigate the Grey Area of Your Thinking

28 January 2011

Thought" A Definition - thought generally refers to any intellectual or mental activity. It can refer either to the act of thinking or the resulting ideas or arrangements of ideas. Similar concepts include cognition, sentience, consciousness, and imagination. Because thought underlies almost all human actions and interactions, understanding it its physical and metaphysical origins, processes, and effects has been a longstanding goal of many academic disciplines including, among others, biology, philosophy, psychology, and sociology. (source=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought)

Navigating around the grey area of your thinking is a daunting task, in life the best way to face daunting tasks is to break them down into smaller more achievable goals, the same is true when trying to navigate around your thinking.

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A Review of the Book, The Richest Man in Babylon

30 December 2010

Books--the written word in general--will always have a place in our hearts above technology. For whatever reason, books have endured where technology has become obsolete and has had to advance. For the entrepreneurs of the world, even books written in the Depression era are still viable, like George Samuel Clason's The Richest Man in Babylon.

The Richest Man in Babylon started out as a series of pamphlets released in 1926 that were subsequently put into book form. Instead of giving straightforward advice and practical solutions like you may find in modern era business books, The Richest Man in Babylon is a work of semi-fiction, teaching financial lessons through a series of parables.

Since being reissued in 2004, The Richest Man in Babylon has witnessed a new found popularity and has become thought of as an essential set of lessons to learn when planning on opening and operating a business.

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The Science of Persuasion

06 December 2010

The power of persuasion has been on full display throughout history. Some will insist that even the concept of religion is nothing but a mere power play turned massive world trend, persuading people to live by a set of rules. Others, victims of personality cults, have witnessed firsthand just how persuasive things like propaganda can be.

When harnessed correctly and effectively, the power of persuasion broken down into a strict science can ultimately help you achieve business success in the long-term. There's no person better to explain the science of persuasion than the author himself, Robert Cialdini.

Robert Cialdini is a world famous professor, and has been called one of the most influential men alive by the likes of Harvard. Hes currently teaching psychology and marketing courses at Arizona State University, and his theories and studies of persuasion and marketing and the interaction between have become renowned books.

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Thinking in Abundance is Vital to Long Term Growth

19 November 2010

If you're a regular person with regular feelings and emotions, you're probably confused when you read about all the different ways of thinking out there as they relate to business and your day-to-day life in general. There's assertive thinking, positive visualization, and even something called abundance thinking. How can your brain process all these patterns?

The idea in these quasi-systems is to develop a way of thinking that helps to guide you through decisions. Essentially, you're looking to change your psyche and to act automatically using these many tools. However, that's a hard thing to do. Its not a great idea to partition your brain, and its quite possible that it could be impossible to do so anyway.

Luckily, abundance thinking isn't like a program in its nature and, if you're serious about wanting to achieve long-term growth in your business, thinking in abundance even if you don't realize you're doing so is probably the only way its going to happen.

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Self-Belief - The Difference between Success and Failure

15 October 2010

A lot can be said about a person's belief in his or herself. Most of us are fortunate enough to have grown up in families with at least one loving parent, wherein belief in one's self was perpetuated in one way or another, whether through academic achievement, sports, or any other task set in front of us. Self-belief, the confidence to make it, is a huge factor in our lives.

In this day and age, the idea of self-belief gets a little blown out of proportion. Paying someone to give you reassurance via therapy or motivational seminars may have immediate effect on your person; but, ironically, no message gets through until you believe in yourself and that's something only you can make happen as an individual.

In business, self-belief is a huge part in what drives successful entrepreneurs and the companies they run. A lack of self-belief is a prime culprit in failure, and some may argue the only conceivable reason for failure. After all, we share ideas, markets and marketing techniques, but even the most watered down business idea can achieve success with the right person behind it.

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How Does NLP Impact on Marketing Practices?

08 September 2010

There are numerous techniques out there to employ when launching a business, whether it's on the web or elsewhere. A lot of these techniques can be easily misconstrued, as they're not always business-building applications but more of the soul-searching, character-building variety like NLP (Neuro-linguistic programming).

NLP is often considered controversial in its approach. While it seems nonintrusive in one of its main goals, providing a system of therapy which enables a person to practice self-awareness and effective communication and to change patterns of mental behavior, part of the implication is that it creates too much of a monkey-see, monkey-do mentality that's bad for business.

Neuro-linguistic programming wasn't always used for business. In fact, it started as straight therapy and evolved into a business tactic in the 1970s when Bandler and Grinder claimed the NLP methods could be used for business. The pitch was simple: if one person can do something, you can do it too. That's basically what NLP teaches at its core.

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Time Management How to Make Better Use of Your Day

21 May 2010

Managing your days wisely is always important, when you're trying to run a business, there truly aren't enough hours in the day sometimes. Because of the many demands of a successful business, time management skills are vitally important. If you choose to take shortcuts in business, your business is going to be short-lived.

One of the first steps in time management is actually a touch of irony. Because there are always only 24 hours in a day, time management - as taught by many - is more of a false concept than an actual achievable skill. Real time management comes not from creating more time, but from eliminating wasted time. The goal is to make better use of the short timeframe you have.

A few examples of wasted time could be reading emails, surfing the web, arguing with your spouse on the phone, procrastinating instead of working the list goes on and on. These little time wasters don't seem like much while you're in the moment. In fact, a lot of people resort to these things to relieve stress and to actually distance themselves from their business dealings.

However, it's important to remember that mismanaged time can be the downfall of your business. You can create goals in your time management plan, and instead of wasting time with other tasks, you can actually learn to waste your time doing things productive for the business.

For instance, people with online businesses that need constant content and advertising are likely to browse various sites and play computer games and participate in other activities throughout the day. Instead, changing behavior patterns to do something to increase the productive use of time in your business is real time management.

Try playing around with design software or even trying your hand at writing for a hobby of sorts when you're burned out on working. You won't be wasting time; instead, you'll be productively advancing your business without really working to do so. In this case, time management is as simple as a hobby change.

The best thing about a time management plan is that you don't have to stick to any particular activity. You only have to stick to a schedule within a 24-hour day. This means that you're not locked in to any form of management. If you don't like what you're doing, you can always switch to another aspect of your business. As long as it's productive, you're managing time.

You can read hundreds of tips and even take seminars on time management, but it's all pointless unless you can stop procrastinating and eliminate activities that waste time. You do not need any professional advice to handle that. You simply need to realize that, in business, you're either spending your time productively or you're wasting it.

Make the necessary changes in your behavior and always be aware of time. It's as simple as that.

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Do You Need Training in Your Chosen Field?

03 November 2009

When starting a new job, many people choose to forfeit any type of formal training and just “wing-it,” as it were. This may be a working approach, depending on the job, but it’s not very smart if you wish to make a career out of what you’re doing.

Most jobs, by and large, are easy enough to prepare for. Even some of the most advanced online techniques have training courses that are affordable and easy to follow. Choosing to participate in training could easily be the difference in success and failure.

In order to answer this all-important question, you can look at it in very simple terms: does what you’re planning to do require a skill - or a set of skills - that you haven’t acquired? The question itself is simple enough; the answer, on the other hand, will demand you layout your business plan, examining every conceivable aspect, and figure out what you know and what you need to learn.

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How to develop communication skills to create more opportunities

01 September 2009

Being able to communicate what you need is something you start learning from the time you’re born. Are you hungry? Cry a little bit and get a bottle. As the years progress, the voice becomes the essential communication tool. Our skills are refined with age and practice, and by the time we’re adults and pursue our careers, we’re able to distinctively voice what it is we want out of life.

However, not many of us have the capabilities to convincingly convey our wants and needs through communication skills. Further practice in the development of your communications skills is imperative in areas like business.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a small business owner or in charge of a multi-national conglomerate, the ability to effectively communicate is crucial. The idea is to convey your message in the best possible way, hopefully generating a proactive response.

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Time management best practices to ensure you use your time efficiently

09 July 2009

Have you ever heard the saying, “There just aren’t enough hours in the day”? Maybe you’ve heard someone say, “If only I had more time.” Well, time is what it is - there’s really no way around that fact. On a level of relativity, a tedious task lasting an hour can seem to draw out for days, yet a beautiful evening with your loved one is gone in the blink of an eye.

Regardless of perception, time stops for no one. As a person interested in savoring the little time we have, implementing time management practices into your life is a great way to combat the feelings of lost and grossly mismanaged time. There’s only so much time, like it or not, and using what you have efficiently is essential.

The “Me Time” exercise, which is the first of 4 important steps to practice in order to efficiently handle time, involves a person relaxing for an hour a day. The idea here is to give yourself up to things you need to do like sleep, eat and work for 23 hours, but keep an hour to yourself to ensure you never become burnt out on life. This hour may fly by before you know it, but your body and mind will appreciate the time you took for yourself. No matter what you do for an hour, make it about yourself and no one else.

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How to Cultivate Strong Business Relationships to Succeed

20 November 2008

In today’s world, having good and strong business relationships has never been more important. Strong management of those relationships is essential in the growth and development of any business, and keeping a tight hold to ensure no relationship suffers will pay off tremendously.

Through all the different promotional avenues available, such as advertising, holding, or deals, none have a stronger bond than a good relationship - it’s purely the driving force behind a successful business. Conversely, as you may expect, a poor relationship will drive business away from you.

Many customers are very fickle. This isn’t an insult to their character; it simply states that people want to do business with a trustworthy company. Customers want you to reach out to them, through many angles, and express a desire to build a relationship. Even something as simple as personalized email shows a person that you’re willing to treat them as an individual and not just a dollar sign.

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The power of Desire when it comes to knowing what you want out of your new business

06 November 2008

One of the key elements when you are starting out in business is to be certain that what you intend to do, is clear and concise. After all if you don’t know what your service or product is, how do you expect to sell it?

So how does desire help in determining what you want out of your new business? Well everything that gets created starts out as a thought in someone’s mind. Whether you are applying already found knowledge or ideas in a new way, or you are starting from scratch with a brand new invention, it all starts with thoughts.

This is where you can falter right at the beginning if you do not realise that what you think about, you will ultimately create. This can work both ways because if your thoughts are not well founded, your product or service will also suffer.

Getting yourself thinking in the right way is the first step to creating the desire with which you will use to power your energy into the creation process.

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