THE ROAD AHEAD...NEW LEADERSHIP REQUIRED

We are headed for more trouble as many of you are witnessing and sharing with me daily. The majority of stories shared with me include faltering hopes, negative attitudes and a sense of doom from those on the front lines of business...salespeople. Frustration is mounting among many salespeople that their daily reality and their companies leadership approach aren't aligned. In fact, many salespeople feel their companies leadership is detached from their reality.

We are, and have been, in a transition to a 'new age of business' for many years. As a point of reference, the 'digital age' wasn't a transition to a new economy or age of business, it wasn't an age at all. It was the addition of advancing technology to the industrial age. The transition we are in now is a transition as significant as the one from the agricultural age to the industrial age and includes a shift to a 'new economy'. We have been experiencing the pain of this transition since 2008 because it was seen as part of the old cyclical economy instead of a major transition or shift.  

Leaders responded with old solutions to past cyclical downturns, instead of reacting to the transition with new ideas, thinking and actions.

Many business leaders are still suffering from 'economic normalcy bias'...They believe because it's never happened to them before it won't happen now. Their past experience and comfort clouds their vision. What they're experiencing is very much like the people who believed the earth is flat...Their belief didn't make it true, it only held them back and robbed them from exploring what was possible. It took new thinkers with a vision of a new world and the courage to fail, to explore the truth and succeed...Just as it will today. Mainstream economists are starting to acknowledge that we're not in a downturn but have entered a 'new economy'.

Too many leaders and almost all followers are waiting for and banking on a recovery that isn't coming...I am not sharing this with you as bad news, it isn't doom and gloom. In fact, this transition is good news! 

Great news, in fact, for those with clear vision, courage and the right attitudes to take advantage of the opportunities a 'new age of business' presents. The leaders in this 'new age of business' will experience great new successes just as those in the past did.

Struggling with this transition shouldn't come as a surprise though. It happened before. It's hard to be a successful leader from one age to the next because what made you a success in one doesn't assure your success in the next.

Contrary to most, I don't believe change is painful...I believe it's the resistance to change that causes the pain. The evidence of this is seen when we embrace change and become reenergized with new vision for the future or resist change and suffer in the fight to maintain our comfort with our status quo and past successes.

The old cyclical economy is broken and there is no recovery coming but there are many opportunities for new leadership to succeed today and in the coming years .

What we are experiencing is different, unique in fact. Changes in demographics, business and work ethics, consumer attitudes, economic debt, technology and globalization have all come together to drive this transition. There will be many winners in the 'new age of business'. The question is will you be one or will you get caught holding on until it's too late?

For those leaders holding on to the old economic model, the temporary short-term successes experienced, read or heard about, just help them hold on to the status quo a little longer and postpone their successful transition. 

For those with vision, who trust their instincts and truly believe people are a businesses greatest asset, new achievements and success are just around the corner.

Change, real change, is coming and it's bringing with it new amazing opportunities for those with the courage to truly put people first, hold them to a higher standard, embrace new thinking and take bold new actions. These people will become the leaders in this 'new age of business' and begin to writing the next chapter in history.

Welcome to the 'people first age of business'.

By Mike Moore

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DON'T WANT TO BE AVERAGE? BE BETTER PREPARED!

How can you prepare to be more cheerful, happy and prepare to handle the hassles of a normal day? How can you assure yourself of not being average? 

When people wake up in the morning they have an expectation or intention for their day. It's a choice that separates average for extraordinary. What are your intentions or expectations for the day ahead?  I've asked individuals and groups, large and small, this question over the past two decades and the overwhelming number one answer is, “I want to have a good day”.  When I ask people to define a good day, the definition is, “A day with little to no problems or hassles”.   When I ask them how many days a year this intention or expectation is met, they usually answer, “None”.  Yet, they wake up each day and repeat this behavior without changing their expectation or intention. The vast majority of people start each day with an unrealistic expectation or intention, that when not fulfilled, makes them frustrated, upset and unhappy. When we set expectations that aren't met, we are usually disappointed.

Managing your own intentions and expectations drives your daily emotions and state-of-mind. Average people focus on their circumstances and not their solutions. This makes their circumstances the driver of their emotions. This will make their emotions or state-of-mind a roller coaster ride of peaks and valleys that sabotage their ability to create the results or life they want. 

First, let’s look at why people set an intention or expectation of no problems, no hassles and no worries, and defined this as a good day.  When we wake up each day we have a choice to make, “Better or Comfortable”.  Our human nature seeks comfort before improvement and is satisfied to be comfortable. We don't want to be average but have to choose to do things we don't want to do if we want to be above average. We don’t wake up each day driven to be better human beings or to make things in our life better.  So, the challenge is how to overcome our human nature and stop sabotaging our own lives. 

When we define a good day as no problems, no hassles and no adversity and then meet the first problem of the day, how do we react? If you said, “Frustrated” you'd be right.  Your expectation or intention has set you up to be frustrated. Not the best state-of–mind to handle life or work problems. This pattern of behavior begins a downward spiral of poor emotions. These emotions make you less capable of handling the next problem. Maintaining this emotional cycle may even make you avoid, withdraw or quit trying to overcome the obstacles in your day. The end result of this is average, at best.

How can you change your expectations or intentions to change your results? Remember, "Everyday the choices you make, makes you".  When you start your day, change your expectation or intention by changing your definition of a good day.  Let’s revisit the idea or definition of a good day. If your choice is comfort you define it as “no problems”. Think about when you feel best about yourself. Your self-worth or self-esteem is best when you overcome adversity, solve problems and help others.  So to change your results, to develop the emotional state-of-mind to make a difference in your life, you need a new definition of a good day.

This new definition can help you make a better first choice as you wake up each day. Define a good day as one where you find, meet and overcome problems and adversity. Yes, you need to wake each day looking for problems.  Problems to solve that will help people.  Just a note...You shouldn't be looking to make problems...that won't make for a better life. You need to look for and find existing problems, and then help solve them.  If you are part of a problem, stop complaining and start finding solutions. This definition will help you to stop avoiding conflict and endure difficulties with the proper emotional state-of-mind.  Armed with this new definition, when you find problems, you will be eager to meet them head-on and won't become frustrated.  You'll become an overcomer and not a victim of your circumstances.

Adversity and problems are the obstacles that stand between where you are and the results or life you want.  The first step to overcoming adversity and problems is to develop an attitude or emotional state-of-mind that can overcome the obstacles. Our attitudes are most affected by our intentions and expectations that create our daily choices and allow us to choose to be better rather than comfortable. This thinking will even start to help you embrace change and stop fighting to hold on to a status quo that may be keeping you average as well. 

Redefine a good day, expect problems and hassles. Become an overcomer, a solution finder, and then you'll begin to experience a, 'Good Day'...everyday. This cycle of behavior will make your life is a journey of solutions that serve others and rewards you with the results and life you want.

A final thought for leaders...You are responsible to teach, prepare and help people set expectations that will allow them to live and work towards a better life. Helping people understand how their expectations and intentions are empowering them or sabotaging them is a good first step.

Change your expectations to prepare for the hassles of life to increase your happiness and improve your results. Expect more of yourself and less of others...These is one of the top traits of leaders and peak performers.

By Mike Moore

More about → DON'T WANT TO BE AVERAGE? BE BETTER PREPARED!

INTENTIONS CHANGE RESULTS

Most people don't need new skills as much as
they need new intentions, attitudes and leadership.
We cannot choose the path of least resistance, 

the easy way, and get exceptional results.

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TIPS & TRAITS OF PEAK PERFORMERS

Comfort and familiarity are the enemy of peak performance. You are in danger of losing your edge when you reach a comfortable place or become too familiar with your routines. After reaching a comfort zone when familiarity sets in, it breeds boredom which reduces enthusiasm.  

This comfort and boredom causes people to stop being curious, learning, growing and pursuing new challenges and achievements.  Comfort can never be the primary goal if you want to be a peak performer but it can sneak up on you and sabotage the mind-set needed to be a peak performer.

When you seek comfort and achieve it, the danger is that you'll begin to protect your comfort zone and stop working to change, grow and improve. In fact, you can begin to become defensive and aggressively resisting change.

Albert Einstein defined insanity as, "Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." My definition is, "Most people choose the easy way or path of least resistance, and then expect exceptional results".

Studies have shown most people will fight to stay in an unhappy situation rather than move into an unfamiliar or unknown situation that could bring them happiness. It's giving in to these natural desires for comfort and familiarity that makes most people produce mediocre results. They are the drivers of average behavior. They are the enemies of peak performance.

A peak performers biggest challenge is to reject the natural human desire to seek comfort and make a habit of pursuing change, growth and improvement. It's really an issue of becoming comfortable with the unfamiliar and staying outside your comfort zone. In the end all great achievements begins with self-discipline and the will to take actions other work to avoid.

Peak performers do the things average people avoid. They wake up each day and do the things they don't want to do because they know everything of value in life is the result of actions they don't want to take. One of life's great truths is that extraordinary achievements are on the other side of obstacles. In reality, the greater the achievements you pursue, the more obstacles you'll encounter.

Average achievers are more motivated by discomfort than by the desire to improve and achieve. Most people seek improvement until they are comfortable and then they resist change with the same energy they pursued comfort. 

Coach John Wooden said, "When you think you're through learning, you're through."  The most deadly words in the world are, 'I know that',  because the next thing someone does after they think or say those words is to stop listening, reading or learning.

When things get tough and change is needed, comfort often motivates people to 'hunker down' and 'wait' until things get better rather than taking actions and looking for alternatives to make things better.  Peak performers guard against stopping their forward progress, innovative thinking and advocating change by never seeking comfort.

Peak performers treat comfort as a plateau to be reached and a launching pad to their next achievement. Peak performers keep climbing because they know if they don't they risk falling becasue fighting to maintain your comfort level is a recipe for unhappiness, mediocrity or failure. Average is just not an options to peak performers.

When the time comes that you'd rather be comfortable more than to pursue change, grow and improve, you are at risk of losing what you are so comfortable having. For peak performers, the choice is simple, even though it's not easy. Peak performers change directions and start again with new enthusiasm. Peak performers are energized by change. They view resistance to change as painful, not the change itself. 

Peak performers are great competitors and great competitors usually lose the will to prepare before they lose the desire to perform and achieve. When this happens, performance suffers and the end is near. 

We are facing unprecedented challenges today and new thinking, attitudes and skills are needed to achieve peak performance. The exciting news is it's an interesting time to live and work. 

There really isn't a risk in letting your comfort go because it's almost impossible to maintain it without change, growth and improvement. Holding on to comfort is like holding water in your hands, it will eventually evaporate, won't allow you to use your hands for anything else and it's easier to just find new water when you need it.

To keep your focus and peak performers mind set, set aside a few minutes each day to suspend what you defend. Set aside your beliefs, knowledge and experience while you attempt to learn something that is unfamiliar or unknown. This can even be looking at what you've been resisting, take the other side and try to argue its validity to yourself...Just give yourself a few moments to not be defensive and protect your position to see what else might be possible.

Peak performers re-energize themselves by embracing change and stretching themselves outside their comfort zones.  Be careful that the attitude and strategy to 'hunker down' and "'wait' for things to improve doesn't sneak into your thinking. 

In the pursuit of peak performance you'll have to stop pursuing comfort, resisting change and holding on to your status quo. Instead, you'll need to challenge yourself to think without limits and become a change agent whose pursuit is achieving all that's possible. Remember your goals are to be plateaus and a launching pad pursuing to achieve all that's possible.

By Mike Moore

More about → TIPS & TRAITS OF PEAK PERFORMERS

SALES LEADERSHIP TOOLS FOR PEAK PERFORMANCE

This article is for all the salespeople, sales managers and executives who've been trying for years to improve without using the best tools available to achieve their best results. It's time to take advantage of all the tools available even if they make you uncomfortable.

SALESPEOPLE

The best tools available to improve your sales communication, attitudes, skills and actions are video and audio of live interaction between you and real consumers. I'm not talking about video shoppers...I'm talking about live selling engagements between real shoppers and salespeople in real selling situations. 

Selling is a performing art...Like athletes, actors and musicians you need to use live video and audio to review the selling engagement with consumers.    This is the best way to view how you're communicating with consumers. It's like athletes watching game video, not video of practice. Oh, and they do that too, so both are valid, but the best results come from watching and hearing real live selling engagements. 

Viewing and listening to live selling engagements with consumers allows for self coaching by salespeople so they can improve more quickly.  It’s the best way to create and reinforce the proper intentions, attitudes, actions and skills that will enable sales professionals to serve consumers, making customers and increase sales. So why don't you use it...Comfort, cost or fear...All poor reasons to not challenge yourself to be your best. 

Salespeople, like athletes think they are doing one thing until they see it for themselves. Rapid behavioral changes takes place when we watch ourselves and bold, significant results are achieved. If a picture is worth a thousand words, live video and audio is worth million...literally!

We can continue to read, talk and listen about how to sell, we can video practice or we can add viewing our live performances and make the changes necessary to improve the profession of sales.  When we are viewing and listening to live engagements, the lectures, reading, and studying we do becomes more valuable and magnifies it's impact to create the best results.

Live video and audio is greatly different than mystery shoppers or roll playing, even though both are needed exercises, they are insufficient to produce peak performance. Mystery shopping and roll playing misses the key ingredient in communication and human interaction, the intentions of the people communicating. Mystery shoppers and roll playing find out if salespeople know the right information about their products, services and company. This can be also be accomplished by written or verbal quizzes and tests.  

When you view the interaction between people with the real intentions you experience in live selling situations, you'll see, hear and know how you are truly communicating, interacting and responding with them. Then you will know what you need to do to improve.  Without the intentions of both people being real in a conversation, negotiation or a selling situation, it's just practice and it's insufficient to become your very best. Mystery shoppers and roll players have no intentions of buying and salespeople aren’t selling.

For many years, I've been teaching that salespeople practice their profession on consumers.  Unfortunately, this is an obstacle to rapid self-improvement unless it can be reviewed and used to improve.  If you don’t want to improve enough take responsibility, mature as a sales professional and use the best tools available, you are doomed to continue without ever achieving your best results.

I firmly believe we haven’t seen the best of the profession of selling but can if we are willing to add these tools to the lectures, reading and training we've used in the past.

SALES MANAGERS

The time has come to stop worrying about how good your salespeople are and start finding out.  Live video coaching will expose what you may be afraid of but you can’t change and begin to improve until you find out. It is time to acknowledge that we need to grow up and begin being the professionals we profess to be.

The idea that we have tools to improve at our disposal and haven’t utilized them, is a shame. That said, let’s not look back but begin now to use live video and audio to coach and improve the relationship between consumers and salespeople.

I know many sales managers who have resisted using these tools and can only wonder what they are afraid of.  Nothing we do out of fear will ever be a best practice.  In coming years, sales managers will use live video and audio to stay informed and coach their salespeople as a standard business practice.

Live video and audio is not intended to be a punitive tool but does create accountability.  It is a coaching and self-improvement tool.  Coaches have to be informed and pay attention to be effective. Live video with audio is the best way to pay attention.  You can’t coach what you’re unaware of.   As an accountability tool, salespeople in all selling environments, will be less likely to give less than their best effort to consumers when they know they are performing live all the time. A salesperson giving consumers their best effort is part of the maturation and growing process of the profession of sales.

EXECUTIVES

When executives accept that decades of doing business with the intention to make sales has broken the relationship between consumers and salespeople, then they need to take responsibility for this broken relationship and lead their business with a new intention.

It is time to start making customers, not sales, and live video and audio is the best tool to make sure this new intention is implemented.  

Too many years of talk and not enough action, has left the consumer believing businesses don’t care about them.

Executives have made too many decisions about how to operate their business and make profits without considering how it would affect their salespeople's communication with consumers and ultimately how this would effect their business, revenue and profits.

Most executives believe that people are the driving force to improve their business and live video, audio and new intentions will also energize  salespeople. Live video and audio can implement the intention to make customers, not just sales and result in increased sales, lower costs, increased profits and sustainable growth.

You wouldn’t run a business that depended on athletes peak performance without video for coaching and improvement. Don’t invest and risk your company’s money without using the best tools to insure peak performance from your salespeople.

PEAK PERFORMANCE

Live audio and video coaching should start with salespeople, then be available to the sales manager, and finally to executive management in a company. Teaching people how to use live video and audio during the implementation is key.

Keeping the focus on the self-improvement is the most important element in producing significant results.

Live audio and video coaching should never be punitive or feel as though big brother is watching.  Starting with salespeople allows them to quickly learn how valuable seeing and hearing themselves in real situations can be.  They even begin to use the information learned to build relationships in their follow-up with consumers.

After the salespeople become comfortable, learn to self coach and experience rapid improvements, then sales management can begin using the audio and video as a teaching and coaching tool. Seeing, hearing and knowing what is happen between their salespeople and consumers is the best information to develop the company's sales strategy and how to inspire, motivate and manage each salesperson.

Executives are the last to view and listen. This allows them to know how their salespeople are doing, see the improvements, build their confidence and understand why sales are increasing. This allows executives to have a better understanding of their customers and how best to market to them as well. Constant improvement and peak performance has many leadership benefits to the company.

Without live audio and video, a commitment by everyone to be their best by using the every tool available, we will continue to manage sales in the dark and suffer the consequences of poor sales communication and interaction with consumers.

It is time to use the best tools and begin to experience the best of the profession of sales!

By Mike Moore

More about → SALES LEADERSHIP TOOLS FOR PEAK PERFORMANCE

YOU WON'T WIN WATCHING THE SCOREBOARD

To win in business and life, stop watching the scoreboard and start coaching or playing the game to the best of your ability! You'll be able to deal with the final score if you always give your best effort, but you won't give your best effort while watching the scoreboard.

We're living and working in a rapidly shifting world and economy so you can't just wait for a recovery or things to go back to normal. You can't produce new success by going back to good old basics. In fact, anything with 'back' in it is the wrong strategy this time around. 

Selfish, short-term intentions have created poor behavior that has led us to a crisis in personal and business relationships alike. These selfish intentions cause people and businesses to look at what's in it for them, work to get more while providing less and damages the relationships that can make us rich both personally and professionally.

These selfish intentions have caused people to look only at today's scoreboard and not at the final score. We've been so busy winning the first quarter we're losing the game. Life and business are both best when built on a sustainable 'people first' culture.

Championship coaches don't spend their time focused on the scoreboard or asking the players what the score is during the game. If they did, they'd lose more often than they'd win. This behavior is what executives and sales managers have been doing for years and it's no wonder businesses are struggling because this behavior sabotages the score. In business, this behavior creates a focus on new sales, new subscribers and today's numbers instead of customers which generates diminishing, unsustainable results. Making customers makes a business healthy, profitable and sustainable.

Poor intentions are sneaky, they slip in unintended and damage the result we want. Take for example when the boss asks, “How are you doing?”, what do they mean?  They are most often checking up on sales and a discussion of the company’s sales statistics ensues. Typically, right after this conversation, calls are made down the chain of command to each level until a sales manager calls a salesperson or store manager with the same conversation. This, “How are you doing?”, when we mean, “How are sales?” needs to stop.  This is the coach asking the players the score during the game.  

We need new conversations that will only occur from new intentions and generate a new sales engagement with consumers. We need a 'people first focus' to build relationships and generate positive results by serving people rather than trying to please them.

Watching the score and waiting for it to get better won't get it done this time. There's no recovery coming, just opportunities to begin again. This time, our best opportunity is to play the game with new thinking and intentions that can drive the attitudes, skills and actions that will produce healthy relationships with consumers and generate success!

It's so easy to slide back into the instant gratification of making new sales rather than customers. It's the comfortable old path that sabotages the possibility for your new success.

It will take 'people first leadership' to create a 'customer first company' and solid sales management to keep salespeople on track to win and generate a healthy new economy.  

By Mike Moore

More about → YOU WON'T WIN WATCHING THE SCOREBOARD

THE TRANSITION TO A 'PEOPLE FIRST ECONOMY'

The signs are clear that the economy has been and is in transition with the failure of Borders, collapse of Blockbuster, bankruptcy at Kodak, big changes at JC Penny, rumors of Best Buy's demise, the worst year in US Home Sales ever, a threat of a worldwide recession and not enough room to list the failed banks! There are countless other businesses trying to survive until a recovery comes but they are on a course to fail.

There are too many leaders suffering from 'normalcy bias', waiting for a recovery that isn't coming. This is producing strained and stressed sales managers, needy, desperate salespeople and sales trainers teaching the same sales skills with the intention to make a sale. All of them working harder and putting more pressure on consumers to buy that's helped create today's dysfunctional buyer and seller relationship. Add to that, consumers don't trust or believe salespeople, changing demographics, maturing use of technology, the explosion of social networks and it's the perfect storm for a transition to a new era in business. This is no less dramatic than the shift from the agricultural age to the industrial age...New intentions, thinking, attitudes, skills and actions are required to make the transition to a 'people first age' in business!

Success in this 'new economy' will require new business and sales intentions to generate a new engagement, connection and conversation with consumers for a healthy relationship. Nothing else will produce immediate results and sustainable growth better or faster!

It's not back to basics unless you want to just slow your failure... It's forward with new intentions for a successful new 'people first economy'!

More about → THE TRANSITION TO A 'PEOPLE FIRST ECONOMY'

LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM MONEYBALL

Preconceived notions stop the people in charge from seeing inefficiencies in their businesses. Old habits, traditions or just plain comfort makes them reject the ideas of those who see the inefficiencies and have solutions to improve them. In fact, if their fear of change or pride becomes strong enough they will often reject and attack the people with the solutions too.

The greatest inefficiency in business today is the dysfunctional relationship between salespeople and consumers. It's caused by the intention to make sales. The good news is it can be corrected by changing this intention, which would heal the relationship and result in increased sales and sustainable growth. It won't be easy, but it is actually simple, like most changes that produce great improvements, transformations or start new era in business.

We are in transition to the 'People First Age' of business and commerce. It's happening right now. We aren't in a recession; we're in this transition to a 'new economy'. A big lesson form Moneyball is that it's easy to look at numbers and statistics and then make poor decisions...Success in business is about people, not numbers...When analyzed correctly the numbers should inform leaders how to help their people become successful, or how to select the people who will succeed. 

Businesses have to change their intentions or face certain failure...It's this shift in intentions that allows leaders to see the information that's in the numbers. Just as Kodak, who invented the digital camera in 1975, but refused to take advantage of it for fear it would damage their traditional film business, only to have their film business cannibalized by their competition with the digital camera they already possessed. They had the numbers but their intentions where misplaced and led to their demise!

If traditional businesses don't change their intentions at the point of engagement with the buyers of their products they will be cannibalized by new businesses with the right intentions. Like Kodak, existing businesses have the power to be leaders in this new 'People First Age' but one way or the other it is happening and the winners will be those who have the right intentions. The intentions to help, serve and do what's best for the buyer...The intentions to make customers and not just sales.

"People seek to improve until they are comfortable, and when they become comfortable, they stop looking to improve."

By Mike Moore

For more information about the right intention go to http://makingcustomers.wordpress.com/.

More about → LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM MONEYBALL

A GOOD DAY...A GREAT LIFE

What makes one person cheerful, happy and able to handle the hassles of a normal day, while another is upset, frustrated and ready to quit when adversity comes? Our intentions and expectations drive our emotional state-of-mind. Too often they focus us on our circumstances and not solutions to our circumstances. This will make our emotional state-of-mind a roller coaster ride full of peaks and valleys that sabotage our ability to create the results or life we want. We have to set the proper expectation and intentions that will generate the behavior that will create the results we want. We have to start in our mind before we take action.

It's  simple really, just not easy. When you wake up in the morning what are your intentions for the day ahead?  I have asked individuals and groups, large or small, this question over the past two decades and the overwhelming number one answer is, “I want to have a good day”.  When I ask people to define a good day, the definition is, “A day with little to no problems, no hassles and nothing to worry about”.   When I ask them how many days a year this intention or expectation is met, they usually answer, “None”.  So, the majority of people I meet and speak with, start each day with an unrealistic intention, that when not fulfilled, makes them frustrated, upset or stressed out.  We’ll discuss stressed out later but let’s stay focused on how to use our intentions and expectations to better serve us and drive us towards the life or results we really want, instead of setting us up for more bad days ahead.

First, let’s look at how we ever got to an intention of no problems, no hassles and no worries.  When we wake up each day we have a choice to make, “Better or Comfortable”.  Our human nature wants us be comfortable, not better. Can you picture early man in a cave?  It wasn’t until he knew someone else had a better cave that he decided to go look for a better cave for himself.  Our human nature makes us content to be comfortable but it’s constantly driving us to compare ourselves to others. We really don’t wake up each day driven to be better human beings or to make things in our life better.  If we did we wouldn’t have most of the issues confronting society today. 

Let’s stay focused on how we can overcome our human nature and stop sabotaging our own lives. When we define a good day as no problems, no hassles and no adversity, when we are confronted with the first problem, how do we react? If you said, “frustrated”, you would be right.  By definition, this intention has set you up to be frustrated. Not the best state-of–mind to handle life’s problems. It is also my experience that defining a good day with comfort as our primary goal, leads to becoming frustrated when you meet the first problem of the day, which starts a downward spiral of poor emotions. These emotions make you less capable of handling the next problem or the adversity you are confronted with and may even make you withdraw or quit trying to overcome the obstacles in your day.

How can you change your intentions to change your results? Everyday the choice you make, makes you.  When you start your day, change your intentions by changing your definition of a good day.  Let’s revisit the idea or definition of a good day. If your choice is comfort you define it as “no problems”. Think about when you feel best about yourself. Your self-worth or self-esteem is best when you overcome adversity, solve problems and help others.  So to change your results, to develop the emotional state-of-mind to make a difference in your life, you need a new definition of a good day.

This new definition can help you make a better first choice as you wake up each day. Define a good day as one where you find, meet and overcome adversity. Yes, you need to wake each day looking for problems.  Problems to solve that will help people.  You should not be looking to make problems, but to find existing problems and help solve them.  If you are part of a problem, then become part of the solution.  You should be looking for ways to serve or help others.  This definition will help you not avoid conflict and endure difficulties with the proper emotional state-of-mind.  With this definition, when you find problems you will be prepared and not be frustrated.  You will meet them head on and you will find solutions.

Adversity and problems are the obstacles that stand between where you are and the results or life you want.  The first step to overcoming adversity and problems is your attitude or emotional state-of-mind, which is most affected by your intentions and expectations created by your daily choice, “Comfort or Better”.

Redefine a good day and begin to experience them everyday until your life is a journey of solutions that serve others and rewards you with the results and ultimately the life you want.

By Mike Moore http://dld.bz/XePf 

More about → A GOOD DAY...A GREAT LIFE

2012...THE GREAT TRANSITION

We are living in 'The Great Transition' not 'The Great Recession' and a 'New Economy' will be the next step. Global influence, technology, demographics and the broken economic model of the past are driving this transition. Today's business and political leaders are struggling with this transition. New leaders will and are stepping forward. A less short-term selfish economic model will prevail. A 'new economy' based on real value and service to people first, one with long-term selfishness as it's driving intention. One that uses natural laws to serve people first, instead of breaking them for selfish short-term gain. A 'new economy' that can and will use technology to serve people and enrich lives.

In real estate, retailing and business, as well as life, people are moving from a desire to be enchanted, to a desire to be enriched. People don't want to be wow'd anymore they are moving to and buying that which they believe will enrich their lives. 

The 'new economic model' won't look or act like the old one and the rules that business played by in the past aren't working in 'the transitional economy' nor will they apply to the 'new economy'.

Just 4 years ago the majority of American's surveyed were willing to move outside the US to retire to a tropical location. Now many will do so to live and continue to work. Then there are the Gen X, Y and Millennial's, many of whom want to live in an Urban Village within walking distance to all their services.

These won't all be in traditional Urban Environments. Many of these Urban Villages will be developed in cost effective and desirable locations. Think Las Vegas as a starting point of a modern Urban Village, then remove gaming and replace it with different lifestyles and the services that support them...and it's in the middle of the desert. Urban Villages can be developed anywhere, and will be.

People are transitioning from the pursuit of a living to the pursuit of a life...This is a significant change...It's not about 40 years of commitment to a company and retiring...It's not about a career...It's about living their vacations or retirement and adding making the money needed to live to that lifestyle. That's why even in this time of high unemployment people are quitting long time jobs, starting small businesses and network marketing is booming. Information, content and community are king!

Stay with it my friends...If you can see and feel this happening you are on a right path. There will be many roads to take to succeed in the 'new economy' that will come from 'the great transition' and you can make the life you want to live if you are aware it's happening and prepared to adapt.

More about → 2012...THE GREAT TRANSITION

LIVING A LIFE OF BRIGHT MOMENTS

At the peak of tremendous effort, when you have given all you have to give, and find yourself victorious, with your heart pounding in your chest and head, everything becomes still and quiet within you. Your thoughts and feelings seem clearer and illuminated. Everything becomes so bright it's as if a great spotlight has been turned on. At that moment you feel and believe you have the power to overcome any obstacle and conquer any challenge. In that moment you believe you have wings and can soar. There is no more precious moment in life than the bright moments and once you've experienced one, you'll work very hard for as long as it takes to experience another and then another!

The world is full of people going through life on cruise control. We all encounter them daily. Their greatest excitement each day is looking forward to getting off work. This isn't living, it's existing and we've all seen these people and watched as this life path sucks the life out of them. They allow themselves to become victims who find fault, accept mediocrity and become cynical. If that's not the life you want to live...Make a change, choose a path that lights you up and that provides you with the opportunity for those bright moments.

Life is best when taking a path that causes you to wake up everyday excited, looking forward to doing what you will be doing that day. Find a path that excites you. Understand life isn't about making money and it isn't about accumulating possessions. It is about living with passion and giving yourself the opportunity to experience the bright moments.

The victories that produce the greatest bight moments, the lasting, life changing bright moments, are found in helping, serving and caring for others. Everyone has the ability to do this each day and fill each day with bright moments. You have to choose to be less selfish, more giving and stop serving yourself first to open the door to a life of bright moments.

The greatest deception happens when you attach your victories to achievements, accomplishments, wealth or possessions. These things can produce feelings of euphoria but will be fleeting and leave you feeling empty and searching for more without the experience of the true victory and bright moment of making a difference to another person. The quality of your life and depth of your happiness will come from the deep relationships formed in serving others...these are the brightest moments.

Be prepared, you'll find the bright moments on a path that has obstacles. The path that can provide these bright moments will be filled with things you'd rather not do...Things most people won't do. Every path that can provide these bright moments has obstacles and challenges but it has those wonderful bright moments that make life so fulfilling.

The question to ask yourself, "Do I want to do the work, put forth the effort and pay the price to experience those bright moments?". Answer yes, and I promise you, if don't quit until you experience one, you'll be thankful and get busy working to create the next one.

More about → LIVING A LIFE OF BRIGHT MOMENTS

FIVE POWER LEADERSHIP

LEADERS SEEK RESPECT BEFORE APPROVAL OR FRIENDSHIP!

FIRST POWER...TRUST
     Be accountable...Take responsibility
     Create an open, positive, risk taking environment
     Focus on solutions, not fault finding and assigning blame
     See unwanted results as an opportunity to improve individuals and the organization
     Don't be defensive...
     You don't have to have all the answers...Just help people find them

SECOND POWER...HIGH STANDARDS
     Raise the bar...The lowest form of behavior you allow is who you are as a leader
     Blur the lines between job assignments...The mission is everyone's job
     Don't allow average behavior
     Assign and monitor all work to teach and coach using specifics
     Hold people accountable

THIRD POWER...CARE
     Manage people's attitudes before they become actions and poor results
     Don't allow people to accept average behavior
     Care enough to challenge people to get them to do what they don't want to do
     Don't overreact...Make people more important than results and the results will improve
     Teach, coach and mentor to help people grow

FOUTH POWER...VALIDATE PEOPLE
     Make taking time for people a priority
     Be respectful...Pay attention and listen
     Ask people's opinions...Pay attention and listen
     Reward extra effort...Pay attention
     Make people feel important...Pay attention
     Did I mention...Pay attention

FIFTH POWER...CHANGE
     Be a change advocate...Lead the change
     Encourage change...Ask people how they and the organization can improve
     Question everything...Never except or settle for the status quo
     Help people change to improve...When they don't, change your people

Be mindful that people will treat each other and your customers the way you treat them!

More about → FIVE POWER LEADERSHIP