Today I am showing my colleague Vaughan how to add a post to our Life Coach Auckland website. Vaughan has a very insightful way of writing that is quite different from my style. And our plan is to post blog entries individually which I believe will add to the ‘flavour’ of that site.

And as I teach I learn, which is  very good for my personal development.

Now all is this might sound a bit simple, you can read all the books in the world, attend all the courses in the world but unless you take action much of your study will not be particularly effective. It is what coaching is about; encouraging you our client to do something that takes you closer to realising your goals.

So why not do something for your own self development today and decide to take some meaningful action that is in alignment with what you want.

What the Mind Can Conceive

You become what you think about the most.
You have probably heard about the Law of Attraction.
The hit movie ‘The Secret’ certainly brought the Law Of Attraction into the world’s consciousness. It is not new.
Many of the early metaphysical teachers and writers wrote about this concept.
One of the most successful books of all time that describes the principles of the Law of Attraction was Napoleon Hill’s ‘Think and Grow Rich.” One speaker referred to Hill’s book as a ‘great cliché’.

Maybe so but a very powerful one indeed.

A great many successful entrepreneurs attribute Think and Grow Rich to their own personal development and success.

The book was first published in the 1930’s, much of the language is somewhat archaic, but the message is just as timeless and relevant today.
In the video in this post Napoleon Hill discusses the power of the mind and how any one including you can channel this power toward realising your dreams and aspirations. Hill recommends having a clear description of what is you want.

I say through clarity comes change.

So spend time deciding what is you want and then describe this with absolute crystal clarity.

Notice the reference to the two envelopes.

Which one will you choose?
I encourage you to watch and listen to the video more than once. Absorb the message and begin to take the appropriate action. In order to stay on track with your self development, make yourself accountable – give me a call.

I may have referred to the ‘phenomenon’ of the ‘why the secret doesn’t work’ or ‘the secret behind the secret‘ industry that has blossomed since the launch of the very successful DVD ‘The Secret’.

One reason for the success of ‘The Secret’ is that it has been presented in modern day language and formats that people relate to more easily than many of the earlier writings such as Napoleon Hill’s ‘Think and Grow Rich’ or Wallace Wattles’ ‘The Sceince of Getting Rich’ along with many others.

One of the original ‘teachers’ pulled out of ‘The Secret’ but who has a huge following is Esther Hicks along with her husband Jerry.

Esther channels an entity called ‘Abraham’ who imparts much wisdom.

For your own personal development I highly recommend Esther and Jerry’s writings.

Their latest creation ‘The Vortex’ has just been released. I have a you tube extract for you to watch.

Pay attention as in the dialogue are clues as to how to apply the Law of Attraction to your self.

Many of the principals of the Law of Attraction are reinforced by my coaching programmes.

Engaging the services of a coach will keep you focussed where you need to be.

The ideas in ‘The Vortex’ will help as well.

As my mentor tells it, one can take a very long time getting what you want or you can speed it up by having someone like a coach to keep you on the path.

Enjoy the clip!

On Saturday night David The Tuamaninator Tua beat Shane The Mountain Man Cameron a few seconds into the second round of an eagerly awaited heavy weight boxing match. Some will say the job was done before the end of the first round!

We witnessed a brief glimpse of incredible punching power and domination[from Tua] over his opponent. This surprised me as I reckon Cameron is a much better fighter than he was allowed to show on the night.

Both boxers had trained very hard to be in excellent condition for this fight.

‘If I lose because I didn’t give it my best………’ David Tua

What was the difference.? Why was one fighter so dominant. I am no boxing expert, but I am sure this was not a mismatch, not a fight just for ’show’.  The difference might come down to belief. Both contenders of course talked up their chances, both told us they would be the winner. Given that both fighters were in very very good condition and both had developed strategies to offset the other’s strengths and weaknesses, how is it that on the night the winner seemed to make victory look almost too easy?

I am sure you have seen this at other sporting events. Often the superior team somehow lets the other seemingly weaker team beat them. This has happened with the All Blacks and the Silver Ferns this year.

Both teams have played well below their potential game after game  only to rise like a Phoenix from the ashes and put on a display that is truly inspiring and won convincingly.

It is like they have woken up from a state of hibernation, too late for the series win though!

Life is like this too!

Deep down you know you have the talent and the ability to excel to achieve outstanding results but you don’t. Why is that?

Maybe you do not believe.

Maybe you have lost focus.

A useful tool that helps is to ‘remember a time when……..‘ you did succeed, you felt great, anything was possible. Getting in touch with your feelings, how you felt at that time is a great way to get back on the horse and ride to success. This is one of the self development secrets to getting what you want. To becoming all that you can be.

Just like the super sports stars and teams your chances of success are as much a mental exercise as anything else [assuming of course you have done the physical preparation!].

Being a member of a top sports team is as much an exercise in personal development as an individual who aspires to be, do, and have more success and happiness in his or her life.

Shane Cameron has said he will be back. He is disappointed, who wouldn’t be?

Next time Shane will do whatever it takes to ensure that he does not lose.

So will you.

Remember the Zen saying: ‘Knock down seven times, get up eight!

P.S. The annual Bathurst 1000 motor race is on this weekend. There will be approximately 29 teams attempting to redress their bitter disappointments from last year! They will be prepared. What will be the difference between the winning team and the rest?

Luck?

Unlikely.

Doing better or being better is what coaching is all about.

So how you do or be better?

One good way is to engage the services of a Life Coach or Mentor.

Another way is to be open to suggestions from friends and colleagues. It’s a great irony don’t you think that ‘you’ are very very good at pointing out the faults, weaknesses and traits of everyone but yourselves!

Somehow you just don’t see where or how you can make positive change for the better for yourself.

I had this experience the other day.

I met my friend Bill for a coffee. Actually Bill had a business proposition to put to me and, as is the way of the world these days, we agreed to meet in a cafe to discuss his proposal as well as swap a few ideas.

Bill is a very successful entrepreneur. Therefore by default he is very creative and observant.

During the earlier part of our meeting Bill gave me his views on this website, what he felt is good, what could be improved.

I listened and I took notes. I could have chosen to become defensive and just clam up but I didn’t.

I’m glad that I listened.

Bill reckons the word clarity [through clarity comes change] is not very powerful. A word like Focus might be better.

My header graphic has a man leaping into the air. Where’s the female and child Bill asks? I might be limiting my appeal to only men because of this.

I need a logo. I now have a magnifying glass. This could go with the word focus.

Hmmn – I’m starting to take notice. Perhaps he has a point.

Bill went on to give me suggestions regarding testimonials.

What about my business card?

And so on.

I might adopt some or all of Bill’s ideas. I am thankful for his honest and constructive ideas.

Even the coach can learn stuff!

Because the reality is that life is a process. The only constant is change and surely is the rate of change accelerating for all of you.

How you cope and prepare for this is up to you. What action will you take to be or do better?

So thanks Bill.

Be the change you wish to see in the world. Mahatma Ghandi

Watch this space and see what changes are made.

P.S. Bill calls himself a ‘changeovator‘ who is setting up ‘friendchises‘ for online clubs of terrific people.

Our bodies change very second. Our cells are constantly renewing themselves; our organs [given a chance though healthy diet and exercise] can also renew themselves.

Our brains do not need to lose function. In fact we can improve our brains by being challenged and stretched!

So you are not the same we were a few moments ago, a few days ago or even last year or the year before that! You are always in a sate of change. So is the world. The only constant is change.

If you look back on your childhood to where you are now, what has changed? The way we do business, banking, how we connect [e.g. Web 2.0], even what we eat.

When I was a kid, shops closed Fridays [except the corner dairy and some gas stations], and reopened Monday. Same at Christmas – you would need to buy supplies to last pretty much from 24th December [Christmas eve] thru to after New Year!

We did not have refrigerators, or TV, a transistor radio was a thing of great marvel. When Fax machines arrived we could not believe how we ever did business without one! We travelled in airplanes with propellers.

Now we have TV on our computers we have friends we have never met all around the world, we can communicate from one hemisphere to another and get a reply in minutes, send movies on our mobile phones and have access to as much information as we could possibly ask for on any given topic.

Experienced online marketers can write and promote a book to bestseller status inside a week!

And then we had 9/11.

What a significant event and how quickly the world changed in response! Terrorism took on a whole new meaning. The world is no longer the same as it was.

Now we have the financial markets meltdown. And again the world is radically changing. It is fair to say that the old model/s to a greater or lesser extent, and this will depend on how you might be affected by it all, won’t work quite the same way. Business will change or perhaps the rate of change will indeed accelerate.

Print media are reformulating their online plans and strategies as traditional revenues dry up. Many traditional news businesses have already succumbed.

Blogs are proliferating at a phenomenal rate. Many of you will follow a blog or several at the expense of newspapers.

Barack Obama used modern technology to mobilize support in ways never done before.The world is not the same any more.

Have I experienced change? You bet!  Have I changed as a result? Yes, you bet! How did I go about it? I asked questions, I observed and I started reading books on personal development.

Dale Carnegie, Napoleon Hill, John Kehoe and others became my role models. I accidentally embraced self – development. I attended courses on personal development. 

• I trained as a Life Coach.
• I learned NLP to Master Practitioner level. I am a Reiki Master.
• I practice EFT and dabble in Numerology.

I guarantee you I shall continue to learn and grow and change.
My world – view is now completely different. In many ways it is quite different from that of my parents [our generation tended to mirror our parents], but my values are still intact!

And it won’t ever be the same – it never was. Get used to this key idea.
As Ghandi said all those years ago: ‘You must be the change you wish to see in the world’.

How can I do that you ask, as the pace of change seems to accelerate? How can I influence change?

What’s the use? Things and events will happen with or without me. Yes they will.

Have you noticed how powerful personalities or entrepreneurs get to the top, and seem to be influential?

What is about them? What makes them different? Maybe the question you ought to ask yourself is ‘How?’

How can I be like them? How can I influence people and events? The answer is always the same: Through personal development or self – development.
Firstly, there was a dream or a vision and then a desire and then some form of action was taken.

A goal was set.

There is no ’secret’ to success. History is littered with role models of success. There is no limit to how many of you can be successful. It’s never crowded at the top. It sure as heck is crowded at the bottom.

Phil Linklater

I am an advocate for small business. My passion is help business owners become more successful, make more money, add value and enjoy themselves at the same time!

It’s fair to say that small to medium enterprises [SME's], do employ the most people.

So why would I start with a headline like this one?

Because that’s exactly what a business owner said to me this week.

I let the conversation unfold – after all he had engaged the services of more than one business coach in recent times. Had these coaches failed? Were they no good at their job? Did they just take the money [fees] and run?

Probably not.

The truth is, in the business owner’s experience he is now barely breaking even, and will most like fall below his breakeven point in the near future.

Why?

‘The economy’ stupid!

The business is twenty years old – and has been in the current ownership for the past five years. Custom walked through the door, why spend too much on advertising and sales [marketing]? Raw material suppliers were happy and the business added margin to the raw material as well as add value.

That has all changed. Sales are down. Competitors are discounting to get business. Raw material suppliers now sell to the end user who then gets the value added component only. So there’s a hefty reduction in profitability. You can begin to see the downward trend. Oh, in addition new players have entered the market – dumb you might think, but the reality is that the pie is getting broken down into smaller and smaller pieces.

Some of the players undoubtedly will survive; others will go to the wall.

Our business owner believes it is not cost effective [especially now] to go out and drum up business – so he waits.

Deep in his heart he knows [at least perceives], that unless ‘the economy’ picks up sometime soon that he may not have a business any more.

That’s why ’small business does not work’

In his model of the world he is right – his belief is, sooner or later, about to become a self fulfilling prophecy.

Success in any venture or undertaking starts with the right mindset. A little bit of passion helps. As do plenty of energy, a good [but flexible plan], a proactive approach and getting to understand where your customer is coming from.

Also many of the decision makers these days are in senior roles at an age unheard of just a few years ago – they THINK differently, are not always bound by the old models, are prepared to take risks and will not always accept that what worked in the past is the best pathway to pursue now.

Of course the fundamentals of business and life do not change – but given that these are in place, then the rules are subject to change today, tomorrow and the next day!

Undoubtedly many business owners are experiencing tough times – how many are now on the balls of their feet like a prize fighter dancing around looking not only to avoid the next punch, but more importantly to land one or two for themselves – going for the knockout?

Attitude determines your altitude.

No one says it’s easy – it never was, but the world is full of people and businesses that somehow found a way through the tough times and became successful again!

How do you plan to manage things right now?

Maybe having a few mentors or coaches or other business owners to talk things through, to share ideas even form a [proven system], Mastermind Group is a great way to start

Since the release of the hit DVD ‘The Secret’ and its exposure on the Oprah TV show there has been an inundation of Law of Attraction Teachers promoting their own books, Cd’s, courses, teleseminars and so on. Its launch was prefaced by some very good marketing – and I for one could not wait to get my hands on the DVD!

One can even become a Law of Attraction Coach. You can even do this [become a LOA Coach], online using mp3 and teleseminars as the principal training method!

What fascinates me is the growth in products offering programmes to help you understand ‘The Secret behind The Secret’.

This has been spawned by the unprecedented global popularity of The Secret pretty much from day one of its release.

It clearly shows there here are a huge number of people looking for self development information; some way to improve their lives, whatever that means for them. It also demonstrates that, for many people, implementing the principles of the Law of Attraction has not worked.

Many popular books have been around for a long time now that espouse the principals of the Law of Attraction: The all time classic Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” , lesser known is Wallace Wattles’ ” The Science of Getting Rich“, Charles F. Haanel’s “The Master Key System” or more recently, John Kehoe’s “Mind Power” and many others.

Clearly, there’s no ‘Secret’ as such, but there are a set of principles that, if applied diligently, can really help you make a positive difference in your life. It is possible to re create your circumstances, after all you [probably unconsciously], created the circumstances you currently experience [attracted].

Here’s the real secret – you need to work in a focussed way before these principles will work for you.

It’s what I do as a Life Coach.

First – you must get clear as to what you really want and get clear as to why.

Second – be in alignment with your values.

And then you can begin to get into it – but there are plenty of little ‘traps’ along the path to success, which I won’t discuss in this post.

Remember my ‘mantra’ on the Home Page?

Through clarity comes change.

If you would like a free initial consultation as to how I can help you or would like a free digital copy of Think and Grow Rich or The Science of Getting Rich fill in the form on this site and I will get in touch.

My primary role as a Business Coach is to business owners grow their businesses and make more profits at the same time.

Increasingly I find many small business owners in Auckland have been experiencing a downturn in their turnover which has put the business and its owner/s under more pressure than they would like.

As a result, many see a Coach as an unnecessary additional expense and are reluctant to go beyond an initial exploratory chat. It could also be something to do with the fact that many ‘business coaches’ are more interested in charging fat fees for very little in return which has given the coaching industry somewhat of an inglorious reputation.

So back to my headline.

There are two parts to this story:

§  The business owner is suffering from fear based on his reduced turnover and negative publicity around the gloom and doom he/she reads and hears every day. He/she is literally ‘frozen’ or stuck and is no longer open to working out how he /she can resolve these very real issues.

§  The Business Coaching ‘industry’ is not well regarded by many business owners, either as a result of direct experience or by word of mouth.

Let’s explore a little more:

An email from Bizzone today reveals that business owners’ biggest challenges right now are Cash flow, Sales and Marketing and Business Planning.  This survey was done in conjunction with the National Bank.

Another email, this time from the Auckland Chamber of Commerce [www.aucklandchamber.co.nz], tells us about their recent survey which reveals businesses expecting a ‘long flat slowdown’ and looking forward 6 months nearly half of the respondents feel that the situation will stay the same or improve. There’s a lot more of course and I quote “….the mood among many Auckland businesses continues to be positive and reflect a strong self – belief that getting on with ‘doing the business’ continues to be rewarded with results.”

Before I continue I highly recommend joining the Chamber of Commerce and to subscribe to organisations such as Bizzone. They are very good sources of information and resources available to help business grow.

And like a good coach they help give you the business owner an outside perspective as to what is going on in the market place.

So what to do?

It is no surprise to me that the Bizzone/National Bank survey has identified these three ‘interrelated’ issues as being of concern to businesses.

§  With a drop in turn over I’m sure cash flows would be affected.

§  This puts the spotlight on Sales and Marketing

§  Which lights the blowtorch under Business Planning

A consistent theme throughout my discussions with business owners has been: Lack of a Business Plan, very little or no knowledge of what a K.P.I. {Key Performance Indicator} is or how to establish them, and Sales and Marketing are left to poorly written Yellow Pages ads and word of mouth. To be fair, word of mouth can be very powerful.

With regard to KPI’s many owners will tell me ‘my accountant has all that information’, there is no real commitment apart from annual returns to get a handle on what’s going on in the business!

My last Boss in the Corporate world was a hard bastard [bless him]. His mantra was ‘you cannot manage what you can’t measure’. We reported to our KPI’s monthly, there were daily sales summaries; the KPI’s were constantly under review as were our costs and so on. We could look at historical comparative sales graphs and know why certain periods were up or down. In short, management had an accurate snapshot of where the business was all of the time.

To be fair to most small business owners, they don’t have the resources to monitor their businesses the way a larger entity can, but they sure can put measures and systems in place to help themselves make better decisions.

Business Plans seem to be in short supply. Or if there is one it’s been gathering dust somewhere on a shelf. A business plan ought to be considered a dynamic instrument and be reviewed regularly.

These are the issues many small business owners do not do anything about. They are not costly to implement. An hour or two with a Business Coach can pay off handsomely in the long run.

Our mantra [among many] is that often small changes can have a significant effect on your business.

I encourage you as a business owner to contact me for an obligation free discussion about your business.

I may be able to point the way, but as always – you have to do the work!

P.S. If I cannot help you I will endeavour to find someone who can!