Personal Development Fitness

There was an interesting article this week about walking and the positive it can give you.

The start of it said

A cancer research charity estimates that 10,000 cases of breast and bowel cancer could be prevented every year in the UK if people engaged in more “brisk walking” or were generally more physically active every day.

That is a pretty powerful statement!  I had a particular interest in it as over the last few months I have noticed how important putting physical fitness into my Personal Development Plan is.  I mean IMPORTANT!

I have always been someone into fitness.  Actually there have been times when I have been very fit.  Currently I am not and am a little bit fatter than I would like! I still run but I don’t do enough and I only do weights a couple of times a week but I am the sort of guy that you can tell plays sports etc.  Does that make sense?

This is why I need activity in my Personal Development plan.

Anyway, I have noticed that my work load has got more and this means I have had less time for fitness or activity.  This obviously has an affect on my physical look but it has more of a negative impact on my mental state.

I think this is actually more important.

How you are feeling mentally about your physical state is just as important as your physical state!  Now please, I know if you are 250lbs and not muscular and think that is OK, well it is not.  You are most likely to be over weight and in risk of many ailments.

What I am saying is that for the average person feeling like you are doing something with your body is as important as actually being fit.  When I don’t do any fitness for a few days it really affects me.  I get depressed and very negative about things.  It has taken me a long time to realise this.

At first I just thought it was because I gained a little weight, but actually it is because I am not doing anything to improve.  I hate that.

If you have ever read the Robert Rohm Personality profiles then I am a D I mix.  This means I am driven and people orientated.  I want to always feel like I am improving.

What I have come to realise is that I don’t actually need to be doing some really hard workout, I just need to be doing something!

I think that is what this cancer research outlines.  That actually just some small activity can help you physically and mentally.  After all your brain has power over how healthy you are.  It is a psychoneuroimmunology thing.  If you are interested in this read Candace Pert’s book.

Or you can read my Wife Blog about natural weight loss tips.

So when you are doing your Personal Development plan, think about including some physical activity.  It’s not just stuff for your mind!

Matt

Dr Wayne Dyer – How to get what you want with Deepak

This is a wonderful audio from Dr Wayne Dyer.  I have this on CD but you can get most of what they are talking about from this video.  He is doing a seminar with Deepak Chopra.

My Personal Development learning has been more focused at this type of information for a while now.  You could say more spiritual focused.  I have been reading many books by Deepak Chopra and listening to audio from Dr Wayne Dyer.

What I like is that these guys talk straight.

Leave a comment if you enjoy the message.

Personal Development or GPS?

I went to a meeting the other day and when I got in my car and looked for the GPS I had this realisation that Personal Development is the same as the GPS.

In that, the GPS can get me to my meeting but only if I tell it where to go.  That is the same with Personal Development.  You can be the most read and most developed person and still not achieve your goal.  You have to know where you want to go!

Personal Development that works for you

I wrote a blog a couple of weeks ago called “Why I don’t set goals anymore”.  This is something I feel very passionate about.

Why?

Well as you know I love Personal Development.  This blog is about that topic and how it can make a difference in your life.  The challenge is I think sometimes Personal Development, or the application of it, don’t actually help. I think it can hold us back.

You have probably read as many personal development books as I have.  For a list of my favourites click here Top 10 Personal Development Books.
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Personal Development Blog – What? Hey?

Having a Personal Development Blog is an interesting thing.

I mean, what exactly is it?  What should be in it?  These are all questions I have been asking myself over the last few months.  When I started this blog I was all excited about blogging my favourite topic, personal development.  Then as I did more on it I realised how important it is to actually focus on what I was writing.

At first I just wrote about whatever came into my mind.  Then as more people started to read my stuff and said nice things about them I realised I have a role to play.  The same for my youtube channel, I get a lot of great comments on there and people say that they actually benefit from what I am chatting about.

So now I feel like there is a responsibility to do good stuff on here.

My blog has gone from a personal blog to something that people actually find helpful!  That is great but it also means I now have to put more effort into it.  I am very happy to do that as the more people I help the more it helps me.

Do you know what?  I am loving it!

Seriously, now I know that people are actually reading this and getting things from it I have changed my whole feeling about the blog.  It used to be a pain but now I love writing on here.

And that is a great way to be in other parts of life.  The more you can help people the more you will find it fun and easy to do.

Let me give you another example.  I am a Director of a consulting business, it has nothing to do with Personal Development Blog.  I coach small business owners and help them develop their business.  Now this is great work but sometimes when you have done a lot of meetings it can get a bit tiring.

The last thing you want to do at the end of a tough week is have a 3 hour meeting with a business owner that needs you to give them hope and energy!

But you know, when I am driving to that meeting and I think “I am here to help these people”  then my mind changes.  I start to feel excited about how I can help and my energy goes up.

What I am doing is taking the focus off myself and putting it on them.

And this is key to anything we do.  If you are focusing on yourself then it’s all about you.  If you focus on helping other people then you will find you have so much more energy.

Now I didn’t expect my blog to remind me about that!

I have worked on businesses where all I wanted to do is make money.  That is fine in terms of need but it is the wrong focus.  I made some money but not lots.  When I started thinking about how I can help others then not i started to earn more.

If you are thinking about making money right now start thinking about how what you do helps.  It will change your businesses.

So thanks to my Personal Development Blog and you, readers, I am enjoying doing this right now!

To your success

Matt

I want to be a salesperson. What do I do?

Congratulations!

You are about to work in one of the most exciting and wealthiest industries there is!  But you are also about to get into one of the hardest and least rewarding.  That is why we need to talk about Personal Development!

Oh, not so exciting.

It is, don’t let my negative comment put you off.  Just be conscious of the fact that although selling is a great career it can also be very hard at times.  Good times and bad times, if you are ready for that then you are ready for your next step.

So what is the next step when learning to sell?

Well let’s assume you have never had a “sales” job.  If that is the case the first thing you need to do is get one!  Selling is one of those jobs where you don’t have to go on training first.  Notice I said “have” to go on training.  You can and it would help but most people just get into selling and learn as they go.  That is great in terms of how fast you learn but also tough in terms of how fast you learn.  Many people can’t handle learning like that.  If that is you then I would suggest doing some training first.

If you have never sold before it is most likely that you will want to look for a low basic salary sales job with a good commission structure.  Some jobs like this are Recruitment, Estate Agents, Window Sales people etc.  These are tough jobs but you will learn basic selling fast.  Probably what you will learn most is how to handle rejection.  More on that later!

It is very important to remember that if you want a career in Sales then getting a recruitment job is only to LEARN.  Earn to learn. Unless you love recruitment, know that it is only one step in your plan to becoming a wealthy sales person.

You have to start somewhere and those jobs will teach you sales very fast!  But, it is only one type of sales, there are many more.

When I first read Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki (note read if you have not) he said in there that he joined Zerox because they had the best sales training programme.  He knew he didn’t want to stay there but just wanted to learn from the best.  Well after a few years he was best salesman and left the company!

The point is he wanted to learn how to sell so he could have his own business.

So whatever your goal just know that your first and next sales jobs are probably just to learn.

Personal Development.  Your Personal development is really going to be the measure of your success.  I mean it.  The more personally developed you are the better salesperson you will be. Why?

Well I don’t actually think the best people who are sell actually sell.  I think they help people who want to buy.  The truth is you can’t actually make someone do anything.  You might be able to do some sales like this by being smart and using sales methods but really to be successful in selling you need to know how to deal with people.

I know people who can sell by being pushy.  But do people want to buy from them again?  No.  I know people who use manipulation methods that are similar to NLP.  Once the personal has bought from them they realise they don’t want the product. Personally, I have done that and the customer wanted to cancel the deal once they thought about it.

To really be a great salesperson you need to build rapport and trust with people who buy.  Let’s look at an example.

Let’s say you sell mortgages.  One day you learn some cleaver sales methods, some manipulation.  A new customer comes in and talks to you about buying a mortgage.  Well you start to use these clever methods.  Clever ways to ask a question, clever subliminal methods.  The customer feels that you are doing something but doesn’t know what.  You make the sale and customer leaves.

Great!  No.

You see that customer knew you were doing something.  They knew you were applying pressure and consciously or subconsciously they didn’t like you.  Would they come back to you next time they need a mortgage or refer business?  Probably no.

How about this.  How about they come in and you work on being friendly, building rapport and giving good advice.  You don’t worry about the sale but instead want to do a great job.  They buy anyway and you chat about mutual people you know.

Do you think they would come back to you and refer yo to other people?  Yes. Ok so you could say that the first salesperson would make more sales. No.  You see they wouldn’t get any ongoing business.

The more high priced your product or service you are selling the more important this is.  I have sold many different things.  From low level software to high value consulting deals to ideas and joint ventures.  The more value in the deal the more important it is to know what is key.  And relationship is.

So that is why Personal Development is so important.  I tell my clients this.  I ask them if they have a Personal Development programme for their sales people.  Normally they say no as that is expensive.  But it isn’t!

One of the easiest ways is to read a book each week.  Buy Personal Development books on relationships, speaking, communication etc.

If you are looking to get a career in sales than you should do this!  My top book?  How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.

You see the more you read about how to build relationships with people the more they buy.

So step here are the steps to follow: -

1. Start reading Personal Development books

2. Get a Sales job and learn as you go

That is it!

My blog is going to change! My thanks to Yaro Starak and Rosalind Gardner and Darren Rouse

Well it took long enough!

I have been doing this blog for about 2 year now and there was always something I wasn’t really happy about.  I put this up to talk about Personal Development in the desire that someone (at least one please!) would get benefit from.  I had read 100′s of Personal Development Books, listened to CD’s and been to loads of seminars.  I was and still am a walking talking personal development machine.

So it made sense to do a blog about that right?  Err no.

You see what I didn’t know as a blogging newbie was that to make a blog a success you need to blog lots!  And I mean lots!  or get someone else to do it but even then you still need to do it.  Now I am not one for thinking I knew it all but I thought I could blog about Personal Development enough to get lots of people to read my blog.

Well I did OK.  But not what I wanted.  I am definitely someone who wants to do well in everything he does and frankly my blog. this one!  Wasn’t doing as well as it should have.

Maybe my SEO was wrong?

Er, no dude.

I just wasn’t doing enough!  Not enough posts, not enough of me in the blog.  If you read any of Yaro Starak’s blog http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/ or Rosalind Gardner’s blog http://netprofitstoday.com/blog/ then you will learn that they always tell any newbie to blog about something you are passionate about.

But I thought I was passionate about Personal Development?  I was, am.  But I am also passionate about sales.  How to sell, sales coaching.  I do that with my clients so why wouldn’t I blog about it?  That, is a great question!

Well I didn’t so basically I posted about Personal Development and then after loads of posts I couldn’t be bothered.  I just didn’t have it in me.  I run other businesses and blogging was just a part time thing so whenI got home I really couldn’t find the inspiration to blog.

Sad right?

Yes a bit.  Sometimes I wanted to blog about sales, selling and sales coaching.  That is what I had been doing and I had loads to say.  Problem was I thought it wasn’t right to blog about how I use Personal Development in this.

Weird right?

It is but that is how I went about it.  For some reason I thought I couldn’t blog about sales and Personal Development even though I talked to clients about the need to have a Personal Development programme for their sales people!

Anyway, that is why I am thanking both Yaro Starak and Rosalind Gardner and Darren Rouse for their help.  I have purchased products from Yaro and Rosalind.  Yaro’s Blog Profits Blueprint and his members course is amazing.  The first affiliate marketing book I bought was Rosalind’s Super Affiliate handbook. Get it!

What I have finally got to is that this blog needs to show what I am interested in.  If you find it interesting then great!  So I am now going to blog about Personal Development and sales coaching and how personal development is key to your sales.

Look forward to some posts that come from me!

Matt

Do you act daily on your core values?

I know I don’t all the time.

It’s is something that I need to work at and probably you do too.  So what am I actually talking about?

Well your core values at what you believe in. What you really believe in.  They are what make you, well you.  Often you know what your core values are when in an argument.  They are the values you go back to when you feel like someone is challenging you.

But that isn’t really acting on core values daily.  That is something I really need to work on.  Let’s look at this from a day basis.

You probably know how it feels to have one of those mad days when you don’t even remember what you had planned.  Maybe you start by cutting yourself while shaving or your hair just looks funky, then you look at your emails and realise you need to reply before you go out the door.  Then whilst driving you get a phone call that lasts the entire journey to your meeting.  You are late, your client is calling and you remember you forgot the paperwork!

Ah!!

You have your meeting, the phone has been going and more emails have come in.  And, your client isn’t happy!

Your Blackberry vibrates and you know you are already late for the next meeting.

So you go a little bit fast when driving to the next meeting.  Actually you go fast.  Why not right?  You are good driver normally so why not this time?

Well as you drive through roadworks FLASH!  You get caught in a speed trap.

If you have had this happen then you know the anger that rises up.  ”Why did I speed, bloody speed traps!”  You know the things you have said.

By why is this so annoying?  Well because you are normally a driver who goes on the speed limit.  At least you don’t go that fast.  It goes against your values to drive so fast.

Basic example?  Yes but it does show how not acting on your values can annoy you.  The more we do it the worse it gets.  Every time we don’t act on our core values the more it affects us.  Tiny events like this then make us feel bad about ourselves.

It’s like a constant little reminder that we are not as great as we thought we were.

Even if you don’t think this consciously, subconsciously it goes in.  You might even say things like: -

“What an idiot”

“Matt, you are a loser”

“Why did you do that?”

Great self talk!  Not.

You know as well as I do that self talk like this is not going to help at all.  Now what if we did this all the time?

Well that is what happens.  Our crazy lives means we are always not acting on our core values.  Small little things like getting a speeding ticket.

It becomes a process that we all do.  Interrupting people, being rude, not saying thanks, how many more?

We don’t slow down enough to think about those core values and act on them.

Part of my personal development plan is to work on this all the time.  To live with my values.  Not allow the challenges of life to get in the way of that.  It’s not easy!

The way to do this is to get some time when you are away from all the busy things in your life.  Sit down and write your values out on paper.  Then do this again a few days later.  What you will end with is a list that is pretty much your core values.  Your list will change as you change but the core of them will be there.

Now try and live your life by them.  See what you are doing in your life that is not inline with these core values.

Sounds like a simple process but it isn’t.  When you do this you can have amazing this happen in your life.

There is a great book by Hyrum W Smith called What Matters Most – Click on the link to see the review of the book.  Hyrum discuss how to find your core values and “What Matters Most” to you as a person.  It’s a great book and you will need a pen and paper!

Matt

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