How often in life do we fail to recognize and confront the weeds in our life? It’s possible we are afraid to confront the weeds because of fear. Maybe it’s the fear of the unknown, fear of what others might think or even fear of rejection.

Jim would often ask the following three major questions.

• Who am I around?
• What effect are they having?
• Is that acceptable?

It is so easy to let the wrong people or influences enter into our lives. It’s so subtle. Pretty soon we end up where we don’t want to be. It is important that we evaluate our associations on a regular basis. What do they have us thinking, doing, believing and becoming and is that okay?

Here is another great quote from Jim, “Those who can reach us and affect us on a daily basis should inspire us, not spread the seeds of doubt and dissent with their pessimism, complaining and ridicule of others. Maintaining a positive attitude in the face of life’s challenges is difficult enough without this kind of influence in our lives.”

Over the past couple of years I have allowed a couple of relationships into my life that were having a negative impact on me and my results. Some of those relationships I have had to eliminate. With others I have had to limit my association with them. I know that may seem insensitive or really cold hearted. If I want a better future I must distance myself from negative influences. The price I will pay in the long run is too big and I am not willing to pay that price.

What weeds do you have in your life that need to be rooted out and thrown in the fire? You will only blossom to your full potential based on who you associate with. Did you know that if you plant a tree inside, it’s growth is limited by the height of the ceiling? Did you also know that if you plant the tree outside, it will grow as high as it can?

What weeds do you need to pull out of your life that are stunting your growth?

How high would you like to grow? Would love to hear your feedback below.

In this week’s podcast I am covering Chapter Two of The Five Major Pieces
To The Life Puzzle, by Jim Rohn. Chapter two is all about our attitude.
Below are some great quotes from Jim.

• “The events of the past both good and bad are a part of the life experience.”
• “The current moment is where our better future begins. The past gave us a wealth of memories and experiences, and the past gives us a chance to use them wisely”
• “Our attitude about the future depends on our ability to see the future. Each of us has the inherent ability to dream, design and experience the future through the power of an imaginative inner-eye. Whatever the mind has the capacity to imagine, it also has the ability to create.”
• “The more clearly we see the vision of the future, the more we are able to borrow from it’s inspiration. This borrowed inspiration finds its way into our conversations, our energy level, our relationships and attitude. The more excited we become by our future dreams, the easier it is to develop the necessary disciplines and make the refinements to our philosophy.”
• “The people with whom we choose to associate are a major source of what we know and how we feel.”
• “Those who can reach us and affect us on a daily basis should inspire us, not spread the seeds of doubt and dissent with their pessimism, complaining and ridicule of others. Maintaining a positive attitude in the face of life’s challenges is difficult enough without this kind of influence in our lives.”
• “Re-evaluating our associations can be a difficult issue. Progress is often painful, but so are the consequences of allowing other people to exercise undo influence upon us.”
• “Disassociation is not something to be treated lightly. It must be done carefully and thoughtfully. But if we are sincere about changing ourselves and designing a better future, we are obligated to distance ourselves from those who are having the wrong effect on us. The price of not doing it is simply enormous.”

Book Link: The Five Major Pieces To The Life Puzzle

Would love to hear your comments below.

The laws of attraction in our profession are learned skills for most sales people. The following skills and abilities help create and develop a magnetic personality.

* Confidence
* Honesty
* Empathy
* Integrity
* Asking questions
* Active listening
* Problem solving

* Helping others make decisions that are good for them.

What people are looking for are sales professionals that can understand and solve their problems. The personality traits I just listed make it easy for your prospects and clients to trust you. Everything gets easier when you build a measure of trust in a relationship. You become the go-to guy or a trusted advisor.

There may be times when you do not make the sale but your prospect’s or client’s problem was solved by someone in your network. Regardless, you are still at the center of how their problems got solved and their needs got met. Attraction is the engine that makes it all work.

What skills and abilities are on your list? Would love to hear your comments below.

Over the next five weeks I am going to do a book study of The Five Major Pieces Of The Life Puzzle by Jim Rohn. It is an amazing book. The book consists of the following five chapters.

•     Philosophy
•     Attitude
•     Activity
•     Results
•     Lifestyle

In this weeks podcast I am going to cover Chapter One, Philosophy. Below are some quotes from chapter one.

• “How we think and how we respond has a greater capacity to destroy our lives than any challenge we may face.”
• “The Greatest influence on what we decide to do with tomorrow’s opportunity is not going to be circumstance, but rather how we think. What we think, and the conclusions we reach regarding life’s challenges, is going to be the sum total of what we have learned until now.”
• “Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do not fail overnight.”
• “Failure is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices. Failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgement repeated everyday.”
•  Jim’s formula for success. “A few simple disciplines practiced every day.”

Click Here for The Five Major Pieces To The Life Puzzle

Would love to hear your comments below.

Playing it safe will get you middle-of-the-road results. To really break through to excellence you have to take some risks. You can either strike it rich or flame out. With the proper tools, skills, and a honed “sixth sense”, striking it rich is more likely than not. There is a difference between irresponsible risk-taking and making choices based on the confidence and trust you’ve built from experience. Most times we have no idea what’s waiting around the bend, but learning how to navigate the challenging times and trusting intuition and experience is the ground that confidence and mastery is built on. Risks help create new futures. Take small steps if necessary, but keep your feet moving in the right direction.

This is one of my all time favorite quotes from the movie Million Dollar Baby narrated by Morgan Freeman, ”It’s the magic of risking everything on a dream nobody sees but you.”

What are you willing to risk everything on? Would love to hear your thoughts below.

SHOW NOTES

In my favorite book it says, “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.” What is your personal development plan? You may ask, “How do you create a personal development plan?”

Here are two steps to creating a simple plan:

• What is your vision or goals? In other words, where do you want to be in the next 30, 60, 90 days?
• What are the skills and abilities you need to develop to help you accomplish your goals?

I believe we get paid for three things in life: We get paid for our knowledge, we get paid for our skill, and we get paid for the value or results that we produce for others.  Is the person working at McDonald’s receiving ten dollars an hour for being there? No. The person working at McDonald’s is receiving ten dollars for the knowledge, skill and result that they bring to that hour. That’s what we get paid for.

What value are you going to create for others?

Here are a couple of books that will help you on your personal development journey. These two books laid the foundation for my early success in sales.

• How I Raised Myself From Failure To Success In Selling by Frank Bettger.
• The Five Major Pieces To The Life Puzzle by Jim Rohn.

Also, don’t wait for others to invest in you. Over the years I have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars and hours into improving my skills and abilities. So often I hear others say, “I’m going to wait until my company invests in me.” Let me ask you this. What if they don’t?

Let me leave you with one final thought. This is a famous quote from Jim Rohn, “The books that you don’t read can’t help you.”

What are you fanatical about? What lights a fire in your belly each day? Being passionate and loving what you do is one of the keys (not the only key) to happiness in life. Life is too short to spend it on what you don’t love.

Growing up as a small boy and into adulthood I remember my father complaining year after year about his job. It was obvious he didn’t like what he did. I am only guessing that he felt stuck and was putting in his time until retirement. I could see it on his face most days.

The one thing I will always respect my father for was his work ethic. He taught me the value of hard work. There were times he worked two, sometimes three jobs to take care of us. There was always food at every meal. We had clothes on our back, a roof over our head and a warm bed to sleep in every night. To this day I am grateful.

Did it really have to be that way for my father? Maybe he felt trapped and he thought there was no way out. It’s possible he didn’t think he had any choices. However, maybe he was passionate about taking care of his family and his job was a means to that end. I’m not sure or will I every know. He didn’t talk much about it.

The successful sales people that I have met over the years absolutely love what they do. Not only are they zealous about their chosen profession, they also invested a lot of time and effort to get there. Training, practice, and persistence has laid the foundation for their success.

Be careful of the ruts you choose because you may be there for life.

Would love to hear your thoughts. What are you passionate about?