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Wishing you and your family the very best
for 2010.
Point to
Ponder Irene and I were doing some
Christmas shopping and running errands in Edmonton a while back. We
stopped into Vo's to get her nails filled and decorated for
Christmas. I wandered around window shopping and then came back to
sit and wait for her to finish.
While I was sitting there I
observed an interesting conversation between a 20 something
young woman and a 80 something senior who were sitting side
by side having their nails done.
What caught my attention was the
older lady chattering away gayly and the amazing animation in her
face as she did so. I also noticed the younger woman was
actually listening and commenting back. They were having a
conversation, not just being polite. This went on for a good fifteen
minutes or more with the younger woman good humouredly sharing back
with her. From snippets I overheard, it seemed the older lady was on
her own with no real family around. That can be tough at this time
of year.
As the older lady left, she did so
with a genuine smile on her face, an energy much younger than her
years and a, "I hope I see you again" to the
younger one, who replied, "I'm in here from time to time and I hope
to see you too."
What a
gift! A gift of giving your attention and time to someone
else.
The Christmas
season has become a rush of frenzied activity in
shopping and gift wrapping and finally delivering those gifts. Then
we collapse, hoping we have chosen something that the recipient will
like or at least use.
We often forget the reason for
the season and the best gift is our love, our
friendship, and our companionship. When we listen and allow those
around us to talk, to be heard, be they young people or older
people, we affirm their worth and acknowledge them as people. This
is the way we like to be treated and how, I hope, we treat our
family and clients.
When we invest time in
connecting, listening, and talking with other people we give the
best gift of all - ourselves.
Thanks again for the gift of
sharing, of allowing me to come into your email boxes every month.
It is a privilege I don't take lightly.
This year, focus on building better, richer relationships
and I'll bet you also end up building better careers, businesses,
sales results and, of course, friendships and more vibrant
relationships with the ones you love.
My friend Mac Anderson
from Simple Truth sent
this movie just before
Christmas. I'd like to share it with you with my best wishes for a great 2010.
Archives of past issues are
available on our www.ideaman.net website. As you move into your New
Year, one in which you would naturally desire more success,
satisfaction, and one in which your career or life improves;
a suggestion might be to refine your thoughts as well as
your goals. Read what my friend, John Boe has to say about
your thinking as a tool for your long-term success.
The Strangest
Secret
By John Boe In 1957, Earl
Nightingale, speaker, author and co founder of the
Nightingale-Conant Corporation, recorded his classic motivational
record "The Strangest Secret". "The Strangest
Secret" sold over one million copies and made history in the
recording industry by being honored as the first Gold Record for the
spoken word. Nightingale, known as the "dean of personal
development," concluded that life's "strangest secret" is that we
become what we think about all day long.
Your belief
system, like your computer, doesn't judge or even question
what you input; it merely accepts your thoughts as the truth, the
whole truth and nothing but the truth. Think thoughts of defeat or
failure and you're bound to feel discouraged. Continuous thoughts of
worry, anxiety and fear are unhealthy and often manifest in the body
as stress, panic attacks and depression.
At the core of Earl's message, he
reveals the incredible power of positive self-talk, belief
and expectation. What you vividly imagine and hold in your
subconscious mind begins to out picture as your reality. Your belief
system not only defines your reality, but it also shapes your
character and determines your potential.
The Placebo Effect
The ability of the mind to cure a
disease even when the medicine is known to be worthless is known as
the "placebo effect". This occurs in medical trials
where doctors give patients sugar pills, but tell them they will
cure their illness. Often it does, even though the pills contain
nothing of medical benefit. The only thing of value in these medical
trials is the patient's own belief that the sugar pills will cure
them. It's the power of the patient's belief and expectation alone
that produces the improvement in his or her health. I recently read
a remarkable story about a group of cancer patients who thought they
were being treated with chemotherapy, but were actually given a
placebo. Before their treatment began, the patients were informed
about the complications associated with undergoing chemotherapy
treatment, such as fatigue and loss of hair. Amazingly, based on
nothing more than their belief and expectation, nearly one third of
the patients who were given the placebo reported feeling fatigued
and actually experienced hair loss!
The Power of Affirmation
and Positive Self-talk
If you had access to a powerful
tool that would enhance your self-esteem and allow you to reach your
full potential would you use it?
A good way to create positive
self-talk is through affirmations. An affirmation is a positive
statement that represents your desired condition or outcome.
Interesting enough, your subconscious mind doesn't know the
difference between a real experience and a vividly imagined "mental"
experience.
When he was a struggling young
comedian, late at night Jim Carey would drive into
the hills overlooking Hollywood and yell at the top of his lungs "I
will earn ten million dollars a year by 1995." When 1995 finally
arrived, Jim was the star of the movie Ace Ventura: When Nature
Calls, for which he was paid twenty million
dollars!
World-class athletes understand
the value of affirmation and recognize the impact of their mental
preparation on their physical performance. They use the power of
positive affirmation to reduce anxiety and increase their
expectation of achievement. To be of maximum benefit an affirmation
must be simple, encouraging and stated in the present tense.
By repeating an affirmation over
and over again it becomes embedded in the subconscious mind.
To be effective your
affirmation must be stated aloud:
Here are some of my
favorite affirmations:
Do affirmations really
work and can they be used to propel a person to achieve
greatness?
As a young boy growing up in
Louisville, Kentucky, 12-year-old Cassius Marcellus Clay dreamed of
someday becoming the heavyweight boxing champion of the world. When
working out in the gym, Clay would continuously affirm to all within
earshot that he was indeed the greatest boxer of all time! While
many felt he was brash and boastful, few people actually took this
89-pound youngster seriously. Mohammad Ali used his
affirmation to become the undisputed heavyweight boxing champion of
the world and arguably one of the most popular and recognized sports
figures of all times!
"Watch
your thoughts, for they become words. Choose your words, for
they become actions. Understand your actions, for they become
habits. Study your habits, for they will become your character.
Develop your character, for it becomes your destiny." - Anonymous
You show me a salesperson
(business owner or leader) with high self-esteem, a positive
attitude, and a healthy work ethic and I'll be able to predict his
or her success in advance... I guarantee it.
John Boe
presents a wide variety of motivational and sales-oriented keynotes
and seminar programs for sales meetings and conventions. John is a
nationally recognized sales trainer and business motivational
speaker with an impeccable track record in the meeting industry. To
have John speak at your next event, visit www.johnboe.com or call 877 725-3750. Free
Newsletter available on website. © Copyright 2009, John Boe
International
 Last Minute News
Technology is a wonderful
connection... pictured here are Irene and her mom, Lil, talking via
Skype to our daughter Amanda in Australia.
Irene's mom was blown away, almost to
tears, to be able to see and talk to her granddaughter... and she
did so for well over a half an hour. They are very close and this
helped both of them keep the connection alive.
A day later she was still talking about
her first internet experience. Wow! And we take it for
granted.
December was a flurry of
activity: Presenting at our CAPS National Convention in
Calgary and hanging out with our speaker friends. Irene attended and
met some of those people behind the faces on the speaker promotional
websites and the various ebooks we've done in the past few
years. It was fun to have her there to share in this time and
to meet more of my extended speaker family. Also lots of work on our
websites: Speaker sites, new sites based on ideas (I keep getting
them) and writing for various publications. Working to get
everything done so I could head south with a clear mind. Also a time
to spend with friends and family like our neighbors Kelly and
Christine who are really family. January will be a
month of travel and adventure for Irene and myself. We're heading to
Australia on the 8th to visit our daughter who is teaching in
Geraldton (about 4 hours north of Perth) who is on summer break.
We'll be spending half of our time with Amanda who has our tour all
mapped out. Then fly to Brisbane on the 19th for a few days R&R
in the beach areas and then back to Sydney for a few days before we
fly home.
This is a
first: I won't be taking my notebook or any work
with me. I will be checking emails from time to time and responding
to clients, as needed, but generally I will be in my beach
boy (ok older guy) mode and reading a book or two while
sitting under something shady in the plus 30C weather.
I am sure an idea or two that can put
into action when I get back will drop into my mind while close to
the ocean. Some of my best ideas come from beach or ocean time. I
decided to go into speaking during my sailing trip to Japan. I
decided to move into speaking and training full time on a beach in
the Cooks Islands, and that has been a great decision.
2010 will be an exciting
year as we work to help our clients, some of whom are
really struggling. Some travel coming up: Amsterdam
to present at the 3rd annual PSA Holland convention (PDF) in mid March and a
speaking tour to Russia in June (11-14th for a conference) and
additional presentations being arranged to follow with, hopefully a
visit to Moscow on the way home.
Here
is a picture you won't often see in public: in our offices yes,
in our living rooms, yes; but not in public. Bob and Irene caught
online checking their emails... some from each other... connections
even a few feet apart are wonderful.
Thanks for
reading
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