Your goal is to live a long, happy life, full of joy and satisfaction, to realize your potential, and to become everything you are capable of becoming. The starting point of achieving balance and make life easier is for you to set your own happiness as the primary goal of your life, and then organize everything you do to achieve that happiness.

Fully 85% of your happiness comes from your relationships with other people – at home, at work, and in every area of your life. You require a balance between your work and your personal life in order to be happy.

Achieve Work-Life Balance

In your work and career, you need to be doing work that you enjoy, that gives you a sense of personal fulfillment, that pays you well, and which you do in an excellent fashion; your life can quickly get out of balance if you are lacking in this area.

The average person feels that he or she has too much work to do and that this is the major reason that his or her life is out of balance. This is seldom true.

The fact is that most working people waste fully 50% of their time. Idol chit-chat with co-workers, reading a newspaper, surfing the internet, personal business, long coffee breaks and lunches, coming in late and leaving early is a waste of time. The average person only works about 50% of the time, and then, because they are under pressure, they work on low-value activities.

The secret to success at work is simple: “Work all the time you work!” When you go to work, put your head down, and immediately start work. If someone wants to interrupt you to talk, you excuse yourself by saying that you have to get “back to work!”

Make Life Easier

Plan every day and week in advance. You should make a list before you start each day, preferably the night before. Every minute spent in planning saves ten minutes in work or execution.

To reduce waste of time, start setting your priorities on your work list by using the A, B, C, D, E Method:

1. Go over your list and put an A next to each of your most important tasks;
2. Go over your list and put a B next to tasks that are not as important;
3. Go over your list and place a C next to those tasks that are hardly important at all.

When you begin work, start on your A-1, most important tasks first thing. Practice single-handling; concentrate single-mindedly on one thing, the most important thing, and discipline yourself to stay on that task until it is 100% complete.

By developing the habit of single-minded concentration on your most important task, you will increase your productivity 50%, get your entire work life under control, double your productivity, performance and output, and reassert work-life balance.

Don’t forget to take one or two week vacations twice each year during which you do no work at all. This will help you get back into balance faster than almost anything else you can do.

Get Plenty of Rest

To increase your work-life balance, you need plenty of rest, at least 7-8 hours each night. When you get too little sleep, you build up a “sleep deficit” which causes you to go through the day in a form of “fog.” Because you are not thoroughly rested, you find it difficult to concentrate on the high-value activities that account for your success. Instead, you work on low priority, easier tasks, that contribute very little to your career.

The very act of going to bed one hour early each night, or getting one to two hours of extra sleep each night, can transform your life completely, and put your entire life back into balance.

Balance is not something that you achieve quickly and easily. It is something that you have to work at, every single day. But the good news is that, whatever you do repeatedly eventually becomes a habit. You can develop the habit of living a high performance, happy, well balanced life by simply practicing these ideas over and over until they make life easier.

If you enjoyed this article on how to make life easier and maintain a great work-life balance, please share it with others right now!

Source: Brian Tracy’s Blog

On Monday morning, 25% of our available selling time for 2012 will have passed, and we will be into Q2. However well we did in Q1, we should be prepared to objectively re-assses our current opportunities, because there are two escalating pressures in today’s marketplace that are creating a need for a more disciplined approach towards sales opportunities:

o The need to be more specialised and individualised in dealing with clients because we can no longer afford to treat all situations in the same way.

o The reality of competition – Often to increase market share, you must do so at the direct expense of the competition. The competitive intensity of the sales environment is escalating with the globalisation of the economy.

These are the main “drivers” behind the demand that organisations adopt methodologies and processes to manage these issues.

By utilising a rigorous and formal opportunity assessment, we are aiming to achieve two sets of objectives:

Business Objectives
o Determine which sales opportunities should be pursued at the direct expense of others
o Given resource limitations, decide where and on what basis resource should be allocated to a sales opportunity
o Determine whether our company is over-investing or under-investing in a sales opportunity
o Enhance forecast accuracy
o Use “proven” criteria to reduce the cost of sales

Sales Objectives
o Identify, quantify and categorize opportunity assessment criteria
o Increase “Hit-Rate” (Win – Loss ratios) by avoiding unsuitable business
o Discover where we and our competition stand with a customer
o Gain a complete and accurate view of a sales situation prior to writing a sales plan to win
o Calculate the probability of winning or losing a deal early in the sales process

All sales professionals claim to be permanently time constrained – we always have limited time and resources with which to achieve our targets.

We can be involved in only so many accounts or sales situations before we begin to lose our ability to manage what is taking place. At that point, we lose control and the competition takes control.

We can only control and manage what we understand and that is the real value of continuous and rigorous assessment of our pipelines.

News: I have some incredibly exciting news to share with you, but unfortunately I cannot reveal all until Sunday. As a consequence, exceptionally, I will be posting over the w/e, and I urge you to pop back.

Source: Jonathan Farrington’s Blog

Image by Shermeee (license).

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Maybe the biggest problem people have when trying to improve something in their lives is that they never take much action at all.

Perhaps the second biggest problem is that they don’t take consistent action over a longer time period.

Now, consistency isn’t really the sexiest or most exciting word in personal development. But it is, coupled with time, what will give you real results in your life. Sticking with the program and doing something consistently – and not just when you feel inspired or something like that – is very, very powerful.

This is something I have struggled with a lot in the past. And on some days I still do. But over the years I have found a few things that really help me with this.

So today I’d like to share 6 steps and habits that really help me to take consistent action instead of just taking action when I feel inspired or when the weather is sunny.

1. Follow a morning ritual.

This is perhaps the most powerful tip I have found so far in this area. You simply set up a routine in the morning that you do as soon as you wake up. This works so well because what you do early in the day often sets the context for your day.

As humans we have a strong tendency to want to be consistent with what we have done before. That’s one big reason why a bad start often leads to a bad day and a good start often leads to a good day.

So find your own good start to your day, one that helps you. Mine is for example very simple and includes a couple of glasses of water, a good breakfast, some light decluttering in my workspace and getting started with the most important task of the day right away after those first few morning activities.

By doing so I do not get lost in busy work, I pretty much always get something of importance done each day and my day starts out in a creative and inspiring way since my most important task is almost always writing an article or something for a book or a course.

2. When you are taking action, focus only on the process.

I use this, for example, when I workout and when I write. I don’t take responsibility for the results in my mind. I take responsibility for showing up and doing my workout/the writing. The results come anyway from that consistent action. And this makes it easier for me to take this action when I know that is all I need to focus on. Instead of using half of the energy and focus I have available on hoping that I “reach my goal real, real soon”.

Focus on the process and you will be a lot more relaxed and prone to continue than if you stare yourself blind on the potential results that never come as quickly as you want to and puts you on an emotional rollercoaster from day to day.

3. Every day, remember why you are taking action.

Find your top priorities and reasons for why you are doing what you are doing.

It could be to provide for your child, to save up for a big purchase or for traveling, to get the job you really want or to raise your self-esteem. Or something else.

To not lose track of why you are taking action, to stay focused, take a few minutes and write down the top reason(s) and put that note where you can see it every day. Like for example in your work space or near your bed so that you see when you wake up every morning.

Now, on some days it isn’t so easy to use the steps above. So here are two more steps that I use at such times to start moving forward again.

4. Quickly remind yourself that you don’t want to hurt yourself.

Realize that when you disappoint yourself and don’t think and do as you really deep down want to you hurt yourself by lowering your self-esteem.

Whatever you do during your day sends signals back to yourself about what kind of person you are. Do the right thing like being effective, kind, going to the gym or simply rest and you feel good.

Get lazy, negative or just plain mean and you tend to feel worse after a while. You don’t get away, there is no escaping yourself. And there is always a price to pay. This is a powerful motivator to become a better person.

5. Take smaller steps on the days when the big ones seem to daunting.

On some days getting started with that most important task of the day or doing any of the big tasks may seem daunting and you start to procrastinate. When that happens, one thing that has worked for me is to be kind. To nudge myself forward instead of beating myself up.

So at such times I focus on doing a very small and simple task or two. Or I may make a deal with myself to just work for 5 minutes on a bigger and more difficult task. Or if that feels like too much I make a deal with myself for 2 minutes of work.

Sometimes that results in a few dents put into a big task, a couple of smaller tasks being completed and many breaks being taken throughout the day. And sometimes the easy start or restart to the day is all I need to get going again and to have a good and very productive time before the evening arrives.

Either way, I move forward instead of standing still.

6. Celebrate what you did today.

Finally, one habit that you can use at the end of your work hours or before going to bed. When you appreciate your good work you feel even better about your life and yourself and over time taking more action with less inner resistance becomes possible and associated with even more positive emotions.

So take two minutes at the end of the day to think about what you can appreciate about what you did today. Or write down a couple of self-appreciative things in your journal. Have a tasty treat or a bigger celebration. Tell someone how nice something turned out, how you learned a good lesson or how proud you are over something important you did today. Reward yourself for the things you did right today to strengthen your action taking habit.

And remember to be kind to yourself for the things you may have missed or not gotten done. No point in trying to beat yourself up. No point in trying to be perfect. See what you can learn from it and perhaps try another solution tomorrow instead and see if that works better.

If you found this article helpful, then please share it with someone else by using the buttons below. Thank you! =)

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Want to learn much more about living a simpler, happier and less stressful life where you dare to follow and achieve your dreams in 2012? Then have a look at my three premium courses and guides:

- Stop feeling lousy about yourself and start living a life of self-happiness where you live up to your potential and dare to follow your dreams today – with The Self-Esteem Course.

- Get rid off the inner and outer clutter and start living a simpler, more focused and meaningful life – with the Simplicity Course.

- How to triple your productivity, minimize stress and free up more time for yourself starting today – with The Art of Relaxed Productivity.

Copyright 2006-2012 Henrik Edberg.

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Source: The Positivity Blog

Three Guidelines for Asking Questions Because asking good questions is such an integral part of good selling I’ve given the matter a lot of study and thought over the years. I’ve boiled down all that knowledge into three basic guidelines. Guideline #1. Establish a bond before you attempt to control the process with questions. Establishing [...] Related posts:

1. The Advantages of a Career in Financial Services
2. The Financial Services Presentation
3. The Importance of Being a Lifelong Student of Selling Skills

Source: Tom Hopkins’ Sales Training Blog

I spoke in Sydney on 27 March to members of the Australian Human Resources Institute. This is my first seminar in a long while exclusively devoted to “people issues.” Hence you may find it of general interest—it’s my “last word”—for now!—on this premier enterprise topic.

(As I said to the group, this is very new material—by my definition of “new.” A topic, in my opinion, remains “new” as long as it is not effectively implemented. Hence, there is nothing novel herein—but 9 of 10 organizations are a country mile or 10 or 110 from having implemented a truly “people first” enterprise—and, hence, having reaped
the infinite moral and financial benefits associated therewith.)

AHRI, Sydney, 27 March 2012

Source: The Tom Peters Weblog

Frequently, there are two main pitfalls that even experienced salespeople can fall into in terms of activities. First, they simply aren’t doing enough. What’s enough? Enough telephone calls to make appointments, enough face-to-face calls, enough calls that involve or influence the decision-makers. In general, the more focused sales activity salespeople generate, the greater the number of sales opportunities they can create.

Poor Quality Activity
Second, but equally important, salespeople often aren’t clear about how to identify the prospects most likely to have a genuine need for their product or service. Without an objective way to priorities which prospects to contact first and/or an efficient strategy for contacting them, salespeople are doomed to waste a large percentage of their time.

Another huge dilemma for many salespeople is how to divide their time between servicing existing clients and generating new business from new prospects. Existing clients frequently make requests for service that could be dealt with by support staff. But salespeople who lack a disciplined, future-orientated plan for generating new contacts and sales, often find themselves spending more time attending to “urgent” tasks for existing accounts instead.

A common approach among salespeople can be summarized in the saying “If you throw enough mud against the wall, some of it is bound to stick.” This approach is exhausting, demoralizing, extremely unproductive, and very expensive in the long term.

Speed of Relaying Customer Information
Marketing now provides another interesting dimension to activity management. Apart from product or service knowledge, salespeople require knowledge about prospects, clients, and market trends. Therefore, if the information those salespeople require isn’t relayed in an efficient manner, their “face-to-face” selling activities are dramatically reduced.

Harder Rather Than Smarter
In the book Emerson’s Essays, there is a section on “Law of Compensation” which can be summarized simply as “give more, get more.” This is what most salespeople try to do, so they end up working harder when they could be working smarter. This begs the question, are your sales activities deciding your strategy or is your strategy deciding your sales activities?

Developing a Consultative Sales Process
From the Sales Director’s perspective, developing a consultative sales process means developing a comprehensive, formal, realistic and step-by-step outline of what salespeople are expected to do. This is just as appropriate for internal and totally reactive sales teams, as it is for external pro-active ones.

This outline includes the activity and calls they must make, the relationships they should establish with prospects, the documentation they should use in sales calls, the issues they must discuss and resolve with prospects and the tangible goals they must achieve in sequence along the path to each sale, in order to achieve maximum effectiveness.

It’s only when such an outline is in place that sales management can be in a position to:

• Monitor the sales force’s activity, progress and results

• Assess issues as they arise and take appropriate action

• Redirect individual sales representatives’ efforts efficiently

Although many organizations appreciate the importance of being customer-focused and talk in vague terms about their “consultative sales process”, surprisingly few sales leaders invest the time and energy required to develop a formal sales process — a process that is at once detailed and resilient enough to guide their salespeople and permit effective management of their efforts.

Overcoming Implementation Inertia
Even when a consultative sales process has been developed, understood by sales managers, written down and circulated, it’s often not enough. No matter how brilliant, a sales process will only be effective to the extent it is followed and used by frontline sales staff. And this is where most organizations fall down: overcoming inertia — among managers and salespeople alike — and implementing the process.

The hurdles that must be cleared, in order to get people throughout the organisation to actually implement it, are enough to cause Sales Directors to tear their hair out!

But a select few, of the very best, have found some innovative strategies that have enabled them to achieve the Holy Grail: Sustained sales growth achieved efficiently, reliably and by design.

News: And finally today, may I point you towards two brand new interviews? Over at Top Sales Management, Steven Rosen and I discuss “Who Coaches the Coach?” and Kelley Robertson is my guest on Top Sales World - “How to Conduct a Professional Face to Face Meeting”

Source: Jonathan Farrington’s Blog

And the number one reason for failure in sales is . . . #salesgravy http://t.co/GJKhsgg2 # Smart Use of Social Media in Selling | Mike Brooks | Sales Gravy Articles – Sales Gravy Articles http://t.co/kYkiVAoe # Sales Success: Your Company’s Growth is Your Responsibility | Steve Young | Sales Gravy Articles -.. http://t.co/TlKXd3mw # (Video) [...]

Source: Jeb Blount| Sales Gravy Blog

I haven’t shared any favorite quotes here in awhile. Today’s selection comes from my file on Mistakes. I hope they inspire and encourage you. And if you want to keep them for future reference, try my  filing system to record them. You miss 100% of the shots you never take. –Wayne Gretzky The fellow who never [...]

Originally posted at: John Maxwell on Leadership
Copyright 2009-2011. All rights reserved.

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From my files: Mistakes

Source: John Maxwell on Leadership

Message just in from Salesforce â€|.

Hi Jonathan,

Congratulations!

You’re a Striker on the European Social Success Dream Team – part of the pretty big Social Success initiative from Salesforce.com

Our team selection panel looked at hundreds of social media-related blogs and yours is one of the top eleven.

Take a look and you’ll see you’re in great company.

The Social Success Dream Team is our way of introducing the world to what we consider the best social media influencers across the globe.

There’s a North American and a European Dream Team, with great thought leaders in each position (sales ‘strikers’, marketing ‘wingers’ etc).

I just wanted to let you know you made the team and to say thanks for adding so much to the public discussion around social media. (Personally, I really love your posts so I’m thrilled you were chosen).

What a really cool idea, and suffice to say, I am extremely flattered. Also really chuffed to be playing up front with Ian Brodie. Have suggested that maybe the two teams could compete for “Social Bowl!”

News: And congratulations to Michael Neray for writing this month’s “Top Sales Article of the Month” You can see all of March’s ten nominations HERE

Source: Jonathan Farrington’s Blog

Like all change and transformations in life, the first step of improvement is awareness.

To improve our EQ (emotional intelligence) we first have to find out if we are being a “jerk at work” without our even knowing it.

Here’s what I suggest you do: perform a 360 Review on yourself.

We all think we know ourselves and how we show up in the world. But our perception of ourselves might be one of our greatest limitations. The effect we have on our environment and those around us could be very different from what we think… or want.

One year, I asked several people in my life how I was “showing up” to them. I was flabbergasted by what they told me. Wow, I had no idea I was “doing that!” I thought I was behaving one way, but I was being perceived completely different than I imagined.

At first I was hurt; then I grew defensive (back in my lower-EQ years). After receiving the same response more than once, I knew I was busted. I then realized why I was having difficulty advancing in certain areas of my life.

This could be happening to you… without you even knowing it. While it might be a scary and possibly painful process, it might also break you through what might be holding you back from your greater potential. That makes it worth it in the end.

Here are a few questions to ask:
How do I show up?
What do I think people judge or believe about me, right or wrong, when they first meet me?
Do I think I really listen to people?
Am I defensive?
Am I empathetic and do I demonstrate that I care?
If there is one thing I could improve to connect better with people, what would it be?

Now, here are a few key tips to this process… CLICK HERE TO READ REST OF POST

Source: Darren Hardy, Publisher of SUCCESS Magazine