Étiquette : Personal growth

  • The power of emotions

    https://unsplash.com/linalitvina
    https://unsplash.com/linalitvina

    Day 645. Why is storytelling so powerful? Because of emotions. There’s no other way to get decisions fast without emotions. In business, emotions have been banished for a long time. Business decisions are said to be made on hard and cold facts. While it’s somehow true, we all know we can tell any story on any number. Look at who politicians are telling different stories on the same numbers depending they are part of the ruling party or of opposition.

    For most people it’s the story that matters. Not the story itself, but the story and the storytelling. How you tell the story is crucial because you will derive emotions from it and emotions will drive decisions. Emotions play on specific part of the brain, generate specific neurotransmitters and influence decision. If emotions were outside of any decision process, marketing would not exist. That’s marketing that drives a part of the sales, the projection you make in your mind, the story it helps you tell yourself. Emotions and stories are intertwined. This is the power or stories, and the power of emotions.

    When a startup founder pitches to a VC, it’s a well-known fact that the story matters more that the numbers that are merely « hope-casting ». When a salesperson pitches to a customer, the story matters about why and how the customer will benefit from the usage of the services or product sold. Remember the last time you got a raise, a promotion or made a successful sales. How did you feel? Good? You thought you were the king of the world? Next time, paint that picture to your customer. People do not purchase services or goods for their benefits, but for the experience they will have, for the emotions they will feel. This is how powerful emotions are. Hundreds of thousands of years of evolution have cables any human being like this. Find your customer’s motivation and the sale is made. Selling with emotions is the most powerful sales technique, less taught though!

    Laugh, cry, or rant, emotions are the fuel of any human being!

  • Passé, présent et futur, comment faire la paix avec vos questions

    https://unsplash.com/joshuaearle
    https://unsplash.com/joshuaearle

    Jour 644. J’ai déjà écrit sur ma philosophie de vie : le passé n’existe plus, le future n’existe pas encore, seul le présent compte. Inutile de regretter le passé, inutile de se faire des soucis pour votre futur, seul ce que vous faites maintenant a de l’importance. Voici quatre moyens de faire la paix avec toutes les questions qui vous assaillent au quotidien.

    1. Vous avez des regrets à propos de ce que vous avez fait dans le passé et aimeriez avoir fait différemment, demandez-vous comment le faire maintenant et faites-le ! Impossible ? Alors, arrêtez de regretter, vous ne pouvez pas changer le passé. Décidez que ce dernier n’a pas à pourrir votre présent. Plus facile à dire qu’à faire ? Faites-vous aider ! Trouvez le bon thérapeute et nettoyez vos écuries d’Augias.
    2. Vous avez des angoisses à propos de votre futur. Couchez-les sur le papier, demandez-vous ce que vous devez faire pour les faire taire. Pas simple ? Non, si c’était simple, il n’y aurait pas de philosophes, de psychothérapeutes et autres psychiatres pour nous aider. Mais, il n’y a aucun autre moyen que d’agir pour réduire ces angoisses à néant.
    3. Vous n’êtes pas satisfait de votre vie actuelle. Prenez une feuille de papier, séparez-la en deux colonnes, à gauche listez tout ce dont vous êtes fier et qui vous rend heureux, à droite, listez tout ce que vous souhaiteriez changer car cela vous rend malheureux. Une fois les deux listes faites, relisez tous les matins pendant 30 jours la liste de gauche. Triez celle de droite en commençant par l’item le plus important pour vous et ainsi de suite jusqu’à l’item le moins important, puis faites un plan pour résoudre chacun d’entre eux et agissez, un élément à la fois.
    4. Remerciez pour ce que vous avez, ce que vous êtes, tous les jours. Regardez le ciel, un arbre, la personne qui vous est la plus chère et remerciez l’univers, Dieu ou vous-même. La gratitude est un sentiment trop oublié, mais tellement puissant. Tous ces petits mercis s’accumulent et deviennent une puissante force du bonheur.

    Dans tous les cas, quelle que soit votre situation, vos doutes et vos regrets, une seule chose compte : ce que vous en faites ! Pensée sans action n’est que champs de ruine. C’est l’action qui rend heureux et qui permet de taire la petite voix salope qui cherche à miner vos efforts. Faites-la taire en agissant ! Rappelez-vous, seul le présent est réel, le passé et le futur ne sont que des constructions mentales. Et c’est vous qui contrôlez vos pensées.

  • Stop the BS, ask about the real story, and walk the high wire!

    https://unsplash.com/arnelhasanovic
    https://unsplash.com/arnelhasanovic

    Day 643. Ìn her book Rising Strong, Brené Brown writes about the stories we tell ourselves when we experience any relationship. See somebody smile at you, you imagine why. Hear somebody rant to you, you imagine why. In most cases, the story you tell yourself, consciously or not, is wrong. This leads to misunderstanding, resentment and potential fights. This ends generally bad, because we pile up those stories in our bad stories bucket until it fills up and overflows. This is the ultimate fight, the divorce or the bad ending of a relationship.

    You should never, ever imagine the bad in a relationship. We all know we become what we think. Imagine the bad and you’ll get the bad. Too easy? Cliché? Yes, may be, but look around you, be honest and you’ll see many evidences. When you feel bad, hear bad or see bad, ask about the real story behind. Tell you’ve been hurt, not by what was said or done, but by why you imagine it was said or done. This simple action will start the rumbling process Brené Brown talks about. This puts our vulnerabilities on a plate. However, there’s no other way to be true to ourselves and to ensure there’s no hidden message in the relationship.

    It seems more difficult to start the process that to let it go. However, in the long term, we all know it’s better to prevent than to cure. It costs less time, energy and emotions. Sorting the problems sooner than later, asking the whys early and exposing our doubts immediately all lead to a better fulfilled relationship and an expansion of it. One of the twelves labours of Hercules was to clean the Augean stables in one day, this is a metaphor to clean up the mess we have accumulated in our lives. When do you start?

  • Discipline, routine and failure, the 3 main themes of success

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    https://unsplash.com/ugmonk

    Day 637. When you are interested in getting better every day and finding creative ways to reach success, you read, try and try again. Whatever book is released these days, from either the gurus of self-development or psychologists and entrepreneurs, three themes are finding their ways as the main three you cannot escape from, beyond being passionate by what you do, which is an underlying theme. Passion precedes the rest, but without the rest, those three themes, passion consumes without producing anything.

    • Discipline. If you want to become a better writer, write, even when you do not feel writing. If you want to become a better parent, spend more time with your kids, even when you do not feel it. If you want to become a better salesperson, call more customer, event when you think you’ve had enough. The discipline to put the right effort helps create mastery. Refer back to the 10,000-hour paradigm describes in Outliers. You may not spend 10,000 hours on something and become a master, but may spend 5,000 and become part of 1% that did it, the elite!
    • Routine. Establish your routine. That is do the same three or four things every morning or evening to put you on the good track. Routine is the ally of discipline. If you want a healthier life, workout for 20 minutes everyday. Break that sweat! Indulge after with a coffee and a good book, then do a 10 minute meditation. Find your own routine. You may want to be part of the Robin Sharma 5-AM club, or find your own. The important piece is that your routine will compound over time and make you a better person.
    • Failure. You cannot learn how to ride a bike by reading a book. You need to go and fall. You will fall many times before being able to ride the bike confidently. The same goes with everything else in life. What you start, you may fail. See failure, not as failure but as a learning experience. The more you fail, the more you learn. If you include your learnings into your routine and your discipline, you’ll succeed. Remember to celebrate your success event small ones, that shot of dopamine will help you reinforce your success mind!

    The one thing you have to do is to act. Start today. Only today exists, tomorrow has not yet been invented and yesterday is gone. Start small, dream big. As the old saying goes, Rome was not build in a day. But all it took is laying the first boulder, then the second, the third, etc. Ready?

  • The world does not stop at your door… Go out!

    https://unsplash.com/viktor_m
    https://unsplash.com/viktor_m

    Day 635. The world is big and diverse. Imagine we now know there’s water on Mars! And we would ignore our neighbors, our customers and even our friends have different interests in life than ours. When you are making money selling a certain type of products or services, you may not imagine others are making money selling other products and services. You may not realize there are millions of opportunities waiting to be seized. But we tend to be blind and deaf to those opportunities, busy we are.

    There’s no scarcity on the planet. Despite huge debt value, despite wars, despite pessimists, opportunities are everywhere, fortune are made every day and people are constantly growing. Every day, you can open your door, physically, walk around your home or your office and watch. Then come back to your desk and note down every idea you had. Do this for the next 30 days. You will come with hundred ideas of new businesses or opportunities to deliver valuable service. There should one or two that will excite you. Wealth of experience is everywhere, just for you to grab. What are you waiting for?