If You Don't Stand For Something... (Part 2)

Are you listening?


I'm going to give you a couple of quick exercises, that you will want to participate in. This will greatly enhance your listening skills and therefore allow you to connect better with everyone around you.

Photo by Declan McCullagh

This is part 2 - To read part 1 please CLICK HERE

Now, at the risk of sounding like a cliche, your listening skills can greatly enhance your success. Not just your financial success but the success of your relationships, your career and even your love life.

The basic premise is that people don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care. This principle goes beyond borders, gender, race and religion. So, I ask you... are you in it for you? Or, are you truly interested in listening to the other person?

Listening is not just hearing. True listening is understanding their circumstances. Being there with them in the present as they describe the situation they are in. You want to listen to them.

Hearing someone is the mere act of taking in the words but not connecting to what the other person is saying because you are too busy thinking about what you are going to say next.

So, the next time you find yourself in a situation where you are trying to sell someone on your idea, your concept, your belief or your merchandise be sure that you are connecting with them by listening to them. Completely indulge your senses into listening to that person. Stay with them. Stay in the moment. Remain steadfast. Let your mind concentrate on their words and you will succeed.

Exercises:

The following exercise will help you increase your auditory senses. Repeating this exercise on a daily basis (especially right before you know you are going to be in a "selling" situation) will greatly enhance your interactions with other people.

1. Open the comment section of this post and type all of the sounds that you can hear around you right now. Mute the TV if it is on. Be still. Concentrate, and really listen to each sound around you. Take a deep breath, hold it and exhale slowly, right now. This will give your blood cells a surge of oxygen and enhance all of your senses. I know you are probably thinking, I don't have time for this right now, I'll come back later, but I challenge you to stay with it because that's the whole point! It will only take a minute or two and you will feel extremely focused after you are done with this exercise and ready to take on whatever task you face.

Once you have completed the previous exercise, you are now ready to see your new listening skills in action.

2. Using the same technique that you used during exercise number one, the next time you find yourself in a conversation, stop talking, and start listening. Listen as intently as you did during exercise number one. But this time, focus directly on their voice. Listen to every word they are saying. Try to "get" them. To fully understand them. Mentally keep track of how different this feels when you truly connect with that other person. Suddenly you see yourself connecting with outher people on a deeper, more fullfiling way than you ever have before.

I challenge you to share this post with your significant other, your children and other friends and loved ones whom you would like to have a closer relationship with. I look forward to reading your comments.

If You Don't Stand For Something... (Part 1)

You will fall for anything!

What do you stand for?

Did you know that everyone you know, including yourself, is a salesperson?

What?

It's true! Sales is just a transference of belief. Quite literally, whomever is most "convicted" about what they believe, or what they stand for, will end up "selling" the other person on their beliefs. You want to keep reading and subscribe to my blog.

Now, when I say beliefs... most of us conjure up ideas of religious beliefs or possibly political beliefs (the two most taboo subjects when trying to stay neutral at a dinner party).

However, whenever I tell people that everyone is a salesperson, most people say, NO WAY! I'm no salesperson. I hate sales.

And then I respond, have you ever been in a relationship? To which most people respond...Yes!

Who sold who? More than likely it was a joint effort of each you selling each other, but your significant other obviously "bought" what you were selling. Right?

So again, I go back to - All sales is, is a transference of beliefs. Whomever is more committed to the outcome, willing to take a stand... That person is doing the selling, and the other person is doing the buying!

Now, no one ever wants to be SOLD anything. We all hate be SOLD something, and yet, we all love to BUY things. So, think about that the next time you find yourself in a situation where you are wanting to get your opinion your, your idea, your merchandise sold. Turn it into a "buying" situation for the other person. Not only will they end up buying what your selling...

They will thank you for it.

More tips on how to make this happen to follow... stay tuned by subscribing!

If You Don't Stand For Something... (Part 2)

The Power to Control Your Own Environment

Do you believe that you can control your own environment?

To an extent, I imagine, is what most people would answer. To what extent is what I would like to ramble about today:

As I stood at the kitchen sink looking out the window at the freshly cut lawn, the live oak tree originally planted by the builder and the dutch elm tree my wife and I planted representing our 5 year marriage (May 10), it occurred to me that we as humans have been granted the ability, by God, to "customize" our own environments.

Similar to how we can each customize our own blogs here at Blogger.com, we can decide whether or not we want to fertilize our lawn so that is springs forth with vibrant life or sits there lifeless and lacking in color and development. However, no matter how much we individualize our environments, or our blogs, they are still blogs. We still have a certain set of rules to live by in order to maintain the integrity of the blogosphere. Conversely, we have the ability to change our environments to whatever we want, but God remains in control of our destiny.

To what degree can we change our environment? I would have to say that the degree with which we can change our environment is only limited to the creativity of our own minds and our own desire to change our environment. For example, if the grass in the backyard starts to get too long, I can either get the mower out and change the situation (or pay someone to do it) or I can ignore the issue and watch the grass grow wildly long and out of control so that it overtakes the flower mound around the live oak tree and anything else that gets in it's path (it's Bermuda).

The same principle holds true for other areas of our environment besides just the physical appearance of our surroundings. We have the ability to change our health, our finances, our relationships and our spiritual walk with God.

Do you fear change? Do you fear the unknown? Is there something in your life that you need to change but have been putting it off for far too long? Is it something as simple as picking up the phone and telling someone you forgive them? Could it be that getting the mower out and mowing down some of those decisions that you have been putting off could make your life's lawn look much more appealing? Well, then I say to you... decide right now, to take action do one thing, right now, that will enhance your experience here on earth. I challenge you to take that step, walk away from the computer and take care of that item, right now, and then, come back here and post a comment on what you did to change your life for the better!

But, before you go... bookmark this page so that you can make it back here when you have completed your action and comment about it! Be sure to pass this post along to your friends so that we can all encourage each other in changing our environments for the better. You also have my permission to link back to this post.

I look forward to seeing what you have done. I too will be posting comments on my own decisions. Now, let's get started!