Henry James, the American novelist said, “Live all you can, it is a mistake not to.”  It seems most of the regrets of life come at the end when there is little time left to “live large.”  If your life is filled with “should have’s, would have’s, might have’s, and could have’s,” maybe it is time to re-evaluate your current position in life.  The beauty of life is this; everyone can live large!

Where do you start?  How can you start living life to the fullest?  It starts with a simple evaluation.  Where are you now and where do you want to be?  Think of it as a starting line in a race and a finish line.  The further away the finish line, the more planning and patience necessary to reach our dreams, to live life to the fullest!  Unfortunately, we often wake up in the morning with no plan and little awareness of anything other than “getting through the day.”  Is it any wonder that most people are only “breaking even” each day?

Try this tonight, write out two things that will help you reach a dream and begin living large.  Once you have written these two things down, decide the actions you will have to take tomorrow to get closer to the life you want.  An example would be if you wanted to complete your college education.  Two “steps” you might take tomorrow would be to go online, fill out an application for admission and call an academic counselor to discuss options such as night school or weekend programs.  “But Ken, I have kids, a job, and I am a single parent?”  Well, you are just going to have to work a little harder than the average person, but then, you are not average if you have the courage and are responsible enough to handle all these important duties!  The interesting thing is just by taking two action steps it starts a chain reaction.  If you will continue two actions every day, just two, amazing things can happen!

Accomplishing anything in this world is really all about the patience and persistence to take small actions on a regular basis that lead to “large” results!  Getting excited yet?  I often tell my coaching clients life is a “to do” list.  Unfortunately, most people’s “to do” list is filled with “stuff” and not goal related activities that lead to our greatest dreams.  “Stuff” is the things we feel like we have to do.  Finishing reports, returning phone calls, solving crisis situations and meetings are all things we have to do daily, but most do not help us reach our personal goals.  When we add just two things to that list that are focused on reaching dreams, the list suddenly takes on a new life, almost an excitement!

Is the timing not right?  I often hear this.  “When I finish a certain report or when the kids graduate or when I get that promotion, then I’ll focus on my dreams!”  Henry James said, “The right time is any time that one is still so lucky as to have.”  James meant the right time is now when you still have time, when you still have this day, not tomorrow, not next week, next month or next year, right now!  Excuses are things we create to avoid failure.  Some excuses are legitimate in that they are real and exist, but the successful people in life understand this and take action regardless.

Life rewards us in direct proportion to our contributions.  Make no contributions to your dreams and there is no reward.  Your life is a bank account and we have the opportunity every day to make deposits and withdrawals.  Deposits are every positive action we take and withdrawals are “doing nothing,” letting the world pass us by until one day we wake up and wonder, “where did the time go?”  Do not let this be you.  Live to win!

LIVING LARGE!

Henry James, the American novelist said, “Live all you can, it is a mistake not to.” It seems most of the regrets of life come at the end when there is little time left to “live large.” If your life is filled with “should have’s, would have’s, might have’s, and could have’s,” maybe it is time to re-evaluate your current position in life. The beauty of life is this; everyone can live large!

Where do you start? How can you start living life to the fullest? It starts with a simple evaluation. Where are you now and where do you want to be? Think of it as a starting line in a race and a finish line. The further away the finish line, the more planning and patience necessary to reach our dreams, to live life to the fullest! Unfortunately, we often wake up in the morning with no plan and little awareness of anything other than “getting through the day.” Is it any wonder that most people are only “breaking even” each day?

Try this tonight, write out two things that will help you reach a dream and begin living large. Once you have written these two things down, decide the actions you will have to take tomorrow to get closer to the life you want. An example would be if you wanted to complete your college education. Two “steps” you might take tomorrow would be to go online, fill out an application for admission and call an academic counselor to discuss options such as night school or weekend programs. “But Ken, I have kids, a job, and I am a single parent?” Well, you are just going to have to work a little harder than the average person, but then, you are not average if you have the courage and are responsible enough to handle all these important duties! The interesting thing is just by taking two action steps it starts a chain reaction. If you will continue two actions every day, just two, amazing things can happen!

Accomplishing anything in this world is really all about the patience and persistence to take small actions on a regular basis that lead to “large” results! Getting excited yet? I often tell my coaching clients life is a “to do” list. Unfortunately, most people’s “to do” list is filled with “stuff” and not goal related activities that lead to our greatest dreams. “Stuff” is the things we feel like we have to do. Finishing reports, returning phone calls, solving crisis situations and meetings are all things we have to do daily, but most do not help us reach our personal goals. When we add just two things to that list that are focused on reaching dreams, the list suddenly takes on a new life, almost an excitement!

Is the timing not right? I often hear this. “When I finish a certain report or when the kids graduate or when I get that promotion, then I’ll focus on my dreams!” Henry James said, “The right time is any time that one is still so lucky as to have.” James meant the right time is now when you still have time, when you still have this day, not tomorrow, not next week, next month or next year, right now! Excuses are things we create to avoid failure. Some excuses are legitimate in that they are real and exist, but the successful people in life understand this and take action regardless.

Life rewards us in direct proportion to our contributions. Make no contributions to your dreams and there is no reward. Your life is a bank account and we have the opportunity every day to make deposits and withdrawals. Deposits are every positive action we take and withdrawals are “doing nothing,” letting the world pass us by until one day we wake up and wonder, “where did the time go?” Do not let this be you. Live to win!

This is a little different blog post for me. I just got back from presenting at General Motors South Central PIE Show. For those of you not in the automobile business this is a program for dealerships who are involved in selling to small and medium size businesses. These are a great bunch of men and women who base their entire career on building relationships. For you “non automobile” readers this sounds too good to be true! Trust me, this is the truly great side of the auto industry. I have friends at both GM and Chrysler and I can truly say from the manufacturer to the dealership level, this side of the business is all about helping others be successful.
My two presentations were on “Prospecting in a Tough Market.” The concepts I taught would apply to any sales industry. It occurred to me that this would be a great topic for today’s blog post! So here we go!
1. Cold call prospecting is the least efficient way to get appointments and see the decision maker. Out of 20 cold calls on small businesses you will be lucky to see one decision maker!
2. Do your research and do your initial prospecting to warm or referral prospects over the telephone. You can make 20 telephone calls in a morning and have 4 to 8 appointment calls lined up for the week in just one morning!
3. Script everything you do from telephone prospecting to face to face meetings! Your words should be confident and sincere. Practice, practice, practice until you are perfect and totally confident!
4. Add value on every call. We teach the commercial sales consultants to offer to network with prospects and help them grow their business. The small business owner is always appreciative and is willing to talk!
5. Plan on getting a face to face meetings at least five times before you expect them to give you an opportunity. Most sales professionals give up after the first or second call. No wonder that less than 20% of sales professionals are making 80% of the sales! They are “politely persistent!”
6. Be creative in your actions, words, and the value you give. Never stop thinking of new ways to impact the prospect in a positive way. Not only stand out from the crowd, stand above the crowd!
7. Stay positive! Look at every sales call as a chance to help someone and you will do great!
I want to thank everyone who came to my program! We had a full house in both sessions and I appreciate the many kind comments from the group. These are the greatest group of sales professionals on the planet! Ron McCollister, thanks for taking action right away. Ron wrote me today and has already started to implement ideas! Ron is with Chevyland in Texas and has been in commercial for three months. I predict he will be a star!
Guys, live to win!

Life can be interpreted in so many ways.  We often blame circumstances for our place in life rather than looking at the one thing we can control no matter the circumstances.  This one thing is both elusive and obvious at the same time, yet most of the world struggles to understand it. To get a better idea of what the “one thing” is we need to use a comparison.

One of my coaching clients and new friend, Michael Curmi relates this one thing to a song by the Eagles.  In the song, “The Hotel California” there is a particular lyric that goes “You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.” Michael’s interpretation of this song is people check out of life when they stop having a passion for life and put their lives on “automatic pilot.”  They have “checked out” but still function waiting for the next event or the next day.  The unfortunate thing and also the wonderful hope is we can check back in!

What is “the one thing?”  Victor Frankl the famed psychiatrist put it best in his book, “Man’s Search for Meaning.” Frankl was a prisoner in the Nazi concentration camps of World War II. He had been separated from his family with little hope of ever seeing them again.  The conditions brought him near death and he saw those around him marched to the gas chambers. His driving force was “the one thing.” In Frankl’s situation he had a burning desire to do two things, be reunited with his family and to disprove a theory by the founder of modern psychology, Sigmund Freud. Freud theorized that if you strip away every thing that makes us human, our identity, family, our hope, we will revert to an animalistic state.  Frankl refused to believe this theory.  He believed that there was a power within each person to want to help and make a difference and he saw it throughout the camps.  The most powerful statement in the book was “When everything is taken away from us, the one thing we can control is our attitude in any given circumstance.”

What is the “the one thing?” It is your ability to choose how you will react to the failures and difficulties in life.  You can blame them on others, on luck, or destiny but in truth it really does not matter.  You can control the outcome by never “checking out.” We are all a part of this life, a part or our company, our family but we can only reach the heights of success by believing in our ability to contribute, to make a difference.  If you were passed over for a promotion, demoted, divorced or faced uncontrollable circumstances you still had the ability to believe in your own future and to be the architect of your own life.

Michael thanks for the wake up call!  Welcome to the Hotel California but in real life you can check back in and live the life you dream, the life you deserve.  You are the master of your fate through taking responsibility for your life and working to be the best!