You know oneself

"Mindstorming"

Fully 95% of your emotions are determined by the way in which you talk to yourself or what is often called your inner-dialogue. How you talk to yourself will account for most of what you do or don't accomplish in life and how you're liked and perceived by others. Since I'm assuming that by reading this newsletter you're a person who strives to be his or her best, it is of the highest importance that you seek to understand how you can utilize this inner-speech to your advantage.

Most of us tend to spend our days focusing on what we don't want. We experience inevitable problems and/or setbacks and become emotional. We tend to get frustrated, angry and discouraged. Sound like anyone you know?

We must keep in mind, however, it's not really what happens to you that's important, but how you react to what happens to you. Most of us react to a temporary defeat by using our self-talk to ask ourselves negative questions.
And when we ask ourselves negative questions, what type of responses should we expect? Negative ones of course!

Many of us for instance in the profession of sales might ask ourselves, "Why can't I get better leads?" When this question is proposed to our subconscious mind, how is it likely to react? It's likely to give us an answer like, "I don't get better leads because my company doesn't spend enough on quality leads or my manager gives all the good leads to the experienced salespeople who don't even need them."

When you're getting negative answers like these, how might that affect your attitude? Are you likely going to be energized and excited or down and depressed?

I want to share a technique that has transformed the way I look at any problem I encounter and I believe it will for you as well. Its' called the Mindstorming Technique and I learned it years ago. Following are the steps to using the technique:

1) Identify Your Challenge or Difficulty Most of the time 80% of the solution lies in clearly defining the problem.

When you don't really know what's wrong, you can't fix it. Many times you'll find that there are multiple challenges, but there are usually one or two that will stand out. 20% of your problems are causing 80% of your heartache. You may for instance be having arguments with your spouse and you've felt depressed lately, but you realize that those problems stem from the fact that your sales are low and you're having trouble meeting quota.

2) Turn the Problem into a Solution-Oriented Question The quality of your life is mostly dependant upon the quality of the questions you ask yourself. If you want better answers to your problems, ask yourself better questions. All you need to do is insert the word "How" in front of your problem. For instance, the problem of not being able to make quota now becomes..."How do I make quota next month?"

Most people respond to the problem of not making their quota by asking themselves, "Why can't I make quota?" This question will not only elicit blaming and criticizing, but it will take the control over the solution away from you, which is depressing enough on its own. When you turn the problem into a question focused on "How" (solution-oriented) rather than "Why" (excuse-oriented) you immediately start to feel more positive. Don't you? You become energized and you begin to get creative.

3) List the Question at the Top of a Blank Page Simply writing out the question is powerful in and of itself. You begin to retake control over your life and what's happening to you. As the saying goes, "When you're feeling listless, make a list!"

4) Produce Twenty Answers to Your Question Come up with twenty answers or possible solutions to your question. Keep in mind that the first five or ten will most likely only take you a few minutes. The next ten or fifteen will be difficult and probably take you twice as long. The last five answers should take a long time, often taking you much longer to do than all the other fifteen combined. But it's here where you'll often get your best, most inspiring and creative answers.

A good analogy is weight training or exercising in the gym. When do you get the most benefit from doing an exercise with weights or on the cardiovascular equipment? Is it in the first few reps or minutes of your routine? The middle? Or in the last few reps or minutes in your routine? It's in those last few reps or minutes when you don't even know if you can finish, but you stress and strain and get it done. Isn't it? Studies have shown that your mind "muscles" grow in the much the fashion...the stress and strain tears down the current tissue and then rebuilds itself bigger and better.

And once you've got the twenty answers, you can take some of those answers and mindstorm them as well. For instance, if one of your answers to the quota question was..."I can manage my time better." You now take this new challenge and list it at the top of another page as..."How can I manage my time better?"

5) Take an Answer and Immediately Act On It If one of your answers to the quota question was to set more realistic goals, then get on with it! The sooner you take action on the answers that you've uncovered, the more likely you are to carry through with the implementation your solutions. You'll find that you're able to carry the momentum of your enthusiasm from finding your solutions into accomplishing the steps to solve your problem. Remember, "Action will take you out of doubt and doubt will take you out of action!"

6) Work on it Everyday
If you performed this mindstorming exercise everyday, five days a week, you will have 100 solutions to your top difficulties in your life every week. 100 solutions multiplied by 50 weeks in a year is literally 5000 answers to any problems you're facing. Will this affect the way you talk to yourself and view your daily challenges? What if you only did half of that? Over 2000 answers to life's difficulties!

Habits are hard to break...good ones and bad ones. It's harder in the beginning to create good ones, but use this method and you'll start to see only possibilities, not problems!
I am currently holding free sales training workshops in the Denver CO Metro area.
If you are interested in having me visit with your sales team contact me at 615-364-2184
I will hold 2 half day Sales Training Conferences on August 12, 2009 at the Colorado Convention Center. 8:00-12:30 will be for Business to Business and 1:30-6 will be for Professional Selling. For more information about me and my company visit us at http://www.summitgroupint.com

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