That Special Place

Posted on March 17, 2011 by

I want to talk with you today about a subject so vast it is impossible to cover the topic comprehensively in one short paper. It is so important, yet so overlooked it is tragic. If people can grasp this single concept and begin applying it to their lives the fog of miscomprehension we so often live under will begin to clear.

I must tell you what triggered this desire to share this with you. A short time ago I mentioned I was beginning a book outlining the pivotal moments in my life where life gave me a lession, sometimes good, often less pleasing.

Strolling down memory lane, or struggling with my past demons, if you prefer, I looked deeply into my infant past in terms of my level of awareness. This led me to again re-examine early beliefs I held to be true and reaffirm them. To give you a clue I was examining my life in terms of my awareness of myself, my environment and other people and events. I again discovered what I have held to be true, but I am so used to applying this concept now I don’t often think about it.

Let us begin with a question. Is there a place, deep within you that ism uniquely yours? It houses your hopes, your dreams, memories, emotions, fears and doubts. In fact your memories, values and judgements, good and bad. It is where YOU live. This space is what makes you unique. There is no other place on the planet that is quite like it. It is the essence of YOU.

I call that your universe, and you are the centre of it. Everything exterior to you exists independent of you.

Think back to when you were a child. What were you aware of. In the first instance it was the warmth of Mother, a warm bottle, the softness of bedclothes and the like. As you grew your shpere of awareness grew and Daddy, and siblings, the family cat, the carpet in your bedroom all became real and you began to make sense of your limited environment.

As you continued to grow the physical universe bombarded you with data, often to the point where you were overwhelmed and sometimes became upset and withdrew into your own little world inside – your universe.

Here you felt safe, but didn’t quite know why. Each of us has this place. It is the centre of your awareness, where you view all sorts of things. It is where your, I suppose you could say, centre of your personal power resides. Nothing you achieve in this life occurs without you first creating it here, in your universe.

Have you ever had a hope, or ambition that you really wanted? You dreamed of someday being, or doing or having some aspect of life and it turned out other than what you wanted?

You must ask yourself why. If you have the courage to really look at the reasons why you failed to achieve what you wanted you will find it was because of something you either didn’t do, or stopped doing or something you did that was not in line with the direction you wanted to go.

Most people find plenty of ‘reasons why’ when they fail. Interestingly enough almost all the reasons are factors external to
themselves. “conditions were not right” no one gave me a chance” “it’s too hard” “I had bad luck.” and on it goes.

I’ll tell you a secret. If you want something to occur you must FIRST create it in your own universe. I’m not talking about “The Secret” or anything other than the fact that for anything to manifest itself in the physical universe it must first exist in your personal universe.

Let me give you a good example. We have all heard of people who win lotteries or some such. The vast majority lose the money in record time and find themselves exactly where they were before the win. Why is that?

It appears we all have an inner picture of the level of living we feel comfortable with. In my upcoming e-book “Living by giving” I talk about a lesson life presented to me. It says we only have what we think we deserve. Let me say that again.
WE ONLY HAVE WHAT WE THINK WE DESERVE!

It looks like we set the level in our universe by deciding how worthy we are. This comes from the sum of our experiences and our opinion of how we handled the various circumstances. In other words we make a judgement on our worth and this regulates the level at which we live.

Whilst our personal universe can be a wonderful refuge from the outside world and a source of joy and pleasure, it can also be a prison. It could be said a man is the prisoner of his own considerations.

How do we change our considerations and so set ourselves free? That’s a subject for another post. Enough for now.

Live well,

Ollie Lind

Posted in How Can I | 4 Comments

What do you think?

Posted on March 3, 2011 by

Over the last couple of months the site has received over 8000 positive comments. This leads me to believe that there are many people out there who find value in what I write.

You may have noticed I don’t post very often. I apologise for that, but I have other activities that take a great deal of my time. I must say all my activities give me great satisfaction and hapiness in my life. I normally share my perspectives with you.

I will continue to do this and more frequently. Recently I have experienced a number of disappointments. Rather than be deterred by these I used them to learn and have arrived, I think, at the biggest single cause of happiness. I believe I have hit on the viewpoint that will ensure happpiness.

That sounds like a pretty absurd and idealistic; indeed, unrealistic expectation. Well, think about this, when are you the happiest? Can you isolate exactly what it is, the X factor, that brings you happiness in your life?

I’ll tell you what I am going to do. I will create an e-book outlining exactly what it is you have to do to create happiness in yours and other’s lives. It will be a summary of my basic beliefs and I will include details of the journey I have taken to arrive where I am at today.

I will be completely honest with you. I am not what you would call financially successful. But I have a very satisfying and happy life. I have sufficient for my needs. I will charge a nominal fee for the e-book as I have expenses in running my websites. My other site is ollielind.com It is a poetry site where I share my experiences and perspectives in the form of poetry. I realise that poetry is not for everyone, and I feel that is a shame.

Let me give you a clue as to the “secret of happiness” so to speak. It is an attitude that comes from a belief and, when put into action has an almost magical effect on your life. Have you ever heard of serendipity? That is a manifestation of the magic.

You can create magic and I will show you how.

What do you think?

Live well,

Ollie Lind

Posted in Blog | 29 Comments

Choices

Posted on February 21, 2011 by

I have been going through the flood of comments from you recently. After deleting the obvious spam there is still a consistent stream of positive comments. – Thank you.

So many of you ask me to post another piece soon. I’m happy to do that for you. The problem I have is making a choice from the myriad of subjects that exist concern life and living. So, whenever you want to know something you must ask questions.

Questions are the key to knowing. So, let me ask you a question. Are you completely happy with your life as it is?

If not, why not?

Please consider this. Your life as it is currently is a result of the choices you made in the past. Your life in the future will be the result of the choices you make today.

Why do we make the choices we do? Do you have a logical and analytical way of weighing your options before deciding what to do? Or do you rely on emotion or “gut feel?” Are either of the strategies mentioned above the correct one?

Let me make you an offer. You are reading the posts on this site because something about them appeals to you.

Well, make a choice. If there is an area of life you want to know more about in order to make more correct choices, then send a comment and ask a question.

I will write a post on any subject you want, but it must come from you.
Why?
The greatest service anyone can give others is to give them what they need and want. I wont know what you want until you tell me.

Think about it.

Ollie Lind

Posted in Blog | 16 Comments

How can I cope with change?

Posted on November 27, 2009 by

shocked client imageWe have all had to face change in our lives. From the earliest time it seems that change has been an integral part of life and living. Yet how often do we yearn for stability?

Everyone needs a measure of stability and predictability in their lives. It almost seems that we go through a never ending cycle of being confronted by change and the resultant disorder and confusion that comes with it, working like mad to make sense of it and restore some measure of order and predictability and then enjoying a brief respite before the whole thing starts again.

Sounds a little silly, doesn’t it? Yet, just imagine a situation where you knew exactly what was going to happen each and every minute of the day. There were no surprises, no problems to ponder and resolve, no challenges to overcome and nothing new to experience and learn. How would you like that constantly in your life? How would you feel?

BORED

Time would drag on interminably and you would become restless. Just think of the many time we have read of second generation rich kids who are given everything from a very early age and never have to struggle for anything.

How many of them ‘go off the rails’ so to speak. They turn to drink, drugs or even criminality. Why? Because they have no direction. There is nothing to achieve and so have no goals or aspirations. It seems that we humans have a need for direction and focus.

This implies that the current state of affairs is not necessarily ideal and that we must pursue some change in order to grow, develop and evolve.

Here’s a question for you. How do we measure the passage of time? By the amount of change that has occurred. If nothing is happening then time seems to drag. If we are busy doing things then time seems to fly.

Whether we like it or not, it appears that change is an essential ingredient for a full and happy life. In fact, it can be said that change is the only real constant there is in life. I have often said that you cannot master anything you do not understand and you cannot understand anything you are unable to learn.

What is the first step in learning? We must question, we must define and then evaluate the subject. Then we are engaged on the learning philosophy and so gain understanding.

Question 1: What is change?
Answer: Any alteration in time, place or circumstance.

Question 2: What is the best way to analyse change?
Answer: By compartmenting it into the various areas of life. For example:

  • Personal
  • Family
  • Work
  • Social
  • Society
  • World

It can be further compartmentalised into:

  • Physical
  • Emotional
  • Spiritual

Question 3: What is the best way to decide on the impact of change?
Answer:

  • Tolerable
  • Overwhelming

Question 4: What is the best way to decide on the nature of change?
Answer:

  • Positive
  • Negative

It seems obvious that, unless you are a hermit and live in a cave on a mountainside you will experience change. That being the case we need to know how to cope with and manage change so that we may benefit and that others may benefit by our actions in response to change. When you stop and think about it, isn’t that the way society and civilisation is supposed to operate?

Let’s go a little further. Everyone needs some sort of focus in their lives. You could call it a goal or purpose; or, more accurately, a goal and a purpose. Now, any goal is a desired state, or circumstance or achievement. That presupposes that you are not “there” yet in terms of reaching that goal. The purpose is the reason why.

Therefore we all must undertake some sort of journey to reach the desired outcome. That then means a change of some sort from our existing circumstances. So, it would be fair to say we all have a journey we undertake as we go through life. It is a necessary function of living.

So, change is an essential part of life. It is through change that we grow and develop. Therefore we could describe our life as:

  • We start out
  • We experience change
  • We learn
  • We continue in an altered state towards our destination.

If we perceive our experience as negative we may, if we decide, end up further from where we wish to be than before. That is, we go backwards, we lose confidence and therefore are able to do less. Have you ever given up doing something because you lost confidence? It’s a terrible feeling.

The question is, how do you overcome negative change that threatens to derail your life in some fashion?

Firstly recognise that failure is an event. It is not you, but an experience.

Any experience is an opportunity to learn. How do you learn?

You question.

What questions do you ask?

  • What happened?
  • What did I want to happen?
  • What can I do to accept that what has happened has happened?
  • What can I do to change the situation for the better?
  • Where do I start?
  • Who can I get to help?
  • What did I learn from the situation?
  • What can I do to make sure I have a positive outcome next time?

Embracing change requires you to adopt a particular set of viewpoints.

  • Whilst I may not be able to influence what has happened, I am responsible for my reaction to it.
  • If I do not embrace change and do not change and adapt, I will become obsolete.

It has often been said that only the strong survive. In fact, it is those most adaptive to change who persist and win. The dinosaur was amongst the largest and strongest animals on the planet. Where are they now? They couldn’t adapt to climate change and perished. Yet ants have survived since the dawn of time. Why? They adapted.

In a less dramatic way, we must also adapt to whatever changes life throws at us, and continue our journey. If you look at it, we make many journeys in our lives, both personal and professional.

In sales, for example, the methods of selling have evolved and changed over the years. It used to be that a salesperson had to present, present, present and virtually bludgeon the customer into buying.

Not so today. Today we see the emergence of ‘consultative’ or ‘relationship’ selling. It is almost the opposite to present, present, present. Consultative selling recognises that customers are better informed and cannot simply be bullied or bamboozled into buying something. You have to explore what is important to the customer to establish their needs and wants and then try to match our product to those needs and wants.

There is finally a recognition that you cannot make up a person’s mind for them with any permanency and that the way to ongoing success relies on establishing and fostering relationships. A big change from the past sales thinking.

A great example of a sales organisation not adapting to change was a retail chain called Waltons. They had a large team of travelling sales people who would call on homes and present ‘specials’ to the housewives. They would also collect the account payments.

The stores themselves only accounted for about 40% of the revenue. Over the years more and more women went to work and sales decreased due to this social change. Waltons poured more and more time and effort into the travelling sales force and didn’t realise until too late that they had been made redundant by social change that they had not adapted to.

On a personal level you must recognise that your environment is continually changing on every level. Just look at the internet and the phenomenal growth of recent years.

As a sales professional, or in any occupation, you must continually upgrade your skill, knowledge and ability if you want to keep up, must less progress in your life.

You must be prepared to experience change willingly, be prepared to change what you do and continually learn to be successful in life and living. No longer is change simply a sequence of events. It is almost an avalanche as the rate of change increases almost daily.

Be flexible, be willing to learn and experiment. Above all, be willing to experience.

Life is, today, a journey to be experienced, to reset your journey in the light of changed circumstances and to press on to success. Your success will be determined by your willingness to be flexible and determined.

If you look at it, no change is negative. Certainly you will experience losses in life. It is inevitable. But no great achievement has ever been attained without challenges and losses. I don’t subscribe to the word loss.

Whenever life kicks me in the teeth I pick myself up and try to recognise the opportunity to learn that has just presented itself to me. Every experience, positive or negative is an opportunity to learn, to grow and progress. Successful living is about making progress towards your goals.

It is interesting to note that the best way you can achieve your goals is to help someone else achieve theirs. As you give, so shall you receive. That sounds almost like a religious sermon. It isn’t, it’s just an observable fact of life and living.

You expand your sphere of influence to the extent you assist others. You win respect, admiration and you will evolve into a leader.

Embrace change, you may even grow to like it. You will certainly grow and develop as a person as you do.

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 41 Comments

Why bother?

Posted on October 18, 2009 by

thinking

You’re a competent sales consultant, right?

Given current economic circumstances, your results aren’t too bad, right?

Why bother to put a lot of time and effort into self improvement?

If you believe the pundits, the road to wealth is investment.

If you look at it from the perspective of investing in assets to increase your wealth it starts to look a little different.

Other than a house and a car, the only asset anyone has to produce income is their skills, knowledge and ability that they can offer to someone in return for income.

It is common knowledge that the better the asset the more people will pay for it. It is no different when you consider your skills, knowledge and ability. These are the assets you posses, so the higher the level of your skills, knowledge and abilities the higher price you can receive.

Value is relative. That is value can only be measured when you compare it with something. For example, in the case of a sales consultant their value is measured in terms of the finite results they produce. That is compared to the expected outcomes agreed upon, your KPIs.

Take a moment and reflect on how frequently you exceed your KPIs. Do you consistently exceed them? Or have they become the ceiling of your results?

I do not believe there is an individual on the planet who cannot improve in some aspect of their life. I’d be very interested to meet such a person.

If I am correct then it is logical to assume that each and every sales consultant in the company is capable of significant improvement in performance.

That is not to say that our consultants are not trying, or coasting, not at all.

Recently we had a discussion on expectations and how limiting, or liberating they can be.

Let’s go one step further and look at how you can invest in ourselves to produce a better you.

Think back to the time when mobile telephones were built like bricks. All you could do was either take or make a single call. Look at them today. The range of applications is mind boggling.

It is said the shelf life of a new computer model is about three months before an improved model is on the market. The rate of change in life is constantly accelerating and we need to be growing and expanding just to keep up.

So, investment in your skills, knowledge and abilities is vital if you are to realize your potential and live the successful life you want.

How do you do it?

Let’s look at it from the perspective of your professional life, although the same principles apply to your personal universe.

The very best professionals in any activity have a very thorough grasp of the basics of the activity and they continually revise the basics as well as look for the latest developments in their craft.

I recently sent an email to all consultants offering three e-books on selling skills. I am not surprised at the identity of those who responded.

It is no coincidence that those who responded are already producing good results, in spite of the difficult economic times we are facing.

This ties in completely in the level of expectation we have. If your attitude is, “near enough is good enough” then you have already lost the battle. I cannot emphasize enough that your expectations are what you create for your future. It is rare to exceed what you expect.

Even when you exceed your expectations, how strong is the urge to downplay the results and assign the cause to something other than yourself? “I was just lucky,” “Good fortune,” “It just fell into place.” All these statements go to undermine your strength as they deny the fact that any success is usually the result of YOUR effort, creativity, determination and courage.

Accept credit for what you can, and have achieved. Recognise however, that by tomorrow, today’s success will be history. Continuous effort, creation and action are the only paths to continuing success. To be able to do more you must know more and you can’t know more unless you take every opportunity to learn and develop.

It is human nature to want stability and predictability in our lives. But doing the same old things each and every day will never stretch you and bring about development. It is only when you step into the unknown, open your mind to new experiences, knowledge and viewpoints that you develop.

Unless each week, each day, each moment is a journey to continuous improvement, you will fall behind. It is far easier to be in front of the game than forever trying to catch up.

So, how do you start on the road to continuous improvement? You look at the successful people around you. Ask them what they do and how they do it.

It is a fact that if a successful person does something and you do the same thing, you will be successful. You may not do quite as well as the successful person, but that is only because you haven’t yet got the experience of doing the successful action.

You read books, listen to cds, read industry journals, you listen to your peers. It doesn’t mean that everything you read and hear will necessarily be beneficial, or applicable to your particular circumstance. But constant exposure to new information, viewpoints and experiences will have a cumulative effect and you will become far more professional in every way if you seek to learn.

We are unique individuals, and will put our own spin on whatever we try to do. That will produce a variation in the result and you must be prepared to do something new quite badly at first.

With practice, you will improve and, if you persist, learning from every mistake, you will master any skill, knowledge or ability.

  • Ask questions.
  • Read books.
  • Observe successful people.
  • Be prepared to try.
  • Persist and you will succeed.
Posted in Blog, Tips | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 42 Comments