Archive For: Personal Development

How Good Are You?

Nervous Wreck

Successful people often operate under a cover of feeling “not good enough”. 

Many corporate leaders (particularly women) are expecting a knock on the door and their leaders to come in saying, “we know all about you. Who do you think you are to be holding this position?”

Not surprisingly, this never happens. In fact, it is usually the opposite. They usually achieve more and receive praise from their peers and superiors.

STILL they doubt themselves.

The reason they are successful is that they do not let this seed of doubt stop them from taking the action they need to. They also acknowledge their insecurities as well as their success.

It’s ok to feel “not good enough” just don’t let the feeling control you.

So, how good are you?

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Happy Birthday to Me!

It’s happened again!

Another year has passed and I had another birthday on the weekend. It’s my 47th and every year just gets better.

I received a stack of birthday messages including birthday bacon. The birthday bacon below is from my lovely friends The Kemps.

Even though it is my birthday, I want to give YOU the presents. So for this week if you order my Get More Inspiration book, I will give you, in addition to the existing bonuses at www.GetMoreInspiration.com, a copy of the How to Bring Home the Bacon recording from the recent Taking Care of Business show.

Head over to the Get More Inspiration website to order the book package and I will give you this recording worth $39 at no extra charge.

Until next time, it’s Happy Birthday to me and keep on having fun.

WGM Birthday Bacon

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A Celebration

Wow! What a big weekend.

I was part host, part facilitator and part attendee at the National Speakers Association of Australia annual convention in Canberra.

The most important part of the weekend for me was when I received my Certified Speaking Professional accreditation (as pictured below)

A big thank you to you for being part of my speaking journey and your support in getting me to this stage. Because of this designation and a few other factors, I have been asked to speak in Singapore and Washington DC later this year. I could not have done this without you.

This global certification makes me one of 75 people in Australia and one of about 650 worldwide.

I look forward to continuing sharing observations with you, hosting your events and speaking at your conferences.

Now it’s time to celebrate.

Thanks again for helping make this happen!

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Freedom (At Last)

Saturday night I had the great joy of hosting a Trade Show and Gala Dinner for one of my fabulous clients.

Like most Gala Dinners, there were awards, formalities and speeches. Once that had happened, it was time to relax and celebrate. This event had a great band that was really suited to the audience. They were called The Chosen Few. Dinner done, formalities over and so the band started.

The dance floor was empty!

Now I know that people are like sheep. No one wants to be the first person on the dance floor, they are waiting for others to go first. As part of what I do for clients, I will typically find someone during the course of the dinner who is happy to dance and then set the example by hitting the dance floor first. On Saturday the lovely Sam from The Cartridge Family joined me on the dance floor.

I know why people don’t want to get on the dance floor. They are scared of what others will think, whether it is their outfit, how they dance or some other thing people are scared of being judged.

Eleanor Roosevelt is quoted as saying, “What other people think of me is none of my business.”

The freedom of letting go of what other people think and just enjoying the moment meant that Sam and I had a great night on the dance floor. There were others sitting around the edge just bursting to get on the dance floor (they were dancing in their chairs almost) but when we invited them to join us, even when there were more people on the dance floor, they declined.

So where are you denying yourself freedom by being constrained by what other people think? What will you do today to give yourself the gift that freedom is?

 

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How to Get The Help You Need

In business and in life, people often lament that nobody offered to help them. No one gave them the assistance that others received.

Today I will share with you the magic secret to get that help you need. It is mysterious, confronting and it can be challenging. 

Are you ready?

YOU ASK FOR IT!

My gorgeous wife has been trapped at home on the couch with a broken foot for three weeks and she has another three weeks to go. She is slowly going out of her mind (and that’s just putting up with me) so she needs some entertainment. She has been calling her friends and arranging lunch dates, cup of tea dates and “just get me out of the house” dates and they have willingly answered her call for help.

My mentoring clients have approached me saying, “I want to take my business to the next level” or “I would like to have a social life” or whatever their need is and we are working together to create that.

In my professional association, speakers will often approach other speakers saying, “I want to be able to do some of what you do, can you give me an hour of your time and share the secrets.” They willingly do so to help grow the industry.

So what do you need? Now find the right person and go and ask for it.

 

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Ethics, What Ethics?

couple-pointing-at-cloud-home

One of my gorgeous wife’s friends is looking to buy a house. 

After a lot of searching, she found one she liked. Like all good homeowners, she did her research. She had the conveyancer review the contract of sale/section 32 and she also had a property inspection.

For those that don’t know, a property inspection is where a qualified inspector comes and does a detailed inspection of the house and reports back to you important information about it. It is a valuable report that can prevent you from buying a house loaded with potential disasters. As with all transactions, the report is the property of the person who paid for it.

The day before the auction, my friend received a call from the person who did the inspection advising her that the real estate agent had contacted them and asked for a copy of the report so they could display it as part of the auction documentation.

Whaaaaa….

The inspector did the ethical thing and said it was not their call to make and the owner of the report (our friend) was the only one who could make that decision. The agent then advised they would contact my friend – which they never did. I suspect that they knew after paying hundreds of dollars for a report, our friend would not be willing to give it away to her competing bidders.

Here is the outcome of poor business ethics:

  • A formal complaint can be made against you to your industry body (as will happen in this case)
  • You will never get work from this potential customer again
  • Your reputation will be sullied in the market place
  • Your whole industry will be drawn into disrepute
  • You won’t sleep well at night 

What about you?

How important are ethics to you and your business? How often are they discussed in your team meetings? What can you do to be sure that everyone on your team acts ethically even when no one is watching?

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First on the Floor

My gorgeous wife and I went to a family wedding at the Plaza Ballroom on Valentines Day. (A cheap way to have a great night out on Valentines Day!!)

After dinner when the band started the dance music, people hesitated to get on the dance floor. As my wife has broken her foot (that’s another story!) she was definitely not going on the dance floor. So I thought I would ask one of the cousins who was over from the UK.

She adamantly refused to go on the dance floor until many others had. I even tried dragging her on but she would not budge. So I had to try other methods to get people on the dance floor.

My theory, just get on the floor. No one cares. Yes other people will watch you, some may even laugh but who is on the dance floor having fun? Who is on the dance floor enjoying themself rather than sitting there wishing they were?

In business, this is the same. Give things a try. Yes you may fail, yes people may laugh, yes you may stumble and fall but during your early business dance you will learn things that watching will never give you. You will get immense satisfaction from taking action rather than just thinking about it.

So why don’t you be first on the floor!

Image: The Marriner Group

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It’s (not) Hard to Be Humble

With the rise of the celebrity culture (both in business and in popular culture) it seems some celebrities struggle to remain humble and in the process disengage with their followers.

In fact, you would think that many of them subscribe to beliefs presented in the Mac Davis song, It’s Hard to Be Humble.

I had an interaction with someone who knows it is NOT hard to be humble. Australian songstress (in both Opera and Pop/Alternate music) Kate Miller-Heidke showed me how it is done.

On Friday I sent a tweet about how I was doing some writing while listening to her music and she replied.

I did a bit of cyber stalking and saw that Kate (we’re friends now so I call her Kate) showed appreciation to several others that had mentioned her. I get how this could be an onerous task for huge celebrities with lots of fans writing to them. But it is amazing how a simple “Thank you” shows you are human. Shows that you appreciate those that support you and have helped you to get where you are.

So how is your humility level? Regardless of whether you are a super star or not, do you let your humanity show? Go on, it’s worth it.

It’s (not) hard to be humble!

 

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A Sea of Humanity

I had an interesting wait last week.

I was coming back from a performance skills conference and as you can see from the picture above, bad weather cancelled all the flights leaving except for one.

Luckily I was able to get on that one flight. But with a packed airport, massive delays and a load of families with their plans sent askew, I was able to see humanity in action.

The airline staff were doing a great job but they had to put up with a lot. Some people insisting that they were important, some exclaiming that they would miss their important event, others chatting to their kids about what a great adventure it was, some getting excited that it meant another day on holiday and some with a zombified look on their face not knowing what to do.

The range of emotions and responses was amazing.

What would you have done? There is no right answer of course. I like to try and see the bigger picture and my part in it. No matter what, the weather was NOT the airline staff’s fault and they were the ones who could serve me best to get to where I want to go.

Ah the humanity!

 

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Un-Australia Day

It’s Jan 26th, Australia day. The day many of us wave the flag, put lamb (or any other meat product) on the BBQ and drink a lot.

Unfortunately the Australian of the year this year is Rosie Batty. I wish to all that is powerful that she didn’t win. More specifically, that she did not have to go through the circumstances that put her in the position to win it. As a reminder, this is the woman whose estranged husband beat their son to death with a cricket bat while they were playing cricket at the nets.

The warnings to police, AVOs and “legal” solutions did little to assist her. She then started her campaign to inform us of why domestic violence is such a big issue in Australia and how it should not be tolerated. The statistics are scary. And it is not only women who are victims of domestic violence, men represent a greater proportion of victims than you may expect.

This is not the only, Un-Australian thing about Australia day. Our indigenous population commonly refer to today as “Invasion Day”. It is the day the White Man came – things pretty much went down hill for them from there. Our history of caring for aborigines is poor to say the least. In fact, it is not even referred to as “caring” but “treatment”.

The good thing is that as you get older your learn from your mistakes. Well, that’s the plan.

When should we talk about the “New Australians”? Is now a good time? For whatever reason, our government thinks boat people are bad and we should not take them in. We have spent billions of dollars NOT taking care of them and in fact, some commentators think it would be cheaper to settle them in Australia than keep them imprisoned in our “Processing Centres”.

It certainly is understandable that we don’t want certain types of people in our nation. People who have an evil intent or would not subscribe to the Australian way of life. Here is an example of the kind of person our government does NOT want in our country, Mr Homayon Hatami.

Mr Hatami is an asylum seeker on a bridging visa currently living in Geelong. His visa expires in April and he has been advised it will not be reviewed so he will need to leave the country.

Let me be up front and say that I do not know the details on his case and there may be more depth to his background. Here is what I do know:

  • Mr Hatami is a karate champion that the official selectors included in the team to represent Australia on several occasions (he could not represent us due to the conditions of his visa)
  • On 8th May 2013 Mr Hatami put his own life at risk to rescue a women who had jumped from a pier near Eastern Beach Geelong and then got into trouble.
  • For his action, Mr Hatami was awarded the Royal Humane Society of Australasia Silver Medal for bravery. With the authority of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Second, Queen of Australia, Mr Hatami was also awarded the Commendation for Brave Conduct by The Governor General His Excellency Sir Peter Cosgrove.

Not quite the spectre of evil our government should be sending back to wherever they came from. Certainly his actions have shown he is a fair and decent person. Some Australians have started a petition has been created to have Mr Hatami visa extended, if not granted asylum.  So it seems he has made a positive impact here. You can read more and sign the petition here.

What kind of Australia do we want for the future?

What kind of actions do we want to be seen as being “Australian”?

So much is happening in our name that DOES NOT represent the great nation that we are and can be. Whether it is action taken by our government, our sports stars, our businesses or general members of the community. Let’s make every day Australia day and celebrate it by being compassionate, understanding, big picture thinkers, community focussed, generous and sharing what we have with those who need it.

Let’s face it, everyone deserves a snag from the barbie!

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Let’s Do Better

Let’s Do Better

I am tired of all the disrespect and lack of tolerance.

Whether it is road rage, bombing, messy divorces, frivolous legal suits or over entitled celebrities, it is NOT progressing our planet or our existence.

Let’s do better.

Once you have some perspective, you see how unimportant we are to the universe and how important we are to each other.

If you need some perspective, watch this short video from Carl Sagan, legendary astrophysicist.

Let’s do better.

It is really quite simple. Let’s follow the teachings of legendary, non-religious, independantly brilliant and uniquely naive teachings of the two prophets Bill and Ted.

They have two simple philosophies:

1) Be excellent to each other

2) Party on dudes

It would be easy to dismiss these as flippant, 80’s movie trivia, but I believe they encapsulate what we need to do.

Treat each other incredibly well and celebrate life’s achievements in the company of others.

Let’s do better

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Get More Success from 2015

Key To Success

Can you believe it is the start of another year?

As we get older the years seem to pass more quickly so it becomes even more important that we make the most of the time presented to us. That means no more New Year’s Resolutions. They are a complete waste of time. Most people don’t even expect to keep them, so why would you make them?

Let’s take our success up another level by focussing on the five core elements we need to experience outrageous success.

Creation

The first element is to spend some time creating the ideas you want to implement for 2015. Be careful! It is very easy to make this a fantasy list. Only include what you REALLY want to achieve. If you have no passion or drive for an idea it will slip by the way side and get pushed out of your mind by someone else’s priorities that seem more urgent.

Some of you won’t need this step. You are already crystal clear what your focus is for the year. You know what you want to achieve and you are already headed in that direction. Fantastic! The reality is, that if you don’t write it down it is more likely to slip down your list of priorities. Make sure you spend the time to list your target achievements for the year.

If you are not sure where to start, pick a theme or focus for the year. Too often we are distracted by the minutia of our multiple goals. Have a single word or single statement theme for a year will keep you on track for what really counts.

Inspiration

The second element is all about getting excited. Surround yourself with ideas, images, people, and resources that get you excited about what you want to achieve.

You also need to protect yourself from negativity. You don’t need others stealing your dreams and inspiration. People who say, “what do you want to do that for?”, “that’s stupid” or “what a waste of time” will not help you achieve what you are after. Family and close friends are particularly good at doing this. They do it under the guise of “protecting you” but sometimes you don’t want the protection.

Inspiration is not something you have once and then it’s done. You need to set yourself up for success by having an “Inspiration System”. That is some process or system that continues to deliver inspiration.

Here are some ideas that have worked for others:

Different things work for different people. Find out what works for you and put it into place

Motivation

People confuse motivation and inspiration.

Quite simply, Inspiration is external. It comes from hearing other peoples experience, creating a goal to achieve, having a coach or some other external factor as described above.

Motivation is internal. It comes from you. No one else can give you motivation only inspiration.

This is why an inspiration system is so important. Motivation is like trying so save water in a leaky tank. You use water every day and also some naturally leaks away. If you are not continually topping it up you find yourself without any at all.

Legendary speaker Zig Ziglar famously said that “Motivation is like personal hygiene – you need to attend to it every day.”

Some days you may only be able to rustle up enough motivation to get out of bed and other days you are an achieving dynamo. What you need to be able to do is to establish a system or process to ensure that you are getting regular bursts of inspiration to address your own levels of motivation.

Activation

Now it is time to make things happen.

Too often people talk a lot about what they want to achieve or tell you what they are going to do. It is important to remember that “Action is the magic word not Words are the magic action.”

All the inspiration and motivation in the world will do you no good if you do not take action. So break your Focus, Goals and Objectives down into tasks and give them a priority. Now apply that motivation and take action.

If you need to, set yourself up for success by having an “Accountability buddy”. This is someone who you make commitments of action to and then regularly check back with to track progress. This can be a paid coach, your mastermind group or someone on your team. Knowing you are accountable to an external person seems to add an increased importance to the task than if it is only in your own head.

Be wary in the activation phase.

Our “Urgency addiction” makes it very easy to become very busy on tasks that don’t move us closer to our goals for the year. It is worth taking a strategic view point on a regular basis to ensure that you are working on what counts and not just busy work or getting sidetracked on items that are important for others but not for yourself.

The focus must always be on the Activation element as this is where results are generated. The previous elements purely support this element. This is part of being Outcome focussed. Your focus has to be on achieving the ideas and objectives your came up with in your Creation phase.

Success will come if you do whatever it takes to sustain the Activation.

Celebration

If you make celebrating success a habit, success will become a habit.

Once you have achieved your goal or objective, it is imperative that you celebrate accordingly. The degree of celebration needs to match the importance of the objective. Some of your celebration will cost money and others wont.

Add to your inspiration and motivation by deciding at the very beginning what your celebration will be for each of your achievements. Don’t wait for only the significant achievements either. Sometimes the smaller more repetitive elements also need to be celebrated.

How does 2015 look for you?

The first thing you need to do is throw away those new year’s resolutions and free yourself up to have some really success.

If you employ these five elements with discipline and get ongoing support, you can’t help but have a successful 2015.

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Give Up on Your Resolutions Now

2015 Resolutions

 

Sorry if that title comes off a little negative.

But let’s be frank, come April you will probably struggle to remember what your New Year’s Resolutions let alone be on the path to achieving them.

Previously I have referred to them as New Year’s Revolutions – because every year we like to give them a turn!

If you want proof of this hypothesis, look at any gym. For the first half of January you can hardly get access to a piece of the equipment. After that, it all goes back to normal and the regulars get back to what they do best.

Here is an easier approach. Select a “Focus” for the year. My business partner, Danielle Storey calls it a theme.

A Focus is a short statement or even a word that is your overarching focus for the year. I would even recommend put a post of it at your desk or somewhere you see it regularly. Then each day ask yourself the question, “How can I stay true to my focus today?”

My focus for 2015 is to Consolidate. I have just released my new book, I have some recent CD products, a couple of months ago I received my international accreditation and I have a new Executive Assistant on board so now I have to turn this solid base into increased business and increased success.

Let go of the New Year’s Resolution, pick a focus. What is your focus for 2015?

 

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What a Nightmare!

What a Nightmare

Winston the Wonder Dog

This is Winston.

He is our 15 month old toy poodle. Yes he is very cute. (I like to think he takes after me!)

This morning at 5:30am he was howling like a banshee.

I went to the laundry (where he sleeps) and picked him up. He was shaking. It seems that he had a nightmare and it really distressed him. I held him close, let him know everything was ok and he was safe.

Life is like that.

Sometimes things happen and your situation becomes a nightmare. It could be a work project, it may be a relationship, your health or even your business can become a nightmare. When this happens, it is important that you have someone to support you and let you know you are safe and everything is ok. Then you can start to address the problem and find a solution.

Who will you turn to and who can turn to you?

IT’S ALMOST HERE! The Get More Inspiration book is currently being printed. There is a very strong chance you can get yours before Christmas. Visit www.GetMoreInspiration.com to find out more about the book and how to order it. 

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Are You Inspired?

Are You Inspired?

Inspired

On Saturday I was fortunate to host a 40 year anniversary for one of my clients at the Crown Paladium room.

It was better that fantastic, it was inspirational.

With short presentations showing how far the organisation had come, announcing some amazing financial results (in an industry sector that has been hit hard) all coupled with a very funny comedian and a fabulous band.

The message it got across was, “We are in a fantastic position and the future is bright for us all if we keep working at it.”

While everyone enjoyed the celebration, many also received inspiration for the future.

Inspiration can be fleeting so it is important to draw it from the simple things happening around you. From the big corporate event to acts of nature surrounding us and all those events in between.

Are you inspired? I don’t mean are you energised and jumping out of your shoes, but are you excited about the day and all it brings? If not, do what it takes to Get More Inspiration from the world around you.

So are you inspired now?

Warwick In Action

If you are looking for more inspiration, my new book Get More Inspiration comes out on Janury 5th, 2015.

To celebrate this release I am giving away almost  $400 of bonuses with each book.

Visit GetMoreInspiration.com to discover more and order your copy now.

Get More Inspiration

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