As we crossed the old bridge over the River Irwell, that umbilical cord of the Industrial Revolution, the dogs strained on their leashes as two cyclists approached from the other side.

I looked up at my old school, St Gabriel’s RC High School, Bury and a wave of nostalgia welled up. My wife and I remembered the teachers, what would they be doing now? It was over 36 years since I had left, would they all still be with us? Times of course have changed, the school grounds are all fenced off now, there were safety railings on the steps.

The Order

My first thought when I saw the sign was, yes Strength, Service and Success are admirable values to have, but what do they mean really? Why were these values named? This train of thought continued as we walked. Then it struck me. The values Strength, Service and Success are in a particular order for a reason, the first being strength and lastly success.
Everything must start with your strength. Service is how we employ our strength and success is the end product.

Strength

What do we mean when we talk about strength? The first thing that comes to mind is physical strength.

Physical strength.

Athletes, and sports people who are in competition with other athletes, for example, will work on their strength as well as their as their technical ability. If they are stronger, than their competitors, they will have an advantage. If two athletes have the same technical ability, the stronger will win.
We can obviously increase our physical strength with exercise, in which we will stress our muscles. The recovery from this stress will involve an increase in muscle mass, as the body adapts to be able to cope with increased workload.
The converse will be true as well. A lack of physical exercise doesn’t mean that your strength will remain static. Your strength will be reduced by prolonged inactivity. I have run marathon races in the past, but I know that I would need about four months to re-train for another marathon, as my endurance will have decreased since the last one.

Mental strength

We are not all athletes, though. How would physical strength help with the academic? Wouldn’t they need mental strength, meaning the ability to concentrate on a given concept for extended periods of time? Natural intelligence will obviously help the academic, although this would be for nought if they were unable to concentrate for the period of time required to finish the work.
Just like a physical muscle, the ability to concentrate can be exercised.

Emotional Strength

Emotional strength is now recognised as a prerequisite for business strength, often called emotional intelligence.
Sales is one of the primary skills in business. Even if you are not in a sales position, you will benefit from selling your ideas to colleagues. Inspiring your team is also a form of selling. The effective salesperson has emotional strength, as they can control their emotions. Are people born with high emotional strength? No obviously not. Show me a toddler with high emotional intelligence.

Mood

Emotional strength will express itself as someone’s mood. A person could be having a difficult day and feeling down however they can still check their mood. Its great advice to get in the right frame of mind before undertaking something important. The expression ‘leaving your troubles at the door’ holds good.
One way that sales is great for developing your emotional strength is by exposing you to rejection. The more successful the salesperson, the more rejection they have faced. It’s a simple numbers game. If two salespeople have the same conversion rate, let’s say 10%, but salesperson A makes 50 calls whilst salesperson B makes 100, then A will make 5 sales to B’s 10. However, salesperson B will have twice the number of rejections (90) than A.
Over a career, salesperson B will develop their emotional strength deeper.

Read my post describing my sales prospecting process, where I show you how you can overcome a fear of rejection.

Financial Strength

Money doesn’t buy you happiness, however it can help solve problems. If something breaks down in your home, like a boiler, having an emergency fund ready can turn a disaster into just an annoyance. Having insurance policies in place gives us piece of mind and saving up in a pension gives us the knowledge that one day we will not need to work to support ourselves. We will be able to mature with dignity.
Having a pot of capital can often help a new business to scale quickly to the point where it is self-sufficient. I have saved up capital for down payments on investment properties. These in turn have given me financial independence. I am not reliant on the state to support me.
So financial strength is something to strive for, it is a good thing to do.

Altruism

Having money gives you the chance to be altruistic. Are there any causes that are close to your heart that you could donate to? Having financial strength means you can do this without harming your own finances. What is it the flight attendant says before every flight? ‘Put your own mask on first before helping others.’

Spiritual Strength

The final strength is spiritual strength. My old school moto is The Lord Gives Me Strength. In our postmodern era, when many religions are on the wane, there is a void where once there was God. We are hardwired to have this belief in something bigger than the self. If we are not careful it can be filled, without our choosing. We can fall for scams, cults and gurus. We worship at the feet of celebrities and sports-heroes, not realising that there are normal people just like us, with all the same flaws.
Before I stopped digesting the news altogether, I became struck be the religious zeal that followers of political parties would display. Anyone from the ‘other side’ or someone who questioned ‘The Science’ is a heretic.
So, what is the answer? I’m not suggesting we revert back to organised Religion, although that may be preferable. What I am saying is we should believe in something bigger than ourselves, but we should choose it consciously and carefully. This will give us the spiritual strength to protect us for the frauds and fake gurus. If we have a North Star to guide us it will give us the strength to speak up when we see something blatantly wrong.

Exercising each is the key

In all the examples of the different types of strength, the one common denominator is that you can increase the strength by exercising. Physical exercise is obvious, but we can also increase our mental strength through practising concentration. We can make this easier by removing things that decrease our mental strength, such as scrolling on phones and trying to multitask.

Emotional strength can be increased by exposing ourselves to things that could dampen our mood. Cold call sales are a fantastic way to do this, as we expose ourselves to rejection. If you aren’t in sales, you can practise this by speaking up in meetings and putting your ideas forward.

If a position becomes available which is more senior, put yourself forward. Be unattached to the outcome, as you may be rejected. Count the rejections as a badge of honour. You are one more ‘no’ closer to a ‘yes.’

Saving money gives you financial strength. Its a great feeling to know that you have capital built up to weather any financial emergency. Eventually your capital will grow with compounding until you no longer need to work again.
What about spiritual strength? Find something you believe in that is bigger than you. It could be getting involved in a community, a charity or your wider family. Spiritual strength will anchor you. Without it, you are at the mercy of the currents of life, of scams and fake news.

Service

So, strength gives you a platform from which to serve. Let’s have a look at how you can serve.

Employer

I was told many years ago to always do more than you are paid for. Serve your employer, go the extra mile. Do it out of habit and do not expect extra reward. It’s a law of the universe that rewards will come eventually, through promotions pay rises or being head hunted. This law of the universe can’t fail to work. Take pride in your work, treat it as your craft. You are a craftsman, creating a masterpiece.

Colleagues

Help your colleagues and be a team player. As you do, you will be seen as the go-to person. You will be indispensable to your organisation. Don’t hog information. If you know something valuable, share it. As you pass your knowledge to your peers, you increase your own expertise and your capacity to learn more grows.

Customers

Businesses in the private sector must service their customers or risk going bankrupt. All things being equal if the price and quality of the product is the same then the business who provides the best service will win and retain more customers.
In my earlier sales career, most of my time was spent on Account Management, for good reason. It was a competitive industry (Specialist Hygiene Systems to the Food Industry). In the time I had available for new business development, when I visited prospective new customers, the biggest complaint I heard was that the incumbent supplier gave poor service. Poor service can mean a lot of things, from late deliveries, to just not being listened to. If you are in business, it is your job to listen to the customer and serve them.

Audience

In the entertainment and sports industry, people pay good money to attend performances. They want value for money. Some of the best concerts I’ve been to are when the band give absolutely everything. Even though they are playing dozens of concerts around the world, this show feels like the only one they will ever do. Because of that these bands have the most loyal followers. They are serving their audience well.
I would contrast this to a forgettable gig I once went to where the band were sullen and there was no chemistry between the band members. It was at the end of a long tour and was supposed to be the homecoming concert. Their hearts weren’t in it, there was obviously something amiss. The band split up shortly after the end of the tour. As a post-script they have just announced they are reforming after 14 years and will be performing a new tour. I won’t be going.

Success

We’ve explored how strength gives you the ability to serve and we’ve touched on how success comes from serving. Let’s explore success a bit deeper.

The myth of the overnight success

When we look at successful people especially those in the limelight, such as films stars, they often seem to gain overnight success. They suddenly burst on the scene and gain critical acclaim. The next thing you see them everywhere. It’s as if they have won the metaphorical success lottery. But this is a myth.
What we are seeing is the result of years and often decades of working and honing their craft. In the lean years they take what work they can. This includes smaller roles to keep a roof over their head (service), but also to practise, practise, practise. They will have had hundreds and thousands of rejections and failed auditions but they keep on going. (Mental Strength).
What we also don’t see are the thousands of individuals who gave up on their dreams of success.

The law of compounding

The law of compounding is a very real law in finance, I’m sure you’ve heard of. Compounding also works in the development of skills. Over years and years of adding small improvements, reviewing your progress and iterating, you will see very little visual progress at first. If you keep stacking these improvements, however, eventually there will come a point when there seems to be a massive leap in competence.
As an example, let’s say there is a certain actor with an arbitrary skill level of 1, on their very first day out of acting school. They decide to improve their skills just 1% per week. Obviously this is hypothetical. What number would their skill level be after one year? The answer would be nearly 1.7. If you improved something by 1% per week you would be 1.7 times better in a year. Good but not enough to make a dent.

What about 2 years of 1% growth per week? The answer? You would be 2.8 times better. After 3 years you would be nearly five times better. Impressive, but again, you may feel it isn’t great progress. You may be tempted to quit as you feel you aren’t getting anywhere. What about after 10,20 and 40 years? Making small 1% improvements per week?

• 10 years = 177 times better.
• 20 years = 31,205 times better.
• 40 years = a staggering 973,772,415 times better.

That’s the law of compounding ladies and gentlemen. My guess is that our hypothetical actor who hones his craft would ‘burst onto the scene’ somewhere between 10 and 20 years of consistent practise and small weekly improvements.

Promotions

So, we make consistent and small incremental improvements, or to put it another way we increase our strength and improve our service offering, and suddenly we burst on the scene. Or so it seems from the outside. What about in the world of business? If we diligently apply ourselves to the tasks and always go further than we are required, we improve as a person, but what about success?
This is where grasping opportunities plays a role. So, an opening comes up in your company for a promotion. It’s obvious that you will have more chance of landing this elevated role compared to your colleague who has gone through the motions and is at the same skill level as the day they started. What if no opportunities arise in your company? Then the marketplace and other employers will take note of your performance. You will eventually be head-hunted into an improved position.

Winning the trophy

I am reminded that Olympic Athletics must be a tough business to be in. You dedicate your life to your sport, improving everyday and yet you still may not be successful in terms of winning the gold medal. Your chance of gold occurs every four years and you are competing with the best in the world. There can only be one winner.

I’m sure your situation isn’t like that. Success may not be winning the trophy or the Oscar. For me success means achieving small incremental goals and improving every day.

Luck

In success, luck plays a part. You might be at the right time and place and the opportunity floats on up to you, but you grasp it and you never look back. For me though luck is something you can influence. What does the saying go? Luck occurs when opportunity meets practice. Or the golfer Gary Player said it better ‘the more I practice the luckier I get’.
Practise your craft, so you increase your strength, to give better service and watch out for lady luck along the way.

The virtuous circle

Success to me isn’t an event, it’s a process. Let’s say you achieve what you set out to achieve, for example your business has reached a certain level of profits. Then that would give you more financial power. Success therefore gives you strength and so it starts again. It’s a virtuous cycle.

The post Strength Service Success appeared first on Mike Holden Sales.

1. Writing to Improve Communication skills

The ability to express my thoughts and complex information has been important in my career in sales. Whether it be sales proposals or technical reports, it was essential that I could convey accurately and succinctly information that other people could understand and hopefully act upon.

English Language was my best subject at school, so I have always found it easy to find the right words to express what I was thinking. However, like any skill it needs practising and honing. I therefore started a daily writing habit many years ago, so that I could maintain and improve this skill.

I started this blog, so that my writing could be seen by others and hopefully benefit from the information. This evolved over the years, so that I have self-published longer form content into several books.

2. Therapy Writing

I feel better after writing, it is a form of therapy. Often if I am anxious or even just filled with a sense of ennui, writing seems to unblock something in my mind and it can lift me out of the fog.

I’m not sure of the process of why this happens. My hypothesis would be that thoughts can become circular, as we try to make sense of the world. We are going round in circles in our mind. Maybe writing provides an escape route for these trapped thoughts. Just like the discomfort of trapped wind, maybe we just need a good belch. It goes without saying that I wouldn’t publish this type of writing and I may not even read it back.

3. Work Through Problems

In a similar way to therapeutic writing, I will often write to work through some problem or issue. Here, though, I am looking for a certain insight. I will approach this with stream-of-consciousness writing.

First, I think about the problem and then just write. I will then keep writing, exploring all the angles of the issue. Certain passages will lead to other trains of thought, so I will explore these. If I go dry, I will force myself to write some more. I can take a break if I must, but I will then return to the writing, until there is no more to write. I will then get a feeling inside that I have put all my thoughts down and I am ready to analyse them.

The next step is to then re-read what I have written. Often most of it is gibberish, however I will highlight or underline anything that seems relevant or seems like an insight. It’s amazing that usually some course of action will reveal itself.

4. Organise Your Thoughts

The mind does not operate in a linear fashion. If we let our mind wander, our thoughts will seem to flit from one unrelated subject to another. The subject matter doesn’t appear to be linked logically, but there will be some connection, however tenuous. In a similar way to the two examples above, writing out our thoughts, to get them out of our heads can be a step towards organising them.

Mind mapping

To organise your thoughts, rather than using stream-of-consciousness writing, it can be useful to use mind mapping. Developed by Tony Buzan, Mind Mapping is a way of putting your thoughts, on a particular subject, down on paper. If you start off by writing one word or phrase in the centre of a piece of paper to represent the central theme of the subject, you then draw lines out to represent all the related thoughts, in a spider formation. See below:

Repeat with the sub-themes, by radiating sub-sub thoughts. Keep radiating out until you exhaust the subject. The important thing is to use one word for each theme. This vagueness helps the mind come up with related thoughts. What you are left with can look like a jumble of nonsense, however the pictural nature of the Mind Map allows you to see connections.

I use mind mapping to plan outlines for blog posts and nonfiction books. Once I have an outline, my creative juices are able to fill in the gaps.

5. Creative Expression

Talking of creative juices, I believe that everyone is creative, but just like anything else creativity can be developed with practice. Having a creative outlet whether it is writing, art, music or whatever, can make you a more rounded human.

Don’t be a consumer all the time

Over consumption is epidemic. There is so much to consume today from TV, Podcasts, social media and mindless scrolling. If we are not careful, we will become a species of zombies, constantly plugged into the matrix. Instead of consuming, why not produce content or art.
Writing for me, is my creative outlet. I hope I am perfecting my art, maybe you can let me know. However, even if nobody reads a word I write, I am exercising a core faculty of my human being – my creativity.

6. Find Your Voice Through Writing

Most writing is someone’s opinion. Opinions are neither right nor wrong, they are just that – opinions. I write so that I can broadcast my opinion. Are my opinions not as valid as anybody else’s? Somebody may disagree with my opinions, but that is fine. That is why they are opinions.

In a similar way, your opinion should also be heard, or at least expressed. Why not start your own outlet where you can voice your opinions. You deserve to be heard.
I truly believe in freedom of expression and I believe much of the current cancel-culture is extremely dangerous. Stamping down on freedom of expression, throughout history, never ended well.

7. The Business of Writing

Could you make writing your business? Its feasible although difficult. The best way to look at it is that you may make some extra cash. I myself have made a small amount of money with my writing, although no way near enough to live off. Yet.

If you write non fiction ‘how to’ type books and blogs, you could build up a following, or tribe in the modern parlance. If you truly provide value, some people may be willing to pay you for coaching or consultation work. You will need to have marketing skills as well as writing skills, though.
The first thing to think about is whether you are writing to entertain or inform. Or you could do both as in infotainment.

If you want to make writing your business, be prepared to commit to the very long term. It can take years to build up a following and even then, the remuneration is meagre.

Where can you write?

What platform can you write on?

Daily journal

If you are just starting out writing, I would suggest starting the habit with a daily journal. This can be just for yourself. If you hit on a great idea, then maybe you can start to expand on it.

Weekly blog

Once you get into the habit of writing every day, then you could expand into writing a weekly blog. If you can write about 200 words a day, then you could in theory publish a weekly blog of around 1,000 words. You would write for 5 days and have one day for editing, publishing and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Writing 200 words a day is not hard at all. This section is around 200 words and took about 15 minutes, so that gives you an idea.

If you would like to know more on how I write, read my post on How to Write a Weekly Blog Post. In this post I show you how to structure your time so that you consistently manage to create and publish regular content.

Self-Published Books

As you develop your style and your knowledge of the subject matter grows, why not write a book? It may take you a few months to write, format and publish, but the process is as easy as ever with Amazon KDP. I’ve written several books, please check them out.

I’ve given you the reasons why I write. If any of this resonates with you, then start today. Find your voice and get writing.

The post 7 Reasons Why Writing is Good For You appeared first on Mike Holden Sales.

There is only one question you need to ask to achieve any goal, provided you have already clarified what the goal is and why you want it. That one question is: What is the next action?
You don’t need to know all the ins and outs of how to arrive at your goal. You don’t need to know even what the second step will be. All you need to know is the very next step. So, if you are stuck, just ask yourself, what is the next action I need to take?

Why the one question is so powerful

When you ask yourself this question, you focus your attention on a very small area. This automatically frees up you mind to work on a much simpler problem. What do I do next?
Now the answer may be a small next action step, or it may be a larger series of steps. You can then focus down further by asking, out of this series of steps, what is the very next action? Once you have this answer, then go ahead and complete this task, without any thought of the next action step after that.

The reason it works is that it kills procrastination. Often procrastination is caused by overwhelm, resulting from trying to focus on all of the possible steps in a goal. Focussing on just the next step, helps you narrow down your focus.

Usually during the process of completing this next action step, the subsequent action step becomes clearer. If not, once you have completed the next action step, then just ask yourself again what’s the next action?

I have written more about taking action in my post Take action – how this helps the Law of Attraction, in which I describe how taking any small action can have dramatic effects.

Then repeat the question.

Once you are specific on your outcome and motivations, then all you need is to know what the next step is.
So just like any traveller who knows his destination, just keep putting one foot in front of the other and the path will reveal itself to you.

The post One question you need to ask to achieve any goal. appeared first on Mike Holden Sales.

1. The Monkey and the Computer

The author simplifies the human mind, to help us picture how it works, how habits form and what drives us. There is the human – us, our thinking mind. There is also the monkey and the computer, which both act unconsciously. The monkey will make us act if it perceives danger or opportunity (delicious food). The monkey mind will keep us safe but is rooted in our evolutionary past; it is usually inappropriate.

If our monkey mind is reactionary, then our computer mind is like a pre-programmed script. Our task then is to use the computer to help us form good habits. If we use our human mind to decide what needs doing and put work in to form a good habit, the computer will eventually take over. This good habit will then be done automatically.

Stop and think of every decision you make today, is it the human, monkey or computer who was in charge?

2. Changing large unhealthy habits

If you want to change a large unhealthy habit such as drinking alcohol, we can use re-framing to help us make the good decisions when we need to. For instance, the author says he doesn’t drink alcohol now, he used the reframe method to tell himself that ‘Alcohol is just another drug that he doesn’t take.’ In his mind alcohol is just like any other drug that he would never take, rather than a social norm. I’ve written a post on what I call Chemical Habits, which goes into how things like removing alcohol use is different from removing other habits.

3. Swap negative routines for positive ones.

Rather than trying to eliminate an negative routine, it is easier to change it to something more positive. For instance, do you listen to talk radio stations in the car? Why not change this to listening to business podcasts instead?

4. Focus on not losing first.

When we are starting out on any new venture, we will be inspired to act big. In fact, a lot of modern-day gurus will say things like ‘go all in’. Sometimes this is poor advice, for instance if you are starting a new business, it would be unwise to quit your job and ‘go all in’ until you have a proven concept and regular income. Yes, the positive thinking crowd would say, ‘be positive and trust yourself’, but it would be advisable to start small on the side, i.e., focus on not losing first.

5. Do a time audit.

This is a great exercise that I’ve done many times in the past and is recommended by a lot of authors. As usual, with anything useful, it is worth repeating. Here, Lamerton shows us how to track what we do, during a normal week, at 15 minute intervals. You can set an alarm to remind you every quarter of an hour to write down what you are doing. At the end of the week, add up and list in descending order what type of activities your were doing . Did each activity move you towards or away from your goals? You can then give yourself a score of what percentage of your activities are helping you achieve your goals. With this knowledge you can aim to improve your score.

6. The cure for shelf-help

After each non-fiction book, don’t start another one until you’ve written a report on it and implemented at least one idea. This report could even be a blog post and is a recommendation, I’ve just started, hence this post. I sometimes feel that I can rattle through hundreds of non-fiction and self-help books, but I sometimes wonder if I would get more benefit from slowing down and allowing myself to put into practice what I learn.

7. Compounding actions.

We all are aware of the positive effects of compounding on your wealth. This is where you can build a big net worth by starting to save early in your life and being consistent. Your money will increase slowly at first, but over time will start to increase exponentially. The same can happen with good habits. Adding small, good habits consistently will, at first, show little reward, but over time will provide massive improvements. Therefore, what can you do in each area of your life to start this compounding?

8. One page marketing sheet.

Here the author shares how he has been able to build up his online marketing business. Get an A4 piece of paper and list what daily/weekly actions you can do consistently, that will compound over time. For instance, sending a weekly ‘make friends’ email to your mailing list won’t achieve much, but over the months and years, if you are consistent, your recipients will come to expect and enjoy your emails, if they provide value. When it comes to the time they are in the market for your product, guess who will be front of mind? The person who provided consistent value and is liked and trusted, will be more likely to win the business.

9. How to change a negative habit no.2.

Get a normal wall calendar and some sticky dots, you can buy at a stationery shop. Every day you refrain from the bad habit, place a sticky dot on that day’s box. Consecutive days, where you were successful, will form a chain of dots on your calendar. You have another visual incentive to keep the chain going. Don’t break the chain. Also give yourself a reward for achieving a milestone, such as 7, 20, 100, 1,000 days etc.

10. Create more friction for bad habits and remove visual triggers.

This is another simple thing you can do to help you remove bad habits. Let’s say you have a weakness for snacking on biscuits and your goal is to not eat them. Every time you go to the kitchen, however, there is the biscuit barrel. Its too tempting for your monkey mind, which is more powerful than your human mind. The human mind says ‘no’ but the monkey mind says ‘sugar-sweet-survival-eat’. It’s a visual trigger for a chain of micro events that result in weight gain. There is also little on no friction involved, if repeated day in day out.

What if you removed the visual trigger by throwing away your biscuit barrel and all the biscuits with it? You subsequently enter the kitchen and there is no visual trigger. Even if you were desperate for a biscuit, you would have to visit the shop to buy some. Too much friction and the result – no biscuits eaten.

11. The Magic Ingredients for personal development.

a) Goals

Have goals and know where you are heading.

b) Why

Know your why and have a compelling reason to achieve the goal.

c) Knowledge

Do you know how to achieve the goal? If not then find out.

d) Environment

Create an environment conducive to achieving your goal. For example, you want to lose weight, then remove all junk food from the house and have your exercise kit ready and easy to use.

e) Action

Take some action every day, however small to move towards your goals. Consistency is key.

12. Goals

Once a year, sit down when it is quiet and set your goals for the following year. Most people do this at new Year, but it could be at any time of the year. I like doing this in the week between Christmas and New Year as it is naturally a time when not a lot else happens. To help you, use the following guide:

a. What do I want to:

• Start doing
• Stop doing
• Keep doing
• Do more of
• Do less of
• Try new

b. Next, get pictures of your goals and make a vision board.

Put this up somewhere prominent. You can also scan this and use as screen saver on your pc or phone. The aim here is for you to be looking at this unconsciously as much as possible. Our mind will subliminally take in the information.

c. Draft up a could-do list of things that are not a priority, but you would like to have.

I use the GTD someday-maybe list for this. As you move on through the year, if you think of more things to add, then go ahead and add them to this list. Consult this list to see what you could do next.

d. 90 Plan.

Consult your could-do list and pick 3 big goals for next 90 days. Set a reminder to repeat your 90-day review.

e. Monthly plan.

Now choose 3 smaller projects that can be done in the next month. These could be from your Could-Do list or they could be steps to the Big 3 on your 90 plan. You will therefore have 9 projects in 3 months. Set a reminder to repeat this the following month.

f. Weekly plan.

Once a week choose your One Thing. Pick just one action or small project you can complete this week that will move you towards completion of one of your monthly projects. Set a reminder to do this once per week. I love to do this on Friday afternoon, so I can enjoy the weekend knowing that I’ve set my intention for the following week. Lamerton recommends printing out a weekly calendar and marking off the time when you will focus on this One Thing. Read my post on the weekly and daily targets, where I show you how to make sure you are moving towards your goals every day.

g. Rocks, Pebbles, Sand and Water.

At the end of each day plan your calendar, first with work on your One Thing. This is non-negotiable. Then what else must you do – appointments, family etc. These are the Rocks your put in your metaphorical jar first, or commitments. Then once you’ve added your One Thing and Commitments, if you have any spare time, add other stuff from your Could-Do list. In the Jar Analogy these would be the pebbles. The gaps in the calendar you can fill with sand and water, for example, checking emails, returning calls etc.

13. Marketing.

I really like how the author simplifies his models. In marketing, building an email list is one of the most important things you can do. The author gives us 3 simple steps to follow:

1. Build a list.

In your marketing, your first job is to build your list. Create content around your offering that adds value for free. Give something away in exchange for their email address.

2. Make friends with the list.

Once you’ve started gaining followers, its tempting to start selling to them. However, refrain from this. Your next task is to make friends with your list so they know, like and trust you. You do this by sending, for example, a weekly email which again offers some information the recipient values, for free. Make it engaging by adding stories and your personality. An example could be to share what bad practices you see in your industry.

3. Sell to your list.

Only after you’ve made friends with your list can you sell to them and not before.

Conclusion

The key message in this book is to try to get as much of your activity done by the Computer Brain as possible, by forming good habits. The book describes how you can do this across many areas of your life from Health and Fitness to Business. You are also looking for constant improvement, by making small incremental changes. You will then become a Routine Machine. Read my article about the importance of forming good habits, after you’ve removed bad habits.

The post Routine Machine by John Lamerton – my 13 Takeaways appeared first on Mike Holden Sales.

Creating content, has many great benefits for business and for providing a creative outlet. To get the best benefit out of it, it should be done consistently. Daily if possible. When is the best time for creating content, then? I’ve experimented with various times and here is what I’ve found.

In the morning

In the morning, before work, you are more fresh and its quieter.

Apart from distractions, finding a time to write can be the most challenging obstacle. Often this can be overcome by writing early in the morning when it is quiet and there are no distractions. This may mean getting up earlier so that you can find this time before the normal day’s routines take hold.

Although this is the best time for creativity, it can mean major changes in your sleep habits. This is because it might mean you have to go to bed and wake up at least an hour earlier.

In the evening – after work

The next best time, to create content is in the evening after your day’s work. If you can switch off from work, you can concentrate on your content creation, without worrying about if you should be working. The downside is that there will be more distractions and temptations, in the form of family and TV for example.

As long as you are not neglecting your family I would recommend forgoing an hour’s TV or social media for creating something worthwhile. Actually, I would recommend quitting TV and social media anyway, but that’s a different subject.

During breaks at work

Aside from before and after work, the only other time you have is during work. I wouldn’t recommend using time you should be working because you should be concentrating on providing value to your employer. However, you could use your breaks. If you get an hour’s lunch break, why not make this a time you can create some content? Even if you committed just 30 minutes of your break to writing, this could add up. Remember little and often is better than larger chunks done infrequently.

Now that I work for myself, I can write at the best time for me every day. For me it is around mid-morning between 10am and Noon. At this time, I’m at my most creative and alert. I’m fully awake and have yet to hit the post lunch slump.

It doesn’t really matter what the best time for creating is. The best time is the time, when you will actually do it. Remember consistency is the key.

The post When is the best time for creating content? appeared first on Mike Holden Sales.

I practice the GTD system of Getting Things Done by David Allen. The beauty of it, is that you can tailor it to your own needs. One thing that I’ve played around with, is what to do with recurring tasks. Recurring tasks are those items that repeat every day, so how do you record this on a to do list. Here are some ways in which I’ve tried to record recurring tasks.

Repeating calendar entry

If you use an online calendar such as Google Calendar, the simplest method is to use the repeat function on your calendar, with either a time or no time attached. My calendar became cluttered and so this wasn’t practical.

Process flow

During my paper only days, I had a line on my Process Flow sheet, for repeating items. Read my post on the Process Flow system for an explanation. Again this started to become impractical and so I found another system.

Recurring task on to do list app

Eventually I came away from paper only and looked for a digital solution. I was specifically looking for something that could mimic the GTD system. I found the Nirvana application and now I use this as my To-do list. It is primarily designed to work with the Getting Things Done system and is very intuitive to use. I can now use the recurring feature on Nirvana. I would recommend trying it, if you are looking for such an app.

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The older I get the more I realise the importance of sleep. When you are younger you can afford to burn the candle at both ends, but eventually there comes a point where you must take sleep seriously.

Lack of sleep

A few nights of reduced sleep and you will soon start to struggle mentally and emotionally. Recent research has also shown that lack of sufficient sleep can also affect your physical health.

I have therefore made it a priority to get the correct amount of sleep. I listen to and read about the modern gurus who say we should rise at 5am to attack the day. We should hustle till we drop. I just smile to myself and think ‘you’ll see.’

Getting enough sleep

So, what is enough sleep. Well, that depends on you. The amount of sleep you need depends on a lot of factors such as your age and how physically active you are. I’ve experimented with the amount of sleep I need and it is just under 8 hours per night.

Are you getting enough sleep? Do you find yourself dropping off when reading a book in the early evening? I remember when I was in field sales and was driving home in the afternoon, I would start to feel drowsy, especially on monotonous motorway journeys. I would have to pull into the services to have a quick nap.

If this is also you, then maybe you aren’t getting enough sleep.

The Effect of Drinks on Sleep

The amount of sleep is important but so too is the quality of sleep. There are many things that can affect the quality of sleep such as what you drink during the day, leading up to sleep.

Caffeine

Caffeine is a stimulant which will stay in your system for hours. If you drink tea or coffee in the evening, you will struggle to drop off to sleep. Consider having your last caffeine drink earlier in the day.

Alcohol

Drinking alcohol can often make us fall asleep sooner, but the quality of that sleep will be diminished. Research on brain waves of sleepers has shown that we do not get enough of the deep restorative sleep, whilst alcohol is in the system. Again, experiment by having that last drink earlier or maybe not drinking alcohol at all.

The Effect of Looking at Screens on Sleep

The blue light from screens mimics that blue sky we see in the morning. Consequently, after looking at screens in the evening, our circadian rhythms go out of sync and we become more awake when we are usually getting ready for sleep. Looking at mobile phones, tablets and laptops before bedtime is therefore bad for sleep hygiene. Try to limit their use to at least an hour before bedtime.

If you are struggling with your sleep patterns, one remedy is to try to get outside in natural sunlight first thing in the morning whilst avoiding blue light from screens in the evening. This resets your circadian clock, as we then naturally will feel sleepy in the evening and awake in the morning.

Once you get in the habit of the right amount of quality sleep, every day, you will see wonders in your mental, physical and emotional health.

The post The Importance of Sleep appeared first on Mike Holden Sales.

As with all history, we are not just reading about dates and events, but we can also learn from the characters. We can take their virtues and avoid their vices. Here are some of the things I learned whilst reading Churchill’s books.

Sir Winston Churchill, the greatest Briton of all time, wasn’t just a politician or War-time leader. He was also a prolific writer. He wrote The History of the English-Speaking Peoples and a four-volume history of his own ancestor the Duke of Marlborough. His most famous work, however, was his six-volume account of the Second World War.

Never give in

Churchill’s most famous aphorism ‘Never Give In’ implores us to carry on to our goal in all adversity. Stay on the path to our destination, however large all small. All successful people go through trials and tribulations on their way to their goal. Their goals are varied but the one common denominator is that they never give in.

Be Productive

I was struck by reading Churchill’s second world war, by how much work he managed to squeeze in 24 hours. He wasn’t an early riser either. In the inter-war years, often he would wake around 8am read memos or dictate correspondences whilst still in bed and eating a hearty breakfast.

He would then bathe, dress and continue his work. Luncheon, as they called it then, was always with a guest or colleague. After lunch he would nap, then bathe and dress again. He famously said his afternoon naps gave him two days in one. Never a minute was wasted.

In wartime he would exasperate his ministers and military staff with endless memoranda, prodding and cajoling, asking for updates. He wasn’t a micro-manager, far from it, but he knew exactly what was going on in every government department.

Every minute was productive, speeches were rehearsed and amended whilst chauferred. Letters dictated in the bath, to blushing aides. So although he didn’t adhere to a 9-5 regime, he made sure every minute counted.

Have a single overarching, focused objective and never deviate

You can imagine that with all the different theatres of the second world war and all the different departments to make function, that you could become overawed. What would take precedence? After France had fallen, Britain had to be defended, Russia supported, America courted until Japan entered. What would the allies do? Fight back through Western Europe, the Balkans, the Baltic, North Africa, the Middle East? What about the Far East and India? What about the potential threat to Australia? Churchill was clear – defeat Hitler first.

The mind works better when concentrating on one objective. Choose one overall objective and stick to it until completion. Any other goal or objective must feed into this prime objective or be put aside. I know it’s hard to do because we are told we can do anything. Yes this is true we can achieve anything, but we can’t achieve everything all at the same time.

Live this objective

Once you have your prime objective defined, discarded all others, unless they support or maintain the priority. Then make this your life, make it part of you, your identity.

Don’t get sidetracked

In the lengthy process of achieving your prime objective, there will be lulls where nothing much seems to happen. There will be setbacks when you question your motives. It is then that you are susceptible to other attractions. The shiny objects catch our eye, new goals and objectives. Don’t’ get sidetracked, keep to the path.

Delegate and be ruthless when you have to

As I said before you can do anything but you can’t do everything. In fact, you shouldn’t even try to do everything, even tasks that are aligned with your objective. Teamwork is so important in any field of human endeavour. Churchill like many leaders delegated. His generals and staff officers were given specific objectives and general recommendations around how an operation should be undertaken. They were told how their operation would benefit the overall objective. It was then up to the General how to achieve the outcome. It is only if the Officer deviated from the objective that specific orders were given. If the General still demurred, he was removed.

Weigh up the pros and cons

With binary decisions, sometimes we know instinctively which the best choice is, especially if one of the choices is obviously more aligned with your vision and goals. Other times the choice is not clear. If you have a choice on which decision to make and the answer is not clear, then you have to weigh up the pros and cons.

The process of weighing up the pros and cons can be as simple as using a piece of paper and draw a line to divide it into two. On one side list all the pros and the other side list out the cons. A funny thing may happen during this exercise, you might get a feeling that one course of action is more advantageous. If not, then analyse the lists. Are there more pros or cons to a course of action?

Be honourable

There is a famous account of when Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin were in conference towards the end of the war, negotiating what would happen once victory was achieved. Later after dinner, whilst drinks had been copiously taken and the mood was jovial, Stalin commented through his interpreter that after the war he would demand that 50,000 German officers would be executed. Churchill bristled and left the room.

Churchill had momentarily misplaced his famous sense of humour but he hadn’t lost his sense of honour.

In whatever we do we should act honourably. It comes down to doing the right thing.

Be polite

Manners cost nothing. In life and business, we often deal with difficult people. Stalin was difficult to work with. He was often drunk and provocative. In Churchills history of the Second World War he reproduces telegram exchanges between the two. Stalin’s telegrams were often as prickly as his outbursts in person. Churchill’s responses were polite whilst not being intimidated. He would assert his position whilst at the same time being polite. He would also simply ignore particularly offensive telegrams.

We can see plainly on social media where people can take a leaf out of Churchill’s book. If you are provoked, retain your poise and be polite. Or even just simply ignore it.

Take action and do your best

The best productivity is to take action and do your best. Do your best in everything you do and you can hold your head up high. You will put yourself in front of lady luck. It’s amazing to me that many of the lucky breaks I’ve had are when I took action and just did my best.

“All this shows how much luck there is in human affairs, and how little we should worry about anything but doing our Best” – Sir Winston Churchill.

The post What I learned from reading Churchill’s Books appeared first on Mike Holden Sales.

My story

I was running every day. I was getting stronger and faster after each run. Incrementally my motivation to do other things was visibly improving. I hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol for about 4 months.
Over on YouTube you can see I was recording regular short videos on my channel. My new book was self-published on Amazon.
It was spring 2020 and 2019 had been my best year’s earning, but then slowly things began to unravel.

The Virus

We watched with disbelieve as the virus spread from the far east into Europe and the Rest of the World. Governments panicked and succumbed to the doom-mongers; no one wanted a bloodbath on their watch. The UK Government announced their first lock-down.
At first it was a novelty. I could get all those jobs done around the house, that I had never had time to finish. I would have more time to write and work on my YouTube channel. In my day job I switched to using Skype then later Teams and Zoom.
I barely noticed any difference, at first.

But then I dropped some good habits. I stopped running regularly. Well, I thought, the government will only let us go out of the house once a day. The dogs need walking, so that’s my lot. I watched too much TV and started drinking again. As you can see from my YouTube channel and this blog, my content output stopped.

COVID was no excuse, but I’m just telling you how it was. We can all make excuses with hindsight, but at the time I just felt I could let things drop. It doesn’t take long for all the missed commitments to add up to an unhealthy lifestyle.

Why did you stop?

What about you? Why did you stop? Was it an external trigger? Do you want to get back on track?

The Truth

No matter what you think the reason is for falling off the wagon, the truth is you stopped applying the daily vigilance and discipline to whatever you were meant to be doing. The universal law of entropy does the rest. Things tend to break down if we don’t maintain them, whether its gardens, our cars or good daily habits.

Defeating Procrastination and getting back on track

So, enough wallowing, the past is the past, what about the here and now. How can you defeat procrastination and start on the right path? Here are practical ways in which I got back on track and if you are interested, how you too can get going again.

One point to mention though is that these methods should be used to just get you going, to get you out of a funk, to get your engine started so to speak.

Top-down Method

The Top-Down method is great for when you have a mixture of kinds of tasks, from little maintenance types to important larger projects. It goes against all the received wisdom out there on productivity which says – do the most important thing first. Sometimes you just need a quick easy win. This method is the way.

Process flow

The process flow method is good if you have many of the same types of tasks to do mixed in with projects and repeatable tasks. For instance, you might have a list of phone calls to make, emails to send, plus larger multitask projects to complete. Again, it goes against received wisdom, but I reiterate, if you need to get started then sometimes doing something, anything will help.

15 second method

This method works by overcoming our tendency to procrastinate if we have a large project to complete for instance a dissertation or writing a book. Just tell yourself you will just do 5 minutes work. Try it.

Vision

After trying these techniques, if you still can’t make a start, then ask the following questions.
Ask yourself why you want this task competed. Is in line with your values or your purpose?
Is it a task or job that needs completing as part of a larger project? Do you have to do this task, to move you towards a better version of yourself? For example, exercise. If so, all I can say is that you will have to revisit your goal or vision. Write out why it would be worthwhile doing it.
Then ask, what would it look like if you completed this task or project. Doing this mental exercise might cause you to think of a tiny first action. What’s this next action. Just do that.

Quitting vs failure

Have you tried all the above, and more, and you still can’t get going? You’re about to quit.
All I would say is don’t quit just yet. Take a break. This doesn’t have to be a formal thing. Just park whatever it is you want to be doing. Don’t cancel any subscriptions you have, just leave it dormant.
Go about your life until you can get that spark back. This will ensure you won’t fail. If you quit, you fail. If you pause, then it’s just a pause waiting for you to get back on track again.

The post How I got back on track. appeared first on Mike Holden Sales.

What time is it? What do you do when someone asks you that question? Chances are you look at your watch or phone. Why is that? How did time get there? Well, I’m going to tell you. 3 or 4 minutes in the future (if you keep reading) you will be able to identify the key milestones in the history of time.

The first time

First, lets go back in time. Way, way back, into prehistory. Imagine if you had asked someone then the same question. What would be the answer?

When should we sow, when should we reap? The seasons gave us the answer. So, the answer would be, for instance, Harvest Time. Or it would’ve been whatever season depending on the orbit of the earth around the sun – the year. Although to be fair, from their perspective the sun travelled round the Earth.

That other celestial orb that travelled around the earth was useful too. The moon waxed and waned a tad over 12 times a year. Now we could separate the year even further and become more successful at hunting, gathering and then later farming.

So, about 12 thousand years ago, we could now cultivate crops and grow them exactly where we wanted, soil and climate permitting. Now we could settle down. We formed our first static communities. Villages became towns, which became cities. Eventually kingdoms formed, with kings to rule over them. These rulers needed to control their subjects and how they worked, to ensure the work got done. The carrot and the stick were both used and a new form of time came about. Work and rest days.

A time to work and play

Festivals divided up time, into when you could eat drink and be merry, provided you worked to the bone in between. The week of 7 days also arrive with each day give a special name. Oh, and you could rest on the seventh. You’re welcome.

The day is an obvious unit of time, but it wasn’t until the Ancient Egyptians, that we measured the time of day. Sundials were used to track the sun across the sky. The Greeks were the first to divide the day up into 12 divisions or hours. One slight problem. Daytime changed in length every day, due to the tilt of the Earth on it’s axis. The length of daytime and nighttime is only the same twice a year, at the equinoxes.

This problem ticked on until the 14^th Century when a bright spark had the audacity to invent the clockwork mechanism. Now we could really tell the time. We had proper hours, minutes and seconds. Punctuality and being on time were good traits to have.

Be on time

Next, we have the industrial revolution. Mass travel and the railways caused another problem. You see, back then we had local time. The time was different in Manchester than it was in London. The position of the sun at its highest point, determined at what point noon was and that is very different depending on where you are. That’s fine if it takes you a week to commute between two cities, but it’s a huge problem when you have train timetables.

This prompted another great leap forward – standardised time or Greenwich Meantime here in the UK. Now you could ask anyone in Britain what time it was and they could give you the same answer.

So, there you have it, job done. Now you can answer the question with certainty – what time is it? Or can you?

When NASA started sending satellites into space, they quickly realised that they had to reset the onboard clocks continuously. This is because time slows down in space. Now that would eventually really screw your Satnavs up. So, time is different where you are in the universe.

Well, here we are 3 or 4 minutes into the future (thanks for reading fellow time traveller). Now you can identify the major events on time’s timeline. But are you any more certain than our ancestors in the fields 12,000 years ago, when I ask?

What time is it?

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