As you may have surmised by now, I’ve been influenced by Jordan Belfort (The Wolf of Wall Street) I credit him for some of the material in this book and I do recommend you take his Straight Line Selling course. More of that later. Jordan has a unique way of managing the inner game which I will share with you now.
“My past failures and insults are now my muscle”

Do you want to know what the real secret to success is? It’s this:
Be willing to do today, what other people are unwilling to do, to get what you want tomorrow.

There it is in a nutshell, thousands of years of personal development boiled down to eighteen words. I suggest you copy these words and burn them into you psyche. There is nothing else required to succeed. Let’s dive deeper into what it means.

Be willing… this means you are prepared to do what it takes.
… To do today – not tomorrow, next week but today, preferably now.
…what other people are unwilling to do – for instance you practise your craft longer and harder, you make more cold calls, you phone the CEO when other target middle management.
…to get what you want tomorrow – you know your rewards come later; you are prepared to be patient.

Language

I write a lot about language in my other books, but here are a couple of words for you to eliminate from your vocabulary immediately, because of the negative effect they have on your psychology ie the inner game.

The first word is ‘problem’. What does problem make you think of? Aargh! Something has cropped up that has spoiled things and now xyz won’t work. This word puts you in an resourceful state of mind. Contrast that with ‘challenge’. This word has positive connotations. People like challenges, they test us, and they motivate you. Think of if someone says “I challenge you that you can’t do such and such”. You think right then I’ll show you. You roll your sleeves up.

Become a Creator of Circumstance

So two words describing the exact same scenario can affect how you think and therefore what you do next. This is the key – things will always happen and obstacles will always occur, it’s what you do next that counts. Become a creator of circumstances not a creature of circumstances.

The next word for you to eliminate is ‘should’. The word should describes an obligation. If you say to someone else “You should do xyz” they will feel obliged to. People don’t like to feel obliged to do something. They might perform the task but it won’t be as good as if they want to do it. Also catch yourself saying to yourself I “should do” to yourself. Again it implies an obligation to do something, which again implies it is not your goal. For example two people both have a few pounds to shed. One says “I really should lose a few pounds” and the other says, “I’m really motivated to lose a few pounds”. Which one of them is likely to lose the weight? Yet again one word effects your actions and therefore your results.

By the way if you are looking to lose weight contact me and I will show you how I did it.

Managing your State

Have you ever been in a crowded place and spotted someone you know? Think about that for a moment. Recently I saw an old colleague at a football game, where there were 90,000 people. How could I possibly spot someone out in such a crowd? Pure luck or chance? Well yes and no. I will explain.
Our conscious brain can only concentrate on a very small number of things at one time, but our unconscious mind is silently taking in everything we see and hear, as well as noting how we feel, what we smell, how warm or cold it is? For us to function effectively it makes sense for us to be conscious about only a few things, or we get overwhelmed. So the unconscious mind does three things to manage the information overload:

Deletion

Most of the information coming in is irrelevant so we delete it. Until there is a threat or, like a familiar face at my football game something novel to pique our interest. This is great as it stops us from overloading. It’s not so good when you realise how much we miss, including opportunities in business and selling. I go into this faculty of our mind on my post about het law of attraction (LNINK)

Distortion

This is also something to consider. Have you ever heard two people arguing over a referee’s decision in a football game? Clearly, they both can’t be right. At least one of them is incorrect because their mind has distorted what they have seen. Again, what we think we heard or saw isn’t necessarily what really happened. A prospect who says no, might not really be saying no. Ask for clarification.

Generalisation

This is useful because it means we don’t have to re-learn how to open a door every time we approach a new door. Our mind generalises to help us. This is a door and therefore this handle will open it. It is automatic and unconscious. However, we need to be careful with automatic generalisation. Whenever you hear the words – always, never, all, everyone, nobody take note as there is a generalisation coming and with it an untruth.
By being aware of deletions, distortions and generalisations, you can be more precise in your own language but also not take what your prospect says as necessarily the truth. Ask proper questions to pin down the truth. (LINK).

Managing Fear – the three ways

1. Ignore it. This is the victim’s way. They just take it and it prevents them from ever doing anything worthwhile. It leads to failure and is the loser’s way.
2. Act in spite of it. This is better than the losers’ way. They do it in spite of the fear. They are scared and may be successful but anxious.
3. The third and most resourceful way to manage your fears in sales and in anything is to accept it. This fear you feel is masking something much deeper probably from your childhood. It is usually from two core fears that humans have:
a. That you are not enough
b. You want to be loved because you are not enough.

The post The Inner Game appeared first on Mike Holden Sales.

When people think of the Law of Attraction, they associate it with magical thinking. That is that they just need to sit and think or pray and the Universe will grant their wish. This would be the none-scientific explanation.
Now I am not suggesting that the Universe or God or whatever, doesn’t play a part – I will simply say I don’t know whether this is true or not and I don’t think anyone will ever know for sure. This is a matter of faith, not fact.

Science and Providence

What I do know is that once you start on this journey of creation, which always starts within yourself, things occur that appear strange. We have already discussed the Reticular Activating System in a previous post. I am sure most of the Magical can be explained by this faculty. I also looked at coincidences in that same post and how our nervous system has evolved to notice novelty in our environment, to flag things up as a threat or opportunity.
Whilst we explore the mind and our creative forces in the Universe, I do think we need to nod in the direction of Providence. I am a scientist by schooling, I have a degree in the Applied Zoology. My training and early career is in the logical, scientific and material.

The Leading Edge of Evolution

As I grow older and hopefully wiser, I realise that the more we know of our universe, the more we will know what we don’t know. Even our technology, whilst it discovers new answers, discovers many more questions.
As a species, we simply cannot know everything. I am fine with that and I am happy that I am here at this stage in our evolution, with our searching and creating brains. This is because I know that we are playing our part in the evolution of consciousness. I believe we are all at the leading edge of this evolution, as the Universe becomes aware of itself.

The boundary between science and spirituality

There is a place for science; its analysis and structure has enabled us to crawl out from under the rock of superstition. There is also a place for the spiritual, the deep searching within ourselves, within the dark recesses of our psyche. This is where creation takes place, all the great scientists knew this. In between is the Magical, the boundary between science and spirituality. That place just beyond what we know and before we get to faith. That, I believe is where wisdom is.

How do you get wisdom from magic?

Wisdom makes you Wise, like the Three Wise Men sometimes referred to as The Three Magi. This gives you the word Magic.
So although, I will always try to explain the Law of Attraction as the results of a sustained and specific way of thinking, at the back of my mind there are some things I can’t explain and science may never explain. But that’s ok. It doesn’t matter.
So when you ask the question, Is the Law of Attraction Real and Does it Work?You are asking the wrong question.
You should ask ‘how I can train my spiritual mind to create what I want in this material plane?’.

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The final step in using the Law of Attraction properly, to get what you want  is the use of Gratitude. I say it is the final step, but actually, it should be the first step. You should always start from a place of gratitude.

Start from gratitude

In a recent study, it was shown that gratitude makes you happier. Happy people tend to be more optimistic. Optimistic people tend to be more successful. So, there is no magic involved here, it is simply another strange way our brains work.
If you begin your goal setting process with gratitude for what you already have, it actually makes you less attached to the outcome. It is curious that when you become unattached to the outcome, you seem to get what you want anyway. I believe this is where the Aladdin’s’ Lamp type of explanation for the Law of Attraction comes from.

My Sales Business

One example I can give you is from my sales business, where I routinely call 20 cold call prospects per day. On each call, I frankly don’t care what happens. I am polite and go through my story. If they’re interested, great. If not then that’s great as well.
I am happy and grateful that I already have plenty of prospects to work on, but these 20 cold calls per day are one of my daily income producing activities. I just hit my numbers every day. As long as I do this, more leads come. I could imagine that if I came from a place of desperation or lack, this would come across in my tonality and I would struggle getting leads.

How can you practise being grateful?

In my morning routine, I practice writing down 10 things I am grateful for. They have to be different things every day. First, you go through the obvious things like, having your family and friends around, the love of your life partner, your health, the money you do have now. Then you start to run out of things to be grateful for. This is where you have to force yourself to come up with a list of 10.

I then come up with things like: my kidneys are working, I live in a stable democracy, the internet etc. Then you actually notice more things that you actually take for granted: it’s now late November and I am writing this in the evening whilst it’s dark outside. 100 years ago, I couldn’t do that. I can write this post and someone on the other side of the world (You) might read this, maybe years from today (posted 2018). How lucky are we to be alive right this minute.

It becomes a habit

As this becomes a habit, just like any habit, it becomes automatic. You find yourself being grateful all of the time, not just in your morning review. This is when the magic does start to happen. Remember our old friend the Reticular Activating System; guess what you’ve trained it to do? Like the faithful servant it is, it looks out for things for you to be grateful for.

Be grateful for everything good that comes

I walk our dog Rosie every day, sometimes twice a day. I often find money on the floor – mostly 1p, 2p, sometimes 5p. People have thrown this money away, probably because they don’t like having loose change in their pockets. I know this because it’s usually around a row of local shops near my house.
So I often wonder about these people and how their finances are. I wonder if they wish they had more money. Do they dream of winning the lottery? Perhaps they really desire money but they throw it away. This is not the same as giving it away, no, they are literally throwing money away. What kind of message does that send to the subconscious mind? I love money, but I hate it as well.

What do you think happens – nothing?

When I pick these pennies up, I wipe them off with a hankie and recite a little prayer of thanks.
‘Thank you for this sign – money comes to me in ever-increasing amounts in a good way. I am a money magnet. Thank you, thank you, thank you.’
Then I take it home and put it in a jar. After about a year, there’s enough to take to the coin exchange, for notes and then a nice meal out with the family!
Am I happy with my financial status? You bet. I am so grateful and blessed in so many ways, not just money. The more grateful I am, the more I get. Funny that.

Be grateful before you receive

When you start to become adept at manifesting things in your life, using the law of attraction, you become certain that things will come. It’s a bit like ordering books from Amazon. You place the order and a few days or maybe a week or so later, it arrives. You just know it will come. The law of attraction is the same. If you go through all the steps I describe in my book – Is the Law of Attraction Real and Does it Work?(Amazon Associates Link), eventually what you want will arrive. Just keep doing the work and you will be rewarded.
Just make a start, then keep starting over and over and over. Rest a while but do not quit.

When things go wrong

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit-
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a fellow turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow –
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor’s cup;
And he learned too late when the night came down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out –
The silver tint in the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It might be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit –
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit

The post Gratitude – The First Step in Getting What You Want appeared first on Mike Holden Sales.

Your job whilst you are taking action and assessing your results, is to follow the signs. This is because coincidences and curious happenings will take place.

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!”
― William Hutchison Murray

Take notice

You follow the signs by taking notice. Notice what happens around you when you take action. What unusual things happen, by that I mean what things happen that aren’t usual. A friend you haven’t heard from calls out of the blue, with a proposition. You get a sudden urge to travel a different way to work. Maybe you come into a small but not insignificant amount of money. Is it a coincidence? Maybe, maybe not, it doesn’t matter, what matters is that you noticed it was different. This is the key.

You are recognising that your subconscious is flagging things up to you, that are not normal. Your subconscious is telling you ‘Take notice of this, it is important’. From steps 1-3 you are telling your subconscious what you want. In step 5, you listen and notice your subconscious communicating back to you. Step 4 taking action is the link between the two. One of the reasons for this phenomenon is the Reticular Activating System.

Reticular Activating System

The Reticular Activating System is a part of the brain stem. The brain stem is the oldest part of the brain in evolutionary terms, which regulates heartbeat, breathing and digestion. In other words, this part of the brain keeps you alive and you also have little conscious control over it. This is the part that makes you breathe after holding your breath. The RAS sits at the top of the brain stem and acts like a messenger between this old part of the nervous system and the higher thinking centres. The RAS is also in contact with the sensory organs. It therefore monitors everything you see, hear and feel. Even though most of what our eyes and ears pick up, we filter out, the RAS is monitoring in the background ready to alert you to danger.

Because the RAS sits between the brain stem and the sensory faculties, you can jump out of the way of danger, without your conscious thought. If you step out in front of a bus, your survival depends on shifting quick. You don’t need the conscious analytical mind getting in the way.

The magical part of the Reticular Activating System is that you can ask it to look out for certain things. This is what you are doing in steps 1-3 of the Law of Attraction. You are programming the RAS to alert you to anything that could help you move to your goals.

The RAS, then goes to work in the background, constantly scanning the environment for opportunities, threats and answers.

Coincidences

Have you ever noticed, when a friend calls you up, who you haven’t spoken to for a while, just as you were thinking about them. Or, what about the book you picked up in the store, but decided not to buy, even though the blurb seemed to suggest you needed to buy it. Later you hear about this book on a podcast, then a colleague suggests that you should read it. Coincidences? It doesn’t matter. What is important is that you are noticing. Take the example of the friend who calls you up. Is that telepathy or a coincidence. Honestly I don’t know. But what I do know is the human brain. And I know that you are programmed to notice coincidences and things that are out of the ordinary. It is nature’s way of keeping us alive. Whatever is novel in our environment could be a threat or an opportunity. Your RAS is constantly scanning for these coincidences and will flag them up to you. As this faculty is largely unconscious, these hunches seem to pop up from nowhere.

I am not about to debunk telepathy or ESP, because frankly I don’t know if they are real. I do know that some research has shown they are real, but mainstream science denies it. (See Where Science and Magic Meet by Serena Roney-Dougal). I am more interested in results. The good news is that whatever the Law of Attraction is, you can use it and it will work. You can actually program your RAS to go to work to scan the environment, for what you want. You just need to notice the coincidences. It is the RAS saying – ‘This could be worth looking at’ or ‘Watch out, avoid this’.

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