The Keys to Business Change

It begins with the individual

“To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to succeed.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We would love to tell you all about the Winner’s Secret, but we can’t. It’s a Secret…

Are true winners physically different to the rest of us? A larger brain, maybe—or a specific gene to make them naturally brilliant at whatever it might be that they are winning? Or what about just pure, unadulterated good luck?

No. None of the above.

If they have no physical differences to the rest of us, what is it that sets them apart, drives them onward and upwards until they become outstanding in their chosen field?

Imagine knowing how much potential you might have at your disposal to become completely amazing. How fantastic would it be to shine as brightly as you wanted to, just to have a wonderful sense of achievement at the end of every day. Wouldn’t it be incredible knowing that being supportive and involved with everyone around you made you feel as good as you could possibly feel? And what about the outstanding energy-levels and the enthusiasm you could generate if you were working hard at being the best you could possibly ever be, every moment of every day?

Actions speak louder than words. Winners know exactly what they want to achieve and they simply go for it. People are inspired by the actions of true winners long after they’ve forgotten what it was that the winner won.

The Winner’s Secret unearths the “winner” in all of us. It raises the energy, raises the expectations and raises personal and business goals in everyone touched by its magic.

But that’s all we are allowed to divulge. The Winner’s Secret must be experienced to be believed…

Read the ten secret keys to becoming a winner…

  1. Winners have a clear purpose
    An Emotionally Intelligent starting point for any True Winner is to set aside some regular personal “Me” time to keep a strong focus on what it is that you really want to achieve. Those of us who develop a clear purpose find it much easier to think like a winner than those who allow the environment to influence their behaviour, their feelings and the direction they accidentally find themselves taking in life. This is because it’s much easier to work out what to do and where to go next when you know where you’re heading. Start with the end in mind—build a strong visual image and know how amazing it feels to have reached that goal.
  2. Winners formulate a clear route map—so they can achieve their purpose
    Finding a purpose (starting with the end in mind) is what gets every True Winner started. But to succeed, a series of strategic milestones must be developed to work out how to get there. This is your route-map. Identify each step you must take and the timescale you want to have achieved it in. It’s amazing how fast the act of putting pen to paper can make it happen. When we write down a goal, we’re forced to be clear and specific—and seeing those goals written on paper is so much more powerful than merely keeping them in your head.
  3. Winners are constantly raising personal standards
    There’s little point setting goals that can be too easily achieved. True Winners are only happy when achieving goals that stretch their limits. Optimal experience (that “Yessss!” moment) is achieved during those times when skills are being used in conjunction with the determination to meet challenges head on. Being aware of those achievements makes us feel good—and in turn, makes us want to achieve more. Being proud isn’t the same as arrogance—pride in your own sense of achievement enhances your self identity, your self-worth and your well being. You then feel better disposed towards both yourself and those around you—which means that the ripple effect touches everybody around you! So, when you’ve achieved something worthy of praise from someone else, admit it and say: “I’m amazing!” Repeat ten times on the hour, every hour and be very, very proud.
  4. Winners take immediate action towards change and improvement
    Identify something in your Blueprint that you don’t like, don’t need and don’t want and take immediate action to “kick start” your journey along the road to achievement.
    1. Step One—make a public commitment towards the immediate change you’ve chosen. This means you’ll lose face if you back out or don’t follow the challenge through.
    2. Step Two—act as quickly as possible and the bigger and bolder the action the better. The more public and noticeable it is, the more likely it is that you’ll stick to it and achieve even more next time.
    3. Step Three—choose the next challenge to change something.
    4. Step Four—repeat as often as possible.
  5. Winners focus on lessons to be learned in a difficult situation, rather than seeing it as a setback or failure
    It’s (almost) impossible to succeed at everything we attempt in life. A key factor in the way a True Winner approaches difficulties is how they act and react to a situation where the outcome is not as originally expected. Is it more likely that a Winner would see a “lack of success” as a failure or as a lesson to be learned? If seen as a failure, the natural human tendency is to stop trying, to give up, to not bother. If seen as a lesson to be learned however, the tendency moves more towards try, try, try again. According to Edison, he didn’t fail 10,000 times to invent the light bulb; he succeeded in discovering 10,000 ways in which it wouldn’t work. It was purely his attitude towards focusing on the lessons to be learned from the situation and changing his tactics, that he eventually achieved his goal.
  6. Winners choose every action and reaction—taking charge of life
    It’s very easy for us to be distracted by others and to allow events that we perceive as being outside our control to direct what we do or don’t do. In reality, we can always justify using our time to be doing something else, rather than putting maximum focus into the matter in hand. True Winner’s are driven by purpose and they do whatever it takes to get them where they want to be. No-one gets in the way or diverts their attention to something less important. They know what they want and they simply go for it, avoiding any form of procrastination.
  7. Winners visualise a positive future
    One of the most effective techniques in the Winner’s arsenal is active visualisation. Sports professionals have used visualisation for many years to enhance their performance and the technique can be successfully applied to both working and personal life. By visualising a successful outcome (starting with the end in mind) we significantly enhance its success in real life. Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do, so excellence is a habit.” Remember that our consciousness doesn’t know the difference between imagination and reality, so if we repeatedly imagine excellence, there’s every chance that it will become reality. Learn to re-programme current negative beliefs and attitudes by picturing a future in which all your goals are already achieved.
    1. Step One—strongly visualise an image or scenario of the successful outcome.
    2. Step Two—feel the excitement/joy/pleasure at having achieved what you set out to do and make it feel as real as possible.
    3. Step Three—keep bringing your thoughts back to how it felt to achieve that goal as if it’s already happened.
    4. Remember—Frequency + Intensity in visualising (and feeling the excitement of having achieved) the new goal will get you where you want to go—or at least near to the perfect outcome.
  8. Winners use emotionally intelligent thoughts to enhance performance
    We regularly rely on the conditioning we’ve laid down over the whole of our lives in the subconscious mind to guide us through routine day to day activities. This helps us to focus on the more important things in life and any new incoming stimulus about which we have no prior information. So what happens if our automatic, unconscious conditioning is mainly dour, bleak and expecting the worst? And if we have a choice about the way we act and react, why do we fall into the trap of allowing negative pre-conditioned thoughts to become a dominant part of this routine? Our thoughts guide our actions, so it’s crucial to make sure we think only constructive and positive thoughts. Taking control of your thoughts is the first step in changing your behaviour. Remember, as Henry Ford said, “If you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re probably right”.
  9. Winners choose their attitude—emotional intelligence in action
    How wonderful it is to wake up every morning and decide what attitude you’re going to choose for the day ahead! Winners do it as a matter of course. When we allow what’s currently happening in life (or even worse, what other people are doing) to dictate how we feel, it only takes a couple of negative things (the traffic jam on the way to work or the e-mail from Mr Angry) and we’re in a downward spiral for the rest of the day. Tuning in to our thoughts, our actions and our reactions puts us firmly in charge of our own attitude.
  10. Winners hold onto personal power—emotional intelligence in action
    To keep feeling positive throughout the day, keep tight hold of your personal power. If you allow other people to upset you or be in control of how you feel, you’re giving your power away to them! The more you fight to keep hold of your power and remain in control of how you feel, the easier it becomes to remain positive and upbeat in the face of any setback. Remember: it’s easy to “catch” other people’s emotions so don’t allow people who are feeling depressed, angry or anxious to push their emotions onto you. It is their choice to be feeling that way and your choice to ignore it. Choose to hold onto that power at all costs.

Find out our top ten tips for living with your dark side…

We spend infinitely more time listening to our constant internal dialogue than we spend listening to any other person. So how can we learn to live in peace with the Dark Side when it gets going?

Read these ten top tips to find out…

  1. Our self-talk is constant
    What you’re saying to yourself in your head goes on 24/7—it never stops. The constant conversation between your Dark Side and your Bright Side has more input into your life than any other single person ever will. So is it mainly positive Bright Side input—or do you allow your Dark Side voice to be the dominant one? Remember—the choice is yours.
  2. Our self-talk takes place in real time
    It’s a running commentary. If it’s Bright Side self-talk, that’s the best friend you could have. If it’s a dominant Dark Side voice—you’re stuck with crazy, demeaning, negative, self-defeating rubbish which gets you nowhere fast. “I’m always going to be broke,” “I can’t stop worrying”, “I’m too fat/thin/ugly/unlovable,” “I’m stupid,” and that old chestnut, “What if…?”—all designed to be the best self-fulfilling prophesies in the world if you let them. Remember, thoughts become things…
  3. Our bodies react as if our self-talk is real
    There’s no difference where consciousness is concerned between imagination and reality. Whatever we’re imagining—especially if we think it often enough and charge it with enough emotion (frequency + intensity) can have a massive physiological effect. If I’m thinking, “This presentation is really useless… I’m going to stand up in front of the client and they’re going to pull me to pieces, then the project won’t get signed off and the team will think I’m an idiot. They might even fire me, then I’ll default on the mortgage. And then, and then…?” The Dark Side voice makes your palms sweat, heart beat faster and then adrenalin cuts off the creative Bright Side and you function at half strength. Think these kind of thoughts often enough and you build habitual thought patterns that keep surfacing with every “What if?”
  4. Is your self-talk influenced mainly by your Bright Side or Dark Side?
    Your authentic self knows that you are competent, intelligent, motivated, prepared and able to do whatever you choose to do… but it has to function the best it can while being bombarded by Dark Side negatives. Ignore them and go with the authentic self. And double check that those around you are not feeding you negatives. If they are—let your Bright Side run riot and overplay everything they say with your own positive self-talk.
  5. Dark Side self-talk is bigoted
    When it’s in full swing, your Dark Side is so powerful, it overwhelms all other input—and that includes reality. If your self talk is telling you that you’re going to mess up that presentation (for instance) and they’re all going to think you’re an idiot, your head is so full of fire-fighting techniques and how you’re going to over-ride the objections that you overlook the interest you might be generating in your haste to get out of the limelight. Another opportunity missed?
  6. The Dark Side gets loudest when you need it least
    When the going gets tough, we revert to default mode—the blueprint, our lowest common denominator. We all have one side of the brain which is more dominant than the other. We are at our best when using both hemispheres, but when learning something new—or when under stress—we naturally default to the dominant hemisphere. By the same token, when we feel under stress we hype up the negative self-talk if we’ve allowed the Dark Side to dominate. So just imagine—when faced with difficulty we bring in the negatives because we don’t think we can do something—which ensures exactly that.
  7. Self-talk can change your life
    Self-talk is relentless and ever present. Becoming aware of the Dark Side tape recording playing over and over is the first step; then start paying it attention when it kicks in and challenge it head on by overplaying a new positive Bright Side soundtrack. The darkest of Dark Sides can’t function while being bombarded with “I’m amazing, I’m amazing, I’m AMAZING!”.
  8. We talk to ourselves in ways you would never dream of talking to someone else
    If you walked up to someone else and said, “You stupid b*^*>*d!” they would either recoil in horror or lash back at you with equal verbal hostility or even physical abuse. But it’s quite common to find yourself talking in exactly those terms to yourself at the drop of a hat. We know that if we talked to other people the way we allow our Dark Side to talk to ourselves we would be doing constant battle with the world. As well as being unkind (and completely untrue in most cases) we carry on with the verbal abuse, which undermines both self regard and any sense of self worth. Remember—be kinder to yourself and you’ll see an amazing difference.
  9. Dark Side self-talk creates a toxic internal environment
    Considering that self-talk goes on constantly (even when we’re asleep it takes the form of dreaming) how come we’re so naturally unaware of it happening? And if we do listen in occasionally, why do we think, “It’s just me? I always talk to myself like that…” It’s a habit that’s been put in place by you—and habits can be changed with a little bit of effort. If we constantly tune in to the Dark Side, it creates a closed-loop which is like a toxic waste dump. Every time you go around the same loop, you dip in to the toxic dump and pull up the same old self-loathing nonsense and allow yourself to feel defeated. Get off that loop at all costs… Create a brand new positive loop and be the master of your new destiny.
  10. You must listen to your body because it most definitely listens to you
    A toxic inner environment causes headaches, back-ache, stomach problems, anxiety and an endless list of things which help us feel as if we’re spiralling down into self-defeat. This is a great place for the Dark Side to feel completely at home and to dominate every waking thought. Whenever you feel any form of unwell-being, see it as a welcome sign that something’s got to change—and then change it. Remember—you’re the one in charge of your life. Will you choose strong, powerful and magnificent? Or would you prefer to choose weak, useless and worthless? No contest really, is there?