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Resolutions like “I will not smoke” are expressed in negative language - they’re describing what you don’t want. But this only gives you a mental image of what you’re trying to get away from - in this case, smoking.

Your brain unconsciously filters your perceptions of the world around you. Given the huge amount of sensory data available to you every single second, you have to ignore most of it - there just wouldn’t be time to take it all in. So, without even thinking about it, you choose to notice what you are interested in and ignore the rest.

Some of the filters are instinctive, designed to help us survive by noticing events that are likely to affect us - if somebody yells in your ear or starts taking off their clothes in front of you, they will probably attract your attention!

Some filters are learned - for a fashion-conscious person, someone with the latest handbag or top will stand out from a crowd of thousands.

The rest of the filters are the ones you install yourself, through your goals. Once your goal is set, your unconscious mind will be scanning the information coming in from your surroundings for anything relevant to achieving the goal.

You will notice opportunities, resources and people that can help you to get closer to your goal. It will seem like you are ‘attracting’ these helpful opportunities and people. If you had not set the goal, on the other hand, you probably would not even have noticed them, because they would not be relevant to you. It

So since we tend to attract what we are thinking about, telling yourself “I will not smoke” will just keep your attention on your cravings.

Other examples: “I wish I wasn’t in this job/relationship/flat” - if you think this way, without clarifying for yourself what you do want, your next job/relationship/flat may not be any better.

“Away-from” motivation can be great for giving you the kick you need to get going - but it’s undirected (”away” can be any direction) and it runs out quickly, as soon as you get far enough away from what you’re escaping. It’s also stressful, because you are carrying around your mental image of what you want to get away from.

So: think about what you want, rather than what you don’t want.

Bonus tip: if it’s not easy at first to focus on what you want, start with what you don’t want and ask yourself: ‘What do you want instead of this?’

Andy Smith is an Emotional Intelligence consultant and NLP Trainer based in the UK. You can email him at andy@practicaleq.com. His website, at http://www.createthelifeyouwant.co.uk, contains many free articles and downloads. Sign up for Andy’s “Create The Life You Want” newsletter and get a useful free report on goal-setting by sending a blank email to:
andy18-159754@autocontactor.com

You’ve spent a lot of time preparing your PowerPoint
presentations and now you’re ready to show the world all your
company has to offer. You set up some appointments for sales
presentations with a few members of the local Chamber of
Commerce. On the appointed day, you lug your laptop and your
presentation to your prospective client’s office and start your
show. They’re impressed with what they see and you get the job.
And that’s the way things are supposed to work.

But what happens when you’re ready to start finding clients
outside a 30-mile radius? For one thing, your costs for getting
new work will soar. Not only will your travel expenses increase,
but the time spent traveling will keep you from working on other
tasks that need to get done.

It’s hard when you’re trying to grow your business solo and
you’re the one wearing all the hats. You can multi-task to a
certain extent, but still, when you work alone, there’s just so
much you can accomplish in one day. Sure you can hire help, but
that means adding payroll and other employee management tasks to
your already overburdened schedule.

What if there was a way you could show your PowerPoint
presentations to anyone in the world, at any time of the day,
without going broke? Do you think you could nail new business? Is
this the thing that you’ve been wishing for night after night,
while you lay there wide awake trying desperately to fall asleep?

Well for one low annual fee, which works out to be about $50 per
month, you can show your PowerPoint presentations as many times
as you want, to anyone, anywhere in the world. No, you’re not
dreaming! The technology exists right now.

When you want someone to view your PowerPoint presentation, you
send that person an invitation by email. The invitation provides
a link and an access code. Your guest simply clicks on the link,
enters the code, then sits back and enjoys the show!

Because your guests view the presentation from a standard web
browser, they won’t need any special software to see your
presentation. And even though you’re not physically present, you
can still control the show.

There are no limits to the number of presentations that you can
store in your private account. You can jump around from slide to
slide and select the slides you want your audience to see. You
can also switch between different presentations while your
viewers are still logged in. And best of all, you can read right
from your notes without anyone else noticing.

Up to ten viewers can logon and view your presentation
simultaneously. You can show your presentations to an unlimited
number of viewers, but there is an additional cost for this.
Anyone who has a PDA can view your presentation, too, as long as
Flash is built into the PDA.

So if you’re ready to show the world your new product
demonstration, or you need to conduct a meeting with different
people who are located in different offices, or you are in the
training business and you’re setting up virtual classrooms, or
even if you need to train others on the use of a particular
product, you need OnlinePRESENTER.

OnlinePRESENTER requires Windows 98, 2000, XP or NT and
PowerPoint 2000, XP, or 2003.

This cutting-edge way to show off your PowerPoint presentations
is well worth the price of admission. Without leaving the comfort
of your home office, you can be showing your wares to prospects
living in New York or New Delhi! So sit back and let the show
begin.

Copyright © 2004 Cavyl Stewart. Get the most out of the software you use everyday. Check out the add-in software directory for more information on OnlinePRESENTER and other great time saving PowerPoint add-in tools. Visit: http://www.find-small-business-software.com/powerpoint-addins.html - Also, be sure to check out my Exclusive, 100% free, 100% original content ecourses.

In my younger days I was a member of the Jaycees (Junior Chamber of Commerce). Membership at the time was limited to young men 21-35. In Tacoma, our largest fundraiser was the yearly fireworks stand.

Near the end of June we would sign a contract for an order of fireworks based on the previous year’s sales. The fireworks company would deliver the modular panels of the fireworks stand to its location (the same street corner each year), and we would screw and wire it together.

The fireworks chairman would schedule husbands and wives for their shifts and we would all do our duty. It wasn’t hard work. Actually, it was fun. We talked and joked with each other as we waited for customers, just like most businesses. We cleaned up our messes and sometimes like little children we would set off a few fireworks from time to time to alleviate boredom. The last crew would generally close up and then cross the street to the Mountain Tavern for a beer or two and a game of pool.

In selling fireworks we would see single adult males, parents, grandparents and children . . . lots of children. The fireworks were labeled “safe and sane” so we could legally sell fireworks to any age. Most of us had grown up playing with fireworks both legal and illegal.

It didn’t take me long to develop my sales attitude. Having worked at my parents’ motel from the seventh grade up to college, I knew about selling to the public. And as the son of small business owners I knew how important each sale was. For the Jaycees this was the fundraiser that allowed us to run many of our projects during the year, and we had a whole bunch of community projects.

When kids came up to the stand they would usually take all of their money out of their pockets. With money in hand they would make their purchasing decisions. Since I could easily see what they had to work with, I could put together special packages for them that magically took every single penny from their eager little paws. They were thrilled. I was thrilled.

When the parents and grandparents came I would listen and watch the interaction of the adults to the children and judge my packages accordingly. I would fine-tune my pitch when it was time to give them their change. My goal was always to take every penny . . . sometimes that meant selling a single punk. I always tried.

This is the same mentality it takes in negotiation. I hate to leave money on the table, unless I figure it’s seed-money that I can get later. Now, don’t get the idea that I take unfair advantage of people. I give value for value. It’s just that I want those pennies and if I know they’re there, I try to get them. Isn’t that what sales and negotiation is about? Getting every penny should always be our goal.

Author Don Doman: Don is a published author of books for small business, corporate video producer, and owner of Ideas and Training (http://www.ideasandtraining.com), which provides business training products. Don also owns Human Resources Radio (http://www.humanresourcesradio.com), which provides business training programs and previews 24-hours a day.

After hearing Daniel Pink speak about his new book A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age for the fourth time, I finally read it cover to cover (less than a day). I finally got what he’s talking about when he says jobs that are high touch are here to stay. That is, jobs that builds relationships between business and client whether it’s B2B or B2C. To that end, he advocates that we incorporate more storytelling into our relationships, that we make a point with a story, not just facts which everyone knows they need but still find boring. The reason is that stories are easier to remember. He goes on to list some of our contemporary characteristics distinguishing stories from facts:

Facts illuminate……….Stories amuse

Facts reveal…………..Stories divert

Facts are for real……..Stories are for cover

With the easy access to facts however, facts have become ubiquitous, available at the speed of light because of the internet and search engines like Google. So each fact becomes less valuable. What becomes more valuable is the ability to place these facts in context and deliver them with emotional impact. Stories exist where high concept and high touch intersect. This need is spawning the nascent movement called organizational storytelling at World Bank, NASA, even Xerox. It is even being used in branding advertisement on TV.

And as Mark Turner says in his book The Literary Mind, “Most of our experience, our knowledge and our thinking are organized as stories”.

Why am I telling you? Here’s Daniel Pink’s answer: “Story is having another important impact on business. Like design, it is becoming a key way for individuals and entrepreneurs to distinguish their goods and services in a crowded marketplace.”

So I wanted to share with you a story I heard last week. I like this story for three reasons: 1. it’s a story out of Wal-Mart’s success. 2. we can each apply it as a mini-self-assessment. 3. it’s inspirational. I hope you like it too.

At Wal-Mart, in the beginning, everyone would start as a bagger, bagging the customer’s purchases. Employees were monitored on a number of criteria. They were assessed on their attitude toward the job, attitude toward the customers, when they arrived for work, when the left, their enthusiasm for the job, contribution to the company and the company mission, etc. Sam Walton came up with a system for ranking all baggers. You were a 1 bagger, a 2 bagger or a 3 bagger.

The way Wal-Mart stores are designed; being a bagger is a key entry level job. The job of a bagger is to bag purchases for customers on two registers. A bagger is supposed to be able to keep up with two lines. However, there are some baggers who can only keep up with one register line, some who handle two lines and some who can handle three or maybe more lines.

One Baggers arrive at work on time, do the job to the best of their ability and leave on time, no matter what. They can only handle one register line. They don’t see what needs to be done beyond their assigned tasks and don’t concern themselves with anything else.

Two Baggers are very similar. They arrive on time, leave on time, and do the job of bagging for two register lines very competently. While on the job, they do what needs to be done very thoroughly. In time, they can rise into supervisory and middle management roles.

Now Three Baggers are a whole different animal - hard to tame, harder to contain.

Three Baggers come in early, leave late, look for extra work that needs to be done, put the job first even at quitting time. They make sure that all the lines have baggers and will stay late until the replacement shows up. They pitch in, in a pinch or a crisis, without being asked. They love their job and the company. They are your cheerleaders, your enthusiasts. These stars are going someplace. Don’t hold them back. If you can, use those star qualities to advance your business.

After reading those three job descriptions: are you a One-bagger, a Two-bagger or a Three-bagger? And working for you, do you have One-baggers, Two- baggers or Three-baggers? And who do you want in those positions?

Now isn’t it easier to remember the distinctions between these skill sets/character sets from a story than antiquated job descriptions? Try using stories and metaphors to make your point this week.

From Basics to Mastery

For all of us, emotional intelligence encompasses five basic areas of mastery. They are:

* Knowing your feelings and using them to make life decisions you can live with.

* Being able to manage your emotional life without being hijacked by it — not being paralyzed by depression or worry, or swept away by anger.

* Persisting in the face of setbacks and channeling your impulses in order to pursue your goals.

* Empathy — reading other people’s emotions without their having to tell you what they are feeling.

* Handling feelings in relationships with skill and harmony — being able to articulate the unspoken pulse of a group, for example.

The scope of these skills means there is indeed room for all of us to learn, grow, and improve. There is a lot to learn here. Learning about emotional intelligence, learning about the tools for energy efficiency; that’s only the beginning. It’s like reading all the books on sailing and small boat sailing. You then have the theory mastered, but you have no hands-on practice. It’s only with practice that we gain mastery of anything. That’s true of our feelings and emotions too!

The scope of these skills means there is indeed room for all of us to learn, grow, and improve. There is a lot to learn here. Learning about emotional intelligence, learning about the tools for energy efficiency; that’s only the beginning. It’s like reading all the books on sailing and small boat sailing. You then have the theory mastered, but you have no hands-on practice. It’s only with practice that we gain mastery of anything. That’s true of our feelings and emotions too!

How do you address so many broad areas?

- Assessment tools are a great way to learn to identify your emotions

- Energy efficiency tools are invaluable in helping you tap into inner wisdom and resources to manage your emotions and understand what the best choices are when you are making life decisions.

- Persistence can be learned. In fact, providing challenges and hardships to children, to give them an opportunity to develop persistence and stick-to-itiveness, is intrinsic in many cultures. Goal-setting and the 6 Most- Important-Things List are just two tools you can apply immediately.

- Developing empathy is powerful in critical business situations like a sales call, a closing, your management style, etc. Using your energy efficiency tools will allow you to pay attention to your instincts in this area instead of second-guessing yourself.

- Once you learn to be the manager of your feelings, it becomes an easy habit to apply in any business or personal relationship.

Mastery of all the basics does not occur overnight. But with practice it comes very quickly - just like learning to ride a bicycle. Once you experience how it’s ’supposed to work’, how energy efficiency is ’supposed to feel’, it’s easier and easier to reestablish in a variety of circumstances. That’s where mastery is achieved. That’s where you and everyone in your business benefit from your mastery.

Kerri Salls, MBA runs a virtual business school to train, consult and coach small business CEO’s and entrepreneurs in 10 key strategies to make more profit in less time. Learn more at www.breakthrough-business-school.com/products.html or sign up for a free weekly newsletter at www.breakthrough-business-school.com/newsletter.shtml

One of my worst moments in a new job, the one
where I realized I wasn’t in Kansas anymore, came after my
first business trip to the other coast. The admin who had
made my travel arrangements asked which hotel I wanted to
stay in. Of the two choices, one was 2 blocks from the site,
the other was across town. Blithely, I chose the closer hotel.

Later that month, my manager hand delivered my expense
reimbursement check, and a stern warning. I’d significantly
exceeded the hotel per diem, and wasn’t to do it again.

When I started to question her, the response was “You
should have known it was above the range.”

We both lost that day. I’m sure she had been called on the
carpet for my lack of “accountability.” I felt like I’d been set
up.

The underlying problem is what I often hear labeled as a
communication problem. When I probe, I hear some version
of “everyone knows that” from managers, and
employees complain they never know when the axe is going
to fall.

Holding staff accountable is a crucial part of a
manager’s responsibility. But, any person, including
you and me, can be held accountable only when:

We know what is expected of us.
And, we believe we’ve agreed to the expectations.

As a manager, it’s up to you to spell out the expectations.
You need to let employees know, very explicitly, and in a way
they can hear, what your expectations are.

Build on where they are right now. Don’t start at the
skill level or level of understanding you think anyone in that
position SHOULD have, but what they DO have.

If you have any question that they may not be getting what
you are saying, go back, and check for understanding.

Then go for commitment. Just because they understand
doesn’t mean they agree to do it.

Understand is, “I know what’s expected.” Agree is “Yes, I
will do it.”

Only then will you have both conditions for accountability.

It goes without saying you have the responsibility of being
accountable yourself. At the management level, there are
higher standards of accountability. No longer can you say I
didn’t know, or I didn’t understand.

It’s your watch. You’re accountable for what’s happening.

Which means, of course, that you need to hold your people
accountable. There will come a day someone doesn’t follow
through, meet expectations, or deliver on a commitment.

Remember Rule #1: Behaviors that are rewarded are
apt to be repeated.

And the Corollary for Rule #1: The best reward for “bad
behavior” is to do nothing.

If you don’t hold people accountable they’ll quickly learn a
lesson you don’t want to teach: You don’t really mean what
you say. They can do what they want, or think necessary.
Accountability
One of my worst moments in a new job, the one where I
realized I wasn’t in Kansas anymore, came after my first
business trip to the other coast. The admin who had made
my travel arrangements asked which hotel I wanted to stay
in. Of the two choices, one was 2 blocks from the site, the
other was across town. Blithely, I chose the closer hotel.

Later that month, my manager hand delivered my expense
reimbursement check, and a stern warning. I’d significantly
exceeded the hotel per diem, and wasn’t to do it again.

When I started to question her, the response was “You
should have known it was above the range.”

We both lost that day. I’m sure she had been called on the
carpet for my lack of “accountability.” I felt like I’d been set
up.

The underlying problem is what I often hear labeled as a
communication problem. When I probe, I hear some
version of “everyone knows that” from managers, and
employees complain they never know when the axe is going
to fall.

Holding staff accountable is a crucial part of a manager’s
responsibility. But, any person, including you and me, can
be held accountable only when:

We know what is expected of us.
And, we believe we’ve agreed to the expectations.

As a manager, it’s up to you to spell out the expectations.
You need to let employees know, very explicitly, and in a way
they can hear, what your expectations are.

Build on where they are right now. Don’t start at the skill
level or level of understanding you think anyone in that
position SHOULD have, but what they DO have.

If you have any question that they may not be getting what
you are saying, go back, and check for understanding.

Then go for commitment. Just because they understand
doesn’t mean they agree to do it.

Understand is, “I know what’s expected.” Agree is “Yes, I
will do it.”

Only then will you have both conditions for accountability.

It goes without saying you have the responsibility of being
accountable yourself. At the management level, there are
higher standards of accountability. No longer can you say I
didn’t know, or I didn’t understand.

It’s your watch. You’re accountable for what’s happening.

Which means, of course, that you need to hold your people
accountable. There will come a day someone doesn’t follow
through, meet expectations, or deliver on a commitment.

Remember Rule #1: Behaviors that are rewarded are
apt to be repeated.

And the Corollary for Rule #1: The best reward for “bad
behavior” is to do nothing.

If you don’t hold people accountable they’ll quickly learn a
lesson you don’t want to teach: You don’t really mean what
you say. They can do what they want, or think necessary.

Patricia Wiklund Ph.D. works with managers who are
challenged with a difficult employee or colleague, and
organizations that need to get back on track to effectiveness
and productivity. Start increasing your management and
leadership skills with her new audio coaching program on
Emotional Intelligence: The Leadership Edge. Just click
here: http://www.PatWiklund.com/eiaudiocoaching.shtml
Contact Pat at Pat@patwiklund.com

The more proper amongst us prefer that it be referred to as “the Road Show.” Whatever it is called, it is one of the most demanding, exasperating and truly frustrating experiences that any entrepreneur will be called up to participate in.

The tension comes from several fronts.

First, this is the hour that truly may make or break you company.

As if that weren’t sufficient, it is also a time when you will be expected to meet and entice a set of total strangers.

It is the time when failed equipment or misspelling in the overheads can spell disaster.

Most importantly, it is the time when the venture capitalists judge YOU. Your idea has already been presented, probably in a well-constructed financing proposal. Something in that proposal caught their attention - you may or may not know at this point what it was that caught their attention.

There are things that you can do to make this harrowing experience work. For instance:

1. Do your homework on the venture capital firm.
Find out everything that you can about this group: its focus, its members, its recent investments, its successes, and its failures.

Research the background of the key players. What boards of directors do the members currently sit on? What is each one’s specialty?

Have any partners recently joined or left the firm?

Has a new investment fund been announced?

What has been the investment trend of the firm over the past 2-4 years?

2. Incorporate your knowledge of this group into your presentation.
If, for instance, one of their portfolio companies would be your supplier or customer, show that name in the flow chart.

If your company’s success is dependent on recruiting from top universities, use the names of the universities that the partners attended as examples.

One young entrepreneur recently asked me why he should mention these names, insisting that the partners already knew this information. Yes, I said, they do know it, and they need to know that YOU know it. Let them know that they are important enough to you that you have devoted a fair amount of time to learn about them.

3 Break away from a PowerPoint presentation.

Don’t get me wrong - I personally think PowerPoint is the greatest piece of presentation software ever invented. I have used it - a lot. And so has everyone else.

Do you have any notion how many PowerPoint presentations your audience has sat through? Mmmm. That’s nothing I would want to do.

So demonstrate your creativity and show your product/idea in a different way. A prototype. A diagram. An image that builds item by item as you talk. Do a brief PowerPoint at the beginning, then break away into a different kind of presentation.

4. Make sure you respond to any questions that members of the group may have.
It may not be possible to bring all your team members to the presentation, but it must be possible to have them standing by in case you need to call for a clarification on a particular issue.

A good technique is to give a “short” response immediately, then promise a more complete follow up. This gives you a definite reason to contact the firm again.

5. Make sure there is a plan for follow up.
Don’t leave the room with issues dangling, or with no clear path for re-connecting with the investors.

Odds are, they won’t offer this re-connection, other than to say, “We’ll be in touch.” It is up to you to provide the steps for follow up. “I understand you would like drill down information on the 2nd and 3rd year projections. I’ll have that to you within 24 hours.” Then do it.

MaryAnn Shank is an innovative pro in the world of business plans. Catch the best of the tried and true techniques, as well as the top emerging techniques for business plan development, at http://www.BusinessPlanMaster.com.

Isn’t it amazing that some people can produce huge results in the same 24 hours that we all have? Whether or not we realize it, we victimize ourselves by not appropriately deciding what to do with our time. Instead, we let our time decide what to do with us!

Time is a commodity, and no matter who we are, we experience many demands on this precious commodity. The most critical step - once a course of action is decided - is to create a to-do list. Too often, people stop at this point and don’t recognize the next, critical step. In his bestseller How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life, Alan Lakein says it is imperative to finish the list by setting priorities; the list isn’t complete until priorities have been established.

One of the important reasons for the prioritized list - other than sanity of course - has to do with a neat maxim called the Pareto Principle. Essentially, the Pareto Principal states that roughly 80% of all generated results come from approximately 20% of generative activities. This is valid in both macro and micro environments: most religious leaders say that 80% of their tithes come from 20% of church attendees; many sales managers realize that 80% of their sales come from the top 20% of their salesmen. In business or life in general, 80% of the results achieved are generated by 20% of the activities. Whatever When we examine our to-do lists, we should prioritize our list beginning with the the top 20% activities.

Top time management trainers and writers recommend the ABC system of prioritizing. Thus, A activities are Vital - activities that must be carried out at all costs. These are the “top 20%” activities. Very often, these are items that are least easy to do because they are not apparently urgent! B items are Important. While these are often more urgent than the A activities, they are, in reality not of vital importance. Finally, C activities are Trivial and may represent 80% of all the things which we find ourselves doing. In an odd inversion or proportion, A activities are more vital, while C activities are more urgent. People that are ineffective with their time end up spending a lot of time on C activities. In the whole scope of activities and accomplishments, the A activities are valuable, rewarding and help one move toward established goals. C activities have the great effect of making one weary. Don’t confuse activity with accomplishment! Franklin Time Management Founder, Hyrum Smith, states that “urgencies act on priorities but they are not priorities.” To create large results and progress in life, and business, focus on priorities.

We must closely examine our top 20% activities. What activities must we engage in to create the desired results? Now, let’s figure out how we can spend 80% of our time on those activities. This powerful discipline has been mastered by people who are producing powerful results in their lives and businesses. We too can learn to master it and master our lives!

Eric Johnson is a regular contributor to the Investor’s Value View newsletter. To learn how to send comments to Mr. Johnson or to subscribe to the Investor’s Value View newsletter, visit http://www.valueview.net

To become a ’successful’ individual in the traditional sense of the term, it is essential to manage one’s time well. There are individuals all around us who go wrong with their Time Management, day in and day out. It is not only a working professional who might be in a desperate need of developing Time Management skills. It is also important to develop such skills for domestic and personal purposes.

Time Management Training is available in a variety of forms. There are workshops and seminars that initiate the individual into the right mode and make him aware of a number of things that are mandatory for proper Time Management. Time Management self-help books are always in great demand, and book sellers often find them flying off the racks, faster than hotcakes.

Besides, there are official programs that might help one to develop and hone Time Management skills. Both seminars and programs may at times prove to be a little tough on the pocket. However, inexpensive programs are also available that train the individual online.

The main skills that one is taught are: learning to set one’s goals, both long term as well as short term; learning not to pay too much attention to details; learning to prioritize and thus finish the more important tasks first; learning to do more than one activity at the same time, learning to ignore or lessen interruptions (visitors, telephone calls) and so on.

On the one hand, training may be had professionally, with one’s teammates and colleagues. On the other hand, there may be individuals who prefer self-training, and this may be done in a number of ways (internet, offline seminars, official diploma programs, self-help books etc.). The key idea is to reduce unnecessary time wastage and make one do his tasks and chores in an organized and neat manner.

Time Management provides detailed information about time management, business time management, personal time management, time management programs and more. Time Management is the sister site of Free Job Descriptions.