So here we are - 6 weeks in to 2009 - are you going to succeed this year? What are your rules you have committed to live by in 2009? What do you believe the world will create for you in 2009 or put another way, what will you create for the world in 2009?
We all have our beliefs - some more powerful than others.
During 9/11 thousands of people ran from the Twin Towers in New York to save themselves - a very small group of heroic fire fighters ran into the buildings to save others!
Over 50 years ago Roger Bannister ran a 4-minute mile for the first time in history. This was in spite of opinion at the time suggesting the feat was impossible -one even went as far as to say that the human heart would explode at this speed! Roger Bannister knew in his heart that his aspiration was achievable and on May 6th 1954 he proved it and the world took note!
Anyone who achieves anything in life does it because they know it can be done.
What are you going to make your beliefs this year? Whatever it is believe in your excellence - don't be swayed by the opinion of others with less conviction. Go for it and make this an awesome year!
"The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win."
Roger Bannister
Warmest wishes
Craig
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Beliefs of Excellence - part 1!
I have spent the last 4 weeks of my life in India and South Africa and many of the experiences I gained in these fabulous two countries have lead me to understand that it is our beliefs that create who we really are.
While I was in India I was overwhelmed by the people who live there and in particular their beliefs of life, who they were and what they stood for. Every day I went for a run (keeping my half marathon training going!) around the backwaters and passed hundreds of children playing by the water's edge. Every single one would stop me and want to run with me - many singing and dancing just celebrating life.
In the Western world these children would be classed as having absolutely nothing, hardly any clothes, few toys.
Yet these children believed they were in heaven, I was there for 14 days and every child I came across knew they were a gift from God. They were always smiling, always dancing and always playing. Not once did one of them moan or fight because they wanted what another child had. They just shone.
Why did these children truly live off the land and, with hardly a roof over their heads still feel blessed? It has to be their beliefs and for that matter the beliefs of their parents.
This convinces me that it isn't our cars, houses or offices, laptops or geographic territories that make us successful, it is our beliefs, our internal rules of how we choose to feel that make us who we are.
I will be talking much more about beliefs of excellence over coming weeks, but for now I am fortunate enough to be returning to India next week to speak at a conference - I am so thrilled to be going back, look forward to updating my blog about that next week as well.
Have a great weekend
Craig
craig@craiggoldblatt.com
www.craiggoldblatt.com
While I was in India I was overwhelmed by the people who live there and in particular their beliefs of life, who they were and what they stood for. Every day I went for a run (keeping my half marathon training going!) around the backwaters and passed hundreds of children playing by the water's edge. Every single one would stop me and want to run with me - many singing and dancing just celebrating life.
In the Western world these children would be classed as having absolutely nothing, hardly any clothes, few toys.
Yet these children believed they were in heaven, I was there for 14 days and every child I came across knew they were a gift from God. They were always smiling, always dancing and always playing. Not once did one of them moan or fight because they wanted what another child had. They just shone.
Why did these children truly live off the land and, with hardly a roof over their heads still feel blessed? It has to be their beliefs and for that matter the beliefs of their parents.
This convinces me that it isn't our cars, houses or offices, laptops or geographic territories that make us successful, it is our beliefs, our internal rules of how we choose to feel that make us who we are.
I will be talking much more about beliefs of excellence over coming weeks, but for now I am fortunate enough to be returning to India next week to speak at a conference - I am so thrilled to be going back, look forward to updating my blog about that next week as well.
Have a great weekend
Craig
craig@craiggoldblatt.com
www.craiggoldblatt.com
Friday, November 28, 2008
How's Your Journey?
The Journey - Mary Oliver
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.
This poem has a fantastic message for us all - it sums up to me how many of the clients I speak to seem to be feeling - especially currently in these testing times. They feel that not only is there more out there to be experienced but also that they have more inside to give to their own journey. Yet those "voices around you kept shouting their bad advice" - the challenge is to stay true to yourself and those feelings that you hold dear about what you can achieve in life. It can be daunting even overwhelming to go against the forces wanting you to stay where you are.
The challenge is to ensure you are still on the journey you want to be taking not the one that is being designed by others. Be true to yourself and it will be easier to be true to others.
Have a great weekend.
Craig
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.
This poem has a fantastic message for us all - it sums up to me how many of the clients I speak to seem to be feeling - especially currently in these testing times. They feel that not only is there more out there to be experienced but also that they have more inside to give to their own journey. Yet those "voices around you kept shouting their bad advice" - the challenge is to stay true to yourself and those feelings that you hold dear about what you can achieve in life. It can be daunting even overwhelming to go against the forces wanting you to stay where you are.
The challenge is to ensure you are still on the journey you want to be taking not the one that is being designed by others. Be true to yourself and it will be easier to be true to others.
Have a great weekend.
Craig
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Happy New Year
That time of year is here again - the new school year has either started or will do very soon . Those who chose to do so will be getting themselves ready for university or other higher education. It is a tense time and has followed a summer of tension for those awaiting public exam results. Anxious teenagers (and parents!) across the country have awaited their fate all sealed in an envelope!
It's very hard as parents to be totally laid back about exams and the whole education arena for that matter - especially if you have a child who seems incredibly laid back in their aproach to their studies! - and we constantly ponder about whether we are doing enough to encourage without over burdening our offspring.
However it is apparently true that Hermann & Pauline Einstein worried constantly about their shy, school hating son who disliked sport, had poor language skills and only played with jigsaws. As we all now know, despite that inauspicious start Albert Einstein went on to become the greatest physicist the world has ever known, devising the theory of relativity and the only equation most of us can ever quote - e=mc² which led to the atom bomb.
So as the new academic year gets off to a start I wish for you and your families success and happiness and leave you with a few quotes about education, exams and life....
"Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands."
excerpt from the diary of Anne Frank
You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around - and why his parents will always wave back.
-- William D. Tammeus
“I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me.”
Woody Allen quotes (American Actor, Author, Screenwriter and Film Director, b.1935)
"I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a whole lot more as they get older; then it dawned on me . . they're cramming for their final exam.”
George Carlin quotes (American comedian)
It's not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself.
-- Joyce Maynard
The Hebrew word for parents is horim, and it comes from the same root as moreh, teacher. The parent is, and remains, the first and most important teacher that the child will have.
-- Rabbi Kassel Abelson
"History, although sometimes made up of the few acts of the great, is more often shaped by the many acts of the small."
Mark Twain
I've always wanted to be somebody, but now I see I should have been more specific.
Lily Tomlin
and finally...
"Education is what remains when one has forgotten everything he learned in school." Albert Einstein
Warmest wishes
Craig
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Focus
Two steps forward, one step back - It's a frustrating way to make progress but it's a wonderful way to dance! In today's climate it can seem as though we are making painfully slow progress, but the upside of a downturn (?!) is that it gives you a wonderful opportunity to really focus on your business, review your sales skills, read a sales book - I recommend some on my website which I feel are fantastic success tools - go back to basics and look at the building blocks of your business. These are things which in boom business periods you most likely never take the opportunity to do - make that time now! Its a fantastic way of re-focussing on the market you are in and also of taking the emphasis away from the economic statistics which back up the credit crunch's existence - believe me when I say too much attention on them will not help you at all. All the while you have a living breathing company - keep giving it life and passion - not more licence to wither away.
Spend time with your clients and give fantastic service - go the extra mile for them, leverage every opportunity and follow up every lead - when the recovery begins you will be ahead of the competition and you will reap the rewards of having a well-toned and well managed company.
Enjoy the dance
Craig
Spend time with your clients and give fantastic service - go the extra mile for them, leverage every opportunity and follow up every lead - when the recovery begins you will be ahead of the competition and you will reap the rewards of having a well-toned and well managed company.
Enjoy the dance
Craig
Thursday, July 31, 2008
The Subtle Science Of Persuasion
No matter what field of expertise you are in, I have no doubt the need to persuade other people features somewhere in your role. I thought, therefore that you might be interested in the theory of an article I recently read.
Persuasion itself is not as hard as it may seem according to American Psychologist Dr Robert Cialdini – it is a matter of pulling the appropriate trigger. The example he cites is the notices we have all seen in hotel bathrooms to reuse towels to protect the environment – our concerns about global warming are apparently enough to make us reuse towels at least once during our stay. But is this the limit of the effectiveness of the signs – could more people be persuaded to reuse their towels and more often – by use of a different message? An experiment was set up by American academics to assess this. They compared the results of the first notice against those of a different notice which stated that most guests in the hotel recycled their towels. The academics were amazed to see a leap of 26% in the numbers of guests reusing their towels. The experiment was taken one stage further by displaying a sign that said that most of the guests who stayed in that room recycled their towels and reuse rose by 33% compared to the first message.
This experiment demonstrates a theory called “social proof” – where we use other people’s behaviour as a guide to our own. Other persuasive strategies that Cialdini refers to are reciprocation – the powerful obligation we feel to return favours, authority – our willingness to defer to experts, consistency - the need to keep our actions in line with our values, scarcity – the less available a resource – the more we want it – hence the power of the advertising slogan “Buy now while stocks last”! Finally, liking – the more we like people the more we want to say yes to them.
Given that the business workplace could be considered as a place where we would want to persuade others to our way of thinking, the power to persuade is clearly a key skill. The power of these principles that Cialdini refers to is that they trigger deep-seated psychological mechanisms, which we follow to prevent us getting into danger. Social proofing is one of the most basic – if you were a fish it would better to follow the rest of your shoal to avoid ending up as another creature’s lunch!
These techniques are simple yet powerful – but don’t use unscrupulously as when they are employed as weapons any short term gains are most likely to be followed by short term losses.
Persuasion itself is not as hard as it may seem according to American Psychologist Dr Robert Cialdini – it is a matter of pulling the appropriate trigger. The example he cites is the notices we have all seen in hotel bathrooms to reuse towels to protect the environment – our concerns about global warming are apparently enough to make us reuse towels at least once during our stay. But is this the limit of the effectiveness of the signs – could more people be persuaded to reuse their towels and more often – by use of a different message? An experiment was set up by American academics to assess this. They compared the results of the first notice against those of a different notice which stated that most guests in the hotel recycled their towels. The academics were amazed to see a leap of 26% in the numbers of guests reusing their towels. The experiment was taken one stage further by displaying a sign that said that most of the guests who stayed in that room recycled their towels and reuse rose by 33% compared to the first message.
This experiment demonstrates a theory called “social proof” – where we use other people’s behaviour as a guide to our own. Other persuasive strategies that Cialdini refers to are reciprocation – the powerful obligation we feel to return favours, authority – our willingness to defer to experts, consistency - the need to keep our actions in line with our values, scarcity – the less available a resource – the more we want it – hence the power of the advertising slogan “Buy now while stocks last”! Finally, liking – the more we like people the more we want to say yes to them.
Given that the business workplace could be considered as a place where we would want to persuade others to our way of thinking, the power to persuade is clearly a key skill. The power of these principles that Cialdini refers to is that they trigger deep-seated psychological mechanisms, which we follow to prevent us getting into danger. Social proofing is one of the most basic – if you were a fish it would better to follow the rest of your shoal to avoid ending up as another creature’s lunch!
These techniques are simple yet powerful – but don’t use unscrupulously as when they are employed as weapons any short term gains are most likely to be followed by short term losses.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Tennis
I must say that I have thoroughly enjoyed my fix of Wimbledon this year! Although our home players didn't get through to the final stages - the matches this weekend have been fantastic - today's men's competition was edge of the seat stuff and the ladies final (or the Williams' show!) was, as always, entertaining.
For me though, it was brilliant that players like Chris Eaton, up and coming men's player, came seemingly out of the blue to give an incredible performance and of course Laura Robson won the Girls' Singles title final at just 14. A quick glimpse through the Sunday paper headlines - shows that it seems she grabbed more space than the Williams' girls match! If either are our next hope for a champion let's hope the media get behind them and stay there - not only do they have to work their way to the top and compete with the best but they have to win the hearts of the journalists as well -we have a knack of supporting our sports stars when things are going well but also of retracting that support when they hit a rough patch. In sport, as in business, there are peaks and troughs of performance and it's in the tougher times that we really need to feel people are behind us.
I for one, look forward with more than hopeful anticipation for future grand-slams.
Have a great week!
For me though, it was brilliant that players like Chris Eaton, up and coming men's player, came seemingly out of the blue to give an incredible performance and of course Laura Robson won the Girls' Singles title final at just 14. A quick glimpse through the Sunday paper headlines - shows that it seems she grabbed more space than the Williams' girls match! If either are our next hope for a champion let's hope the media get behind them and stay there - not only do they have to work their way to the top and compete with the best but they have to win the hearts of the journalists as well -we have a knack of supporting our sports stars when things are going well but also of retracting that support when they hit a rough patch. In sport, as in business, there are peaks and troughs of performance and it's in the tougher times that we really need to feel people are behind us.
I for one, look forward with more than hopeful anticipation for future grand-slams.
Have a great week!
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