Success In Life!

Recently, I had an opportunity to join some friends  for a team building game.

During the briefing at the start of the game, the facilitator spent some time describing the game.   I thought it was a pretty straightforward game and did not pay much attention to it.   I noticed that the game facilitator did stress on certain things but I just let them pass. 

It was a hostage rescue game and the objective was to bring the hostage safely back to the facilitator.

The area was criss-crossed with  €œelectric wires € and certain areas required bridges to be built to cross them.

Team members have to assist a “blind” member to search for the hostage.   The position of the hostage could be changed during the game and the rest of the members are to guide the “blind” to reach the hostage and to guard the “bridges” so that they were not  stolen.

Our group discussed and came up with a very good strategy which would work very well up to the point when the “blind” had to venture on his own to save the hostage.

As you can predict, time was lost while trying to shout the instructions against the loud blast of the background music.   The result is we lost  the first round and had to compete in the second round.   This gave us another chance and  we managed to shorten the time considerably during the second round.   We were elated!

However, during the debrief, the facilitator revealed many ways we could have used to achieve our goal quickly.   He emphasized that the objective of the game is to save and bring the hostage to him.   This is a really big hint and we conveniently forgot this.

Well, I will not spoil the game for you by revealing everything.   What I have learnt is that we should know our objective clearly and hence know what to focus on and work on it.   Don’t just follow the instructions.   Be creative and think out of the box. 

In real life,  very often, we just stick to the rules and most often than not, do things that others do  so as  to be on the safe side.   We also make ourselves busy by doing a lot of non-impactful stuff that takes up a lot of our time and resources. In addition, we tend to work and think within the box and not out of the box.   What could be done is to get ourselves out of the picture and look at the problem from a third party’s viewpoint and to leverage on technology.

Brian Tracy said that our mind is our most precious asset. We must be continually working to increase the quality of our thinking. These two years have been a great learning time for me.   I attend courses, seminars and listen to audios and watch videos.

Travelling time is the best learning time

Whenever possible, I will listen to audio recordings or read books while travelling in the train or bus. 

Attend Seminars

I attended seminars, workshops and previews for personal and professional development to learn ideas, techniques and methods that can save me hours, days, even months of hard work and research on my own.

Learn More, Earn More

I do not believe that money drops from the sky. Even if you strike lottery, you must first place a bet.   Some hardwork and sacrifice are needed to prepare oneself for success.   Remember continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field.   And you should choose your gurus wisely.

What’s  Next

Without further ado, purchase an audio program that can help you.   Check out my recommendation here.

Begin listening to it immediately.   When you are driving, instead of  listening to music in your car, resolve to turn  driving time into learning time.

Next, seek out seminars and training programs given by experts in your field.   Click here for an alternative if you have not much time or resources.   Take careful notes, and apply the best ideas that you learn immediately.

To Your Success,

Peck Ling

Check out the movie below to find out more about a Earn While You Learn Program.

As a project manager in the government sector, I used to juggle numerous IT projects at any one time.   Multitasking was the norm of the day. You could imagine how much time was spent on overheads when switching from one project to another, be it big or small.

Most of the time, all tasks appeared to be urgent and important.   I realized that time was spent on many tasks that were small, time-consuming, insignificant but must-do mundane activities.   Sometimes, disruption came in the form of requests from the boss or the need to attend numerous unproductive meetings.

I knew I should be paying attention to major tasks but, instead I wanted to finish all my work. I concentrated on clearing small tasks first in the hope of putting them away as fast as possible so that I could have more time for the larger tasks.   However, this did not happen the way I had wanted it and the end results were disastrous - major projects were not given enough time, thought and focus.

What I should have done is to follow Brian Tracy €™s time management strategy to carve out large chunks of time to spend on major tasks. 

The following are the steps that could help you to achieve better time management whether you are working for someone or having your small business, or working from home doing internet marketing.

Step 1
Be committed to set aside time for large tasks.

This is really important as important task requires large portions of high value, highly productive continuous time to complete.   Our ability to do so will contribute positively and significantly to our performance at work and to our life.

I find this absolutely true.   I have been doing internet marketing and a few other things concurrently.   Whenever I allocated more continuous quality time to a particular area, the results were good.   I also noticed that if I spent small snippets of time on various tasks, I got nowhere.

Step 2
Take action on Step 1 immediately.

Successful people set aside a specific time period each day to concentrate on major tasks. They resolve to do what is important rather than procrastinate or delay a task.   This requires discipline to follow through their resolutions.   For people who are doing home based business or own network business, it is always a challenge to overcome procrastination or delaying on a task that they do not particularly like.
 
Step 3
Plan your day in advance and create preplanned periods.

The saying goes,  €œIf we fail to plan, we plan to fail. € Hence, I believe the key to success is to plan our day in advance, preferably the night before.

Schedule a fixed and specific time period for a particular activity or task. Set aside thirty, sixty and ninety minute time segments to work on and complete important tasks.

Create schedule for specific activities in preplanned time slots all day long.
Then, work our lives around accomplishing key tasks one at a time. As a result, we can become more and more productive and eventually produce two times, three times and five times as much as the average person.

My Resolutions

I am currently doing a home based mlm business and time is really flexible.  I mind my own business as advised by Robert Kiyosaki. The problem is how to manage my time effectively and efficiently as I always feel that I do not have enough time to complete all my tasks.

Well, I shall resolve to do the following for the next few weeks:

1) Plan my day in advance and organize each day to create large chunks of time that I can use for key task completion.

2) Be committed to work on a key task at a specific time.

To better time management,
Peck Ling

About two years ago, I decided to quit my job as I could not take it any longer in view of the circumstances I was in.

At that time, looking for business opportunities was at the top of my mind since leaving a full-time well-paid job was a great leap of faith into the unknown.  Ill-equipped with entrepreneurial or business skills, the only way was to seek recommendations from friends and to extend my antenna to receive such information.

Look For Opportunities

I really have no idea on how to look for a new product or service.  I am an absolute greenhorn, yet I believe that I can achieve my goals by at least taking action to try. Subconsciously, I began to look in areas where I thought was comfortable in and where there was a mentor to help me. Since I worked in the IT industry as an application project manager, I was attracted to opportunities related to IT.

I did not wish to invest a large amount of money and run the risk of losing it.  Being totally not business-inclined, I prefer to take less risk, get a ready product and let others worry about development, staffing, etc.  Basically, a low cost investment with low risk and minimal headaches would suit the bill.

It so happened that one of my colleagues suddenly tendered her resignation and suggested going into an internet home-based business.  Considering my circumstances, working from home and having a global business while staying home, naturally excited me.

I jumped onto the bandwagon and started to learn as much as I could.  My colleague and I would spend almost every other night and weekends at our mentor’s office to learn more about the business and the opportunity it offers. My mentor was the top earner in the company.

In summary, unknowingly I did the following when I look for business opportunities:

1) Look into myself and find out where my talents, interest, expertise, education, abilities, knowledge, background, etc.  Match these with the business opportunity.

2) Check out the company. The quality of the staff and how much support we get.

3) Check out the product.  Is it content rich and worth paying for?  Does it have a niche market?  How long was the product in the market?  Look for something that’s affordable and has improved over the past years and not something new.

According to Brian Tracy, improving an existing successful product or service is the fastest and surest way to build a successful business. An idea only needs to be ten percent new and better to capture substantial market share. Brand new products or services are very risky.

4) Check out the compensation plan.  Does the compensation commensurate with the efforts we put in and is it a viable plan?  Many people look for easy money, gimmicks or useless knickknacks. Don’t look for get-rich-quick schemes or rewards without working, because there aren’t any.

More people have wasted more time and more life and more money trying to find quick ways to make easy money than you can possibly imagine. So, before you could start making real money in a business, be prepared to work hard.

I have been in this internet education business for almost 2 years now. I would like to admit shamefully, that I have never learnt so much all these years as compared to a short span of 2 years on the business. I have met a lot of people and made more friends than I could possibly imagine. I get to know great success gurus, sales gurus, learn sales and business techniques and has the opportunity to meet millionaires!

I got to watch Robert Kiyosaki, author of best selling book, Rich Dad Poor Dad.  He spoke on The Secrets Of Success and how the rich gets richer. I have always felt that our educational system has a great defect and this was addressed by Robert Kiyosaki in his talk as financial literacy was never part of the school syllabus in Singapore.

I have been in the business for almost 2 years and Brian Tracy said, that it will take two years to break even in the average business. However, in the business I am in, it is possible to break even in the first few months.  I am very sure real cash flow would be generated if you are focused, persistent and patient. If you’re impatient, what will happen is you’ll end up setting yourself further back than you can imagine.

I have found mine, have you?

If you are interested to find out more, please check it out here for a preview!  There is nothing to lose.

Hope you will find a good business opportunity that can create wealth for you!
Peck Ling

I like the explanation of what a comfort zone is.  A self-constructed trap to avoid meeting people, events, ideas that might cause distress! I can identify with one of the situations that is:

“Staying in a job or relationship that is slowly grinding you down to a shadow of your former self, because to leave it would mean that you would have to go out and meet new people.”

I have to relearn people skills, get over my discomfort, change my mindset, think differently and act differently.

I have moved out of my comfort zone but still not quite there yet.  One day, in the very near future, I hope …

Be strong,
Peck Ling

I just read Brian Tracy’s Sales Success Newsletter on “Move Out of Your Comfort Zone”.

I have heard about moving out of your comfort zone many times.  But it did not sink in until these recent months.

I was out of job for more than a year.  I have worked for more than two decades in the IT industry.  Unfortunately, circumstances changed and then something unfortunate happened to my husband.  I decided to do less conventional things to achieve what I have not yet achieved in life and perhaps after that, to enjoy life without worries. 

I have been asked many times if I would like to go back to work full-time. My answer has always been I would like a change in my life and have more time for the family.

Like most people, I fear changes.   Any change, or even an attempt to change anything I am doing, makes me uncomfortable. I think this is generally true for most people. 

One of my mentors once told me that in order to achieve more, do not be afraid to do things that make me uncomfortable.
 
I always feel like giving up and not doing anything uncomfortable. But I know that in order to do something different and achieve success, I have to force myself to move out of my comfort zone.  I am currently involved in sales and meeting and doing a great presentation is not my forte.

At first, I felt uneasy, experienced stress, tension and embarrassment as I was just too self-conscious.  I knew I had to learn to overcome it if I really want to achieve my goals and be successful in life. 

How did I overcome my fear and move out of my comfort zone? 

a) First, I found out the reason why I had these uneasy tensed and nervous feelings.  I felt silly for a grown person like me to have these kinds of reactions.  After some soul searching, I realized that I was afraid of making a fool of myself in the event that I did not get the facts right. Also, I was afraid that my mind would go blank on me leaving me totally embarrassed.
 
b) To resolve my problem, I worked on memorizing the facts and paying particular attention to the salient points of the presentation.  I also learnt from others who are better and more experienced than me.  I would attend other people’s presentations and take notes.  Before any presentation, I get myself prepared and rehearsed my speech over and over again.

c) Last but not least, I met my fear head on by doing the presentation repetitively.  I found that by concentrating on the task, I would not be so self-conscious.

Well, it works!  But, every now and then, I have to remind myself as I tend to forget.  I hope this will become part of me very soon.

How to Increase our Earning?

Since I am in sales now, I like to read Brian Tracy’s newsletters as Brian Tracy is an expert in Sales, Time Management and Personal Development.  He said that in order for us to sell more and earn more, we must see and think about ourselves as capable of becoming the highest-earning salespeople in our field. We have to develop a new self-concept for sales and income that is more consistent with what we really want to accomplish.

Here are the ways to increase our earning:
a) Increase the amount we believe we are capable of earning.
b) Raise our aspirations, set higher goals, and make detailed plans to achieve them.

Build Our Self-Concept Level of Income
Our self-concept determines our levels of performance and effectiveness in everything we do.

In sales, there are many mini-self-concepts that govern every activity of selling. They are:

a) self-concept for prospecting, for using the telephone, for cold calling, for making appointments, for qualifying, for presenting, for answering questions, for closing, for getting referrals, and for making follow-up sales, and
b) self-concept of our level of product knowledge, our personal management skills, our level of motivation and for the way that we relate to different types of customers.

In every case, we always perform in a manner consistent with our self-concept.
Hence, it is very important to work on having a high self-concept to enhance our performance.

If we have a high self-concept for making presentations or for closing sales, we feel comfortable and competent whenever we are doing them.

On the contrary, if we feel tense or uneasy in selling, it means that we have a low self-concept in that area. Since, we do not feel comfortable when we are engaged in that activity, we will probably avoid that activity as much as possible. Isn’t that true?

Well, I suppose this is normal and natural for most people. The only question is, “What are we going to do about it?”

As recommended by Brian Tracy, we can Get Better Results immediately by doing the following:

1) First, set a goal today to become one of the highest earning people in our field.
2) Then, back our goal with action by committing to becoming very good in our field.  For example, go for training and equip ourselves with more relevant skills.
3) See ourselves, imagine and visualize ourselves as if we are already very good at what we do. Create within ourselves the feeling of success and accomplishment.

To Your Sweet Success,
Peck Ling

How do you know when you’re successful–when you have enough market share or profit or respect or money? How do you decide what success is?Too often, we let someone else define success for us.

Seth suggested this –> success is largely about keeping your promises.

I am always facing this problem of having no time, previously at work and now, even though I have left my job one and a half years ago.

After reading Brian Tracy’s article on Dealing With Overwhelm, it struck me that I did not set my priorities right. I realized too that I am doing too many things at one time and hence, losing my focus.

In addition, I tend to complete small and unimportant tasks first as it is easier to accomplish and hence gives me a false sense of achievement and satisfaction.

I think this is a natural tendency for people to leave the most difficult tasks to the end. This also corresponds to the way we sit for our examinations in schools. Because of time constraints, we were often told to skip tough questions and go for the easier ones. Somehow, unknowingly, this habit stuck to us for life!

Learning how to manage our time is a very essential skill as most of us are doing more than one person’s job.

Become An Expert In Time Management

To resolve the problem of work overload, Brian Tracy said that we have to become an expert on time management. There is probably no other skill that we can learn that will give us a “bigger bang for the buck” than to become extremely knowledgeable and experienced in using time management practices.

The Keys to Time Management

The two indispensable keys to time management are: 1) the ability to set priorities; and 2) the ability to concentrate single-mindedly on one thing at a time.

I must say we do consciously and unconsciously set priorities. Just that it is not so obvious that we are going through such a process. However, we could be adjusting our priorities according to what we like to do at that instance in time without thinking of whether it is the most valuable use of our time then.In order to be successful, I feel that it is absolutely necessary that we continually set our priorities right as there is never enough time to do everything. We should know what actions would bring us value and then do them first.

The Best Question of All

This question, “what is the most valuable use of my time right now?” will do more to keep us on track every time, than any other single question in the list of time management strategies. We should always memorize and repeat it, over and over again.

Start With Our Top Tasks

The natural tendency for all of us is to give in to the temptation of doing what we fancy and very often, we start to clear up small things first. Well, small things are easier to accomplish, and they are often more fun than the big, important things that represent the most valuable use of our time.

However, remember that self-discipline of organizing our work and focusing on our highest value tasks will help us get our time under control and lowering our stress levels.

What’s Next?

There are two things that could get our time and stress level under control. They are:

1) Become an expert on time management. Read the books, listen to the audio programs, and you may want to take a time management course. Then, practise and practise again every day until we master time management skills.

2) Before the start of the day, set clear priorities. Then, discipline ourself to start on our most important task and stay at that until it is complete. This will relieve much of our stress immediately.

I know it is definitely difficult to overcome this die-hard habit of doing small easy tasks first. I truly agree that discipline is really needed to start our day right by reviewing our goals and start doing important tasks first until they are completed. We must make it a habit.

To Your Success,

Peck Ling

How Network Marketers Get Rich Without Working or Contacting People.

There are 3 simple ways to grow our business. 

1. Increase your number of clients,
2. Increase the average size of each transaction per client, and …
3. Increase the number of times per year each client buys from you.

In fact, another way is to retain our existing customers.

Interesting article on how to grow your business by Marketing Headhunter.

To your success in sales,
Peck Ling

Who Else Wants a Simple Fully Automated Business System? Click below to find out more!

Brian Tracy said “You become what you think about most of the time and the most important part of each day is what you think about at the beginning of that day.”

Frankly speaking, I have never done this before.  That perhaps explains why I have not achieved what I want in life i.e. to be rich and successful and have financial freedom.  I am not sure how many people realized that it is extremely important to start the day right.  Most of us would just drag ourselves to work hoping that there are no hiccups or problems, and that the day would pass by quickly and uneventfully at work.

According to Brian Tracy, a short 30 minutes every morning to reflect on our goals quietly will go a long way.  This is the way successful men and women began their upward trajectory to success when they begin getting up early in the morning and spending time with themselves.

Most people would probably spend the first 30 minutes trying to get dressed and rushing off to work!  So, in order to have the time to think and review our goals, we need to sacrifice 30 minutes of our sleep.  Is this worth the sacrifice?  Definitely yes!

Why do we need to reflect first thing in the morning and not any other times?

Well, the first hour of our waking hour sets the tone for the day.  Hence, it is also called the Golden Hour.  During this time, we prepare our mind for the day ahead by taking time to think and review our goals and adjust our future plans.

So be sure you have goals in the first place and then plan to execute them.  Without goals, there is no need for reflection!

Four Things We Should Do In The Golden Hour
Brian Tracy said that during this quiet time for ourselves only, we should be doing the following:

1) Review our plans for accomplishing our goals and change our plans if necessary.
2) Think of better ways to accomplish our goals. Imagine that things go wrong and then think of what you would do differently from what we are doing now.
3) Reflect on the valuable lessons that we have learned and are learning as we move toward our goals.
4)  Practise visualization.  Calmly visualize our goal as a reality. Close our eyes, relax, smile, and see our goal as though it were already a reality.

Rewrite our major goals everyday in the present tense. Rewrite them as though they already existed. Write “I earn X dollars.” “I have a net worth of X.” “I weigh a certain number of pounds.” This exercise of writing and rewriting our goals everyday is one of the most powerful we will ever learn.

I feel that goals are extremely important in our lives.  Without them, we have no idea where we are going.  I felt like this before - like flowing in the river and going with the flow and allowing my fate to be determined by some unknown forces.

I have not seriously done the four things before.  I will want to try it out. The following is my action plan:

My Action Plan
1.      Make sure that all my goals are written down
2.   Get up every morning a little bit earlier and plan my day in advance. Take some time to think about my goals and how I can best achieve them.
3.      Reflect on the valuable lessons while working toward my goals of achieving financial freedom.
4.      Correct my course and adjust my actions. Be absolutely convinced that I am moving rapidly toward my goals, no matter what happens temporarily on the outside.

To our success,
Peck Ling

Join 187,000 who are saying “Thanks for this free video, I’m making more money than ever!”  See the video here!

Finally, after struggling for many days and nights, I finally got WordPress v2.1 software installed. I had problems importing the previous posts and so decided to start afresh after wasting so much time.

I hope to follow the order as close as possible.

Here is the first post of the blog.

I have no idea who Brian Tracy was when I was still hard at work. My job did not involve direct selling and I was not in any business at all. Moreover, I worked almost 10 to 12 hours a day. I hardly had the time to read beyond my area of work and interests.

One day, my friend invited me to a course preview. I had never attended one before. She gave me no details but just that it could be beneficial to me. Well, I was preparing to leave the organization I was in then. So, I attended.

The presentation was in Mandarin and it was about sales. The point that came across strongly was that Sales = Income.

It never occurred to me that way. To me, income = monthly salary. Another point came across strongly, was that to be rich and wealthy, one has to do sales. Well, I realised that the statement is true! My cousin is doing sales and he is doing very well! Thinking about my own situation, we were just average income family after slogging for so many years. I felt the need to know more about sales. I really do not wish to be poor when I am old. I want to live comfortably and doing the things that I use to do. I really don’t like the idea of having to worry about having sufficient money before I made a purchase or to help someone.

Well the course came at the right time. The actual course would focus on the techniques of closing sales. This is the most critical of the entire sales process. Sounded interesting for somebody like me! If I could master the selling skills, I will never die of hunger, right?

You are right. I signed up for the Sales course and another on personal development to prepare myself for new challenges. Personal development is something that many companies hardly spend money on. Well, I was sold the idea that I could explode my potential and achieve my dreams.

The course was in Mandarin and you could imagine how tough it was to write in Chinese or to translate from Chinese to English. During the course, names of world-class gurus like Robert Kiyosaki, Anthony Robbins, Joe Girard, Brian Tracy, etc. were mentioned. I could hardly guess their names in Englsh! The different sales techniques of closing were taught. Good and useful instruction.

Being a newcomer to this area, I was overwhelmed.I still have no idea who Brian Tracy was, even though I had the opportunity to purchase ticket for his presentation at a discounted price. But, alas, I did not take up the offer! I had no idea how ‘big’ he is. The Brian Tracy Tour to Asia was a huge success!

One of my friends told me that Brian Tracy is the author of the book “The Psychology of Selling”. He is also the world’s #1 producer of audio learning programs and the leading authority on the development of human potential and business success. In addition, he has 3o years of experience building and managing 22 successful businesses and consulting for over 500 corporations.

Wow! His materials have been translated in 14 different languages and are used in 20 countries.I was recommended to watch Brian Tracy’s video seminar but did not have time to do so. Well, I will do so soon.Recently I bought the DVDs on Double Your Income and Productivity by Brian Tracy.

I watched the first 50 minutes and here is a summary of some salient points:

a) Successful people always take actions. Know what they want and always ask how.
b) Don’t be angry with things you can’t change. Don’t be upset with facts.
c) Positive thoughts empower you; negative thoughts weaken you
d) Be optimistic
e) Top people think of the future most of the time
f) We can control probability. We can control probability by doing specific things like:
keep trying, keep doing, and keep learning.

I will continue watching the DVD and share more so that the information becomes internalised… Selfish, no!  But more of a Win win situation …

To our success,
Peck Ling