”So- what could be a figure that your firm contributes to charity”

“I’d say a million dollars or two”

“Would a big percentage of it be to the AIDS fund (I read your pamphlets) or assorted causes?”

“Both.”

“What amount channels into the AIDS fund then?”

“Hmmm… maybe $600,000 or $700,000. That’s our yearly target”

“So you met that goal. The 700K?”

“Yes. We always meet our goals”

“That makes your firm unique. Few companies hit their mandated targets. It’s mostly PR yarn for the papers”

“Well, we did.”

“Did you actually direct the disbursement of charity to the AIDS Fund”

“I served on the company’s board for the AIDS Fund three years ago”

“So that means you have no inkling as to how much was really sent?”

“I hear figures.”

“So exactly how much is sent to AIDS Fund?”

“I think it’s 700K like I mentioned”

“You’re certain? I can quote you on this”

“Not until I look at the spreadsheets.”

“What about other funds, do you know the real dollar figures going there?”

“Ahh.. um…”

When people bluff, they often throw easy to remember numbers or simplistic facts. You can see it instantly. It’s like a child’s coloring book with single,  bold colors that lack varying hues. The truth is rarely that. It’s a Van Gogh painting of complexities. And when you begin dissecting, you see stuff underneath. Mutually supportive stuff.

It’s easy to destroy a bluff. You don’t want to be caught in one, so dazzle people with your honesty: tell them you don’t know. They’ll appreciate you for it.

Take a step back and ponder on all the big stuff that happened to you. Did you notice that some small tweak in your plans often drove it to amazing completion? Or how one small decision brought about earthshaking rewards?

Here’s how to use the rule to save more time and maximize your life’s bottomline:

• Make it a habit of jotting down your top daily priorities. If you find yourself stuck in nonessentials, get back on track!
• Learn to procrastinate on procrastination.
• Cease focusing on your inadequacies- just do what you do best.
• Halt trying to be perfect- you gain more by spending time on a few relaxing and self-indulgent activities (like having a sauna or extra sleep). This revitalizes you to achieve more.
• Forget about worrying… have more fun!
• Live in the present. The future will take care of itself.
• Learn to trust in what you’ve done. Second guessing slows you down.
• Have faith in your intuition- it’s your lifeline to wondrous things beyond your logical mind. This often leads to “eureka moments”

Have you been maximizing your life’s bottomline?

The answer’s simple. It’s in your gut.

Something’s definitely wrong when your gut wrenches. This indicates that you feel you’re being manipulated, twisted or given the short end of the stick. Most fail to listen to this inner intuition. They say yes right away, while their stomach screams nooooo!

Trust your instincts next time. Next time you feel bad about something, pause. Evaluate your response before aceding. It’s the first step to truly asserting yourself.

So how do you agree in order to win? Simply find some small aspect in their angry statement and agree with it. It’s like Judo- you take the wind out of their sails! So, let’s see an example.

They: “You’re late again, you don’t love me”

You: “I agree, being late upset you. Now it doesn’t mean I don’t love you… it means that I exerted a lot of effort picking up flowers on the way to please you.”

See… how does that sound? Now go out there and fight your battles the right way.

So next time something debatable comes up, speak your mind. Fight a bit. It’ll do you and your spouse a world of good.

Do Unto Others As You Would Have Others Do Unto You.

It works well… most of the time.

The problem arises when others wouldn’t want to be treated the way you do.

Let’s say you loved to eat only vegetables. So you decide to treat your meat loving spouse the same way- by force feeding him vegetables. Think that would work great? Of course not. Here, the Golden Rule obviously fails.

Doing unto others the way you want done unto you works only if you have the same likes and dislikes. If you’re different… the Rule causes discord.

Let me amend the rule then. Let’s call it the Platinum Rule:

Do unto others as they would have done unto themselves.

Now isn’t that better? Can you think of a way that could ever go wrong?

Wrong.

Graduation is no excuse to stop the learning process. Failure to study is folly! The new information your constantly process determines your edge in life. School learning is static and often decades out of date.

Here’s how to grow your IQ by 50%- after college.

1) Keep a book handy.

Thousands are released every year. Pick two close to your passions every month. Update yourself. Build your skillset to make yourself interesting and indispensable to to your associates.

2) Maintain a “To-Learn” List

Break out of your comfort zone! It’s fine to develop your core competencies, but too much of one thing makes you a dull boy. The most dynamic thinkers and leaders maintain a list of new challenges to tackle: like learning a new language, to scaling Mount Everest. Having new goals will revitalize you!

3) Expand Your Base of Intellectual Friends

Hanging out with dullards is contagious. Notice how being around folks who spout nonesense forces you to
lower yourself to their level? Upgrade your companions and their skills, ideas and passions trickle down to you. More than reading books, I achieved mastery of everything from dancing tango to deliverying firey speeches through my associations

4) Modeling The Greats

Got a project? There’s no point re-inventing the wheel. Learn how the masters did it and build upon their methods. You’ll quickly and readily discover how to get things done fast. Then you can move on to even bigger fish.

5) Practice practice practice

You’ll never learn how to shoot a gun by reading a book. Drop that book after you get the theory down pat. Walk to your shooting range and squeeze a few shots! That’s when textbook learning leads to magnificent mastery.

6) Mentor Your Colleagues

I’ve built my negotiation skillset by passing on tips to those who blunder like bulls at boardrooms. Know what? Each time I did so, I actually found myself weaving ever more enticing spiels that led to more satisfying win-win outcomes! Teach others and you grow. Empowerment is mutual!

The last parking slot is taken. Do you scream?

The boss fires you. Did you jump the building?

If you said yes to any, I’m sorry to say, you’re a weakling. You simply react to events instead of choosing your own response.

The real movers and shakers chose proactively. The decide on positive behaviours that serve them well. In other words, they choose to be the cause of events. Not the effects.

Here are some tips you can use to rule your reality.

1) Before you react to something, ask yourself: does this serve me well?

2) Take the initiative. If you know you’ll be fired, resign.

3) Pretend you have just 30 minutes to live. How’d you do it?

4) Take ten seconds before acting on something. This prevents brash moves

5) When you’ve made your decision, don’t look back. Be consistent! Remember: never excuse your decisions. It’s your right!

Do you want a standing ovation the next time you deliver your speech? Try the following

1) Focus on the crowd, not yourself. Think of entertaining them. Don’t imagine them criticizing you.

2) Walk around. A lot. Act like you’re just bantering at the water cooler. This loosens you up.

3) Crack jokes. Smile. They’ll smile back. And you create rapport.

4) Tell stories. Everyone loves a great story! Watch how their eyes stop glazing over.

5) Finally- encourage audience participation. Ask them questions. Throw them opinions. Banter. Debate. Keep it quick flowing!

Now I came across a cool blog with great tips on the subject. You’ll want to check this out:
Standing Ovations

You easily part a nun from her vow of chastity.

No doubt- you’re the greatest at influencing people one-on-one.

But can you conduct killer power point presentations?

If you’re like 99% of all the presentors out there, I bet you ‘re a veteran at observing the MEGO Syndrome in audiences.

MEGO?

“Mine Eyes Glaze Over”

That’s right. Three minutes into the powerpoint presentation, the audience is restless. Some begin sneaking out the door. The more polite ones just pretend to listen behind dark spectacles. But you know where their minds went.

The MEGO Syndrome arises from five monumental presentation mistakes. Do the opposite and you’ll deliver utterly drool worthy power point presentations- and influence the socks out of your crowd.

1. Keeping Them Guessing. Many speakers fail to give a roadmap of their speech. So throughout the presentation, the crowd is asking ‘huh? What’s his point? Where’s this leading to?’ Guide them by the hand. Before the actual presentation, outline exactly what you’ll cover and let them know when you’ll finish.

2. Failing to Connect At the Beginning. Audiences don’t like to be preached to. They’d prefer to be talked with. Keep your style interactive. Open the talk by asking a rhetorical question, launching an anecdote, or saying a shocking statement- then invite a comment! You’ll draw them in like Pirahnnas to a pork buffet.

3. Looking at the Floor and Closing Your Body. I’ve seen it so often. The speaker assumes a closed body language. Guilty of this? Hands in pocket. Arms crossed. Legs tight together. Look stiff, and you alienate the audience. To invite the audience to appreciate your power point presentation, move around. Gesture. Smile!

4. DataDumping. I’ve attended hundreds of business presentations where the speaker fills the slide with size 9 font text crammed to the margin. Then they read each line. Good lord! We’re attending a presentation, not an online reading course! The best slides follow the 4 by 4 rule. Four words across, four bullets down.

5. Forgetting the Call of Action. At the end, the speaker jumps to “any questions?” without giving the audience a specific command. Is it to buy? To invest? To visit a website? Without the call to action, the audience is left wondering what you yammered about for the last 20 minutes of their valuable time.

So here’s my call to action for you: create drool worthy powerpoint presentations. Right now.
Your audience deserves it