Wednesday, August 19, 2009

5-Point Success Plan

Notes taken during an address by Lou Holtz
Melaleuca National Convention
August 15, 2009

Step 1: Attitude

Step 2: Passion: Focus on what you have passion about, your purpose, your desire to win

Step 3: Embrace Change: How can I help people get what they want?

Step 4: Be a Dreamer - Do, love, believe, hope

Step 5: Develop & Maintain Relationships

Action Plan:

  • What
  • When
  • Who do you need to engage to get it done
  • What talents and abilities do I have
  • What talents and abilities do I need to get from others
  • What problems do I need to overcome
  • How will others benefit
  • Keep moving forward, do not revert to management or maintenance of status quo mode

Principle of Taking Action = W.I.N. (What’s important now?)
Ask yourself: “Of all the things that I have to or can do right now, what is important to do right now.” Do that thing.

Tools to Build Self Esteem:

  • Do right
  • Do to the best of your ability in the time allotted
  • Show people you care

Develop and Live Your Core Values

Notes from Hiram Smith, Franklin Covey Institute
Melaleuca National Convention
August 14, 2009

Wisdom = Knowledge rightly applied

Three emotions that motivate activity:
  • Fear (have to)
  • Duty (need to)
  • Love (delight to, want to) – Strive to be motivated by love

Know & Live Your Core Values

  • Find out what matters to you
  • Bring your life into alignment with what matters
  • Spend 3-5 hours writing down your governing values
    o Personal
    o Marriage (if married)
    o Family

When there is a gap between your core value and where you are (your reality), you run at the gap. Strive to close the gap. In some cases it won’t be easy.

Who will survive adversity: an optimist, a pessimist or a realist?

  • An optimist by faith ignores the brutal facts, and eventually succumbs to adversity when noting changes;
  • A pessimist sees the brutal facts and quits from the beginning; or,
  • A realist sees the brutal facts, but has faith to deal with them to overcome in the end. Mental toughness is crucial, pain is inevitable, but misery is optional.

Character is the ability to carry on with a plan after the emotion of the decision has passed. Do what you say you will do.

Learn to forgive. Forgiveness requires remembering the offense and deciding it doesn’t matter anymore.

Action Plan:

  • Think about the teaching for 36 hours
  • Teach them to someone else

Friday, June 26, 2009

Habakkuk 2:2-Write down the vision and make it plain on tablets.

O J Simpson was a 10 year old, and wanted to be just like Jim Brown—pro football player-and set a goal in his mind to break every record Jim Brown held!.

Make It Come True

In 1957 a ten-year-old boy in California set a goal. At the time Jim Brown was the greatest running back ever to play pro football and this tall, skinny boy wanted his autograph. In order to accomplish his goal, the young boy had to overcome some obstacles.

He grew up in the ghetto, where he never got enough to eat. Malnutrition took its toll, and a disease called rickets forced him to wear steel splints to support his skinny, bowed-out legs. He had no money to buy a ticket to get into the game, so he waited patiently near the locker room until the game ended and Jim Brown left the field. He politely asked Brown for his autograph. As Brown signed, the boy explained, “Mr. Brown, I have your picture on my wall. I know you hold all the records. You’re my idol.”

Brown smiled and began to leave, but the young boy wasn’t finished. He proclaimed, “Mr. Brown, one day, I’m going to break every record you hold!” Brown was impressed and asked, “What is your name, son?”

The boy replied, “Orenthal James. My friends call me OJ.”

OJ Simpson went on to break all but three of the rushing records held by Jim Brown before injuries shortened his football career.

Goal setting is the strongest force for human motivation. Set a goal and make it come true.

With Melaleuca we have goals we set, we have levels we work toward, we plan how we can get there-the road map-and what needs to be done-how many calls we need to do to get those results we need etc. Establish your ‘WHY’ and GO FOR IT!!!.


Thanks for this post goes to Sandra who shared this exerpt from Chicken Soup For The Soul-Page 151-152

Monday, June 22, 2009

Being Led By The Holy Spirit (God)

Romans 8:14-For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons (daughters) of God.

We gave some examples of The Holy Spirit leading Sandra and I to talk to different people on her bike ride yesterday and Daryl at work.

  1. Denise-I felt that I needed to stop while on my bike ride and ask her if I could try sometime to get the paint off her driveway using my products. (She’s the one that cancelled my app’t last week-depressed etc.) She said , “Yes”. Then she asked if she would have to sell anything. I knew then that she was afraid of talking or selling to people. I told her she could just be a customer; she wouldn’t have to talk to anyone like me. I could see more openness to me immediately. (God clearing up obstacles.)
  2. I felt I needed to ride over to the trailer court. I felt God was telling me to go up to Joann’s door and visit. I have never gone to her door and knocked-only said ‘Hi’ as I rode by. She came to the door and I found out her boyfriend couldn’t work construction Jan. or Feb.-no work. She works at heart hospital. They both smoke. They need healthy products and money. I approached on asking if they need extra money. She’ll think about it. I will ’drip’ on them more.
  3. Rode by a woman’s house where I had stopped before asking what color paint their house was-I liked it and wanted to paint my house that color. This time I felt God told me to go up to her door and ask if they need extra money. She said ‘Yes’. I told her I’d come back again-they were in the middle of dinner. Her name is Tracey-young, w/family. This prospect has potential and is only a few blocks from me.
  4. My enrollment this week-Darla Deslauriers-I met while on my bike stopping to compliment her on her fencing at the corner of her property. She will be an awesome customer, I know, and maybe even a business person.
  5. One more example-About mid June Sandra felt God told her to stop at a certain rummage sale. The lady there knew her because she delivered mail to our house sometimes. They need more money. Her husband just emailed us back and we replied last night wanting to set an appointment.
  6. Daryl felt that on this one particular break yesterday that he was supposed to go outside. There he met Amy Cudmore; he’s been trying to get a phone # for her. (During work and being on phone w/customers you can’t do that easily.) God brought her to him outside and he got her first and last name and her phone # and she said she’d be interested in seeing what he has for extra money.

Thanks to Daryl and Sandy for these examples of being led by the Spirit to talk to neighbors and co-workers!

What Can We Learn from a Garmin GPS?

Isaiah 65:24 says: “Before they call I will answer, while they are still speaking I will hear.

For Father’s Day my family got me a Garmin GPS navigation system complete with a carrying case. It is really nice and provides a map, directions to programmed destinations and destinations you can type in. You can watch your progress on the map. The speaker tells you about turns ahead and then lets you know when the turn is getting near and when to make the turn.

One thing I noted is that every time we turned off course to stop at a store or something, the GPS automatically recalculated a new route to the destination. It was relentless until you got there or turned it off.

How does all this apply to our business? When we get off course, the tools and support network we have will get us back on course. But even more importantly, when we are even thinking about getting back on course, the Lord hears and will answer.

May the Lord hear our prayers while we are yet talking about them and answer!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

When Success Is Slow

Do not be anxious about anything, but in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Phil. 4:6,7

When Success is Slow, What Can You Do? Adapted from Jack Canfield’s article

When we admire someone's success, or even our own, we often focus on the end result and not so much on the effort (and time) that it took to get there. This can cultivate unrealistic expectations, especially the idea that overnight success can happen through careful strategy and an execution of sound advice.

Success typically follows a series of little events and achievements that can seem to take an eternity, that include a few disappointments along the way, and that challenge everything about you to the core - your stamina, courage, integrity, and even your willingness to keep going.

If you focus on what's not working: You're likely coming from a place of aggravation as your mind wraps around all that is wrong. You may even have negative thoughts like "I'm not good enough," "It will never work," or "Something must be wrong with me." What this mentally does is engender more of these counter-productive feelings. And given what we know about the Law of Attraction, you attract what you are feeling. So negative experiences, people, and results will beget more negative experience, people, and results. There's not much success in that.

The key, then, is to focus on what IS working. To do so, I recommend two simple practices: journaling and meditation.

  • Maintaining a journal (Gratitude Journal) is a great way to steer your attention to the positive and continually renew your vision for yourself.
  • Start each day with reflections on what you are grateful for in your life (list them out!) and end each day with notes on what went right (again, write them down), however small.

Take Action. You may be taking the actions you are used to taking. But therein lies the problem: if you keep doing what you've already done then you'll keep getting what you've always gotten. It's a matter of practicing some new behaviors. Shake things up a bit and see if you can take new actions or modify existing ones.

Remember the Rule of 5. Every day do five specific things that take you toward your goal.

Change up the five actions regularly and be open to feedback so you know when you're off course.

Be patient. It's natural to underestimate how long a certain goal can take, especially a profound one. When I set a goal to become a millionaire the year was 1983. How long did it take? Eleven years. It took time for Chicken Soup for the Soul to hit the bestseller lists. You could say our tenure on the New York Times list was more than a decade in the making. That's a lot of patience for someone who initially wanted overnight success.
Patience is a virtue. But keep at it, and in no time, you'll be only one week, or one day away from your ultimate success. Remember... be grateful, reflect on what IS working and continue to take ACTION!

Thanks to Donna for this post!

Friday, June 12, 2009

The Driver

A driver: What is it? According to the dictionary a driver is----

  1. one that drives, as the operator of a motor vehicle.
  2. a tool, such as a hammer, used to impart forceful pressure.
  3. a machine part that transmits motion or power to another part.
  4. sports. A golf club with a wide head and a long shaft, used for long shots

How a ‘driver’ coincides or relates to Melaleuca:

You need to do some assessing of your potential customers/business builders you present to. Know that in families, a husband or wife-[It is usually one-not both normally] is usually the ‘driver’-the one who ‘gets it’!, or sees the ‘vision’-the one who has the buying power or is the decision maker in the family-the one who usually wants more and is usually more vocal or authoritative-the one who, given the chance, will ‘run with it’ or ‘get things done.

NOTE: A lot of the women we have been speaking to have been the ‘drivers because they want more for their families and they buy more. That is changing with more economy problems now, but that has been our previous experience in our area.

If you speak to the one who is NOT the driver, you will not get an enrollment at all (They hold back to have their spouse decide or give them in-put.) or down the road you will have to try to convince the other spouse about Melaleuca and usually present again to one or both of them-a second time making it not wise time management. Try to get both to a presentation at the same time. Tune in to the ‘driver’ in the family and you will get somewhere. They have power in that family.

As far as the 2. tool definition-We have been using the ax for presentations in the past. As Frank said at launch, “Now we have the chainsaw!” Use it!

One verse-2 translations

  • [NKJ] Proverbs 16:26-The person who labors, labors for himself, For his hungry mouth drives him on
  • [Living Bible] Proverbs 16:26-Hunger is good if it makes you work to satisfy it.

Sharing with the group:

  1. Can’t push a rope.
  2. LIA June issue w/Frank’s article, “You Can’t Catch a Thing Unless You keep Your line in the Water—We’ve been talking about them jumping into the boat!

Prayer with the group for couples working together as a ‘team’ to get more work done than if they tried to do it singly like horses trying to pull weight alone and can’t pull as much as 2 horses pulling together can!, praying for more results-not just a lot of activity that goes nowhere-actual enrollments with the signature on the line. Work and activity being ‘clinched’! (Example-saking cream in a jar making butter-a lot of activity shaking it, and it seems to go nowhere or that nothing is happening but suddenly it starts to thicken and become butter!!)

Thanks to Daryl for this post!