You Tell On Yourself

- By Anonymous

You tell on yourself by the friends you seek,
By the very manner in which you speak,
By the way you employ your leisure time,
By the use you make of dollar and dime.


You tell what you are by the clothes you wear,
By the spirit in which your burdens you bear,
By the kinds of things at which you laugh,
By the records you play on your phonograph.

You show what you are by the way you walk,
By the things of which you delight to talk,
By the manner in which you bear defeat,
By so simple a thing as how you eat.

By the books you choose from a well-filled shelf–
In these ways and others you tell on yourself.
So really there’s not a grain of sense
In trying to keep up a false pretense.

You can do it for you

Tell yourself you can do it if you …..

and then write down a few ideas.

- nothing is stupid

- nothing is outrageous

- nothing is considered un-doable

until you decide it is.

Personal discipline

If someone isn't ready to change, if they're not committed to the process 100% then nothing you nor I can do will make an ounce of difference.

Saturday and my normal garb is gym gear (no surprises there)... But it did lead into an interesting conversation with the guy on the check out at the supermarket ...

mum and I keep trying to motivate dad to exercise more
"well he has to want to"
HE says he does, but doesn't seem to want to do the harder stuff
"then he's not ready"
He says his metabolism has slowed down and doesn't have the energy
"I'm sorry, but that's rubbish - if you choose to feed yourself inferior foods and don't exercise, of course you are going to slow down. It's nothing to do with your metabolism per se, BUT everything to do with what you think your metabolism is doing"
Huh
"Look my trainer is 56, completely ripped and is a few weeks off competition to compete for a body sculpting title..."

The rather overweight woman standing at the next checkout kept trying to hide the rubbish she had bought, and was staring rather guiltily at me.

NOW - I'm not saying you shouldn't eat it, just
a) don't make excuses as to why you are overweight and unfit - I did and you know what - it didn't fool anyone, including me.
b) if you do want to eat, for goodness sake enjoy it - what is the point in feeling guilty about eating "bad" stuff - if you want it, eat it and enjoy it, savour it in fact, just don't make excuses.

And being ready to change of course does not just apply to health, fitness and weight loss - but everything. Every goal you set yourself needs to be determined alongside whether or not you are ready to handle the workload, the process of working through and working out whatever needs to be worked out, and whether or not you have the strength of character to make it work. Some people call it will power, I just want to know whether you are ready to change your behaviours and your actions from ones that were not suiting you to ones that will.

Given that we are in the midst of a chocolate and all round sugar fest that is Easter. Eat, drink, be merry - don't feel guilty, but be prepared to do the work needed to get rid of the excess next week.

Judging a book by its cover

It doesn't matter what business we are in, however in my opinion we are in the business of building relationships. But before those relationships can be forged, people have a "nasty" habit of judging people by what they see and hear. So:

When people arrive at your place of business what do they see?

* Can they look at your signage and know they have reached the right place?
* Can they get in easily enough or does it take a genius to know which door amongst dozens of other options which one is yours?
* What does your reception look like?
* What does your receptionist look like?
* Are they greeted with a smile?
* Are they greeted at all or are they told to sit and wait and someone will be out shortly
* Are they offered refreshments?
* What sort?
* Have they been before - is the service consistent?
* What about the surroundings? Is the waiting room dingy, is the paint peeling off the walls, or is it light and airy and welcoming?
* What about the people who work at your place of business? Are they dressed well, have a warm and welcoming smile and are pleased to be there? What about you - the business owner?
* Are you dressed to impress or distress your visitors?
* How do you sound? Are you bored, pleased or annoyed at the distractions and visitors?

But what if your business is mainly telephone based - does it matter what you look like? Only to yourself - and it is entirely up to you if you want to sit in your undies at home and answer your sales calls - but how do you sound? You can tell an awful lot about the tone and timbre of a person's voice. Record yourself if you have to, but make sure you don't put people off with your bored tone of voice.

What about your online presence?

* Your website - is it easy to do business with you or is it soooo busy you can't work out from the mish mash of colours, fonts and whirring wotnots what you want people to do?
* What about your social presence - are you consistent with your message? One very big hint regarding social media - people don't want to be "sold" they find social spamming to be just as annoying as email spam - so the rule of thumb is 1 "sales" message to every 50 no-sales message you send out.
* Make sure the people on your facebook pages or tweet streams are enhancing not distracting from your business. If they're not, ask them politely to raise their game... if all else fails - hide their news feeds or if you feel you must - remove them completely.

What about your home?
What do people see when they walk through your door? I had this discussion with my teenagers again last night - my back door opens directly onto the kitchen and directly in front is the sink ... thanks goodness my clients don't make house calls - especially last night. I wouldn't mind but school / TAFE is closed for the Easter break, so it's not like they don't have the time...

* When was the last time you looked at your business through the eyes of the people who arrive there?
* Is it time to do so again?
* Is it time to raise your game?