Keeping Cool Under Pressure

One of the biggest mistakes we can do is act on emotion or react without thinking.  This can affect us both personally and in business.

Having a clear mind when making decisions is more productive and positive than reacting with emotion due to stress or other sensitive factors.  We all had those moments where we feel guilty or regretful AFTER our impulsive decisions.

So how do we deal with stress and preventing actions based on emotion?  There any many stress relievers out there that range from stress balls to massages but I want to focus on the root of these techniques and that is the Breathing and Clear Mind element.

I was reading a book by Russell Simmons called “Do You” and Russell talks about his various breathing techniques and Yoga classes.

Breathing Techniques

First we must learn to be at one with our Breathing.  Breathing is the most natural form and is something we tend to forget that we do on a daily basis.

Whenever we act upon emotion or become stresses our heart rate rises and because we are not getting enough oxygen at that moment we become uncontrollable and stressed.

You know that saying take a few breaths through a paper bag and just breathe in and out?

We have to learn to just Breathe when under pressure and not let our emotions take control of us.  When presented with a stressful situation remove yourself from the picture and just focus on breathing techniques.  The simplest form is counting to 10 and breathing in rhythm with your count.  You will be amazed how much your heart race will slow down and be able to think more clearly when making your next decision.

Yoga

The next form in breathing is like in the act of Yoga.  Before you begin your day or even when you are about to go to bed, try removing yourself from all distractions and find a nice and quiet spot to practice your breathing technique and even try meditating.  This habit will surely put you in a better mind set to start your day right or even end your day on  a positive and zen fashion.

Do You Have True Blood? Keeping Cool Under Pressure is a post from: Self Confidence | Positive Thinking | Personal Development - Justified Lions

“I Destroy My Enemies When I Make Them My Friends” – Abraham Lincoln

“Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much.” – Oscar Wilde

“Treat your friend as if he will one day be your enemy, and your enemy as if he will one day be your friend”

“Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.” – Michael Corleone

 

In Business or in Personal, Enemies are the forces we are sought to stay away from and become bitter towards.

Why do we feel we must ignore our enemies and do everything we can to stay away from them?  What is a true “Enemy?

In Business an “Enemy” could be the competition, they may be good people but because they are affecting our pockets of success they are considered enemies.

Personal Life an “Enemy” are people we don’t trust or affected us emotionally to become hatred towards or bitter.

So in both instances, enemies are our rivals or people who we do not want to be associated with because of an act or emotion delivered upon us.  The complete opposite of an enemy is a “Friend” right?  Why can’t both enemies and friends be intertwined?

What do we have to lose?

I personally use to be stubborn and bitter towards all my enemies in both business and personally then I found out that I am feeding negative emotions just like when I feed towards people who are haters or jealous of me.  Two wrongs don’t make a right.

It’s like the classic story in War where there may be 5 nations under one rule where the Tyrant controls all 5 nations but is completely vicious and corrupt.  Instead of the 5 nations struggling fighting with each other, the nations should join forces towards one common goal is relinquishing power from the evil tyrant.

So what do we have to gain from keeping your enemies close by or putting up with their presence?

• Insight / Preparation – You will become the chess master and know every single move of your enemies while preparing yourself for your own success.
• Opportunities – You will let your enemy focus elsewhere giving you the opportunity to expand or achieve the results you want with less resistance.
• Growth/Zen – Personally you will grow as a person and in business due to letting your heart and mind become free of this negative emotion.  It takes a lot more time and energy to focus on hatred and resentment than it is to let go and move to better yourself and your business.

Why friends can be more dangerous than enemies

You know the old saying that your loved ones and friends can hurt you the most than any other enemy in the world can?  We get blindsided when our loved ones or friends back-stab or endanger us.  In Robert Greene’s 48 laws of power he explains why Friends can be worse than Enemies.

Never put too Much Trust in Friends, Learn how to use Enemies

“Be wary of friends-they will betray you more quickly, for they are easily aroused to envy.  They also become spoiled and tyrannical. But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend, because he has more to prove.  In fact, you have more to fear from friends than from enemies.  If you have no enemies, find a way to make them.”
So let’s not focus on the negatives and let’s crush our enemies by making them our friends, what do you think?

I Destroy My Enemies When I Make Them My Friends is a post from: Self Confidence | Positive Thinking | Personal Development - Justified Lions

Yes it’s hard to believe when you think about the YouTube sensation Justin Bieber you think of millions of young girls who go crazy over his music.  Contrary to belief, Justin Bieber has a story behind him that exudes the spirit of entrepreneurship, the underdog and how hard work pays off and  that all business minded people can appreciate.

Beside having an awesome name (Hey that’s my name), I went to see Justin’s new movie “Never Say Never” for two reasons:

1.)  I have a 7 year old Daughter

2.)  I recently attended a small business workshop hosted by Guy Kawasaki and he even was quoted in saying that Justin Bieber’s movie was the best marketing movie for people of today.

Business Success

Below are the 7 business models that Justin has used in order to be successful, Business owners can appreciate this because it relates to almost all Businesses out there in the real world.

1.)  Getting noticed / Marketing  – Bieber started out his career as a nobody and just like any nobody out there who is willing to get noticed, he started marketing himself by displaying his singing skills and musical talent all over youtube, going to local talent competitions and even singing in local hangout spots.   Just like when any Business first starts out, they have to put the marketing machine out there and everywhere possible.

2.)  Failure – Justin wasn’t an overnight star as most people would think.  His youtube videos has a steady but low audience rate.  He even won 2nd place in a local talent competition.  At this time Justin wasn’t just a singer but he had talent with drums so he even did gigs as a backup drummer.  Most businesses fail when they don’t achieve success early on and give up.  It is okay to fail because that is a lesson we can learn from and move on to be better.

3.)  Taste of success – One night a talent manager Scooter Braun came across one of Justin’s videos and reached out to him and his Mother to represent him to find a record deal.  Eventually this led to being signed by Usher.  You might think of this as getting funded as a start-up venture by Angel Investors in the business sense.

4.)  Hardwork – Now that Justin is signed and being represented by a major Talent Manager, this doesn’t mean that he became an overnight sensation still.  Justin was still putting the work in to get noticed even by powerhouse agency he still has to prove to the world that he is a force to be reckon with.  Justin was doing non-stop radio spot tours, there was not one radio station who had not been contacted by Justin Bieber’s team.  Justin was singing for anyone and everyone who would let him sing for.  This kid was putting in the work to get noticed.  The business world calls this “Sweat Equity“

5.)  Going viral – The best thing that could happen to any Business out there is to have a successful viral marketing campaign.  Justin is a true promoter of the real of Social Media.  Everywhere Justin went to perform, he tweeted his location to his steadily growing fan-base.  His YouTube followers were soon sharing and tweeting out his videos.  Justin and his team were giving out free concert tickets to fans who may of lucked out of a sold out show.  Word of mouth and Social Media marketing was going off the roof!!

6.)  Never giving up – Although Justin was considered a hit and a success there was still much doubt from a lot of critics that Justin will not succeed.  Critics were even disbelieving that he will not perform at Madison Square Garden let alone being sold out.  Justin and his team were set to prove the critics wrong by doing more radio spots, concert tours and eventually booking Madison Square Garden.  Justin then sold out Madison Square in New York in 22 minutes.  Never say never, believe in your business.

7.)  Post Success – Now that Justin Bieber has achieved success, how does he maintain and push the envelope further?  When a business reaches critical mass, it is important to maintain and sharpen the saw to keep it booming.  Justin still incorporates Social Media in his daily activities by posting on youtube, funny-or-die, Tweeting daily and keeping in touch with his fans everywhere on his Facebook page.  In the movie Justin showed that he really cared about what his fans think and always find ways to keep his fans in the loops and engaged.  A successful Business know this importance in keeping up with post success and never giving up.

Never Say Never – 7 Reasons Why Justin Bieber Is An Inspiration To Business Professionals Everywhere is a post from: Self Confidence | Positive Thinking | Personal Development - Justified Lions

Staying organized and focusing on tasks at hand can be very tough. I know for me that is one of the things I struggle with often. Things can get really messy if you have tasks that are not arranged by high priority to low or even worse no tasks at all.

Shooting from the hip is an old Cowboy saying that symbolizes the Wild West, Shoot first ask questions later.

At work this may seem true, we are all rushing to finish the day regardless of how sloppy we get the job done. Of course our clients or employers may not like our tactic but it seems like just like in life, we worry about rushing to get things done without slowing down and making sure we do it the right way with no lazy short cuts.

I just recently moved to the DC Metro area from Virginia Beach. Virginia Beach is such a laid back Podunk town while DC is a fast paced business oriented city. It seems like everyone in this area has to drive 80 miles just to reach their destination everyday even if its less than 2 miles away. Back in Virginia Beach, I see people “cruising” all the time just enjoying the ride, in DC I don’t think I have yet to see 1 person just “cruise” otherwise they will get yelled at for going to slow.

So the point is sometimes you have to take a step back and re-evaluate things. Stop worrying about reaching your destination so quickly, take a step back and re-focus espeically if you want to improve or change your life or business.

Effective Activities and Behavior

In Business or in Life there are times when we do things redundantly or ineffectively that doesn’t make sense in doing.  For Business for example, there are many activities that are more detrimental to our success than it is to make money.  Many people waste time doing useless tasks and activities that are not helping the overall goal of making money.

As a Loan Officer, I was always caught up in doing paperwork during the day that was very time consuming and left me little time to effectively prospect.  Prospecting is how I get business and if I don’t get any business then I don’t make any money.  I had to re-arrange my priorities and spent less time doing paperwork at work and brought most of the work load home or delegated to an assistant.

The same time consuming activities can also apply in life.  My brother was an avid poker player at the local bars where they would hold tournaments almost every couple days.  In the past his Girlfriend would always get mad at him because he would spend too much time at the bars and never enough time with her.  This is an obvious poor priority management.  The solution to this problem is that he could make work out a deal by going once or twice a month depending on how comfortable his Girlfriend would be and to shift over some of his poker playing maybe at the house or on computer.  Whatever the solution was going to be the point is to re-prioritize and ask what will it take to make it work.

A few key points to remember when re-arranging your priorities to work towards your goal or end result.

Is this productive?

1.)  Ask Yourself is this productive? Keep asking yourself this very important question over and over through out the day.  I recently came across a survey with the top producers in a sales industry and almost every single one of them had this strategy down as one of the tips to being a successful top producer.  Get your priorities is straight, if its something not making you money or helping you out with your business in the long run, then change up your game.

2.)  Write down your priorites – I have always been a big promoter of this strategy.  Most people in this world are visual thinkers and sometimes in order to get organized we need to lay our objectives and priorities down.  Start with the most important priority and work your way down to the least important.  This work wonders.

3.) Change it – They say a person is truly crazy if they keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.  If things are not working the way you want it to be, don’t just wait for change, go out and make things happen.  Go out and change your habits or priorities in to making things a success.  You control your own destiny is what I always say.

Keep Asking Yourself Is What I Am Doing Now Productive? is a post from: Self Confidence | Positive Thinking | Personal Development - Justified Lions