A Timeless Truth

By Bob Proctor,

While going through my files I came across a blurb from Catholic Digest written by Mary Kinsolving which is as relevant today as it was many years ago when it was written.  Ms. Kinsolving tells a story of living in Manhattan where, as a child, her mother walked her to school four blocks away every morning and then walked home with her again in the afternoon.  One hard winter her mother came down with pneumonia and Mary had to go to school and return home by herself.  She states that on the way home the second day she fell on some ice while crossing the street and at that moment a car skidded towards her and came within inches of her before it stopped.  "The driver helped me up," she said, "and I managed to get home but didn't tell my mother because I didn't want her to worry."

The next morning the streets were even icier and when she came to her first cross street she was terrified and stated that she stood at the intersection for a long time.  Finally, an elderly woman came over to her and said, "I don't see very well.  May I hold your hand when I cross the street?"  She replied, "Oh, yes," and the elderly lady took her hand and "before long we were on the other side."  Then Mary Kinsolving walked a short distance and looked back to see how the woman was doing.  To her surprise, "She was crossing the street we had just crossed together and was walking by herself much faster than we had before."  Ms. Kinsolving then realized that the lady had pretended poor eyesight only to help her cross the street.  Much later in life she understood that she could overcome her own fears by helping someone else.

What marvelous advice from years gone past!  Take that approach to life and I will SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

12:55:00 - By Vincent 0

Letting Go: How It Helps You

BY Donna Merrill 

Letting go does not mean giving up! In fact, it helps you gain peace of mind and move forward.

Today I’ve a special guest – please welcome Donna, who’s an intuitive life coach and personal development expert. Let’s read all that she has to share with us today – over to her.

Letting go of anything is so difficult for some people. It can be a hurtful family member or just a piece of furniture.

When we refuse to let go, what happens? We remain stagnant.

Our life is so cluttered with the old, often useless and dysfunctional stuff that we have no room for new things to come in.

I know how difficult it is when a loved one passes on. We mourn our loss and go through a ritual such as burying or cremating the person. Each culture has its own way of facing the “ending”.

We give ourselves time to mourn and then let go. I don’t want to sound morbid by using this example, but it is the ultimate experience of letting go.

Death is something everyone learns to handle because it is an inevitable part of the natural life cycle.

But what happens to people when they become entrenched in a specific lifestyle, or a particular journey and they just can’t adjust to any alteration or modification?

Why People are Afraid of Letting Go

People may stay at a job they don’t like because of fear of what is beyond their potential. Some stay there for years and do not allow themselves to grow and enjoy the things they may love to do.

I notice that when people refuse to let go of things that just don’t work for them any longer, their happiness and sense of self worth start to melt away. They cannot enjoy their spouse, their family, etc.

They may get angry or play victim to the very circumstances that they foster. In any case, they won’t allow themselves to try to extend themselves even for a job interview, let alone starting their own business.

And, often enough, if they do step out of their comfort zone and things don’t work out, they quickly play the blame game to make things somebody else’s fault.

Letting Go of Things in Your Life

I know a woman who is quite a hoarder. Now, this is a physical and transparent form of refusing to let go.

This person cannot let go of her furniture because it reminds her of her past. Her garage is full of surplus furniture and she always complained about it, and begged me to help her get rid of it. But first, I extended myself by visiting her to take pictures of everything, from furniture down to the silverware.

I made a photo album for her so she could keep those memories without cluttering her home. Little by little, she started to give away something here and there. But she didn’t let go of these things without anxiety.

So each time she gave something away, I suggested that she look at the picture we took. After two years, her house has nothing but the essentials in it. Now she is even ready to move to a new place.

Unsurprisingly, this woman’s willingness to let go of her furniture has opened her to letting go of some negative relationships in her life. As she has done so, she’s been able to replace them some good and positive relationships that she had previously avoided.

This is one simple way to illustrate how letting go of things go in our lives enables us to grow, and to move on to new adventures and possibilities.

Letting Go and Starting Your Business

When it comes to our wonderful world of business on the internet, I find that lots of folks are fearful of letting go of menial jobs that are going nowhere in order to start their own business.

So, what can we do with the person who can’t let go of dead-end jobs and careers, even though they are fully capable of doing better?

“Create a back door!” I usually suggest. Go on working as usual, but create time to work on your own business. Nothing happens overnight.

Start your new venture part time, utilizing spare evening or weekend hours. There are many successful people who are doing business part time via the Internet.

That phrase “create a back door” is comforting to those who find it difficult to let go all at once. All one has to do is be diligent, persistent and a business will bloom.

Time is not necessarily of the essence here. “Letting go” is.

Starting an online business part time affords a comfort zone to many people that I’ve consulted with.

They can rely on the job that keeps them financially and emotionally comfortable, while taking daring little chances for a few hours a day.

It’s really not uncommon that before they know it, they are able to totally let go of the go-nowhere job and mentality, and apply themselves fully to doing what makes them happy.

Letting Go of People in Your Life

Letting go of people that are toxic is a biggie, too!

I must have heard a hundred stories about people that won’t let go of a toxic or worse,abusive relationship.

I feel this is the worst form of refusing to let go, especially if there are children involved in the situation.

It is often not an easy thing to let go of a partner because of financial situations, or worse, the syndrome whereby one spouse believes that they cannot survive without the other, even if it puts them (and others) in harm’s way.

Now, if there are children involved in this situation, they are being abused, too. Yes! If daddy is putting down mommy or even worse, displaying violence, the children will suffer, too. To me that is criminal.

But hey, I’m not Queen of the world. I just know this from my own personal experience!

When the abused spouse lets go of the abusive partner (and sometimes it is best to get help before one does it), they end up gaining strength. Why? Because it takes so much strength to deal with that situation, when it is over, the victim who couldn’t let go – turns into the victor who did.

Conclusion

So you see – letting go is often required in order for you to move forward in your life, and in your business.

We all need to let go of some things in our lives in order to grow. The above examples may be pretty extreme, but try applying it to even small things in your life.

Are you holding on to something that you just cannot shake? Do you dream of anything at all that you aren’t doing right now?

What are you waiting for? Let go of ANYTHING that is holding you back and realize that you never stuck in time, you are always evolving. Growth and development never end!

Over To You –

Do you believe in letting go? What can you let go of to make room for growth and improvement in your life? Share in the comments.

SOURCE

13:33:00 - By Vincent 0

The Tiger, an inspiring story

By Remez Sasson

A teacher and his student were walking from one village to another, when they suddenly heard a roar behind them. Turning their gaze in the direction of the roar, they saw a big tiger following them.

The first thing the student wanted to do was to run away, but since he has been studying and practicing self-discipline, he was able to halt himself from running, and wait to see what his teacher would do.

"What shall we do Master?" Asked the student.

The teacher looked at the student and answered in a calm voice:
"There are several options. We can fill our minds with paralyzing fear so that we cannot move, and let the tiger do with us whatever pleases it. We can faint. We can run away, but then it will run after us. We can fight with it, but physically it is stronger than us."

"We can pray to god to save us. We can choose to influence the tiger with the power of our mind, if our concentration is strong enough. We can send it love. We can also concentrate and meditate on our inner power, and on the fact that we are one with the entire universe, including the tiger, and in this way influence its soul."

"Which option do you choose?"

"You are the Master. You tell me what to do. We don't have much time." The student responded.

The master turned his gaze fearlessly towards the tiger, emptied his mind from all thoughts, and entered a deep state of meditation. In his consciousness, he embraced everything in the universe, including the tiger. In this state the consciousness of the teacher became one with consciousness of the tiger.

Meanwhile the student started to shiver with fear, as the tiger was already quite close, ready to make a leap at them. He was amazed at how his teacher could stay so calm and detached in the face of danger.

Meanwhile the teacher continued to meditate without fear. After a little while, the tiger gradually lowered its head and tail and went away.

The student asked his teacher in astonishment, "What did you do?"

"Nothing. I just cleared all thoughts from my mind and united myself in spirit with the tiger. We became united in peace on the spiritual level. The tiger sensed the inner calmness, peace, and unity and felt no threat or need to express violence, and so walked away."

"When the mind is silent and calm, its peace is automatically transmitted to everything and everyone around, influencing them deeply", concluded the teacher.

SOURCE

12:47:00 - By Vincent 0

5 Lessons Standup Comedians Can Teach You About Public Speaking

 by Steven Handel

If you want to improve your public speaking, there is no better place to look than the world of standup comedy.

A good comedian is a master of public speaking. Not only do they have to be confident and comfortable on stage, but they are expected to be humorous and entertaining as well. As Jerry Seinfeld once said, “No one is more judged in civilized society than a standup comedian. Every 12 seconds you’re rated.”

Standup comedy is one of the most difficult professions to be successful at. They have to face tremendous amounts of failure and embarrassment before they can get to where they are. And there is nothing more humiliating than “bombing” in front of an audience, where every joke lands flat and everyone is left staring at you blankly as you try to squeeze out a few laughs.

In the new book Do You Talk Funny? 7 Comedy Habits to Become a Better (and Funnier) Public Speaker, David Nihill enters the world of standup comedy and discovers key lessons that anyone can use to improve their public speaking.

Whether you’re giving a public presentation to a business, school, or government organization, there is a lot you can learn from standup comedy. And learning these skills can really take your speaking ability to the next level.

Unlike a comedian, most public speakers aren’t expected to be very funny or entertaining. But even adding just a little bit of humor to your presentation will make you stand out from the crowd and become more memorable.

Here are a few key lessons we can learn from standup comedians on how to improve our public speaking abilities.

Master the art of story-telling

People rarely remember information unless it is presented in the form of a story.

You can list all of the facts, statistics, and bits of wisdom you’d like, but it’s probably going to go in one ear and out the other. People crave narratives to make sense of their world. We don’t just want information given to us in clear bullet-points, we want that information to convey a story with a beginning, middle, and end.

While there are comedians who specialize in one-liners and witticisms (Bo Burnham, Anthony Jeselnik), often the best comedians are story-tellers (Louis C.K., Aziz Ansari, Doug Stanhope). They begin their jokes by describing a situation. Then they reveal a conflict with the protagonist (often themselves). And they end by presenting a resolution or final twist.

Story-telling is important in any domain where you want to grab an audience’s attention. A teacher may have a bunch of facts that they want their students to remember, but by adding a story to their presentation they can make their material much more sticky and memorable (see How to Plant Powerful Ideas in People’s Minds That Actually Take Root for more on this).

While you may not think of yourself as a natural story-teller, this is something that can definitely be learned with practice. David Nihill gives great tips in his book on how he became a better story-teller, and I’ll be sharing some of those with you right now.

Draw from your own personal experiences

When trying to create a story, you don’t need to start from scratch or recreate an entire universe. Start with what you know best – your own personal experiences.

Most of our memories are already structured in the form of a narrative. There’s a setting, a protagonist (you!), a conflict, and an ending.

One great piece of advice is to start a document on your computer and make a list of memorable stories. These could be centered around a specific presentation you want to give (stories of breakups or stories of failing at a goal), or just stories you think will be interesting or entertaining to share with your audience.

Start by making a list with the general idea behind each story (“That one time a girl threw her drink at me”). Then you can go back to this list and elaborate more on each memory when you have the time (“I was at college at this local bar…all my friends had hooked up with a girl and I was the odd man out…I saw this gorgeous girl dancing and decided to approach her…”).

Having a “story collection” can be very helpful if you are a public speaker. If you don’t already have one, you should start one now. You might have a lot of awesome stories that you don’t know how to integrate into your presentation, but by starting your collection now you will have a wealth of stories on the back-burner, ready for use when you need them.

The best part about focusing on your own personal experiences is that you know your stories will be unique. Also, no one will know your stories better than you so they are typically way easier to remember and share than if you were to try and create an entertaining story out of thin air.

It’s often said that to be a great story-teller, you need to have lived a little. If you’re having trouble thinking of any interesting memories from your past, it may be time to do some adventure-seeking and start creating new stories in your life.

Try new things, go to new places, and meet new people – often the stories will start writing themselves. These are great ways to start building a better “story collection” in your life.

In Do You Talk Funny? 7 Comedy Habits to Become a Better (and Funnier) Public Speaker, David Nihill enters the comedy world for a whole year to help overcome his fear of public speaking. The book shares his experiences as “Irish Dave” and the various lessons he picked up from standup comedians. Each chapter includes practical advice and exercises to help you improve your own skills in communication, presentation, and public speaking.

Test your material with friends and family

Every comedian knows that their jokes are rarely “finished” when they are telling them for the first time.

Instead, like most polished stories, it often requires a few new drafts and editing before we settle on the best way to share our material.

This is why comedians like Louis C.K., Jerry Seinfeld, and Aziz Ansari spend a lot of time sharing their new material in small clubs or at open mic nights before they present the material to a larger audience.

Sometimes they will enter a small club with just a vague idea of what they want to talk about. And once they begin “riffing” (or improvising) on that topic, they begin to find what lines get laughs and what lines they are better off getting rid of.

We can practice our own material in a similar way – even if it’s just sharing a story with friends or family. By testing your material in front of a small audience, you’ll soon discover what parts of your story connect with your audience and what parts don’t seem to work.

Like all experiments, this is going to require you becoming more comfortable with failure. You might think you have a great story on your mind, but you end up delivering it in a bad way and no one seems to care. That’s okay! Just try to take what you learned and use that to improve your story the next time you’re telling it.

Over time your stories will become more polished and refined. Eventually you reach a point where you become more comfortable telling the story because you know exactly what lines are going to kill it with your audience.

For extra credit, try filming your presentations whenever possible. This makes it much easier to reevaluate your material when you’re finished and pick apart what works and what doesn’t work.

Practice your material in small and safe ways and try to encourage honest feedback when you can. You’ll soon be ready to take your material to the big stage!

Pay attention to your delivery

You can hear the same exact joke told by two different people and have a completely different reaction to it.

Why? Because delivery matters. If someone says all the right words but doesn’t say it with the right tone or the right timing, a good joke can often turn into a bad joke.

Norm MacDonald is a master at this. Often his jokes are completely dry and sometimes even described as “anti-jokes” because they rarely follow a typical joke format. But the way he delivers his material is something that is solely unique to him and he makes it work for his personality (check out a video of his moth joke if you want to get a feel for his style of comedy).

The proper delivery is going to depend on how you present yourself, your material, and your individual personality, but it’s important to remember that your delivery will make a big difference in how well your material comes off to others.

With practice, you’ll discover the best way to deliver your stories. For example, once you know that a particular line is a strong one, you can heighten that line by taking an extra pause before you deliver it (to add suspense and tension before the final release).

You never want to take the punchlines of your story and breeze through them as if they are just another detail. By emphasizing those lines, you not only make them stronger but you also give a cue to your audience that this is the line where you expect a reaction. And they will be more likely to respond to it.

Of course it’s often difficult to monitor your delivery while you’re performing. This again is why it’s important to encourage feedback from others or to record your presentation so you can pay more attention to these subtle details later on.

Start strong and finish even stronger

Now that you have a bunch of good material to share, the next big question is how to organize it.

While Do You Talk Funny? has countless tips and advice on how to fine-tune your public speaking, one of the key pieces I want to focus on is to “start strong and finish even stronger.”

Psychology research shows that people are often programmed to remember the beginning and end of their experiences. The middle parts often become more of a blur.

For example, when psychologists ask individuals to remember a long list of words, they discover that participants are most likely to remember the words at the beginning and end of the list vs. words listed in the middle.

This is just one example of how our memories are biased toward the beginning and end of an experience.

With this in mind, a good public speaker wants to start their presentation strong to make a positive first impression and grip their audience’s attention. But they also want to end their presentation even stronger to leave a lasting impact and give their audience a positive note to remember them afterwards.

In the case of a comedian, David Nihill recommends that you use your second best joke at the very beginning and your best joke at the very end. By structuring your material this way, you are more likely to leave a stronger impression.

Once you’ve created your material and tested it, you should have a good idea of what are the strongest parts of your presentation, and that’ll give you a better idea of the order you should structure it.

Conclusion

I have a lot of respect for standup comedians – it’s something I would love to dabble in to improve my own communication and presentation skills.

When I came across the book Do You Talk Funny? 7 Comedy Habits to Become a Better (and Funnier) Public Speaker, I knew it would be right up my alley and I had to check it out. David Nihill does a really great job taking lessons from the world of standup comedy and showing you how to apply them to any type of public speaking. I highly recommend it!

SOURCE

22:00:00 - By Vincent 0

Comfort zone Challenge summary, Eric's personal experiences from the challenge

Comfort zone Challenge summary, Eric's personal experiences from the challenge

15:05:00 - By Vincent 0

Presentation tip to make you a star

Presentation? Do This

Tell the people in the room what you expect from them.

There are at least 3 common reasons why you give a presentation:

1. To educate in order for people to make a decision

2. To prompt action or implementation

3. To educate for the sake of knowledge

You need to tell them at the beginning what you're doing and what they have to do. Without giving them a "mental assignment," people don't have a context in which to process the information. If they don't know what's expected of them, human nature  leads the audience into a passive mode. The burden of the presentation is entirely on you.

Do this:

1. "At the end of the meeting we'll decide on the best supply chain software for our organization. You'll  be expected to offer your rationale for the risks and benefits of each. So I expect that we'll have a lot of questions and discussion during the next hour."

2. "I'm going to lay out the steps of the product launch. Each of you will play a role in its execution. At the end of the meeting I'll ask for a commitment to a timetable from each of the managers here. As I lay out the information, be sure to speak up and discuss the pros and cons from your perspective. The deadline for the launch is 60 days from now."

3. "We've discovered a possible new opportunity as a result of R&D. My purpose is to show you what led to this so that you can understand what is evolving with the technology."

Make your audience mentally active

• Tell them at the beginning what their role is and how to play it. 

• They'll appreciate the direction.

• You'll get more participation.

13:00:00 - By Vincent 0

comfort zone challenge 21, howling in public

comfort zone challenge 21, howling in public

15:02:00 - By Vincent 0

Comfort zone challenge 18, get telephone number of 5 ladies

Comfort zone challenge 18, get telephone number of 5 ladies

14:52:00 - By Vincent 0

comfort zone challenge 17, Sing that song for somebody

comfort zone challenge 17, Sing that song for somebody

14:49:00 - By Vincent 0

Comfort Zone Challenge 16, getting something for free

Comfort Zone Challenge 16, getting something for free

14:46:00 - By Vincent 0

Comfort Zone challenge 15, work out with a stranger

Comfort Zone challenge 15, work out / push ups with a stranger

14:43:00 - By Vincent 0

Digital Detoxing - Social Media Age Necessity or Hollow Fad?

BY Paul O’Mahony

A very common complaint about modern society is that we're all a bit too connected.

 I mean sure, social media has enabled us to forge friendships without borders, set up businesses with no fixed office and gain unlimited access to infinite animal GIFs, but is a life spent staring at screens turning us all into the digital undead?

Some seem to think so, which is part of the reason why 'digital detox' camps have suddenly come into existence. What's digital detoxing? Glad you asked, it's essentially a retreat you go to where you completely relinquish your technological tethers, no computers, no phones,  no smartwatches, not even a solitary FitBit. 

It's an intriguing idea, if not a particularly revolutionary one, after all that's how weekend retreats used to work by default, back when none of this technology was as portable, or permanently hooked up to the grid. There are a few examples of this that are just retreats which give you the option of uncoupling yourself from the web, but many newer iterations do actually make it their main prerogative, such as Camp Grounded.

Camp Grounded has 4 sites: Mendocino in California, Cold Spring in upstate New York, Hendersonville in North Carolina and Marble Falls in Texas. All of them follow the same ethos - beautiful surroundings, activities that make adults feel like big kids and absolutely zero internet or digital access until you leave.

It's an intriguing idea, but is there any merit to it beyond a few days bumming around in forests and lakes? Seemingly there very much is. Evidence has suggested that people who take more time out from their digital proclivities forge better relationships, have improved mental health and are generally more productive. Like the Radiohead song, but without the deliberate irony. 

Many companies have actually adopted digital detoxing as a form of company vacation, which will sound familiar if you've ever seen The Thick of It. More and more, digital dependency is becoming a recognised condition among psychologists, and social media has a particularly active roll in it. The need to scroll through a news feed several times a day, watch a status update to see the likes trickle in, or even just wait to see when someone sees a message are all on the more severe end of the spectrum. 

The beauty of 'digital detoxing' is that it needn't be something you have to seek out. It's as simple as just taking some time away from screens, for a few hours, a day or a weekend, as long as people know they won't be able to get hold of you. You could even just turn all your push notifications off so that only calls and texts come through, cutting out anything that you can wait to look at until later. Give it a try some time, you might find yourself feeling very refreshed, and less square-eyed.

source

16:30:00 - By Vincent 0

Comfort zone challenge 14, telling people a joke

Comfort zone challenge 14, telling people a joke

14:40:00 - By Vincent 0

Comfort zone challenge 13, dancing in public

Comfort zone challenge 13, dancing in public

14:36:00 - By Vincent 0

Comfort zone challenge 12, asking romantic suggestions

Comfort zone challenge 12, asking romantic suggestions

14:30:00 - By Vincent 0

Crack Your Comfort Zone: Overcome Social Media Fears

By Kruse Control

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” ~Dale Carnegie

I was in Orlando last week speaking at a conference. I had a free morning so I asked the concierge where the best place to walk might be. He answered, “The Nature Walk.” That conjured up beautiful images in my imagination and I couldn’t wait to get going. The Florida Everglades are a natural wonder and for someone who grew up in Southern California, they are very intriguing.

I walked out and around the hotel’s golf course then onto the path and came upon a sign with information about the Nature Walk. It reminded people to watch out for ant hills along the way. “Ok”, I thought. I walked about a 1/2 mile further and the scenery was breathtaking. I saw beautiful birds and wondrous plants that can only be found in the Everglades. I took another turn and came upon a gorgeous clearing. I looked ahead a few feet and saw this sign:

When a hotel concierge describes something as a “Nature Walk”, one never really thinks about it being an exercise in food chain economics.For a moment, I thought about moving forward but then realized that these were REAL alligators, not the ones I’m used to seeing on the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland. So, I started to get scared because all the while I’d been on the lookout for those ant hills, an alligator could’ve been sauntering along getting ready to pounce. I scanned the area like the Terminator and high-tailed it for the golf course filled with the less-harmful animals.

Later that day after my speech, I walked the exhibit hall floor and met the most delightful car dealer and his Internet manager. They were from the South and were probably very comfortable with alligators in their midst. What they were apprehensive about was Social Media. They’d been hearing about it for awhile and knew they needed to find out more but it just wasn’t sitting too well with them for a myriad of reasons:

• Who is supposed to handle Social Media?
• How do we keep employees from saying the wrong things?
• What do we post?
• Where is the return on investment for Social Media?
• Why do we have to be on Social Media?

I got to thinking about how scary it must be for dealers (and most all business owners) who are new to Social Media. Those of us that adopted early and are in the trenches everyday don’t take enough time to realize how fearful this “open and connected” economy can be for someone new. What a metaphor that Nature Walk experience was for me.

The best way to face your Social Media fear is to crack out of your comfort zone, breakdown the components and load yourself with enough information so that you can make the right decisions:

• Spend 15 minutes everyday reading blogs that focus on Social Media marketing.
• Sites like CBT News offer short, information-packed videos that require a very small time commitment.
• Find people you trust or those that have credibility in the industry who can guide you without trying to sell you.

The next step is to take action and experience Social Media yourself:

• Get a Facebook account and start lurking. You don’t have to interact but it’s oh so much better if you do.
• If Facebook isn’t your gig, then check out Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, or Linkedin. The concept of Social networking is the same on these sites so find that one that you feel good about and go for it.
• Spend 15 minutes everyday interacting with those you’re connected to.

Information is power. That sign on the path gave me information to make a considered decision. Social Media is nothing to be feared. It’s a way to connect and engage your customers at every level of the sales process. Once you’ve taken the few steps outside your comfort zone, you’ll start to see how valuable Social Media is to your business.

SOURCE

17:50:00 - By Vincent 0

The 9 Reasons People Procrastinate With Social Media

by Juliet McEwen Johnson

We all know by now, that when you make a habit of connecting with potential customers little and often, on topics that they care about, you increase the likelihood of them doing business with you. That could be 5 minutes each network per day. 5 minutes on each of the 5 major networks is less than half an hour; why do most of us drag our feet on such a simple way to increase our online visibility and build our business? Procrastination.

Here are 9 reasons why we all procrastinate about social media, and how we all need to get over ourselves and just do it.

1. Anxiety
   
   We worry that we'll say the wrong thing. We worry that there won't be anyone to talk to. We worry that we won't look smart. But we don't have to be smart; we just have to be helpful, kind, polite and supportive.
2. Fear of Addiction
   
   This is a legit fear; Pinterest in particular can take you down a series of rabbit holes as you explore more and more beautiful images and ideas. The answer is a stopwatch or kitchen timer. I like a real timer; the online versions work just as well. It is a discipline, like exercise and dieting. And in this case we are only asking ourselves for 5 minutes per network. I do mine across the day as I transition from project to project.
   
3. Dislike of Social Networking
   
   There are many people still using "push" marketing in the social landscape and it is annoying. That does not have to be you. Your job is to engage and connect. Contribute to those who are interested in talking with you. Have you found all of your top customers on Twitter, for example? To keep up with them in 140 characters at a time can be done by any introvert!
4. The Belief That It Is a Waste of Time
   
   In the offline world, how often do you have to connect with someone before they will buy? They say it takes 7 touches. Online is no different, except that your butt hasn't left your desk chair and it's taken a lot less time!
   
5. Disorganization
   
   You are simply trying to connect with people - so a comment, a like, a plus one, or a re-tweet all will get your name in front of the owner of the content you are appreciating. It can be simple.
6. Distraction
   
   The social networks are designed to delight you; you must expect distraction and use it to your advantage. Whenever pulled off task, simply comment on the new discovery and see if this is someone you would like to connect with.
   
7. Reactivity
   
   There is nothing wrong with reacting to discussions already taking place. Social media is about listening and engaging before you can put your own content out there with a sales message. The daily business of social media IS reacting, being where the conversation is already taking place.Reactivity is a plus, and should not be cast as a reason to procrastinate.
8. Lack Of Pro-activity and Planning
   
   For all those of us who need a plan, here it is - take 5 minutes and connect with as many people as you can in that time frame on their topics. When you have done that for 3 days straight, you have earned the right to plant a sales link. The end. It is that easy.
   
9. Laziness
   
   Let's face it: we all want a magic pill. I would like a robot that cooks gourmet, healthy food and cleans the house, most especially the toilets, but that era has not arrived yet. It will. Until then, we all have to do those kinds of tasks ourselves. After I have cleaned my own house a few times, I certainly appreciate it a lot more when someone else does it!

So, too, with social media, when you take the time to put in the work, even only a little bit, you do see results and you will be more appreciative as a result. You will have earned the results, which is a wonderful feeling! Every time you achieve a goal, the joy is well worth the effort in retrospect. You'll see

SOURCE

16:00:00 - By Vincent 0