Passion, Motivation and Action - Things We Can All Use

Bell Performance is very thankful for the past year, for all of our new and existing customers, and the opportunities we've had to serve you, the customer and the general public. As 2013 looms upon us, it's worthwhile to shift gears and think of some broader issues. Bell Performance's Director of International Marketing, Gene Rumley, offers his thoughts to help motivate and inspire us all as we move into 2013. Gene has spent the better part of four decades speaking and developing business relationships all around the world. We hope you can take a few useful bits of advice away from this.

Whether you own your own business, run your own household, or run to class 2-3 semesters a year, ask yourself this question: are Passion, Motivation, and Action the missing links that will move you to where you want to be in 2013?

We can read all the books, attend all the sessions on improving our businesses and our personal lives.  We can think and strategize all we want, but is it enough?

Here are 4 Simple Steps that may play a key part in developing your success in 2013. 

1. You talk to You more than anyone else!  

What are you telling yourself?  What thoughts are you focusing on? Changing your thinking and self-talk can change your emotions, your performance, your business, your life.

The mind is very powerful and can directly influence our actions with respect to doing or not doing what we really want to accomplish.  When a failure "mind-set" wants to talk to us, we have the choice to tell it to Shut-Up and Sit-Down.  The other choice is to listen to all the obstacles, the fears, all the reasons that we think life is not working out and then this defeated mindset overwhelms us.

The test is to "catch yourself" when the negative thoughts begin feeding your brain. It's time to cut off the negative thoughts and take control of your self talk. You can become your own coach.  Take time to listen to your self-talk; you will be amazed how much the negatives can bring you down and the positives lift you up! 

2. The Truth - what we feed our mind is just as important as what we feed our body

You are 'The Coach' - you can influence the direction for your life. What you read, what you listen to the most, and who you surround yourself with will have an influence on who you are and who you turn out to be in 2013.

You can become your own best Personal Motivator, yet we have a tendency to want someone else to fill that position. We forget that we can do that job best ourselves. 

3. Training - Learning new ways to think about yourself and your future

When we stop training, stop learning, stop improving, stop seeking, stop searching for creative ideas and thoughts, we have a tendency to move backwards.  Make 2013 the year you move forward instead.

Disciplined professionals that earn millions of dollars in sports, acting, music, law, sales and many other fields tend to stay on the cutting edge. In business, in order to earn the top income, expand your business, and reach your goals, it takes the same type of discipline, along with Passion, Motivation and Action. 

The greatest Coach and Motivator is within you and your thoughts.  As Chet Holmes, author of The Ultimate Sales Machine says, pig-headed discipline and determination are the single biggest determiners of success.  This discipline and determination come from within, and you can make the choice to use them. 

4. Controlling your thoughts

Dr. Caroline Leaf, author of the book Who Switched Off My Brain, states that "the average person has over 30,000 thoughts a day."  Most of those, she says, are uncontrolled thoughts. 

She goes on to say that "behavior starts with a thought."  Psychologists and even professional athletes have all known this to be true, because all of the research into human behavior bears this out. What do you think Michael Phelps is doing as he sits by the pool with his headphones on and his eyes closed, before the gold medal race?  He's thinking himself through to his upcoming success in what he's about to do. He knows that his thoughts can and will influence his actions in the real race. 8 gold medals in China tend to support this. 

You can think yourself clever, calm, healthy. You can think yourself out of worry/anxiety, out of bitterness and resentment.  You can think yourself in control of your emotions, you can think yourself out of stress. You may also talk yourself into higher sales performance and business growth.  

Now, we're not saying that simply sitting your chair and imagining yourself being 30 lbs lighter is going to magically melt the fat away. What we and these other professionals are saying is that you have a much, much greater chance of success in anything you do if you concentrate on the positive goals you want to attain.

The choice is yours.  You talk to you more than anyone else. Make the choice to set yourself up for success in 2013!