THE POWER OF PERSONAL CHARISMA

Become An Irresistible Person
Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines charisma as "a personal magic of leadership arousing special popular loyalty or enthusiasm for a public figure."
Develop Personal Magnetism
Charisma is also that special quality of magnetism that each person has and that each person uses to a certain degree. You have a special charisma to the people who look up to you, who respect and admire you, the members of your family and your friends and coworkers. Whenever and wherever a person feels a positive emotion toward another, he imbues that person with charisma, or attractiveness.
Project Yourself Positively
In trying to explain charisma, some people speak of an "aura." This aura is a light that is invisible to most people, but not to everyone, and that radiates out from a person and affects the people around that person in a positive or negative way. The halo around the heads of saints and mystics in many religious paintings was the artist's attempt to depict the light that people reported seeing around the heads of these men and women when they were speaking or praying, or in an intense emotional state.Control the Impression You Make
You also have an aura around you that most people cannot see but that is there, nevertheless. This aura affects the way people react and respond to you, either positively or negatively. There is a lot that you can do, and a lot of good reasons for you to do it, to control this aura and make it work in your best interests.
Sell Your Way to the Top
If you're in sales, this aura, reflecting your level of charisma, can have a major impact on the way your prospects and customers treat you and deal with you. Top salespeople seem to be far more successful than the average salespeople in getting along with their customers. They're always more welcome, more positively received and more trusted than the others. They sell more, and they sell more easily. They make a better living, and they build better lives. Salespeople with charisma get far more pleasure out of their work and suffer far less from stress and rejection. The charismatic salesperson is almost invariably a top performer in his field and enjoys all the rewards that go with superior sales.
Influence People Around You
If you're in business, developing greater charisma can help you tremendously in working with your staff, your suppliers, your bankers, your customers and everyone else upon whom you depend for your success. People seem naturally drawn to those who possess charisma.
They want to help them and support them. When you have charisma, people will open doors for you and bring you opportunities that otherwise would not have been available to you.
Enhance Your Personal Relationships
In your personal relationships, the quality of charisma can make your life more joyous, happier. People will naturally want to be around you. Members of your family and your friends will be far happier in your company, and you will have a greater influence on them, causing them to feel better about themselves and to do better at the important things in their lives.
Action Exercises
First, identify the people with whom you seem to have a lot of charisma - the people who know you, like you, respect you the most. How could you increase your charisma with these people?
Second, identify the people who have charisma to you, the people you most like and respect and admire. What is there about them that you could copy or emulate? If you think charisma, you'll have more of it.

ELIMINATING, DELEGATING AND AUTOMATING

This week, I was reminded how much most business operations
are limited by wasted or unnecessary routines. I’ve been
noticing how many business owners and managers are doing
things that simply do not need to be done!
Over and over, business leaders fall into the trap of
developing a process that served a purpose when they were
small, or with a specific customer or for one project, but
then it becomes “institutionalized” and they keep on doing
it, often out of blind habit. They are still doing things by
hand, even though there are much more efficient ways to do
it, if it needs to be done at all.
Here’s the mantra: Eliminate (everything you can), Delegate
(everything you can) and Automate all the rest.
Good managers lead! Good managers should be “lazy” in the
sense that they insist on fixing problems once and for all,
then never repeat that particular problem again.
I love the story about driving down the road. If you hit a
pothole, that’s called “life.” Potholes (problems) happen.
Accept it, fix it and move on. But if you hit the same
pothole again the next day, that’s carelessness or worse.
And if you hit it a third time, that’s a bad habit. In
business, never hit the same “pothole” a second time!
Eliminate, Delegate and Automate!

TIME: FROM HABITS TO FREEDOM

How many times have you heard someone say, "I never have enough time!"? Maybe you have even said it yourself. I hate to break the news to you...we all have the same amount of time: 24 hours in a day which means 168 hours per week. There is nothing that anyone can do to change it. For some people that is the bad news. There is good news, however. You are in charge of your time. Now I can already hear some of you arguing that isn't true because the boss claims a lot of your time, family or friends want some of your time, there are personal life tasks to be taken care of, and that is all before you even think of doing something fun. But if you just take the time to read this article, I can promise you some tips to save some time later...and even create some new time.
It's not an issue of managing time; it's a matter of managing oneself. Since organizing is about replacing non-functioning habits with functioning ones, let's look at some of the habits you need to develop in order to gain time.
Habit #1: Learn to say "no".
For most people, the ability to say "no" is difficult if not impossible. For such a short word, it can be almost impossible to say. The best place to start is to develop a standard answer to give anyone who asks for your time. One example might be "Can I get back to you in a couple of days; I need to check my calendar before I commit to something new?" You have to create a statement that works for you and that starts to roll off your tongue the minute someone says, "Can you ____?" You may have to practice in front of a mirror until you feel comfortable. If someone indicates that they can't wait, then be prepared to immediately decline. After you have had time to think about it, look at your calendar, or discuss it with someone, be as short and direct as you can and don't be swayed by reasons they may use to get you to change your mind. Keep the words of Anne Lamottin mind, she says, "I live by the truth that "No" is a complete sentence." Here are some statements that may be useful:
"My schedule is full for that (day, week, month, year, etc.)" You do not have to tell the person anything else. Even if they indicate that the task won't take to long, be firm and repeat the statement.
"I need to decrease the amount of stress in my life by cutting back on tasks. I hope you understand." Again, do not give any details. Just make the statement and move to another topic of conversation.
"My (spouse, family, friends, etc.) need my full attention at this time so I am unable to take on additional activities." Don't elaborate. Just maintain your stand.
Be aware, if you are a longtime "yes" person, there will be people who will be unhappy when you start saying "no". Be strong. It takes awhile to develop a new habit and you are bound to meet outside resistance.
Habit #2: Silence the internal people-pleasing voices.
Part of saying "no" is the ability to stand firm with others. Another part of saying "no" is the struggle against the internal people-pleaser voices. Not everyone has these, so if you don't, you can skip to habit three. For those who know exactly what I am talking about you've may experience fear that someone might reject you if you don't say "yes". You might feel like it is your duty to say "yes" to all requests; it is almost a driving force. Unfortunately people who are addicted to approval from others are usually disappointed because while it is possible to please lots of people, it is impossible to please everyone. There will always be someone who isn't happy with us for some reason or another.
One of the best ways to quiet your internal people-pleaser is to empower yourself by answering the following questions truthfully:
1. "What stops me from saying "no" when I am asked to do something that I really don't want to do?"
2. "What is the worst thing that could happen if I say "no"?
Resist the temptation to rationalize. For instance, when you ask yourself the second question, it is very tempting to say something like "that person will think less of me." That is certainly not a "worst case scenario". It may help you to write down your answers or to discuss them with someone. You won't be an approval addict one day and then not one the next. You are forming a new habit. It is a process that will take time and may include the occasional setback.
Habit #3: Block out time on your schedule.
I am talking about literally blocking time on your paper or electronic calendar. Most people write down the time that an appointment starts. This is not enough. You need to write down the ending time if you know it or estimate it is you don't, you also need to plan for transportation time. If I have an organizing session with a client that is from 9:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m., then I will mark my calendar to denote the actual session time but I will also indicate the time I need to leave my office and the time that I expect to arrive back at my office.
Noting "actual" appointments may seem pretty logical, but what about all of the other activities that fill your day? Whether we are talking about personal or professional tasks, it is best to allot a specific time for them to get accomplished. For some reason we tend to think that "everything will get done". In reality, less than we think gets done because we don't plan time a specific time to work on the project nor do we estimate the amount of time the job will take. Let's take this article as an example. It doesn't write itself. I actually mark a specific time in my calendar that says "write ezine". But that isn't all; I predict how much time it will take to compose. Remember the rule of thumb, estimate the amount of time and then double it. If you end up with extra time, great! But you will usually find that you are much closer to actuality when you double your guesstimate. Once you start doing this, you will probably notice that you have a very full calendar. Maybe you have more activities than hours (hence the reason many people don't get enough sleep)! This actually leads us back to habit one about learning to say "no".
Practice, practice, practice! That is the only way that you will create these new habits that will give you more free time and more freedom to decide how to use your time the best. It's a process. It takes work. In the end you will be able to cherish the gift of time more freely.

WHO BELIEVE IN YOU?

Of all the successful people I’ve interviewed and studied, almost every one pointed to an individual (or several) who had a profound and lasting influence on their accomplishments.

In many cases, it was simply someone who had confidence in their potential at a time when they needed someone to believe in them.

I’ve been fortunate in my own life to have a number of people who had faith in me and my success. And it’s quite possible that without their support, I might not have made it.

You see, it’s easy for people to believe in you when things are looking up. It kind of comes with the territory. But when times are tough, when you’ve made mistakes and when most people are actively distancing themselves from you, the ones who still express their confidence are usually rare—sometimes even non-existent.

No doubt there have been people in your own life who made such a difference. They believed in you and that helped you to hang in there when you otherwise might not have done so.

When I was in my early twenties, I bought a farm from my father and began farming. It’s not an easy way to make a living. But I was idealistic and a bit naïve. I was on a quest to help to diversify a very undiversified agriculture in the state of Vermont.

One of the few people who believed in my ability to do so was a young lawyer named Peter Langrock. Peter was and is a truly interesting man. He had a small farm himself where he bred race horses. His law practice was quite successful, and he has become one of the best known attorneys in Vermont—if not the country.

For whatever reason, Peter took a liking to me and my quest. He saw a young, ambitious, hard-working kid with a dream and a vision. And when no banks would lend me any money any money to make it happen, he took it upon himself to co-sign a loan. Now that’s belief.

I built one of the largest livestock operations of its type in Vermont and even started a meat packing company. But in the end I was not very successful in farming and agribusiness. It’s expensive to be a maverick.

Nonetheless, I will never forget this man’s faith in me and how much it helped me then—and even now. Thank you, Peter.

What about you? Who had faith in you? Or did you prevail IN SPITE of not having anyone believe in you?

And also, who do YOU believe in? Who have you mentored, encouraged or taken under your wing? I believe we all have the responsibility to pay it forward.

Make a difference in a young person’s life. Take an interest in someone with a dream—or help them develop one. Look for the best that’s within them.

In our twilight years, it won’t be our monetary success, our achievements or accumulation of toys, but rather the difference we have made in people’s lives that we will remember best.

Simply believing in someone—and having them know that—may be the best that you can do to help someone succeed.