And every business wants to get noticed. We’re living in an “overcommunicated” society. Consumers are on information overload. That’s what marketing gurus, Al Ries and Jack Trout, told us 25 years ago. And that was before the Internet and Blackberries and Podcasts. So how can you grab the attention of your audience?

Ever wonder why the telephone companies use frogs and dimes and monkeys and beavers and geckos in their ads? Why? Because you can’t SEE phone service.

We have to learn to create a visual when we speak, so that people can see what we’re saying. We can’t present ourselves in black and white like in a kid’s coloring book. Pick up a crayon or two and color yourself in!

Whenever I say this, someone always asks me, “But Tsufit, what if I don’t have any color?” You do. You just have to find it. Sometimes you have to really dig for it.

A client came to see me a few years ago because she had to give a speech about her Speaker’s Bureau to a bunch of professional speakers. She was shaking in her boots (OK, so I’m exaggerating a bit) because she, herself, wasn’t a professional speaker and her previous speaking engagements hadn’t gone well. She came to me to help her add a bit of color to an otherwise dry “how to” speech.

When I interviewed her I found out that she had grown up on a tomato farm and that when she was a kid, she helped her dad pick the tomatoes and take them to market.

I said “Isn’t that more or less what you’re doing now, only with speakers? Picking them and taking them to market.” So we came up with a whole tomato analogy for speakers, how some are still seedlings, some are still green, some are ripe and plump and juicy and ready for market and others are just plain rotten! She did the speech and reported that she had a whole line up of people waiting to speak to her afterwards. She had found her color!

If you can’t do it on your own, ask a friend to interview you or hire a coach. Ask yourself questions about what you wanted to be when you were a kid, your hobbies, what’s quirky about you, what’s unusual–even if it has nothing to do with your business; we’ll make those connections later. When I was a lawyer, I had a mug that said “Lawyers and Painters Can Turn Black Into White”. Now I show people how to turn black and white into color.

Use your words as paintbrushes. Like I said, when you speak, when you write, pick up a crayon or two and color yourself in!

Treat your employees well and your company will succeed:
If you are a smart business owner, you will realize that employee motivation at the workplace is essential to a company’s success. If your employees don’t respect their bosses, their jobs, and their company, then your business will not thrive.

Your employees must WANT to work at your company. They must have pride in their jobs, as well as the product that they are making. This about it this way: If your employees truly believe in what they are doing, they are most likely going to output a high-quality product in as quickly a manner as possible. In the end, your customers will benefit from this. Your company will benefit from this. And your employees will the benefit from this. Success is truly a chain reaction that begins and ends with employee motivation.

Put yourself in the shoes of your employees:
So how do you get your diverse mix of employees motivated? Why would anyone want to wake up at 7 AM five days a week to sew material to make seats for wheelchairs?

Would you get up to do this if, hanging above your department, you saw photos of the disabled people using the seats you stitched? Would you get up to do this if you were able to voice your ideas for new seats to your boss and to the whole company in weekly meetings? Would you get up to do this if you were given pay incentives or other types of rewards for the number or quality grade of seats you got done in a month?

If you answered yes to even one of these questions, then you would be considered a motivated employee. At least one of these things would have challenged you and would have given you reason to come in to work.

Think about some key points that enhance employee motivation:

-Every employee wants to feel appreciated in some way.

-Every employee wants to be given some sort of proof that what he or she did bettered the world, the community, or just the company in some sort of way.

-Every employee wants to feel that his or her opinion is at least heard – whether or not it is actually used. Having the opportunity to voice an opinion and bring new ideas to the table is a positive thing for both an employee and a company.

-Every employee wants to be rewarded for a job well done. It is understandable that large raises and elaborate prizes cannot always be available. But sometimes a simple acknowledgement from an owner or a boss can mean a great deal.

As a business owner, or as a boss, understand that one wants to work hard only to end up feeling unappreciated in the end. In a corporate world where money and power appear to mean success, it is key to remember that without good employee motivation at the basic level nothing else would be possible.

Each of you have a masculine and feminine energy in your being, and both need to be activated and brought to an equal place. If you’re doing battle with the outside masculine and feminine gender, you can assume that you are most definitely in inner conflict with yourself. You need the balance of both aspects of masculine and feminine energy, which has nothing to do with gender. It is about energy, and this is why, of course, all the confusion at this time which seems to he brought to the focus of sexuality, when that is clearly not the issue. The issue is of energy. So, when you find others about you who are angry with the opposite gender, ask them to look inside and heal, not project more isolation and separation to the outside world.

The Earth at this time and all beings who walk upon it need to be loved, need to he held, need to be held in community, in connection to Truth, not separate. It is time to bring balance, because you cannot take the next step without being in balance. You have been walking on one foot. You must be at peace –you must be balanced to take these next steps, and for those of you who have this illusion that being alone is balanced, you need to take a further, deeper look inside. You can be balanced on the inside emotionally as much as you can be, but that is only one piece or one side of the scale.

You had to learn to do the solo to understand and learn the dance. You had to learn to dance by the self so that you did not dance in dependence with another. However, one can only hold energy so long by the dance of themselves. This is nothing about relationships of the past. This is about connection to energy balances of the now, so that you’re walking Foundation and Truth, not confusion and chaos, but balance and harmony. Do not find it a coincidence that you will be touched with a new heart-opening situation, whether it be in the connection that you are already in or a further one that will come along the path. This is the new step to take you higher. This next step will lead you to your balanced and aligned partnership.

Contrarily, a lack of confidence may deter you from trusting that your actions or decisions will ultimately turn out the way you had planned. It can thus hamper the buildup of executive skills, planning and managerial abilities all of which are basic and mandatory skills in today’s business world. The pre-occupation with other people’s judgment of your work might also cause you to become too self-critical, which will distract you from things you would have otherwise been totally able to do.

Low self confidence will also have an impact your social life, because people with a low level of self confidence tend to stay in their “comfort zone” and dread the risk of rejection. This is called social phobia and presents a high level of co-morbidity with low self confidence, but also other mental conditions such as depression. People with low self confidence are afraid of being judged by their peers and will avoid talking to new people, which can result in isolation and even lower self confidence. Low self confidence is a vicious circle that is hard to break.

On the other hand, because they believe in their own aptitudes, self-confident persons are able to do what they feel is right and don’t expect the approval of their peers. They also trigger confidence: your boss, employees, customers, friends or relatives are more likely to trust you or what you are telling them when you appear self-confident.

Different experiences can contribute to low self confidence. New research indicates that parenting style has a major impact on the development of the self confidence of children. Bodily and emotional abuses during childhood are for example the worse for a person’s self confidence, as well as divorce and family conflicts. Overprotective parents may also be a reason for a child’s social phobia and hamper the independence that is necessary to develop self confidence. Successes and failures, for example at school or in one’s professional life, also play a significant role: losing a job or failing a class are among the several experiences that will have a negative impact your self confidence.

There are nonetheless methods to overcome such bad experiences and gain self confidence. The first step to build self confidence would be to learn to know who you are and what your strengths are. Recognizing that you are allowed not to be perfect and cannot be the best in all that you do will help you gain self confidence. Accepting yourself as you are is the key to building self confidence. But improving self confidence also requires that you start taking risks and giving yourself credit for your accomplishments. This is very simple advice which will help you develop self confidence. You may also find many books which will claim they can help you gain self confidence, however not all of them are reliable.

A lot people suffer from low self confidence or are only able to gain self confidence in one or a few areas of their lives because they constantly look for other people’s approval and are afraid that they could fail. A lot of factors, like childhood traumas, can explain why some people cannot enjoy the wholesome life a self confident individual could have. These persons also do not always know how to gain self confidence. However gaining self confidence can now readily and effectively be done with hypnosis and NLP.

As we have seen before low self confidence and social phobia can be caused by bad experiences or unconscious fears which are sometimes hard to overcome with self persuasion only. Confidence hypnosis and NLP on the contrary are able to get to the unconscious part of our brain and change belief systems to boost self confidence. They are effective tools that will help you face your fears and believe in yourself to develop self confidence.

Hypnosis for building confidence has been in use for a few decades and has shown significant results in building self confidence. In a hypnotic state, reaching unconscious thoughts is a lot easier and, through hypnotic suggestion, it is possible to replace your negative thought patterns with positive ones to boost self-confidence.

But you must realize that these simple acts of forgetfulness do happen to anybody of any age range. Due to the various and hundreds of things which a person needs to think about in a day, naturally, omitting one or two things from your To-do list could happen.

There are cases though, when these incidents happen almost too often. Like for example, a friend tells you something about what you will be doing after two weeks and you end up forgetting it or a lesson you just studied two nights ago simply slipped off of your mind as if you never have read any details of it. These are serious symptoms that show your memory could be dwindling slowly and that despite your age, because memory problems can affect anyone, the activities are exposed to could be the culprit as to how you retain important information.

Aside from what you do daily, the food you eat could cause memory problems too. The brain nutrients and for you to be able to think clearly, vitamin B and amino acids should be taken properly through the food you eat.

As for other things, if you have been depressed lately or under stress for some time now, better check on what you can do to keep your mind away from these unhealthy and unfriendly memory-causing factors. Be mentally and physically active. A good oxygen supply to the brain also helps a person in thinking clearly and logically. You can do this by leading an active lifestyle.

Mental exercises keep your mind agile to the information you need to keep solely for the brain. These could be the things that your need to remember for school. Exercising your mind with memory exercises help make it a lot easier to condition it and maintain its basic function to maintain proper thinking.

Do what it takes to keep your mind busy. It’s the most natural and healthy way of keeping it stagnant which causes memory problems.

1 It is more important to have clear goals than to be efficient. It is more important to work on the right things than to work efficiently. I liken this to the person who wants to get to Sudbury so gets in their car and drives 150 Km/hour. Does he get there before the person who checks the map (direction) and drives less efficiently at say 100 KM/hour? Driving in the right direction is more important than driving fast. I call this Leadership before Management. Leadership is about direction, management is about efficiency. This is why I called my CD “Time Leadership”.

2 Energy use is more important than time use. I can get much more done if I have the right energy than if I just spend the time. Because of this, I work on things that give me energy (eg. exercise, working on things I am inspired by, avoiding things that drain my energy etc.). I also try to recognize when I am high energy and spend those time doing high productivity tasks.

3 Know what you have to do. I am not referring to goals here, I am referring to specific tasks. Every course and book on time management talks about the “TO DO” list or some variation on it. Part of the reason for this list is to be able to prioritize (see 1). It also helps you to know your loading. One trick on a TO DO list is to put the first action to take to start on that item right on the list. Eg. If I am calling a vendor, I might need to get a briefing on the relationship as the first step.

4 Learn to say NO politely of course. If you know your goals and priorities (see 1), you will see what things you are being asked to do that infringes on them. Having a TO DO list helps you know if you have time (see 3).

5 Learn tricks. For me, the best sources of tricks are from other people who are effective in their jobs. I also get them from books and audio programs. Some of the more effective tricks I use are:

Do the worst thing first thing. I choose the one thing I am procrastinating on and spend 15 minutes on it first thing.

I love the power of while. What can you do while you are working out or driving (of course first priority needs to me to drive safely).etc? Often the answer is audio books.

I love the power of focus. This conflicts with the previous tip but in some circumstances this is the best way to get things done. Focus only on the task you are working on at the time.

6 Track how you spend your time. On the tracking sheet record what things give you energy and what things take energy (see 2). Determine how you think you should spend your day and from the time sheets figure out the changes you might want to make. One concept I have worked on is “The Perfect Day”. What would be the elements of your perfect day?

7 Get rid of your TV, or at least control your use of it. TV is North America’s biggest time waster. I have nothing against entertainment but I think many people use TV as a time waster and do not get great entertainment or learning from it.

8 – Study time use. I have written many articles and published a CD (and before that an audio tape) on Time Management. Even though I have read 40-50 books on the topic, over 100 articles, listened to many audio programs and attended half a dozen time management courses, I always learn something new when I read a new one.

Finally, many people think I am too efficient or time focused. I do not deny that I am somewhat. However, good time use can also lead to a fuller life. Why not spend the time you need to spend effectively so you have more time to do other things you want to do?

The first, and most critical, hurdle to finding true happiness is that we do not know ourselves. The real secret to happiness is knowing what is important to you personally. The simple truth is that there is not one universal path to happiness because every person is different and has different dreams and needs. While for one person creating something might be the path to happiness for another person it might be nurturing others. However, we are too often focused on the wrong goals because we listen to popular culture or other people. If we spend the time and energy to really concentrate on our dreams, and shut out the distractions, then we can find the key to unlocking our own happiness.

Another roadblock in our pursuit of happiness is giving too much power to things that do not matter. I have a friend who obsesses over having a clean house and making sure her family is clean and neat whenever they leave home. She gripes about how much time these obsessions take away from her time with her family. I am the opposite. While I do wish my house was cleaner I decided when my son was born that when I was old I would not look back and regret having a messy house but that I would regret not spending time with my child. While cleaning is on my priority list, it always falls below my child and when he is old and gray I am confident he will remember that as well as I do. Too often we spend a lot of time and energy focused on things that do not matter in the long run. Letting the dishes sit in the sink one night while you play a game with your child or pursue a hobby you love will contribute more to your happiness than making sure you do those dishes and then missing out on the life you love.

The final critical element that blocks true happiness for many people is not giving the things that make us happy enough weight in our life. Too often we dwell on the things we do not have–the bigger house, the newer car, the better job–rather than what we already have that makes us happy–the significant relationships, the happy home, the rewarding career. The next time you feel unhappy make a list of all that is going right in your life. Chances are that list is a lot longer than you thought and simply reviewing it will make you feel better.

The pursuit of happiness should be a lifelong journey but the path to finding true happiness can be rewarding and enjoyable if we remember to know ourselves, let go of the things that do not matter, and remember the things that do.

Even though anger varies from self anger to anger of international concern, the fact is that, anger management techniques don’t tend to be too distinct to angers of different origins. It will be judicious to stick to the point that it is not true to plot self anger and anger of international concern at the two extremes in the scale of angers from low to high. A sensible thinking suggests, all sorts of angers basically find the roots to be similar and all the angers are equally likely to be considered as negligible as well as countable, at the same time.

A better understanding of anger is the best anger management technique. Realize the fact that the only two powers to control you-in your wish, in your love, in your desperations, so as in your anger are the perennial, the eternal God and the other being, yourself. Acquiring entire command in situations of anger would prove to be worthy in keeping a person aloof from the so-called scenario. Inculcate an ability to identify, even a minute emotional altercation in you, and restrict yourself breaking out. When you start accepting yourself as such, when you begin to ponder your negatives and accept it, when you try to respect others opinion while presenting yours, you will find yourself pacified in what all things you interfere and sanity would be back to the proceedings. All this can be attained through a simple anger management technique.

Yes we’re talking about hypnosis. You may be surprised to hear the suggestion of hypnosis in such a treatment, but it can work wonders to improve your personality and gain a command over situations you are faced with each day. Hypnosis has long been used and today it is an accepted contemporary treatment procedure. Hypnosis is used to correct many pathological or self-inflicted conditions. This will help you calm down and restore a situation. You can begin right away by getting your copy of the hypnosis cd. Download your version and get started. Listen to your hypnosis speech and you’ll feel the change. So if it’s anger that worries you, next time before all hell breaks loose, let hypnosis take over.

The challenge with NLP in my opinion, is not finding somewhere to learn it, or someone to teach it, but, actually being good at it. For me, there are two factors that can influence the ability of each individual practitioner.

1) Charisma

Even the most intense, most specialised NLP training course has yet to find a way of teaching this natural elegance to it’s delegates. I’m talking about the elegance that would just ease out of someone like Milton Erickson in an artfully conversational way creating major changes to the listeners’ unconscious mind. Is this a skill that can be learned? If so, how is it taught? Are there people that can never really learn this and are these people practising NLP? Yes of course they are. They are the people who attend the courses to become therapists, yet what they really need is to see a therapist. I’ll never forget, when we first set up People Building and were emailing therapists from all areas to let them know we were on the map. One lady emailed back saying that she was already an NLP Practitioner and had been personally trained by Dr. Richard Bandler and therefore didn’t need to be aware of our services. I had to bind my hands together to prevent the temptation of emailing back “That doesn’t mean you’re any good though, does it?”

2) The Law of Requisite Variety (the person with the most flexibility of behaviour has the greatest influence over others.)

I remember once when I attended an EFT seminar and met a very interesting bunch of therapists called Guided Self Healers. I don’t know anything about Guided Self Healing, so far be it from me to pass judgement on what they do, but I can tell you that they all seemed to be a bunch of nutters. I sat with them whilst they chatted enthusiastically about what number I was. They were sure I was a 9. I don’t know what being a 9 means, but I also know I am a Pisces (which this week means I’m going to meet a stranger, according to my horoscopes- how difficult can that be?!) I’m also a Goat (Chinese astrology) right handed, visual (mainly) and blonde (naturally dumb).

The thing with NLP is it’s great when you use it with a degree of fluidity. Yes, strategies can work, but a complex strategy may be run unconsciously. If you want to elicit an unconscious strategy from someone, they will become conscious about what they are doing, what happens to the strategy then? Yes, anchors can work, but if the client thinks it’s all a load of poppycock, are they going to experience the state when he anchor is tested? Yes, I’m mainly visual, but probably not when I have my singing lessons. It’s great that this stuff works, but being a true NLPer is about accepting that sometimes you get a different result to the one you were expecting, and to expect that anything else could happen instead. Lets stop putting people in boxes and expecting the norm and instead accept that actually anyone can be whatever they choose to do or be. Only then, can we practice as therapists who truly access all of our own internal resources in order to facilitate changes within the clients that we are working with.

I know what you mean, but it’s not only in traveling where a person can expect to get benefits out of learning one of the most beautiful languages in the world. Knowing right away what important information written in French without needing to grab a dictionary or panic for words at the most crucial moment means that it’s already a great achievement for somebody learning the language.

What’s important for you to realize is that you’ll learn the French language no matter what it takes. It seems difficult at first, but hey, that’s part of learning. You certainly won’t learn anything if you don’t try hard enough and hard could be difficult. Tell yourself that learning is going to be an easy task because what is in your mind makes you do just what you think you can.

If you want to take learning French lessons or courses, then go ahead. What’s good about it is that you can take all the time you want without having to go out of your regular daily schedule. Also, learning French using language courses doesn’t put you on any pressure, making it possible for you to concentrate exactly on what you need to learn. Learning has to go with your mood because it’s easier for the mind to understand a lesson when it’s ready. Language courses are available in the internet; find out what French course could work for you.