Somebody SAVE me!

“The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.” ~ Sven Goran Eriksson

The fear of failure is a sub-conscious courage eater. It will rob you of passion, paralyze your mind, and urge you to give the responsibility for success to someone, or something else.

Have you ever felt that thing in the back of your conscious mind that wants you to run away, the moment you see the possibility that you could fail? We all have it. I think it’s purpose is to keep us safe, which would be fine, if we still lived at our parent’s houses with everything we need supplied by someone else in a perfectly safe world that was free from disease, pain, and suffering of any kind.

Since that is not the world we live in, and since our world is not SAFE. We have to come to grips with the reality that there is no avenue of retreat, we must arm ourselves. We must prepare mentally to live in the absence of safety, to live in a dangerous world with the possibility of failure forever lurking at the back of our subconscious mind, telling us to retreat.

What happens when the fear of failure is nagging you, and your subconscious is telling you to retreat? Our first instinct is often to scream “Save me” to anyone willing to listen.

• Business owners yell “save me” to marketing firms and coaches
• Mom’s yell “save me” to school programs and babysitters
• Personal finances yell “save me” to financial planners or bankruptcy attorneys
• People in need yell “save me” to anyone willing to listen
• Sometimes big businesses yell “save me” to government
• Sometimes government yells “save me” to taxes

Don’t get me wrong I am all for asking for help, collaboration, gaining partners, and teams. The difference between asking for help and yelling “save me” is this; asking for help implies that I am emotionally and mentally keeping the responsibility for my success and I simply want to team up, or ask for your help as a part of the effort to succeed.

Whereas; Yelling “save me” implies that I am giving you the responsibility for MY SUCCESS. And this will allow the fear of failure to destroy you. We can never give the responsibility for our own success to anyone. We can delegate, we can collaborate, we can orchestrate, and we can simply get help. But, if we give the responsibility for success to someone else, we have lost the war. We have retreated, and we have lost all influence in our success, guaranteeing failure.

So next time you feel that fear of failure begin to creep up on you, stop and make a plan. Stop and think about how to attack. Become even that much more committed to owning the responsibility you have to your own success.

And only then, ask for help and collaborate towards your success with marketing firms, coaches, attorneys, school programs, friends, government, and anyone who can help.

Don’t be a victim to the fear of failure, be an OWNER of your own success.

Owning it daily,

Jon Bohm

Inspiration/Values, Knowledge, Leadership, Motivation

“I find it fascinating that most people plan their vacations with better care than they do their lives. Perhaps that’s because escape is easier than change.” - Jim Rohn

Goals, Knowledge, Leadership, Motivation

Anger is a secondary emotion. You have to kill the root.

On a regular basis I have a client or a friend, kids, or myself that have a day you could put in the funk category. A day when you are not firing on all cylinders so to speak.

Have you ever had a day like that? We all do?  The occasional emotional setback. No big deal, right?

Depends, I guess on the day. If you spend your day in a funk instead of landing that new client it could have long term effects. I tell every client I have, if you are going to be an entrepreneur you have to embrace the fact that you don’t get the luxury of a crappy attitude, self pitty, or even a funk for very long if at all.

So, how do we avoid the funk? How do we keep the funky day from becoming a funky week, month, year, or your life? I can’t cover it all in a little blog post but I will give you this. In almost every situation when you find yourself in a funk it’s because 1 of 4 things; you allowed yourself to become too:

H.ungry
A.ngry
L.onely or
T.ired

Next time you feel yourself slipping into the funk, stop (halt) and ask yourself; “Am I too hungry, angry, lonely, or tired?” The answer is yes 98 % of the time. So, stop and fix it, or take regular daily checks to keep the funk at bay.

It turns out my Mom new how to keep the funky days at bay with sleep, the right diet, good friends, and emotional health. And that alone can be a great New Year’s resolution.

Happy New Year and Cheers to the good life.

Live a great story in 2010!

Jon Bohm

Goals, Inspiration/Values, Knowledge, Motivation

Are You Living a Story worth telling?

Goals, Inspiration/Values, Motivation

Living your entire life always doing what you SHOULD can give you a safe predictable life that leaves you completely disappointed in the end because you never answered the honest and simple question of “What do I WANT?”- Jon Bohm

What do YOU want?

I mean really what do you want, not what you SHOULD want, but what do you really WANT?

Sometimes those things are the same. I should go to work today and I WANT to go to work today. Great! That is an important distinction. When you live your life the way you should instead of the way you want your heart, emotions, desires, and mind are sitting on the sideline as you live your dutiful existence moving through the motions without passion.

What are you doing in your life that you SHOULD be doing?

What are you NOT doing that you SHOULD be doing?

I should go to church. I did go to church because I SHOULD.

I should go home and hang with my family. I did go home and hang with the family because I SHOULD.

I should make that sales call. I made the call because I SHOULD.

I SHOULD take my spouse out. ETC. ETC.

What is it that you do without emotional passion and desire because you SHOULD?

Now, don’t take me wrong I’m not saying we all need to ignore whatever we SHOULD be doing.  Instead of ignoring, we have to make the mental and attitudinal shift to quit saying I SHOULD and change it to I WANT to do this.

Most of the time it’s as simple as catching your self in the middle of a SHOULD and simply replacing the word SHOULD with WANT.  It’s time to get YOUR passions and emotions off the bench and into the game of life.

The bottom line is you have an incredible life to live.  Start living it because you WANT to and stop living it because you SHOULD.  It’s time for YOU to get emotional involved in YOUR life.  If you need help making the switch, please contact me anytime!

May we hit the ground living the life we WANT to live today!

Enjoy Life!

Jon Bohm

Goals, Inspiration/Values, Leadership, Motivation

“Everyone needs someone to help them take action on the simple things in life, because simple is not EASY.”- Jon Bohm

In high school I wore a baseball cap that had the name brand “SIMPLE” on the front.  SIMPLE is a great clothing and shoe manufacturer.  I had a boss that would always make fun of me for wearing that hat.  His jokes always themed around the idea that to be simple is to be slow… and basically a moron.

As you can imagine, I’m over it now- ok I still have a little resentment :).  As a matter of fact, I couldn’t disagree with that assumption (that “simple” means you can’t even tie your own shoes) more!  The mark of a brilliant person is to be able to take complicated ideas and make them simple enough to be useful and practical.

The greatest things in life are simple:

• Love
• Friendship
• Compassion
• Making Money
• Saving Money
• Starting a new healthy habit in the New Year
• Quitting an old unhealthy habit
• Staying active
• Eating Healthy
• Improving your quality of life
• Raising truly great kids
• Developing greatness in others
• Making the world, or at least your world, a better place

Maybe, as you were reading that list you started to disagree with me?  What do you think?  Simple?  Is it simple to love your spouse?  Is it simple to raise great kids?  Is it simple to make money?  To eat healthy, make the world a better place….etc?

Of course.  It is SIMPLE.  However, it is NOT EASY.  Somewhere a long the line I believe just about everything in our culture has confused simple with easy.  For example,  if you want to stop smoking it’s not complicated.  All  you have to do is not put another cigarette in your mouth, don’t light it, and don’t puff on it.  This is not rocket science.  If you want to eat healthy all you have to do is put healthy food into your mouth, chew, and swallow.  Again not rocket science.  But NOT easy either.

So, let me ask you.  If you could change anything in your life and improve on some things, what would you change?

Take a moment….ok got it?

Now, let’s be real honest, is it a simple change?

I would be willing to bet all 3 of those things could realistically change in the next 12 months.  Could they?  If so, than why haven’t you changed them already?  What is getting in your way?  What simple thing has become complicated or difficult and why?

Let me ask another question?  Are you becoming more and more, everyday, the person YOU WANT to be in the future?  Are you pulling your future into your present?  If you are stuck in a rut,  or if you know what simple things you need to change, than change them and don’t make it complicated.  Or, reach out for help.  I help people every single day accomplish SIMPLE but not EASY things that they never thought were possible!

If you need help, reach out…. to family, to friends, to a professional like myself, or all the above and get your life moving.  Just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it’s easy, and it doesn’t give you an excuse to just keep saying that “someday I will be different, quit smoking, start a business, love my spouse better, make more money, etc.”

Enjoy your life and make changes NOW, because “Someday” never comes without changing things NOW.

Jon Bohm

Goals, Inspiration/Values, Motivation

Goals, Inspiration/Values, Leadership, Motivation

I am a lucky, lucky person. - Evel Knievel

Inspiration/Values, Knowledge, Leadership, Motivation

Self-Fulfilling prophecy is a tough concept to understand. But if you can tap into your capabilities and then see and understand the potential you have. Then, remember the reasons you have to believe in yourself, you will in fact conquer your biggest fears and accomplish what you say you can.

But the opposite is true all the time. If you say you “Can’t” then you most definitely will not.

William Purkey tells a great little allegory concerning the value of feeling good about ourselves:

A mouse ran into the office of the Educational Testing Service and accidentally triggered a delicate point in the apparatus just as the College Entrance Examination Board’s data on one Henry Carson was being scored.
Henry was an average high-school student who was unsure of himself and his abilities. Had it not been for the mouse, Henry’s score would have been average or less, but the mouse changed all that, for the scores that emerged from the computer were amazing—800s in both the verbal and quantitative areas.

When the scores reached Henry’s school, the word of his giftedness spread like wildfire. Teachers began to re-evaluate their gross under-estimation of this fine lad, counselors trembled at the thought of neglecting such talent, and even college admissions officers began to recruit Henry for their schools.
New worlds opened for Henry, and as they opened he started to grow as a person and as a student. Once he became aware of his potentialities and began to be treated differently by the significant people in his life, a form of self-fulfilling prophecy took place. Henry began to put his mind in the way of great things. . . Henry became one of the best men of his generation.

We can apply this concept to our every day life and business in simple ways. When we have a week, a day, an hour, or a conversation that goes bad we will begin to “Self-talk” at an alarming rate and in that moment we have a tendency to say some negative things about ourselves, our abilities, our products, our ideas, or our companies. Of course none of these things are usually true but in that moment that couldn’t be more real.

Using a simple tool called “Affirmations” is an easy and simple way to combat the negative self talk that could arise during a work day.

Affirmations are an expression of the person you know you need to be to achieve the results you want.
An affirmation is a self-fulfiling prophecy that should be placed in a place you can read them daily- in the car- in the bathroom- at your desk - on the office wall- etc.

“I am a great sales person”
“I like to eat healthy”
“I make 500 k a year”
“LIfe is Good”
“Today is an awesome day”

Let me encourage you to write 3 and only 3 affirmations on a 3 x 5 card and read it 3 times a day.

Use the following criteria to write a great affirmation:
-Make it 1st person
-Present tense
-Positive
-Within your realm of belief

I know most of us automatically picture the Saturday night Live Skit and think this can sound a little hokus pokus, but it works. And in my world if it works and gets results then it has value.

I dare you to try it and watch your self talk, self image, and results change for the better!

After all life IS Good and it’s just getting better!

- Enjoy Life Today!
Jon Bohm

Goals, Inspiration/Values, Motivation

“Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, “Wait.” But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim…. when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness” then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.” - Martin Luther King Jr. 1963 - Letter from a Birmingham Jail

Have you ever been around someone who was really, I mean really, able to walk in your shoes? To not just say they understand but really feel what you feel? That is the secret of compassion.

I once heard a friend say that being heard is so close to be loved that most people can’t tell the difference. How well do you listen to those in your life? How well do you feel the pain of your prospects? How good are you at feeling what others feel?

Often when I am working with a team of sales people they want to know how to “Close” better or “sell” better. But, the greatest sales secret in the world is to be a great listener, practice compassion, ask great questions, and walk in your prospects shoes. When you can feel what they feel then you are coneecting emotionally with their issues.

In a sales situation it is tempting to talk a lot and show the prospect how much you know about your product. And think you are closing the sale, you couldn’t be more wrong. Your prospect doesn’t care how much you know about your product, they care how much you understand their problem, pain, or challenge.

You can’t learn about someone’s pain or walk in their shoes by talking. So close your mouth and start listening, or better yet start feeling what they feel.

A good system is to never tell anybody anything (especially about their situation) until you know these 3 things:

Inspiration/Values, Knowledge, Motivation, Sales