30. December 2008 by Pat.

I’m sure we’ll all agree that network marketing is a people business. In fact, I’ll take it a step further and say that network marketing is a relationship business. Yet I’m constantly amazed at how often people don’t know or don’t understand what a relationship is.

I found two definitions for the word relationship at dictionary.com:

a connection, association, or involvement.
an emotional or other connection between people: the relationship between teachers and students.

I talk to strangers. I always have. I generally like people, like meeting people and enjoy hearing what people have to say.

I really can not stress enough that meeting someone and saying, “hi, join my company” is not relationship building. I’ve known people for years before they’ve made a purchase or offered a referral.

When I get an email, I always answer it. I always leave the door open for a return email from the sender. There are times this leads to a sale and times that it does not. My goal is to leave those I come into contact with satisfied with their interaction with me. It is that satisfaction that leads to sales and referrals.

Each person we meet has the potential to be a customer or offer a referral. Sometimes that will happen overnight and as I mentioned above, sometimes it’s years until this happens.

Remember, the definition of a relationship is a connection or involvement. These connections and involvements can not and do not happen when your whole goal is to make a sale.

I’ve had people say to me, “I don’t have time to say hello and be nice to 100 different people”. My response to them is “I understand, give each of them my name and email address, I have plenty of time.” Network marketing is about relationships and relationships take time.

Take the time to enjoy getting to know others. You’ll see your business grow from this simple gesture.

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24. December 2008 by Pat.

The biggest obstacle to success and fulfillment for most people seems to be procrastination. Likewise, a major component of effective time management is avoiding procrastination.Avoiding procrastination is also crucial if we hope to realize our dreams. This must be a conscious effort, because procrastination is so easy to engage in, yet so difficult to overcome. We must keep our goals in mind and maintain our desire to reach those goals, so that the temptation to put off our responsibilities until later does not eclipse our desire to succeed.

There are many reasons why we procrastinate - and we all do it. Procrastination, though, means sure death to reaching your goals.

1. Fear of Failure. Many people put off doing things because they are afraid of failing. If they only speak of their hopes and dreams, but make no firm effort towards achieving their goal, they cannot fail. If, however, people take action towards reaching their goals yet fail to realize them, they fear they will be seen by others as failures. Even if a goal is not reached, the act of trying is reward in itself. Great learning is derived from experience, which can only be attained through action. Also, most people recognize a valiant effort and applaud it regardless of the outcome. The act of trying is an act of bravery. The act of avoidance is paramount to cowardice. Do not fall into the trap of using fear as a reason to procrastinate.

2. Feeling Overwhelmed. Many times we look at a goal and feel that there is too much that needs to be done in order to accomplish it. The sense of being overwhelmed paralyzes us, preventing us from taking even the first step towards achieving our goal. For every goal you have in life, break it down into individual parts. Determine what actions each individual part needs in order to be successful. If looking at the big picture makes you feel overwhelmed, look at the tiny steps along the way instead. Tackle them one by one, without worrying about the next one. Forge ahead with each individual victory, and before you know it you will have found success.

3. Human Nature. We naturally tend to avoid that which causes us hardship or pain, and gravitate towards that which is easy or gives us pleasure. In order to avoid procrastination due to the unappealing or difficult nature of a task, commit to complete the most unpleasant jobs first. Dive in with a can-do attitude, and realize that the sooner you start and the harder you work, the sooner it will be over. Tackling the most difficult responsibilities first paves the way for smoother sailing down the road.

4. Perspective. If we view a task as being difficult, then that is exactly what it will be for us. Rather than dreading a given assignment, view it as an opportunity to excel. If you are being asked to complete a research assignment, view it as the chance to gain new knowledge and expand your mental boundaries. By diving into a project with enthusiasm, deriving it wherever it can be found, you can turn a chore into pleasure. Try changing your perspective and see if it helps fan the flames of enthusiasm.

There has been much talk throughout history about the destructive nature of procrastination. One of the best ways to view it is that we do not know what fate tomorrow will bring us, so we are best off experiencing everything we can today.

Another irony of procrastination is that so many of us complain about not having enough time, yet spend so much time sitting idly, dreading the work that awaits us. If we just dug our hands in and got started, there likely would be more time found in the day, and we would accomplish a great deal more.

If you find you are having difficulty achieving your goals, take a look at the steps you must take to achieve success and ask yourself if you have fallen into the dark pit of procrastination. Examine what your own reasons for procrastinating are, then vow to yourself that you will not let it kill off your hopes and dreams.

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16. December 2008 by Pat.

When you start a Network Marketing business, your sponsor should be the person to teach you the ropes and teach you how to be successful. Unfortunately, many people quit Network Marketing altogether because they don’t get the proper training. Choosing a sponsor who shares your philosophy and values to help you on your journey to Network Marketing success is critical. Here are some red flags that you should watch out for when choosing your sponsor.

Doesn’t ask you questions. A good sponsor will ask questions to potential team members. He or she will want to know a little about your background, why you’re interested in Network Marketing, and what you can bring to the team. If your potential sponsor doesn’t ask you questions, that should be a red flag. No questions means they’re willing to sponsor anybody with a heartbeat. They’re more interested in signing you up than finding out if you will be a good fit for their team. You will want to be selective about who you sponsor, and you want your sponsor to be selective as well.

Doesn’t connect with you. You will be working closely with your sponsor, so it’s important to choose someone you connect with. You don’t have to be the same age, gender, political affiliation, etc. with your sponsor. But you do want to feel comfortable talking with them, asking questions, bouncing ideas off them, etc. You need to feel a connection with them.

Tells you he or she will build your downline for you. While a good Network Marketing plan encourages teamwork, a good sponsor would never tell someone that they don’t have to work. Instead, a good sponsor will show you how to work and achieve the best results. Someone who tells you they will build your downline for you is desperate and not someone you want as your sponsor.

Doesn’t know how to market the way you want to. If you want to market online, you need to make sure you choose a sponsor who has had success marketing online. If you would rather focus on calling leads, choose a sponsor who has been successful calling leads. You will quickly become frustrated if you choose a sponsor who doesn’t know how to market the way you want to. You will save yourself time and effort by choosing a sponsor who has experience doing what you want to do.

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15. December 2008 by Pat.

Did you know that science and medicine are finally in agreement with religion on many points? I am not saying that science, or medicine, support any particular set of beliefs, or dogma; I am saying that we can express the words and deeds of the great healers and teachers - men like Jesus, for instance - in scientific terms which support some of the oldest wisdom teachings on the planet, such as: “As a man thinketh,” and “Judge not…” That’s pretty cool, because those teachings were intended to make our lives better and happier - to give us use of our natural abilities to create and even to heal ourselves. And who doesn’t want their life to be better?

Thanks to science and medicine, we can better understand the mechanism and pathway through which our thoughts create our bodies, health, and lives. And based on these findings, we can observe a sort of “Belief Formula” which can be reliably applied to help us create more of what we want and less of what we don’t want. When we get sick, something causes it; when we get better, something causes that, too. Until now, we have been told that a germ makes you sick; and pills make you better. Well, that’s not what Jesus was saying, nor was it what Hippocrates, the father of medicine, said; and it isn’t what the latest scientific and medical research tells us, either.

The newest medicine on the planet agrees with the oldest medicine on the planet - and it uses the principles of Quantum Physics to do it. Jesus said, “As a man thinketh, so it is done unto him…” He was quoting some of the richest, most successful people on the planet - people who wrote those words thousands of years earlier. Albert Einstein, one of the fathers of Quantum Physics, said that “imagination is more important than knowledge,” indicating that he was aware creation did not emerge from text books, nor did E=mc²; it came from the mind - from the imagination. New things come from thinking about new things. The things you believe in happen “according to your beliefs,” as Jesus put it, or “according to the laws of physics,” as Einstein would have put it.

But they were both saying the same thing. Physics has shown us that our reality is generated from waves of possibilities that only come into existence when we observe them and think about them. That may sound pretty strange; but think about it in the terms of your health for a moment. The American Psychological Association (APA) has estimated that stress is a causative factor in about 90% of all medical problems; they have also said that perhaps 90% of all doctor’s office visits are due to stress-related complaints. Here’s how that works: Medical problems are caused by stress; and stress is caused when you think about your life in a certain way.

It goes like this: You have a set of beliefs about how people should act and be; and then you go to work with someone, or are married to someone, who does many things you would rather they not do. In other words, they aren’t the way they should be. According to the way you were taught (programmed) to think about other people, this person is not acting right. Perhaps they are being rude, mean, careless, or any of a number of ways that might irritate you. They irritate you because you think they should be another way. If this person were acting the way you wanted them to, that wouldn’t be irritating. Any time we want things to be a way they aren’t, we experience stress.

Your thoughts about the way that person should be, and the way you are observing that person to be, are not congruent with each other, and it is causing you stress. When you have made such a judgment, a part of your brain called the Amygdala initiates a series of events called the “stress response.” Signals are sent via the nervous system to the endocrine glands, which release stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones, as well as other “molecules of emotion,” act on the cells of your body causing various physical changes that wouldn’t be happening if you were laughing with this same person who has just “pushed your buttons.” It is your judgment of the person and situation that triggers the release of chemicals that you literally feel as discomfort.

If you make a judgment, you are thinking thoughts that are stressful and harmful to the body in a very real way. Consider how specific these messages are: Worry releases hormones that make our stomach feel fluttery (we call it butterflies); fear can make knees weak, or pants wet; but anger doesn’t do the same thing; neither does laughter. We innately know that our nerves carry these signals from the brain; when we feel an excessive, or chaotic, energy in our nervous system, we actually tell people, “It’s my nerves,” or “I’m nervous.” When someone allows fear to override their desire to do something, they are said to have “lost their nerve.”

The nerves, however, are simply the middle man. What Jesus, Einstein, and all the rest are trying to clue us in on is that the signals trashing our nerves, bodies, and health, are being generated in the brain in response to THOUGHTS. If you think positively about your health, you will be able to immediately improve your health. This is a big subject, but the mind-body connection is not something to take lightly; your body is a direct reflection of your mind. If you can learn to understand this relationship, you can control your health, happiness, and life, with a great degree of satisfaction.

All medical symptoms are created by the stress response and the immune system as they respond to your thoughts and attempt to protect you and maintain balance at the same time. These systems respond whenever they believe they need to in order to protect you from a threat, or a foreign invader. Most medical interventions involve removing the part of the body that “appears” to be malfunctioning, using chemicals to replace natural processes, or using chemicals to halt natural processes - such as immune responses (coughing, vomiting, sneezing, etc…) which are designed to rid your body of toxins. We have been led to believe that a cough is bad; but a cough is nature’s way of clearing your airways of potentially harmful debris or pathogens. Suppressing a cough is a misguided attempt to seek comfort at the expense of your lungs and health.

There are many ways our beliefs have been used against us in the past; medicine is simply one which has a profound and direct effect on our lives. But let’s move forward; medical research, in an effort to sell drugs, has shed light on the power of belief to cure all diseases - just like Hippocrates (the Father of medicine) and Jesus would tell you if they were here today. Consider miracle cures and the placebo response. These terms are simply ways of masking your body’s natural ability to heal - distracting us from the truth. Everyone’s heard of “miracle cures,” and “miraculous healings;” but what are placebos, and what’s the difference between healing one way or another?

A placebo is simply a remedy which has no known healing properties - like a sugar pill. Now, this is a medical perspective; but the truth is placebos have the same healing properties as anything else. Placebos have always been used by physicians; in fact, until the past century, most medicine was placebo. People had been taught that they needed something from outside of themselves in order to heal; so physicians gave them what they wanted in the form of bread pills and drops of colored water. The definition of placebo is simply, “I shall please.”

And please they did. People have always benefited from taking placebos, and they still do today - much to the chagrin of the pharmaceutical companies! Today, since “everyone knows sugar can’t cure you…,” pharmaceutical companies use placebos as a control to compare their new drugs to. One test group takes the new drug; while the other takes sugar pills, or something that resembles the “real” drug or procedure. Ideally, for the pharmaceutical companies, the real drug should outperform the sugar pills; but they rarely do! And even in the few cases where they do, the fact sugar pills always work in some percentage of the population clearly demonstrates that it isn’t what’s inside the pill that matters; the curative property of all pills is in the reason for taking the pill and the act of taking the pill.

The placebo response is what the medical community calls it when you get better from taking a fake drug. But better is better; there’s nothing fake about that. And, since every placebo study has produced positive results in the placebo group - no matter what the disease process - it is inaccurate to continue to define placebos as having no “known” curative properties. It is well documented that if you take a placebo, there is a really good chance - by medical standards - that you will get better. This has been shown to be true even when the people taking sugar pills were told they were being given placebo. So, do placebos have “known healing properties?” They sure do; in fact, the only thing pharmaceuticals have that placebos don’t is dangerous chemicals that act in unpredictable ways. The “active” ingredient in a placebo, as with a drug - is you.

This is the Belief Formula (A=PxB) in action. My cure (A) is the result of (=) my action, or prayer (P) as powered, or multiplied by my belief (B) in the possibility that action will generate the desired response, or answer to my prayer. A=PxB. “If I take this pill, I will get better…” Gulp… “I can feel it working already!” With computers, this is called “If/Then” programming: IF this happens, THEN this other thing will result. In the Universe, we call it “Cause and Effect;” and it is one of the Laws taught by all the great teachers and healers throughout history. Of course, they taught us to focus and rely more on the faith, or belief (B) part of the equation, than on the prop, technique, or action we contracted to perform as our part of the process - like taking pills and having surgery.

With enough faith, you don’t need much of a physical intervention. Of course, faith of this magnitude is so rare that when we encounter it, we immediately point our finger and scream, “It’s a miracle!” Everyone knows that many of the people, who stand before tele-evangelists and receive a “healing” by being slapped on the head, are part of the show; but not every miraculous healing is a sham. Even some of those you see on television are real. The fact is that people have always experienced miraculous healings; and in an almost infinite variety of ways - healing spring waters, prayer, blessings from a statue, viewing a corpse, and many other ways that sound kind of strange. The common factor in all healings, besides disease, is a desire to heal and faith that this action could produce healing. In fact, this is true whether you are talking about placebos, holy fountains, religious relics, prescription drugs, surgery, prayer, or any of the ways people have used to restore health and wellness to their diseased bodies, minds, and lives.

Consider that not everyone who takes medicine gets better; and not everyone who gets better did it with medicine. Medicine is not the curative variable in the equation of wellness. The same applies with any of the methods listed above - including prayer. Even if you use faith as your vehicle for healing, you still must believe that it is possible, or you do not have the critical factor in your healing equation, or Belief Formula. Remember, Jesus told people, “It is your faith that has healed you…” He did not tell them that it was His hands, or “this pill,” or to take two aspirins and pray to Him in the morning. Throughout what we have been told are the teachings of Jesus, He is consistently unambiguous: The way you think and believe is what causes your life for better or worse, so don’t make idle judgments - they will come upon you. Think about what you want; and do this always.

Let’s look at an example of how this same principle affects your life in a broader way. You stay at that job that stresses you out because you “thinketh” you have to stay. This is simply a lack of courage or creativity. You were looking for that job when you found it, weren’t you? And what about that time someone told you that you couldn’t do something, and you BELIEVED them? When you believe something that simply means you have accepted a thought into your basic operating system. If you don’t think you can do something, you probably won’t try; on the other hand, people who are very good at certain things must have tried them at some point - probably because they were THINKING about that thing.

I have seen, and used, the power of a thought to change lives. My advice to anyone in this Universe is to consider the life you are now living as an experiment in thought. Start keeping up with your thoughts and see what you think about most of the time. We get to think of things and then live the physical reality of our thoughts. Your life will unfold for you “As you thinketh…” If all you think about is how miserable your life is, you’ll probably be getting more of the same. They say, “You can’t afford the luxury of a negative thought;” and the Chinese have said, for thousands of years, “Be careful what you wish for, you will probably get it.” Is this any different than saying, “The thing I greatly feared has come upon me,” or “As a man thinketh, so it is done unto him.”? Henry Ford said, “If you think you can, or think you can’t - you’re right!” There’s nothing religious about this; it is simply the way it works in this Universe.

We all live in this Universe; we all have access to the mind; and we all think. We also experience the results of our thoughts as physical realities. The laws apply to all of us, whether we are good or bad (”God sends his rain upon the good and evil alike…”), and regardless of what language we speak. The only things you will ever experience in this physical world are the results of someone’s thoughts; and you’ll have a hard time denying that it was your thoughts that lead you to that experience. Good and bad are simply judgments, if you must make them; just remember that you can’t call another person or thing “bad” without thinking about “bad.” If you are thinking about bad, this is what you can expect in your future. It might be kind of scary at first to think that you are in control of all that you are experiencing, but fear not; have fun and keep your thoughts on those things that are good - those things you want more of in your life.

Understand that your body and mind work like a computer and its software. While you are growing up, you are absorbing programming continuously. When you reach the age of about 14, you begin to use that information to fit yourself into your world - the world as you have been taught to see it. If you program your computer to play rock music through its speakers, it isn’t a Rock Star; it is still just a computer doing what it was programmed to do. Any moment you aren’t consciously choosing what you are thinking and doing, your subconscious mind is randomly - or not so randomly - executing programs that were loaded into you by who knows who, who knows when.

Not many people can stay conscious all the time; when we encounter one of those individuals who can, we call them a Master, or something reflecting the same respect, awe, or admiration. Anyone, however, can spend time paying attention to their thoughts and installing more creative, more productive, kinder, wiser, thoughts with the intention that when you do go on “autopilot,” your subconscious mind has a higher quality of software from which to choose - as it creates your future for you by guiding your words and actions. This is where prayer, affirmations, self-hypnosis, and hypnosis come into the picture as options for programming yourself to think more effectively, and to think more positively when your attention and focus shift to “idle.”

The secret to staying happy and healthy is to keep your mind on happy and healthy things. You might not think that this is much of a secret; but what on Earth could be more important than being happy and healthy? Having a respectable job? Having the right car? Making the right amount of money doing something you hate, or something you know is bad for people and the environment? Your life’s purpose isn’t filling the shoes others have made for you, or convinced you to wear; your purpose is being happy - to keep trying things until you find that which makes you happiest of all. Your health and your life are your only indicators of how well you are listening to your heart’s desires; so listen up! Your life is talking to you.

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9. December 2008 by Pat.

Everybody wants to be a top residual income earner in his or her Network Marketing business. We have dreams of sitting on a beach or in the mountains, sleeping until noon or doing philanthropic work without any consideration for how we are going to be paid.

However, to become a top residual income earner in a Network Marketing business is a far of dream for some. Career and family obligations or not having the right map will get in the way for so many people.

The tips below will give you a better chance to be a top residual income earner in your business -

1. Make a long-term commitment - Top residual income earners are those who stay the course and keep their commitment through the tough times. Most people will quit early in the process and the only difference between the ones who make it and the ones who do not is that those who make it do not quit.

2. Stick to one game plan for at least 90 days - There are so many ways to build a Network Marketing business and everybody you talk to will have a different view. However, the top residual income earners have a system that they have followed for a long time and perfected. It may take you a little time to find your perfect system, but you will find it.

3. Be a Student of the Game - It seems that top residual income earners are so humble and let you know how much they do not know. They are always looking for new ways to improve their business and they realize that there is so much more that they do not know as compared to what they do know. People who do not earn top incomes seem to have all of the answers and are unwilling to explore other options. Being a know-it-all is a quick way to becoming an instant failure.

Use these three tips and you will find that you will soon become a top residual income earner in your business.

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4. December 2008 by Pat.

One day I made a decision that was so powerful, it changed my life forever.

You’re guaranteed to experience a complete life makeover if you make the same decision.

Here is the story…

One night I was sitting around thinking of how I was living my life. I had always been amazed by the great achievements and high levels of success reached by top successful people, and I was wondering why successful people are so rare and why most people tend to live mediocre lives.

I kept thinking along those lines, until I suddenly shifted my thinking 180 degrees. Instead of thinking why this and why that, I made a firm decision – the decision that I consider the spark for ALL greatness on earth.

And that decision was…

“I won’t settle for a good life – only a spectacular one.”

Wow…Wow…Wow

Powerful…Powerful…Powerful

Most of us just hope to live a good life – to have a nice family, to raise good kids, to have a decent job.

But greatness and the creation of everlasting success begin when you aspire to live a spectacular life.

A life that makes an impact and leaves a legacy. A life that gets you out of the cocoon of the ordinary and into the realm of the extraordinary. A life that ensures you are remembered after you pass away.

We are born to succeed and make a difference. We have a mission to accomplish from the moment we enter into life. That mission is to make the world a better place to live in. That mission is to make a difference that will positively impact thousands, even millions of people. That mission is to serve and cultivate value that will benefit the generations to come.

Don’t ever settle for good life – only a spectacular one.

Make the decision today, and I guarantee that if you are committed to it, you will experience a complete life makeover.

Live SPECTACULARLY starting TODAY!

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