Relax and Recharge Completely

By: Brian Tracy

Regular relaxation is essential for a long life and personal effectiveness. Here are some techniques for relaxing physically that are used by the most successful and highest paid people in America.

Take Time Off Every Week
First of all, work only five or six days per week, and rest completely on the seventh day. Every single study in this area shows that you will be far more productive in the five or six days that you work if you take one or two days off completely than you ever would be if you worked straight through for seven days.

Get Your Mind Busy Elsewhere
During this time off, do not catch up on reports, organize your desk, prepare proposals, or do anything else that requires mental effort. Simply let your mind relax completely, and get busy doing things with your family and friends. Maybe work around the house, go for a walk, engage in physical exercise, watch television, go to a movie, or play with your children. Whatever you do, discipline yourself to shut your mental gears off completely for at least one 24-hour period every seven days.

Get Away on Mini-Vacations
Second, take one three-day vacation every three months, and during that time, refrain from doing any work. Do not attempt to catch up on even a few small things. If you do, you keep your mental gears in motion, and you end up neither resting nor properly doing work of any quality.

Take Big Chunks of Down Time
Third, take at least two full weeks off each year during which you do nothing that is work-related. You can either work or relax; you cannot do both. If you attempt to do a little work while you are on vacation, you never give your mental and emotional batteries a chance to recharge. You'll come back from your vacation just as tired as you were when you left.

Give Yourself a Break Today
If you are involved in a difficult relationship, or situation at work that is emotionally draining, discipline yourself to take a complete break from it at least one day per week. Put the concern out of your mind. Refuse to think about it. Don't continually discuss it, make telephone calls about it or mull it over in your mind. You cannot perform at your best mentally if you are emotionally preoccupied with a person or situation. You have to give yourself a break.

Go For a Walk in Nature
Since a change is as good as a rest, going for a nice long walk is a wonderful way to relax emotionally and mentally. As you put your physical body into motion, your thoughts and feelings seem to relax all by themselves.

Eat Lighter Foods
Also, remember that the process of digestion consumes an enormous amount of physical energy. Therefore, if you eat lighter foods, you will feel better and more refreshed afterward. If you eat more fruits, vegetables, and whole-grain products, your digestive system will require far less energy to process them.

Be Good to Yourself
Since your diet has such an impact on your level of physical energy, and through it your levels of mental and emotional energy, the more fastidious you are about what you put into your mouth, the better you will feel and the more productive you will be. We know now that foods high in fat, sugar, or salt are not good for your body. The lighter the foods you eat, the more energy you have.

Action Exercises
Here are three things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action:

First, plan your weeks in advance and build in at least one day when you will relax from work completely. Discipline yourself to keep this date.

Second, reserve, book and pay for your three day vacations several months in advance. Once you've paid the money, you are much more likely to go rather than put it off.

Third, decide that you will not work at all during your vacations. When you work, work. And when you rest, rest 100% of the time. This is very important.

The Law of Compensation

By: Brian Tracy

You Get What You Give
Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his essay,
"Compensation," wrote that each person is
compensated in like manner for that which he or
she has contributed. The Law of Compensation is
another restatement of the Law of Sowing and
Reaping. It says that you will always be
compensated for your efforts and for your
contribution, whatever it is, however much or however little.

Increase Your Value
This Law of Compensation also says that you can
never be compensated in the long term for more
than you put in. The income you earn today is
your compensation for what you have done in the
past. If you want to increase your compensation,
you must increase the value of your contribution.

Fill Your Mind With Success
Your mental attitude, your feelings of happiness
and satisfaction, are also the result of the
things that you have put into your own mind. If
you fill your own mind with thoughts, visions and
ideas of success, happiness and optimism, you
will be compensated by those positive experiences in your daily activities.

Whether we like it or not, sales is part of our
daily lives. Whether you are trying to close new
business, negotiate an increase in pay, or simply
communicate better with your loved ones, you are
constantly utilizing some form of "sales
technique". So, with the start of the new year,
it is time to improve upon what is likely the
most important skill set that one can have – sales.

Do More Than You're Paid For
Another corollary of the Law of Sowing and
Reaping is what is sometimes called the, "Law of
Overcompensation." This law says that great
success comes from those who always make it a
habit to put in more than they take out. They do
more than they are paid for. They are always
looking for opportunities to exceed expectations.
And because they are always overcompensating,
they are always being over rewarded with the
esteem of their employers and customers and with
the financial rewards that go along with their personal success.

Provide the Causes, Enjoy The Effects
One of your main responsibilities in life is to
align yourself and your activities with Law of
Cause and Effect (and its corollaries), accepting
that it is an inexorable law that always works,
whether anyone is looking or not. Your job is to
institute the causes that are consistent with the
effects that you want to enjoy in your life. When
you do, you will realize and enjoy the rewards you desire.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, remind yourself regularly that your
rewards will always be in direct proportion to
your service to others. How could you increase
the value of your services to your customers today?

Second, look for ways to go the extra mile, to
use the Law of Overcompensation in everything you
do. This is the great secret of success.

Tips for Successful Negotiating by Phöne

­ By Art Sobczak **
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Most of us negotiate something every day. Whether it's getting our kids to
willingly clean their rooms, or hammering out an elephant-sized contract
with more details than a politician has "special-interest" donors, our
ability to haggle effects our results. Here are some useful negotiating
tips.

1. Define Your Negotiables, Other than Price.

Inexperienced, unconfident, or plain old lazy reps take the easy route and
drop their price at the first sign of the other person seeking to get a
better deal. Instead, first determine what you could offer, if needed,
that has high perceived value to them, but little cost to you. For
example, moving up the delivery date if they need it quickly, extending
the warranty period . . . some distributors and suppliers like to throw in
some products the customer isn't buying. This has high perceived value,
and gets the customer to test the new product, which might pay off with
future purchases.

2. Analyze Your Strengths, and Their Needs.

Before calling, list what you know they require and emotionally want, what
you have, and what you want. You might know that this buyer always tries
to pound you on price, but you also know you're working from a position of
strength because you're the only one who has the quality of product he
needs.

3. Set Your Objectives.

Just like every call, define, "What do I want them to do as a result of
this call, and what do I want to do?"

4. Aim High, Set Minimums.

As part of your objectives, swing for the fence! Think big. Set the most
favorable objective possible (one that is within reason). The richest
salës reps I know can't believe anyone would think otherwise. Likewise,
set minimums that you're willing to accept. You'll know how much you have
to play with.

5. Prepare for their Possible Tactics.

It's easier if you know the person. For example, knowing that Joe always
starts with an outrageous request helps you prepare your counter-tactic.
Otherwise, you need to dry-run through possible demands and tactics along
with your responses so you're not blindsided into giving away something
you didn't intend to.

6. Gather Information.

As with all salës calls, the more you know, the better.

7. Don't Give More Information (or Anything Else) than Necessary.

I've seen salës reps offer price concessions that weren't asked for ("The
price starts here, but I might be able to do a little better."), and give
up information that the customer used to ask for more concessions ("You
mentioned another customer had additional training manuals thrown in frëe.
I want those too.")

8. Don't Split the Difference.

It's human nature, but it costs you monëy. Let's look at the math. Your
asking price is $50. They offer you $30. You counter with $40 and they
figure splitting the difference is fair. Your tactic: come back with a
pained tone of voice, "I might be able to do $46 or $47." It's more likely
you'll end up better than $40.

9. Trade Your Concessions.

Get something in return. If you get them the better volume price, ask for
a commitment for a blanket purchase order. One-sided giving rarely makes
for a healthy relationship.

10. "If I, Will You?"

A tactic to accomplish the previous point. Before agreeing to what they
want, get a commitment on what they'll give in return. "If I'm able to
move your request to the front of the line, will you increase the order by
500?"

I believe I read this in an ad in an airline magazine for a negotiation
seminar: "You don't get what you deserve; you get what you can negotiate."

About the Author:
Art Sobczak helps salës pros use the phöne to prospect, service and sell
more effectively, while eliminating morale-killing rejection.