Important Notes

The Be Better Project

Important Notes

Welcome to Be Better 6 - 8 Month Curriculum.

Call #1 Friday, January 15, 2010

• You need a new decision to change your course, and it doesn't have to be a specific measurable goal based decision. It can be a value-based decision. Decide, not necessarily the specifics of what you want to own, but rather, what you want to do, on a daily basis, what values you feel you need to tap into to feel like an unconditional success.

• You need a guidepost - an evaluating tool so when opportunities come your way you can assess whether they're going to serve you in the long run.

• We have power over our own "will" ( "We desire to feel, to have, to do, all sorts of things which at the moment are not felt, had, or done. If with the desire there goes a sense that attainment is not possible, we simply wish; but if we believe that the end is in our power, we will that the desired feeling, having, or doing shall be real; and real it will become, either immediately upon the willing or after certain preliminaries have been fulfilled." - William James)

• Conclusions:
o Human will is the conscious process that can lead us to that which we desire
o The reticular activating system allows us to notice things relative to those issues that are apparent at a given point in time
o If we apply conscious will to directing the RAS, the path to achievement seems to unfold. It almost feels effortless

• Identify two words in your language and in the language of your clients that are "shut down" words, and recognize them. Let your RAS start dismissing "but" and "can't" from your internal vocabulary.

• Your EEM is a mechanism reinforced by dendrite connections in your brain that link objects, thoughts, or triggers with avoidance emotions. It's intended to protect you.

• The PFC can smash the walls that the EEM builds. The Pre-Frontal Cortex is sort of an eye into possibility.

• Allow your RAS and PFC to drive you toward new visions of possibility and don't get caught up in trying to create a tagline or a Unique Selling Proposition suggesting you're "best." There can only be one best, so as soon as the marketplace gets cluttered with claims of being best, all of the fabricated USP's become worthless. They're no longer unique. When determining what makes you unique, be honest, not creative.

• The word "de-serve" comes from the Latin for "to serve" or to provide a service. If you provide a valuable service, and you are compensated in line with the value of the service you delivered, that is fair compensation

Call #2 Thursday, January 28, 2010

A simplistic study of human nature

Primary Goals of the Call:

To Realize the Impact of Identifying Both Your Uniqueness and Your Connection (Sameness).

To Begin the Process of Enhancing Confidence, Self-Esteem, and a Sense of Worth (Value).

People are the Same, People are Different.

Human nature is to pursue certainty and then, to trade it for discontent or a new uncertainty.

If you know that, it can serve you.

People, due to some innate element of human nature, are prone to, in their own mind, push you down and push down your achievements, maybe to find some sense of affiliation. If you fail to recognize the power others have to shift your perspective, you're at the mercy of every negative thought and accusation that gets imposed upon you. When you start to question your own worth, your own value, and your own ability to charge what you honestly believe you're worth, there's unintentional influence taking place.

The personal training industry doesn't yet do what we do. It is human nature to want to lead, but it appears that more common is the tendency to follow.

The mind initiates decision and action and literally dictates how brain chemistry changes to accommodate moods, needs, and wants.

There are two things that control how far we go . . . and that is human nature and perspective.

Personality might be defined as a pattern of thoughts and behavior combining the sameness of human nature with the uniqueness of perspective.

Just as, if we want to change someone's body we have to understand their uniqueness and their sameness, if we want to change someone's perspective and ultimately their behavior we have to understand the sameness of human nature and the uniqueness of perspective. Machiavelli, in the 16^th century, addressed personality and the elements of sameness and identity.

Machiavellianism is primarily term psychologists often use to explain a given person's tendency to deceive others so that they can achieve more.

"... as Nature has given men different faces, so she has given them different dispositions and different imaginations." -- Machiavelli, in a letter dated January, 1513.

Personality might be defined as a pattern of thoughts and behavior combining the sameness of human nature with the uniqueness of perspective.

Machiavellianism is a perspective, a view of things, and a recognition of sameness and uniqueness. High Machs tend to take a more detached, calculating approach in their interaction with other people. Low Machs are passive, submissive, and highly agreeable.

Machiavellian principles to consider

By nature we are social. Our self-esteem can only be hindered or reinforced by social bonding or perceptions of social bonding. Self Esteem is based on (1) what we think other people think about us and (2) how we compare ourselves to them.

The human is remarkable as a learning animal. We learn by imitating the speech, appearance, and actions of others. Excellence in imitating others is the great genius of our species.

Human nature, upon broad consideration, must include the tendency of human beings to be contradictory, inconsistent, self-deceiving, pretentious, and selfish.

Your world is composed of all the things that can influence your life.

Human happiness is produced by a life of meaningful activity. . . . and "meaningful activity" is a perspective

A Machiavellian thought process makes someone accountable for his or her outcomes and rather than making someone submissive to "what is," it allows you to consider that you have the ability to change things.

When things go wrong, the Machiavellian can only say one of these four things:

"I didn't plan well enough."
"I didn't execute my plan skillfully enough."
"Bad Luck overwhelmed my efforts."
"My opponents were too numerous or too skillful."

Human nature that hasn't been influenced by a Machiavellian perspective leads people to bypass rational evaluation of outcome to accept, to rationalize, and to hold tight to some emotional need to follow.

If we are going to really make a change, and clearly establish our uniqueness, our self-esteem, and with that our value, it becomes important that you focus not only on others, but on "self."

STEERING THE RAS

The RAS is science, not mystical wish fulfillment. It's driving you to notice the things you want. The PFC allows you to notice opportunities and it can push you beyond the limits of your EEM.

Questions steer the RAS . . .

Trainers Ask - what else can I do? It's a bad question. It takes the focus away from mastering the foundational elements that make a training business successful.

Your story is unique, your relationships are unique, your powers are unique, your likes, dislikes, passion, and pride are unique

What we can learn (Walt Disney)

Stuck to his passion
Didn't let go of the dream
Continued, with each achievement, to raise the bar
Each step of the dream developed with a sense of something bigger than a selfish motive

Consider the following two books:

Small Giants (includes the story of Gary Erickson, founder of Clif bar)

Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination

Walt Disney and Gary Erickson were representative of entrepreneurs who maintained a strong sense of charisma, a definite sense of self, a commitment to integrity, and CONTAGIASM.

Here are the three things you should right now concern yourself -

Your world is made up of people
You have the power to influence the people in your world
What you need most is a confidence - a Firm Belief that you are the Best Option

Confidence as it relates to career comes from an absolute belief that you are worth whatever you're going to ask each customer to part with, an absolute certainty that each client will find extreme value, and a firm belief that you are the best option for helping each client achieve his or her goal. That's why it's vital, before coming up with a slogan, a marketing hook, or even a USP, to identify what, about you as a person, will allow you to confidently conduct your business. The exercise was not about a creative marketing hook, but rather about identifying some competitive advantage. Once you start to recognize your uniqueness, it'll become simpler to turn the accurate elements of your unique ability into reasons why others should connect with you.

There are three primary reasons most trainers can't legitimately guarantee results. They fail to recognize the elements of human sameness and bioindividuality. They fail to employ a strategy. They fail to identify sticking points, false beliefs, obstacles, and they have never learned to identify the motivational triggers that allow people to get past them.

If you have a strategy that you know works, and you're willing to explore more than the physical elements that make each client a unique organism, and you have the patience and wherewithal to extract emotions and perspectives and modify them, you are easily in the tA simplistic study of human nature

Primary Goals of the Call:

To Realize the Impact of Identifying Both Your Uniqueness and Your Connection (Sameness).

To Begin the Process of Enhancing Confidence, Self-Esteem, and a Sense of Worth (Value).

People are the Same, People are Different.

Human nature is to pursue certainty and then, to trade it for discontent or a new uncertainty.

If you know that, it can serve you.

The personal training industry doesn't yet do what we do. It is human nature to want to lead, but it appears that more common is the tendency to follow.

The mind initiates decision and action and literally dictates how brain chemistry changes to accommodate moods, needs, and wants.

There are two things that control how far we go . . . and that is human nature and perspective.

Personality might be defined as a pattern of thoughts and behavior combining the sameness of human nature with the uniqueness of perspective.

Machiavellianism is primarily term psychologists often use to explain a given person's tendency to deceive others so that they can achieve more.

"... as Nature has given men different faces, so she has given them different dispositions and different imaginations." -- Machiavelli, in a letter dated January, 1513.

Personality might be defined as a pattern of thoughts and behavior combining the sameness of human nature with the uniqueness of perspective.

Machiavellian principles to consider

The human is remarkable as a learning animal. We learn by imitating the speech, appearance, and actions of others. Excellence in imitating others is the great genius of our species.

Human nature, upon broad consideration, must include the tendency of human beings to be contradictory, inconsistent, self-deceiving, pretentious, and selfish.

Your world is composed of all the things that can influence your life.

Human happiness is produced by a life of meaningful activity. . . . and "meaningful activity" is a perspective

When things go wrong, the Machiavellian can only say one of these four things:

"I didn't plan well enough."
"I didn't execute my plan skillfully enough."
"Bad Luck overwhelmed my efforts."
"My opponents were too numerous or too skillful."

If we are going to really make a change, and clearly establish our uniqueness, our self-esteem, and with that our value, it becomes important that you focus not only on others, but on "self."

STEERING THE RAS

The RAS is science, not mystical wish fulfillment. It's driving you to notice the things you want. The PFC allows you to notice opportunities and it can push you beyond the limits of your EEM.

Questions steer the RAS . . .

Trainers Ask - what else can I do? It's a bad question. It takes the focus away from mastering the foundational elements that make a training business successful.

Your story is unique, your relationships are unique, your powers are unique, your likes, dislikes, passion, and pride are unique

What we can learn (Walt Disney)

Stuck to his passion
Didn't let go of the dream
Continued, with each achievement, to raise the bar
Each step of the dream developed with a sense of something bigger than a selfish motive

Consider the following two books:

Small Giants (includes the story of Gary Erickson, founder of Clif bar)

Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination

Walt Disney and Gary Erickson were representative of entrepreneurs who maintained a strong sense of charisma, a definite sense of self, a commitment to integrity, and CONTAGIASM.

Here are the three things you should right now concern yourself -

Your world is made up of people
You have the power to influence the people in your world
What you need most is a confidence - a Firm Belief that you are the Best Option

op 1% of the field.

Call # 3 - February 11, 2010

If we can learn to make the kind of money we deserve, and do it by making lives better in the process, we never feel as if we're working, and it becomes incredibly blissful to recognize that there aren't those rigid lines between work and passion.

Love what you do, do what you love, and prosper. That's real, but it isn't necessarily easy . . . it isn't easy any more than developing a healthy body is easy . . . but it's worth it and it's extremely rewarding . . .

Mindset controls focus, focus controls actions, actions control outcome

By using external references, rather than only using your own experiences, you coax your prefrontal cortex, the possibility center, to push you past the desire of your Emotional Experiential Memory to protect you. In other words, once someone proves something possible, the belief put together with a goal can turn to achievement . . . as long as you control mindset.

All great leaders rely upon:

A vision
A plan
A willingness to chart the course and evaluate progress, and then re-chart the course relentlessly.

Ask better questions and you'll uncover powerful answers. As an example, "how can you earn more doing what you love?"

A key element to going from a goal being set to a goal being achieved is "response-ability"

According to Albert Einstein: "Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile."

"The life of the individual has meaning only insofar as it aids in making the life of every living thing nobler and more beautiful. Life is sacred, that is to say, it is the supreme value, to which all other values are subordinate."

As a professional committed to serving others, you deserve to be well compensated, and the word "De-serve" comes from the Latin for "of service."

Rules of Profitability for Trainers

Get paid what you're worth - always
Never unjustifiably give away the service you are typically paid for
Do not discount in reward for client commitment - commitment is expected
If, after a predetermined chaos / organization effort, if something isn't clearly contributing to profit - stop doing it
Spend the most time on whatever brings you the greatest return
Never focus on money - instead position yourself where you prosper at a greater level with each person you touch

Live with the passion of your work (5 people a day becomes simple)

Recognize that you're marketing - always

Don't make yourself reliant on someone else - joint ventures have their place, but only if you can afford to let them go.

Don't hire mercenaries, but when you hire employees feed the entrepreneurial spirit
If you're employed and you don't have a prohibitive agreement, get 3 clients - and a guinea pig
Find your new clients by asking the question, "Who do I love to train?" Once you can answer that question, it becomes simple to answer the following two questions which when combined with action put you directly in front of prospective clients.
- Where do these people gather?
- How can you interact with them?
Set up a forum and charge for it. Plan it 45 days from now. If you already have such a forum, figure out how you can double your attendance, double your revenue, or double your net.
make yourself portable . . . rent is simply rent . . . not "the business"
learn to evaluate EBITDA
start a new database beginning now, and commit to add 5 people a day to it, then choose one preferred outreach vehicle (video message, newsletter, regular email, etc.) and commit to doing it every 30 days.
Choose a unique object that you can carry with you. We're going to create a link between the sensation of touching, holding, or squeezing this object and the RAS reinforcement of a specific goal.

Call #4 - Thursday, February 25, 2010

Did you ever have a relationship where you try to discuss something and it summons up uncomfortable feelings? From that point on, every time you begin to broach the topic, even just in your mind, those same feelings will emerge. You've created an association.

If you avoid uncomfortable feelings, you avoid ever asking for the outcomes you deserve.

If trying to think about what makes you unique makes you uncomfortable, you don't have to change your uniqueness as much as you have to change the feelings you associate with the discovery process. In connecting with others who have had similar frustrations and overcome them, try to make the questions that you ask more selfish - not because you're selfish or greedy, but because you better people's lives by being better yourself.

Once you change either your beliefs or your emotions, you've changed your potential outcome.

When you attach emotion to something, even a word, it becomes a trigger for emotion, and emotion will determine how far you go to achieve any end. We know that people make decisions, not rationally, but emotionally. If you're going to excel at influencing others, than you have to be selfish enough to get good at bettering yourself.

Choose an object, hold it in your hand, and squeeze it as you close your eyes and envision whatever you now believe to be the ideal future. This exercise, if it's done with vivid images, sounds, and feelings, will link the emotions you associate with achievement to the act of squeezing the object. This gives you the power to summon up the empowering emotions at will.

Your ESP = Extraordinary Service Potential

In order to raise the bar further, to find comfort and positive emotion in pursuing those things that will lead you to a greater sense of fulfillment, you're going to first identify what you offer that others don't. When you're looking for your unique value you looked for experiences and traits specific to you. Now you want to expand that to thinking to include identifying what value you bring to your clients that is EXTRA-ORDINARY.

Everything a fitness professional needs to do in order to be successful falls under one of two headings.

Influence-Ability and Response-Ability.

When we or our clients face obstacles, we have a response-ability, an ability to assess, to choose a course, and to move forward.

A part of your influence-ability will come from you ability to change other people's beliefs and emotions, and it starts by helping them understand what you have to offer specifically for them. They have certain emotions and perceptions that exist now, and whatever they perceive that a trainer is or does is their idea of an ordinary trainer. You begin to compel them and open the door for shifting belief and emotion when you get comfortable in communicating what makes you above ordinary, and a part of that has to involve your abilities and their potential. We can combine those into your ESP, your extraordinary service potential.

I am the best fitness option for you because I (ESP). I can make that promise because I (UV).

Here's a question that forces you to summon up evidence of a belief shift leading to an enhanced recognition of your ability to respond:

Your assignment is to decide what you'd like to achieve over the next 90 days, get excited about the outcome, and then link those positive emotions to an object. Then, squeeze that object as you try to zero in on your UV and ESP.