Check out this

Miss-Goody-Two-Shoes list . . . 

     Staying close to family and friends, keeping your mind active, laughing, exercising, maintaining a spiritual connection, eating right, staying abreast of current events, using a cell phone and the Internet, even online dating!

     Now what on Earth do you imagine these activities represent?

     You’d better take a deep breath and get ready for this one.  The list above that starts with staying close and ends with online dating are the results of a recent poll of 100 healthy 100 year-olds (centenarians) who offered these positive lifestyle choices as the secrets to living long lives.  Thanks for this study update to Dr. Andrew Weil as reported in his November, 2008, Self Healing newsletter www.drweilselfhealing.com

     As for a couple of specifics, according to Dr. Weil’s newsletter account, 90 of the 100 polled considered “staying close to family and friends” as “very important.”  Over half attributed “staying abreast of current events” to healthy aging.  Also, older doesn’t necessarily mean sicker; high levels of disability are not given characteristics of triple digit aging.

     So, LAUGH!  DO PUZZLES!  WALK!  PRAY!  EAT BETTER!  PAY ATTENTION TO THE NEWS (EVEN KNOWING HOW WARPED ITS PRESENTERS ARE!)  GET ON THAT COMPUTER AND CELL PHONE!  And for heaven’s sake, start online dating and go to those family gatherings you hate!

     There you are, a prescription for getting to old age . . . assuming you really want to.  On the other hand, what harm could it do to give this stuff a try?  Unless, that is, you decide to be doing three or more of these life extension activities at the same time.  Like, it may not be in your best interests to be making cell phone calls to your online dating partner at your family’s Thanksgiving Day dinner gathering. 

     On the other hand, maybe some shenanigans would be in order for Halloween ;<)Halalpiar         

# # #  

Check out and contribute to the daily growing 7-Word Story started 51 days ago (inside a coffin).  Click on the link to the right, or go to the “BOOKS” tab at the top of this page, then to the top headline link.

It takes 5 Attempts

                                      

to make a sale!

     Some of the most effective prompts I’ve seen that get me to check out websites or blogs come from the world of traditional advertising (remember that?) 

     Selected billboards, targeted ads and pinpoint direct mail are some of the best ways to get your online presence noticed.  They are not always the best ways.  And they are seldom the most economical.  They do however serve an important purpose when you have more money than time available.  They also serve an important purpose when your goal is to create and/or support a meaningful branding image, because repetition sells!

Eh?  What’s that?  Repetition sells.  Repetition sells? 

Yup!  Repetition sells! 

     Not just repeating the same message over and over, but also repeating it in as many different ways and contexts and media forms as possible.  Why do you think the monster corporate entities strive to register multiple impressions? 

     Sophisticated marketers recognize that –on the average– it takes five attempts to close a sale.  That means your message or branding theme usually needs to be seen/heard/experienced at least five times before someone will consider making a buying decision. 

     Sophisticated marketersalso understand the value and finer points of using public relations vehicles (events and news releases) to support online sales efforts.  These are especially valuable tools because they don’t cost anything (compared to broadcast air time and print space, for example) except for preparation and follow through, which needs to be tenacious, can be extensive, and is almost always very time-consuming. 

     And PR does also present a myriad of unspoken rules and regulations that must be adhered to, to be truly effective . . . from how news releases are prepared and distributed to when events should be scheduled and how much planning should be involved.  It’s best to find a professional who can do this for you

     Your odds of increasing online business are much increased when you spread out the media you’re using.  An online sales pitch will have greater impact on someone who has already been exposed to the message on a postcard, in a magazine or newspaper ad, in a radio commercial, on a billboard, on a trade show banner, or in a local or trade paper feature story. 

     Don’t think that once your site is up and running, the story it tells will send business flocking to you.  Online presence is just part of the story.  What you do to support that presence is the other part that will drive the sales.     

    “WE DON’T SWIM

     IN YOUR TOILET

   . . . SO DON’T YOU

     PEE IN OUR POOL!”

      As a youngster, I remember snickering at seeing one of these comedic placards that you always find in tourist trap souvenir stores (and the one next to my friend’s father’s fish tank!).

     Well, you know what?  That maybe-not-so-silly little pool rule seems to me to have some surprisingly important value when you apply the notion to working in someone else’s office, joining in someone else’s conversation, sitting in on someone else’s meeting, visiting in someone else’s home, entering someone else’s private space, and being entrusted to spend someone else’s money. 

     Break it down and it’s all about respect, which sometimes these days appears to be going the way of buggy whips, 8-track cassettes, and carbon paper.  The only trouble is that buggy whips, 8-track cassettes, and carbon paper are all things, and have all been replaced by newer better stuff.  Respect (aka R-E-S-P-E-C-T, as in the song!), though, is a value, not a thing.  And I’ve never heard of an adequate substitute. 

     We speak of having to earn respect.  We’re told as children to respect our elders . . . and keep a respectful distance from the neighborhood mongrel, and from strangers who offer candy.  Yet, something here is missing. 

How many friends, family members and work associates can you honestly say you respect? 

How many do you think respect you? 

(Have you earned it?) 

How important is respect to your life pursuits? 

Your career? 

Your love life? 

Your feelings about your SELF? 

     What can you do to make this better than it is, or turn it around if it’s headed in the wrong direction?  What specific steps can you take now that are genuine (vs. quick-fix), to help yourself gain greater respect from others?  How much of your answer to the last question relates to the amount of respect you put out to those around you?

     A good place to start may be to take inventory so that you have a clearer image of those who are “around you”!   Draw a target —three or four concentric circles— on paper and decide who is closest to you (put them or he or she in the middle circle), next closest person/people (next ring), and so forth.  Of course, include animals if you like. 

     A few rings worth will give you a more accurate and balanced and realistic idea than the image you may have of these relationships that you carry around in your head.  If you’re happy with your circles, congratulations!  If you think you can do better, the R-E-S-P-E-C-T song isn’t a bad place to begin!  (Oh, and by the way, there is no end to respecting others!) 

Posts RSS Feed FOR FREE BLOG SUBSCRIPTION

# # #

www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

 Life is more like baseball

 than any other sport. 

     With every inning a decade long, where only a few of us actually get into extra innings, life is more like baseball than any other sport. 

     We walk, strike out, we get some foul tips, and sometimes manage to get big hits in the clutch.  We make errors.  We tag others whenever we can, and avoid those who come barreling home. 

     We get cheered when we perform.  We get booed when we don’t.  There are times when we need to get a glove and get in the game, and other times when we need to step up to the plate.  All of us have to sacrifice from time to time, and a few of us steal when no one is looking. 

     Those who are exceptional travel inside the park and make round-trippers.  And have you ever balked?  When did you last set the table, or be in a clean up position?  We relax on deck, and work when we’re in the hole, and we work even harder to stay away from arbitration, appeals, getting thrown out, and avoiding the bullpen or —heaven forbid— being shut out! 

     We go through different coaches, and we fire managers, but no matter how much money we make, we still always do what the owner and general manager order us to do. 

     Usually in our later decades, we bring in short and long relievers, and of course the eventual closer.  But reality is that we only live life in the National League . . . because we never get to have a designated hitter! 

     If Shakespeare was right that “All the world’s a stage . . .” he had to be talking about our love affair with the diamond.  Diamonds are, after all, forever! 

Posts RSS Feed FOR FREE BLOG SUBSCRIPTION

# # #

www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Well, you must finally be happy to have less gas available, and be paying astronomical amounts at the pump to fill up your tank.  

Oh, yes, and it thrills you to be paying equally mind-boggling amounts to your local grocery store to fill up your refrigerator and kitchen cabinets, right?

Why, you might ask, would I say that? 

Because, of course, you still have spotted owls and views of nature that are unspoiled by wind farms, and polar bears (which you would surely love to cuddle with and invite into your home) running free across the Artic Circle.

And, no doubt, these are all creature survival things that matter intensly to struggling young families, and single parents, and senior citizens on fixed income, and handicapped people living on disability checks, and hurricane victims, right? 

I mean, just ask any of them how important the plight of spotted owls is when they’re scratching and clawing for their next meal.  See how utterly devoted they are to protecting the polar bears when they can’t afford needed medical care.  Yeah.  Go ahead and ask them. 

Get your environmentalist priorities straight!  If you think human beings come first on this planet while you’re busy protesting nuclear energy and hugging trees, you might want to consider rearranging your protest priorities.

Maybe Al Gore did invent the Internet. 

Who knows? 

Stranger things have happened. 

But he surely is as wrong as the sorely misguided (a generous adjective) Nobel Prize Committee when it comes to the subject of global warming. 

Ask any credible scientist. 

And contrary to Mr. Gore’s representations, YOU as an individual CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!  Get started.  This is grassroots stuff.  Set an example.  Teach others.  It’s all about stepping up to the plate!  It’s all about choosing the path of self-sufficiency for our own human species before worrying about other lower forms of existence. 

Regardless of endangered species contributions to our aesthetic senses, or the amount of tear-jerking endorsements and crusading that’s thrust in our faces by Hollywood’s finest, we need to remember that putting human preservation first is the only way we’ll ever be able to have positive impact on the preservation of other species.    

The bottom line is that more drilling is needed to relieve the oil/gas price crisis and related food price crisis because America has enough oil to allow us to completely eliminate dependency on greedy Arab nations. 

But, oh, hey, it might mean losing some endangered species!  Well, I love and subscribe to National Geographic too, but I like to believe that we as human beings are a slightly more important species to risk losing than some owls and bears, and some upturning of the balance of nature.  We’re smart enough to RE-balance whatever we might upset. 

Because we as humans have the ability to think, we have the ability to make changes in our environment that preserve and protect the human species in addition to balancing nature. 

But it has to start with our elected representatives in Congress having the foresight and integrity to initiate expanded oil drilling efforts and to stop bending over to the special interest groups that seek to preserve owls over humans (and human pocketbooks!).  Call your Representative.  Express yourself!        

 # # # 

www.TheWriterWorks.com

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

 Money? Health? Fitness?

Sex? Happiness? Security?

 Sales? Contacts? Religion? 

 Profits? Fame? Or What?

People don’t set goals because they’re afraid of failing. You set a goal to achieve something important for yourself by a certain date, and you don’t make it, so you’re a failure, yes? No!

Why”No”? Because having a deadline or due date is only one of the factors necessary for a legitimate goal.

 __________________________

If a goal you set doesn’t include all five of the following criteria, you don’t have a goal. You have a “wish!” And if you think Tinkerbell is going to deliver your wish to you on a silver platter, you’re living in fantasyland! 

1)  A goal must first be SPECIFIC. To say you want to increase sales is not specific; unit sales or sales dollars? How much of an increase? Vs. what? Use exact numbers.  

2)  A goal must be REALISTIC. Sure, anything is possible, but it’s probably not realistic to have a goal of being President of the U.S, or of climbing Mount Everest if you’re 85 years old [That’s not to say that someday . . .] any more than it would be to open a business today and expect to be a “Fortune 500” company in a year or two [Again, maybe some day . . .] or—unfortunately—to write a poem that will create world peace by breakfast time tomorrow. Be sure that your goal is something that really is possible to achieve.

3)  Then, guess what? Your goal has to be FLEXIBLE. This is where most people fall short in their goal-setting. “If I don’t make the date or the numbers I’ve set, I’m a failure.” But not if you keep your goal flexible. If you miss the target date or level of accomplishment, move the target! It’s okay! It’s allowed! It’s YOUR target. You can do anything you want with it. Setting a new deadline or changing the dimensions of what you’re aiming for is part of what being flexible is all about. A goal shouldn’t control you!    

4)  You most assuredly need a DUE DATE or DEADLINE so that you know what you’re aiming for.

5)  Put it IN WRITING . . .  NOT into a keyboard, and carry it in your wallet next to your cash. Every time you change it to keep it flexible and on target, RE-write it and replace the prior version.

In other words, “To increase fourth quarter sales by 10% over last year’s total ” is better than “To increase sales.” And if the fourth quarter looms on the horizon and it doesn’t look like 10% will be possible, adjust the goal to 9% or 8% and perhaps add the difference to next year’s first quarter goal.

SPECIFIC, REALISTIC, FLEXIBLE, DUE-DATED and IN WRITING works for personal, family, and life goals as well as for business and social change. Oh, and unless you happen on to someone else doing the exact same thing and want to share goals and goal-thinking, DO NOT SHARE YOUR GOALS. You’d be amazed how many people would try to discourage you and undermine your thinking!                  

Remember: It works if you do!

# # # 

Hal@BusinessWorks.US

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

“The difference between 

the almost right word

and the right word is 

really a large matter— 

’tis the difference

between

the lightning-bug

and the lightning.”

     Whether for business or pleasure, for commercial reward or literary accolades . . . when you’re writing an advertisement, commercial, website, direct mail piece, news release, brochure, billboard, matchbook cover, a poem or short story, a fiction or nonfiction book chapter, a technical report, business plan, magazine or newspaper item or feature, a speech, photo caption, letter to the editor or a letter to your lover . . . remember Mark Twain’s words above.

     He was right, indeed! 

     Ah, you may say, but he’s ancient, and that was in the days of yore!  The truth?  He might just as well have said it this morning! 

     Writers will do themselves (and their readers) the greatest justice, achieve maximum impact, and most effectively march their persuasion skills to the beat of a different drum when they follow one simple rule of thumb (or pen, or keyboard). 

     It is the single most dramatically productive guideline that directly addresses the sentiments of Mark Twain’s quote, and where oh where does it originate? 

     Why from surgeons of course!  Where else?  And where did those super skilled, robotic, ice-water-veined ER and OR scalpel-slicers learn the trick? 

     Why, where else but from the friendly neighborhood carpenter. And guess what?  If you, dear communicator friend, will follow their lead (the surgeons and carpenters — not the hammering, drilling, screwing and scalpeling), you too will discover that getting through skin, wood, paper, airwaves, and cyberspace all have one thing in common! 

     You will (I personally guarantee it) end up putting your message across more clearly, more effectively, and more persuasively than ever before if you’ll simply remember to:

Measure twice and cut once! 

And so, the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning is not far from the difference between the Conscious and the UNconscious.

They are not extreme opposites.

In the case of the bug and the lightning, one begets the other (grammatically). Consciousness also often prompts UNconsciousness, and vice versa.

In business decision making, FLEXIBILITY is king! And when there’s no time to measure, gut instinct has to kick in!

# # #

 FREE Blog Subscription Posts RSS Feed

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!”   [Thomas Jefferson]

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!