Monday, June 24, 2013

Positively More Profits

Here’s how to apply Harvard research and $8,000 worth of advice in a way that’s free, fun, and very profitable ...

Shawn Achor, Harvard Professor of Positive Psychology and Author of The Happiness Advantage, writes that, every time our brain records a success, we move the goalposts ... which is a recipe for frustration. according to Achor:
“Get good grades? Then you need to get into a better school so you can get a better job. Hit your sales target? They raise your sales target. Maybe once we retire rich, we can be happy. Thus, happiness remains elusive.

“Our brains work the opposite way. A positive brain has a unique advantage over a negative or stressed one. Intelligence improves, sales rise 37 percent and productivity increases 31 percent. In fact, a happy brain improves every business and educational outcome, and many of our health outcomes like longevity and fatigue.

“But embedded within this research is this revelation: You can train your brain to raise your level of happiness. Even one quick, daily positive exercise for as little as three weeks can make an impact on your happiness.”
Achor suggests that every day, you take two minutes to “log and describe in detail the most meaningful experience of the past 24 hours. Research shows this doubles the impact of the experience on your brain and increases your happiness.”

Get that? You can double the impact a positive experience has on your brain and get happier. No drugs or technology needed.

I’ve verified that a happy brain is a profitable brain -- and I paid $8,000 to do it.

When I was a client in Dan Sullivan’s Strategic Coach program, participants like me gladly paid an $8,000 annual membership to fly to Toronto 4 times a year, sit in a room, and plan the next quarter of growth for our companies.

And the first exercise we did at every meeting was what Dan called a Positive Focus. It worked like this: We wrote down 5 things that were going well in our business. Then we shared those “wins” with the other entrepreneurs at our table. By putting our brains in a positive mood, this set the stage for a productive day full of profitable insights. Every time.

No matter what's going on in the world, you can control your attitude and make it nearly 100% positive, if you follow this advice.

That little trick, frankly, is worth the $8,000 fee, plus airfare, hotel, and other costs, that I paid to learn it from Dan Sullivan.

Why? Think about it.

What was the last really good idea you had for your business -- the last new thing you did that produced a new client, created a new product, or led to a new referral? Over the lifetime of your business, will that good idea turn out to be worth $8,000 or more? Chances are, the answer is yes. (If not, start thinking bigger!)

Here's the thing: You almost certainly were NOT depressed or down about life when you got your last valuable idea. You were probably relaxed -- even happy. You may have been driving, enjoying a walk, or taking a shower.

In any case, the bottom line is this: A happy, positive mind is a profitable mind. An unhappy, negative mind is not.

To jumpstart your mind and grow your business, spend just two minutes at the start of each day writing down 5 positive experiences from the last 24 hours. The results will positively shock you.  

Meanwhile, if you want to put an end to "feast or famine" syndrome in your business, my free Client Cloning Kit can help. Grab your free copy now, while they last.

2 comments:

  1. First Kaizen and now some Positive Psychology!

    Kevin, you don't cease to amaze me!

    Great post again on another topic very close to my heart :)

    -Nick Ritchey

    (a fellow Minnesotan with a master's in applied positive psychology from UPENN, a love of kaizen, and a novice internet marketer)

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  2. Nick, thanks! I love to focus on the human side of marketing, since marketing is by and for humans.

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