Happy New Year! Looking back- Looking forward

I celebrate two New Years, a Jewish one which falls out in September and the Gregorian, which falls out on January 1. Though most people think of January 1 as a day of partying and the ball falling in Times Square, I would like to compare the two holidays.

The Jewish New Year is a time of personal  reflection on the year that was, how I behaved and ways to improve myself in the coming year. It is often called the "Day of Judgment", since both I and God is judging me for my behavior of the past year.

If you want to use the "modern" terms of "plan, do, review", the Jewish New Year would be the "review" part of the year. Have I acted as a child of God by wisely and generously using the resources given to me? Have I maintained my faith in face of difficulty? Have I ignored the pain of my fellow man, or eased it?

In a mortal world, the King sees his subjects do wrong and punishes them. In the Jewish New Year the "King of Kings" sees our behavior and thoughts and is spending the next few days judging all of mankind, including me.  This time of reflection culminates on Yom Kippur, ten days later, where we ask forgiveness for specific sins I have committed during the past year ,as well as, sins of the community.

The religious Jew spends the two days of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) in prayer and the ten days afterwards in reflection. Among the prayers of Rosh Hashanah , we ask to annul vows that we have made the previous year, but most of the prayers declare God as King of kings, wondering at his amazement, power and all knowing. It is a very serious time and the worshippers in synagogue wear white to symbolize the desire to be pure like angels.

The Gregorian New Year (January 1) has a totally different symbolism, it a time of newness, best depicted by the "Father Time" and "Baby New Year" symbolism.  Many people have parties,  go to football games, as well as, celebrations. Some perform "rituals" like dipping in ice cold water.

I don't remember if I have ever made a "New Year's Resolution" . It seems though like the appropriate time of year to make a commitment to improving yourself. Whatever I have done in the past cannot be changed. Today and the future is all I have control over. Do I wish today to be a better day than yesterday? It is my choice. It is important to learn from my mistakes, to reflect on my past behavior, but I cannot let it take control of my life or I will forever be a victim.

If I  go back to the "plan, do, review" analogy, now is the time to DO! I am looking forward to 2012, I know it will be an even better year than 2011 in all areas of my life.  

Happy New Year!

Judy

Let the system do the grunt work

Remember when you first heard, "Sales is a numbers game." Somebody said that to you because you had called 25 people with absolutely no success. What they meant was, "Keep on swinging. Eventually you'll hit one." Unfortunately, they did not have your best interest in mind. They wanted to keep you around a few more weeks before you gave up and they had to train another unknowing suspect.

With this thinking, if you want to make one sale, you've got to make 100 calls. Two sales, 200 calls. The problem with that is if you want to make 10 sales, you've got to make 1000 calls. Who has time to make that many calls? Can you see how this approach can limit you?

I believe in working smarter, not harder. Instead of grunt work, which is what cold prospecting is, wouldn't you rather spend your time talking with qualified prospects that need you and want you to call them?

Why on earth would you willingly spend your time searching under rocks for those people, and then begging them for a few minutes on the phone?

Would you rather be able to follow up with a prospect who has already contacted you and get most of them to spend time with you on the phone?

If you are tired of playing the numbers game and are ready to travel a road less traveled, then the Color To Success Training CD will show you the path.

To discover how you won't have to deal with the numbers, go to:

http://judyy.colortosuccess.com/

The greatest compliment you can give a book

Don't ask a successful person what they read, go to their house and look at their library. Pick out the book that is the most worn out and look what it is. That will give you a clue what types of books they read to be successful.

To buy a book and have it sit on the shelf just to collect dust is an insult to everyone; To the person who wrote the book, the book itself and to yourself.

Books are meant to be read.

In my house we used to buy Jewish reference books every time there was a book sale. At one point I realized that most of the books weren't being read so I got rid of the books and realized how much space I had in my house.  I realized that the information in the books were not going to be acquired by osmosis, that just their existence in our house would not cause the knowledge to be acquired, so I moved them out to a lending library, in the hope that someone else will have use for this information.

In my local library the most popular children's books are the comic books, adventure books, as well as biographies about famous people. They are falling apart and have been taped together numerous times.

In my house, the books that are the most "dog eared" are the "Harry Potter" series for my daughters and "My First Atlas" for my son, who spends hours looking at the atlas and asking me questions "Which is the biggest country?" (Russia), What is the capital of Latvia (Riga)?".

I am happy that my children are readers, but they take after their parents...
What are you reading?

To your success,

Judy

Strange practices of people who never succeed

Over the years, I've observed a lot of people who have not achieved what they want in life. These people often have a lot in common. I thought it might benefit YOU to have a list of things NOT to do. 

So, following is what seems to be a mental "To Do" list for non-achievers:

1. Don't listen to anyone who has had actual success.

2. Take advice from everybody you know who has never achieved a dream.

3. Plan, plan, plan, and plan some more. Get everything 100% right. Then check it a few more times before you actually DO something.

4. Blame others for your failure to achieve what you want.

5. Take time every day to remind yourself what a loser you are.

6. Repeat the same mistakes over and over.

7. Keep going in the same direction that has never gotten you where you want to go.

8. Don't do anything to replace those limiting, negative thoughts you've always had.

9. Keep spending time around those people who assure you you'll never be successful.

10. Insist that you are right, no matter what the outcome of any action, because being wrong is worse than failure.

Is there anything on this list that YOU ever do?

If so, how can you change it?

Call me.

To your success,

Judy