I have been reading Charles F Haanel’s Master Key Course for about a week alongside Og Mandino’s book “The Worlds Greatest Salesman” as part of a course…taking the time to sit and think…reading the materials and feeding the subconscious with good things…and its amazing to say but my whole demeanour has changed for the better.

It may be coincidence but sales have shot up. I don’t really believe in coincidence so I put it down to the change in my attitude that has been brought about by reading the first scroll in Og Mandino’s book each day. Seven sales in a week and seven happy customers too so that’s very satisfying… quite apart from the commission. Honestly though… commission only matters when there is not enough. Once the pump is primed and the cash flow is regular, there is no pressure and selling is a delightful profession. Of all the thousands that I have seen fall by the wayside in my 35 years in the profession I just wish that some had stuck with it a few weeks longer.  Over 20 years ago at Encyclopaedia Britannica we used to say “Keep them one more week, Teach them one more thing” EB has pretty much gone in book form of course, computer technology brought the end to an institution that was founded way back in 1768… but the principle remains…stay with it one more week… learn one more thing…and IMPLEMENT it.

Habit is the key word in that first scroll, isn’t it funny how when a message comes it seems to come from every angle…  I have been thinking a lot about habits recently anyway. Les Brown, Darren Hardy are both people who have been talking about it on CD’s and books I have been reading. Les had been advocating reading 30 pages of a good book that will build me up spiritually or help in my profession. That has been something I have been trying to implement for a few weeks but although I read quite a lot and every day anyway trying to establish a firm habit and stretching myself to a 30 page commitment was not proving easy.

Og Mandino, together with the other reading required to stay current in the MasterKey Alliance has helped with that

Back to habit…I have been careful about my eating habits, replacing bad with good, since my 60th birthday at the end of Feb. (7 months) and I am delighted with the progress so far. Just replace ‘A Mars a Day’ with ‘An Apple a Day’ and see what that does for you in 6 months or a year.  I didn’t actually eat a Mars a day of course but the equivalent useless calories in bread, cakes and biscuits doesn’t quite hit the conscience in the same way does it? Kind of sneaks up on you.  Anyway 27lbs have melted away somewhere so check back in another 6/7  months to see how I am doing then.

Come to think  about it…it might be nice for you to join me and I will let you know my secret.

Only joking…Actually I will let you know now…there is no secret…it is simply about replacing a destructive habit with a habit that serves you well, one day at a time. And just take one habit at a time too…most of us can manage that.