How Your Brain Predicts Your Financial Success - John Assaraf

Are you ready to take control of the power plant which is your brain? John Assaraf shares how.

I recently joined a webinar presented by Paul O'Mahony and John Assaraf. John has amazing insight on the way the human brain works and shared so much great content during the hour.

If you enjoyed this video and want to learn more, why not join John on his annual Brain-A-Thon?
I know I will be joining to learn more.

http://www.myneurogym.com/brainathon/

Thank you

Patrick Nairne

My Year as a BNI Chapter Director

Leadership forces you to improve yourself.

I will expand on this statement shortly, but for now, consider whether we are all able to grow into leadership, or, if leadership is an exclusive innate quality.

Our position on the source of leadership will determine whether we rise to demonstrate leadership, or defer to others.

I began attending business networking events to generate more business opportunities. I was introduced to Business Networking International (BNI). BNI is a world-wide face to face networking organization; the most successful of its kind. Networking is live and in person.
I applied for membership of a BNI chapter in Central London.

A question on the application form asked what level of contribution I would be willing to make toward the administration of the Chapter; Leadership being one option.
At the time, I did not express interest in a leadership role.

This decision was based on my perception of chapter leadership at that time. It was also subconsciously driven by my perception of the source of leadership.

I was already a leader in my own business. It was a question of finding the additional time required to fulfil this new leadership commitment, as well as running my own business. There was also the question of what was in it for me?

I was busy, but then so was everyone else in the chapter. 

The current leaders must have been very clear on the benefits leadership had brought them.

The chapter still required leadership.

In hindsight, I see that my decision to not step up to a leadership role revealed quite clearly to me where I had positioned the source of leadership.

Back then, I saw how a commitment to leadership would be a benefit to the chapter, while at the same time, I was unclear whether it would be anything other than a cost to me.
I questioned if I would need to grow into that leadership role, before I could commit to one.
I saw members already capable and seemingly desirous of leadership roles, so there was no urgent need for me to step up; there was already plenty of resource available.

I now acknowledge these excuses for what they were. I acknowledge that they served only to hold me back.

By not stepping up, I could not create a reference. I could not test my capability; I could not grow in that area.

Sometime afterwards, I was asked directly if I would step up to the position of Chapter Director and lead the chapter. I again found myself challenged by the contribution of leadership. 

I said yes to the challenge.

Our position on the source of leadership will determine whether we rise to demonstrate leadership, or defer to others.

When first offered the opportunity to serve the chapter as a leader, I looked externally for the source of leadership, rather than looking within. My years of familiarity with BNI steeled my confidence that I could do the role.

I began attending seminars and workshops. I had grown within. I knew that leadership was not a role, but a mentality.

Growing should force you to develop your vision.

We all need vision. This is the act of standing in the present, yet seeing your future self complete in the position you intend, in full dimensions and ultra-high definition. It should fill you with real feelings; the same as if you are experiencing it physically now.
 
See yourself as the person capable of doing great things right now, in the present and you will become acutely focused on the skills, knowledge and attitude you need to work on to get there.

An inability to see yourself doing these great acts will limit your performance to that which you currently see yourself capable of. You simply cannot ask you mind to deliver what it cannot visualise. You become stuck mentally, which translates to becoming stuck economically and emotionally.

Become childlike in using your imagination. Children can imagine without limits. A cardboard box becomes a space ship. A stuffed toy can talk, walk and eat.

I needed to see a vision of myself benefiting from leadership, in order to step up to a leadership role.

The leader of a BNI chapter was known internationally as President, but in the UK at that time, it was referred to as Chapter Director. The UK now uses the title of President.

As Chapter Director, I had several responsibilities including chairing the chapter’s weekly breakfast business meeting. This business meeting is designed to generate business for the chapter members.

Chairing a meeting of business leaders requires energy, focus, presence, command and influence just to start.

The Chapter Director/President is the most visible person in the room. Standing and steering the activities means being comfortable presenting.

During each meeting, there is a contribution section, where members actively present evidence of their efforts to help their fellow chapter members during the previous week. Every member must present during this section.

The Chapter Director usually makes the first contribution.

Tracking back to my earlier point, Leadership forces you to improve yourself.

As chapter Director, I intended my performance as a member should inspire everyone.
I would endeavour to contribute more. Greater contribution is not possible without some level of personal improvement. BNI provided leadership training to develop leaders to perform.

My position on the source of leadership required me to demonstrate a direct relationship between what I did, and what others observing my contributions would be prepared to do.
Unless I could help the members to see a bigger vision of their efforts, there could be no real growth.

I only had a 12 month term, so I decided to demonstrate a personal commitment to the chapter to be there every week. BNI chapters meet on average, 50 weeks each year. This is no small commitment. This meant no holidays spanning across weeks, saying no, to activities which would place me elsewhere at the meeting time, including business opportunities. This required another level of self-improvement, which I was being prepared for all along without even realising it. I will say more on this at another time.

I lead 50 meetings out of 50, but this feat did not inspire every member.

The most significant area of personal growth which my tenure of leadership forced me to confront was some members would not respond, no matter how much I lead, demonstrated or committed.

Leadership is not about people following you. It cannot be measured simply by followers, or popularity polls.

People will not always follow your example, nor be inspired by your actions, no matter how many mountains you move. When leading, it is essential to stay your course, unless the results tell you otherwise.

Leaders should not obsess over knowing all the answers. You never will know all the answers.

You will struggle if you try to come up with all solutions by yourself.

Leadership is a learning experience. The ultimate leadership manual should say in rule number 1, “Be prepared to feel unprepared.”

Be ready to take tough decisions; sometimes, very unpopular decisions.

Leadership is not an opportunity to test your assumptions about decisions made by other leaders you have observed and perhaps, been led by. I held this belief before stepping up to chapter leadership, and encourage any new leader to develop resistance toward comparison of your leadership tenure, with other those of other leaders.

Leaders play to their strengths while all the time improving their weaknesses. This alone, makes comparison very difficult, if not impossible, but ultimately of no benefit given the different challenges you need to lead through.

This was not my first tenure of leadership, but I learned a lot during that year. I learned more about myself than about anything else.

The reality, for me, was agreeing to be a BNI Chapter Director proved to be a valuable life lesson in Self-Improvement. I recommend you take any leadership opportunity presented to you and position it as a challenge which will support your growth into a greater version of yourself.

Leadership forces you to improve yourself.

The earlier consideration was whether we are all able to grow into leadership, or, if leadership is an exclusive innate quality.

For me, leadership is a quality which can be studied, copied and applied. It can be analysed and taught. BNI continually invests in leadership training and it is the world’s largest network of its kind.

I attended an initial leadership training event, and throughout the year, quarterly leadership training events where I could top up my knowledge, and share experiences with other leadership team members within BNI. I also attended many other learning events to keep me moving forward. 

This learning proved beneficial. I met a number of leaders who grew over their term of leadership. The experience they gained mirrored my own.

For many, the greatest fear is public speaking. The charge of BNI President/Chapter Director would immediately force them to change, in order to lead the meeting.

Leadership is necessary for anyone seriously seeking self-improvement, because it is necessary to first lead yourself. After all, how can we lead others, if we cannot master our own direction?

Patrick Nairne

An End to Procrastination - Archana Murthy

An End to Procrastination | Archana Murthy | TEDx Marcus High School 

Why do we procrastinate?

Archana Murthy presents an inspirational message to everyone who decides procrastinate, rather than take action. 

Do you ever procrastinate?  

I would like to know if her method helps you.

Thank you for watching.

Patrick Nairne

Why you should define your fears instead of your goals | Tim Ferriss

Tim Ferriss explains how Stoicism has become integral to his self-improvement.

What do you think about his approach to managing fears?

 

How to stop Fear from ruling your decisions.

Thank you for watching.

Patrick Nairne

Turning Defeat into Success

Brendon Burchard

Great advice for those challenging times.
Thank you for watching.

Patrick Nairne

How Successful People Think - Taking the Earl Nightingale Challenge by Generating Great Ideas - Update

At the beginning of March 2017, I shared wisdom and a challenge from Earl Nightingale, to use our minds to develop ideas for our own benefit.

Providing an update in April proved more challenging than I had anticipated. June is as good a month as April for updates.

Earl Nightingale encourages us to purposely plan time to focus our minds on the activity of generating ideas. We should spend an hour, if possible, each day, immersed in writing down ideas which come to mind. By making this a deliberate act, we cultivate and exercise our brain's capacity to look for ways we can create opportunities to improve ourselves, and earn through thought.

I decided to take this seriously.

I wanted all my ideas to be recorded in the same place, so I selected a pocket sized note book, small enough that I could take it anywhere, yet sized so I could write comfortably. Why not my mobile phone? I will say something about this later on.

I selected a note book with no lines on the page, so my thoughts would not be limited, nor influenced by the page style.

I experimented with the time of day, to find a time where I could condition my mind to get ready to work. I tried the first thing in the morning, all the way through to last thing at night. My schedule during March proved quite erratic, so I wrote mostly while I was travelling by train. This gave me about an hour each week day.

Sometimes, I sought inspiration by listening to recordings from great speakers and reading positive messages prior to setting my mind to work.

I also took time to clear my mind on occasion, to see if there was a difference in the quantity, or quality of ideas produced.

As stated by Earl, the first attempts to generate ideas yielded little as my brain felt unprepared, being forced to create on demand, but as I got past this initial feeling, I started writing everything, as thoughts came to me.

At first, my thoughts were about physical things, mostly something I could design, or make. I had seven ideas on my first attempt.

I thought about everyday problems and how I could solve them.

Then came the challenges. Life getting in the way. I found it quite challenging to force my mind to become, or remain creative, while I had life challenges fighting for the same resource.

There were several days where I could generate one, or two ideas at best.

I kept putting in the time though.

Some ideas were duplicated along the way, but I generated over 60 ideas and a system.

So what did I learn?

I am capable of generating great ideas, and with practice over time, I will generate a few brilliant, possibly life changing ideas, provided I keep this going.

I stopped myself censoring my ideas. It is so easy to dismiss our own ideas, judging them before even writing them down, so I committed them to my note book regardless of how naturally successful I felt they would be.

Keeping all these ideas in one place may appear risky, but I have trained my mind to get working on ideas every time I see the note book. It is inspirational to me to see all these ideas flowing from my mind. I can look through them and select an idea to act on, knowing if it does not blossom into an immediate success, I can relax. There are many more where that idea came from, already written down, and I can always go back to my mind at any time to generate even more.

Generating ideas is actually fun. I observe everyday occurrences with the possibility that an idea will formulate, should something happen unexpectedly.

Some of the world's greatest ideas came to life that way.

Some ideas just arrive. No preparation, no warning, so carrying a note book and pen, ensures I can capture them.

I tried capturing my ideas on my mobile phone a few times. The interface of my phone, and the battery dependency of electronic devices, forced me straight back to the note book. This is before I get to the interruption of emails and texts.

Pen and paper provide an instant, flexible and unrestrained way to record thoughts.

I am still writing ideas in my note book. I carry it around with me and review my ideas whenever I hear a great idea, generated by someone else. I compare it to mine and usually, my ideas appear more useful than they originally were written down.

I encourage you to take Earl Nightingale's advice. Set time aside to regularly engage your mind to come up with ideas.

Who knows, the next big idea may be one of mine, or yours.

Thank you Earl Nightingale.

Thank you for reading.

Patrick Nairne

Starting Your Self-Improvement Journey Part 1

Starting out with Self Improvement Part 1

As with any journey, starting, is most important part. The pursuit of self-improvement requires an investment of both energy and time, to make sure there is a start.

Have you observed how sprinters meticulously seat themselves into their starting blocks with ritual focus, wiggling their way into the perfect starting position? 

The starting block enables the sprinter to channel as much of their their energy as possible into the start of their race, which is crucial to the sprinter's moving from stationary, to maximum speed, as quickly as possible. 

There is a lot more to sprinting than the start, of course, but the reference here, is all about making a connection to starting out with self-improvement.

Starting out with self-improvement is closer to starting a sprint race, than an endurance race, although actual self-improvement is definitely not about quick fix. 

If you ever ran races as a child, you most likely did not use a starting block. You probably assumed a standing start, or crouched into a start position. You probably noticed some of your energy was not utilised in getting you moving forward as you slipped, or tentatively started out, ultimately preventing you unleashing your maximum potential.

As with sprinting, you can choose a starting block, or work with the flat bare track. 

Judging from the uptake by all the World's best sprinters, starting blocks deliver some great advantages over going without.

When starting out with self-improvement, just like starting a sprint race, the aim is for all of your energy to propel you in the intended direction only. No slips, no slides.

The starting block is only effective if adjusted to fit the physical dimensions of the sprinter if they are to provide the best start, reducing, or even removing the slipping and sliding, which can prevent you achieving your best start.

Once you have started running, the starting blocks are no longer needed, until the start of the next race.  

So what are these starting blocks in relation to self-improvement?

Acknowledging your current strategy cannot take you where you want to go, and that You, need to upgrade yourself, to be able to take you where you want to go.


Sprinters need their starting blocks adjusted to fit them perfectly for the greatest effectiveness. A little off, and the sprinter could false start, start poorly, or in the extreme, injure themselves trying to launch into their start. 


Starting your self-improvement is much the same.

What is your current strategy? Spend the time to honestly detail your approach right now. This will be a lot more challenging than than it may at first appear.

This is the true start of your self-improvement journey.

I look forward to you joining me for Part 2.