“Fear finds various escapes. The common variety is identification with country, with society, with an idea. Haven’t you noticed how you respond when you see a procession, a military procession or a religious procession, or when the country is in danger of being invaded? You then identify yourself with the country, with a being, with an ideology. There are other times when you identify yourself with your child, with your husband or wife, with a particular form of action, or inaction. Identification is a process of forgetfulness. So long as I am conscious of the “me” I know there is pain, there is struggle, there is constant fear. But if I can identify myself with something greater, with something worthwhile, with beauty, with life, with truth, with belief, with knowledge, at least temporarily, there is an escape from the “me”, is there not? If I talk about “my country” I forget myself temporarily, do I not? If I can say something about God, I forget myself. If I can identify myself with my family, with a group, with a particular party, with a certain ideology, then there is a temporary escape.

Do we now know what fear is? Is it not the non-acceptance of what is? We must understand the word acceptance. I am not using that word as meaning the effort made to accept. There is no question of accepting when I perceive what is. When I do not see clearly what is, then I bring in the process of acceptance. Therefore, fear is the nonacceptance of what is.”  an excerpt from “The Book of Life” by J. Krishnamurti

Ok, this is where I’m at in the moment. I’m wondering what all the beautiful people in this world are up to? I’m absorbing some very strange energies of division. Knowing that we must rise above the division, also knowing that there is really no such thing as division and doing my best to figure out how best to help heal the divide.

For the love of humanity, let’s get in touch with our true selves, our core, it’s time to rise above the division and exude the divine!

Sending “Good Vibrations” to all…

DJK

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At the end of the day, the business you have, the career you’ve built, the life you live is all down to you. The decisions and choices you’ve made, commitments you stuck to and the reputation you’ve built are all by your own design. In considering this; perhaps it’s not worth complaining about missed opportunities, or choices you should have made.

The future is now and always will be now. It’s “the now” built on many yesterdays and will undoubtedly continue to be more of the same. Unless, of course, you decide to make new decisions, new choices and build new habits to support your new decisions and new choices.

It might take some time to build your new future if you are looking to progress further or build in a new direction but it’s definitely possible. There are a great many examples of people who are what we would term late bloomers, who did many things and failed miserably in many ventures until they landed on the one that stuck. The key is to keep moving forward, keep building on your self-confidence and belief that you can make good things happen in your life and positively affect the lives of others.

Once you make a steadfast decision to move your career, business or personal life in a new direction then you must commit wholeheartedly and be ready for a good dose of resistance from not only yourself but friends, family and colleagues who might be feeling uncomfortable about your new passion. They might be dealing with some of their own malaise and your new enthusiasm acts as a mirror to their current situation. Try to understand their pushback and encourage them by explaining that you’re finally ready to move on to new pastures and are excited about the new challenges ahead. Ask them to support you if they can and invite them on your journey. Who knows, maybe they will be inspired by your newfound excitement and decide to make a positive change in their lives too?

“If it’s to be it’s up to me” – 

William H. Johnson

Change can be fun, exciting and rejuvenating if you frame your decision properly. In knowing that the future is now and now is not what you want it to be, then you must build new habits and make new decisions today that will build the NOW that you want to live. Therefore, your Future Now’s will ultimately continue to build your Ultimate Desired Future.

Enjoy your new journey!

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As we all know, fitness is extremely important if you want to reach and maintain peak performance throughout your career and life. I’ve tried various fitness and health regimes throughout my 20’s, 30’s, 40’s and now 50’s. All types of health and fitness activities have their advantages and there aren’t many downsides unless you overdo them or injure yourself in the process of hitting your fitness goals.

At the beginning of this year, and with the full awareness that I’d be reaching the midpoint of my 5th century, I decided to make a concerted effort to reduce my abdominal girth. I’ve known that I was dissatisfied with my ever-increasing tummy over the last few years and my daily runs were keeping me in good physical shape but they weren’t chewing up enough calories to take off any of my excess tummy weight.

Like most people, I’m happy to follow a system if it works for me and I feel like I’m making headway on my fitness and health goals. I’ve shared a few of my fitness hacks in my previous posts. But so far, the best lifestyle change I’ve made that’s had the most significant effect on my waist reduction has been following the Fast-5 lifestyle. (here’s a Free E-Book that explains how it works)

It’s not fair to call it a diet because you don’t have to measure your food intake or count your calories. All you have to do is eat whatever you want within a consistent five-hour window each day. I chose the window from 5 pm to 10 pm. During this window, I can eat and drink whatever I want and then over the next 19 hours I don’t eat anything and only drink, water, coffee or tea. I know this sounds like it would be a difficult thing to do because your missing out on eating breakfast, lunch and snacks throughout the day, however, it’s been much easier than I ever thought it would.

Don’t get me wrong it takes a bit of planning and discipline to get through the first few weeks but after you get used to going without food during the day it’s amazing how quickly your body adjusts to it. As the title of my article states, “it’s what works for you” and this simple, easy to understand and follow system works really well for me. In addition, I found that my energy is much steadier over the course of the day and I don’t get that mid-day slump that often proceeds a decent lunch.

I’ve been on it since January 1st of this year and now that it’s mid-August I feel obliged to share my results. I’ve lost 9 pounds of something in weight and 6 centimetres of something else from around my waist. I’ve gone off the regimen on a handful of occasions either when I’m invited to breakfast or lunch with clients or when I’m travelling and I don’t want to pass up the paid-for breakfasts. But when I returned back home I always jumped right back on my daily eat from 5pm-10pm routine.

I just thought I would share something that’s worked for me and maybe it’s something for you to consider if you’re interested in trying something new and don’t want to count calories or go on a difficult diet/weight loss regimen.

No matter what, as we age we all put on a few extra pounds that we don’t really want.  Following the Fast-5 lifestyle has worked for me and it never hurts to try something new if you think it might be something for you too.

If you haven’t already, please make sure you sign up to my blog. I will send you awesome articles once a week straight to your primary inbox. My articles include unique success stories, entrepreneurial advice, sales tips and business building success strategies. You can sign up HERE and you will receive a FREE Sales Training Video for immediate viewing just for joining.

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What is the use of credit if you don’t use it? In my mind, it’s nice to have the option to use credit in case you might need it in an emergency. The last thing I want to spend my precious life moments on is thinking about “where I stand” with my debts. I don’t want to spend my life thinking about how much I might owe creditors in five or ten years time. How about you?

What kinds of thoughts fill your mind throughout the day? Do you constantly think about your business in a never-ending stream of recurring rudimentary thoughts that loop around again and again?

The same problematic thoughts about how to make more, get more, do more, be more, more-more-more! Or are you free to think thoughts of innovation? How you can make your systems better, more robust? How to improve your processes – make them more streamlined? How to build better systems in order to free up more capital and lower your fixed costs. Are you able to make improvements to your existing systems to make things easier for your employees to get things done in record time?

If you can then you will free up some of your human capital and their capacity to focus on making your customer experience more awesome. You can get them more focused on going after new clients or customers. You’ll have more time to improve your staff’s skills and evaluate their situations quarterly or monthly instead of yearly.

Knowing where you and your business stand financially should be your primary driver and is much more important as you and your business mature than having to constantly worry about where your next big revenue stream will come from. Like the sands of time, there is enough daily uncertainty than to add to it by taking on too much debt thinking that your future income will be 50% higher than it is now. It’s very difficult to predict what your future motivations, desires or interests will be. Therefore, you want to avoid any situation that will tie you down to the grind of having to do the same thing you’ve always done but maybe not getting the same results. Keep your debt load as light as you possibly can during your growth phase and don’t try to bulldoze your way through the tough times by taking on debt in order to cover your fixed costs. Be smarter than that and be ready to pivot your business or remake your business plan to suit your current situation.

Why not keep your business in real-time fit shape with banks clamouring to give you more credit or loans at low interest and make sure you keep your limited liability company separate from anything you own personally.

The best insurance you can have is the personal security of knowing that if you need some extra money for your business you have it either in interest-bearing accounts or personal savings and a whole load of credit and debit facilities waiting for your use. Then when you use it be sure to stay disciplined and on course to pay it down or off according to your own pre-set payment terms.

Knowing where you stand is the best place be in order to keep your business healthy and live a carefree life.

Happy Knowing! Good Growing!

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If you weren’t getting paid to do what you’re doing now then what would you rather be doing? Or put another way, if you didn’t need to do what you’re doing now then would you choose to do it anyway? Do you know what to do with yourself when you’re not chasing the next deal or the next paying client?

It’s totally OK if you don’t know the answers to these questions. In many cases, the answers start to reveal themselves when you find yourself in a bit of a rut. Ruts, of course, can be caused by an industry or market shift or by your own magnificence or some combination of the two. No matter, it’s never a welcome challenge having to face your internal demons and start looking at alternative ways of making a living and/or creating a new lifestyle to suit your new situation.

When it hits and whatever it is or was and whatever you want to call it… you still gotta deal with it when it arrives. More than once I have had to deal with all of these changing situations and challenges over my working life and can remember stressing out in varying ways on each and every instance.

The most important thing I learned and realized in my various life and business pivots is that Money flows where Energy Goes. If you’re not currently passionate about what you’re doing then chances are your revenues will soon be matching your mood too, if not now, then soon.

The Earn While You Learn Transition

There’s money to be made in almost every endeavour. The key to tapping into the flow is to simply make it your mission to do so. When you allow yourself to get excited about moving in a new direction and taking on new challenges; learning, growing, meeting new people, following intuition and allowing yourself the space you need to redesign your business and possibly parts of yourself then you’re on the right path to tapping into a new currency.

Expand Your Self -Image

Don’t get too caught up in your own image you’ve masterfully created for yourself. Other people aren’t thinking as much about you as you think they are. People aren’t worried about your image change/expansion. You are! And the real question is why you care so much about how other’s perceive you.

The most alluring trait any entrepreneur can have is excitement and passion about what they’re doing and where they’re going. What their product or service can do to transform people and our planet.

The healthiest thing you can do is get excited about your inevitable transition and start living the life you were meant to live. This, my dear friend, is absolutely the most important thing you can do.

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It all starts with your thoughts. In fact, all great accomplishments started with a thought, but not just a simple rumination, more like a relentless recurring thought explosion. You know those thoughts that no matter how hard you try to suppress keep popping up again and again. Sometimes it’s a current repeating thought that just won’t go away and other times it’s a thought that you had years ago and forgot about but has now returned with a vengeance.

It’s not wise to continue to ignore or divert a recurring thought. It’s best to bring your thoughts out in the open, write them down in a journal and explore where they might be leading. Some thoughts will require sharing and some thoughts need more time to gestate. No matter, what’s important to understand is that once your thoughts take hold and you add some forward moving actions then you’re well on your way to higher achievements.

Recurring Thoughts ⇒ Inspired Actions ⇒ Motivated Movements

Case in point: I thought about writing a story about my experiences starting and building my sales company. As the years rolled on, I made many excuses for not doing it. I always said I was way too busy. On countless occasions, when I was conversing with people, sharing one of the crazy challenges I had faced, they would say to me, “Wow, that’s an amazing story, you should write a book”  Of course, this exchange would restart my recurring thoughts about writing a book. Many years had to pass before my Inspired Actions took hold and I began to make my Motivated Movements towards writing. Once I got started it only took 60 hours to complete my entire manuscript.

It really is that simple. So often, we like to make things much more complicated then they need to be. It’s really just a matter of paying homage to your recurring thoughts and taking the initiative to allow for some inspired actions and forward movements to get you started. Once the process starts, all you have to do is believe in your own ability to follow through with a finished project.

Remember, done is better than perfect. Just recently, Paul McCartney was asked why he keeps singing, touring and putting out new music his response was simply because he still believes he can do better. Now, there’s some humble motivation for you.

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What are the two most important things you must do in order to be your best and live your best life? There is absolutely no substitute for these two personal attributes. In your lifetime, you will not succeed at reaching your ultimate destiny unless you discover or rather uncover these two essential things.

What are they? I’m sure you’re dying to know. Are you ready?… OK, here goes…

1. Know Thyself

2. Trust Thyself

It’s that simple and they’ve been around for a long time, so long that it seems appropriate to pull out the Old English. You know what type of introspection it takes to truly know yourself. You gotta watch your every movement, thoughts, motivations, truth stretching and the good stuff too. How you help people, relieve their hurting, give them breaks, lend them hands and exercise random acts of kindness.

Let’s talk about knowing yourself. How well do you think you know yourself? Do you over-rely on other peoples opinions or ask them how you’re perceived by others? Are you so lacking in self-awareness that you really don’t know, therefore, don’t care about the answer? If you’re narcissistic you wouldn’t even understand the question. It’s a pretty easy way to go through life if you are.

But most of us do care, are concerned and would like to know how we’re perceived. At least as close to the truth as possible, which we can never know for sure. Mostly because we are perceived through the other’s lens of awareness. Who they’ve run up against, been raised by. Their experiences with authority figures for good bad or ugly. Knowing this is a positive edge in getting as close as possible to the truth.

Once you have a small grasp of self-knowledge and awareness; both your strengths and weaknesses and how you protect yourself,  what makes you overreact or overcompensate in situations then you’re on the right path.

Next is learning to totally trust yourself – your self talk. When you tell yourself you’re going to follow through with something, you do. You know when to say “yes” and how and when to say “no”. You know that you will get through your current challenge just like you’ve been able to get through your last big challenge.

You look forward to each new situation and each new challenge because you… Know Yourself and Trust Yourself.

What happens when you’ve got control of these two most important life skills? I think you know the answer. You keep learning and you keep growing. How cool is that? It’s the best possible place for you to reside. It’s the place where you can help make the world a better place than before you arrived.

That’s the place for you. Righto?

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We know that true success is accomplished through a combination of hard work, strategic action and timing. But without persistent day to day focus, it’s very easy to lose your hard-won advantage. Relentless focus is the only consistently reliable attribute that will keep you and your business going from strength to strength.

When Warren Buffet and Bill Gates were attending a dinner party the host (Bill’s Mom) asked every guest to write down on a piece of paper what they thought was the single most important factor in their success both Bill and Warren wrote down the same one-word answer “FOCUS.”

It should, of course, not come as a surprise to anyone that’s ever accomplished anything of significance. In order to succeed at any task one has to commit 100% of their attention and effort on the task at hand; no distractions, just zone in and get the job done. This is the place where we get into the “flow” and become unstoppable. If we know this and have experienced this then why aren’t we able to do it at will throughout our entire workday?

I truly believe that in order to maintain focus you must be aware of all that surrounds you. You pay attention to your thoughts, your emotions, your energy level; to what you know and what you don’t know. You seek answers to things you don’t know and constantly test those things that you do know. Those things that have worked for you in the past. Are they still working for you now?

By actively focusing on the now and knowing that all the now’s strung together create the future, your future, the future you are striving for, the future that you create through your focus and the combined focus of all those who support you and your vision.

When the sun shines on an object it heats up and will continue to get hotter and hotter, however, if you focus the suns energy through a magnifying lens you will be able to multiply the effect 10 fold and create enough energy to spark a flame and ultimately burn through whatever object you’ve focused on.

Aligning your mental energy and physical emotions on your current project may or may not be the best use of your time and resources. However, with this type of energy, you will undoubtedly be able to finish the project in front of you and when you see it through to its completion then you’re free to focus your attention and energy on your next higher value project.

Doing this will help build an unstoppable momentum that will build your focus muscles and hopefully allow you to be asked to join the next Bill and Warren dinner party! Failing this, you will be inviting them to yours!

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We’ve all tried it and we’ve all probably eventually come to the same conclusion that it’s near impossible to separate your personal life from your professional life. If you’re a parent and you’re still trying to convince yourself that you’re succeeding then you might want to weigh in on this blog post and let us know how you do it.

When my first child was born I was running a large sales and marketing company which had over 1000 people spanning 11 countries. Needless to say, I was busy taking care of business. I can distinctly remember trying to run a worldwide conference call while my 1-year-old son was screaming for his dad’s attention in the other room. It pains me to think about how “professional” I was trying to be and how unsuccessful I was at keeping a separation between the loves of my life and my business life. Eventually, I figured out how to manage it by relaxing, integrating and prioritizing all the needs of my family and my business.

There is a big difference between managing grown-ups and raising your children, well maybe not a big difference in terms of perceived neediness but more in terms of significant long term impact. My child was now my most important priority and the rest of my life needed to re-align with my new priority.

Many of my colleagues at the time made starkly different decisions about what was important to them and that’s what’s so beautiful about the power of choice and the way we decide to design our lives.

What I do know with unequivocal certainty is that there is no such thing as a way to separate your personal life from your business life. Your life is all one. There is no separation. There is only a merging of something new into something that was probably already quite full. There is only a “dealing with reality” and deciding what’s important to you and where you desire to put your attention.

You can physically be present and mentally be somewhere else. We all know how this works. I will say, however, that beauty, depth, true relationship and true feeling is only possible when you put down your device, look someone in the eyes and make a real connection with your mind and your heart.

If you’re interested in true dividends then I’m sure you’ll find them there.

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Your brain loves to think and solve problems, your heart loves to imagine and dream of future possibilities.

Exercise your mind, body and soul daily by imagining your “best case scenario” future life.

• Where do you live?
• Who are you with?
• What are you doing?
• And most importantly…HOW DO YOU FEEL?   

When we were kids we exercised the “Think Big” muscle every day. We could watch a TV show and think, “I will travel there one day. I’ll definitely be an international spy. I want to fly a plane and a helicopter and go into outer space. I want to fight villains… Be an International business person…”

The key to success is to not just maintain a positive outlook but to stretch your imagination. Think bigger about yourself and what you can accomplish. We are all much more resilient than we think. There are limits for sure but those limits are never as debilitating as the ones we put on ourselves by our own small thinking.

Don’t allow your small situation to dictate where you’ll be in ten years. Start getting excited about your future TODAY! Start now, think big and motivate those around you to be bigger and accomplish more than they could ever imagine.

One shot, make it fun and give it everything you’ve got!

Dominic Kotarski – Author of “The Making – A Complete Sales Guide” and Founder of Sales Success Academy

International Consultant | Author | Coach | Trainer | Speaker 

Dominic writes, speaks, inspires, motivates and teaches on the most important aspects of your business including Sales, Coaching, Team building, People Management and BusinessDevelopment

*The photo at the top of this blog was taken from a helicopter trip I took over my current beautiful home city Vancouver Canada.

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