Reboot Your Business!®| The Freedom Coach

Written by Steven Griggs | thefreedomcoach.com

Excerpted from my coming book: “REBOOT YOUR BUSINESS! How to Restructure Your Business to Survive and Thrive in Today’s New Economy”

3.   Not Understanding Your Competition:

You need to know exactly who your competitors are, what products they sell, and how their products compare to yours.  What are you doing to make your products stand out? How are you marketing your company and its products to create brand awareness and differentiate you from the pack?    

The Top Three Competitors form will assist you in evaluating these factors.                  

4.  Not Nurturing Your Customers:

Sometimes in our rush to build the business, in our constant quest for new customers, we tend to forget and neglect existing customers.  Don’t.

It is widely known that it takes up to seven or eight customer contacts to obtain one new client.  If you already have a client, why not spend your time and energy to keep them, and offer them new products and benefits?

Maintain constant contact with your clients and customers. Create a newsletter, invite them to special sales, give them special discounts for their loyalty.

TIP: Offer existing customers exclusive, first chances at new products.  This will make them feel valued and appreciated, and increase their loyalty.

Nurture the clients you have- they already know and appreciate you. Shower them with appreciation and benefits!

www.thefreedomcoach.com

Expectations

No Limits | The Freedom Coach

Expectations

Written by Steven Griggs | thefreedomcoach.com

“Keep high aspirations, moderate expectations, and small needs”            William Howard Stein

“When one’s expectations are reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything one does have”                                                                                             Stephen Hawking

Expectations are desired outcomes. These are either expectations from within ourselves (inner) or expectations from the outside world (outer). Of the two the only one you can control is the inner.

In the physical sense we have a bit of chemistry to overcome. Our brain releases dopamine when it is pleased. So when its expectations are met and it is pleased a small amount of dopamine is released into our system. This gives us a quick feeling of pleasure and well-being. Larger amounts of dopamine are released if you greatly exceed your expectations.

This “reward” for meeting our expectations can result from the smallest form of having your expectations met. For example, being on a deadline and looking up and seeing you have 30 minutes more than you thought you had or having the light turn green just before you have to stop at the intersection. Both of these events will cause dopamine to be released.

Conversely, when you have an expectation that is not met, you not only don’t have the flush of dopamine, you actually have a more negative feeling come up. This can even dip you below where you would be normally. In some instances you might even have a momentary feeling of fear.

Living with expectations is the real source of all unhappiness.

This is because you are constantly living with contradictions of the ego. Your desired outcomes don’t match with what is actually happening.

You looked forward to a clear warm day and it rains. You have an appointment and your car won’t start. You were hoping to get the new job and you didn’t.

It never ends.

So what do you do? You have to learn to become detached.

You have to learn to accept what is not what you would wish it to be.

For example when your expectation is a sunny day but you get wind and rain, look at the weather and accept that this planet has a lot of weather and without it the entire planet would be a desert. So you accept the weather and put on a raincoat or pick up an umbrella. Simple.

No need for an emotional reaction or frustration or even anger. It’s just weather.

Try stepping back from the emotional engagement of contradicted expectations.

Accept what is and roll with it.

www.thefreedomcoach.com

Resolved to Resolve

 No Limits | The Freedom Coach

Resolved to Resolve?

Written by Steven Griggs | thefreedomcoach.com

 “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.”

                                                                                                           Marianne Williamson

Every New Year’s Eve approximately 150 million Americans (surveys show approximately 50% of Americans) make their resolutions for the coming New Year.  It is an annual ritual that has almost become an accepted part of the celebrations.

You create a list of the things you’d like to accomplish or change in the coming New Year, sometimes even the same things that you promised yourself to do last year, but never got around to....  

The 4 most common resolutions are:

Getting out of debt and saving more money

Losing weight and exercising more

To quit smoking

Spending more time with the family

We’ve all done it.

“This year I’m going to spend less and save more!” (We’ve all tried this one....)

“Next year I’m going to work out every other day. To make myself commit to it I’m going to buy a gym membership.” (Surveys show that 90% of those who join health and fitness clubs stop going within the first 90 days.)

“This year I’m going to lose 25 pounds.” (We all know how long diets last....)

The truth is that by the end of the 2nd week of the New Year, 33% of the resolutions that were made have already fallen by the wayside. By the end of the year 88% have been given up.

So what is really going on?

For most people the idea or wish of the intended resolution sounds good and feels doable.  You say to yourself, ‘Yes, I can do it and I will!”. And you mean it…. at that moment.

But later your mind finds ways to slip out of the commitment or talks itself into postponing or “amending” the goals. 

Why?

Basically we are making the resolution for the wrong reasons. We are looking at what we think we “should” be doing or what we “need” to do rather than being aligned with what we really want. See my article- “Do affirmations work?”.

You might be saying "But I REALLY DO want to lose weight! I DO want to quit smoking!" And you probably do…..but this is where it gets tricky. Are you REALLY sure you want it? How do you know?

I’ll bet many people, even as they are committing to the goal (and if they were being honest with themselves) might hear that little voice saying the opposite..…

"How can I lose 35 pounds? That’s a lot….!  Does this mean I can’t eat desert every night?"
"Am I really going to stop smoking? I like to smoke…...!"

A better approach for dieting might be to tell yourself-  "I know I eat too much, I’m going to eat less." Check in with yourself and just eat less. As you start to eat less, you will notice the difference in your body. This will feel good and encourage you to eat less more often….

The same thing goes for smoking. If you can’t quit cold turkey,which is probably the best way if you have strong will power, then smoke less. Use the promise of a future cigarette as a reward for not smoking one now. Skip one every other time. I know this is difficult because nicotine is a very strong drug and hard to kick, but you get the idea. Eventually (or not....) you will probably reach the point where you really are ready to quit and then you will.

Change is difficult, especially when it comes to diet or nicotine as these are two agents we use to medicate ourselves psychologically and it can be very hard to modify these habits.

The truth is that the more we make promises to ourselves that we don't keep, the more we reinforce to our mind that we don't keep our promises. It then becomes more accepted and normal to lie to yourself. This can then lead to larger problems in terms of personal integrity.

So don’t commit to huge goals. Don't make a lot of goals. Create a plan to allow for small successes. Recognize that change is hard and your mind will resist it.

Don’t make commitments you know you won’t keep. Resolve to be good to yourself and allow for slip ups.

If you fall off the wagon, simply get up and get back on. No problem.

www.thefreedomcoach.com

The Comfort of Routine

No Limits | The Freedom Blog™

The Comfort of Routine

“I do, like you, appreciate the comforts of everyday routine, the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition…..”                                                                              Alan Moore, V for Vendetta

“Love your rage, not your cage.” 
Alan Moore, V for Vendetta

Written by Steven Griggs | stevengriggs.com

If you saw the film V for Vendetta, you will remember the broadcast that V sent out to the population of London. The above quote was the opening lines of his speech.  He was trying to use the power of words to rouse the people from their sleep, from their lethargy of acceptance.

To awaken them so they could see that through their acceptance and preference to overlook small incursions into their freedoms, they had allowed their freedom to be quietly taken from them….

Yes, routine and repetition becomes very comfortable, soothing…….. simpler ….  It’s so much easier to sleep walk through life than push against the small nuisances that nag at us from the corner of our minds.

Those little annoyances like having your 85 year grandmother searched at the airport for the bomb or weapons she may be carrying or having to give up your nail clippers and mouthwash at the security checkpoint….. or knowing that every phone conversation, every email and every text you send is being monitored…..?

Are we letting our freedoms slowly be taken from us? Are we letting ourselves be programed by fear and constant bad news? And because of the fear do we crave more security and the need to be protected? And has this need to be protected caused us to overlook and even accept the fact that our liberty is slowly being stripped away?

Do we really need the government to protect us by limiting our freedom? We 're told it's necessary for the government make us more secure. Really? Is this really true?

The nature of government is control and once given it can never be taken back.

If you get a chance, watch the movie-“V For Vendetta”. It may resonate with you and you may see parallels…..

Don’t be asleep. Don’t stay in step with the marching legions of the majority. Watch.

“The majority is never right. Never, I tell you! That’s one of the lies in society that no free and intelligent man can help rebelling against. Who are the people that make up the biggest portion of the population, the intelligent ones or the fools?”                Henrik Ibsen

www.stevengriggs.com