"When you innovate, you've got to be prepared for everyone telling you you're nuts."

Mental obsessions have physical manifestations: your body reacts to the thoughts and concerns of the mind. Your thoughts can either make you sick or release endorphins that cause elation and good health. An emotionally upset individual is more prone to accidents and ill health than an emotionally stable individual. How can we make sure we won't become victims of our anxieties? Since the mind tells the body how to act, think the highest, most uplifting thoughts you can imagine. Think and speak well of your health; don't dwell on ailments. Instead, use positive self-talk on a daily basis and visualize positive situations.

In childhood, we are measured by dietary, health, and intelligence quotas; in youth, by performance quotas; in adulthood, by achievement quotas; and, in old age, by the success with which we have met the quota standards of all three periods. One has to be better than average to achieve 100 percent in anything, whether it be an ordinary spelling bee or a competitive test of physical fitness. In business, make it your goal to establish a record of preparation, application, and execution that is unquestionable proof of personal ability.

"Ninety percent of all those who fail are not actually defeated. They simply quit."

"You have set yourself a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere."

Picture a batter stepping up to the plate. Now picture a swing and a miss. The batter glances nervously at his manager in the dugout, then at his teammates waiting on the bases. As the pitcher winds up again, all the batter can think about is how he blew it, how stupid he was to choke on that last swing. What do you think are the odds he'll miss the next one, too? The lesson: pessimism and despair are contagious. Fill your mind with optimistic expectations, even if you mess up. Optimistic expectations are the most powerful indicator of sales achievement.

"You need to overcome the tug of people against you as you reach for high goals."

In sales, a positive attitude is everything. So don't let anything deter you from maintaining joy, happiness, enthusiasm, and positivity in your personality and dealings with the world. To quote Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Your own mind is a sacred enclosure into which nothing harmful can enter except by your permission." You have a choice about how you interpret and react to life's experiences. There's nothing stopping you from making today and tomorrow great for yourself and other people.

Everyone on your team should have growth potential. Including you. When you bring a new person on board, think about whether that individual is going to be right for right now, or right for the long haul. Think about the areas in which you want to grow. Are certain skills becoming more important for your job? How can you keep up with change so that you can grow with your customers? A commitment to growth is just as important as any other asset in your career. Sales is about moving forward, not back.

It's always easier to face problems when you're prepared. The last thing you want to be thinking when a crisis hits is, "Where do I go from here?" The problem associated with this reaction is the time it takes to plan after the fact. In essence, you have two problems: one is the actual problem, and the other is your emotional energy. You can't prevent problems from creeping into your life, but you can prepare. Start to protect yourself today from the unexpected by anticipating problems or reviewing major challenges from the past. Build alternatives to better navigate obstacles, and you'll keep your momentum up.

"We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end to them."

"When you doubt your power,
you give power to your doubt."

"To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step to knowledge."

Some things, especially the things we want most, take time. If you want someone's business badly enough, you might need to be persistent and try several times to make contact. Be patient and don't give up if the account is worth it. Don't push for too much, too soon. The negotiating process may take time. You may have to make contact over a period of months. Don't let impatience to close a deal cost you money.

"You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration."

"The making of friends who are real friends is the best token we have of a man's success in life."

"Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare."

In selling, many experience a loss of self-esteem in direct proportion to a loss in sales or commissions. Although they know that they are often powerless to change the numbers, they do not always realize that they can change their unrealistic thinking and feel good about themselves. If you're down because your sales volume has gone down, ask yourself what it would take to make you feel better. A superficial response would be, "An unexpected order." But upon reflection, you may concede, "Any positive action or thought."

Many sales professionals are incredibly creative – they just don't realize it. Don't assume you can't do something before you even try. Children are too smart to make this mistake. They're creative because they follow their natural impulses. Adults just need a good atmosphere that promotes their creative power. Humor, books, and exposure to the arts are important aids in building up your creative self. A team that practices brainstorming in a relaxed atmosphere helps enhance creativity. The best salespeople have a great intuitive instinct; that is the same source of creative energy. Be sure to make the most of this creative power.

Want a starting point for keeping yourself pumped up? Start by watching the company you keep. Every sales team has a grumblers' table, where naysayers gather to share stories of failure. Never take a seat at that table. Negativity multiplies and, pretty soon, failure and rejection seem normal. Begin to believe that, and soon you'll believe that there is no exit to a rosier future. Choose instead to spend your time with people who can help get you back on track.

Most good relationships are based on giving. When you're selling to an audience, you start from the premise that you are fulfilling a need. You are providing an avenue for achieving goals and dreams. As for your prospects, they're also giving you something. They're sharing their valuable time. They want to feel connected and hopeful, and they're looking to you to provide that. The next time you're selling to a client or even talking with a prospect, remember that giving is happening on both sides, which means you both have an opportunity to enrich the other.

alespeople are great at brushing off rejections. While it's true that every no leads you closer to a yes, there's a fine line between healthy optimism and denial. Don't ignore real frustration or try to put on a happy face if you really feel down. Constantly suppressing negative feelings often leads to a short temper. Instead of lying to yourself, acknowledge the lost opportunities and the fact that they don't feel good – and then continue working.

Trying to change someone is a waste of time. The very thought of changing someone is saying that they are not good enough as they are, and it is soaked with judgment and disapproval. That is not a thought of appreciation or love, and those thoughts will only bring separation between you and that person.

You must look for the good in people to have more of it appear. As you look only for the good things in a person, you will be amazed at what your new focus reveals.

"You must do the things today that others will not do so that you can have the things tomorrow that others will not have."

Success can sometimes breed complacency. After a successful meeting with a prospect, it's easy to slip into complacent behavior. You might allow yourself a longer lunch break or avoid making more cold calls. But remember: there is no such thing as a sure customer. And perhaps even more important, the feeling of complacency slows the pace of other activities that will lead to more success. Follow your plan for new calls or meetings, no matter how good the last sales call was.

A good day is defined by your goals. "I had a really busy day and got many good contacts" is something many salespeople say. But did you follow a strategic plan? If you need to add 10 new opportunities to your pipeline every day, then assessing your day any other way could be meaningless. If you need to cold call, keeping yourself busy with existing clients is not good enough. Follow the plan that's going to help you get closer to achieving your goals.

To achieve your goals, you need to stay focused, even if it means giving up things you'd rather do. When Ron Rice quit his teaching and lifeguarding jobs to found the suntan-lotion company Hawaiian Tropic, he left the beach behind and did everything himself. He mixed the lotion, bottled it, sold it, packed it into boxes, and delivered it to beaches and pool decks along the East Coast. He stayed focused on his goal of making Hawaiian Tropic a household name. Eventually, the other lifeguards who used to kid him about how hard he worked were left on the beach while he went on to great success.

"Belief is the ignition switch that gets you off the launching pad. "

The law of attraction cannot change anything in your life that you hate, because hate prevents the change from coming. Since the law is giving us exactly what we are putting out, when you hate something the law must continue to give you more of what you hate. You will not be able to move away from it. Love is the only way.

If you focus completely on the things you love, then you are on your way to a beautiful life.

"The great creators-the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors-stood alone against the men of their time."

You're going to meet resistance when you take a new course of action. At first, if you've been running on self-defeating thoughts and beliefs, they're going to resist any new ideas. It's just like starting a new exercise program. The muscles are tight and stiff, and they resist. The same is true with mental muscles. You need to continually practice running the new, positive thoughts in your mind at regular intervals and act on them. There's a direct relationship between beliefs and actions. You can't just think your way to success.

ou're going to meet resistance when you take a new course of action. At first, if you've been running on self-defeating thoughts and beliefs, they're going to resist any new ideas. It's just like starting a new exercise program. The muscles are tight and stiff, and they resist. The same is true with mental muscles. You need to continually practice running the new, positive thoughts in your mind at regular intervals and act on them. There's a direct relationship between beliefs and actions. You can't just think your way to success.

"Always look at what you have left. Never look at what you have lost."

A negative emotion can create tiredness, according to Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. That's why negative emotions have the power to drain you of energy and vitality. A positive emotion is created by positive thoughts and images. You can say, "This is a great day. I am fortunate to sell a wonderful product. I look forward to meeting many interesting people today; I will be able to help some of these people, and they will become my friends. I look forward to learning a great deal today." Thinking and talking that way adds to your enthusiasm and vitality. Your mind is expanding, and all this contributes to your well-being.

Treat yourself with the compassion and kindness that you'd show to others. Suppose things were going badly for a friend or colleague. You wouldn't say, "You're right, Joe. You really are a loser. Things look pretty hopeless for you." So if you wouldn't do that to a suffering friend, why do you berate yourself? If your mind is filled with negative self-talk – "I'm no good," "I'm a failure," or "I'll flub this call like all the others" – stop those thoughts in their tracks. Next time a self-deprecating thought comes to mind, write it down. Then read it aloud, but pretend someone else is saying it you. Doesn't it make you want to rush to your own defense?

"Everything you can imagine is real."

If you want to grow, learn to face difficulties. In order to grow, we must face difficult experiences. The successful people you admire likely have learned to accept the challenges of growing as necessary and inevitable. They know intuitively how their experiential mind works and seek out experiences that enhance their growth. Often what holds people back is their inability to put difficult experiences in perspective because their protective and unrealistic thoughts stand in the way of seeing things objectively.

An amazing number of salespeople suffer from a lack of belief in their own talents and abilities. They become their own worst enemies. When you predict you can't, you work harder to prove just that. You might even avoid asking for the order to remove the possibility of rejection. But when a customer says no, it does not mean the end of the world, your life, or your career. It only means that the customer has chosen to say no at that particular moment. It does not mean that the customer will say no forever. Remind yourself how many times you've been able to turn a no into a yes in the past to restore belief in your own abilities.

"The future you see is the future you get."

"Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get."