In This Edition:
1. Slimed by Too Much Information
2. Pause Before You Dip
3. Affirmation for Handling Success
4. Free Speech
The start of another year! The weather has been going from warm to cold, with no warning, but hey, isn't variety the spice of life?
Slimed by Too Much Information
I frequently get phone calls after hours, usually around dinnertime from nice people on the phone with a canned pitch who say, "Mr.
Davidson, How are you this evening?"
"Fine and I am really not interested..." is my standard response.
I know that these callers are trying to make a living and I try to be nice,
but how many of these calls can you field in a week, in a month, in a year
...especially when they all use the same basic script?
One night I get this call from a fellow, and just to be charitable
I decide that I am going to listen for a few minutes. He's from a brokerage
house, he's got all these investment plans he wants me to consider and I
finally blurt out, "Wait a second. Please don't tell me about your 35
investment plans. Boil it down for me. I am the author of the book,
Breathing Space, I never volunteer to be slimed" (to use the Ghost Busters
term). "Tell me about the three investments that you think might be right for
me."
After some hemming and hawing he finally agrees that he'll send me
information on the 3 not on the 35 he had planned to send. Then he goes on
to tell me about his annual report, that his company just came out with and
the quarterly report and he could send those along and I say, "No, no
please. I don't need to read those reports. If I want them I can always
call you back, I can look on the Internet, I can write to your company, I
can circle the reader information card in Forbes or Fortune. There are
many, many ways that I can get a hold of your annual your annual report if I
want to. Please, don't send your annual report or your quarterly report."
And after a while he finally relents and he agrees not to send his annual
report or his quarterly report.
Then he goes on, and I'm not kidding here, to mention his 10K, you
know the comprehensive report that public companies have to file with the
SEC and we go through the same routine. And then, incredibly, he talks
about these other lavish pieces of literature, all of which I don't need. So
I am spending six, eight minutes on this phone call simply convincing him
that if he wants to do business with me the best way to reach me is to give
me a slim little packet of maybe the 3 things that might work based on my
situation or as far as he knows about my situation.
He agrees, and I'm wondering what he might actually recommend. Now
I put down the phone and, like you go, about my business and I totally
forget about it, right? About three days pass. I get a package in the mail from
his brokerage house. It's thick. No, that's not accurate, it's very thick,
more than an inch. What's in the package, I ask you?
I have no idea. Recognizing the name of his brokerage house I know
that the package is way too large based on our discussion. I take that
package, and with my powerful wrists I go to tear in half with one mighty
rip, and get a little exercise, but it was a Tyvek envelope, you know the
kind you can't tear, so I tossed the whole thing into the circular file.
I won't deal with that broker, probably not that brokerage house either.
They overwhelmed me, and I specifically asked them not to. I never
responded, never spoke to the guy, never had contact again. But you know
what? If he had sent me that thin package I might have made his day.
Pause Before You Dip
Martin Moore-Ede, M.D., Ph.D. in The 24 Hour Society observes that
the lowest alertness in a day for most people is between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m.
Highest alertness is between 9 a.m. and noon, and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
A person's alertness will vary due to hours of consecutive duty,
hours of duty in the proceeding week, irregular hours, monotony on the job,
timing and duration of naps, environmental lighting, sound, aroma,
temperature, cumulative sleep deprivation over the past week, and much more.
Have you taken the time to map your own times of highest and lowest
alertness during your typical work day?
Affirmation for Handling Success
- I choose to acknowledge my completions frequently.
- I choose to acknowledge my accomplishments, big and small.
- I choose to gain the recognition and rewards I deserve.
- I choose to easily manage the abundance that is forthcoming.
- I choose to become even more skilled at what I do.
- I choose to become a mentor to others.
- I choose to remain humble.
- I choose to be open to new ways of doing things.
- I choose to share my success with others.
- I choose to acknowledge the accomplishments of others.
- I choose to stay connected to the creative process.
- I choose to experience unlimited happiness.
- I choose to retain that which supports me easily.
- I choose to reach for the highest that is within me.
- I choose to maintain clarity in my work and my life.
Free Speech
The former Dodger manager, Tommy Lasorda, who later became a highly paid motivational speaker, reported that he was once asked the following:
"Do you believe in the United States of America? Do you believe in
the U.S. Constitution? Do you believe in the Bill of Rights? Do you
believe in free speech? Well, you're giving one..."
