Three Elements of Success to Achieve Your Heart’s Desire - Benjamin J Harvey

What do baseball bats, playing cards and Alex Rodriguez have to do with you achieving everything in your life that you desire?

There’s a man in America who is famous for his mindset coaching and he works with a variety of people, including some of the top performing professional athletes in the world. His name is Jim Fannin and he is the author of a book called 'Score For Life’.

One of the things Jim likes to do with his top performing athlete is teach them three critical elements to ensure they achieve whatever they desire in their chosen sport:

1. Find the essence of their master craft
2. A huge amount of mental rehearsal
3. Work with their intuition

Jim was working with Alex Rodriguez, a famous American baseball player. Jim asked Alex exactly what he wanted to achieve in the sport of baseball. Alex replied that he wanted to be the greatest homerun hitter of all time. Jim said, “that's a big goal... let's sit down and work out what the essence of that actually is. What makes an incredible homerun hitter? Is it upper body strength? Is it the ability to run quickly? Is it the ability to pick the ball and understand what sort of pitch is coming? Or is it the ability to hit the ball as hard as possible?”

1. Find the essence of your master craft
They discovered the most important thing that Alex needed to perfect (as in the absolute essence of the craft), to achieve what he desired and  to become the greatest homerun hitter of all time, was to hit the ball flat with an accelerated bat. When he perfected that he wouldn't need to do much else.

2. A huge amount of mental rehearsal
The second thing that Jim suggested Alex do was begin a huge amount of mental rehearsal. So what Alex used to do was mentally rehearse hitting that ball perfectly flat every single time. He only rehearsed this one thing, which was hitting the ball flat with an accelerated bat.

3. Work your intuition
Jim got Alex to really perfect and work on his intuition. He showed Alex pitches that were recorded and as a pitcher got ready to pitch the ball Jim would pause the video and ask Alex “what kind of ball does your intuition say this is? Is it a fast ball, low ball, curved ball or drop ball?"  Alex would have to use his intuition to interpret what sort of pitch is coming his way. In doing this practice he was able to harness Alex's intuition to make him far more intuitive when out playing.

So, what does this mean for you and how do you put it in action?

First of all make some time to set your goal and ask yourself one question: What is the core essence that will allow me to achieve  my desire effectively?  Discover the essence of the craft that you’re doing.

In my field of personal development and assisting people to live their mission and do whatever they love most in life, I have determined that the essence of my master craft is to focus my attention on the heart’s desires of those I serve.

What I mean by that is when someone sits in front of me, or I am working with a client, all I have to do is focus all my attention on what they desire most in life inside their heart. If I do that, I find that accelerates their ability to create what they love most.

Once you have done that then embark on a huge amount of mental rehearsal. Jim didn't say just small amount of mental rehearsal, he said a huge amount of mental rehearsal.

Once you do a huge amount of mental rehearsal then work out activities to harness and strengthen your intuition. It's different depending on your craft, but one generic exercise I suggest is to get two different coloured pens and throw them over your head with your eyes closed then use your intuition to guess which colour pen landed where behind you.

There are many other ways to harness your intuition but please focus on those three elements of success: understanding the essence of your master craft, undertaking a huge amount of mental rehearsal and harnessing your intuition for the better in order to achieve your heart’s desire.

How To Be More Charismatic

Charisma is a crucial ingredient of business success.

Without it, it’s hard to influence others. Difficult to clinch sales. And damn near impossible to get to the top. 

But it is widely assumed that charisma cannot be developed – you’ve either got it or you don’t.

I beg to differ. I’ve coached hundreds of business people on how to be more charismatic, with dramatically positive results.

Here’s some key tips to boost business charisma.

PREPARE DEEPLY.

One of the most powerful ways to come across as charismatic is to really, really know your stuff. Too many intelligent and talented people wing it in meetings and major presentations. Sure, they know the basics, but question them a little further and you often find their knowledge is shallow.

This lowers their charisma in several ways. Firstly, they are just a tad unsure with their answers, as they don’t have a complete grasp of the subtle points of an issue. As a result, they can come across as less confident.

Secondly, because they have not fully mastered the issue they tend to speak less in meetings, and therefore, make less of an impression.

On the other hand, when you have truly prepared for a presentation well, knowing the issues better than anyone else in the room, you exude confidence. You speak up. You are not afraid to differ and make your point. You, therefore, are far more likely to be perceived as a dynamic, charismatic individual.

ASK QUESTIONS.

The person who asks the questions usually controls the meeting. And those that ask reasonably smart questions usually come across as intelligent and even wise – two elements that help build the perception of charisma. I have always found it interesting that it takes a lot less knowledge to ask a good question as it does to provide a good answer; yet, those who ask a lot of questions often end up giving the best impression.

Unfair or not, the fact remains that one of the most effective ways of appearing more charismatic is to increase the amount of questions you ask in important meetings. Try it and watch how many of the attendees start talking directly to you as a result. You become the center of the meeting.

USE YOUR HANDS WHILE SPEAKING.

It may seem strange, but observe somebody you know who exudes charisma and you’ll almost certainly notice that they use their hands a lot when they speak. Hand gesticulations make people seem more passionate, interested and are a clear sign of confidence – all important components of charisma.

If you question the importance of hand movements, watch someone who you feel is totally devoid of charisma. In most cases, they will deliver their points with almost no hand movements to aid them.

BE GENUINELY INTERESTED IN THE PEOPLE YOU TALK WITH.

It seems somewhat illogical, but people are always impressed by somebody who seems really interested in what they are saying.

So many people are craving appreciation and respect, that if you look like you’re giving it to them they’ll become your raving fans.

Merely by listening to them intently and expressing great interest in the points people make, you will usually make a very positive impact on them. Even if you hardly say anything, they will view you as perspicacious simply because you showed the ‘wisdom’ to be riveted by their point of view. As the old saying goes, “To appear interesting be interested.”

DEVELOP PASSIONS.

When people come alive about their passions and hobbies, they immediately become a lot more charismatic. The more you’re into something, the more animatic your presenting style is. Passionate people are usually far more magnetic than those who are ambivalent.

Your passionate attitude should extend beyond your hobbies of course; if you can exude passion about many things, that enthusiasm will generally make you seem a more exciting person. Being bored with life is never equated with charisma.

BE ENERGETIC.

Although there are definitely subdued people who emanate charisma, generally humans are attracted by strong, uplifting energy.

If you want to increase your charisma at work, lift your energy level. Being energetic in how you talk and move will make you more captivating. Most people judge people by the energy they give off (no doubt you’ve met plenty of people you just energetically didn’t feel good about). So, before you walk into an important meeting or sales presentation take a minute to center yourself and lift up your energy factor. It can make a major difference to people’s perception of you.

OPTIMISM RULES.

Closely aligned with energy comes optimism. As Professor Martin Seligman from the University of Pennsylvania has shown, most of us prefer to hang out with optimistic people. In a world where in most cases you can buy from several suppliers, it’s often those that we enjoy being with who get the deal.

Of course, i’m not talking about pie in the sky, Pollyanna thinking, I’m referring to intelligent, reasonable optimism- choosing to see the possibility in work situations, rather than only the downside. Optimism doesn’t just make us more charismatic, it’s also been shown to increase persistence and resilience – a crucial factor in work and life success, as several studies have shown (See Andrew Zolli’s excellent book, ‘Resilience. Why Things Bounce Back’ for examples).

The more you look into charisma at work, the more you can see it is not some accidental attribute – it can be created and enhanced with simple, easy to apply strategies. So, in the next week, why not focus on one or two of the methods I’ve outlined and see if you can boost your charisma. In the business world, it’s a highly useful trait to have.