Monthly Archives: June 2011

Is It Really Possible for Anyone to Be Successful?

While I stood at the bottom of the mountain, looking at all the people at the top, I wondered if I had what it took for them to get there. Every time I pushed myself to climb and then slipped or fell, it became that much harder to believe I was capable. It’s a defeatist attitude.
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Today’s Words That Work: Blandishment

Blandishment (BLAN-dish-munt) – from the Latin for “to flatter” – is speech or action intended to coax, entice, or persuade. The plural form of the word is usually used. Example (as used by Anne Rice in Vittorio, the Vampire ): “And that my English-speaking victims find my blandishments so pretty, accented as they are, and yield to my soft lustrous Italian pronunciations, is a constant source of bliss for me.”
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Life: Once Complicated, Now Easy

It’s often said that you can use certain sales messages over and over because, let’s face it, your target market is a marching army. Over and over, they revisit the same points in life… they discover the same needs and wants. You show them how to satisfy those needs and wants… and the cycle repeats
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What Tina Fey Can Teach You About AdWords

A 50-year-old comedy and improv school/theater in Chicago called The Second City has produced an alumni list consisting of many of the world’s most talented and successful comics. A short list would include Tina Fey, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carrell, Amy Poehler, Mike Myers, Chris Farley, John Candy, Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, Joan Rivers, Eugene Levy, Harold Ramis, and Dan Castellaneta
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Today’s Words That Work: Raillery

Raillery (RAY-luh-ree) – from the French for “to tease” – is light-hearted ridicule. Example (as used by James Burgh): “As nothing is more provoking to some tempers than raillery, a prudent person will not always be satirically witty where he can, but only where he may without offence.”
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Are You Still Stuck on Affirmations?

Traditional success coaches are big advocates of “affirmations” – repeating statements that you’d like to be true. For example, a classic “affirmation” is: “I am rich.” Okay. Try it
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Today’s Words That Work: Cognizant

To be cognizant (KOG-nuh-zunt) – from the Latin for “get to know” – is to be aware. Example (as used by Rich Schefren today): “Your job right now is to become cognizant of what you need to know to achieve your main goal.”
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Effectiveness Is Not Inborn

Just as each and every one of us had to learn to tie our shoelaces, no one was born knowing how to be a successful entrepreneur. Every entrepreneur had to learn how to be effective at what he was trying to accomplish – and practice being effective until it became a habit. I don’t talk about it much, but before I opened my chain of hypnosis centers, I traveled all over the world, learning from the best neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and hypnosis teachers
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Do You Need “the Mindset of a Champion”?

Do you have the mindset of a champion?
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The Language Perfectionist: Mixed and Mashed Metaphors

It’s been a while since I wrote about mixed metaphors in this column. So let’s review
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