Success Ground: April 2008

Does Your Handshake Match The Sound of Your Speaking Voice?

By Nancy Daniels

What does your handshake say about you? Confident, diffident, overbearing, wimpy? Does the sound of your speaking voice match the grip of your handshake?

In teaching voice improvement, I have found through the years that those whose speaking voices are weak or wimpy very often follow through with an equally limp handshake.

And, those whose voices express timidity often do not get the coveted job or the promotion because the image they project is not one of confidence. To have a speaking voice that exudes confidence and authority is a tremendous asset. To have a speaking voice that sounds rich, warm and resonant is a fantastic tool: people want to listen when you speak. When Vin Diesel opens his mouth, we want to listen to him; when James Earl Jones talks, we are drawn to him; when Kathleen Turner speaks, we are enamored.

Recently I had the opportunity of working with Rob, a man who came to me because of his very soft, timid speaking voice. His handshake, however, belied his unassertive voice. Firm, confident and strong, this man's grip told me so much about him that his voice was unable to convey.

Because the majority of the population is unaware that they can improve their voice, they often speak with a sound that is incompatible with the rest of their image. There are so many wonderful resonant speaking voices that we're not hearing because most people don't know of the 'hidden treasure' they have inside.

After showing Rob how to tap into his 'hidden treasure,' I heard a voice that matched his confident handshake. Was his voice assertive? Without a doubt - however, as much as he sounded authoritative and confident, his voice was not overbearing or loud.

I don't like loud. Loud hurts your listener's ears and in time it can not hurt your throat and those delicate vocal cords. When I work with a client I show them how to increase their volume properly without shouting or yelling. The result is a larger voice, a bigger voice, but not a loud voice.

Today, competition in the work force is greater than it has ever been. If your voice can project a dynamic image, then you are one step ahead of your competition.

Incidentally, within two hours of showing Rob how to place his voice properly, I was thrilled with the results. This man came into my studio sounding insecure and diffident; he left with a voice that matched his handshake - confident, assured, assertive, and able.

What does your handshake say about you?

What does your voice say about you?

Nancy Daniels is a voice specialist and president of Voice Dynamic. Working privately and corporately, she launched Voicing It! in April of 2006, the first video training course on voice improvement. You can watch a clip from her DVD on her website, 'before' & 'after' takes of her clients, as well as an audio download in which Nancy describes what voice training can do for you at http://www.voicedynamic.com

Secrets To The Greatest Shortcuts To Success

By Koz Huseyin

Why is it some people can succeed in such a period of time, while others work for decades and never even touch on that kind of results? What do they do that is so different from what you do?

* You Need A Mentor!
We can learn a lot from Olympic athletes. Here we have the true successful. Out of all the people on the Earth, we have a select few who had a vision, and are living that vision. Inspiring all, they are good examples to consider.

Every Olympic athlete has 2 important things in there lives. That is a mentor and or coach, and a team. These are a powerful combination and when applied in your life, you will prosper, and your business will prosper.

* The Life Coach
For many people who are achieving big results, we find a life coach somewhere influencing and guiding them to achieve those results. A life coach or mentor is crucial in this process of shortcutting to success, because they know the shortcuts. As Bob Proctor says, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.

Its true, if you think of for example computers, technology, IT, you will find that if you stop learning, within a few short years, possibly even months or weeks, you will find your skill set is of no use! Many industries are going through major shuffling work, as the learners indeed do inherit the good jobs, while those that keep there existing skill set find that they are outdated like old machinery!

Imagine an athlete without a coach, so why would people do that in the business world. After all a business and success is like a marathon, just without the finish line! A life coach can help you in many ways. Because they have access to so many different successful people, they learn constantly what can make you achieve success in the shortest time possible.

* More Ways To Be Mentored And Life Coached
At this point, you may be thinking that you need to pay tens of thousands of dollars to enlist the help of a life coach. This is not necessarily true. Yes, the best life coaches in the world may ask for huge amounts of money to coach you. However, you can also find good coaches who don't need such a large investment.

There is also a major way to master the information you need to succeed, and that is through tape products, and books, and seminars. These combined make practical ways of success possible. The books can be read in your spare time. The tape products can be used with your car to make what Brian Tracy terms a University on Wheels!

The books are a low investment model, which allows you to constantly learn what is essential to take your business and your life to the next level. The tapes on occasion needing much more of an investment, however still within most budgets - allow you to learn while you doing other things. And the seminars can be a practical way of embedding the information to allow you to move forward.

Discover the best way on how to become a life coach
Shortcut your way to success with a life coach for personal development Money making home business ideas and opportunities.

Do You Have A Millionaire Mind?

By Marcus Yeo

This article inspiration comes from part 1 of this book, Secret of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker. The content emphasize on your money blueprint. That one money blueprint will determine his/her financial destiny more than anything and everything else combined.

One wealth principle highlighted in this book called process of manifestation that goes like this: P - T - F - A = R

Simply stands for:
i) Programming leads to Thoughts
ii) Thoughts lead to Feelings
iii) Feelings lead to Actions
iv) Actions lead to Results

Programming, being the roots in this formula, should consider the primary cause of your financial future. So as long as one could change his/her programming, it's the first essential step to changing his/her results.
Programming basically made up of 3 primary components:

1) Verbal Programming - What did you hear when you were young?
2) Modeling - What did you see when you were young?
3) Specific incidents - What did you experience when you were young?

So these are 3 programming in you about money and wealth that shapes your financial future for the rest of your life.

The next step to acquire a millionaire mind is to be aware of your past programming, to understand them as how it affected your current financial life, to disassociate your past thoughts and belief that have not help in empowering you, and lastly to declare, "I have a millionaire mind".

Another process which is really important could be Actions. Actions tend to be lacking or lost some way in life. One has many thoughts, many feelings, but may not convert all feelings into action. Key here is to 'Take Action'. And again, one thing for sure, you will get results. No doubt, results could be negative, but you learnt something from it. You Grow!

Now, part 2 should be even more interesting. So stay tune!

Success Comes From Action Not Hopes or Wishes

By Leanne Hoagland-Smith

With all the talk about hope, many people are being to think that hopes and dreams will get them to where they want to be. This type of behavior amounts to an incredible waste of human potential.

Robert Frost wrote: "A person will sometimes devote all his life to the development of one part of his body - the wishbone."

How many times do we wish or hope for life to get better? Our efforts revolve around what we literally cannot control. We start to believe that someone else will take charge of our life and give us at least what we think we deserve if not more.

When our founding fathers established this great nation, they did a lot of research. One of their models of government was meritocracy. This form of government is where individual merit reigns supreme and allows each individual total control of his or her life.

And being in control of your own life is what truly matters. For only you know what you want! Think about it when someone else sets the goals or agendas? How did you feel?

Many immigrants came to this country because they heard that your individual merits no matter your status in life will be the single most important factor as you work towards to master success. You are responsible for you. Your individuals merits, the results of your hard labors, will be your laurels.

Fast forward a couple of hundred years and this is no longer the case. Individual merit is viewed as being selfish and someone else (the government) can do a better job. People now really start developing that wishbone for their lives and the lives of their children. Hope becomes the guiding strategy and not individual action, responsibility or accountability.

If you truly want to master success in all aspects of life, then forget hope and wishes unless you have a plan with written goals. For only you are responsible for your success. And leave the wishbone for Thanksgiving or for those who still want to be one of the many who fail to master success.

Are you where you want to be? The M.A.P. for Success, a FREE email coaching program may help you begin to chart a course of business, professional or personal success. Visit http://www.processspecialist.com/action-plan.htm.

Looking for other success coaching tips and advice? Then visit the success coaching gym.

Leanne Hoagland-Smith with locations near Chicago & Indianapolis helps organizations through business coaching training services to return to the purpose of business that being building raving fans while increasing productivity and profitability. She can assist you to double business results. Call 219.759.5601 to schedule a free business coaching consultation.

Mindset Makes The Difference Between the Struggle and the Success

By Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Much is written about positive attitudes, attitudes are everything, think and grow rich and the list goes on. Yet what mindset is keeping you from the ability to master success? What mindset are you struggling with day in and day out?

How you look at things determine how things are to you. The words you speak and think to yourself create a mindset and how you perceive the world. Your focus (mindset) creates your realty.

Think of a record playing in your brain. Every time you think negative thoughts, thoughts of self imposed limitations such as I cannot do this or that the grooves in the record become deeper and deeper. You are literally in a hole where you continue to dig and forget the number one rule when you are in a hole - stop digging. Stop thinking all of those thoughts that are hampering your potential.

For example, if you believe that business is bad, then business will be bad because your mindset prevents you from seeing anything else. Your mindset blinds you from all the opportunities that are sitting right in front of you. As the old express goes, you cannot see the forest for the trees.

Yes, the ability to master success is not necessarily easy though it may be simple. Struggles will happen. How you handle those struggles will be a deciding factor. Your efforts through your mindset will make the difference between overcoming those struggles and being successful or giving in and not being successful.

The book The Secret addresses the power of your mind and if you set your mind to receiving great thoughts and embrace the actions from those very same thoughts you will realize success. Accepting that the mind is the deciding factor to master success has been part of man's history since recorded time.

Of course the greatest challenge is for people to understand the power of their minds as they continue to go forth in the quest to truly master success.