With so much going on, it can be easy to lose sight of the things that make you feel good.

This exercise is well worth doing and just requires 10 minutes of quality time to yourself.
You can, if you wish, make it a conversational piece with a friend or partner.

Here is how it works:

The starting point is to imagine you are blissfully happy — feeling joy and being light of cares and worry.

This is the feeling when you can’t help but smile and feel relaxed and at peace with your world.

To help you think about this, you can go through your whole life — childhood, growing up, and beyond.

Then when you think about this, think about your 5 senses:

• Sight,
• Hearing,
• Touch,
• Feeling and
• Taste.

See if you can come up with one feeling of joy for each of them.

Some examples might be:

• The most beautiful song you have ever heard
• Watching your family or pets playing
• Going for your favourite walk
• Eating your most favourite meal
• Telling someone you love them

Next — Here is what you need to ask yourself:

What are your top 10 joys in life?

Don’t over-analyse — just write. The simpler the better.
If you want, you can go back and add to your list days or weeks later.

Now check out your list.

• What do you notice?
• Are there any common themes or surprises?
• How easy are they to do?
• If you don’t do them, why not?

Can you now think about how you can bring some of these items into your life? Now write down one specific action you are going to do to bring more joy into your life.

Fill your life with simple things that bring you joy, then go and enjoy and be happy.

Selling With Confidence

I have recently had the opportunity to work with an organisation called Your Personal Training, who are literally the biggest Personal Training provider in the UK.

During a presentation at their Level Up event at the NEC, I was talking about encouraging people to buy from you, rather than having to sell to them.

We discussed various thoughts on:

• Being confident and believing in yourself and what you offer
• Asking great open questions
• Importantly — listening to understand rather than to just respond

And we got onto something we’ve all seen in various films and TV shows:

The “Sell me this pen” scene.

Here’s the thing — if you’re new to selling, you try and sell the pen:

This pen’s mazing! You can write upside down. I have one myself. It’s great value…

But here’s the real thing:
How do you know what kind of pen the person is looking for?
The situation has no context.

The pen is a euphemism for anything you might wish to sell.

What you really need to do is ask open questions:

• How long have you been in the market for a pen?
• What kind of pen do you typically use?
• What will you be using the pen for?
• How much would you usually spend on a pen?

You are building an understanding of what the person wants so you can provide a solution.

Now relate this to Personal Training:

• How long have you been exercising for?
• What would you like to achieve?
• How would you feel if you were able to achieve that goal?
• How often can you work out each week?
• How soon would you be able to start?

If there is a product or service that you would like people to buy — and your role involves selling — you can apply this idea to anything.

You are building an understanding of what that person is looking for and how you can help.

So you might say:

Based on what you said to me, here is the service that you need — and here’s why.

You are now matching what the person said to the solution you are going to provide.

Make sense?

There are so many tips and ideas on selling — and for me, making sure you do the basics well means you will always be rewarded with great results and a better outcome for both you and your customers.