Students Of Success

Fit Balls, Swiss Balls, Physio Balls and Exercise Balls! Call them what you will, we all know what you’re talking about - those big blow up balls of different sizes and colours you have always wanted to try but never had the chance. They are becoming a favoured tool of the personal trainer, the ‘must have’ piece of equipment for the home studio, and an essential item for complete programming for the development of core strength and reduction and termination of lower back pain.

Because of a sedentary lifestyle, most people have poor posture. The muscles of the trunk are no longer able to support the body in the most efficient way possible. Because of external support from a chair, couch, car seat, etc., the neuromuscular system has “forgotten” how to maintain posture easily and efficiently. This usually leads to breakdown, pain and dysfunction.

I have found that using a Fit ball is a very effective way to correct postural alignment. Exercises on the ball can be very mild or extremely challenging depending on the needs of the client. By balancing on the ball, the client now has no other support to rely on except his or her own body. The body will automatically call on the righting and equilibrium responses, facilitating a coordinated effort of the postural muscles. The client unconsciously finds a way to balance on the ball with the least amount of muscle use possible, therefore reinforcing positive movement patterns.

Fit Balls are one of the most effective exercise tools to improve and develop spinal, pelvic and shoulder girdle stability. Total core stability is achieved along with improved posture and an increased awareness of your own body – the way it moves and the way it is designed to move. An enhanced kinesthetic sense is discovered and refined, allowing you to ‘feel’ your own actions and be able to adjust incorrect positions and movements performed throughout the exercises.

Fit Balls add variety to create new and challenging demands on the body in a number of different planes. Just about any exercise done in the gym can be performed using the Fit Ball. We all know how important variety is to every program. Not just from the point of view of changing the stimuli to allow for continued adaptation but to enhance motivation. Without it, the likelihood of adhering to our current exercise program and achieving our goals is somewhat slim.

Available in a number of sizes, from 45cm to 75cm in diametre, the right size Fit Ball is determined by your height and more importantly your leg length. While sitting on top of the ball, with calves perpendicular to the ground, your thighs should be parallel and at 90-100° with your knees and your body weight evenly distributed over both feet. This is your correct postural position. Imagine a straight line starting from your ear, travelling through your shoulder and stopping at the centre point of your pelvis. This visual connection will help you adjust and maintain correct postural alignment in the initial stages of learning with the Fit Ball.

Implementing the use of a Fit Ball recruits your ‘stabilizer’ muscles to establish and maintain a solid platform from which you develop strength, endurance and correct postural adaptations. They encourage the contraction and stimulation of deep muscle fibres within the trunk including external and internal obliques, rectus and transverse abdominals and the erector spinae and quadratus lumborum. I’m sure those of you who have sought professional advice for lower back pain and postural correction have heard of these muscles before. The relationship between the abdominal and lower back muscles is crucial to core stability, yet neither should be the sole focus of any particular training session.

When using the Fit Ball it is possible to reach muscular exhaustion without showing any normal signs of physiological fatigue due to the high involvement of stabilizing muscles and joint structures. Rotate exercises between the upper and lower regions and the trunk. This guarantees complete recovery of all muscle groups to allow each muscle to be utilized with maximum efficiency and productivity.

As with all exercise, the quality of the movement is more important than the quantity of exercise, repetitions or sets performed on the Fit ball.

The Fit ball is a great tool for the personal trainer to use. Clients enjoy using the ball, and it also promotes body awareness, improves balance and coordination, and reinforces proper spinal alignment along with a great new and challenging stimulus for your brain, as well as your body!

As a health and fitness professional for over 10 years, Daniel has personally trained more than 4000 people, on 4 continents towards the achievement of their fitness and lifestyle objectives using his unique holistic and functional approach to lifestyle enhancement. Daniel is a true leader and innovator in the industry. Daniel draws from an academic background in Human Movement, Exercise Science and Sports Management in Australia & also holds a Diploma in Massage Therapy, & Certificates in Workplace Health Promotion, Personal Training (ACSM) and Australian Training for Fitness Professionals (ATP), Golf Fitness & Conditioning, Postural Analysis, Weight Management & Fat Loss.

Daniel is the founder and CEO of Fitcorp Asia, Thailand’s only Corporate Health & Fitness Solutions Company. “We don’t just conduct personal training, we take pride in our ability to ‘coach’ our clients in all exercise science principles including nutrition and total lifestyle transformation to ensure our clients achieve a holistic goal orientated approach to their personal health and fitness endeavours.

Baseline Selling: How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know About the Game of Baseball
By Dave Kurlan
Authorhouse (2005)
Reviewed by William Phenn for Reader Views (1/06)

Baseline Selling was written by a man that knows sales. Dave Kurlan started selling while still in his childhood years. Greeting cards, knives, pots and pans - he ran the gamut. Kurlan’s sales career paralleled so much of my own that I could relate to him immediately. When he spoke of the Wearever incident it brought fond memories of my own Wearever days (burning apples in the “Waterless Cookware”). Kurlan has truly paid his dues in the sales profession. Now, he passes on his many years of knowledge in these 203 pages.

Baseline Selling is so much more than just an instructional book on sales and closing techniques, it is an in depth book on the business of sales. From First Base to Home Plate, Kurlan makes you a player. He explains the “Five ways to get to first base”, “The Seven Challenges” of getting there, and everything in between. Topics such as goal planning, how to reach decision makers, phone manners and prospecting, just to name a few, are covered.

Then on to “Second and the Quality,” “Cause and Effect” and a very important one, “Too Much Empathy ” and many more items of interest. Kurlan shows how to overcome prospect problems by learning to anticipate them.

As I continued running to Third, I was shown how to demonstrate added value in a presentation to a prospect. I was shown how to present my company as a solution to the prospects problem and how to help the prospect make a decision, as to his present vendor or my company.

Finally, rounding third and heading for Home Plate, Kurlan hit this reader with, “The Six Biggest Presentation Challenges.” Things to say, do, not say and not do. My favorite was, “Mouth Marbles,” where the author suggests a course in speech therapy. Kurlan goes further into dealing with objections and shows the proper close. At Home Plate he stresses the theories of closing and how it is all in the timing. He concludes the book with a very interesting chapter on, “Account Management,” and what to do after the sale.

Baseline Selling is definitely a Homerun for Kurlan. His presentation of this very informative volume made for an enjoyable experience. In my usual manner with a great book, I give Kurlan and Baseline Selling an A+ (Must read).

William Phenn is a reviewer for Reader Views
http://www.readerviews.com

“Thanks For The Rejection!”

By

Dr. Gary S. Goodman  2004

Author: The Law Of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable

It sounds a little masochistic, but I actually appreciate being
rejected. No, I don’t needlessly relish the sting of reproach,
or eagerly welcome scornful criticism, per se. But, as a writer,
a salesperson, and an entrepreneur, I have come to appreciate
that there is a strong correlation between the frequency of
rejections that I withstand and the amount of success I
generate, especially in my career. Every professional writer can
wallpaper a mansion with rejection slips. In fact, I read
somewhere that the famous novel, The Yearling, was submitted
under a different title as an experiment, and it was rejected by
scores of publishers AFTER it had won incredible acclaim.
Curiously, the original publisher rejected the work, too.
Salespeople are taught that there is a math-of-success. They
have to withstand a certain number of no’s before they can earn
a yes. And few entrepreneurs succeed after trying only one
venture. Typically, it takes several attempts and even when one
initiative prevails, its lifespan is limited. As I write this
article, in fact, I’m probably not experiencing ENOUGH
rejection. If I want to get more done, to appreciate the thrills
of more achievements, I need to put myself on the line, more and
more. I have to ASK for what I want and need, and of course when
I do so, I’ll be giving people the power to say NO. Let me ask
you this:

What could you achieve in life if you decided to become totally
and blissfully impervious to hostile criticism and to rejection?
What careers or hobbies would you pursue that you’re just too
emotionally brittle to engage in, now?

For instance, a friend of mine is a professional actor. He is
among the 10% of thespians who actually finds a considerable
amount of work in the field. In fact, just this year he appeared
in four motion pictures, and a few were highly publicized, and
did fairly well at the box office. But he has to constantly
trawl for work and he is a tireless self-promoter. He even asked
me if I could send a note to visitors to my web site that would
tout the brilliance of his most recent film! Though he hopes
that one of his roles will become a breakout success and will
attract even more roles, he doesn’t assume this will occur. On
the contrary, he hustles day in and day out, answering every
casting call, and networking like crazy to hear about roles that
he might play. He behaves like a kid who is struggling to get
into the business, and he’s grateful for every break he gets. He
speculates that most people don’t make a living in the acting
field because they become worn down by rejections. They stop
believing in their skills, and as a result, they try less and
less. And by trying less, they succeed less. If they would just
work the numbers, and eagerly go for every opportunity, they’d
work more, polish their skills, and they’d stay busy doing what
they love. Success would then become inevitable. I’ve been
giving considerable thought to the fear of rejection, and here’s
one of my conclusions about it:

It isn’t the rejection that is intrinsically disturbing. It’s
the interpretation we make about it that drives us nuts and
prevents us from realizing our potential.

What do we tell ourselves? In essence, we draw the wrong
inferences and make inappropriate generalizations from these
experiences. For one thing, we tell ourselves that the
rejections will be pervasive. If X rejected us, so will Y and Z.
Another tendency is to believe that today’s rejection will be
permanent. If X said no yesterday, he’ll definitely say no today
and tomorrow. Finally, we tell ourselves that rejection is
personal. It’s about us, as individuals, and it reveals
fundamental flaws about our character, our skills, or our
attractiveness.

When you read these things, they instantly seem foolish, don’t
they?

For instance, on what authority, we have to ask ourselves, do we
KNOW that if X rejected us, Y & Z will follow suit? We fear that
will be the case, and we may suspect it will be so. But by no
means is it conclusive, until we make it that way by failing to
keep trying. Likewise, on what basis can we assert that today’s
rejection will recur tomorrow? When I was a salesperson, working
my way through college, I contacted a fellow who LOUDLY rejected
my offer, to say the least. Actually, he got unhinged and
declared, “Never contact me, again!” I remember this episode
vividly, because it was so exceptional. Anyway, the very next
day, by mistake, I phoned him. (Apparently, I forgot to strike
his name from my list.) My error only became apparent to me
after I got him on the line and asked him how he was. At that
second, I thought, “Oops!” To my surprise, he replied, “I’m
fine.” I had no choice but to continue with my sales spiel,
fully expecting him to reject me, even more loudly and
emphatically, at any moment. Imagine how shocked I was to ask
him for his order and to hear him cheerfully respond with,
“Okay!”

He bought from me, the very day after telling me to never
contact him again!

Please believe me when I tell you it was a mistake that I had
called him back. Given how poorly the first call went, I was in
no mood for a repeat performance. But by erring in this way, I
accidentally proved the point that rejection isn’t necessarily
permanent. Today’s no can even be a precursor, and a necessary
one, to tomorrow’s yes, if we only get our minds around the
concept. This story also demonstrates that rejection isn’t
necessarily personal. The day before, when this guy bit my head
off, he was probably overwhelmed by something that had nothing
to do with me. Yet, when many of us are being spurned, our
impulse is to blame ourselves and to feel sullied by the overall
experience. We feel awful, and beat ourselves down before the
next person can do it to us. So, what can we do to conquer
rejection and to actually learn to invite it?

Four things:

(1)Tell yourself it is isolated; (2)Tell yourself it is
temporary; and (3)Tell yourself it doesn’t pertain to you,
personally. In other words they may be rejecting your idea or
offer, but they aren’t rejecting YOU. (4)Prove these truths by
actively seeking more rejections. If you hope to publish that
novel or to get that screenplay into the right hands, send them
out more widely. Give more people the chance to say no!

This is one of the great secrets of the Law of Large Numbers. Do
more of anything, and you’ll make success inevitable!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a popular keynote speaker, consultant,
and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books. He
is the author of the Nightingale-Conant audio program, The Law
Of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable. Gary teaches
Entrepreneurship and Consulting at UCLA Extension, and he is
President of Customersatisfaction.com and The Goodman
Organization. When he isn’t being rejected, he can usually be
found in Glendale, California, where he makes his home. He can
be reached at gary@customersatisfaction.com.

It seems that some people do not recognize that dispite some unpleasant aftereffects, bankruptcy is truly a “fresh start.”

Instead of being satisfied with the benefits they receive some people remain unhappy.

Here is a letter I received:

“Why does it take attorney’s six or more weeks to discharge a chapter 13?

Why do apartment leasers hold a bankruptcy against you when I don’t see how you could add apartment rent onto your bankruptcy?

If life is so miserable after a bankruptcy, why are lawyers constantly telling people it’s okay to file. (They want to get paid.) “

My response:

“Six weeks for a discharge isn’t that long and may well be governed by the schedule of the bankruptcy court.

Some landlords may not want to rent to someone with bad credit. They may feel that they will have to chase the renter for their money. Dispossessions are time consuming and expensive.

In many cases the landlord will get possession of his apartment, but may never recover the unpaid rent.

While the court proceedings drag on, the landlord has lost a part of his source of income. So he has a right to be careful.

However life is not that bad after bankruptcy. Debtors used to be sent to jail.

Not too long ago, bankruptcy would mean that the bankrupts would have to carry a stigma for life. Many committed suicide rather than face the disgrace.

Many people who went bankrupt during the Great Depression spent years paying off their discharged debts as a matter of honor.

Now nobody much cares. You will be able to get credit. Your debts have been wiped away. What more can you ask for?

You were the one who ran up the debts, whether through bad luck, bad planning or the simple inability to control your spending.

You did contract to repay the money and you didn’t.

For the most part you are now free of the pain and pressure caused by your financial problems. You will face some obstacles over the next few years, but you should have realized that before filing.

You approached a lawyer, not the other way around. I’m sure the lawyer didn’t twist your arm to force you to file. If you’ve gotten your discharge, be happy, restart your life and live with the consequences.

Things could be worse.”

In my opinion this person needs an attitude adjustment.

For more information about bankruptcy and its aftermath, visit http://www.credit-yourself.com/credit-counseling.html.

Chris Cooper a retired attorney, and his wife Aileen, who has a MBA in Finance, provide personal finance and financial planning advice at Credit Yourself – http://www.credit-yourself.com