Read more about the article 4 Mentalities That Hinder Learning

4 Mentalities That Hinder Learning

We have numerous sayings about learning being a lifelong process. It is a notion that possibly no one disagrees with because it is evidently true. However, even the people who claim to believe in this statement have a challenge in following it. For instance, have you encountered people who are fond of joining seminars, courses, or training events for either personal development or professional development yet do not display significant improvement afterward? 

While not all of the contents of such courses or training events may be useful, for sure, there are nuggets of wisdom that one can get from those as they are designed for that purpose in the first place. No matter how many training and courses we attend, we cannot use those if we do not rid ourselves of the hindrances to learning. What are these hindrances? The barriers that keep us from learning include the following mentalities that we possibly have:

  1. “I am intelligent.” This statement is the same as the infamous I-know-that line. When a person is heavily confident that he knows a lot of knowledge and is defined as academically intelligent, that person will most likely have difficulty learning more. When one has this confidence that he knows a lot or everything, he unconsciously refuses to accept the knowledge that is different from what he was initially taught.  
  2. “I am better than you.” Although humans being imperfect is generally accepted to be accurate, people still tend to expect teachers or mentors to be perfect. As a result, the valuable lessons are overlooked when one observes a weakness in the teacher or mentor. We hinder ourselves from learning when we see or observe that the one teaching us has flaws that we think make them unreliable, especially if we are strong in that area. 
  3. “I already achieved success.” Many people tend to rest on their laurels or stop improving themselves once they achieve a win. This mentality hinders one from learning because complacency takes over. If one is complacent, learning is never a priority. 
  4. “I do not see the need for change.” This mentality follows after one achieves a particular win or success. Willingness to learn new things tends to stop for a person with this mentality because, the knowledge or skill that he has worked. 

If a person has these mentalities when trying to learn, he will not achieve the goal of learning. The responsibility of teaching falls on the teacher’s shoulder or mentor, but learning is the student’s responsibility. When one is equipped with knowledge and skills yet hindered by his negative mentalities, learning is impossible. Knowledge can only become useful and powerful when applied. Real learning only takes place when we are ready to unlearn or relearn. In other words, when our minds are open. 

Do you agree with this?

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Read more about the article 5 Ways to Prevent Stress

5 Ways to Prevent Stress

I have observed for a long time now that people tend to become extremely stressed when the first month of every year comes. It’s like people become frantic to make a lot of things done. Should this be how we start the year? Aside from careful planning and goal setting, we should also learn how to consciously rid ourselves of stress, or even prevent it from sticking to us. Why? The answer is simple. Stress makes us less productive. So here are some tips on how we may be able to prevent ourselves from getting unnecessarily stressed:

  1. Perform tasks one at a time – avoid multitasking. Why does doing tasks one at a time prevent stress? It is because when we do more than one thing at once, our mind becomes overloaded. Our thoughts become mixed up. This will then result in confusion, errors, or delays, then inevitably stress will immediately take over. On the other hand, if we stick to completing one task at a time, we can focus all our energy and mind on the task at hand with no other distracting thoughts. This will then result in the task being finished faster, and for another task to be started. When this is the case, would we feel relaxed or stressed? I bet we all know the answer.
  2. Get enough rest every day. Have you ever tried waking up in the morning feeling very tired and not wanting to do anything? While there can be several possible reasons for such feelings, the most common one is not getting enough sleep. If we already feel that way in the morning, what do we expect the rest of the day would go? This feeling would lead to a lot of consequences such as unfinished tasks, and a hot temperament. Needless to say, not having enough rest will lead us to stress.
  3. Energize yourself by eating healthily and exercising constantly. Based on personal experience and from others’ experiences, eating healthy food can boost our mood and energy as opposed to eating unhealthy foods. When we eat unhealthy foods, we tend to become sleepy and less energized. On the contrary, we feel refreshed and energetic when we ingest the right kind of food. This has a similar effect on our body as exercise. Although we become sweaty and almost breathless after exercising, we can feel that our muscles become more alive as the tensions that build up was released.
  4. Take a breather from time to time. We sometimes think that a productive day means being able to work on a lot of things nonstop. We often fail to realize that when we push ourselves to continuously work the whole day, our minds and bodies become weary and less efficient. Despite the seemingly endless tasks we may have, we should always take even a short breather every day. We should always take the time to go on break to refresh ourselves. Taking a breather is not only a way for us to regain our strength, but also a way to rid ourselves of possible unhelpful thoughts building up in our minds.
  5. Embrace the fact that there are things you can’t control. Of course, there are things that no amount of planning or concentration can solve. Some things are out of our control, may it be because of natural causes or human intervention. This is a fact that we need to accept. What we can control is how we respond to such inevitable situations. If we try to control it, we are just unnecessarily adding stress to ourselves. What we should do is do what we can on our end and let it go.

“Life is what you make it.” ~Eleonor Roosevelt

While it is true that we have no hold over a lot of things or happenings around us, we have control over ourselves. We can help ourselves or condition ourselves to do what can result in something good or better. We have to choose to help ourselves rather than giving in to negativity.

Do you agree?

 

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Read more about the article 3 Reasons to Invest in Training in 2021

3 Reasons to Invest in Training in 2021

“You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.” -Jim Rohn.

While the arrival of a new year gave everyone new hope, the fact that the world is still experiencing the blows of 2020’s challenge cannot be ignored or discounted. Do you make this as an excuse to be idle once again? Do you use this condition as a scapegoat to fall back to laziness? 

The fact that you survived a deadly pandemic is enough reason to believe that you ought to continue working on your life’s purpose. For that reason, you must refrain from acting like you are a helpless victim of the situation and start adapting to it instead. After all, humans have the one most crucial ability needed to cope in a changing environment – the ability to think. As a human gifted with such capacity, you can direct and redirect yourself and overcome adversities.

Redirecting here means changing your steps to achieve still your goals aligned with your mission. One of the things you can do to shift is to engage in learning and training. While you may be held by varying reasons not to invest in such at the moment, here are the top reasons why you must:

  1. A new season requires a new you. The pandemic, which remains a challenge until now, caused a change in our condition as a whole. Things are now done differently, like interacting with others. This change alone affects a lot of industries, like sales and business. To address the challenges that result from this change, you need to change a lot in yourself. You can make these happen through learning and training.
  2. Knowledge can become obsolete. This truth is undisputed ever since, and even more so now. There is a lot of information that can no longer be considered applicable because of the pandemic and the changes that came with it. The same applies to the knowledge and skills that you acquired in the past to address specific situations. You might have realized by now that you can no longer use some of those. Thus, you need to learn the competencies that can help you address the new challenges that come your way. Where else can you acquire these competencies but from the people who have dedicated their time to devise new ways around each challenge. Take selling as an example. Industry experts have already come up with new marketing strategies that work in this kind of situation. Thus, you have to learn it from them by attending training programs about it.
  3. You are on a mission. If you are on a mission, you must know that it is more significant than your circumstances. It would be best if you do not allow any setbacks to stop you from fulfilling that mission. So, if you want your approach towards your mission to be effective, you need to learn the necessary knowledge and skills and train how to use them accordingly. 

Whatever industry you are in or whatever mission you have, you can only do better in it by equipping yourself. Please do not waste time complaining or blaming others for the challenge we are all experiencing now. Instead, focus on adjusting yourself to rise and overcome the adversity. You know what to do. Are you up for the challenge? 

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Read more about the article Top 2 Common Mistakes of Salespeople

Top 2 Common Mistakes of Salespeople

A new year has finally taken over. Most of us, salespeople, have been preparing to have a better start and a smooth journey throughout the year. Although there are still restrictions due to the community quarantine, everyone is already gearing up to perform exceptionally. As helping salespeople elevate their results is one of my missions, I ensure to make them aware of everything that may affect their sales. Some of the things that salespeople need to be mindful of are the mistakes they are unintentionally committing and how they handle their sales transactions and results.

Here are the top two common mistakes that a salesperson usually commits without realizing the consequences each have:

  1. Lack of belief in one’s own product or service. The most common mistake of a salesperson is the lack of confidence in what they are selling. Some salespeople believe that the products or services they offer are expensive or too much. In this case, right after the salesperson asks for the client’s answer or commitment, the latter would typically say, “The price is too much.” Why is that? It’s simple! I learned over the years that selling is a transfer of feelings or emotions. In other words, if the salesperson believes that the product or service is expensive, the client would feel the same way. In the same premise, if the salesperson fully believes that the product or service is very attainable, that they would buy their product, they will easily convey that belief or feeling to the clients. There are also instances where a salesperson says what he or she needs to tell about the product. Yet, there is no sign of conviction of the product’s benefits in presenting the product to the prospective customers. As a result, the salesperson killed the sale.
  2. Not owning the same product. Another common mistake of a salesperson is selling but not owning or experiencing the product. In other words, for a salesperson to convince or persuade a buyer to own the product he or she is offering, he or she should know what it feels like to own it. How would you describe the feeling of driving a car to someone when you don’t even drive or own one? Or how would you convince someone how important securing the lives of people is if you are not insured yourself? Again, selling is a transfer of feelings. To be an effective seller, a salesperson must share his or her personal experience and the concept of what he or she offers, not the product or service itself. Indeed, you cannot give what you do not have.

Some salespeople think that these are trivial reasons for dropping sales, but on the contrary, these have a significant impact on one’s sales results. Regardless of the quality of the products or service offered, the selling techniques used, and the person’s tenure in the sales industry. If a salesperson does not believe and see the value of his product or does not even know the feeling of owning the product, it would be a struggle to sell it to customers.

Do you agree with these? Let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

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