Greetings Fellow Entrepreneurs, Sales Professionals and Managers!
Is it just me or did this year simply fly by, like an illegal taxi at a roadblock?
And what an exceptional year it has been. We have been blissfully busy working with two types of organisations: Those fighting the Price Wars and those who are winning the Strategic Battles.
Those fighting the price war are despondent, depressed, distraught and demotivated. They are GATVOL of the China Factor, Commoditisation, Globalisation, Financial Turmoil, Uncertainty, Indecisiveness, Aggressive Competitors and Endless Economic woes. (Ja dit is WOES!) They are tired of battling in the trenches, cutting prices to the bone, losing margin, juggling cashflow, getting their butts whipped by the opposition and not getting their damn credit applications approved. They call us in to equip their tired troops with new sales weapons and ammunition to go out and win the war.
Those winning the strategic sales battle are creative, upbeat, profitable, focussed and steadily growing market share. They are changing the rules, adding value, go-giving and delivering true customer service – not just lip service! These organisations call us in to strategise, train, coach, strengthen and enhance their already excellent sales armoury.
I hope that you are winning the strategic battle. If so, keep on fighting the smart fight. If however, you are still fighting a war, here are some tips to make real SHIFT HAPPEN for you and your organisation:
1. Stop trying to help your customers save money and start helping them to make more profit. Obviously all companies want to save on expenses, especially in these tough times, but their reason for doing that is to ultimately make more profit. Your strategy must be
to become their trusted advisor and show them genuine ways to become more profitable through working with you. They will then perceive you and your organisation as valuable business partners and therefore stop asking you for unreasonable, margin destroying discounts.
2. Stop Cold Calling and Start Going Fishing. Cold calling is scary, degrading, energy sapping and in most cases a real battle. Fishing is so much more relaxing and rewarding. To fish successfully for increased sales requires that you think strategically about: WHERE to fish, WHEN to fish, WHAT fish to target, what size TACKLE to employ and, most importantly, what BAIT to use. And it is important to remember that you need to exercise a little patience whilst perfecting the art of making consistently big catches.
3. Stop Telling and Start Selling. Your potential customers don’t care about your boring business card, company brochure, vision & mission, accolades, track record, achievements and awards. They care about the fact that you really care (about them and THEIR business) and are able to visibly and consistently demonstrate this caring in every interaction. Develop the art of strategic questioning and active listening to truly get inside their head and heart. Become a professional note taker and develop some form of CRM system to stay in contact. Then watch the deal close all by itself.
4. Develop an Effective Sales Strategy. This is the most important part of the whole plan. You develop an organisational and / or individual sales strategy to equip you for winning the sales battle. This requires you to do the hard work upfront which makes selling easy thereafter. There are many types of sales strategy. I will cover just four of them briefly:
- The “GameBreaker” Strategy.This is when you reinvent the game, re-write the rules, turn everything on its head and thoroughly piss off your competition. Think about how Outsurance completely revolutionised the short term insurance industry. Discovery Vitality did the same for the medical aid industry and Google used it to redefine the search engine space. This strategy requires real “out of the box” thinking, a healthy dose of confidence and the courage to take a calculated risk. The good news is that if cleverly designed, it does not need to cost a lot of money to be implemented with great effect.
- The Go Giving Strategy.We were all taught to be go-getters in sales. Go and get your foot in the door, get to the decision taker, get the deal, and get the commission. Whatever it takes. And what is this strategy getting us right now – zip – that’s what! To develop a successful Go Giving strategy, we need to ask a simple question: “What are we leaving behind after every interaction, which is really valuable to the customer and / or their business?” Is it information, tools, tips or strategies? Is it samples, ideas, stories or market intelligence? Does it add value to them, their life, their business, their team, their community or the planet? Come up with the tangible and deliverable answers to these questions and watch your sales grow effortlessly.
- The Added Value Strategy.This strategy is similar to the go giving strategy, in that it also asks an important question: “What more can we add to our product or service which will increase its perceived value in the customer’s eyes?” So we can add product training or proper instructions for use or hands on support or extra guarantees or additional useful features at no charge or anything else extra which will add value to our offering. Again, this strategy requires some very creative thinking to devise, but once implemented it delivers astounding results. Take Hyundai for example. They shifted from being perceived as a tiny upstart in the industry to becoming the fourth largest automotive company on the planet. And look at how quickly it happened for them!
- The Customer Centric Strategy. Do you really deliver true customer service? Or just Lip Service? Do you engage and interact with your customers on a regular basis, using their honest feedback to influence your strategy? Is every department in your business customer facing and trained to implement the above strategies with measurable consistency? Everyone in your organisation can add value to the sales process. Technicians, Credit Controllers, Receptionists and IT personnel can all be trained to spot and create sales opportunities. Most importantly, are your sales people able to draw upon specialists from all of your departments and deploy them to assist in customer engagement? If you strategically engage more aspects of your organisation with more aspects of your customer’s, you are instantly able to add tremendous value and simultaneously deepen the relationship for ongoing mutual benefit.
5. And Finally – Increase your Professional Selling Skills. Most of the recognised professions such as medicine, engineering, law, and accounting are required by their associations to engage in Continuous Professional Development (CPD) in order to maintain their accreditation, membership or right to practice. If we are really serious about succeeding at the profession of selling, the onus is on us to find creative ways to engage in your own continuous professional development. This can take many forms, including: Attending conferences or training workshops, talks or lectures, webinars, magazine subscriptions, reading books, listening to audio teachings, subscribing to newsletters, blogs or sales websites. Remember: Knowledge is power and power is knowledge applied.
If you are exhausted from fighting the price war, make some time to plan a significant strategic shift for 2012.
The battle is yours to win.
Yours in Strategic Selling
Mark Berger
Tags: Motivation, Motivation Speaker, Motivational Speaker, Motivational Speaker Cape Town, Personal Development, Sales Trainer, Sales Trainer Cape Town, Sales Training, Sales Training Specialist
As the solstice of December 2012 rushes relentlessly towards us, major shift is happening on our planet. Fear and uncertainty is increasing and I have been noticing distinct energetic differences in the people I am working with. Their outlook and attitudes are vastly different. Their levels of growth are remarkably disparate.
The diagram below illustrates the way it appears to me now:
The Sleepwalkers pretty much live lives of quiet desperation. Their lives are a struggle, from paycheck to paycheck, week to week, month to month. Their relationships are toxic. Their health stinks. They are emotional wrecks. For fun, they drink themselves stupid or gamble obsessively or take mind numbing drugs to ease the pain. Some of them make loads of money yet cannot understand why they still feel so empty and sad. Many sleepwalkers are controlled by the media and the governments and society at large. They live to please others and lie with impunity to cover their vulnerability. They believe that “someday their ship will come in” or they will “win the lotto” or be “swept off by a knight in shining armour” and everything will change. They don’t listen to advice because they know it all. They read tabloids and newspapers and works of fiction, because their own lives are so dull and boring. They hate their jobs, their boss, their life. They are overworked and underpaid, stressed and fatigued, sick and tired. In the course of my work I meet hundreds of sleepwalkers every month and my heart bleeds for them. I know exactly how they feel because I have been there myself!
The Seekers have grown tired of sleepwalking and realised that there is so much more to life. More to learn, more to know, more to grow. They have stepped out of their rut and begun to ask questions. Deep questions, uncomfortable questions, questions which shake them to their very core. They have resolved to open their hearts and minds to new learning, new beliefs, new ways of looking at life. They begin to read self help books and attend personal development workshops and lectures. They may even listen to positive and motivational materials in their vehicles as they drive. Their circle of friends begins to change as they move away from toxic negativity and towards uplifting positivity. Their energy levels increase with each new insight, each new understanding, each step towards awakening. They seek the assistance of awakened ones, lightworkers and masters to assist them in their upward journey. Life begins to feel much more interesting, alive and mysterious again. The journey speeds up incrementally as the seekers move relentlessly towards their Awakening.
The Awakened Ones have had one or more cathartic, transformational, life changing experience. All the theory gained during seeking now becomes internalised
as an experienced reality. A sense of joy and peace wells up inside them. They regain the child-like innocence and playfulness of their youth. They follow their instincts, intuitions and gut feelings when making decisions. They walk away from jobs, relationships and habits which no longer serve them. They discover their life’s purpose and begin to manifest their desires at will. Their inner happiness and peace is so profound that it pours out of them and flows into others. They are extremely humble and grateful. Life is a blessing and they accept that every event has its purpose, regardless of how shocking it may seem to others. The awakened ones do all they can to awaken sleepwalkers, not because they feel superior to them, but because they want others to share the unavoidable bliss, joy and peace that comes with the awakening.
The Lightworkers (also known as “alternative healers”) are able to rapidly accelerate our evolution through the levels. They are blessed with gifts we cannot begin to fathom. They see things we can only dream about. They understand the inexplicable. They make sense of the seemingly senseless. They see auras and chakras and spirits and energy fields and past lives. They comprehend numerology and astrology. They see other dimensions and beings and ascended masters. They even delve into physiology and biology. Right now we are blessed with an abundance of lightworkers, in many shapes and forms, who have come to guide us into the next level of human development. They understand that 2012 is not the end of the world or Armageddon, but merely a vital and necessary shift in human consciousness. They know that in order to “save the world” they have to help as many Sleepwalkers and Seekers as possible to evolve and Awaken.
The Masters are the light. They have attained the highest level possible whilst still in human form. They have reached a level of development so refined that they have the ability to influence millions. Their energy is channelled directly from source, giving them tremendous power to uplift and inspire. The masters have always spread the same universal message of love, connectedness, consciousness, compassion, gratitude, acceptance, awareness and meditation or prayer. They have never been interested in glory but have focussed on glorifying others. They have been innocent and humble and radiant, being clear channels for the power of universal energy which allowed them to perform “miracles.” Yet always they have told anyone who really cared to listen: “This power is your power too. Within YOU is the potential to become the light. This is your destiny and your destination. This is the most important and meaningful journey of your whole life.”
This Model is a work in progress. There is much more detail to be found within each level, but that is for another time. For now, please understand that this is not a competitive or aspirational model. It is simply a means to create Self Awareness and self awareness is always the beginning of Personal Evolution. Personal Evolution is the most important work we can do to prepare for 2012. Each of us will be masters in some aspects of our lives and sleepwalkers in others. In fact all of these levels exist within us simultaneously and will shift between different levels at various stages during our life journey. Understand each level and you will understand yourself. In truth, the most important barometer is simply this: Are you GENUINELY HAPPY? Do you feel joyful, grateful, purposeful and connected within yourself? Is your life really working? If your honest answer is yes, then you are at absolutely the right level for you at this time. Your journey is unfolding precisely as it should. If your answer is no, you now have the awareness of why. If you really want to make SHIFT HAPPEN, start by opening your mind and your heart. Trust your instincts like never before. Begin to ask the really important questions. Face your Fears. Transform your life. Seek out fellow seekers, awakened ones, lightworkers and masters to assist you. Invest in a book, workshop, lecture or program. Love yourself enough to do whatever it takes. Know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
As always, I wish you joy on this vital journey. I wish you a safe passage. Most importantly, I wish you lasting inner peace and happiness. It is yours for the taking and you most certainly deserve it.
And anyone who tells you otherwise is probably a sleepwalker!
Mark Berger
Tags: 2012, Cape Town, Motivation, Motivation Speaker, Motivational Speaker, Motivational Speaker Cape Town, Personal Development, Personal Evolution, Sales Trainer, Sales Trainer Cape Town, Sales Training, Sales Training Specialist, Spiritual Development
How successful are you right now? Where do you place yourself on a scale from 1 to 10? And wherever you put yourself, are you happy with your score? If not, what would you need to do in order to really succeed?
I believe that the Western (read: American) version of success is all messed up, outdated and tired, in serious need of a revamp. It’s all about fame and fortune and power and money, no matter what the personal cost. It’s about striving towards some future goal in the hope of someday finding inner peace and happiness. It’s about comparisons to others and keeping up with the Joneses and showing the world how well we are doing. All too often success has a price and the price is our well being.
As part of my research, I googled the word Success.
Dictionary.com defines success as:
1. The attainment of wealth, position, honours, or the like.
2. The favourable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavours.
Merriam Webster Online described it as:
1. The favourable or desired outcome.
2. The attainment of wealth, favour, or eminence.
Note the future dated words: Attainment, Termination & Outcome.
And whilst success is described as a noun, it seems to be very much about doing things (verbs) in order to have stuff (nouns). But what is it that we really want to have and why? Answer these questions honestly and your life will instantly become more successful.
What do we really want? I have asked this question to thousands of members of my audiences over the years. The answers usually include important things like money, possessions, security, love, respect, recognition, health, wealth and happiness. Yet when I invite them to dig deeper, most people share that they are really looking for PEACE OF MIND or CONTENTMENT or SELF ACCEPTANCE.
The problem with the current success formula is that it says we need to DO a lot of things in order to HAVE more stuff so that we can BE successful. And we keep postponing our success to some future date. We often play the WHEN / THEN game. WHEN I win the lotto, get the promotion or pay off my mortgage; THEN I will be happy. We also feel that we NEED more things in order to feel successful. I need a better job, house, body, partner, or a nicer car, suburb, suit or status symbol. And it all seems like such HARD WORK and so difficult to achieve. Well here is the good news: Success can only be experienced now, in this moment, in this second, and success can only happen INSIDE OF YOU!
The diagram below will illustrate my point:
In the diagram, the horizontal line represents our life from birth through retirement to death. It shows that every day we grow older as we continue on our (external) journey of doing which leads to having. So we work to have money and we study to get a degree. And we are able to learn important skills to assist us in being more effective on this journey, physical skills like machinery operation and software usage and communication skills and time management. On this journey we have no choice regarding the fact that we will get a day older every 24 hours.
The vertical line represents the inner journey we travel in parallel with the outer. This is the journey of knowing and growing ourself, the (internal) journey of being. This is where we learn self acceptance and trust and forgiveness and awareness. This is where we learn to drop our conditioned beliefs and acknowledge our true self. This is where we connect with spirit and thereby become inspired. And we are able to learn important skills to assist us in being more effective on this journey, “soft skills” like self management and meditation and prayer and self awareness and consciousness. On this journey we have infinite choice. This is because everybody grows old but not everybody grows up.
Our western society is obsessed with the external journey. It believes that relentless working on the horizontal plane will automatically lead to growth in the vertical. This formula is fatally flawed. Just look at “famous” names like Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Bernie Madoff, or even Princess Diana. These people “had it all” – fame, fortune, power and respect. Some of them even left a fabulous legacy. Yet it would appear that their inner journey was incomplete. Something vital was missing inside. The inner peace that should have accompanied the outer success did not happen for them.
I believe that we are out of balance. We have become so obsessed with being the best and winning and competing that we have too little time left to look within. We spend so much time on the horizontal journey that we have no time or energy left for the vertical. We are so busy striving towards our future goals (or just bloody surviving) that we lose ourselves in the mix. The symptoms are stress and burnout and fatigue and road rage. The results are dis-ease, divorce and depression. The coping mechanisms are alcohol and cigarettes and caffeine and drugs (both legal and illegal). The consequences are a dysfunctional society and a whole lot of unhappy people.
So what to do?
I am often approached after a presentation or workshop and asked where do I find the time to read and attend workshops and continually grow myself. I sometimes get the comment that because I am in the business of personal growth I have no choice but to continually improve. My response is that we ARE ALL in the business of personal growth, all involved in the horizontal as well as the vertical journey and all looking for the same thing. And that thing we are looking for is INSIDE of us. It can only be found by looking in there with as much dedication and discipline as we pursue a college degree, our first million or our dream home. My personal search has led me to discover powerful eastern wisdom and practises to help me find the balance inside, because the east has always put far more emphasis on the internal journey than the western cultures have up until now.
So here is my formula for Success, described for balance in terms of Health, Wealth and Happiness.
1. Health has 4 components – Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual.
- Physical – Eat for energy, not weight. Read the labels. Try to eat more live, raw food and less processed, dead food. Eat consciously, slowly and with reverence. Get sufficient exercise and adequate rest.
- Mental – Watch less news reports and more sunsets. Read or listen to self help literature. Learn to really manage your mind or it will continue to manage you. Find effective ways to “switch off” from the incessant mental chatter of your mind.
- Emotional – Develop your emotional intelligence. Learn to express your emotions in a balanced way, as repression is dangerous. But also do not become overwhelmed by your emotions. Learn how to use the tremendous power of your emotions to help you achieve a meaningful, successful life.
- Spiritual – If you are a religious person, use your religion to connect with the highest part of you. Give prayers of gratitude and thanks. If you are not religious, find ways to connect with your spirit, such as meditation, music, nature and being of service. Or use both in combination. Either way, choose to live a more inspired, spiritually connected life.
2. Wealth is what is left over after the money is all gone. The wealthiest people on the planet do not have lots of money. What they have is lots of assets which are worth lots of money. Whilst saving is good and necessary, you cannot really save your way to wealth. You create wealth by investing in business or property or shares or other valuable assets. Or you develop intellectual property, which has intrinsic value built in. Wealth is also created through changing your belief systems about money. We need to develop a healthy respect for money and understand the rules of the money game, without becoming obsessed by it. Read books on wealth creation and also autobiographies of wealthy people you look up to and respect.
3. Happiness is an inside job. It is the vertical journey. It is not really dependent upon what you have or what you do. It really depends on how you FEEL about what you have and do. I would rather have a little and appreciate it a lot, than the other way around. Happiness comes from self worth and self acceptance, from living up to your own ideals and not the (perceived or real) expectations of others. Happiness comes from the realisation and release of your conditioned negative beliefs and behaviours. You were born happy, until life shut you down. So don’t try to put happiness into yourself – it is always alive in there. Rather discover and remove the beliefs, blockages and fears that are suppressing your true self from expressing right now.
My definition of success is: The ability to live a Balanced Life filled with Health, Wealth and Happiness NOW, whilst working steadily towards Achieving your Goals.
The truth is: You are already successful right now. You have faced the tough obstacles life has thrown at you and you are still here. You have grown as a person, in spite of adversity. If you are fortunate enough to have some basics, like access to the internet, a cellphone, a roof over your head, a refrigerator (with some food in it) and perhaps even a job and an automobile, then you are better off than 9 out of 10 people alive on earth today. To quote author Timothy Ferriss, from his bestseller The 4 Hour Work Week: “People don’t want to be millionaires – they want to experience what they believe only money can buy. $1 000 000 in the bank isn’t the fantasy. The fantasy is the lifestyle of complete freedom it supposedly allows.”
You live in a world which gives you amazing choices for both journeys – horizontal and vertical. I repeat – the west is obsessed with the horizontal. Nothing wrong with that – keep on improving your “hard” skills and make loads of money if that is your goal. However I strongly suggest that you create balance by finding new and innovative ways to improve your “soft” skills. Dive deeply into your vertical journey and you will find a depth of joy you never dreamed possible. Your complete peace of mind, self acceptance and contentment are only a heartbeat away.
Stop postponing your Success – Choose to live it NOW!
Tags: Achieve Your Goals, Believe in Yourself, Cape Town, Motivation Speaker, Motivational Speaker, Motivational Speaker Cape Town, Sales Trainer, Sales Trainer Cape Town, Sales Training, Sales Training Specialist, Success
As the end of 2010 rears its inevitable head, it is time to pause and reflect on what has been a year of 2 halves, with a delicious, squishy middle. I don’t know about you, but for me this has been a somewhat schizophrenic year, with some definite lowlights and highlights. I recall the first half of 2010, still suffering under the hangover of the global economic crunch. The World Cup was coming to SA and we had absolutely no idea of what was actually going to happen. Was it really going to take place? Would the stadiums be ready? Would anybody come here to watch the tournament after the sensationalist British tabloids ran a headline on “Machete Wielding Gangs” roaming our streets? Life seemed to be on hold, in a surreal sort of limbo. We heard of scary possibilities like our kids being kidnapped by human trafficking syndicates and the supermarkets running out of fresh produce. It was a crazy time, uncertain, unpredictable and stressful, filled with the contradiction of a deep desire for success and a very real possibility of failure
Yet, at some level, something told us it was going to be an awesome, exciting and extraordinary event. Somehow we knew that we would pull it off, albeit in our uniquely schizophrenic SA fashion. And boy did we get it right! The tournament was an unadulterated success, a whirlwind of matches, fan-walks, fan-parks and fanfares. Even our traditionally negative media got on board and blew the vuvuzela with mostly positive reporting. Crime decreased and when it occurred it was dealt with decisively. It was dubbed by FIFA as the most successful world cup ever!
After the final whistle, the business gears began to move again. Indecision was replaced by positive action and we moved into a more prosperous period. We rode a wave of certainty, fuelled with the pride of achievement and hope for the future. We had finally come to believe in ourselves.
But now the tide has turned again. The SA rollercoaster is moving uphill once more. The media has turned mostly negative. The schizophrenic pendulum has swung to the other side.
So all this has really got me thinking about schizophrenic SA. I am pondering some difficult questions right now. Like how is it that we can be known as one of the most friendly, warm, hospitable people on earth AND also have one of the highest rates of murder, crime, rape and violence? How can we feel so much pride a few months ago and so quickly slip back into self loathing when a tourist is senselessly murdered in Gugulethu? How can we open our arms to the world yet close our hearts to the suffering of our fellow countrymen? How can we produce a magician like Mandela and a monster like Malema? Why is it that when something is sent in a car, it’s called shipment, and yet when something is sent in a ship, it’s called cargo? What the heck is a free gift? Aren’t all gifts free? And why can I never stay serious for too long without slipping into sarcasm or dark humour?
I do not have the absolute answers to any of these. However, as a patriotic South African, I will attempt to answer in the only way which makes sense to me. If these answers seem senseless to you, go read the newspapers and get depressed instead. This is a motivational newsletter remember!
We are attempting to heal our violent society. The 25th November saw the commencement of the annual 16 days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children. In addition, The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation has done a lot of excellent work since 2007 in attempting to determine the reasons for the endemic violence in schizophrenic SA. In an April 2009 supplementary report, submitted to the minister of safety and security, the centre mentioned contributing factors to violence such as:
- The legacy of apartheid and colonialism.
- Brutalisation and the culture of violence.
- Racism
- Firearms
- Impunity in township areas.
- Inequality and poverty.
- State Institutions such as the courts and education system.
This report was well researched and presented, but because it was focused on violent crime and not violence in general, it missed a few vital components. For example it did not mention the effects on thousands of South African Soldiers of being forced to fight an immoral war, on our borders, in the townships and in our neighbouring countries. I believe that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is rife in ex SADF soldiers. I know this firsthand, having served 6 of my 24 months compulsory military service on “the border.”
The report also did not mention the ongoing nightmare faced by members of the South African Police Services (SAPS), many of whom regularly have to face crime, death, violence and disrespect. I believe that a large percentage of them must be affected by PTSD. Consider a policeman, who has witnessed gruesome crime scenes, possibly seen friends and colleagues killed violently, discovered decomposing bodies or been abused by members of their communities. The sad thing is that they are regularly offered counseling services by the SAPS, yet most refuse to go because it will be entered on their files and could affect their chances of promotion up the ranks. As a result they walk around like human time bombs, and some eventually commit crimes against others or even end up killing their loved ones and families in gruesome “familycides.”
I also did not see a mention of the PTSD experienced by the thousands of victims of crime and violence, a self perpetuating cycle of reaction on reaction.
And let’s not forget the impact of domestic violence and abuse, perpetrated against “loved ones.”
The reports made a number of suggestions to address the issues. All have merit and could go a long way towards solving the problem. I hope from the bottom of my heart that they will be implemented and achieve the result we all want. We are already seeing improvements, for example the murder rate fell substantially during 2010.
I am no expert in the field of crime and violence. My passion is for inspiration, motivation and, most importantly, TRANSFORMATION. So for what it is worth, I will attempt to put forward some additional suggestions to add to what is already on the table.
We are a desperately under psychologised society. Our egos and conditioning (cowboys don’t cry) cause us to believe that we can deal with emotional issues ourselves. We believe that we do not need assistance or counseling to assist us in dealing with grief, anger, depression, violence, relationship issues, substance abuse and PTSD. The truth and reconciliation commission was a brave and worthy attempt to heal the past. Yet the scars remain, like festering wounds in our collective psyche. We are a society that will visit a doctor or traditional healer without blinking an eye and swallow unquestioningly the potions they prescribe. Yet mention to your average South African the alternative options such as psychology, counseling or spiritual healing and they run a mile! Most men (statistically the main perpetrators of violence) are petrified to go near any of these. So they will drown their sorrows in alcohol and drugs, both legal and illegal, rather than take alternative steps to work through their stuff. Their fears, ego’s and our judgemental society will simply not allow them to open up and become vulnerable, which is an essential prerequisite for healing.
To heal our society, we urgently need to find ways to get these people to seek help. Real help, not temporary band aids which mask the symptoms yet do not address the cause. The people who love them should try every means possible to get them to an alternative healing option as soon as possible. They may not realise it, but the options for real healing are vast.
As mentioned, I am an ex soldier who was brainwashed and conditioned and trained to kill others with a huge variety of scary weapons. Over the last 25 years I have chosen to face my fears and take the steps necessary to heal myself. I have tried most of the options suggested below, believing that somehow in combination they would help me to heal. And they have. My life now overflows with peace, joy and gratitude and I see beauty and miracles all around me, every day.
It is my deepest wish that life could be experienced this way for many more of my fellow South Africans.
Therefore I will briefly list a few of the possible healing options below and you can use google to find more detailed information:
- Attend any one of the available Transformational Group Trainings available in SA, such as: ALIVE by World Alive, Landmark Forum by Landmark Education, Master 1 by Consciousness Coaching, More to Life Weekend by More to Life, I am forum by Pat Grove, New Warrior Training Adventure by Mankind Project, and Turning Point by Centre of Light. These are just some of the powerful options out there which can offer significant growth, healing and lasting transformation.
- Qualified Counselors: Just ask around and you will find them everywhere.
- Social Workers can also be helpful in many instances.
- Psychologists: For some a shrink or “kop dokter” could provide the solution.
- Spiritual Healers and Sangomas are growing in popularity.
- Homeopaths, Acupuncturists, Reiki Therapists and Kinesiologists.
- Yoga, Tai Chi and Meditation Practitioners.
- Other Alternative Healers.
There is literally a veritable buffet of options available. The immediate results I have seen achieved by these practitioners are astounding. Who you choose will depend upon the personality of the person requiring the help. The dichotomy is that the very deep issues which require the healing will keep many from seeking any help at all. The deep fears underlying their violence will actually sabotage their chances for redemption.
Unless those closest to them have the courage to lead them across the bridge. Before they fall off. Before the time bomb explodes.
This is our schizophrenic society. So full of hope and possibility, yet painfully hamstrung by our past. So capable of love, compassion and Ubuntu, yet wrestling our individual and collective demons. Desperately wanting lasting inner peace, yet not knowing how to take the proper steps to heal the turmoil within.
The biggest problem in our country is not violence and violent crime. That is the symptom of the problem. The main problem is the denial of the need for healing by thousands of sufferers of PTSD and their resistance to seek help. Their “tough guy” conditioning prevents them from becoming vulnerable and surrendering to expert healing.
The good news is that HELP IS ALL AROUND! I have a growing network of incredible healing practitioners and am more than happy to refer the brave few who are willing to ask me. All you need to do is drop me an email.
I deeply love this country and all of her people. I believe that we will overcome these challenges, because we have the collective will and capability to do so. I am passionately committed to doing whatever it takes to help us become as magnificent as we are destined to be. And I am privileged to see the miraculous transformation of individuals who take the leap of faith.
So as we prepare to bid farewell to 2010 and prepare for the festive season, I wish you healing and peace and joy and celebration with your loved ones.
For 2011, I wish you everything that you wish for.
Remember, happiness is an inside job.
Do whatever it takes to find it. Do it now.
Heal yourself and you will help to heal our nation.
With Love
Mark
Tags: Believe in Yourself, Cape Town, Change your life, Motivation Speaker, Motivational Speaker, Motivational Speaker Cape Town, Sales Trainer, Sales Trainer Cape Town, Sales Training, Sales Training Cape Town, Sales Training Specialist
