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Balancing Act: The Newsletter (No. 185, January 2015 )

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Happy New Year!!

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  • Amateurs drive on New Year's Eve. Be careful out there.
  • What charity or cause will you support next year?
  • Who will you help and coach?
  • What development activities will you invest in?
  • How will you improve your relationships?
  • How will you improve your health and physical condition?
  • What unexpected acts of kindness will you engage in?
  • How will you improve your home environment?
  • How will you improve your financial security?
  • How will you increase your discretionary time?
  • What annoyances and stress will you remove and eliminate?
  • How will you be different in December of 2015?

 

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We've lived through another year of horror, terror, sorrow, and loss�as well as birth, excitement, success, and celebration. The question for all of us is which mindset drives our days.

We live in a world of almost infinite beauty and splendor. A great deal of it we haven't even explored decently. The Marianas Trench in the Pacific is barely known and we've discovered life forms there which weren't though viable in any environment. Not all that long ago a new type of deer was discovered in the jungles of southeast Asia. We're not close to cataloging all the species of insects.

We inhabit a world which, in galactic terms, is a huge hunk of rock traveling at 67,000 miles an hour around an exploding star. We're fairly sure that another huge hunk of rock hit the Yucatan around the Gulf of Mexico 66 million years ago and obliterated the prevailing life forms�dinosaurs�which had been successful for about 150 million years. This kind of impact could happen again.

There is evil in the world, but throughout history it has been beaten back, albeit sometimes at great cost. We have built great cities, created triumphant art, cured diseases, and lengthened life spans. Despite nihilists and anarchists, monsters and madmen, we have formed great civilizations.

The way we arise each day and the attitude we have toward the day ahead of us reflects on our health and out contributions. Some people see a long, slow crawl through enemy territory. But some see opportunity and renewal. Some allow events to dictate their day, and some control their own fate.

It astounds me how many otherwise independent people cede control of their lives to others�peer pressure, media, rumor, conspiracy theories, myths, "authorities," advertising, and even employees. You wake up every day in control of your behavior and your initiatives, but can give them away in the blink of an eye if you're not careful or are frightened. Too many people have a default mechanism of surrendering control.

Empower yourself. The world around you is rich with opportunity and splendor. You can consume, so long as you also contribute. But doing either one without the other is foolish, and deprives you of power.

 

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The human condition: Awards

Don't panic, I'm not talking about religion (God forbid�oops, I shouldn't have mentioned God, but it's already typed), I'm talking about a connection with nature and the world around us. I've become convinced that some people simply exist during their waking hours without wondering about or learning from the world around them.

I believe that everyone should awake in the morning with a sense of profound and radical amazement.

People who feel a connection with the world tend to examine issues and events and not merely accept them (or fail to see them). Spirituality, as the word suggests as a cognate, is consciousness that has to do with our spirit. You may call that joie de vivre or esprit de corps or even sentience, but it's not merely self-awareness, it's appreciation of the world around us.

Someone recently posted on that monument to high intellect, Facebook, that we should be careful because "our kids will become us." Yet we are not structured or organized like a redwood or a cheetah, wherein the life forms that are reproduced are identical. All of us have the capacity to surmount our origins (or fail to meet them). Thank goodness (I caught myself) we have the potential to change and grow and mature and become unique.

I recognize this because I'm fascinated by cheetahs (the fastest land animal and highly endangered) and redwoods (among the oldest living things in the world). I know what they contribute, and I know how important that contribution is, though it is different from each other and different from us. I've noticed today that the newly sodded portion of my lawn (after some construction) grows far better than seeded portions, and I'm wondering if it's better for individuals to change things in total rather than piecemeal.

But, I digress.

I can watch our ducks paddle toward the feeder whenever people are in front of the house in the hope they might be fed, and learn about persevering. (Cheetahs, by the way, make a kill one in ten times, about the same as the Tyrannosaurus Rex, average for predators, not an easy life.) I marvel at clouds that seem to be very still, yet move out of sight by the time I look up again. Are they analogies for our lives?

And it fascinates me that we all live in a universe that not one of us truly understands. But that's the glory. We don't need to understand, we merely need to acknowledge, explore, and celebrate.

That's the spirit!

 


DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES

NEW! Million Dollar Consulting® Convention

March 11-13, 2015, Hyatt Regency, Atlanta, GA
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NEW! INTENSIVE ROLE-PLAY WORKSHOP

April 14 (day prior to Mentor Summit in Washington, DC)

Spend a day with your colleagues going over the correct language in marketing meetings, proposal discussion, debriefings, and so forth. We'll use both your prepared issues and some I spring at you "in the moment." Become prepared for the tough situations with a day of intensive learning. Open to the public. 



NEW! REPRISE: THE BEST OF ALAN

April 17, (day after the Mentor Summit)

Spend a day going through an upbeat version of The Language of the Sale, Common Sense Consulting, Process Visuals, and Million Dollar Proposals, all among Alan's most popular. And take a big discount if you also sign up for Intensive Role-Play, above. Open to the public. 



MILLION DOLLAR CONSULTING™�COLLEGE

May 18-22, 2015
December 7-11, 2015
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Join 300 people globally have participated in this intense, accelerated learning. Six seats already gone in May!




THOUGHT LEADERSHIP 2015

Four Seasons, Palm Beach
Oct. 7-9
Special Guest, Robert Cialdini, author, Influence and Yes!
This program is sold out every year, register now to claim your seat in an intimate program:



THE WEEKLY SABBATICAL™

Build your energy, renew your focus, create greater growth by taking an ongoing, weekly break, guided by these five-minute videos. A breath of fresh air in a busy life.



ENLIGHTENED SELF-PUBLISHING

Do you have a small niche audience, or a book commercial publishers don't understand, or a need to launch a book quickly? I've self-published, have a crack team, and we can get books into print that are highly impressive, hard copy and/or electronic. We can even create special web pages and video promotion.


SUPER COACHING

I have selected openings in the Super Coaching Program (KAATN: Kick Ass and Take Names)

I've helped people: obtain six-figure contracts, make major media appearances, gain meetings with top people (some nationally known), have proposals closed, start new businesses, gain greater visibility, build self-worth, obtain book contracts, create new brands, improve their web sites and blogs, and so on. The original group's nine months is about to end, so there are a few openings.


THE ALAN CARD and THE BENTLEY CARD now available for 2015:

now available for 2015

As of 2015 there will be a Diamond Alan Card. (Colleen Francis calls this "all in," which is a poker term, and Colleen gambles on cards. My biggest gamble is wolfing down shellfish at dives on the Jersey Shore.) The card will entitle the bearer to partake of my offerings below (I've indicated as much as I can about next year and whether fees will increase or be stable).


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I was in the King Alfonso XIII in Sevilla, one of the finest properties in all of Spain, in their largest suite. A bellman was due to take our larger luggage to FedEx to ship home while we remained for another day. Although tipping is not common (and somewhat confusing), I knew I had to give him a gratuity because of the weight of the bags and the favor of getting them to shipping for FedEx.

I had put some Euros on the counter near the door�one and two euro coins�in anticipation of his arrival. When the doorbell rang I gave him the luggage and swept all the coins into my hand to give to him�about the equivalent of $8 US I had figured. He looked at me and smiled.

I had included two very large coins, gold in color, which I first thought must have been ten euro pieces, unknown to me, and he was embarrassed by my largesse.

Then I realized they were round, gold-covered chocolates left around the suite by the maid...

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