Front Line Marketing
Sparks Fly!
Your spark can make a connection and that can change everything September 2010

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Bruce Cameron ::
614-437-9859
312-952-9952
It is not our eyes that see. It is our mind that sees.


 
Greetings!
Thank you for opening this month's issue of Sparks Fly! This is a free newsletter with articles and tips to help you and your business maintain your focus on the only true tool you have to differentiate and grow your business - service.

At Front Line Marketing our role is to make you more money and get you better metrics. We do that by guiding your thoughts on how you think about relationships and by extension, service. And the first thing we help you do is move service from "nice to do" and an expense, to "need to do" and an income stream.

We'll help you realize that thinking of service as a defensive strategy that costs money, is old school. Service Care is actually an offensive strategy that costs little to implement but offers long term significant payoff.

Intention and Attention


Think of intention as the decision to do something; lose weight, increase sales, reduce debt, improve relationships, create a service culture, start a business, get a job.

Intention is the thought process we all use to energize change. It is the tool of the imagination that imbues an idea with emotion. And emotion, feelings, are absolutely necessary to creating anything. So when we choose an intention, reduce our debt load as an example, we have to apply feeling to that decision. We have to feel what a life of less debt is like. What does less stress feel like? What does more liquidity feel like? What does making more charitable contributions feel like? What does a larger savings account feel like? By feeling the feelings, we give dreams power.

Think of it. Everything moves from the non physical to the physical. This isn't mumbo jumbo. It's fact. Everything first starts as an idea. Since it is also fact that we make decisions based on emotion and then apply rationalizations to support the decision, emotions are power.

By the way, but extremely important, the emotions that we apply to our intention must be positive emotions. Negative emotions are centered in fear. And fear paralyzes.
 
Attention on the other hand is focus. Once we choose an intention we must apply focus. This is the centering tool we have to use to actually bring the idea from imagination to form. Attention is the plan. Attention is action.

So how come, and this is really my reason for writing this article this month, when we make a bold intention, invariably just the opposite happens?

"I'm going to be debt free in six months!" And suddenly one of the kids needs braces or you need to buy a new piece of equipment for the business. "I'm going to lose 10 pounds!" And you gain three.

EGO. Just as imagination, emotions and God exist, so does ego. And our ego is invested in fear and maintaining the status quo. For the ego, change is bad. So what happens when we make a decision of intention is that immediately our ego is stimulated. And for whatever reason, we naturally pull up negative emotions. They are already in us and we go to them first. I don't know why, maybe it is the old fight or flight response, but positive emotions have to be inserted into our make-up. And they have to be repeated - often.

So ego begins working against our intention, our attention fails, our focus is removed and the intention dissipates. Ego wins. And somewhere inside the message is sent, received and internalized, "See, I told you it wouldn't work."

So, how do we beat the ego and make our intentions into form?

Meditation, chunking, repetition and action.

Action - do something. It doesn't matter what, as long as the action is in the direction of our intention. The laws that control the universe work on momentum. Think of it this way, "The motion of an object will remain in motion until acted upon by some other force." And you thought you'd never use science! Take action.

Repetition - a full 95% of the actions we take every day are habitual. This article is already too long so i will have to trust that you will think this statistic through for yourself. It takes time to create a habit, so to create your new habit you need to do lots of repetitions. In this case, the reps you should do would be to practice feeling the feelings of your intention.

Chunking - Through focus and attention you will materialize a plan. Break the plan into pieces (chunks). Remember we need action and momentum. And I tend to think that small actions in the direction of
our goals, slip under the radar of the ego.

Be wary. The ego will tell you to do big things. Then when that doesn't work (think Titanic), the ego wins. Go slow. Go often. Celebrate the wins. Check them off a list. Feel the feelings that accomplishment gives you. All of it builds momentum.

Meditation - We have to give ourselves time to be still, and clear our mind of the garbage and negative thoughts that accumulate from the day before. Maybe it will be helpful to think of it as showering. You do that daily to get rid of yesterday's dirt. Our minds (from which everything moves from thought to creation) deserves at least the same consideration.


To your success!


Two many of use are tiptoeing our way safely to death. Instead we should be stepping out, looking in and embracing the joy, success and adventures we can have.

Bet on yourself. It is the best investment you will ever make.