Hello:

“If you can’t do it right, don’t do it at all.”  Does this sound familiar?  Do you ever notice that when you hear this, you simply want to stall?  And before you know it, your life has passed you by and all you do is COUNT moments rather than LIVE them.

So, get off your backside and get going!  Remember, “DOING IT RIGHT IS SECONDARY… DOING IT IS PRIMARY!”

Dr. Mitchell Perry

TAKE ACTION

Let’s wait and see what happens, this isn’t a good time. I want to think about it. I need more time first. I might do it wrong… I might make a mistake. I just don’t want to right now. I wish something would happen. I’m not quite ready to do that. I don’t want to talk about it.

Stalling, waiting, marking time, holding steady; does this sound familiar?

All too often, most people would rather describe a problem than solve it, react more than pro-act – passive more than active.  The result… just more time rehearsing and refining their problem description skills without taking any action.

Do you want to get a new job, get a college degree, learn a language, lose weight, get in shape, fix your marriage, or play the piano?  Well, do you REALLY want to, or do you just want to talk about… or whine about it?

You must always ask yourself a fundamental question whenever you want to do anything!

ARE YOU WILLING TO PAY THE FREIGHT?

Will you pay the money, spend the time, expend the energy, learn how, risk failure, etc. to reach your goal?  Because your goal can only be achieved if you PAY THE FREIGHT!

The key is to TAKE ACTION.  Do something, anything, any kind of action… and get the momentum going.  It’s so much easier to turn the sailboat when the boat is moving! When you do, you have movement, which allows course correction along the way.  But, stalling and describing, rather than moving and solving, simply allows you to pass your life with time, rather than passing your time with life.  You end up having years in your life rather than having life in your years.

So, TAKE ACTION!  Confidence comes from DOING!  Mastery comes from learning, from discipline, from trusting your instincts and just digging in and doing it!

Make “Take Action” a habit and spread it around.

Today’s Tickle

HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHO TO MARRY?
1. You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.
Alan, age 10

2 No person really decides before they grow up who they’re going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you’re stuck with.
Kristen, age 10

3. WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?
Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then.
Camille, age 10

4. HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?
You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids.
Derrick, age 8

5. WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MOM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON?
Both don’t want any more kids.
Lori, age 8

6. WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE?
Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough.
Lynnette, age 8 (isn’t she a treasure)

7. On the first date, they just tell each other lies and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date.
Martin, age 10

8. WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE?
When they’re rich.
Pam, age 7( Love her )

9. The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn’t want to mess with that.
Curt, age 7

10. The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone, then you should marry them and have kids with them. It’s the right thing to do.
Howard, age 8

11. IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED?
It’s better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them.
Anita, age 9 (bless you child )

12. HOW WOULD THE WORLD BE DIFFERENT IF PEOPLE DIDN’T GET MARRIED?
There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn’t there?
Kelvin, age 8

HO! HO! HO!

JINGLE, JINGLE, JINGLE…OMG, HERE COMES KRIS KRINGLE!

It’s time for Santa, and yuletide, and spending the money,
For presents, and cookies, and egg nog so yummy,

Of your wishes, and daydreams, and caroling bright,
Will you hide in the shadows, or sing out loud in the light?

Out grumpy, out whiny, cease your complaining,
On Rudolf, on tinsel, t’is the season champagning!

Around doubters and cynics, to “believe” is so fickle,
You must now spread some cheer, and create a fun tickle!

Now if you encounter a fat man, who’s jolly and cute,  Wearing a beard and a smile, and a red flannel suit,

If he’s chuckling, and giggling, and laughing away,   While flying around in the night, in a magical sleigh,

With eight magic reindeer, to pull him along,   Then perhaps it could be, that your eggnog’s too strong!

Yet consider the options, make your choice unafraid,
Climb aboard Santa’s sleigh, and be in the parade!

When your life is so touched, it’s the way of the heart,
Be sure you touch many, right from the start!

On our sleigh ride together, measure for measure,
Instead of “not bad”, it’s indeed been OUR PLEASURE!

May you and yours have a VERY MERRY PERRY HOLIDAY!

MERRY MERRY FROM JM PERRY!

Cheers,

Dr. Mitchell Perry

Change Yourself First

How often do you find yourself complaining about someone you wish would change? Do you wish your spouse would simply pick up the dirty clothes and put them in the hamper?  Your mother would quit being so critical about virtually everything?  Your boss would throw you a bone and give you a bit of credit?  Sound familiar?

Notice how much energy you spend trying to get these people to change.  Your dedication to the “people fixing rehabilitation project” is quite impressive, yet, as you know, this project is destined to fail.  THE MORE YOU TRY TO CHANGE SOMEONE, THE MORE THEY PUSHBACK, RESIST YOUR EFFORTS, AND STAY THE SAME.

What to do?  Change yourself and your behavior FIRST.  You know for certain that you have more power over changing your own behavior anyway.  Furthermore, when you change your own behavior, you frequently force those around you to adjust and change as well.

Consider the following examples:
You want your wife to quit being so critical of you.  Has it occurred to you that you help her remain critical because you are often critical of her?  So change yourself first.  Write your wife a letter telling her all the things you appreciate about her.  Then watch… her behavior is likely to change.  Furthermore, when she is criticizing, leave her alone with her misery.  Let her enjoy her unhappiness by herself.  She is more likely to choose having your company than risk losing it by continuing to criticize you.
You want your husband to pick up the laundry and put it in the hamper.  Yet every time he fails to do it you jump in and take care of it yourself.  You wonder why his behavior remains the same.  You are teaching him how to treat you.  What to do?  Change yourself first.  Put the clothes in a pile on his pillow.  Put the hamper on the front seat of his car, or file a lawsuit against your spouse with a charge of “irreconcilable laundry differences!”  Then watch… your spouse is likely to think twice about dirty laundry and expect you to always take care of it.
The message is this:  When you make it policy to regularly consider what YOU can do differently, the world becomes a different place.

You can move mountains with a single thought.  Change yourself and your contribution first… and watch the mountains move!

Today’s Tickle

THIS IS GREAT!

You think English is easy???

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear..

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

When you have a dilemma in your life, the solutions, the answers, the strategies, and the magic are in the OBVIOUS – and yet the OBVIOUS is OBVIOUS to everyone but you!

It’s Common Sense and remember, Common Sense is very Uncommon.   

Dr. Mitchell Perry

Embrace the Obvious

One of the most curious things about people is their difficulty in recognizing what’s right in front of their faces.  Do you ever notice that when you are looking for your keys, they are in your hand?  Or when you want to find your glasses, they are sitting right on top of your head?  If there is one thing I have learned in life, it is this:  “THE MAGIC IS IN THE OBVIOUS.”  That means:  the answer to your dilemma is often right in front of your face.  Your job is to look and find it.  Then… DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

Example:  If you tend to be pessimistic, how much time are you spending complaining or feeling sorry for yourself?

If your business is doing poorly, how much are you contributing to poor customer service?  How much are you actually helping the customer be dissatisfied?

If your marriage is one where you feel emotionally malnourished, how much are you withholding nourishment yourself?  Or expecting nourishment from a spouse  who is ill equipped to give it to you?

If you are tired going up a flight of stairs, how much do you need to lose weight and get in shape?

The answers are often so obvious that we have trouble seeing them.  What is even more curious is that everyone else can see what’s right in front of you except you.

So, what to do?

1. Ask yourself regularly, “What is obvious here?  What do I need to see?  What can everyone else see here that might be difficult for me to see or accept?”
2. ASK FOR HELP.  Often you are so close to it, it becomes impossible to see the obvious.  So, ask someone for whom you have respect and trust, “Help me see what is going on here… it is likely to be obvious and I am unable to see it.”
3. Then do something about it!  CHANGE SOMETHING… your behavior, your contribution, your relationships, your habits, something… anything!  Do something different and the situation will change.

So the message is this:  Embrace the Obvious!  There’s magic when you recognize what is right in front of your face, THEN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

Today’s Tickle

PUN0GRAPHY

·  I tried to catch some fog.  I mist.

·  When chemists die, they barium.

·  Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.

·  A soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is
now a seasoned veteran.

·  I know a guy who’s addicted to brake fluid.  He says he can stop any time.

·  How does Moses make his tea?  Hebrews it.

·  I stayed up all night to see where the sun went.  Then it dawned on me.

·  This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club, but I’d never met herbivore.

·  I’m reading a book about anti-gravity.  I can’t put it down.

·  I did a theatrical performance about puns.  It was a play on words.

·  They told me I had type A blood, but it was a type-O.

·  This dyslexic man walks into a bra .

·   PMS jokes aren’t funny, period.

·  I didn’t like my beard at first. Then it grew on me.

·  A cross-eyed teacher lost her job because she couldn’t control her pupils.

·  When you get a bladder infection, urine trouble.

·  What does a clock do when it’s hungry?  It goes back four seconds.

·  I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me!

·  Broken pencils are pointless.

·  What do you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary?  A thesaurus.

·  England has no kidney bank, but it does have a Liverpool .

·   I used to be a banker, but then I lost interest.

·  I dropped out of communism class because of lousy Marx.

·  All the toilets in London police stations have been stolen. Police say they have nothing to go on.

·  I took the job at a bakery because I kneaded dough.

·  Velcro – what a rip off!

·  Cartoonist found dead in home.  Details are sketchy.

Hello!

To differentiate your brand… you must be entirely different from everyone else (instead of simply “better”) and your behavior most impacts the market, and their perception of you.  

It’s Common Sense and remember, Common Sense is very Uncommon.

Dr. Mitchell Perry
Differentiating Behaviors
How are you different? What can you do to set yourself apart?

• Introduce yourself
• Stand, shake hands, and make eye contact
• Personalize by addressing your customer by name
• Be an expert in your business
• Make frequent contact with your customer
• Write thank you notes
• Write personal notes (remember something special)
• Fast recognition
• Have a positive attitude about yourself, your position, and your company
• Learn to listen: Ask more and tell less – listening is the best way to get your point across
• Learn to express yourself optimistically
• Keep every promise
• Commit to check in and follow up often, then do it! Go the extra mile – deliver more than you promise
• Use humor and smile often
• Consider incorporating some random acts of kindness into the relationship
• Become a trusted advisor
• Be a tailor – continually “custom tailor” your relationship with them

How many of these traits differentiate you in the eyes of YOUR customer? Which ones do you need to work on the most? Which ones already come easily to you?

Consider the following: If you can find out what your customer wants in his terms and then find a way to give it to him, you will succeed where others fail. This is the secret to all effective sales efforts. Sales is less about selling what you have to your client, but all about encouraging your client to buy what he wants from you. Remember, you want to create “The Pull” and avoid the push.

Today’s Tickle

This is an actual job application that a 17 year old
boy submitted to McDonald’s in Florida… and they hired him because he was so honest and funny!

Name: Greg Bulmash

Sex: Not yet.  Still waiting for the right person.

Desired Position: Company’s President or Vice President. But seriously, whatever’s available.  If I was in a position to be picky, I wouldn’t be applying here in the first place.

Desired Salary: $185,000 a year plus stock options and a Michael Ovitz style severance package.  If that’s not possible, make an offer and we can haggle.

Education:  Yes

Last Position Held:  Target for middle management hostility.

Salary:  Less than I’m worth

Most Notable Achievement:  My incredible collection of stolen pens and post-it notes.

Reason for Leaving:  It sucked.

Hours Available to Work:  Any.

Preferred Hours:  1:30 – 3:30 pm, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.

Do You Have Any Special Skills?  Yes, but they’re better suited to a more intimate environment.

May We Contact Your Current Employer? If I had one, would I be here?

Do You Have Any Physical Conditions That Would Prohibit You From Lifting Up to 50 LBS?
Of What?

Do You Have A Car?  I think the more appropriate question here would be “Do you have a car that runs?”

Have You Received Any Special Awards or Recognition?  I may already be a winner of the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes.

Do You Smoke?  On the job, no; on my breaks, yes.

What Would You Like To Be Doing In Five Years?
Living in the Bahamas with a fabulously wealthy dumb blond super model who thinks I’m the greatest thing since sliced bread.  Actually, I’d like to be doing that now.

Do You Certify That The Above Is True And Complete To The Best Of Your Knowledge?  Yes.  Absolutely.

Sign Here:  Aries