A salesperson may be compared to an electric battery. He or she is a self-contained unit of energy, an individual, and as an individual not divisible. He or she is a complete entity, a self-contained unit, made up of three main parts physical qualities, mental faculties, and spiritual attributes all of which function in a living body. Strict attention and careful consideration must be given to each one of these parts. The physical qualities must be treated with care. The mental faculties must be fed with positive and creative thoughts. The spiritual attributes must be inspired with unfaltering faith. When these three main parts are well fed and well treated, harmony prevails, the salesperson functions efficiently and effectively to produce an abundance of sales.
It is a simple process to charge up an electric battery, but in the case of the individual, it is necessary to follow a certain formula. Therefore, the purpose of this session is to offer a few suggestions that will help you to get charged up and go ahead.
How to Assure Physical Health
The house in which you live is what is called the physical body. It is the seat of the mental faculties. It is the temple of the spirit. It is the electric battery that creates the positive power of creative, accelerated selling. It stands to reason that you should use extra care to maintain this body in good condition in order to generate more energy for your activities.
Physiology teaches that the creation of energy is the function of the vital organs within the body. Energy is created through a process of these organs’ making and distributing blood. Blood is life. In the blood lies your strength and energy. As a self-propelling, self-sustaining and self-acting organism, the body lives and thrives on blood. Blood is the source of energy.
The Universal created everything, and the Universal is good. The infinite variety of things expressed in nature proves that you are surrounded with infinite intelligence and power that establish law and order in the universe and supply all the essential material elements necessary for our well-being. As an individual, you enjoy the right to draw on these elements, and the Universal has endowed us all with the ability to think and to make wise use of them to meet our personal needs.
The four best-known elements used by the body to make blood are air, food, water, and sunshine. The wisdom used to assemble these four elements determines the quality of blood needed to make the body rich and to make it glow with energy.
I shall analyse and discuss the value of these four elements that make pure blood. . .
1: Breathe in Plenty of Air
The blood needs oxygen, and the one way to obtain it is through breathing in plenty of air. The function of the lungs is to supply this need, so use them. Expand them, and by all means, breathe deeply. Respiration is the act of breathing, and it consists of both inhaling and exhaling. This act should be reduced to 12 times per minute in order to get the full effect of deep breathing. Time yourself and see how fast you are breathing. A quick breather is a shallow breather. A slow breather is a deep breather. Train yourself to breathe deeply and fully many, many times during the day. Deep breathing exercises the lungs, purifies the blood, strengthens the diaphragm, and helps you to relax. The elements of the air are vital; they help nourish and sustain every form of life. The blood needs them, and the body will suffocate without them. Air is free. Breathe it. It will re-energise the entire body.
2: Chew Your Food Properly
Food is the different things you eat. It is filled with vitamins found in the natural state of foods. They are essential for proper nutrition.
There is only one conscious act on your part in the process of converting food into blood. That act is mastication, which is chewing, crushing and grinding food with the teeth and mixing it with the saliva until it becomes a liquid pulp. It is one of the most important acts connected with proper nourishment. Thorough mastication increases the flow of saliva and stimulates the constant outpouring of the enzymes which help to turn starch into sugar. If you have masticated your food properly it will enter the stomach in the partially digested state, which enables the stomach to complete the process of digestion more effectively. The conscious preparation of food through mastication (chewing properly) means less work and less wear and tear on all the other internal organs, which manufacture blood. It frees you from indigestion and other distressing feelings and supplies you with richer blood. This means better health and more energy.
Take plenty of time to eat your meals, practice mastication, and you will eat less, but you will digest more. Remember that the time saved bolting food is lost a hundred ways in health, energy, enjoyment, and peace of mind.
3: Drink Plenty of water
Three-fourths of the earth’s surface is water. More than three-fourths of your body is water. This reveals another clue: furnish the body with plenty of water. The body demands water at all times. The atmosphere around is continually absorbing water from the body. It must be replenished; otherwise, the body suffers from the lack of it. Water is essential to furnish the body with sufficient moisture to keep the pores of the skin open. This helps the body to get rid of toxins and other waste matter. The only way to have plenty of moisture in the body is to keep it well supplied with water. Don’t wilt up, and don’t dry up. Keep your skin young and glowing with health. Water helps. Train yourself to drink two tumblers of water on rising in the morning. Drink at least one glass every two hours all through the day. It is nature’s tonic. Drink it.
4: Take Walks in the Sunshine
The rays of the sun are “vita-rays,” which heat and charge the cells with vitamins. These vitamins are loaded with energy, and the body absorbs this energy from the sun just as a blotter absorbs ink. Therefore, by all means, train yourself to walk in the sun. It invigorates the body, stimulates the flow of blood, and provokes many brilliant ideas. Try it.
Here is another suggestion that will accelerate your energy. It is stretching. Most animals follow their natural instincts and stretch as a means of taking their “daily dozen.”
Stretching is nothing more than conscious tension. It is tensing the muscles of the body by an act of thought. When the cells are crying for blood, the body feels tired; by stretching at intervals, you furnish the cells with nutrition, and this replaces tiredness with energy. You will have more capacity
to do things. In brief, stretching gives the body a blood bath. If you make it a practice to stretch consciously for 10 to 20 seconds, you will increase your energy and pep. Make it a habit to stretch your arm muscles, leg muscles, back muscles, abdominal muscles, hand muscles, neck muscles, and shoulder muscles. Try stretching every muscle in your body from head to toe. Let common sense tell you when you have stretched enough.
There is no particular way to stretch. Each individual can work this out to suit his or her own disposition, time, and convenience. The main thing is to do it. This is the way I do it. I take a deep gulp of air—all my lungs can hold. I tense the body, stretch all parts, raise the diaphragm, and press down. This draws blood to my head, face, shoulders, back, legs, abdomen, and neck. Then I exhale through the nose. This takes 15 seconds, and does it relax and revitalise me! You try it.
Disobey a natural law and you pay a penalty. Obey it, and you receive a blessing. All these suggestions are based on natural laws. Practice these principles every day religiously; they will increase your energy, give you more power to act, and help you to make more sales.
Now that you have your house in order, turn your attention to the mental faculties and the spiritual attributes that have their home in the house.
How to Have More Power
The mental faculties must be filled with positive thoughts. Positive thoughts are electricity on the job. Put the switch on, and you have light and power. Put the switch off, and you have darkness. The same applies to thoughts. Think positive thoughts, and you affirm a truth or a principle admitting no doubt, condition, or qualification. You think explicitly, definitely, and decisively. Positive thoughts are creative. Negative thoughts are skeptical; they deny the reality and truth of everything. Negative thoughts are the result of distorted thinking. They are destructive. Positive thoughts are light; negative thoughts are darkness. Turn on positive thoughts and there is no darkness. The remedy for negative thinking is positive thoughts. The application of positive thoughts floods the consciousness with faith, confidence, dominance, and determination and gives the power to perform with decisiveness, precision, skill, and speed.
Negative thoughts of dread, worry, anger, prejudice, jealousy, envy, grudge, selfishness, cynicism, gloom, hate, despair, and discouragement disappear instantly when they meet the positive thoughts of love, faith, consideration, respect, kindness, courage, understanding, persistence, loyalty, joy, power, plenty, endurance, and strength. Think positive thoughts and you can accomplish any desire.
Positive thoughts are based on understanding and faith. Negative thoughts are based on ignorance and doubt. There is no problem or condition that fails to disappear in the light of positive thoughts. Face one half of your problems or troubles with positive thoughts, and they will disappear. Then face the other half, and they will disappear. Positive and creative thinking will burn holes in problems, as a lighted cigarette will burn holes in tissue paper.
Here are a few suggestions that will increase positive thinking.
Develop A Positive Attitude
Get the right attitude. Flush all negative thoughts and fill your mind with the positive thoughts of love, faith, and goodwill. Change your attitude and you change your conditions. A good attitude is the right “slant” on the thing you are doing or the thing you want to do. In the field of selling, I began to analyse human motives and to uncover the cause that made people act. Selling took on a new meaning. I discovered that it was a definite science combined with practical art. Science taught me what to do, and art taught me how to do it. I soon realised that a profession was practicing something that “was,” while selling was creating a sale that “was not.” With this new, absorbing, exhilarating, inspirational, idea planted into my consciousness, I faced the field of selling with fresh enthusiasm. I liked the idea of creating, developing, and expanding ideas to help others. It gave me the spirit to sell.
I wanted to sell. I did sell. This attitude generates enthusiasm. The perfection of any business, art, or craft is determined by your attitude. The right attitude toward your job taps a hidden reservoir of knowledge and experience and puts to work every available force to aid you in the accomplishment of your goal.
The attitude can be improved by reading good books. Good books are the foundation stones of civilization. Try to concentrate each day on some good books. Doing so will enlarge your capacity to understand and will improve your attitude toward your present occupation. It will inspire you to love your present work. It will generate enthusiasm.
- Get Your Thoughts and Ideas into Harmony
Do not procrastinate. Do not hesitate. But by all means, integrate. Pull your thoughts and ideas together.
Doing any job well requires a concentration of thought. Concentrate and pay strict attention to what you are doing. Complete integration of your mental attitude produces equilibrium, balance, and poise. It gives you the power to perform with efficiency. Your ability is synchronized into a complete orchestration and you work in perfect harmony and in perfect unity.
Mental integration turns selling into a hobby. Laziness, indolence, indifference, and stupidity give way to alertness, earnestness, activity, and efficiency. Inject yourself into the job of selling and you will not be conscious of time or effort.
- Be Inquisitive and Ask Yourself Questions about Your Own Thoughts
When you question your own thoughts you kindle your imagination. This in turn increases the flow of blood and gives you more energy with which to carry on. It also enables you to find all the facts, and these become workable knowledge to give you greater faith and power. Asking yourself questions enables you to get rid of negative thoughts and distortions, which hold you back.
- Take a Look Inside Now and Again
Aristotle said: “We are the fragments of what man might be.” Man is inclined to contemplate himself through glasses coloured by doctrines, creeds, beliefs, superstitions, and illusions. Some of these shibboleths exert a mighty influence and are inclined to hold a man in subjection. Analyze these shibboleths and take the best parts of them for your own enlightenment. Do not be a slave to anything. Throw all excess baggage overboard. Break any chains that hold you. Try to get a true picture of yourself, and evaluate and appraise yourself in the light of your own intelligence. You will realise your own completeness and your ability to perform.
Therefore, look in on yourself and purge your consciousness of all impurities. They disrupt harmony and unity and hinder enthusiasm. A good mental purge enlarges your horizon and affords you an opportunity to utilise your knowledge and power. It helps you rid yourself of frustration, discord, inhibitions, and distortions and enables you to derive full power from your sales ability. Look in every now and then. Look at yourself and your acts with the light of reason, which is there to guide and direct you. By looking in you will find the inner you, the mastermind, and the source of all power. Remember that reason is the seat of judgment and gives you absolute dominion over your thoughts. Use it and it will help you to “charge” yourself.
- Visualise Clearly (Clear Conception)
Whatever you do, try to get a clear vision or conception. Conception comes from the Latin word concipere, which means “to conceive.” To form a proper conception, either of a material or an immaterial proposition, is to take into the mind all the component parts of the proposition. It is grasping with full intelligence; indulging in reflective thought to form or devise ideas; understanding the meaning of words; interpreting symbols; and creating a scientific plan of action.
A new conception of selling enabled me to reduce selling to a science. I proved by experience and the experiences of many successful people that I met and interviewed that sales of any product or service could be effected successfully by putting into operation the Law of Averages. I also demonstrated that the most scientific way to put the Law of Averages into operation was by using the telephone. Try to get a clear conception of your occupation. You will be surprised at its possibilities and opportunities. They will startle you. They will arouse you. They will inspire you.
How to Assure Spiritual health
Spiritual attributes must be inspired by unfaltering faith. In a previous session you discovered that knowledge, based upon truth, is power. You first believe the spiritual attributes, you experiment with them to prove them, and, therefore, you know they exist. When you know that you are going to sell a certain thing you generate a magnetic force in your mind. This puts into action the Law of Attraction, and what you are seeking falls into your lap.
Sir Winston Churchill has said, “Stand pat against any obstacle and it will finally break.” After all, an obstacle is only a bubble in the stream of activity which is instantly burst by faith. Realise that when the Universal Power is on your side, nothing can be against you.
All things are possible for those that believe. Nothing is impossible. You can move mountains. A salesperson that has complete faith and understanding can bring about results in selling with the same precision and exactness that a physicist accomplishes through mathematical calculations and endless research.
“If we have faith nothing is impossible unto us, and according to our faith be it done unto us.”
