One of my favourite quotes sits on my desktop on my computer and it says this:

"Those who are blessed with the most talent don't necessarily outperform everyone else. It's the people with follow through who excel!"

I think I got this from one of Brian Tracy's books or tapes and it has been something I like to remind myself of on a daily basis.

Whenever I read it, I am always reminded of the story of the Tortoise and the Hare.

If you were never told this story as a child, then let me re-cap.

Mr Hare, running around as he does at full speed challenges Mr Tortoise to a race.  Mr Hare accelerates off as you would expect but on the way gets distracted.

Realising he has got speed on his side, he lets the distraction consume his attention and ends up losing the race because Mr Tortoise keeps plodding on - following through on his commitment to finish the race.

Isn't it amazing how life mirrors fable.

I have seen it time and time again where well intentioned people rush off with excited enthusiasm on a new project but often lose their way, only to be overtaken by the slow methodical plodder who takes it one step at a time but is consistent with their actions.

Of course lessons like this are best learnt by experience rather than being discovered on a blog because I am sure you can appreciate the sense and logic of keeping on keeping on.

But knowing it and realising it are completely different and sometimes you only really realise these things when they hit you square in the face.

Brian Tracy talks about the key success characteristic of successful executives as being that of single handling - take one task and keep doing it until it gets done without deviating from it.

In essence that is what the quote at the top of this post is all about.

But it is also the difference between being the hare or being the tortoise in that famous children's fable.

Too often these days I see people rushing around being busy being busy but never really making any signficant progress.

These are the professional hares.

They get distracted by multiple projects, find themselves at the beck and call of multiple professional (and personal) stimuli (namely e mail, phone calls, personal interruptions and the plethora of web based distractions).

Like mice (or hares) on a treadmill, there is lots of activity but very little progress.

But then let's look at an alternative - the professional tortoise.

Deeply embedded in one task at one time until it is complete, these are the people who always cross the finish line before starting the next race.

They shut out all other distractions, focus on the matter in hand and get it done BEFORE moving on to the next project.

It takes discipline and in a busy environment personal and professional courage but let me tell you that progress will rely on the tortoises of the world.

One of the good things about the nature of the work I do is its almost universal relevance.

In brief terms I help people develop their thinking abilities by sharing with them concepts relating to memory development, effective reading, accelerated learning and Mind Mapping.

The broad topic description for my field is "Personal Effectiveness" and helping people get things done faster, more effectively and far more efficiently.

As someone who runs my own online (and offline) business I am well versed in the challenges people in my situation face in terms of being productive.

For many years I "got by" until I discovered how to be truly effective and embarrassingly a big part of the answer was already at my disposal.

Now if you run your own online business then there are four things you need to be aware of that are absolutey essential to your success.

I expect that you have probably got 3 out of 4 of those.

However if you are not making the progress you would like (or maybe expect) then it is highly likely you are missing the fourth ingredient.

Unfortunately 3/4 or 75% is not enough to get you by and so you really need to first of all be aware of what's missing and then know what to do about it.

I have created a free report and video on How to Unlock Your Business Building Brain - The Secret Key To Productivity, Progress and Profit.

In it I explain what the four building blocks are and which one you are likely to be missing. 

I also reveal the biggest challenge you are likely to face as you build your business (this will not come as a surprise to you as you are already facing it however the solution may be a bit of a shock)

I share with you 8 simple ways of developing the missing building block that you can apply immediately that will make a huge difference in the success of your business.

So if you are serious about developing your business and you know that something is holding you back but you can't quite put your finger on whatever it is, then you need to watch this video and read the report on Unlocking Your Business Building Brain

The BBC are currently having a bit of a season about Poetry.

According to Giles Coren in the Times recently no one cares about poetry.

Yet the BBC in their infinite wisdom think it is worth bothering about and have put a lot of effort into poetry for the broadcasting schedules over the coming weeks.

Tonight (apparantly) there is a TV programme about poetry recitals and the challenges that children have in learning poems for a recital competition.

Now perhaps it was my schooling but I don't really recall any poems from my days in the classroom - well only the rude variants on "Mary had a little lamb…. full of frisks and frolicks…one day he jumped over a barbed wire fence……and was seriously hurt in the ensuing accident".

So learning poetry has not been my thing.

Even in the memory world championships, when it came to the poem event (we had 15 minutes to remember as much of a poem as possible and then recall it) it still wasn't my thing.

However when it came to it, I think I remembered about 8 lines…..see it was that memoriable I can't even remember myself…..however 8 lines is not bad by "normal" standards.

So memory is my thing but poetry really isn't.

When it comes down to it and I have to memorise a poem (something I have not done since winning the silver medal at the world championships) it is really an intellectual memorisation excercise and not a philosophical/emotional/literary appreciation of verse (whether it has iambic pentameter or not).

So that was the main thrust of my short appearance on BBC Radio Swindon this morning.

If I go into the studio then usually I get 15 or so minutes of chat, maybe listen to a couple of records, and then perhaps answer a couple of questions from callers to the station.

Today I couldn't get into the studio and so had a brief 2 minute chat with the presenter who asked about the difference between verbetim learning and a fuller experiential and emotional approach to learning poems.

Yes you can take the mechanics and structure of the words and punctuation that make up the verse and memorise them in a way that you can recall them pretty much perfectly (if you are well practiced).

But is that the same as taking the meaning, nuances, imagery, emotion and contradictions of the verse and truly experiencing them.

Err…..well no.

However which comes first, the chicken or the egg?

Do you learn the poem off by heart first so you can then concentrate on appreciating the subtleties of it later without having to keep reaching over to the book to remind yourself of what the next line is?

Or do you experience the emotional journey and the vibrant imagery over and over again and hope that the repetition of it will mean at least some of it sticks in the old grey matter?

It really depends on the individual.

If you want a good old ride on a literary roller coaster then perhaps take the emotional route and ride the rhyme and rhythm of the verse.

If you just want to commit it to memory then….commit it to memory.

….or you could try both.

Either way it does not matter as long as you enjoy it.

Do you get lots of e mails from friends telling you about the latest You Tube video that you absolutely have to watch (as if you weren't already busy enough!).

Well like you I get those as well.

Occasionally they are funny, sometimes they are informative, often they are a downright waste of time and generally I delete the e mail without watching the video.

But every so often I decide to click on the link and have a look, especially if the e mail has come from someone I respect and who does not normally send on junk.

This morning I got one of thos e mails and in it there was a link to a You Tube Video and so I clicked on it.

And I am so glad I did.

The following video is Susan Boyle's appearance on last nights edition of "Britain's Got Talent".

She is a 47 Year old single Scottish woman who lives alone with her cat.

Think of your ancient auntie's best friend who loves a cup of tea and a biscuit, probably wears slippers all day and maybe potters around the garden a bit when it isn't raining.

And this lady then finds herself in front of Simon Cowell (Boo! Hiss! etc), Piers Morgan (More boo! Hiss!), the lovely Amanda Holden and a packed audience in a crowded theatre who can sniff performance incompetence a mile away.

Take the next 7 minutes to see a cynical audience swept away, appearance stereotypes shattered, Simon Cowell made to grin from ear to ear within seconds of this lady starting her act and Piers Morgan left pretty much speechless.

Not only that, spend this tiny fraction of your day to invest in your feeling of goodwill, hope and inspiration because in today's world we only focus on what the media presents to us and mostly that is bad, negative or just shallow hype.

In these 7 minutes you will realise that there is hope, joy, love and wonder out there….you just need to look a bit harder for it and usually, it ain't where you expect it to be.

Enjoy…

I recently worked with a large international pharmaceutical speaking to their international business analysts at a conference in Frankfurt.

They wanted me to share some ideas on how to improve their Continuing Professional Development.

Here are those recommendations for accelerating your career professional development:

1.  Get Very Clear On What It Is You Are Trying To Achieve

Probably the most important point to get right when you are considering and managing your CPD is that of clarity.

There is just so much information bombarding us every second of the day that unless we are clear on what it is we are looking for, then it is very easy to become overwhelmed and feel out of control.

As soon as you get that clarity, it becomes very easy to notice the information of value to you but also to discard what does not serve your developmental purposes.

2.  Become an Effective Reader

Although video and audio are fast becoming the primary media, certainly on the internet, you will still have to absorb much of your required knowledge via the written word.

Sadly our school system gives us the ability to read, but it does not develop us as effective readers.

To use a physical body analogy - it is like being taught how to walk and as soon as we take those first faltering steps we are thrown into the deep end and expected to be able to run, jog, dance, skip. somersault without any further training.

It is highly likely that your reading speed is in the region of 250-350 words per minute (which is well below what many experts believe is necessary just to survive in this information age).

You need to improve that if you want to just keep up (let alone get ahead) and here are some simple tips to do that:

• Use a guide (your finger or a pen) to give your eyes something to follow as they move across a page of text (this will help you overcome some bad habits that really slow you down)
• Instead of reading one word at a time as we were taught in class, read groups of words - 1,2 3 or more at a time (this will rapidly accelerate your reading rate without any loss of comprehension)
• Develop ruthless filtering strategies to cut through the volume of stuff to find the nuggets of data vital to your CPD

 There are many more things you can do to improve your reading effectiveness but if you want to find out more, click here to improve reading speed for a free audio that will describe everything you need to know.

3.   Learn to Use Mind Mapping to Develop The Quality of Your Thinking

So having got clear on what it is you want and having developed your reading effectiveness, the next thing you need to do to improve the quality of your continued professional development is develop the quality of your thinking.

If you want to be able to analyse, synthesise, organise, prioritise and memorise your new found knowledge then the one tool I would recommend beyond all others, is that of Mind Mapping.

In simple terms if I asked you to take notes on a new topic that was important for your professional development, chances are you would "copy" the bits your thought were relevant to you.

In essence you are capturing CONTENT.

With Mind Mapping however, the very process of applying the tool forces you to THINK about what it is you are receiving so you capture the MEANING of it - a much higher level of thinking.

If you want more information, click here to find out about Mind Mapping Training for a free guide on how to get started with this amazing thinking tool.

4.  Develop Your Memory

The main purpose of developing yourself professionally so you can claim all of those CPD points is of course to be able to gather relevant knowledge and experiences for you to draw upon later in your professional life.

To that end, you will need to be able to remember what it is you are learning.

You will of course remember much of what you learn because of the relationship to and development of your existing knowledge base - the power of association is extremely powerful.

However many people believe their memory is poor and getting worse as they get older based on references that are at best circumstantial when really there are plenty of things that can be done to not only maintain a good memory, but also improve it.

Here are just some:

• Look at your physical lifestyle and (health issues permitting) develop a supportive diet and exercise regime to improve your levels of health, vitality and fitness (always seek qualified medical advice beforehand)
• Outside of your professional environment, stimulate your mind and memory by learning new skills, taking up a new hobby or simply doing lots of mental puzzles.
• Start believing in your memory (often the biggest reason for a decline) and say positive things to yourself about it (don't laugh, this alone could be the turning point for you!)
• Discover and apply the vast range of memory improvement techniques available to you.

 5.   Believe in Yourself

And finally, just believe in yourself.

Probably the biggest thing that holds us back from moving forward in any area of our lives is that of belief.

Whether it is because we are conforming to some socially ingrained stereotypes or just dealing with inappropriate programming from our upbringing, the beliefs we have about ourselves and what is possible for us will dictate our success in life.

So everytime you come up against one of those internal barriers (you will know when you hit one), just look inside and see if you can discover what is causing it and then try and replace it with something more supportive.

It is a lifelong task (unless you are already enligthened ) but one that will reap rewards on many different levels, not just Continuing Professional Development.

Today has been a great day for me because I got to present a session called "How to Remember Faster and Read More" at Confex 2009 at Earls Court in London as part of the Business Skills and Personal development stream of the seminar programme.

It is a topic that is of interest to so many people but when I saw my slot in the programme - 10.30am on the morning of day 1 of a three day exhibition - I wasn't sure if we would get too many in.

Even right up to 5 minutes before I got started, there were just a handful of people in the theatre but then all of a sudden there was a rush (I would like to say stampede but that would be a mild exaggeration to say the least) and in the end we had nearly 50 people, about three-quarters full.

The presentation went well and although they could hear me because I was mic'd up, it was difficult to hear the audiences responses in this interactive session because of the general background noise from the rest of the exhibition room.

Still the feedback I got was very good indeed and I was swamped with questions that I had to cut short because of the next speaker waiting to get on.

And then once I had prized myself away from the free biscuits and drinks in the VIP area (oh yes…I was a VIP you know!) I then had a very fruitful day wandering around the stands meeting some very interesting people.

Now with it being the international exhibition for people involved in the events, conferences and meetings industry, you would think that there would be plenty of opportunities to make useful contacts for me as a speaker.

Well there were but it is always a fine balance between finding out about the people you meet to see whether you can help them and just blurting out "I'm a speaker…use me……..please!"

I think the thing that bothers most event planners is the pleading and grabbing on to their legs shouting "Don't ignore me….Pleeeeeeeeease don't ignore me".

They can handle the crying, it's just the desparation that puts them off I think.

Still a useful lesson in networking…must remember to freshen the breath next time.

PS - If you were there at the event, drop me a comment to let me know how much value you got from the session

I know it is February and New Year's Eve is a long time ago (I mean it is last year!) but did you set any New Years Resolutions?

If you did, how did you get on with them?

Well I set some and I wanted to share with you how they have been going.

On New Years Day I wrote a blog post about keeping your new years resolutions and recommended using a form to help you keep track of your progress.

Well I have been using that form and I wanted to share January's completed form with you because it really does work to keep you on track (well why would I promote anything to you that did not work).

Here is my January progress form:

As you can see in every box there is a check check mark to show on that day I did something towards keeping that New Year Resolution.

I mentioned in that post that you should have a bronze/silver/gold level of activity for each resolution you set and that works really well too so that I can maintain the momentum of progress.

I am delighted at this and how well it has worked but how did you get on with yours?

Let me know what worked (or didn't work) for your resolutions by adding a comment below.

Memory Improvement Techniques are always a good topic for media interviews.

Questions always include "How can we improve memory?" and "What memory techniques do you recommend?" as well as a general discussion about why our memory seems to get worse with age.

I was on the road earlier this week when I received a call from Kate Kelly, a producer with the BBC at Radio Wiltshire.

They were doing a piece on recall and remembering as a result of a story about a young local girl who had won a prize for reading poetry from memory.

They wanted to know if I would go into the studios in Swindon and be interviewed by Lee Sloane.

Of course I agreed and met the delightful Kate and the charming Lee.

The interview went very well and probably for the first time I didn't have to talk about the World Memory Championships - we just focused on ideas of benefit to the listener.

We covered some simple memory techniques and spent quite a bit of time talking about how to remember people's names.

Underneath the photograph below (me presenting a copy of my book "Memory Power Up" to Lee), if you press play you can hear the whole short interview.

Brrr it is cold here in the UK at the moment because of the coldest weather and the heaviest snow falls we have had in this part of the world for 18 years.

Now whilst I love the snow (nothing better than that crunchy feeling as fresh snow compacts under your boots) it is a bit of a hindrance when it comes to getting about the country.

This week has seen the UK and London in particular grind to a halt because of so much snow.

Well I would love to stay here and suffer/enjoy the cold weather but sadly duty calls and I am off to sunny (ish) Florida to attend Rich Scheffren's GPS Elite conference in Boca Raton over the weekend and then spend some time with my buddy Terry Brock.

After spending so much time on stages around the world, it is going to be nice to let others do the work for once and let me have some input in my own development.

I am especially excited by seeing Rich Scheffren live.

If you are involved in business in any way shape or form then I suggest you get over to his site at www.strategicprofits.com because you will learn plenty about how to run your business more effectively and how to be highly productive and effective in this information rich world we find ourselves in.

This guy is good ….and I mean very good.

He is a HUGE exponent of Mind Mapping, speed reading and accelerated learning amongst other things and he uses these ideas to help him be extremely effective.

So not only am I going to learn about how to structure my business better but I am also going to learn things about my own area of specialisation and see how somone else uses it to great effect.

I will let you know how I get on.

Just recently I worked with improvisational comedy genius John Cremer to co-facilitate a session for a Chief Executive networking organisation. at Knowsley Hall, Merseyside.

Our remit was to create an environment to allow quality networking between two groups of Chief Executives and one group of Senior Managers, many of whom had never met before.

Following extremely close consultation with the chairmen of these groups we established that the objectives were to have the CEOs/Managers establish and share 3 things:

1.   What could they do to help others in the room?

2.   Who else did they know who could help others in the room?

3.   What best practice could they share with others in the room?

Each of these three objectives were in the context of the challenge of the current economic environment affecting businesses up and down the country.

It was certainly a tall order especially as the group chairmen were trying out something new with their groups.

Fortunately, myself and John rose to the occasion and a good day was had by all so not only did the chairmen go away happy at their forsight in envisioning the potential of such a day but their members also went away thoroughly stimulated with a bunch of ideas, contacts and actions to apply to their business.

Now I won't bore you with the details of exactly what we did, but I want to give you a flavour of how we did it.

The video below will give you more detail, but in essence the key to effective group and meeting facilitation relies on these key components:

• Clarity of objectives
• A balance of creativity and structured processes
• Clear channels of communication and feedback
• Adaptability

 So press play on the video below to get more information on what I believe good facilitation is all about.