Yesterday I had the fortunate chance to sit and listen to one of the greatest thought leaders of our time, Bob Proctor.
As a lifetime student of leadership and mindset, I was super excited about this.
It was an intimate event at the Lennox Hall in the trade center, downtown Toronto, with around 200 people in attendance.
I am not sure if you ever watched the movie “The Secret,” I did over ten years ago and was so excited to see him in person. He is now 85 years young!
He did not disappoint; it was great to hear him speak and share his insights. His story was one of no high school education. He grew up in Toronto, dropped out of school, took a job in a fire hall only to later resign to the dismay of everyone who thought he was crazy! But Bob had a goal, to clean offices, which is how he built a multi-million dollar cleaning company. He was highly successful and had a realization that instead of living and enjoying his wealth, he should teach others how to achieve their goals and dreams as he did. He sold his cleaning company and built the current Proctor and Gallagher institute, which now operates in over 65 countries, and he is considered one of the Top Thought Leaders of our time.
Listening to him speak about Goal setting, Mindset and much more was fantastic. Spending a full day immersed in this kind of learning and philosophy with like-minded people is always something I highly recommend. It will inspire you and get you out of your comfort zone, which I highly value. Bob is a big leader in Mindset training. He believes that when you attune your mind to a higher frequency, your reality will change. I believe this theory and have experienced this in my own life.
As retail leaders, it is important we not only teach ourselves the fundamentals of leading others, coaching and customer service. Bob said, “everyone should be thinking about what they are thinking about” Think about it, when you are in a good mood everyone feels it, your energy is higher and so are the people around you. This is why attitude is everything in leadership. Being positive and enthusiastic is a leadership trait that ignites others around you. If you are down and grumpy, you normally attract more of the same.
Bob has spent his entire life teaching this important topic, and I have spent the last twenty years studying it. This is not something that everyone knows about me, if you are close to me, then you will, but most importantly I show this by showing up daily in my own life by being positive, generous with my time to those around me and treat people fair and try and do the right thing with good intention. I pay attention to my thoughts and what reality I am creating for myself, my team and my customers.
I’ll give you a very simple example, today when I was running the track at the gym; I kept telling myself “I love running” “I am so fast” even though I secretly hate running and I’m not that fast! However, I tell myself this constantly as I am running so that it becomes easier.
I have always believed in the law of cause and effect and Karma. I am very aware when my thinking is taking me down the wrong path; this is why I meditate and listen to an APP every morning that puts positive thoughts into my mind before I start my day.
Bob shared that our brains have over 60,000 thoughts daily, and that’s just our internal thoughts never mind those that come at us from others and outside sources like news, radio etc.
When you understand the impact of this on yourself and others, it is even more important you start to think about what you think about.
If you are concerned about not making sales, then guess what, you may not make your sales; your staff will feel it and so will your customers.
It is a fact; what you think about comes about. Now you may not believe this, but I assure you this is true. It’s a good practice to write a gratitude journal every morning and set your intentions for the day. Also, writing down your goals daily, weekly, and monthly so that you can visualize and think about them will motivate you to move closer to them.
When you write things down and speak about them, your mind puts actions into motion to achieve them. This is why it is so important for you to take the time to think about what you want to achieve personally and professionally.
We spent over four hours listening to Bob share very powerful insights. As I recapped with my business partner Jane at the end of the day, I thought it would be great to share in a BLOG post our top takeaways to inspire you as you head into your busy week.
Top takeaways from the GREAT Bob Proctor:
- Figure out what you want to do and dedicate your life to it. Whatever that may be. Mine is developing leaders. What’s yours?
- READ and REPEAT. When you read a book or listen to a podcast, YouTube, etc., read the same chapter over and over again until you get it! Repetition is the key to knowledge and having the ability to teach others.
- Most people only learn to read up to grade seven and then never practice getting good at it after that. Keep things simple. When you share information with others, keep this in mind.
- School doesn’t teach you everything you need to know in life, invest in your own development to achieve what you desire. HUGE! I did not go to college or university, but I do study leadership every day and make a point to learn something that can help others through retailu e-learning so that we can build the best content out there.
- Study everyday topics and content that can make you better. Become a student of life. Learn something every day and repeat.
- Your job if you lead others is to see their potential, theirs is to reach it. Remember this! You are not responsible for them reaching it, they are.
- Go to work for satisfaction, give your service for money. WOW! LOVE THIS.
- When you give, don’t give to trade, give to give.
- When you read something, ask yourself, what did I learn from what I just read? Write it down and share with someone and ask them the same.
- For brainstorming, ask yourself these questions regularly. What if we could…? and Can you imagine if we could…? Think BIG.
- Focus on possibilities, not constraints. HUGE for me, especially now that I am in the world of entrepreneurs.
- Have a clear goal. Then make a committed decision to move towards it. A committed decision means you will do what it takes to reach that goal. I have included the link to our GOAL settingsheet here. Complete and ask yourself critical questions to set clear goals. If you don’t set your goals, how can you possibly reach them? Bob talked about this a lot. If you ask most people what their goals are, they can not tell you. Use this awesome goal sheet to set your goals; it’s never too late to start. DOWNLOAD HERE
- Spend time with like-minded people who get it. Immensely important to keep you growing.
Bob Proctor, a very wise man! So thankful I was able to attend.
Bottom line is you are capable of anything! You just have to get your mind to believe it!
I took the time to review this list today to see where I need to make adjustments in my own life, what about you?
Happy Monday!
Founder & President, retailu