A testimonial is defined as being a formal statement testifying to your character or qualifications. The key words in this definition are: statement and testifying.

Now, we know that people usually make statements that testify of something based upon EVIDENCE, right?

So here is a question for you: What would the evidence seen in your life testify of you?

Remember, a testimonial may be a good one (positive), or it may be not so good (negative) – it all depends on the evidence. A person will make a statement based upon the evidence that he or she sees or has seen.

The evidence that testifies of your character and qualifications would be:

• The words you speak.
• The attitudes you show.
• The actions (and reactions) you demonstrate.

These are the three things that someone who was asked to write a statement testifying of your character or qualifications would use as a basis for his or her testimonial about you.

This is because these are the three things that people around you can SEE for themselves. But I am sure that you know that these three things are actually created by hidden areas of your life. Only YOU (and God) know about these hidden areas. 

So what are these secret areas?

• Your thoughts
• Your secret attitudes (yes, your secret attitudes MAY be different from the attitudes you display to the world).
• The decisions that you are constantly making as a result of your thoughts and secret attitudes.

Now here are some sad facts:

• Too many people do not take control of their thoughts, secret attitudes and constant decisions.
• Instead they allow the influences of the world to control these hidden areas of their lives.
• The result is that their lives are controlled by the negative influences of the world. (The default influences of the world are negative).

This is the key difference between a winner and a loser.

A loser allows himself to be tossed around by the influences that surround his life.

A winner takes control of his thoughts, his secret attitudes and his daily decisions. He or she refuses to allow the negative influences that surround him to control his life.

• A winner takes an ACTIVE role in his life.
• A loser takes a PASSIVE role in his life.

A winner DELIBERATELY speaks positive words into his or her own life and the lives of those around him.

A winner recognizes that the default influence of the world is negative.

A winner makes a daily decision to live in the positive realm of life.

He or she does this by:

• Speaking positive words
• Thinking positive thoughts.
• Making positive decisions.
• Determining to maintain a positive attitude no matter what happens.

Affirmation #154 of John Di Lemme’s 210 Day Affirmation Challenge focuses on speaking words of faith.

When you SPEAK words of faith over your life, it will be easier to also THINK words of faith. 

When your thoughts and your spoken words agree, your decisions and your actions will also tend to be decisions and actions of faith. Your testimonial will be positive!

Take some time today to speak the following affirmation into your life:

I am building my Testimonial today

by speaking words of faith over my life.

Now make a deliberate and concentrated effort to make sure that today all of your words will be words of faith. If you can do this for one day, you can do it for two days – right?

Keep going, until you form a habit of speaking words of faith over your life, and notice the difference it makes!

And always remember:

Resource:
Every affirmation in this 210 Day Affirmation Challenge is authored by John Di Lemme, founder of the 210 Day Lifestyle Freedom Club Be sure to check out this challenge and download your free motivational mp3s and mp4 from here as well.

It may seem strange to find a post about closing sales. on a blog that mostly talks about positive thinking and mindset for positive living

However, it really is not that strange. Why?

Because I know that every good salesperson will tell you that closing sales has everything to do with mindset. Your mindset and the mindset of the person you are making your presentation to.

The sale you are about to make should change your clients business or life for the better.

• Your product or service should bring a positive change or benefit to your clients life or business.
• If not, then you will not have the confidence needed to close the sale.
• Knowing that you are offering something that WILL change your client’s life for the better will certainly give you the energy and motivation to close the sale.

True positive living is all about living to make a difference in the lives of others.

You start achieving that by changing your thoughts and your mindset and your positive actions will follow.

True salesmanship is all about selling to make a difference in the lives of others. This is something I did not understand as I was growing up.

My father was an excellent salesman. He even won the top prizes in his company in New Zealand.

Looking back, I know for a fact he believed in his products (chocolate – who would not believe in chocolate  

He also believed in the quality of his products. They were manufactured by one of the top companies of the world.

For some reason as I was growing up I did not ever like the idea of getting involved in sales. I would always say: Dad is the salesman, I will leave that to him.

Then life threw me one of those curves that happens to everyone. Must of my supporters went on to be Lord, and I had 2 choices:

1. Go back to New Zealand – but my work is not finished yet. Of this I am sure.
2. Set up a business to support myself. This I had no idea how to do, but was (and is) definitely the winning choice. This is the choice that will empower me to fulfill my destiny.

This is when I met up with three great men whose teachings on sales and closing is all about making a difference in the lives of others. This I could believe in! These two men are:

John Di Lemme who has some excellent teaching on closing. I have met John personally and know him to be a very real, genuine and caring person. He is also the author and founder of this 210 Day Affirmation Challenge we are studying in this series.

John is offering a FREE Video about closing. You can get it here.

Bob Berg and his Co-Author John David Mann wrote two excellent books: Go Givers and Go Givers Sell More. I follow Bob on Twitter and even get his tweets on my cell phone. He is also a very real and caring person who is always encouraging others and celebrating their successes.

These men (and many others of course) have dedicated their lives to making a difference in the lives of others.

The BIG KEY to closing (taught by these men).

• Your close begins by creating a genuine relationship with your future clients. Yes, it is all about building relationships.
• This is how you can make a difference in the lives of others.
• This is how you can close sales.

Today’s affirmation (#150), of the 210 Day Lifestyle Freedom Club is all about closing.

I am an energetic closer.

As you make this declaration today (along with the first 149 affirmations if you are following along with the challenge) – keep in mind:

My first challenge is to build relationships with the ONE true motive of adding something to the lives of others that will contribute to their living the positive life.

Today’s Challenge:

• Ask yourself: what am I doing today to contribute to the positive living lifestyle of those around me?
• If you are in sales, here is another question to ask yourself. Does my product or service make a genuinely positive difference in the lives of others? If not, why am I trying to sell it to them?

Do check out Bob Burg’s books:
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This of IS the most common definition of this term which has in recent years as it has become an accepted asset that every business needs.

Today, let’s look at two kinds of “Mastermind Teams”. The key function that a Mastermind Team has on your life and your success (or failure) is their INFLUENCE.

Let’s stop and consider some key questions:

What does a true Mastermind Team actually do for you? (At least SHOULD do for you).

• They encourage you. (Their words influence you positively).
• They believe in you. (Their faith in you influences you to believe in yourself).
• They believe in what you are doing and are enthusiastic about it. (Their enthusiasm influences you and empowers you to keep moving forward).
• They expect you to succeed. (Their belief in you and your dreams lays a sense of accountability on you. Now, not only can you not fail yourself but you don’t want to fail them either).
• They help you to decide on what may work best for you and your business (or project).

To sum up these 5 functions:

This is your Positive Mastermind Team.
You leave their presence feeling encouraged, fired up and ready to go to the next level.

This is the Mastermind Team that you need to surround yourself with in order to achieve your goals and dreams.

(This is affirmation # 137 of the 210 Day Affirmation Challenge I recently did and continue to blog about.)

Now, let’s stop and consider another kind of “Mastermind Team” that may be surrounding you every day.

This is a Negative Mastermind Team. What? How can I have a negative Mastermind Team, you might be thinking? Well actually you can’t if you want to succeed, and that’s the key.

Here are some more key questions to ask yourself:

Do the people who surround me every day -

• Encourage me to pursue my dreams or do they scoff at my dreams?
• Believe in me or are they constantly putting me down?
• Expect me to succeed or are they waiting for me to fail so they can say “I told you so”
• Help me to decide on what may work for me or are they constantly insinuating that my dreams are just fantasies and I need to “get real”?

Now if you have people around you every day who fit this negative bill, then they have actually become your “Negative Mastermind”.

How so? Because the influence that they have in your life and on your dreams is a negative one.

Do you see how important it is to surround yourself with positive, like-minded people who can encourage you, challenge you and believe in you and your dreams?

Today’s Challenge:
Take some time to stop and seriously ask yourself the questions outlined in this article.

Now ask yourself this key question concerning each person who is influencing your life:

Resource:
Every affirmation in this 210 Day Affirmation Challenge is authored by John Di Lemme, founder of the 210 Day Lifestyle Freedom Club

It is not too late to get involved with this challenge. Go to the Lifestyle Freedom Blog Click on the menu at the top that says “Affirmation Challenge” to get involved. It will be the best decision you make today!

You were born a champion. You are destined to championship, but nevertheless it is not something that will happen in your life automatically.

You decide your destiny. You decide whether you take the high road in life (to reach your highest potential) or the low easy road and end up bitter and frustrated.

The title of this article is “Champions Train to Win”, and that is exactly what they do. They never train to come second right?

Today we are looking at affirmation #124 of John Di Lemme’s 210 Day Lifestyle Freedom Club Affirmation Challenge that I am involved in and blogging about. (See note in “Resources” below for more information).

Affirmation #124 is all about training:

There is only one way for you to make sure you become the best you can be in your field of expertise and passion. What is this way?

Train and work to develop yourself, your mind, your body (to stay fit and able to enjoy life), and your knowledge and skills in your field of expertise.

• This is the only way you can stay ahead of the competition.
• This is the only way you can stay fit mentally, emotionally and physically in this negatively contaminated world. >li>

When you win a championship it means that you have reached a potential that is higher than your competitors ability. That will not happen automatically right?

No it will take hours of persistent, dedicated, disciplined, daily training.

Champions are laser focused on their goals.

How can you stay laser focused on your dreams and goals?

• First of all, you need to be totally immersed in a proven personal development plan every day.
• Secondly you need to be totally immersed in your goals and dreams and the strategic actions you are taking towards fulfilling them.

Today’s Challenge:

• Start reading at least 1-2 non fiction books a month.
• Start listening to strong, highly motivational teachings on audio or video every day.
• Make a decision to start speaking stronger, more positive words to yourself every day.

Resource:
Every affirmation in this 210 Day Affirmation Challenge is authored by John Di Lemme, founder of the 210 Day Lifestyle Freedom Club

It is not too late to get involved with this challenge. Go to the Lifestyle Freedom Blog Click on the menu at the top that says “Affirmation Challenge” to get involved. It will be the best decision you make today!

However, this was never something I wanted to do. As I grew up, I would always say

“Dad is the salesman, not me”. As much as I admired my father, I had no desire to follow in his footsteps as far as career is concerned.

My Life Purpose.
Yet I went off to the mission field in Mexico where I spent close to thirty great years working with people, speaking, holding seminars, participating in seminars, writing and teaching and training one on one. I mention all of this to say that in a nutshell I was selling (except I did not realize it).

No, I was not selling a product in exchange for money. I was changing lives through teaching and training. I was selling truths and principles that challenge people to change their mindsets, make strong decisions which resulted in transformed lives.

After my parent’s deaths life threw me some more curves which involved more losses and I was faced with needing the make some drastic decisions.

I had three choices:

• I could go back to New Zealand and “retire” from the mission field. Not an option for me.
• I could visit churches to raise funds that would bring in the support to enable me to return to the mission field. This was not an option either. It would take another article or two to explain why, but for today let’s just say that this was not an option.
• I could start a business to support myself. This was the only valid option, even though the business world was an area of life I never thought I would enter. This would involve selling! Oh my!

What I had not understood is that the key to true sales is not manipulating people to make them feel obligated to buy something they never really wanted. No, real salesmanship is the result of focusing on changing people’s lives.

This is what today’s affirmation is all about:

This affirmation is No. #115 of John Di Lemme’s 210 Day Lifestyle Freedom Club Affirmation Challenge that I am involved in and blogging about.

It was a great blessing to meet up with Bob Burg on Twitter just as he was publishing his 2nd Go Giver book – Go Giver’s Sell More.

This book transformed my thinking and perspective completely about selling. It took away the stigma that I had in my mind towards sales and sales persons. Go Giver’s Sell More is all about learning to give and to change people’s lives.

This is the key to a successful business and indeed a successful life.

The author of the affirmations that we are following in this series of articles, John Di Lemme is also an expert on closing sales. John has a book I fully recommend called 17 Highly Guarded Strategies To Close Every Sale – Guaranteed

Today’s Challenge:

• If you are a business owner, ask yourself this question: Am I in business to make money or to change people’s lives? (Guess which answer will REALLY make you successful?)
• Even if you do not own a business here is a question to ask yourself: Am I seeking my own happiness in life or am I seeking to touch and change the lives of others? (Guess which answer will REALLY make YOU happy?)

Resource:
Every affirmation in this 210 Day Affirmation Challenge is authored by John Di Lemme, founder of the ” title = “Lifestyle Freedom Club” target = “blank”>Lifestyle Freedom Club Blog, then click on the menu at the top that says: “Affirmation Challenge”.

Follow Bob Burg on Twitter here