But surprisingly few have learnt smart ways to reduce their stress.

Below are 6 highly effective ways to keep your stress under control, no mater what is happening in your business and personal life.

1. REMIND YOURSELF OF WHAT’S GOING RIGHT.
Usually people are stressed about just one or two areas of their life. If they only took a moment to look at the big picture, they would see that the vast majority of their life is going well. Grab a pen and some paper and write a list of all the stuff that’s going well in your life. (You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how long the list becomes). Now stick that list next to your computer, so that you see it all day long. Watch how quickly your perspective changes and your mood lifts.

2. GET ULTRA CLEAR ON YOUR TO DO LIST.
Clarity enhances serenity. If you’re stressed by how much you have to do, get precise about exactly what tasks must be done (you’ll often realize it’s less than you thought). Once you’ve created your list put a circle around the truly crucial tasks. Most of the time stressed executives have exaggerated just how much they have to do. Getting it down on paper helps you see that mountain of work may be smaller than you thought.

3. TIDY YOUR ENVIRONMENT.
The renowned personal development guru, Wayne Dwyer, says you can tell the state of a person’s mind by the state of their car. I agree. if you’re feeling overwhelmed one of the most effective strategies is to create order in your immediate environment- car, office, home. As you take charge of your surroundings your feelings of control will increase. And as the esteemed behavioral psychologist Martin Seligman has shown, there’s a strong correlation between feelings of control and well being.

4. TRY THE THREE BREATH RELEASE.
I mentor executives and entrepreneurs from all over the world. Whenever they come to me complaining about stress I get them to do this simple exercise:
Take a deep breath. Then as you exhale imagine all your problems and stress leaving you. Do this just three times and I bet your feeling of stress has dissipated significantly.

5. FOCUS ON HELPING OTHER PEOPLE.
One of the most effective techniques for reducing your stress is to take the focus off yourself. When you start devoting time to helping others around you inevitably spend less time thinking about your own problems. There are several studies from the University of Pennsylvania linking happiness with service to others. It may seem strange to connect the two, but the truth is many people who are stressed in the corporate world are so partly because they are incessantly thinking about their own issues and situation, rather than others. We need to balance the two.

6. TAKE MASSIVE ACTION.
There is a concept in psychology known as Learned Helplessness – failing to respond or act to improve our circumstances. Originally discovered in rats, learned helplessness is also evident in some humans who feel overwhelmed by their roles and responsibilities. They feel that things are so bad there is little that they can do to change things. We have all felt this at some point in our business lives and it is a depressing feeling to say the least.

The cure though is simple. Take action to fix things. By proactively acting to improve our circumstances we regain a feeling of control and possibility. If we continue acting we soon get a change in our situation. Soon our situation improves, which encourages us to act further. A virtuous cycle develops which usually quickly improves our predicament.

The key is to act greatly, taking multiple steps to change things, even if we’re not sure if they’ll work. If we act enough, we will usually see vast improvements in almost any area we focus on.

So next time you’re feeling stressed at work, try one or two of these techniques. You’ll find every one of them is highly effective in both reducing your stress and improving your performance.

But I’d like to present a different view. Ron Johnson is doing exactly what a CEO should be doing when put in charge of a moribund company.

Taking regular, calculated risks.

A case in point is a new JC Penney concept store that is within days of opening in West Hollywood, just near my home.

This is the latest in a fast growing group of cool, modern, vibrant, relatively small stores co-branded JCP and Joe Fresh, the successful Canadian retailer.

Take a look at the DJ booth in the center of the store – this is not your usual retail outlet.

On huge orange walls the store’s manifesto is declared.The store exudes energy and youthful panache – and it hasn’t even opened yet.

What’s brilliant about Ron Johnson taking his joint venture with Joe Fresh out of JC Penney and onto the streets is twofold:

1. If it works he will be able to create a huge nationwide chain of boutiques, separate from the traditional department stores.
2. He is creating massive advertisements for the new JC Penney, altering perceptions of the previously staid department store group. Johnson figures if we won’t come to his stores, he’ll bring the stores to us.

Will it work? Who knows. But it’s yet another example of a gutsy CEO doing whatever he can to change the game, break the rules, move things forward.

Small, incremental change will not save department stores from an aging clientele and the ever mounting online retail attacks. Dramatic action is necessary.

Many things Johnson has tried may not have worked as well as he hoped (getting rid of sales, radical pricing policies to name but two). But plenty, like his new department store revamps are substantially lifting revenues (last quarters figures show the new store layout brings in $269 per square foot versus $134 for the old design.)

Rather than whine on the sidelines that the JC Penney turnaround is too slow or strategically unsound, we should all be cheering this guy for having the gumption to attempt to re-invent an entire business model.

We should also look at our own businesses and ask ourselves whether we should be doing a Ron Johnson on our company, rather than continuing with business as usual as the world changes rapidly around us.

As Britain’s special forces commandos, the Special Air Service, like to say, ‘Who Dares Wins’. Many of the world’s companies would do a lot better if they had CEO’s like Ron Johnson at the helm, shaking things up.

(It separates you from your competitors. It enables you to charge more. It allows you to add new products easily. It makes people feel proud to buy from you. It increases loyalty).

But many people are not sure how to create an outstanding brand.

I’ve spent over 30 years creating and enhancing company brands, for some of the largest and most successful company’s in the world, from Apple to Coca Cola.

So today I’d like to give you a quick brand building checklist, to help you make the most of your brand. Have a read and see how your brand measures up.

Great brands have the following characteristics:

1. THEY OWN A CLEAR SPACE IN THE CONSUMER’S MIND

That could be a logical space- your product is cheaper or better made for instance. Or it could be an emotional space; your offering may make your customer feel safe, sexy, or smart, for example. Which ever way you go, you must make sure your space is clearly defined in the customer’s mind. When they think of your product, service or company,they should never have a muddled vision.

2. THEY ARE DIFFERENTIATED FROM THEIR COMPETITION

If you can think of numerous brands that make the same promise as you, in a similar way, then you will find it hard to build a potent brand. (It can be done , usually through brilliant advertising,major PR or just by being the first in a category, but it’s difficult to pull off).

Enduring brands are distinct from their competitors. Club Med is vastly distinct from Thomas Cook Holidays. Red Bull is far away from Coke. Ferrari differs greatly from Mercedes. Each of these brands are strong because they don’t try to be all things to all people. Stake your position and make sure it’s always differentiated from the pack.

3. THEY LIVE THEIR MESSAGE

Most brands are merely skin deep. Once you get involved with the company you see that they don’t really live the brand positioning , it’s little more than a slogan. Stellar brands make sure that every touch point is in keeping with their brand positioning.For example, at Fedex they pick up the phone in one ring. When I bought a Porsche I was soon invited to advanced driving school. At the Como Hotel in Melbourne they don’t just say they treat you well, they offer you a menu of different bath experiences you can have in your room (and your own rubber duck).

These brands are alive. They are congruent. They are real. They can be experienced daily,not just in their marketing.

4. THEY DEEPLY UNDERSTAND THEIR CUSTOMERS

Most companies are not really sure what their customers really want. Oh sure, they know the basics – for example if they run a car company they know their customers want it well made, to look nice and to be good value. But rarely have their interrogated their customers to the point where they really, really understand what they seek from their product, practically and emotionally.

How do you find that out? You ask them- via surveys and regular in depth interviews. And observe what they do, not just what they say.

Look behind the obvious for the real motive. For example, people who buy drills don’t want drills. They want holes.

So these are the crucial four elements for creating a mighty brand. How many do you score highly on?

Get all these elements right and you won’t just have a strong brand.

You’ll have a highly profitable enterprise.

The reason is simple.

If we can find just one technique that can make us more productive in business, over 5 or 10 years the impact can be extraordinary.

Today I’d like to talk about a ridiculously simple technique that can make a phenomenal improvement to how much you achieve.

I learnt it from David Allen, a celebrated productivity expert, and it’s called The 2 Minute Rule.

Here’s how it works.

Whenever a new task comes up ( an email, a phone call, or a new To Do ) you ask yourself one simple question.

Can I handle this in 2 minutes or less?

If you can, you do it immediately. If you can’t you write it on your list of things to do later.

Is that all there is to it? Yep, that’s all there is.

But you’ll be amazed at how following this one rule improves your business performance and your life.

For a start, you will no longer have huge lists of things you need to get done. By doing tasks as they come up your To Do list will be halved.

You also will rarely forget to do tasks, as you’ll either have done them immediately ( if you can do them in under 2 minutes) or you’ll have them written down on a list.

You’ll accomplish much more, much faster.

You’re reputation at work will improve as you’ll become known for getting things handled quickly.

And your feelings of control will increase – a well known cause of life satisfaction (See control/happiness research by either Martin Seligman or William Glasser).

The 2 Minute Rule is potentially life changing. And certainly business changing.

So try this exercise. Rank your current productivity with a mark out of 10. Then try The 2 Minute Rule for 5 business days, then re-rank your productivity.

If you usually give yourself a 6 out of 10  for efficiency I’ll wager you will lift that to an 8 out of 10.

The 2 Minute Rule is that powerful.

As I was watching it, I couldn’t help but think about the connections between top level business and top level football.

Throwing a football around wearing tight pants and eye black may seem the opposite of the world of business, but I think the two share important similarities.

In fact I believe if we don’t develop 3 of the same character traits of the top NFL players we will never reach the top of the corporate world.

The best players and the best business execs each have these personality aspects to an extreme degree:

1. Ultra focus.
You don’t see linemen trying to be quarterbacks, or the team kicker trying his hand at playing wide receiver.

The NFL world understands that you can only be superb if you specialize. The same is true in business. Great entrepreneurs understand that they must focus on an industry or niche – really get to know it and delve down into its intricacies if they ever hope to master it. In the same manner superb corporate executives appreciate that they need to be brilliant at just a small number of skills, the critical few that they are both suited to and are the most valuable to their company. Whether in football or business, generalists are less likely to reach the top.

2.Devotion to practice.
The Superbowl wasn’t won by the Ravens on February 3.

It was won far earlier, during the thousands of hours the players and coaching staff practiced and refined their craft. Business is no different. Skills practice is vital – whether it’s sales skills, marketing expertise, financial acumen or strategy prowess. Both footballers and business people are made not born; through endless finessing of their key skill sets.

3. Deep passion.
The wild, chest beating machismo of many of the 49ers and Ravens players is certainly not evident in the corporate world, but make no mistake, deep down in every great business person is similar passion – though it will express itself in more sedate ways.

Nobody ever got to the top in business by being nonchalant. No matter how talented, those who are ambivalent about their careers tend to get steam rolled by those that are passionate. The complexities and shifting sands of business life demand total immersion and commitment – anything less leads to mediocre performance.

So as you can see, Superbowl players actually have quite a lot in common with people in business. Which begs the question, how do you score on the three key attributes of both professions – ultra focus, devotion to practice and deep passion?

Are you too a world champion?

Goal setting, time management and productivity texts are everywhere.

But with all this emphasis on doing more, the advantages of doing less are being forgotten.

Yet research increasingly shows that anyone serious about high performance should pay as much attention to resting as doing.

According to the Human Performance Institute in Florida, improving the quantity and quality of rest is one of the most effective ways to work more efficiently.

Basically, when we are rested we think better, can work longer, can concentrate more, are more creative and achieve more.

Yet how many executives or business owners do you know who treat rest seriously?

Most do the opposite. They think nothing of working late nights and weekends- some wear this endless busyness like a badge of honor- the longer I work, the more I will be respected.

Well although our culture currently applauds these work horses, productivity experts say it’s not a smart way to live. Or achieve.

For example Tony Schwartz from The Energy Project has shown that when we take rest seriously we will almost certainly get much more done, our work will be of a higher standard, our thinking will be more accurate, and as a result our incomes are likely to rise.

What are the secrets to using the power of rest?

1. Work in 90 minute bursts. That’s about the most humans can function before their effectiveness starts to slip.
2. Take a ten minute break at least 3 times during your week day- this will reduce stress and greatly clarify thinking.
3. Treat your appointment with sleep as being as important as any other in your diary. Have a clear time to go to bed and try to get up at the same time daily  (the body craves order).
4. Sleep in a very dark, very quiet room. This increases your frequency and depth of REM sleep, viewed by experts as the most rejuvenating level of slumber.
5. Don’t work weekends unless you have to. And if you do, try to get all your work done in a single concentrated block-rather than doing an hour or two several times throughout Saturday and Sunday.
6. Book your holidays (or at least diarise them) at the beginning of the year. That will double your chances of taking them and knowing you have a vacation coming will reduce your overall stress.
7. Use sleep aids like Melatonin, SAMe, or LTryptophan. They help you make the most of the hours you do sleep.

Rest is important for peak performance in business. But it’s one area that executives consistently fail to maximize.

Try this test: Focus on rest for just one month. I bet that you’ll not only feel much better, you’ll work much better. And the better you work, the more you’ll outperform your competition.

Rest will make you better than the rest.

It examines the 16 biggest obstacles to success and how we can overcome them. Many readers asked me whether I had similar theories about why businesses fail. Of course, there are a myriad of reasons that cause corporate failure, but here are six of the biggest:

NO CLEAR MARKETING FUNNEL.

People usually don’t just discover great products. Contrary to the famous saying, if you build a better mouse trap the world will not beat a path to your door.

You need to develop a way to efficiently attract leads, then convert some of them. This seems so basic, but hundreds of thousands of busineses start with no clear marketing funnel and then have to rely on luck or referrals to get customers in through the door.

What’s your marketing funnel? Will you start with print ads? Google ads? A free offer? Direct mail? Unless you develop a system for marketing, your chances of making money consistently are minuscule.

NO FOLLOW UP OF CUSTOMERS.

Once you’ve got an enquiry from a potential customer, you have to stay in contact with them.

For how long? Well as the great marketer Dan Kennedy likes to say, “Until they buy or die.”

So many business owners are unaware of the importance of this. They get hundreds of phone enquiries or street walk ins, then let them leave without leaving any follow up details. Crazy.

Give them a reason to leave you their email address (a free report, a discount, a newsletter) then keep reminding them that you exist and that you sell some good stuff. You’d be amazed how well this works. This doesn’t just work for potential customers it works just as nicely for people who’ve already bought from you. Just stay in touch and many will buy from you again.

NO BUSINESS SYSTEM.

There are two types of businesses you can run. A talent based business and a systems based business.

A talent based business relies on the talents of a few key people. It can make money, but it’s precarious, because that talent may decide to leave. Or ask for too much money. Or get sick for a few months. Far better is a systems based biz.

It doesn’t just rely on talented people, it’s also got clear, organised systems and rules that staff have to follow. Creating a systems based business can be a bit of a hassle initially. But when you do the place will run much more smoothly and definitely more profitably.

NO PERSISTENCE.

Some people just give up too easily. They encounter a year of obstacles and just lose hope that things can change. Believe me, the corporate world is full of examples of companies doing it tough, then emerging triumphant.

In the early days Boeing was so strapped for cash they started producing furniture! True story.

The Marriott hotel chain started as a root beer stand.

Good companies take time. Sometimes lots of time. But so many entrepreneurs get depressed that they haven’t made a hundred million in their first three years. And give up soon after.

Don’t make this mistake. Extend your timelines, commit yourself to your company for the long term. It makes a world of difference to your results.

NO SELF BELIEF.

Closely allied to persistence, self belief is vitally important to the success of a business. When you have strong self belief you think better, sell better and lead better.

Potential clients sense it and are attracted to people who possess it. Almost every area of a Chief Executive’s performance lifts when they believe in themselves. Yet so few corporate leaders work on their beliefs. It seems a bit too touchy feely, too intangible, compared to say working on next quarter’s figures.

Yet focusing daily on your self talk, choosing empowering beliefs, refusing to give negativity substantial time in your head, will help you make more progress than working on almost any traditional business skill.

You tend to become what you think, so for goodness sake be careful what you think. As Henry Ford put it, “Whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right.”

NO MARGIN FOR ERROR.

The final reason businesses fail is simply that they sail too close to the wind. All they need is a little bit of bad luck- a tough six months, a key client who pulls their account, a senior staff member who leaves for a rival firm, and they find that they simply don’t have enough cash to survive.

This year alone I’ve mentored two CEO’s of online businesses who had fabulous sales, but just didn’t have enough cash in reserve. The result? They went under.

Warren Buffett likes to call this ‘Margin Of Safety’. When he invests in a business he makes sure the deal makes sense even if the company performs well below expectations. He doesn’t just depend on things going right, he builds in the chance that things will go very wrong. We all need to do the same.

A guy I know said that the most common phrase Richard Branson used when they were talking was ‘protect the downside’.

So take a look at these six causes of business failure. Ask yourself whether any of them apply to you. If you’re weak in even one of these areas your entire business could be in peril.

Make a plan today to fix that weakness and set a deadline by which you’ll do it. None are hard to fix, but all could become a nightmare if they are allowed to grow.

In the future, I believe that every executive will work on their mental fitness every bit as much as their physical fitness.

After all, we all know that when our mind is sharp, focused and motivated our performance is usually superb.

With that in mind I’d like to present you with 3 ways to uplift your motivation. If you’re feeling a little depleted or defeated, use these techniques to lift your mood and your inspiration.

1. REMEMBER WHERE YOU CAME FROM.
Ambitious people all seem to have the same problem: they only think of where they’re going, not where they’ve come from. While this keeps them moving forward it often makes them also feel they have not achieved much- there’s always so much more to be done.

So take a moment every evening to look back on what you’ve achieved during the day. It’s almost always more than you thought. Then spend a minute remembering how far you’ve come in your career – what you’ve learn’t, how much wiser you’ve become, and all the progress you’ve made financially since you left school.

Just reminding yourself of your achievements lifts your morale and your self image, two critical components of high performance. Giving yourself a little pat on the back won’t make you soft, it will make you strong. You’ll feel ready to take on the world again.

2. THINK ABOUT YOUR BIGGER VISION.
It’s easy to get immersed and bogged down in the endless deadlines we all have each day. But concentrating on the immediate and urgent in our lives all the
time can be disheartening. Not to mention exhausting.

Yes we need to address the here and now, but we also must balance short term action with long term visioning. If you feel inundated with life’s activities the answer is almost always to take a step back and re-focus on your vision for your life.

What kind of person do you aspire to being? What kind of life do you want to have lived? What do you want your legacy to be?

Thinking about these big picture issues re-plants your mind in solid ground. It centers you, relaxes you, increases your confidence and sense of self. Each and every day we should devote at least a few minutes to remembering and clarifying our ultimate life vision.

It’s one of the most motivating exercises you can do.

3. SHORTEN YOUR DEADLINES.
If you’re feeling unmotivated, it’s usually because you feel you’re not making enough progress on your key goals.

Yes, you’re working hard, who isn’t, but the results aren’t coming as fast as you’d like.

When I’m coaching executives in situations like this I urge them to make the deadlines on all their tasks much shorter.

Instead of taking an hour to do something, aim to do it in 20 minutes. Instead of taking 5 days to finish that report, see if you can knock it over in one. As esteemed Harvard professor John Kotter has clearly showed, a lack of urgency is often at the heart of low achievement. Reducing the time you have to work on jobs engenders that urgency – you quickly break any feelings of lethargy. Short deadlines energise, inspire, captivate and get you back to working at your full capacity.

Pretty soon you start to see momentum and tangible results, which motivates you even further. Try it today. Cut the time you allocate to every task at least in half.

You’ll be surprised what an effect just this one technique has on your life.

Each of these techniques is easy to do, but can make a real difference to your motivation.

Together they can improve both how you feel and how you perform. If you do them once you’ll feel a bit better, but if you make them into a daily ritual you’ll find your confidence and effectiveness sky rocket.

1. ENTHUSIASM MATTERS.
When Obama turned up at the first debate as a seemingly unenthusiastic, quiet, taciturn leader he endangered his chances of staying President.

The next day the polls showed a substantial shift in public sentiment against him.

Why? It wasn’t the brilliance of Romney’s suggestions for the country’s future that damaged Obama, it was that nobody likes a leader without passion, energy and verve. Many were shocked by Obama’s unspirited performance and began to wonder if he was the right man to lead in these dire economic times. His lack of emotional energy cost him plenty.

The same is true when you’re trying to sell your product or service.

People buy enthusiasm, as much as they buy the product itself. If customers don’t feel that you’re totally comitted to and excited by what you sell, why should they be?

Are you showing total enthusiasm in your presentations? Or only going through the motions? The difference can be worth a fortune.

2. DETAILS AREN’T REMEMBERED.
I assert that the average voter found the endless statistics and facts of both part leaders totally befuddling. They not only didn’t understand the ramifications of much of the data proffered by Romney and Obama, but had very little memory of it anyway soon afterward.

It’s the same with your brand. Unless you keep your message really, really simple (then endlessly repeat it) then it’s unlikely you’ll make a memorable dent in your audience’s consciousness.

Most of us do the opposite. We say too many things about our company, so few are remembered.We list endless features of our products rather than talk in depth about the one or two that really matter .

As a result our brand doesn’t stand out amongst the countless other competitors who are all doing the same. There’s money in simplicity.

3. COMMUNITY IS PRICELESS.
Anyone who was on Obama’s email list couldn’t help but marvel at the deep sense of community his team created with it. Several times a day for months, emails were sent asking for donations, keeping supporters in touch with the latest news and taking every opportunity to make those on the list feel like they were playing a major role in the re-election of the President.

I remember that even on the election day itself, an email went out asking for 750 volunteers in my state (California) to leave what they were doing and lend a hand down at the polling booths. (I assume every state got their own email with this extraordinary request.)

Because millions of people were brought into Obama’s ‘inner circle’ by these emails, they not only helped him raise over a billion dollars, they felt a deepening sense of comradeship and loyalty to his cause.

Which inevitably led to increased votes.

What about you? Have you developed a community of customers that believe in what you’re doing, what you’re selling and what you stand for?

Do they feel that you are about more than making the sale? The more powerfully you make a stand for something the more customers will get behind you.

To his audience, Richard Branson isn’t about selling airline seats. He’s about making flying fun.

Steve Jobs didn’t strive to be number one in computer or music sales, he stood for an intense drive for product excellence.

Ralph Lauren doesn’t get up in the morning purely to make more money, he’s inspired to create a more beautiful life for his customers.

As a result, in all three cases these people created a community of millions of people who believed in them- and therefore the products they sold.

In your own way, you can do the same.

4. THE MESSAGE MUST BE CONSISTENT.
One of the key differences between Obama and Romney was their consistency of message.

One month out from election day Romney fundamentally changed many of his positions on important issues .

So much so, that Obama mocked him by saying there was a new disease of forgetfulness, known as ‘Romnesia’.

In contrast, Obama stuck with his core campaign tenets right throughout the election campaign. Yes, he adapted what he said about them, in response to Romney’s attacks, but he did not change his stance in any significant way.

It was tough to do, but was a crucial component of his ultimate victory.

How consistent are you?

With your company’s message and brand positioning? Your standards of service? Your follow through? Your operational systems? It’s not what you do or say occasionally, it’s what you deliver and how you come across day after day, year after year, that creates your reputation and engenders  deep loyalty amongst your customers.

Consistency builds trust. Trust creates long term customers.Long term customers are the crucial element in building business wealth. In summary, while politics may seem a long way from business, it’s easy to see that many of the same elements generate success:

Enthusiastic delivery of message. Not getting too complex with the details. Building a community of followers. Maintaining consistency.

It pays to focus on them.

Whether you want to become President.

Or the President of your company.

But their very simplicity can be deceiving, causing many entrepreneurs to ignore them, instead turning to the latest shiny objects and complex new fashions of business.

One such simple but vital element of business success is good old fashioned desire.

Take this 30 second test. I want you to think about the level of desire you have to be outstanding in business and rank it out of 10. With 1 out of 10 being complete apathy about your company and 10 out of 10 indicating a full on electrifying level of lust for business greatness.

Think about that now.

Most people, if they’re honest, will put their desire at around a 6.

And there lies their number one obstacle to achieving their corporate dreams.

Because the cold, hard truth is, no matter how much you learn about marketing, the internet, management or finance, if you do not have at least 8 out of 10 desire your chances of achieving anything outstanding in business are slim.

There are several reasons why.

Business is hard. Often boring. Always challenging. And frequently exhausting.

If you don’t have intense desire to achieve then after awhile it all just becomes a little too tough. Soon you start settling for survival rather than superlatives, a consistent profit rather than riches.

At first, business life seems easier with this more sedate attitude, but because there is so much darn competition out there, soon hungrier companies start taking your customers. And the hardships begin their inexorable increase.

The other reason white hot desire is imperative for business success is a little more controversial.

I believe that human desire is a magnet. I believe that God created humans with the ability to attract many of the things they need for their business and their life by mentally focusing on them with intensity and consistency. If we really, truly , deeply desire for our business to be successful, then after awhile we begin to attract better luck and more opportunities.

You may scoff at this, but very few billionaires do. In their quiet hours most will agree that their own piercing desire helped bring in all manner of lucky breaks that helped take them to the commercial stratosphere. Most believe in the power of desire to improve both their luck and consequently their circumstances.

If you scored yourself lowly on the desire ranking, then all is not lost.

Desire can be generated. By simply choosing to desire your goals more strongly, soon your level of desire will rise. You can assist this by both thinking more often about what you want to achieve in business and thinking more longingly about the spoils of corporate excellence.

The more you think in this way the more your desire will intensify. The more it intensifies the more action you’ll take towards your dreams. The more action you take the more you’ll refine your strategy. The more you refine your strategy the quicker you develop an effective formula for sustainable profits.

Try this simple exercise over the next week:

Before you start your business day, sit and think about your business until you lift your desire up to at least an 8 out of 10 .

Then and only then start work.

Desire works. It clarifies. It eliminates. It elevates.

For many it’s the missing ingredient in business success