COACHING NEWSLETTER 1

In this issue:

• The Psychology of Pricing
  
• So, who is moving your arm?!
  
• Do you create your own luck?
  
• 12 ways to fail at New Year's Resolutions
  

Roz Watkins

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EXPENSIVE = GOOD

When might clients use this principle?

• When buying a unique service or product
• If the product or service is difficult to value by conventional means.

"Professional services often fit these categories"

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRICING

Frustrated that certain top quality pieces of turquoise seemed to be glued to the shelf, a jewellery store owner in Arizona finally ran out of patience.

   It was the height of the tourist season.
   The pieces were good quality - and very good value.
   They should be selling fast.

Leaving town for a trip, she scrawled an exasperated note for her assistant: "Everything in this display case, price x1/2" .

As she expected, the ridiculously under-priced turquoise had all sold by the time she returned.

A twist in the tale!
In fact, her assistant had misinterpreted the hasty note as an instruction to double the price of the offending pieces!
Robert Cialdini, an expert on the science of influence and a friend of this business-woman, featured her story in his book: "Influence - Science and Practice"

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RELATED READING:

For more on the implications of this research, see
Templeton Finn's

"Be Your Own Executive Coach Toolkit"

SO, WHO IS MOVING YOUR ARM?!

In a now famous experiment, a scientist asked participants to move their arm whenever they wanted to and also to say at what point a dot was at on a clock face when they made the 'conscious decision' to move. He found that the timing of the 'conscious decision' lagged about half a second behind the initial electrical signal telling the arm to move.

The results suggest that consciousness might lag behind the unconscious brain processes that control your body.

The researcher concluded that:

"Cerebral initiation of a spontaneous voluntary act begins unconsciously".

This has profound implications when you are trying to change your behaviour. Unless you work with your unconscious mind, you may find yourself reaching for that cigarette or cream cake even though consciously you had no intention of doing so!

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Related reading
TEMPLETON FINN ARTICLE:

"How to get
what you want"

DO YOU CREATE YOUR OWN LUCK?

"Look on the bright side" is good advice - according to Richard Wiseman, a psychologist who is an expert on luck. He spent eight years investigating why some people are luckier than others - concluding that it is not intelligence, psychic ability or fate, but a person's approach to life that matters.

How to Improve Your Luck

1. Expect good fortune - it's often a self-fulfilling prophecy.
2. Create, notice and act on opportunities to maximise your chances of "good luck".
3. Listen to your "gut feelings". Act on your "hunches".
4. Turn your bad luck around by imaging how things could have been worse, or assessing how you could deal with a similar problem in future.

Wiseman's four "Principles of Luck" succeed because they harness the power of your unconscious mind (which attends to circumstances selectively). This is also why it's so vitally important for you to define your goals in life - clearly defined goals set-up your unconscious mind to alert you when relevant opportunities arise.

Read more in "Did you spot the Gorilla?" by Richard Wiseman

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12 WAYS YOU CAN FAIL AT NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

We nearly all make them, and 99% of us don't keep them. How on earth do we manage to do this - year after year?

1. Make your resolutions whilst riotously drunk on New Year's Eve.
   
2. Think negatively about your resolutions e.g. "Stop eating cream buns". Your unconscious mind can't deal with a negative and will keep thinking about cream buns. (Yum)
   
3. Don't think your resolution through. Don't consider how much time your resolution will consume. Don't consider how to fit it in, or what you could forgo to create the time required. (Convince yourself that you really will go to the gym instead of having supper!!)
   
4. Don't plan ways to compensate yourself for the pleasure you're about to give up.
   
5. Don't evaluate your resolution according to your true priorities, values or overall goals.
   
6. Choose resolutions which reflect the expectations of your family or friends.
   
7. Vow to "try" to keep your resolution. Remember - the very word "try" implies failure, and your unconscious mind is listening, eager to oblige. If you watch 'Star Wars', ignore Yoda saying: "There is no try, only doing and not doing" (or something like that)
   
8. Don't make the effort to clarify your values in the area of life affected by your resolution - and don't check whether your resolution would be a step along the road to meeting these. (After all, if your resolution is central to an important area of your life, you might accidentally keep it!)
   
9. Don't visualise success.
   
10. Don't think in painful detail about the long term consequences of failing to keep your resolution.
    
11. Don't enlist the help of a supportive, non judgemental friend (particularly one who doesn't have their own agenda). Fat, chain smoking friends should efficiently undermine health related resolutions, both by example and by an unwitting need to justify their own position.
    
12. Whatever you do, don't even think about hiring a coach!

Coaching gets your goal-setting off the ground!

TEMPLETON FINN
Transformational Coaching & Training
0845 257 3703