I recently attended the Loganville Referral Pros BNI meeting. Before the members and visitors gave their weekly presentations, the president said, "At the end of your presentation, tell us what your favorite season is and why."  Everyone had their own reason for liking a particular season. 

During the fall and winter seasons, people tend to eat more chili and soups than the other two seasons. There’s something about the change that causes this to occur. 

A few months ago, the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce had its annual chili cook-off.  I enjoy a good bowl of chili but I also enjoy cooking a pot of good chili.  Last year, when I entered the contest, we submitted 2 pots of chili, one was titled, Chili of Champions and the other was titled, Ice Cream.

The reason that the second pot was named Ice Cream is because anyone who tried it would need some ice cream to cool down their mouth. It could also be said that if the word ice and the word cream were said close together it would sound like I scream, which is what the judges wanted to do. It was extremely hot. Vince DeSilva, one of the judges was ready to strangle me after he tried it.

The Chili of Champions was some of the best chili I had ever made or tasted. We marinated the meat for 24 hours. We seasoned it and let it cook in a crock pot for several hours. WOW! It was good; however, it did not win a prize.

This year, I didn’t take the time to marinate the meat or let it cook for a long time. It took 20 minutes from start to finish. This chili won a prize. I was shocked. I added one ingredient to this chili that the other chili did not have. Even though we had a great recipe that we’ve used for years, we needed to change it, if we were going to win the prize.

Far too often when I talk with business professionals, they will tell me about a goal that they want to achieve; however, they are not willing to change. They want to win a prize but they will not deviate from the way that they have always done them.

Most of the time a person does not have to make wholesale changes; they simply need to change one thing. As a trainer and motivational speaker, if I can convince a person to make one change then, I have been successful with that individual.

In order to achieve your prize, what is one change that you can make? Now that you know what it is, make it happen. If you need help, reach out to me or someone else in your sphere of influence. Leave your comments below.

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       James Barber

       Author of The Networking Guru

       Networking-Guru.com