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by: KenrickCleveland
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I recently came across the following list written/compiled by David Heenan: Ten Keys to Life Fulfillment: 1. Listen to your heart 2. Take one step at a time 3. Deliver daily 4. Maintain a maverick mind-set 5. Focus, focus, focus 6. Never stop learning 7. Build a brain trust (network of knowledgeable people) 8. Reinvent Yourself 9. Sell Yourself 10. Start now!

This list rocks!!! I love it. It's balanced and passionate and practical and focused and full of hope.

These are all things I strive to deliver to my students and clients.

I believe that we can have anything and everything we want. It's possible to have satisfying work which also pays well. We can be fulfilled in our careers and have time and energy to spend with our families. At any point in life, we can decide to continue our growth and learning.

The only thing I feel is missing from the above list which I most definitely am a proponent of is, 'cultivating curiosity'.

Many people struggle with a stagnation later on in their careers. Many of my students who are financial advisers have told me that as many of their contemporaries reach retirement age, they begin to lose passion, their edge is dulled, their achievement wanes. Maybe it's because I've found my calling and love what I do, but I think it's sad. I hope to continue to reinvent persuasion and continue to learn and grow way beyond "retirement age". A big part of that is my desire to cultivate curiosity.

Children have an innate curiosity. When we're new to the world we have a curiosity about absolutely everything. Why is the moon following us? Why is the sky blue? Who invented ice cream? How do birds fly? Then we become inundated by school and maybe we become overwhelmed by all that there is in the world and a lot of times, that curiosity wanes. Who has time to figure it all out?

Curiosity is a desire to know and learn about people, places and things outside of our experience. This is suspiciously similar to gaining rapport with our clients and prospects. There have been times in life when I had no interest in what was going on in the world around me. I'm not suggesting that periods of introspection are not valuable, but our culture seems to nurture navel gazing, that 'me, me, me' attitude, with a bent toward pathologizing and psychologizing ourselves to an unproductive and unhelpful extent.

When we turn our attention outward and open up to the possibilities of what is around us, there is incredible power particularly where persuasion is concerned. Our goal is to persuade our affluent clientle, and when we understand how other people think through keeping our minds and eyes open, and we combine it with what we have to offer, then we have the key to their criteria.

Pay attention to the details. When you're curious, you can turn the mundane into an opportunity to learn something.

About the Author

Kenrick Cleveland teaches techniques to earn the business of wealthy prospects using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion techniques.

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