Volkmar Völzke's BLOG

It’s an interesting thought: All of your failures and your reasons you don’t unleash your true potential come from ignorance of universal success laws. Sounds weird? Let me explain it with an analogy: 

You are consistently exposed to the law of gravity. The universe doesn’t care if you like it, if you agree to it, or if you ignore it. It simply works. When you let your smartphone slip through your fingers, it will inevitably fall. No protests help change this reality. 

Well, also for any success – and for happiness – there are universal laws at play. Their violence leads to mediocre results or even to massive failure. And that’s what happens to almost all businesses, teams, and people: They wonder why they are stressed and don’t achieve more (like others do). They take action here and there. However, if they don’t act more consistently to the universal laws, they will always remain below their potential. 

Here...

Everything is quite easy to understand—if you boil it down to the essential correlations. It’s usually only the implementation in daily life that is difficult.

If you ask parents what they wish for their children when they’re grown up, the answer is almost always, “Be happy!” That is how it works for each of us. In the end, we just want to be happy.

But what does that mean, exactly? Why do we often find it so difficult, and what does that have to do with you as a business leader?

The answer to these questions not only makes you a better leader but also helps you generate your own happiness.

Answer 1: If reduced to the essential, being happy means that we have peace of mind, which, in turn, comes from living in congruence with our inner drives (which are manifold) and from personal development (mental stagnation is unhappiness).

Answer 2: What stands in the way of our happiness are essentially our fears in various forms (because our inner drives...

Hey, you can achieve something great in the next 100 days! No, don’t play small:

You, your team, and your organization truly can achieve more than you might currently think is possible. 

I know this is true because I’ve studied success psychology and success methods long enough to tell you: It works! The process is simple. However, the execution is not easy. Big difference. And that’s exactly why most people and business do not even start. 

To help you, I created the unique online program “100 Day Success Challenge”. 

Here is what you need to do to make the next 100 days the best days ever (even if you don’t purchase my program): 

1. Accept the fact that you need to change your approaches. When you haven’t achieved substantial progress in the last 100 days (or even longer), the chances are your approach is not working well enough. So, get a new one!
2. Prepare your mind to be disciplined to advance in small, yet frequent...

Last weekend was Pentecost. Do you know why these holidays even exist? Chances are you don’t have an exact answer unless you’re a practicing Christian.

The interesting thing is that whether you know or understand the background of a holiday, you can still deal with it. This reminds me of the laws of nature. Whether you know or understand them or not, they will still affect you.

Gravity, for example, doesn’t care what you think about it or whether you agree with it. If you drop a plate, it will inevitably move towards the ground and probably shatter once it hits the floor. Therefore, the best strategy is to use gravity in a favorable way rather than lamenting it.

Why am I telling you this? Well, the same connections apply to “mental laws”—they exist regardless of your belief or ignorance. The winners in life will always be those who make better use of them than others.

Here are a few important examples of how to achieve more in life with more fun...

Do you know the phenomenal 3D pictures, where some can only see a three-dimensional image after looking at it in a certain way, while many never see it at all?

Here is an example:

Do you see the 3D image? You have to completely relax your eyes while looking at the picture.

I came across a book like this from the nineties the other day when I was tidying up, and was fascinated again. Why? Well, because something unexpected opens up exactly where you wouldn't expect it: in a 2D image that doesn't mean anything.

And there is another conclusion to take from this: what we see is an illusion anyway, constructed by our brain. In principle, this applies to everything in life and business.

What is the relevance of this for our leadership and business success?

Here are three tips that have the potential to make your leadership and your team much more effective:

1. Points of view. What one person sees very clearly may be completely hidden from the other. We all have certain clear fields of...

Did you know that the average car is only 6 km/h fast? Or that each email costs about 1 dollar? Or that certain computer software massively reduces productivity in ways you probably don’t even think about? You can read all of this in this article, which was published recently in a renowned Swiss newspaper (in German). 

So are we lost? Are we unable to increase productivity after all? Are we condemned to work harder and harder? 

Not at all! Let’s be serious: if you want to create more results and at the same time reduce your negative stress and uncertainty, there are three important levers. What is striking is that these are often neglected in so-called “productivity programs”. 

1. Mindset. You need to become serious about productivity! Don’t laugh – many have trouble with it, since this means simultaneously taking more responsibility for their own time. How much more convenient it is to sit for an hour in the next meeting!
2. Value...

There is a mindset that is crucial for more or less success, privately or in business: Are your decisions guided by the belief that, in principle, everything is available in abundance or by the idea that there is a lack in everything? 

Do you think that, if you have more of something, then someone else must have less? Or do you believe that, if you have more, others will benefit at the same time? 

I can tell you, based on various studies, from my collaboration with numerous people, and from personal experience, this difference in mindset makes a huge difference for your success and your happiness in life. 

Now, you can probably guess which of these two mindsets leads to more success. It is the belief that everything is available in abundance: happiness, money, prosperity, success, ideas, and so on. 

From my experience, however, the other mindset prevails in most companies; scarcity rules.

If you change this mindset for yourself and your team, gates will open for...

Yes, we are living in challenging times. But it’s in difficult periods that you can see who’s getting ahead as a leader and who’s getting stuck.

It’s a simple truth that if ten companies or teams are hit by an extreme challenge, there will almost always be one or two that benefit from it in the end. What is the decisive factor for this success in difficult times? You guessed it: the mindset of the leaders and the entire team. 

Our thoughts and beliefs determine our decisions and actions, whether we like it or not. Because this factor is so important, I will be conducting a live webinar about it. Click here for more information and registration.

Here are three ideas to remember for now:

1. Focus. What you focus on will grow, and your focus as a leader is contagious to your team. What are you focusing your thoughts on during this difficult situation: the barriers or the opportunities? How much time do you spend on each of these categories?
2. Perspective. It...

Every crisis has lessons, and so does this one. Here are three of the most important lessons from my perspective:

1. Things can always turn out worse or better than you think they can. What we thought was impossible yesterday may be reality tomorrow, and sometimes very quickly.
2. Those who can switch from survival mode back to growth mode quickly will emerge from a crisis as winners. Many lick their wounds for far too long.
3. The right mindset is crucial, and the true mindset shows itself exactly when things get tough. Mindset determines our focus, our decisions, and our success.

“That’s all easy to say,” you may think, “but how does that help me with our daily craziness?”

I’m glad you asked. Here are three concrete ideas on how you can implement these findings for your benefit (and that of your team):

1. No comfort. Even when things are getting better, there is no more rest. Stability is a dangerous illusion. Be relentless in always looking for better...

Trump, climate change, the corona virus, refugee crises, etc…these things can make one pretty dizzy. Nowadays, countless messages come pouring in, through all kinds of channels, every day, and 90 percent are negative.

One can easily get the impression that these events are all crucial for our daily well-being. But not at all!

They have an influence, sure, but your personal environment is largely determined by exactly one thing: your small daily decisions.

How you treat the people around you has a greater impact on your happiness and success than the killing of a terrorist in Yemen or even the impact of a new virus.

It is very easy to be distracted by exploited media events and use them as an excuse for doing nothing.

Keep your feet on the ground. Here are three things you should do every day despite or because of all crises:

1. Decision. Decide every day on your behaviour and your positive influence on others. How do you want to positively influence others? What positive things...