A few weeks ago my parents prepared their garden for pumpkins. They turned the soil, fertilized, planted the seeds, and watered. Then they went on vacation for two weeks.
Upon their return my father went straight to the garden eager to see if his pumpkin vines had sprouted. He was thrilled to find that things had sprouted and dismayed that there were both weeds and pumpkins. Knowing that he had to pull the weeds so that they wouldn't choke out his crop of pumpkins, he got to work. But he quickly realized that he could not tell the weeds from the good plants. I advised him, tongue in cheek, of the old saying that "a good plant will be easy to pull from the ground while the weed will be difficult."
My mom wasn't thrilled about having him experiment with the tensile strength of the plants. So I suggested that we look on Google to see if we could find help identifying the weeds, so we could tell the good plants from the bad plants. I typed in "identifying weeds" and got 1.6 million results. Turns out that this is something a lot of people are interested in, and for good reason. By pulling the weeds early the good plants don't have to compete for nutrition, space or water and will grow into healthy, mature pumpkins. But by waiting until the weed can be easily distinguished from the good plant - well by that time it is too late.
That got me thinking about the weeds in our own lives. Just as in any garden, in life, weeds are inevitable and frankly just evidence of our fallibility as humans. Weeds of fear, poor attitude, bitterness, laziness, indecision, ignorance, clutter, poor time management, failure to set goals, lack of exercise, poor eating habits, and neglected relationships. How often do we allow them to grow unchecked until they choke out our happiness, contentment, and success?
Our weeds usually start out small. A simple lapse in self-discipline, poor judgment, or procrastination provides fertile ground for weeds to grow. At first we don't notice a weed has popped up, but, a little bit every day, it grows and becomes habitual; and, by the time the weed is easily identifiable - it is too late - the damage has been done. Our physical and emotional well-being are choked. Our relationships suffer. Our careers falter. Failure takes the place of success.
It happens to the best of us. We have all allowed weeds to grow in our life unchecked and suffered the consequences. It happens to Sales Professionals every day when they put off prospecting and activity only to find a month or two down the road that they are producing no business because their pipeline is empty. By the time this weed is identifiable, it is too late and many lose their jobs.
While no one is perfect enough to keep weeds from sprouting, we can take measures to identify and pull our weeds before they take hold. One the most effective means of identifying and pulling the weeds in your life is through honest introspection. This means scheduling time to sit in silence and just think, to listen to your inner voice, to heed your intuition, and to take stock of where you are and where you are going. For many people this quiet time involves prayer. Silence allows us the freedom to just think and contemplate without intrusion from the outside world.
Shakespeare's famous line from Hamlet, "to thine own self be true," is important to remember when pulling weeds from our lives. I believe that we all have the capacity to identify and pull weeds before they take over our lives. The key is becoming self-aware. Self-awareness is a simple equation of taking time to just think and being honest with ourselves - being true.
This week I challenge you to set aside 15 - 30 minutes on your calendar to sit in silence and just think. When you do, I am positive that you will discover for yourself the fine art of pulling weeds.
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One of my favorite quotes goes something like this: "Jealousy is the tribute mediocrity pays to excellence."
It reminds me of the scene in the inspirational movie "In Pursuit of Happiness" when aspiring stockbroker Chris Gardner played by Will Smith tells his son "Don't ever let somebody tell you you can't do something, not even me."In this powerful scene, he goes on to teach his son that there are people everywhere who are quick to tell you that you can't reach your goals or achieve your dreams. Because of their own mediocrity and failure these people discourage success. They are jealous of and hate anyone who wants to be or achieve more and they will do almost anything to bring everyone down to their level.
The problem that faces dreamers is that these people make up the majority of the population. Just think about it. 90% of the people in this world are fighting over the same bone and when a dreamer comes into their midst and says, "You can keep that bone I'm going to start my own business, I'm going to make presidents club, I'm going to get a promotion, I'm going to write a book, I'm going to run a marathon," the horde of mediocre people simply cannot accept it and they immediately attempt to tear the dreamer down with discouraging words and worse, deliberate roadblocks. And when words or roadblocks don't work the dreamer is simply labeled as crazy.
The sad thing for me is that too often these discouraging tactics work to generate self-doubt in people for whom encouragement would have otherwise fueled the fire. Instead of following through on their goals and dreams they give up and go back to their mediocre and unfulfilled life. And then they justify their failure to act by telling themselves that what they wanted was "impossible anyway, they didn't really have what it takes, or that the timing was just wrong." And unfortunately, they wake up one day regretting having never followed through on their true dreams and goals.
So here is my message to you. Don't ever let anyone tell you what you can't do. Ever! When you say you can, there will be losers there to say you can't. When you dream there will always be someone there to demand that you wake up. When you believe in yourself there will be others who will try to create self-doubt. When you act there will be short-sighted people who will work to slow you down with roadblocks. And when you achieve, when your dreams have come true, when you cross the finish line with your hands in the air, the mediocre will not welcome you, they will not learn from your example. Instead the only tribute you will receive from them is their jealousy. But as the mediocre go back to fighting over the same old bone, you will stand on your mountain top, high above the fray, living the life that you deserve.
Here are four PowerPrinciples for living your dreams:
Remove Self-doubt: Each of us has a picture of who we are which is influenced both by what we say to ourselves and what we hear others say about us. What is also true is that what we believe about ourselves - about how we act, how we look, how smart we are, our talents, skills and abilities - will determine who and what we are and what we become. The key to removing self-doubt is to manage what we say to ourselves and to manage what we take-in from others. Pay attention to your inner voice and make a habit out of saying positive things about yourself. Stay away from negative people. Your relationships have a direct impact on your belief system and attitude. Surround yourself instead with high achievers. When others try to pull you down, your high achieving peers will support and encourage you to break through the self-doubt and win.
Create Positive Affirmations: As losers work to tear you down, your belief system may take a hit. You may even begin to doubt yourself and your abilities. A strong belief system is vital for success. Affirmations are nothing more than positive self-talk that help you maintain a strong belief system. They are simply words that you say to yourself to help you create a positive attitude that expects to win. Take time to write down positive affirmations that will move you closer to your dreams and repeat them to yourself each morning, afternoon and before you go to bed. Words like: "I am a winner!", "I am a successful business owner.", "I am talented", "I achieve my goals", "I outwit my competition", "I am the best salesperson on my team.", help you remove self-doubt and create a winning attitude.
Expect to Win: Whenever the game is on the line true winners want the ball. Why? Because in their minds and in their spirit, they expect to win. While others calculate the cost of losing, winners see only the rewards of victory. It is critical that you develop an attitude that expects success. Create a habit of managing your self-talk and focusing your mind and spirit on only the rewards of reaching your goals and dreams.
Turn Your Haters into Motivators: No matter what you do there will always be those who will hate you for your success. Learn to welcome your detractors. Learn to channel their hate into motivation. By turning your haters into motivators your drive to succeed will become stronger. Determine in your mind that whenever someone lays down a roadblock that it is a sign that you are getting closer to your goal. Invest in yourself to get better, stronger and become even more powerful in your skills. Never let anyone tell you what you can't do.
You just closed the biggest deal of your career, you blew away your quota, you made the million dollar club, you were named agent of the year. You just crossed the finish line first . You raised your hands, pumped your fists, and celebrated. You are a winner!
Nothing feels better than winning. But while you are cashing that big commission check, relaxing on the beach at your sales award trip, or walking on stage at your national sales meeting to pick up your trophy ask yourself this question: What next? You see, winning was hard. It required perseverance, training, hard work and focus. But all too often, after achieving our big goals we take our foot off of the success accelerator and just coast for awhile. Relaxing in the glow of our victory we quickly forget that the game is still on, our competitors are not resting but instead are plotting our demise. I was reminded of this yesterday when I read a marketing slogan for a company that had just received a top award in its industry. The slogan simply read:
"When you're in second place attack the leader. When you're in first place Attack Yourself."
What a perfect message for winners. In the 21st century there is no time for complacency. We can not afford the luxury of comparing ourselves to those behind us. There is no time to rest easy. And though we must take time to celebrate and enjoy the fruits of victory, we must also stop and create new goals for ourselves. We must learn to take each win in stride and raise our own bar so that we keep reaching higher.
It is easy to look back poor performance or a failure with our 20/20 spectacles on and find all of the areas where improvement can be made. But it takes loads of self discipline and the heart of a winner to break down a brilliant performance and then take action to make small adjustments and improvements that keep us ahead of the pack. The great NFL quarter back Steve Young said once that "the principle is competing against yourself. It's about self-improvement, about being better than the day before."
In fact this is what all elite athletes and elites sales professionals do. Real winners constantly attack themselves. They pick apart each performance and seek ways to improve. It is the unwavering focus on constant improvement that separates the good from the great.
For the next week or so those words will be written, spoken, blogged, and shouted in many languages across the globe. People from all walks of life will reflect on the accomplishments and failures of 2007 and hold out hope for a better and more prosperous 2008. Most will make empty promises in the form of New Year Resolutions. Already, weight-loss books are flying off the shelves as people, with every good intention of losing weight and getting in shape, look for the next big thing to help them easily shed pounds and get the six pack abs they've always dreamed of.
Interestingly, the most successful among us are not making resolutions - they are making plans and writing down goals. During my conversations over the past week with some of the most well known thought leaders in sales and business, most have confided that they are using the remainder of 2007 to build personal business plans for 2008. Instead of the empty promises of New Year Resolutions, these very smart people are writing down goals and mapping out their steps to success. They are prioritizing what can and cannot be accomplished in 2008 and they are always checking to ensure that their plans and goals are congruent with the actions they are willing to take to achieve those plans. They have set aside time to contemplate what they have learned in the past year and to use those lessons to make 2008 their best year ever.
Sales is the greatest profession on earth because in sales you are in complete control of your own destiny. It is one of the few professions in business today that offers you the opportunity to truly make your dreams come true. But to take full advantage of the opportunities the sales profession offers, you must be willing to define what you want, write it down, and determine your steps to success. Even if you were to take only take a few minutes to write down a couple of goals you would improve your chances of success by 1000%. However, when you spend a few hours to define and map out your personal business plan for the year you literally take control of your future and move light years ahead of everyone else in your company, industry, and field.
Perhaps the best way to develop your 2008 plan is with a goal sheet on which you write your goals and steps to success all on one page. I recommend that you take a moment to download the FREE PowerPrinciples Goal SheetTM from SalesGravy.com. The PowerPrinciples Goal SheetTM was developed specifically for Sales Professionals. If this document doesn't work for you take a few moments and create your own. The real key is to keep things simple, specific, and, where possible, on a single page. A written goal is powerful because it sets your success in motion.
I guarantee that by taking a few hours to plan and write down your goals for 2008 today, you will look back a year from now and proudly say, "2008 was my best year ever!"
My good friend and talented sales leader Brian Stanton has coached an entire generation of Sales Professionals that "activity is the foundation of all success in sales" and his proven formula for success has resulted in 20 years of winning sales teams. Brian, like so many great Sales Leaders and Sales Professionals understands clearly that the number one reason for failure in sales is not experience, skill, talent, desire, training, market conditions, product knowledge, or even the company you work for. Failure in sales can almost always be tied back to inadequate sales activity.Lack of activity has led to the demise of salespeople in every industry. It has even taken out some of the most talented sales people I've ever known. Why? Because in sales talent doesn't matter if your pipeline is empty.
And it is when pipelines are empty that salespeople find themselves face to face with the Universal Law of Need. The Universal Law of Need simply states that the more you need something, the less likely it is that you will get it. This law comes into play, in sales, when lack of activity has left the pipeline depleted. When all of our hope for survival rests on one, two or even a handful of accounts the probability of failure increases exponentially.
Here is an example: Sales Representative Janice failed at consistent daily activity. Now she has only a handful of opportunities in her pipeline. Several of the deals she was counting on have pushed off decisions or have signed with a competitor. Now, with the end of the quarter looming, and only a couple of viable prospects left in her pipeline, Janice is under tremendous pressure. She desperately needs one of these deals to close! And as Janice becomes more desperate to get a sale she comes face to face with a cruel reality: desperation magnifies the impact of the Universal Law of Need and virtually guarantees that she won't get the sales she must have to survive.
There are several reasons why desperation diminishes the probability that Janice will get the sale she needs. The first is governed by the Law of Attraction which states that what you focus your thoughts on you are most likely to get. When we are desperate we no longer focus our thoughts on what we require for success, instead, we focus our thoughts on what will happen to us if we don't get what we need, thereby attracting failure. The next problem with desperate need is that other people can sense our desperation. Through our actions, tone of voice, words and body language we send the message that we are desperate and weak. Our prospects and customers naturally repel salespeople who are needy and desperate, gravitating instead to Sales Professionals who are confident and exude success. Finally, when we are desperate we become emotional, illogical and make poor decisions. These poor decisions exacerbate and already bad situation leaving us stressed, miserable and deeper in our hole.
Now consider another Sales Professional, Sandra, who is consistently prospecting, networking, getting referrals, and systematically moving her accounts through her pipeline. Her hard work has resulted in more than thirty opportunities in her funnel. Will they all close? Not likely, but Sandra feels little pressure. She is consistently replacing the prospects that fall out her pipeline and as a result her sales have been regular and on target. She knows exactly what she will close tomorrow, next week, and next month. Under little pressure she gets a huge boost this quarter when several of the accounts that were long shots suddenly go her way and she blows away her quota and earns a huge bonus. She didn't need these extra sales yet because she was disciplined in her activity they were delivered into her lap. I call this Sales Gravy and when you do the right things the Sales Gravy is poured on!
Three PowerPrinciples for Recovering from an Empty Pipeline
1) Take Responsibility: Sooner or later we will all let down our guard and find ourselves in desperate need of a sale. Our poor decisions, procrastination, fears, lack of focus, and even laziness have added up and suddenly we are desperately scrambling to survive. There is hope though and you can recover but first you must acknowledge where the blame for your predicament lies. You see, often when we find ourselves in desperate situations we fall on human nature and blame everything and everyone for our plight except, of course ourselves. The Universal Law of Need doesn't punish others though; it punishes us for our failures in executing the daily disciplines required for success. Once you look in the mirror and accept your responsibility you have a chance.
2) Relax: The next step to recovery is to relax and get back to the basics. Don't spend a moment in thought about what might happen to you if you don't get what you need. Worry won't change the future. And like wise, don't get mired down in regret over what you have failed to do. Your future does not lie in your past. Instead put all of your energy, emotion, and effort into actions that you control. Joe & Mike of the top ranked Sales Roundup Podcast have pointed out many times that success in sales is a simple equation of daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual activity. In other words, you are in complete control of your future. Even in a desperate situation if you go back to the basics and focus on the right activity soon the results will come.
3) Take Action Now to Keep Your Pipeline Full: Success in sales and life is paid for in advance with hard work. When you have a clear understanding and plan for your activities and you develop the self-discipline to do a little bit of the work every day you feel no desperation, you prosper, and you create abundance in your life and career.
It's a fact. Salespeople fail. Maybe even you. Sadly, thousands of salespeople are fired or quit each day because they failed to attain quota. When you ask these salespeople what went wrong most are quick to point out that their failure was due to some external factor, which prevented them from achieving their goal. Poor territories, bad managers, difficult environments, lack of training and defective products are the fodder of these conversations.
However when studying successful Sales Professionals in those same organizations, we find that when faced with identical difficulties, they still managed to succeed. Why did some salespeople succeed where others didn't? The answer is simple. The successful salespeople have developed a habit of looking inward for inspiration, motivation, and accountability when things get difficult. They have developed the disciplined habit of finding solutions to problems while the less successful people have developed the habit of finding excuses for failure. I'm sure for some this seems a bit harsh but the truth is the truth. Success or failure has a lot more to do with our thoughts and actions than the difficulties we face.
A habit is defined as a pattern of behavior that is followed regularly until it becomes automatic. In other words we do things we are comfortable with and we keep doing them. When we do the same thing over and over again an amazing thing happens: we get the same result over and over again! Unfortunately, many people become so comfortable with their habits that they will continue to do them even if that habit is causing them to fail. This is called a bad habit and anyone who has worked to quit smoking or even to correct a poor golf swing will attest that bad habits die hard. In many ways, failure is just the manifestation of our bad habits.
Stepping out of a comfort zone is very difficult and one of the core reasons so many salespeople find themselves moving from company to company and failing time and time again. Despite the training each new company provides, despite the coaching, despite the mentoring from successful Sales Professionals, eventually these salespeople revert back to their old habits and ultimately failure. The good news is, that though difficult, it is possible to break this cycle of failure. But to change your habits, you must first change your thoughts and actions. And who has control of your thoughts and actions? You!
Four PowerPrinciples for Positive Change
Identify Your Bad Habits: The first step to creating new, winning habits is identifying your bad habits and examining and understanding your behavior. In this process you must be honest with yourself. You must place the responsibility for your failure where it lies.
Harness Your Desire: The next step is to mentally make the status quo untenable. As long as you are more comfortable with where you are than where you want to be it will be difficult, if not impossible to change. To make positive changes you must harness your desire. That means defining what you want, writing it down, and becoming laser focused on that goal. A burning desire to achieve a defined goal is the one key that unlocks the door to the formation of powerful new habits.
Invest in Your Mind: Just because you want to change, need to change, and desire to change doesn't mean that you have the skills to change. Thanks to the Internet and sites like SalesGravy.com you can now browse the minds of millions of individuals with the click of a mouse, instantly. There are thousands of books written about success, sales, and self help. There are also Podcasts, eZines, printed magazines, and seminars. Take every opportunity to learn new skills that will lead you to new habits.
Get a Coach: Perhaps the most powerful step you can take towards positive change in your life is to get a coach. There are coaches everywhere and as long as you are coachable, a great coach will help you break through your self-imposed barriers and will illuminate the path that will lead you straight to the success you deserve.
Far too many salespeople believe that features and benefits, price, presentation, and marketing materials are the most important parts of selling. Unfortunately, none of these things close sales. Even if you sell the best products in your industry, at the best price, from the most reputable firm, you will never be successful if you cannot get your customers to like, trust and believe in you. In other words, to be successful in sales you must first get your customers to buy you.
One of the most important, and sometimes over looked, keys to getting people to buy you, is your confidence. Just think about it, do you enjoy being around people who lack confidence? Neither do your prospects and customers. We like to be around and associated with confident people because confident people look like successful people.
Your aptitude for developing confidence plays a critical role in your sales career. Unfortunately, as you well know, confidence is a complicated emotion involving many internal and external influences. Regardless, you can learn to develop and maintain confidence. However, it won't be easy and there will be many ups and downs. In fact, at times you will feel like you are in a catch 22. For example, if you are in a sales slump your confidence will naturally erode even though you will be required to regain your confidence to have any chance of emerging from your slump.
The good news for you is that you have the power inside of you right now to develop confidence, even if you don't feel particularly confident at this moment. The process of improving or building your confidence is as simple as your choices. You choose what to believe about yourself. You choose how you will approach your sales calls. You choose to invest in your mind, body and spirit. And, you make your career choices.
Just remember, people form relationships with other people, not products and services and people want to build relationships with people they like. When you are confident, when you hold your shoulders high and your chin up, and when your customers and prospects perceive that you have the ability to solve their problems, your pockets will quickly fill with gold.
Three PowerPrinciples for Building Confidence
Invest in Mind: It is a fact that we feel most confident when we have gained the knowledge and developed the skills to be effective in our sales career. Build your knowledge with 15 minutes of professional reading each day. Improve your skills by attending every training your company provides and going to outside seminars. And, even if you don't know everything don't be afraid to "fake it til' you make it."
Make a Change: Don't like your job, your product, your company or your industry? It is difficult to have confidence when you don't believe in your product or you don't believe your company can back up your promises. It is difficult to find confidence when you are in a sales job that doesn't fit your talents or you are in an industry that doesn't excite you. Perhaps it is time to make a career change or in some cases an attitude change.
Manage Your Beliefs: What do you believe about yourself and your ability to succeed? It is easy to find out. Just listen to your self-talk. You talk to yourself constantly. If you are saying things to yourself that are eroding your confidence you've got problems and you've got to stop. Find a coach or a friend who will help pump you up. Read inspirational books. Listen to inspirational audio programs. Pray. Get away from negative people. Do whatever works and what ever it takes to change your conversation with yourself and you will be amazed at how your confidence builds and your career prospers.
Ghandi said, "We should live as if we will die tomorrow and learn as if we will live forever." I've observed that Sales Professionals who continually exercise their intellect are happier, more motivated and much more successful than their peers. They take advantage of every training program their company offers and are always the first people standing in line when there is an opportunity to learn something new. They invest their own money in seminars and workshops to keep their skills updated and sharp. They subscribe to weekly e-zines, trade magazines, and sales publications to stay current on the trends impacting their profession. These Sales Professionals understand that by investing in the mind, they acquire the knowledge and skills required to outpace their competitors.
Almost everyone I talk to tells me that they want to be seen as one of the top performers in their company or industry, that they want to earn more money and that they want to feel more successful.
And, I always respond, that if this is what they truly want, they will need to increase their knowledge in order to become and expert at their craft and that reading is the fastest and most powerful means of increasing their knowledge.
There are thousands upon thousands of books and articles on the art and science of sales, personal development and leadership. I'm positive that at least some of these books sit on your bookshelf but have never been read. Do you desire to read them? Sure you do, you bought them with every intention of reading them, but you never have. It's not easy to find time to read when you have a full time sales career, a family, friends, and all of the obligations of life. The thing is, when you don't take time for professional reading, you quickly fall behind your competitors and ultimately give away your Winning Edge.
The problem for most of us though is that we look at all of those books and get overwhelmed. We think to ourselves, "How in the world will I ever get to them all? It's just too much!" Then, because we are overwhelmed, we procrastinate.
As a Sales Manager, I discovered that there was a strong correlation between reading and sales success. Usually when I had a rep who was failing, I'd also find that they were doing no professional reading. One of my Sales Professionals, Jim, had the talent, skill and desire to be a superstar, but his numbers were suffering and he was losing confidence in himself.
I called Jim into my office and we discussed his predicament. Jim developed a detailed plan to get out of his slump. His plan included 15 minutes of professional reading each morning before he started his day. The results were off the charts. Jim won the top sales award that quarter and ended the year #1 on the team. He was subsequently promoted to Sales Manager, and then to Director of Sales. I spoke to Jim recently and he told me that he continues his reading routine today. He has become one of the leading and most knowledgeable professionals in his industry. He is viewed by his organization and the people who work for him as an expert. By reading just 15 minutes a day, Jim has read hundreds of books on sales, leadership, and business.
You see, Jim has learned that the secret to overcoming reading procrastination is to break reading into small doses. Just 15 to 30 minutes of professional reading daily will have an amazing impact on your life and your income. It is as easy as picking a time of day that makes sense for your schedule, block it out on your calendar, and keeping this appointment with yourself.
Fifteen minutes a day of professional reading adds up fast. Most people who make a commitment to this practice are shocked at how many books they go through. When I speak to groups I'll often walk through the math just to make this point. Here's how it works:
There are 52 weeks in a year. Assuming that we only do our professional reading on week days, and that we take two weeks off for vacation, we are left with 250 days for professional reading. If we multiply 250 days by 15 minutes that gives us 3,750 minutes or roughly 62.5 hours of professional reading in a year. Now, the average business or personal development book on the market today take's the average reader about three hours to read. When we do the math (62.5/ 3) we determine that over the course of a year, when you read just fifteen minutes a day, you will read approximately 21 professional books.
For most, this is an astounding number of books. At every PowerPrinciples seminar, without fail, someone will yell out, "I haven't read twenty-one books in my life!"
Just look around you, the most successful people you know, the highest earners and the people we consider to experts in our society all read daily. And the reason why, is that everything you ever need to know about anything is contained in a book. Everything! If you want to out wit your competitors, improve your income, gain success with your investments or become an expert at all you have to do is read.
Reading just fifteen minutes a day will change your life. Over the years it will add up to a college education many times over. Get started today. Grab a piece of paper and write down five books you will commit to reading this year.
If you would like to get a list of some of my favorite books just end an email to jeb@salesgravy.com
Picture the scene: You are driving to work or an appointment and some "jerk" swerves into your lane, cutting you off and causing you to slam on the brakes. You spill your coffee and you quickly become furious. You shout at the other driver through your windshield. You lay on the horn. You give him the finger. As you drive on, your anger grows. You fantasize about running right into the "jerk's" car. That would show him! By the time you get to work it is all you can talk about. Your morning calls to prospects and customers are put aside while you continue your rant. Meanwhile, the other driver has gone happily on with his day.
All of us experience real and perceived transgressions that cause us anger: Maybe, as in the example above, someone cut you off on the way to work. Maybe you work with someone who has done something to offend you. Perhaps your spouse or significant other did something to make you mad. Your boss didn't follow through on a promise. You didn't get the promotion you wanted. You lost a big deal. You were shorted on your commission check.
Regardless, the situation has gotten under your skin and is having an impact on your entire life. You talk about it to friends, colleagues, your boss, strangers and sometimes even customers. Anger invades your thoughts and keeps you up all night stewing. At times, you completely shut down your life as you dwell on your anger, angst and anxiety.
I meet Sales Professionals every day who are re-living these transgressions over and over again. They are wasting precious time and emotions sitting on a dead horse. They are living in the past and no matter how hard they beat and kick it, the horse will not move. Unable to focus on anything else, their sales activity and productivity falls, commission checks shrink and in time many are looking for new jobs.
Beating a dead horse is self-destructive. Dead horses don't trot they rot. If the horse is dead, dismount.
Of course, letting go is easier said than done. So is the secret learning to turn the other cheek? Well yes, but there is more. The real secret to moving on is understanding that anger is just energy and when you harness the energy generated by anger you hold a powerful force for positive change in your hand.
Two PowerPrinciples for Harnessing Anger
Don't Get Even - Get Better: When someone hurts you it is human nature to want to get even. Your body fills with energy and adrenalin for revenge. Take advantage of that gift of energy to invest in yourself to get better, stronger and become even more powerful in your skills. Remember, achievement is the ultimate revenge.
Look for Lessons: You are in complete and absolute control of your beliefs. When you choose to believe that everything happens for a reason, instead of wallowing in anger, you look instead for lessons and open doors, turning your adversity into achievement.
Jeb Blount is the CEO of SalesGravy.com, host of the highest ranked sales podcast in the world, is the author of PowerPrinciples: Do you have the winning edge?, and motivates audiences across America to take action to achieve their goals and live their dreams.
Jeb Blount
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