Good morning once again to all of you die-hard salespeople and inspiring businesspeople! What is that saying, the past is a memory … the future is a hope … and the present is a gift? Here’s to hoping that you are ready to open that gift today that we call ‘the present’ and do something with it!
How about another very common saying: when the going gets tough, the tough …? Yep—they simply get going (or change their perception about what is considered ‘tough’)! The point is that persistence and passion allow a person to push through obstacles and still achieve incredible results.
Think about riding one of those exercise bikes at the gym … the ones that have the screen in front of you that shows a view of the terrain ahead and also calculates your current speed, calories burned, and other important facts. The computer that controls the bicycle changes the amount of tension that you feel based on whether you’re on flat ground or heading up or down a hill. If you begin to ascend and you want to maintain the same speed or caloric output, what do you have to do? Exactly—soldier on, push harder, and increase the energy.
Those hills in the biking simulation are just like the real life adversity we deal with on a daily basis. You’re going along, working at a certain level of effort, spending a certain amount of time, and exerting a certain level of focus on your business and things are fine. You’re relatively happy with your ‘speed’ and ‘output’ (production for the month or quarter). Then life happens.
How prepared are you to dig in and push yourself when a deal or two falls apart? How many more people are you willing to call and talk with to find a listing when market conditions get a little tougher? Are you able to call upon some hidden reserves of determination and willpower to allow you to get up and over the obstacle WITHOUT sacrificing your production or slowing the pace? Yes you’re going to sweat more … you bet you’re going to feel the burn … and absolutely you will be exhausted at times—but what’s the alternative?
We have to train our minds the same way we train our bodies and be ready for life’s hills. The fun part is that often after you lay it all out there and get to the top of that rise, you have a period when you can take your feet off the pedals and coast down the other side with no effort at all. Those are great times—when the referrals are rolling in, the deals are closing without a hitch, and the rate that more people are saying, ‘yes—we’ll work with you’ seems to be getting faster and faster. Enjoy those times because things will level off, and yes … there will be more hills. But those hills are where we get stronger.
Here’s to you getting up and over that next hill. Get out there and make today count.
(Photo courtesy of hdimagelib.com)