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Self Awareness
Nelson Mandela said; "Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."
I tend to think that resilience is the same. A resilient person does not notice the pain, but acknowledges it and keeps going in spite of it.
If you're reading this, then you probably have an interest in improving your sales skills. If so, you've come to the right place. It turns out selling is hard. Why? There are two main villains at play.
The first is a lack of clarity. We can read all the books we want but when we actually go to 'start', a little voice in our head asks, "Where?" Starting the sales process for our own business is like wrestling with the proverbial roll of sellotape - we cannot find the end. This means we are much more likely to just not start - after all, there are emails to send, business logos to sketch and websites to build...
The second villain is actually a collective of individuals. This lot are pervasive and insidious, and are very effective standing in our way. They are called Performance Barriers. Performance Barriers are unhelpful thought patterns that stop us from executing on our big ideas. There are some common performance barriers when it comes to selling.
Here are a few big ones. Which is your biggest performance barrier?
Most of what I know about sales I learned backwards. I was a sales trainer before a salesperson. However, what set us apart from other "experts" was that we would go out on sales calls with the Reps with whom we worked. One such visit with a rep from our client company stands out in my mind as the worst sales meeting I have ever had. But it taught me a valuable sales lesson. Here it is.
Some people a scared of sales, others love it. Some consider public speaking worse than death, and others make it a career. For some, the idea of working freelance is impossible. Others would have it no other way. Of course, some fears are rational, and helpful. But most aren't, as my eight-month old daughter taught me just the other day.
I can always tell who is great at what they do, and who is not. I can tell by the way they talk about what they do. There seems to be no need to 'warm up' or get in the zone. In the zone of their chosen field is where they live. What they do is a part of who they are, an extension of their identity. I've wondered for a while how to explain this difference in people. That sets them apart? You know they will succeed. You know they are great at what they do. It is because their business is their Craft.
We live in uncertain times - now more than ever. A great deal of life we cannot control. But we can control our Mindset. How we think is how we view our world. With a High Performance Mindset, we can overcome bigger challenges. We can achieve greater things.
These are some of the Principles of the High Performance Mindset that are being trained as I navigate the wonderful world of Fatherhood.
The approach I take with clients is to build the mindset they need for the levels of high performance they want. After all, be it in work or in life, everything starts with the right mindset. Of course, high performance is a nuanced yet potent blend of more than mindset alone. In this article I’m going to suggest four components of high performance and how they interrelate; Body, Mindset, Soul, and Environment.
A word like “Purpose” can be perceived as very squishy. It does not fit comfortably into the language I call Business Speak (spoken fluently in most workplaces), and when it does appear, it is watered-down in a bland and generic mission statement. It might seem squishy, but it’s not. Purpose is the renewable energy source that keeps you pushing on when things get tough. It is the magnet that pulls the right people to your business. It is the reason people buy what you’re selling (or not).
We all want more time, more money, more stuff. But how much more? When will we have enough to be content?
Motivation is like empty carbs. It gives us a quick hit of energy, but burns itself out very quickly. Discipline, on the other hand, is our protein — slower to break down, and so keeps us going longer. This is not an article about how motivation is meaningless, but rather about how motivation alone will not get us very far without a good portion of discipline on our plate alongside it.
We push ourselves to the maximum day in, day out, wasting energy and burning ourselves out. We pay lip service to planning out a more intelligent, sustainable approach but when our backs are agains the wall and deadlines loom, we lose our heads and just make a mad dash for it.
“There’s no time for planning,” we think, “let’s just get on with it”.
But what would happen if we took a more strategic, longer term approach, and applied our energy more efficiently?
Much is said and written about the virtues of ‘believing in yourself’, ‘backing yourself’ and ‘ignoring the nay-sayers’. This advice is applied to business situations, to personal relationships, and pursuing your dreams and goals. There is no denying the importance of self-belief. After all, if we don’t take ourselves seriously, we can’t expect anyone else to. But should we always listen to ourselves? Are the voices in our head always right? In my opinion, to make real change in our lives, we should sometimes ‘tactically ignore’ the things we tell ourselves to do; forgoing what seems like the best choice right now, for what we truly want long term.
Time management makes sure you show up to an event. Energy management makes sure you are engaged with that event. After all, what I and the people I coach really seek is not really more hours in a day. What we really want is a way to be more present and engaged with our work and with our friends and family, and to not be so tired all the time. A way to not drag ourselves through each of our many chosen responsibilities. A way to be productive, to achieve, and to be happy, all at once! Working smarter, not harder, as a way to achieve this.
