You Don’t Always Have To Jump

As I climbed down the rickety metal ladder from the top of the Oribi gorge to the small ledge below, my heart was racing. Sure, I was secured in a study nylon harness, but my knees were shaking so hard I could barely walk. Adrenaline was coursing through my veins at breakneck speed.

From the bottom of the ladder, I walked out to the edge of the cliff and looked over the edge down at the river and rocks 33-stories below.

Gulp.

My harness was attached to a 300-ft long cable that was itself attached to a long cable strung across the middle of the gorge. My guide gave me the countdown to jump….3…2…1

See happened next…..

http://www.youtube.com/user/LauraPosey#play/uploads/15/fQ-WjFN1wAY

and then

http://www.youtube.com/user/LauraPosey#play/uploads/7/kgumhKieKsk (it is only interesting after 0:51)

As I rewatched those videos I realized I never actually jumped off the cliff. I was too scared.

But I did lean out over the edge far enough to let gravity take hold and do the rest.

Sometimes in business you don’t have to take massive action to accomplish your goals. Often you just have to lean into things a bit, put a little movement into things and then let events take their course.

Let’s face it – whether I jumped or fell, the outcome was going to be the same. The same thing happens at work. Often the same forces are at work whether you push hard or just start things rolling.

This week see what happens when you give things a little less effort and instead let life take its course.

You may find you don’t always have to jump to have a great ride.

Does Passion Have A Price?

If you’re like me, you’ve got a lot on your plate these days. We’ve recently added some new revenue streams to our business, I’m starting a non-profit organization to save homeless animals and I’ve begun dating someone who lives 4000 miles away. I’m also working on my golf game, walking my beloved dog and catching up with some very interesting brain research I’ve been studying. Oh yeah, and I’m learning Italian and German.

Yep, it’s a busy time. So, I’ve been wondering, what is all this costing me? Does passion have a price?

We all have things we’re passionate about – careers, family, hobbies, organizations – the list is endless. But what do we give up to pursue these passions? In most cases it boils down to time, money and energy.

There is an opportunity cost to pursuing something you love.

Every minute I spend working on the new website for my non-profit is time I don’t have to chatting online with my new sweetie. And vice-versa. Each day I hour I spend studying Italian is time I don’t have for studying this new brain research.

Every choice to pursue a passion comes with a price.

The nice thing about passions is you gladly pay the price because you are doing something you love, something that fills your soul or brings a bit of bliss to your life.

Let’s not forget, though, that there is also an opportunity cost for pursing things you don’t necessarily love but feel you have to do. Like work.

For every minute you spend working, you must give up time doing some else you might enjoy more. Every minute you spend with a bad prospect is time you could be spending fishing, golfing, playing with you kids or just relaxing on a beach somewhere.

Every minute in the office is a minute you don’t have to pursue your passions.

My question for you this month is:

“Are you working to live, or living to work?”

Can you find a way to get so good at what you do at work that it takes half the time and therefore frees up 50% of your day to go do the things you love? Imagine a month in which you were so productive, so focused and so good at what you do that you could earn a month’s income in two weeks.

It’s not only possible, it’s not as hard as you think. Get passionate about your life and you’ll find you’re willing to pay the short-term price of changing your old sales habits in order to live your dreams.

Does passion have a price? Yes, it does. And it is worth everything you have to sacrifice to get it.

The Three Second Miracle

Ever have those days when you are faced with a constant string of challenges, obstacles and set back on the path to your goals? Here’s a quick way to overcome every one of them in just three seconds (or less).

When you’re faced with a roadblock you mind automatically goes into assessment mode. That is, it looks at the situation and says “I can’t get past this.”

When confronted with the words “I can’t,” your brain shuts down. It simply stops thinking about the obstacle and begins looking for something else to do.

To counteract this, whenever you run across a challenge, simply ask yourself “How can I?” This little phrase immediately kicks your brain into problem-solving mode (what it is best at) and gets your creativity flowing.

If you really want to drive this process to its fullest potential, grab a sheet of paper when you ask “How can I?” and make a list of the top 100 ways you can solve the problem.

It’s likely that the answer lies not in the first 20 answers but in the last 20.

For example, if you find that you want to get in touch with a big prospect, ask yourself “How can I meet Mr. X?” and start writing. You’ll be amazed at the creativity that flows from your pen after a few minutes of letting your creative side run wild.

Let me know what creative ideas you come up with and I’ll post them in next month’s newsletter.

The Five Minute Miracle

I’ve recently become aware that there is an insidious virus running rampant through sales departments. Perhaps yours is infected with it. Read the following scenario and see if it sounds like your place of business.

It’s Monday morning and you’re having your regular “get the week off to a good start” sales meeting. You and your colleagues have gathered around the conference room table talking as your sales manager walks in. After a brief greeting he asks how you did last week in your sales. You share the closed deals as well as the ones that got away. After congratulating you on your successes, your manager then begins to ask questions about the deals that didn’t close and what you might do to improve your selling. He identifies several problem areas that he notices and suggests that you create a plan for overcoming the challenges you faced last week.

Has that ever happened to you? How did you feel after that meeting? Were you energized and ready to make this week your best ever or were you feeling a little glum, knowing you had yet another hurdle to jump and another problem to solve?

The virus I mentioned earlier is the “problem–solving” approach to sales management. So often I see managers spreading the mindset that their team is broken somehow because someone didn’t close a sale. This leads to the assumption that team members must work to fix their problems.

What if you approached it from another standpoint? Instead of focusing on what went wrong, what if you focused on what went right and then worked to repeat and amplify those things? How would you feel if the conversation with your manager went more like this?

“Good morning team! Congratulations on a great week last week! You did some amazing work last week and I’m quite proud of each of you. Would you each, in turn, please share with the team your very best sales experience from last week? Tell us the very best part of your week. Then please tell us what led to that experience happening. From there, we’ll all brainstorm how to repeat that success and spread it throughout the company.”

What would it feel like to come out of that meeting? Would you be pumped up and excited to go have another terrific week?

Here is a quick outline of the process. I call it the “Five Minute Miracle.” Feel free to share it with your manager (he or she is welcome to contact me for more details) or just give a go on your own.

Get out a piece of paper and do the following:

1. Write down a description of your absolute best sales experience this past week. It doesn’t have to be a closed sale; your best experience can be a phone call, a meeting or even just an idea you had.

2. Dream for a few minutes and think about what your life would feel like and look like if that same thing happened every single week. What would your income and life look like if you repeated that great experience every week? Write down your vision of that life.

3. Start thinking of how you created that moment and jot down the things that went into making that special thing happen. What opportunities did you seize, what actions did you take to create that experience?

4. List a few things that you can do next week to make that great experience happen yet again. Write out how you can repeat those actions that led to that best sales moment.

Each week, spend a little time doing this exercise. I do mine on Friday afternoon. It takes only five minutes but creates a system in which you constantly repeat and build on all the best things in your work life. You’ll find that you are more energized, more focused and more excited about your job than ever before.

By concentrating on the best and repeating, rather the worst and fixing, you’ll soon soar beyond your past experiences and achieve a whole new level of income and job satisfaction. Isn’t that worth five minutes of your week?

When you’ve done this for a few weeks, will you share some of your best stories with me? I’ll happily publish them on my blog if you’d like and you can read others great success stories too.

Laura Posey brings much passion to her work as Vice President and Co-Founder of Dancing Elephants Achievement Group. She is a “firecracker” who likes to create and get things done. Over the years, she has received numerous awards and recognition for her sales and management contributions to different organizations in an extensive sales career that has covered the gamut from insurance to cars. She is co-author of Six Secrets of Sales Magnets. Laura has completed her work on a second book, But I’m not a Salesperson; the Small Business Owner’s Guide to Generating Sales, and is hard at work on her third. Her driving mission is for each of her clients to earn a healthy six-figure income in less than 40 hours per week. She can be reached at Laura@dancingelephants.net or at 804-254-4122.