Sunday, August 28, 2011

The Keys to an Unstoppable Drive

I thought this interesting to share what makes people successful. Right now there is no substitute for focus and effort thanks Tim for sharing this with us.
Timothy G Taylor President Network FOB


The Keys to an Unstoppable Drive


"Sometime back in the mid 80’s I was invited to attend a sales seminar hosted by Don Beveridge and I was fortunate in that I got the chance to sit in on the seminar and I found it to be a memorable experience. He was motivated and his sales motivational points were strong. The ideas he shared with the audience, with a little bit of license on my part, went something like this: You wake-up at 5am, from 5-7am, you plan your day, every hour. Be in the office by 7am and by 9am get out and prospect and be in the community. At 5pm get back to the office to do your follow-up with all your prospective clients. From 7pm – 9pm you do your administrative work. After that, get into bed so you’re ready for 5am again. I heard at least two old saws proclaim, “this guy is nuts”. I thought so too but in a good way.

There were about 200 sales people in attendance, many of which were inspired by his ideas. And my guess is that many of the salesmen (there weren’t many women selling in those days) took action after that day because they wanted his results. So they probably started getting up at 5am and arrived at the office at 7am and they started making the cold calls they normally weren’t making. But pretty soon, within a few days or weeks, most would probably stop and resume their old ways. Their activity levels go back to normal. Why? Because their productivity rose above their self-image and their self-image squashed their productivity down within their comfort level; a level consistent with their self-image. They took an afternoon off here and there, maybe they watched Oprah, maybe Jerry Springer; hung out in a bar commiserating with other freight solicitors, it was hard to say. It could be their actions were becoming inconsistent with their self-image.

Today many will talk about balance in life, those are thoughts best left to the idealists and those who believe the system is rigged and we ought to spread the wealth. I believe there is a place for balance all right, mine is in balancing the checkbook and my family life. Making a difference in your life and the lives of those who depend on you is, on its own, balance. The checkbook and family unit satisfaction are only the scorecards. If your checkbook and family life is where you think it should be, you’re doing fine and don’t need to go further unless you think you can in which case you haven’t set you goals high enough. 

You will always perform at a level equal to your self-image. Our self-image is the portrait we have of ourselves. It’s the picture we’ve created about our self and is commonly based on past experiences and environmental influences. So if a new desire for improvement is introduced and it conflicts with our current self-image, it is doomed to fail. I guess I was fortunate in that I had a very successful family and couldn’t envision anything other than success.

Our actions, behaviors and yes our discipline, are all heavily influenced by our self-image. Even if you force yourself via will power to do things beyond your self-image, you won’t be able to sustain it for very long. You will go back to the old behaviors consistent with your own self-belief because you believe it and you act from this belief. What caused the Ali’s, Jordan’s, and the Annika Sorenstam’s of the world to work as hard as they did? What causes the top 1% in selling to consistently sustain their mind-boggling activity levels? Answer for all: their self-image. I
f you watched Tiger’s meltdown in the last couple of years and its subsequent effect on his golf course performance, you can see what a blow to self-esteem can do, even if it was of his own making.

Major changes occur in income, production and satisfaction for the average salesperson (in fact all people) when they understand the importance of evaluating, changing and elevating their self-image. Managers and salespeople comfortable with small and average client sizes but nervous and fearful with the high-end clients, who learn to grow their self-portrait become more confident and succeed in the large client arena. Lets not get into a discussion of which type of client you can make the most money on because you can make plenty off big clients if you set it up right and if you set it up right, it won’t be you doing the clerical work. 

Speaking of clerical work; executives who are most comfortable working clerical tasks instead of leading a group of managers and clerical workers are destined to confine themselves to a mid-level manager’s wage. Not that there is anything wrong with mid-level management or clerical work and if that is what you want to be good at, then be the best. There are many hourly pay rates in business; the highest belong to those who can lead other people in a desperate charge to the top. Job satisfaction is relevant to the position desired and the execution of satisfying your self-image. Life satisfaction is relevant to that self-image and the life that image confines us to.

As we raise our self-image we raise our expectations, behaviors and the discipline we bring to our activities. Learning to change behavior permanently is one of the most important skills a person can develop in their life. Without this skill, any self-improvement intention will result in failure and frustration. All we need to do is to change the portrait by investing time and energy with guidance through learning.

Our self-image is held in our subconscious mind. This is the inside part of our brain where all of our habits and beliefs are stored. Many estimates in the field of psychology suggest we are only utilizing a small part of our brain - generally 5% to 10%. Which means that nearly 90% is untapped and waiting to serve us. Our subconscious mind is this under-utilized resource. It’s the part of the brain that allows our body to do things naturally and consistently with such ease and proficiency that our conscious mind could never match.

Great things that seem impossible become possible when we learn to communicate to and from our subconscious mind. Here’s how: when a thought and feelings match, and are focused on over and over again, it becomes accepted by the subconscious mind. When we add pictures or visualization, which match this thought/feeling combination, we are actually changing our self-image with a new self-belief. Our self-image is only communicated to in pictures, hence the term self-image. When this ‘pictured thought with feeling’ intention is accepted by the subconscious mind it becomes a belief that executes itself automatically.

Follow these steps to a new level of discipline by changing your self-image:

Step one: Decide exactly what you want. This is critical. Is it a habit change you’re after or how about a new goal? Whatever it is, be crystal clear on the outcome you desire.

Step two: Determine the activities that would lead to this outcome. This is an easy step; just determine what you would need to be doing in order for this result to come naturally. It’s simple cause and effect. For this step, make sure you choose activities that you could see yourself doing. There are often many ways to an outcome. Avoid the activities that don’t fit your personality, but make sure the one’s you do choose will ensure your goal.

Step three: Invest 20 minutes a day in focused quiet time, Ten minutes in the a.m. and 10 minutes in the p.m. Here is the place you need to invest the time and energy. In this time, find a quiet place in which you will not be interrupted and close your eyes. With eyes closed, put your attention on the goal. With thoughts on the goal, see yourself doing these activities with ease day in and day out.
Picture yourself becoming proficient at these activities. Bring in more and more clarity to the picture every time you do this. Visualize the time of day and the reaction from those around you. The more detailed the better! And finally feel the feelings you would feel, as you would engage in these activities; also feel the feelings, with intensity, that you would feel accomplishing this goal. See yourself actually doing the deal!

Driven people produce record results because of their belief in themselves. They grew their self-image by this ‘pictured thought with feeling’ process. Many probably didn’t even realize they were doing it. Whether they intended to or not doesn’t really matter because this is how it works and it can work for anyone.

Apply this process and remember the importance of vivid pictures and concentrated feeling. Do this and you’ll never again have to be stuck in undesirable patterns from your past. With new information can come new results.

We’re only here for a visit. If you want to make a difference, you already have. There is nothing a tantalizingly close as a dream.

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