Did you ever have braces on your teeth? The metal is not pleasant at first, the glue tastes awful and eating corn on the cob is a nghtmare! Yet many of us go through this straightening ritual (for years!) for the outcome of a great smile. What about braces for your career? Wouldn’t it be great if ywe could glue something on that straightens our skills, habits, mindsets and results!
My 16 year old son FINALLY had his braces removed on Monday. This was a long process for him, which he reminded us of often, because it was a long process including:
- Monthly adjustments
- Extra care of his mouth during this time
- Certain foods were off limits to not damage the progress being made
- People could SEE the metal in his mouth (thus, lots of photos with the no-teeth smile)
- Sometimes an extra boost of adjustment was needed- (rubber bands worn at night)
That’s a lot of ongoing “stuff” to end up with a good result.
The same is true for your career and habits. To be successful long-term, we need to adopt a process to straighten up our sales! We need:
- Monthly or weekly adjustments – first a hard look at activity and results and then adjustment our approach if needed.
- Extra care – do you eat well, sleep enough, exercise? A fit body helps with our energy and stamina. Extra care in our business relationships is needed too.
- Off limits – what behaviors or habits should be made off limit? Do certain people bring you down? Or is procrastination or negative thinking in your way? Banish them!
- Ego – others might SEE you working hard at perfecting something or taking risks – and if you are really pushing yourself you will make some errors – keep your ego out of your straightening process.
- Extra adjustments – there are certain times when we need to adjust even more to accommodate for the economy, change in buyers, technology, etc. Identify the extra adjustments and then set your plan to make them!
Your goal is to sell (or some of you to service/sell) and when you employ a process (no metal needed) to straighten up your skill, attitude, and mindset, you will reach new levels of success AND reap the rewards that matter to you. And that will make you SMILE too!
p.s. The photo is my smiley son (teeth showing!)
