These days there are a lot of negatives flying around out there. Unemployment, the economy, and a plethora of other items are lurking around every corner in the form of newspapers, television, and negative people, and they are waiting to pounce on you and sap your energy and your morale. In addition to that, there are the personal issues that occasionally arise in life from a simple flat tire to major issues such as those related to job, health, and relationships. You know the key to your sales success lies in your ability to show up every day, put your game face on, and get the job done, regardless of what’s going on in your life. With that in mind, how can you best ensure you stay on track and don’t let outside issues and problems hit you hard internally and derail your success?
5 Steps to Stay Positive at All Times
Step 1: Insulate yourself from the negatives. The first way to insulate yourself from negatives is to limit the amount of them that go into your brain. Specifically, avoid as much negative news and as many negative people as you can. The second way to insulate yourself from negatives is to put lots of positives into your brain and to hang out with positive people. Studies have shown that a positive thought and a negative thought can’t occupy your brain at the same time. We also develop habitual ways of thinking, either positive or negative. In this case you can’t get too much of a good thing. Read, watch, and listen to all the positive, up-beat information you can. Also remember, you are who you hang out with.
Step 2: Accept that there will be problems. Yes, there will be days when life will try to run you over. Problems are a part of life, you will have problems, and some of them will be big. While you don’t want to dwell on what problems could arise, you do want to mentally prepare by accepting that you will run into them.
See your problems as a challenge. It’s simple, either your problems steam-roll you, or you steam-roll your problems. Your problems either stop you, or you stop them. In life, you’re either the windshield or the bug, and you decide which you will be. If you do get knocked down, get up as soon as possible. Studies have shown that the amount of time someone stays down after a personal crisis relates directly to how happy and financially successful someone is, the shorter the time, the more happy and successful the person is.
Step 3: Have a support system in place. You have to have people that you can talk to both in good times and in bad. While you don’t want to “dump” negatives on people, it’s good to have a friend or two who are positive and up-beat and will first listen to you and then help you turn around a tough day.
Also, “people” are really what life and happiness are all about. You want to have some good, solid relationships and have a decent social life outside of work. We must have balance in life with work, play, health, etc., in order to feel good and be truly happy.
From a professional standpoint, it’s good to be a member of a mastermind group, have a mentor or two, and ultimately have someone who will hold accountable for your goals and dreams.
Step 4: Have a powerful WHY. It’s simple, if you know where you are headed in life for yourself and for your friends and family, and you have powerful reasons WHY you must get there, you’ll get there, nothing will stop you. If you don’t know why you do what you do, you just roll out of bed in the morning and go through the motions all day, you won’t be motivated.
If you need a powerful WHY, decide what you really want out of life. What do you want your life to ultimately look like? What do you want for your family and your kids? What do you want to be able to do? Motivation is different for everyone, work hard at determining YOUR personal motivation, finding your highest levels of motivation will pay huge benefits. With a powerful enough WHY, you will endure through anything.
Step 5: Take 100% responsibility for everything in your life. Take 100% responsibility for your health: what goes in your mouth, how much exercise you get, for relationships: 95% of the people you run into during the day will be a reflection of you, if you don’t like someone’s response or reaction to you, change your response or reaction to them, 95% will change. 100% responsibility for your business: how many calls you make, how many leads you get, how many sales you make. To be truly successful and to keep moving forward no matter what, you must take 100% responsibility for everything in your life because where you ultimately end up with have nothing to do with the economy, the job market, who’s president, or anything else, it will come down to: Did you show up every day and do what needed to be done regardless of what was going on in your life?
John Chapin’s specialty is helping salespeople and sales teams double sales in 12 months. He is an award-winning sales speaker, trainer and coach, a number one sales rep in three industries, and the primary author of the gold-medal winning “Sales Encyclopedia”. In his 24 years of sales, customer service and management experience, he has sold in some of the toughest markets and economies.
If you would like access to John’s free white paper on what it takes to be successful in sales along with a monthly newsletter, you can visit John’s website at https://www.completeselling.com For permission to reprint, or to reach John, email him at johnchapin@completeselling.com.
