Blog Archives
Don’t Like To Do Something? Then Don’t Do It!
All I have ever known is hard work. It started as a kid when I was:
- attempting to perfect songs at piano lessons to prepare for recitals and/or exams
- playing sports
- washing dishes at a buffet restaurant, or working at a golf course
I was never the most talented at any of these things, but my hard work, dedication and commitment set me apart from others over the years.
My wife and decided to rip out our old flooring on the main level of our home in the spring of 2012, and replace it with new hardwoods. In the kitchen, the old hardwood came out rather easily, but underneath was a bit of a surprise! There were two layers of linoleum, with an unimaginable amount of staples still stuck in to the sub floor. As I hummed and hawed about actually getting down on my hands and knees to take out the staples, I had to take a moment to reflect and remind myself how I had completed many other undesirable tasks in the past.
There have been many projects that I have completed over the years, and during each journey wanted to quit many times. Below is some of the “fun” that I have engaged in:
- I shovelled my two-story roof over a period of three days in hip deep snow. I would be up there for long periods of time, and even had to call my wife on a cell phone to pass me up food and water on occasion!
- We decided to get smaller pieces of sod once when we cut down shrubs in our back yard, rather than the traditional long strips. This tripled my effort, but saved some money.
- I tried to salvage my poorly finished basement ceiling, by scraping off very old stipple, and then tried to repaint it.
- I removed a large flower bed of 10 to 20 lbs rocks to landscape the front of my house.
- I painted the interior of my 900 square foot condo & the interior of my two-story 1700+ square foot primary residences, both in short turn around times.
Being in the sales profession for well over a decade now, things like call reporting (and using CRM software), forecasting & handling services issues were certainly not things that I jumped out of bed to do over the years. Early in my career, I was lucky enough to wrap my head around the fact that this was all part of the process. Keeping up with required tasks allowed me to focus on more enjoyable parts of the roles like engaging customers and making sales.
I suspect that you don’t want to be on your boss’ radar for becoming known as somebody who does not keep up with reporting and other administrative tasks. Make this part of your daily routine. Trust me from experience. DO NOT wait until Friday afternoon to do all of your administrative work for the week. Use it as a time to tie it all together.
Oh yeah, back to pulling out an “endless supply” of staples from my kitchen floor last spring. I just kept my head down, and pulled those staples out, no matter how much my body hurt, keeping the vision in my mind of how awesome our home would look when it was all done.
You can read all the books, and study all the theories about what motivates people to do what they need to do to be successful in life. But it all comes back to you – you and your will to get through the “not so fun tasks” is the key so you can look forward to the fun parts of your job and of your life.
Accomplishing a task is the satisfaction, and that is my primary goal every time I work towards completing something that I really do not want to do.
- How do you motivate yourself to complete professional and personal tasks that you don’t like to do?
- How deep do you have to dig when all you want to do is lie on the couch sometimes, and avoid all the undesirable things on your “To Do List?”
The Five Star 5 – 40 Years Update…
At the end of August, I decided I needed to lose some weight. I had progressively let myself go, and for the first time in my life wanted to see if I could commit to losing a few pounds.
I am very proud to say that I DID IT!!!!
I attempted to lose 10 pounds over a 9 week period, and on my last weigh in I had lost 12 pounds!
Here are the top five lessons learned over the 9 weeks:
- It is NOT an easy thing to do!
- I still needed a TREAT day once per week to enjoy my favourite foods
- Eating healthy 95% of the time takes a lot of work but is worth it
- Eating smaller meals more often did surpress my appetite
- A normal portion size is much smaller than I ever thought
Bonus lesson
- I have a new mindset that if I deeply commit to something, I can achieve anything I want. There were some rough days, but I rarely wavered from my plan.
My thoughts often shifted to the discipline it takes to write daily, correspond on social media on a regular basis and move my business forward “a little bit every day”.
Anything that you need to do on a regular basis can be accomplished if you dedicate to it. I am feeling more confident than ever and look forward to keeping the weight off.
Here is the link to my original blog post discussing my weight loss plan:
- What do you need to commit to today that you are needing to work on?
- Doubt that you can do it? Think again! You’ll never know if you don’t try!
If this inspired you to work on a personal challenge, I would love to hear about the results.
Please email me at: TimMushey@gmail.com
Good luck!
Saturday Music Memories – It is Hard To Stay Mad..
When they can still rock like this 🙂
The “Push For 400” is on…
Stop by and check out my Facebook page at:
http://www.facebook.com/SellLeadSucceed
“Like” it if you like it!
Have A Laugh Fridays – Ha Ha You Can’t Fire Me!
Some sales reps are harder to fire than others! Check out this short video to see why…
The “push to 400 is on”….
If you haven’t already, stop by and “like” my Facebook Fan Page:
http://www.facebook.com/SellLeadSucceed
Make it a tremendous weekend!
Jon Bon Jovi’s Take On Leadership…
I watched Jon Bon Jovi on Oprah’s Masterclass TV series a few months ago. I really enjoyed his take on leadership and wanted to share it with you today:
“You have to lead by example. You have to be a good listener. You have to be a good friend. You have to know when to take a punch, and when to give one. Share the spotlight and take the spotlight. Love one another unconditionally, but push each other more than anyone else would.”
Pretty great quote from somebody you probably thought was just a rock star!
Have a great day!
Career Quicksand – How Deep Are You Sinking?
I have been lucky enough to work out of a home office for 11 of the last 13 years. The two years that I had an office to report in to, I would get stuck in traffic daily. It gave me many opportunities to look at other people’s faces, as their days were off to very “slow” starts too.
Some looked sad; others looked angry or frustrated, some had blank stares or even looked dazed. On occasion, some were smiling, while others where actually singing! It blew my mind how many people looked unhappy though. Is it realistic to believe that all of them looked that way because they were unhappy going to work? Of course not. Some must have been dealing with other issues too (some were of course frustrated by the continual traffic jams).
Most studies report that 7 or 8 out of 10 people do not like their jobs! One study in the sales profession showed that more than 50% of people should not even be sales at all! Are you one of those people getting out of bed dreading the next 8 to 12 hours every day?
Internet marketer Gary Vaynerchuk changed his entire career path because he was only 99% happy in his situation at the time. To me, that was an incredibly powerful statement. As people become more and more unhappy with their jobs over the months, years or even decades, it is like they are sinking further and further into quicksand. The more unhappy they get, the deeper they sink. On the odd occasion that they try to change jobs, they try a little bit, then just stop trying all together.
People typically want to make the switch, but “life gets in the way”. A job search gets put on the back burner. Others lack confidence, and don’t feel that they are good enough to have a shot at “career satisfaction”. Too many people settle for the status quo, and don’t take action. Some stay in a career that they just don’t like, becoming a “work robot” completing the same repetitive tasks at nauseum, for what seems like an eternity.
The next thing they know, five, ten or 20+ years have passed, and then wake up one day saying, “What the heck am I still doing here?” I can tell you from experience that being comfortable in a role that “pays the bills” does not equal happiness. Not even close.
When you are in love with your career, you should rarely be counting down the minutes until the end of the day, week, or until holidays start. I had a manager tell me that you should be excited to go to work, from the moment your feet hit the floor each morning. So many people over the years have said that “every day should feel like a Saturday”, or “your work should not feel like a job”.
It can be a good practice to check in with yourself every now and then.
- How happy are you with your career?
- Is it heading in the direction you would like it to?
If you feel “sunk”, the good news is you can always change your path going forward.
Remember, “You don’t drown by falling in water. You only drown by staying there.” – Zig Ziglar
- What does your perfect job look like (yes, you can have the perfect job)?
- How does that list compare to the job you’re currently in?
- What one step can you take today to move towards loving your job?
Saturday Music Memories – Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving to all the Canadians in my online community (and Happy Weekend to everyone else)!
Enjoy the long weekend and the time you get to spend with family and friends.
Way down the list of things I am thankful for is the fantastic music that has come out of Canada over the years. Bryan Adams is close to the top of my list!
Here is an old classic “Run To You” from 1983!
Have a great weekend…
Don’t Go Away Mad, Just Go Away!
Shortly after I started my first outside sales role, I traveled 9 hours from my home office to see a small account. I continued to see them on a semi-regular basis even though growth potential was limited. I made that nasty trip two more times in the first year.
In some warped sense of reality, I thought I would impress my boss by doing the extensive travel.
The two other painfully long trips and lack of growth in the second year gave me an “ah-ha” moment!
I realized that these trips were not productive uses of my time. I ended up dropping them altogether the year after when sales diminished to almost nothing.
I would sign up any account early in my career, because that is how sales people are wired right? When you are on commission, every sale counts, so you have even more incentive to bring on new business. True, but only to a point.
What I soon realized is if negotiations with a prospect are difficult and time-consuming, there is a real possibility that they will continue to give challenges as a customer in the future. This is not true all the time. But I have “broken up” with prospects before we have had our “first date”.
I learned a very valuable lesson from an ex-manager several years ago. He stated,
“The best business deals occur when both parties give something to the deal”
Rarely do business relationships work when one party gives, gives, gives and the other party gladly takes, takes takes.
I have dealt with customers who were always upset and/or angry with myself and the organizations I was working for. Although these occurrences were rare, I ended up letting them go too. There was negative energy, and since they were smaller with respect to revenue, it was an easy decision based on the value of my time.
I serviced the occasional account who did not support my companies at all, but were more than happy to ask for pricing when a customer specifically requested our products. Eventually they were dropped too. Those were very sad relationships!
Selective = Success
Once I realized that every company is not a suitable business partner, I gained much better perspective on my account base and territory in general. Some tough decisions were made, but at the end of the day I focused my attention on the accounts that had the most growth potential.
- When was the last time you looked at your customer base and identified troublesome relationships?
- Can you scale back the time you spend with them, or drop altogether?
- On the flip side… Do you spend enough time with your largest customers?
Sell, Lead, Succeed! 