“Goals move you from the realm of dreams into reality. Goals focus your motivation on things you can achieve and obtain in the real world, [not] things you think that you would do if only the world, or you, were different.”

 Hitting your Sales Stride - to start to do something confidently and well

 We’ve all heard the assertion that "The journey to sales success" can be as challenging mentally as it is physically. Some of us may even go as far as saying it is 75 percent mental and only 25 percent physical or [what we say, style, etc]

 I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting lately on my journey to achieve my sales stride-success and I've come up with a few questions that we need to ask ourselves:

 - What’s working? I think it is important to find out what's working and figure out why it's working. We don't need to be the "jack of all trades"...we're just trying to "hit our stride"

- What isn’t? Need I say....Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Figure out WHY…what isn't working....isn't working.

- What do I need to focus on more? The Pareto principle (also known as the 80–20 rule, states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes...so 80% of your profits come from 20% of the time you spend. So focus more of your time on what is working and less time on what doesn't!

- Where have I grown? It's important to measure your progress. "You can't grow what you don't know"

- Where is my head at? Remember this journey mostly mental and if your head isn't in the game then you've lost before you've even begun. So ask yourself...where is my head? While there are certainly things you need to do leading to success, I’ve come to an important realization: You have to feel good mentally.

HOW?

A. Focus on the right things and don't worry about the things that either don’t matter or that you can’t control.

B. Focus on what’s right for you, not what’s working for everyone else.

C. Don't worrying about failing. Stop second-guessing yourself.

 Sure, your sales process hasn’t been perfect. There have been missed opportunities, not enough right choices, a few poor choices, a lot of long frustrating days. But when you look back at everything overall, you're training smart, trying hard, and still alive.

Let me give you 5 quick tips to "hit your sales stride": 

• Don’t put pressure on yourself that doesn’t really exist. While it’s clearly important to have sales goals, if those goals are unrealistic then you need to adjust them.  “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments” and part of that discipline is making sure your sales goals are realistic. FYI If you’re in a mental rut because you’re too worried about hitting a specific number, then maybe you should think about adjusting your “A goal” to just finishing strong.

• Stop competing with everyone around you. Stop worrying about how much the top sales guy/girl in your group is selling. Stop killing yourself to keep up with your peers, only to die out during the last half of your month. Compare you with you. Not with someone else. Comparing what you have and your results to what other people have and have accomplished can really kill your motivation. There are always people ahead of you...most likely quite a bit of people. And a few of them are miles ahead. So focus on you...on your results, and how you can and have improved them.

Reviewing your results is important so you see where you have gone wrong in the past to avoid similar missteps further on. But it’s also important because it’s a great motivator to see how much you have improved and how far you have come. Often you can be pleasantly surprised when you do such a review. Celebrate others’ successes, and don’t forget to celebrate your own. There are many different versions of success. Focus on what is working well for YOU and harness that.

 • Train smart to perform stronger. This is my 2013 second half of the year mantra. “Train smart...Perform stronger. Train smart…Perform stronger. Train smart...Perform stronger.” I repeat this to myself constantly. Training smart means everything from backing off your pace on super-rough days, incorporating recovery steps on slow production days. You can’t and shouldn’t run the two minute drill on every down. And you can’t expect every call to be great, magical and perfect. It just isn’t realistic. What makes you successful at the end of the day is how well you can bounce back from the crappy calls. What do you gain by dwelling on them? Take a small lesson from those bad days and channel what you learn into a great day moving forward.

 • Be your own cheerleader. While support from coworkers, family and management is key to being successful in endurance sales, you have to believe in yourself. You have to see the positive things you’re doing. You can’t only be proud of a great or strong call or day; you also have to recognize that you’re simply getting out there and trying. That you wake up at 5 a.m. and read something motivating or that you are thinking on how you can improve and do better on Saturday morning. That you put in a 10-hour work day and then hit the treadmill instead of the couch. That you’re doing things other people make excuses to avoid. Pat yourself on the back for that. So what if your numbers were lower than you would have liked yesterday? So what if you had 10 people hang up on you last week? You did it. You’re doing it. Go get some pom poms and shake them in your face!

 • If it isn’t fun, don’t do it. My Pastors, mentors, managers, and coaches all shared this simple, yet important philosophy with me. Try to think back to why you started doing sales in the first place. What do you love about it? Why have you kept doing it? What makes it enjoyable? (I hope you can remember). If it causes you more misery than joy, perhaps it’s time for a break. Perhaps you need to drop down from the high pressured environment to something s little slower paced. Perhaps you need to wait until next year to “hit your stride”. I know that can be a little hard to accept…and if you cringed at that thought then GET UP NAD GET GOING!!!Bust through your mental rut...Get A different priority to focus on...Renew your joy.

  Hitting your Sales Stride - To achieve a steady, effective pace. To attain a maximum level of competence.

 “To believe in yourself and to follow your dreams, to have goals in life and a drive to succeed, and to surround yourself with the things and the people that make you happy - this is success!”