Southwestern Sales Talk
I formed my habits, and my habits formed my future.
Whether it’s selling books with Southwestern in the summer, or recruiting friends back at school, or playing the piano, or speaking in public, if we practice long enough, we get good at it. Your habits are proficiencies born out of practice. Some are conscious, some are not. They are powerful–mostly because they’re too deep to be visible.
All our habits–whether good or bad–feel natural to us. You may be in the habit of skipping classes, getting wasted every other day, or working out each morning at 6:00 a.m. In high school, my son was in the habit of spending 3+ hours/day waging war on the live battlefields of Halo (level 48: he was poning noobs!) Now, in college, he is thankfully in the habit of studying hard and getting A’s.
Professionally, you may be in the habit of avoiding cold calls, or you may have developed a habit of NOT closing. We must be sure we’re noticing our habits and evaluating them. Ask yourself, “What is this habit leading me to?” Or, “Is this habit serving me well, leading me where I’d like to go?” (Why yes, I’d like to compete in the Halo 3 Xbox 360 Competition. OK, fine.) If not, discard your bad habit and replace it with a new and better one. Most of us do not consciously choose our habits–it’s much easier to unconsciously drift into bad habits…right?
Our habits form our future. So why not take action–purposefully–today? Begin a new, empowering habit: get up 15 minutes early for quiet time with your Bible, practice approaching someone (for business or pleasure) who intimidates you a bit, begin a workout schedule with a short run around the block, read an inspirational book at night instead of watching reruns of The Office. Little victories!
Every confrontation with an unfriendly habit is a victory! Every time counts. Decide: Today, I’ll begin to notice my habits–both positive and negative. I will be more aware of future consequences. Practice makes perfect.
(I’m interested in your thoughts and experiences with this topic–please share with a comment! Be bold.)
Agreed! This is awesome!
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
October 30th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Aaron–thanks for the quick note! I look forward to your future comments….
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Thanks Lee this is helpful more especially the area of my quite time.
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:48 am
Moses! Thanks for the comment! I’m glad you found this beneficial–come back and visit soon. I post weekly. Good to see you at the meeting.
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Good to read, and be reminded. I am in the process of setting my goals for the year, and it’s a good reminder to be cautious of the habits I’m making for myself…
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:50 am
You are up for Best Blog Commenter of the Month! Thanks. I’ll be posting again soon. Have your SMs RSS the blog!
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A great posting at a perfect time!
After every seminar we`ve got with Southwestern I sit down and rewrite all my goals, think about what should be changed in my schedule, what kind of habits I develop, etc. so I can better myself – all these events make me so excited about myself and life in general (hopefully I`m close to this becoming a habit).
What I realized in the past few years is looking for habits to break and do it is one of the hardest thing one can do but also the biggest thing to be proud of!
I`m trying to get into the habit of ‘winning against myself’, those little victories are so sweet and they`re the ones leading the ‘good’ to the ‘great’ !
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
November 3rd, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Good to Great was a perfect theme for the Euro-GRS! Speaking of habits, it’s really smart to do what you do after a seminar–reflect! We have a saying: Man makes his habits, then habits make the man. Keep up the good work and thanks for the comment.
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I was just having a great discussion with my sister about using good habits to break old bad ones. It’s nice to hear that every time is a victory; sometimes my “daily” habits, such as reading, become every other day
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Lee McCroskey Reply:
November 5th, 2009 at 9:47 am
You don’t want to get caught up in some legalistic, “have to” daily regimen: just do your best to make daily habits just that. If you miss occasionally no big deal.
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