Watch Out For The Enemy
I get up and look in the mirror usually pleased to some degree with what I see. The guy looking back at me has a nice smile and seems pretty reasonable most of the time. But, every now and then I could swear he is winking at me just as I turn away. What’s that about I ask? He just looks back at me with the same confused look I am giving him, so I walk away and continue my day.
I arrive at my studio prepared to slay the dragons that await. I am confident that I will be triumphant in all my daily endeavors. Things are pretty slow so I opt to leave just for a bit and go shop for my new brief case I’ve been wanting. I then make a quick stop at the store to develop some film and swing by my favorite restaurant to grab a quick taco and a coke.
When I arrive back at the studio I find a note: it says “I stopped by to get some information about lessons for my son but, you were not here, I’ll stop by again next week if I can” No name no phone number, what’s a matter with this person? Don’t they realize how important that info was to me? Oh,well.. I am blown away with the lack of focus some people have.
Stop! What am I thinking? Was it the fault of the potential student’s parent for not leaving contact info? No, it is my fault for leaving in the middle of the day to run errands, if I had planned my time better I could have accomplished all I needed to get done before work and been at the studio when that prospect came by. I am my enemy….. I must learn to protect me from me.
What kind of obstacles do I create each day that keeps me from succeeding at the level I want to? How many other things am I doing that interfere with my own success? Do I spend too much time on the phone or on the computer? Do I hang out in the dojo even when there are no students to teach? Do I spend too much time talking to students after lessons about non-business related issues? Do I avoid sales training and then complain that I can’t get people to make a buying decision? What things about my own personality do I need to watch out for that can keep from winning?
Sometimes our biggest enemy is ourselves. We must examine our actions each day to see if we let the enemy distract us at all that day. The very best traits and strengths we have as individuals are often the very worst things about us as well. If we can set up barriers to keep us from doing the things that sabotage us we can beat the enemy. Example: If we struggle with forgetting our GI every morning than we can set a habit of leaving our car keys on the folded uniform each night before bed. If we struggle with over eating we should bring a skinny friend to the market when we grocery shop to keep us accountable. Too much idle time in our office? Then schedule time to stand outside and promote with an assistant between each class. The idea is that if we know we are weak in a certain area than we can plan against it! That’s how we beat our biggest enemy of success, OURSELVES!
I always find, for myself, that planning to do it is easy and actually doing it, or getting results from doing it, is still the issue. I'm still having trouble with that personally.
ReplyDeleteI agree Sir. I am definitely my own worst enemy. I know what I should do, but some days the actual motivation to get off my butt and do it just isn't there.
ReplyDeleteSometimes the reality is, we just lack a sense of commitment. There are times that we know which direction to go and we go in the opposite direction. There are times that we know what we should be doing, but we don't get it done. Setting up systems in our personal life and in our business life is a valuable tool. I have learned that there is no such thing as "being set in my ways", it is always a choice and I have to put value on what I need to get done and when. We have certain obligations and there are times that we do not like the discomfort that some of these obligations create for us. We have become a society that avoids discomfort at all costs. Whether it is sales, computer/admin work, teaching,prospecting,relationships,chain of command,conforming to someone else's system, working in a group dynamic, you choose yours, there are things that need to get done in a timely manner associated with each of these, things that can be plain uncomfortable. We need to find the challenge in living life in uncomfortable circumstances and master it. Discomfort won't kill anyone, if anything it will help us feel more comfortable. Stop avoiding discomfort and calling it procrastination or laziness. Admit it, "you're scared". Face it. The only way to get it in control is take control of it.
ReplyDeleteRP
It's a really good point, sir. Fear is a natural emotion that we mostly try to mask. My issue has never been accepting fear but instead I really struggle with ways to overcome it. How do you deal with getting out of your own way? I'll relate it to a martial arts drill: When you are doing DMs with a partner and they stand in front of you and try to punch you it may not be easy but it gets easier because of comfort level. Then you elevate your skills by letting the comfortable get better. Then you challenge the drill again and remove the comfort level by having the partner run to throw a punch from ten feet away, or throw a left then a right, or a right then a left, or a kick then the punch, or during sparring have to freeze and react with a DM. These are all great! The progression comes through challenge but in an environment where if you screw it up a ton then who cares because you didn't really get beat up and you now know you have something new to work at. BUT you wouldn't do any of those drills practicing by yourself or with another person before a class or at home or whatever. Without being PUSHED into those uncomfortable situations you would probably never leave your comfort zone. Even while being pushed you are usually more willing to work at it because your partner, or the other people in class, are also being put in the same position so you feel more relaxed, generally speaking. Even then there is still an environment where mistakes are great! Make 'em, fix 'em, tweak 'em, who cares! When I am out tryng to talk to people or set a lead box I feel a TREMENDOUS amount of pressure. I'm pretty sure it's all in my head but I now don't know what to say, or I speak stiff and robotic, or I give in easily, or a hundred other things I wouldn't normally think about myself in a social situation. How do you work through the mental stress of "If I don't set this box/appointment/sign up/seminar/etc. then I @#$%ed up." Because not doing it right or perceiving that you aren't doing it right and getting absolutely no results is sometimes so frustrating that it isn't even worth the mental fatigue to psych yourself up and get punched in the face 57 times in a row metaphorically speaking. How does one go about overcoming that? That's kinda always been my question/problem.
ReplyDeleteDEVILS ADVOCATE
ReplyDeleteRecently I read a book describing a concept called oscelation. Put simply it says that in todays world we get cought up in the idea that if we're nit doing something than we are failing. It continues with case studies proving that people who acheive the greatest results plan recovery time into their activities (just as we need to build in recovery time when developing muscles) and thus the work they produce has fuller engagement and is therefor of a higher quality. Personally I find it more difficult to maintain balance between go time and recovery time. Too much of either, or doing either one at the wrong time is where I am my worst enemy. T continue off the givien example, after wasting all day at lunch and shopping for breif cases I might go home and out of guilt stay up til 2 reading sales books that as great as they may be are not what are going to get me the sign ups.
I am conciously stopping here. I would love to go down the rabbit hole here but I feel I've said enough.
Well it's just like our Voice mail's that we have We introduce ourselves appoligize fir missing there phone call but what we also do is ask people to leave there name and number so we can call them back.What we could do is write a little note that we can put up when we leave to ask people to put there name and number down so we can call them back and find out what they need.The sign could read:
ReplyDelete" Hi I'm sorry we missed you your interest in the Martial Arts is very important to us,if you would please fill out this form we will contact you within the next couple of hours to answer any questions you might have."
something short and sweet that would allow people to write there information down on a guest registry??? just a thought
What about the center that has low foot traffic? Is going to another center better to create better opportunities? What about a instructor who has taken over that school would it be better to market before hours or close for an hour or so to market? What's the best for growth of the instructor and the school?
ReplyDeleteI find I get in my way of many of my goals. I focus on less important tasks and prolong my achievement of the initial goal. I really enjoyed reading this one.
ReplyDeleteMarketing before hours is key when your starting out in a dojo and have no assistants.