Why do people seem so frustrated, so out of control? They seem to be coming and going at warp speed. They seem to be frenetically going in all directions at the same time.
Today we are faced with endless choices and alternatives that are all clamoring for our time, our attention and energy.
When I was growing up, there were three television stations you could watch; NBC, ABC and CBS. And that was it; you didn’t have any more choices. When I was growing up, we didn’t have 14 hamburger joints in a three-mile stretch that you could choose from. We didn’t have 121 models of vehicles you could buy. You bought a Ford, you bought a Chevy, you bought a Buick, you bought an Oldsmobile, a Pontiac and a few others, and that was about it.
Today, we have too many choices about what to do with the allotted time that we have on this earth. Everywhere we turn, somebody wants a piece of us. They want our attention, our money and our energy.
It’s endless, constant and unrelenting.
Every waking moment there are demands on our time and energy. If we’re ever going to have any peace of mind at all, we must get a grip on what we’re doing and figure out how to insulate ourselves from all of the people and all of the organizations that demand and suck up our time and energy.
Sales Management Training
In my sales management training, I teach my clients that there are only two positions in life that you can take. You can either be part of your plan or by default, you will become part of someone else’s plan.
Here’s an example. If on Saturday morning, my wife says to me, “what are you doing today”? If I say to her,” I don’t really have anything planned today”; she will find something for me to do. In that case, I didn’t have a plan so she made one for me.
I don’t know how it is in your household, but I would imagine it’s probably the same. Now, if I have something planned and something scheduled, what she might want me to do gets put on the back burner because I had something scheduled. But, if I don’t have a plan, she’s going to find one.
If you wake up this morning and you don’t have a plan of what you’re going to do today and you don’t have your day planned out about what you’re going to do from 9:00 to 10:00 and 10:00 to 11:00 and 11:00 to 12:00; if you don’t have it planned out and lined out and scheduled about what behaviors you’re going to do during that time period, that time will be filled with someone else’s agenda. And that someone else could be an employee, a client, a spouse, a child, or whomever, will find something for you to do.
When you’re unscheduled and you don’t have crystal clarity about what you want to do and what you want to achieve today, then your life simply becomes one of reacting to all of the forces that play upon you, that are vying for your time and attention. So, that’s why it’s important to have clarity about what it is that you want to accomplish.
Sales Management Training Principle
Another important sales management training principle I teach is, if you’re ever going to escape this feeling of overwhelm and feeling like everybody wants a piece of you and that you’re being pulled in a lot of different directions; if you’re ever going to have any peace in this world, you must get very good at saying the word NO.
You must become comfortable telling a lot of people; be they family, be they friends, be they associates, be they employees, be they customers, be they clients, whatever the case may be; you must learn to get good at saying NO to them.
To improve personal productivity, you must look carefully at every situation and determine whether or not that situation calls for you to change what you had scheduled today in order to accommodate what someone else wants from you.
If you are a sales manager or an owner who wants to improve your personal productivity, I encourage you to check out our sales management training and coaching program. It will help you escape the Hamster Wheel, achieve greater peace of mind and allow you to work less and make more.
