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How To Make 2013 A Great Year

It’s GrOw Time
Greetings,

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! The past few weeks always seem to be super busy. Now it’s time to get our focus back on our visions and dreams so 2013 can be a terrific year. Thanks to Keith Patterson for sending me the following 5 possible barriers all of us might face during the coming months.

Enthusiastically,

Gary Burke

Why do some people achieve their goals while others fail? I believe it’s because successful people manage to overcome five barriers that, in many cases, guarantee failure. Here are those barriers and how to overcome them:

1. Uninspiring Goals

When most people set goals, they envision a “thing,” such as a particular amount of money, an object (like a new car), or a specific achievement (like writing a book). Unfortunately, these “things I’m gonna get or do” goals don’t appeal to the core of what motivates you, because they miss the point that what you’re actually seeking in life and work is the POSITIVE EMOTIONS that you believe those things will produce.

Fix: Rather than envisioning a “thing” as your goal, envision–with all the strength in your imagination–how you will feel when you achieve the goal. That way, you’ll be inspired to do whatever it takes (within legal and ethical bounds) to achieve that goal.

2. Fear of Failure

If you’re afraid of failing, you won’t take the necessary risks required to achieve your goal. For example, you won’t make that important phone call, because you’re afraid that you’ll be rebuffed. Or you won’t quit your dead-end job and start your own business because you’re afraid that you might end up without any money.

Fix: Decide–right now!–that failure, for you, is a strictly temporary condition. If things don’t go the way you’d like, it’s only a setback that, at most, delays your eventual success. In other words, accept the fact that you’ll sometimes fail, but treat that failure as an unavoidable (yet vital) component in your quest.

3. Fear of Success

In many ways, this fear is even more debilitating than the fear of failure. Suppose you achieved something spectacular, like enormous wealth. What if it didn’t make you happy? What then? What if you ended up losing all of it? What then? Would your friends start acting weird? Would your family be envious? Such thoughts (and they’re common) can cause even a highly motivated person to self-sabotage.

FIX: Decide that you’re going to be happy and grateful today and happy and grateful in the future, no matter what happens. Rather than focus on possible problems, envision how wonderful it would be to be able to help your friends and family achieve THEIR goals.

4. An Unrealistic Timetable

Most people vastly overestimate what they can do in a week and vastly underestimate what they can do in a year. Because of this, most people try to cram too many action items into the short term rather than spacing out activities over the long term. The inability to get all the short-term steps accomplished creates discouragement and the impression that the final goal is slipping away.

Fix: As you list the activities and steps required to achieve a goal, schedule only the 20% of the activities that will produce 80% of your results. Beyond that, set ambitious long-term timetables, but always leave some “wiggle room” when you plan short term.

5. Worrying About “Dry Spots”

It’s easy to get discouraged when you reach a point at which nothing you do seems to advance you toward your goal. For example, suppose you’re trying to master a certain skill. You make swift progress at first but then, after a while, it seems as if you’re not doing any better, or maybe a little worse. Some people use these “plateaus” or “dry spots” as an excuse to give up and therefore fail.

Fix: Whenever you reach a plateau or dry spot, it’s time to celebrate rather than give up. A plateau is almost always a sign that you’re on the brink of a major breakthrough, if you just have the patience to stick with it and trust that you’ll eventually achieve your goal.

What Happens When They Say No?

 

Any successful sales person knows that the odds are against them. For every person that is contacted the majority are not going to be interested. Or they don’t have the time. Or something else is more important at that moment. Or maybe they are having a bad day and you are just the one person they don’t want to hear from next.

So how do you handle the rejection?

First remember that it probably isn’t personal. They just aren’t interested for many possible reasons and it rarely has anything to do with you or the message you want to share with them.

You don’t need 100% of the people you contact to sign on to be successful. If you get 1 out of 10 it will probably be a good day. The great days are when you get 25% positive responses.

And keep it in perspective. You want to share the great Shaklee products with everyone. And some people will want to be your best customers. The ones that decide they want to work with you to build their own business are going to be the most valuable to you. No matter which category the customer falls into they are both important to your success.

So when you hear a no, remember that there are plenty of other potential customers and business partners out there. Make another phone call. Send another post card. Post another flyer. Send another email. Post another message on an online message board. Put another ad up on Craigslist.org.

It is always easy to give other people advice. But if you want to be a success remember that it only comes with a lot of hard work. Shaklee can give a lot of the tools but no one can do the work for you.

Our favorite quote is from one of the top Shaklee producers (see her boat in the photo on my profile): “I probably make more money than you because more people have told me “no” than they have to you!”

Good luck!