Backing Up - Before Step 1

Creating Conditions for Success

True or False:  You can give identical service to a client that has a decided heart and one that is wishing for an easy quick fix and get totally different results.  So why waste Client B's money and your time (no referral ever comes from no results)?  Creating results and closing deals begins with pre-qualification.

While especially in this economy it is tempting to sign and take money from anything that breathes, this a step that MUST occur before you get face-to-face with a prospect and that can be scary.  Think of this as 3 items on a check list you need to check off before you spend your time in a consult with a potential new cleint

1) Require them to show you their desire by 'velvet roping' your program.  The velvet rope means only accepted applications get in.  Use a questionnaire to ensure that you are going to be talking to someone who desires to do the work.  They aren't Client B and they aren't going to be around Client B - it shows those who get in that we are ALL serious.  This sets you up to work with people who will get results and get more than their value from your services.  Be prepared to turn people away or you will nullify the system.

Steps 2 and 3 forthcoming!  Comment on FACEBOOK if you are interested in hearing more.

P.S. TO READ ABOUT STEP 1 IN THIS SERIES "THE NUMBER 1 REASON TRAINERS FAIL" CLICK HERE

I refuse

Not long ago I took an oath.  It was last Tuesday to be exact.  I took an oath to have faith.  Faith is a toughie.  It requires that you, gasp, let go, gulp, of control.  Now, it's a natural thing to have your sights set on some outcome and to work hard, overcoming obstacles and making sacrifices and therefore really, really want to see your goal met.  That is not the characteristic of a control freak or anything, but it can be exhausting without faith. Then there is the misnomer that if you "just have faith" then it will all work out.  Well that can be a recipe for unhappiness AND lack of success. Here is the difference.

In order to accomplish whatever it is you want, if you work hard and have no faith then you will feel overwhelmed by the stumbling blocks, and heart broken over the obstacles that teach you how to grow.  You take everything as a "sign."  And you feel freaked out that things aren't turning out.

If you have no faith and hold off on working hard, then as I said yesterday, you lose.  Its unfulfilling.  Also faith alone will not do the work.  It reminds me of a song I love, I can't recall the artist.

I refuse to sit around and wait for someone else

To do what God has called me to do myself

I could choose not to move

But I refuse

But there is the combination of hard work and faith that has been enlightening.  How willing are you to let go of your outcome?  I know you are destined for greatness, and I believe you have something no body else can give.  But are you open to the fact that what you have in mind right now may not the be where you end up?  That your hard work will land you right where you are supposed to be, even if its not exactly what you had planned?

There is freedom in the willingness to set goals and work hard for an outcome holding on to pure faith that things will be what they are supposed to be in the end as long as you do your part.

There is freedom in faith!

The Lie Successful People Do Not Believe About Hard Work

Its a myth that people who work hard always reach their goals. Do you know any miserable people, who work themselves silly, and still are not getting what they want.  OK, so we all agree on that.

In the movie LIMITLESS, Bradley Cooper is able to get rich and successful by taking a pill.  And while I have not seen it,  I anticipate his journey does not end well.  We are not intended to become happy through a series of instant gratifications are del?

At least I have never met a happy person, who became happy or successful that way. I figure he will achieve great things, then want more and become insatiable and fall hard from the heights he rises to.

What an excellent comment on the alternative to the real route we must take to reach our goals.  

Since being your best is not a quick fix journey,What is the alternative to a success pill?  I always think about this when the going gets tough.



First think of a goal.
Then, think of your mindset, or approach to that goal.

Is it to work hard? 
Endure the lessons?
Overcome fear and/or failure?


That's Option 1. Here's Option 2.


Work hard until it gets hard?
Quit before we start?
Dabble here and there, work and stay busy, 'multitasking,' doing the same thing over and over and expect a different result?
Hope for luck?


Frankly there is no guarantee for success  with either!!!!!! 

Option 1 clearly takes perseverance and focus, which is a bit counter culture these days.  In the era of remote control everything, protein shakes, and quick 140 character text messages, we are starting to see email as the "new snail mail"-  I can tweet it and facebook it to to 400% more readers simultaneously than I can blog and email anymore, and research shows if its more than 140 characters I will lose the reader.

SHAZAM.  

It's no wonder we want to do things and do them in a hurry.   


But, is it a mistake that we find ourselves most happy, and most satisfied because we exercised self-disclipline, overcame a fear, did the right thing, and so forth....regardless of the outcome?  It is really that you must "work hard so you will be happy, regardless of the goals achieved"?  Maybe.


The most inspiring successes are from those who at first failed their butts off.  Bradley aside, I still have never heard nor read of anyone who just woke up fit and rich one day.  The hard truth is they had a hard time and there were tears shed, relationships tested, faith tested, doubts entertained, and tempers flaired.  And while I think the pill Bradley takes that eventually ruins his life would be a bummer, what if I never quite get there and I've sacrificed all the above or [insert imagined sacrifices here]?  Now, that is a tough pill to swallow.  


But, your alternative is to never try.  And if you never try, you'll never know.  And to me that *IS* a guarantee for an unhappy, unfulfilled life.  While you may work hard and never get what you are aiming for...if you avoid committing to it, you will never have a story to tell.  You'll never have the chance to fail your butt off and figure out what you are supposed to be doing.

In his book Today Matters, Brian Tracy (more of our recommended mindset books here) really makes you stop and think about how you define success.  How would you know you had a good day?  Does that align with the goals 
you have set for yourself?  This is a key step for anyone seeking success.  You don't have to think so much about the hard work part, that is a requirement for the happy part.  If the success part comes, then even better.

So, if I define success as using my life for some greater purpose, for some good, learning to become better and better everyday, as a Mom, a trainer, an entrepreneur and friend, and being willing to go for it in all those arenas and learn the lessons along the way, regardless of the outcome, then that beats the snot out of Option 2.