Happy Sunday Everyone:
Younger folks probably don’t know what it means to push start a car. Push starting a car is when you start rolling it in neutral, pop the clutch, the engine will turn over and start, and then you’re up and running.
A friendly competitor asked me to speak at their sales rally last Wednesday. I haven’t been on a stage in a while talking about my own business and the path, I’ve been on through the years. It was really fun for me to do. Maybe its ego, I honestly don’t think so, I just like doing it. It sucks beforehand, you get nervous, you get a little imposter syndrome, then you get up there and it goes really well, or really bad. This one went really well.
What does last Wednesday and push starting a car have to do with one another? I’m the car, I needed to get push started, I did by getting out of my comfort zone again, and now I’m rolling. I feel freaking great. I’ve had more energy, I’ve had bigger conversations, I’ve been more aggressive in my efforts, more passion in my daily activities because of Wednesday. It’s not to suggest that before Wednesday, I’d wake up, walk outside, see which way the wind was blowing, and then determine what kind of a day I was going to have, I’m just saying we all need to get a push start from time to time.
On a daily basis, from seasoned veterans to newer people trying to get a start in this business, all I hear is burn out or I can’t get started. I don’t know if it’s our industry, post covid, the elections, the economy, I just know the conversations are geared way more toward how bad things suck, vs. the solution to get you out of the funk. What I’m explaining in that last sentence is a bunch of humans, sidelined, stalled, who need to figure out how to push start themselves into a different mindset. Having come off of doing something that made me feel great, and feeling a significant shift in my own energy, I’d love to challenge anyone that is stalled to figure out what action, what activity, could push start them into forward momentum.
When I think of being stalled, I think of those old cars that are sitting in a field rusted out. At some point, someone likely had some intention to fix them to get them running again but never did. They never took action, they only had intention. The longer the cars sat in the field, the more the intention to fix them faded away. I’m not going to go so big picture to call that our lives (which I know I’m actually doing) but instead to compare it to our careers. I might be 50, and I might be over the hill, but when I’m done with this career, I’d like to be one of those shiny collectors’ items sitting in a museum, not some rusted out POS sitting in a field. Which one I will be is determine by actions I take today, not the intention I have for tomorrow.
My guess is if you’re still reading this, and the concept is interesting, you might be thinking “what action can I take?”. I understand not everyone is going to go to public speaking to push start. What I’d ask you to consider is what activities have created momentum for you in the past? Write it down. What actions are going to get you out of your funk. I know for myself, depending on where I’ve been in my career, hammering the phone for 2 hours i.e., making cold calls, first 5 suck, then you get into a rhythm. Handwritten thank you cards of gratitude (with meaning) to business partners and clients. Asking your top business partners to do business planning for the next year. Calling 20 clients to check in, confirm their existing situation is better than current, or vice versa. Scheduling coffee/lunch/drinks with any business partner/client you enjoy spending time with. I fully understand this doesn’t sound exciting UNTIL you feel how good it feels on the other side of the action. Action creates more action, more momentum. If you’re not going to choose to do any of it, at least be honest with yourself that you’re doing nothing to better your current situation and sit on that. Being honest with yourself helps create action faster.
Hope you have a great rest of your Sunday, and a kick ass start tomorrow!