|
SALES MOVES: Your past and present hold the key to your future
By Jeffrey Gitomer
Where are you going?
No, I don’t mean on your next appointment or which restaurant you’ve chosen for dinner. I’m asking: Where are you going in life?
Setting the course
If you really want to know where you’re going, you have to understand where you’ve been and recognize where you are. The past, or where you’ve been, provides you with knowledge and experiences, successes and failures, as well as opportunities and obstacles.
Where you are, or the present, is what happened during the past 30 days, what’s happening today, as well as what’s going to happen within the next 30 days.
Where you’ll be, or the future, is a combination of your experience, your being open to opportunity, your goals and dreams, your tolerance for risk, as well as your determination and focus.
Let me clarify that and break it down into 3.5 easy-to-digest categories.
1. Once was.
2. As is.
3. Can be.
3.5. Become.
“Once was” is the sum total of your knowledge, wisdom, experience, victories and defeats. If you look closely at the history of your life, you can see some things that you wanted with all your heart but didn’t get. At the time you were devastated, but in retrospect it seems silly that you ever wanted those things. You can also see some things you were given or that you earned, but once you got them, you quickly lost interest.
More important, you see the things you loved and how they have affected you. You look at the risks you took and think that if you had the opportunity to take them again, you might not. And all of that brings you to as is.
“As is” is where you are today. Are you where you want to be? Are you happy with your lot in life? Have you found what you are looking for? Do you even know what it is?
Some of us haven’t found what we are looking for, but that doesn’t mean to stop looking. That’s because as is provides you with your greatest single opportunity: deciding how to invest your time, efforts and money. The time to take action is now.
If you do, you may be able to achieve the success you are looking for later.
Many people think that once they’re done with high school or college, they’re essentially done studying. But they’ve forgotten about can be.
“Can be” is full of dreams, goals and serendipity. What you can be is going to be a result of your hard work, your positive attitude, your passion, your focus on achievement, and your drive to not let little things stand in your way—even if it means risking what you’ve got.
Many people in this struggle come to me and say, “Jeffrey, you don’t understand.” And then they go on to say something about their personal situation, their money, their spouse or their kids.
I understand well. People are afraid to risk what they have in order to go for what they really want. The worst part of not risking is lamenting that you didn’t try it, that you didn’t go for it, or that you should have done it.
When you combine once was, as is and can be, the sum of that is what you will become.
Let me throw some advice at you: Educate yourself, try your best, risk failure, seize the opportunity, develop self-discipline, dedicate yourself to becoming a winner and make a commitment that it’s for you first and everybody else second.
It’s not a formula—it’s a philosophy. And philosophy is the secret to getting you from where you are to where you want to be.
Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Sales Bible and Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless, can be reached by e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com.
|
E-Mail This Article
Printer-Friendly Version