Let me set the stage for today’s message. Imagine it is a warm sunny day in southern Florida and you are about to play your first round of golf while on vacation. You left the cold January winds from up north yesterday, and you have been looking forward to this day for months. Got it? Here we go.
I came across a quote recently from a man who once was considered as good as one could be at the game of golf. He goes by the name Tiger, and I am not sure if we have heard the last from him… yet. Mr. Woods’ quote jumped off the page and shouted, “Marchev! I’m talking to you.”
“You don’t ever try to force a win. You just take it as a process. Golf is a four-round game consisting of 72 holes. You take it a shot at a time and, hopefully at the end of the week, you’re on top.”
Once again, I stumbled across words to live by from a young man who happens to be 25 years my junior but can hit a golf ball further and straighter than I can. The Lord knows it’s not because I don’t try.
If more sales professionals (or anybody who wants to become a success in anything for that matter) follow Tiger Woods’ candid advice, we might all be singing a more positive tune as we boogie down the road to our next fun challenge. Once we stop forcing our way into, through, and out of life’s experiences, more favorable results will be the reward.
As I reflected on these words, I realized that most desperation calls to a consultant come when it is time to force much-needed positive results. If the individual had only plugged in a working “process” months or years earlier, there would be no need to pay for the services of an outside miracle-man.
On this same topic, an image from my past came to mind bringing me back to my university days. It seemed at exam time, everybody would start “cramming” the night before. Students would try to internalize every economic concept found in a 700-page Economics Book into whatever remaining space was left in their deteriorating brain cells. In most cases, this proved to be a futile attempt to reverse fate.
It seemed that everyone had forgotten that the previous 15 weeks were designed to piecemeal the information into position for immediate recall once the exam bell was sounded. Even if they managed to recall a nugget or two of economics folklore, this information was immediately forgotten by the time they opened their next “blue book.” (I don’t know how colleges work today but, in my day, we were all given a blue book and asked to write down everything we knew.)
When you stop to think about it, everything is process, from education to sales to parenting to just plain growing old. Like it or not, practice it or not, believe it or not, we all get through life by taking little steps followed by more little steps. Whatever game you are playing, not unlike Tiger Wood’s 72-hole championship golf, everything we do has a finite beginning and an end. Once we stop forcing the process and live one day at a time by focusing on one task at a time, while experiencing the ups and downs of our individual learning curves, maybe our names would be up on the leader board visible to those people who did not have the opportunity to read this article like you have.
Here is what I want to leave you with today. Slow down. Take small steps. Live the process. Take one step at a time. Enjoy the ride. Don’t cheat and, if at all possible, keep your ball in play.
My Eight Booklet “More-On” Series Business Development Library is now complete. Send me an email for content details. mike@mikemarchev.com
Mike Marchev is always looking for a few more proactive travel professionals to join his Sales and Marketing Club, mike@mikemarchev.com.
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