When times get tough in the economy or in your life challenges, shine up your inner gem! Just when you thought you’d finally gotten in the groove of your life cycle, it all changed and went topsy turvy on you. When circumstances slump, so does your spirit.
How do you shine up your inner gem? Go to the sparkle that’s been there making you unique and wonderful almost forever. Ask yourself what lit up your day when you were about six years old. One sales rep, I’ll call her Kelly, didn’t miss a beat to that question. She yelled, “Hopscotch!” Kelly said she simply adored the charted squares and triangles and delighted in the motions as she progressed along. It was the action, not the reward that kept her going. This vivid memory served her as metaphor to finding renewed enthusiasm for her work.
In her work life, Kelly was in a sales slump, getting discouraged and scared. I asked what she paid attention to the most – her sales or her activities leading up to them. She said it was her sales income that was preoccupying her.
I asked her how much she would have liked hopscotch if she ignored the joy of the hopping motion and was only ever reaching for a score. Her answer made her face light up. She chirped, “That would have taken all the fun out of it!” Using hopscotch as a metaphor for her current sales life, Kelly began to keep track of her “hops” in a new way. She envisioned each call, contact, or mailing as a hop. The joy of low tech became her new tool. She drew a hopscotch chart on a blank sheet of paper and began ticking off her sales activities on the chart daily. Each time she made a hop, she consciously told herself, “This is fun!”
Perhaps you can guess what happened. Her activity increased and her slump decreased. Instead of aiming her emotional energy on her declining commissions due to a downturn, she focused on the inner sparkle of the game. Her natural joy of positive motion brought renewed enthusiasm to which prospects responded favorably. This, in turn, heightened Kelly’s ability to sharpen her additional sales skills and perform more effectively at all stages of the sale.
We all have infinite gems in our life experience and our natural personality. Sometimes a positive memory can get us back on track when we’ve been derailed. Make the connection and link it to what you need the most. The countless benefits of a new perspective will help both your inner and outer sales process.
Everyone has a completely unique mosaic of life stories. Revisit them and you’ll likely find new resources right inside your own mighty brain and soul. Learn to process your stories back and forth and you’ll discover a treasure chest of tools for your inner sales sparkle!
Contact Susan about her GEM e-book, so you can Generate Empowered Movement whenever you need it.