Accountability eliminates procrastination for many of us.
I’ll be ready after the holiday. There’s a holiday coming, can we wait till after that? I think to myself, Holiday, there is always a Holiday coming, what are you waiting for?
There are definitely a few select things that incense me in the business world, but nothing more than procrastination. I just hate it. It makes me crazy. I become impatient with the waiting, the delays, the added variables, the maybe’s, the putting off. What is going to change except that you’ve put off making a decision even further? Why can’t you make a decision and live by it? What are you waiting for? To feel more comfortable? To be better prepared? To be more informed? To be certain you’re doing the right thing?
I often read articles that come to me, mostly through emails from various sources, about successful people, what they do, how they act, what made them successful – “The five most important things that VERY successful CEO’s do! What Leaders have as their most valuable assets. Seven ways to know you’re a good CEO.” – Have you seen any? Do you read those articles? Do they mean anything to you?
NO guts no glory?
No, NO willingness to change makes us feel comfortable – and we want that more than anything.
I talk to people like you all the time. You like being self-employed – even if you’re a salesperson in your company, you’re self-employed. Most managers don’t supervise their sales staff anyway, so most of you determine what you do every day, so you’re self-employed by my definition.
Leaders have to make hundreds of decisions every day. They actually make a decision and then put the decision into action. Many times that decision requires them to move themselves out of their comfort zone of activity, even though the decision and subsequent action might make them feel uncomfortable.
When I was just out of college, my friends and I collaborated on an idea to create a new organization. We were going to call it The Procrastinators Club. We never did, because we couldn’t make a decision. The idea died for the lack of a vote. But we decided, many times as I recall, to decide on it after the holiday. We just never actually got around to it. You remember the “Round TOIT”?
Procrastination will kill you. It will freeze you to death. It will cause you to become stale. Procrastination is the one thing that DECIDERS eliminate from their mindset, their daily activity list. And they do it proactively by actually thinking about it.
My first real job had me reporting to a man who had a background as a consultant in time management. He said one thing to me in the first week of our relationship. He said that every single piece of paper that came to me needed a decision, even if the decision was to decide later.
So it was sometimes OK to put that piece of paper back in my “IN” box. But if I did it too often – and he would be watching me to see if I did – then he would know that I had no guts, that I had a problem that might require me to find another line of work. He put the fear of God in me. Maybe some of you need that from time to time. But by the time you discover that you need to stop procrastinating, it’s way too late.
Accountability eliminates procrastination for many of us.
What do you need to do tomorrow that will help you earn more money, be more effective, better informed, develop a larger circle of referral sources?
Why don’t you do it? What are you afraid of?
If you tried to find more referral sources that could give you business, what is the worst thing that could happen? OH, I know, they’ll say no!
I used to think it was a good thing to have people say NO when I asked them a question. I no longer believe that, nor teach it. It used to be true that training was done by asking a hundred people the same question and eventually someone would say yes. I used to believe that if I asked the same girl over and over if she would go out with me, eventually one of two things would happen – either I would die or she would say yes. I used to apply that principle to sales.
I no longer believe that this way of selling is the right way. My philosophy now is that I should never ask the person I am trying to sell a yes or no question. The right way to accomplish my goal is to present options and suggestions, ideas if you will, ideas that I already know are going to help my prospect do better, have a greater impact into their market and help THEM become more successful. So many people have told me that I’m wasting my time trying to change people, and that I’m never going to succeed. I don’t believe that.
So what do you need to do? Change! Do it now! Don’t wait! Don’t put it off till it’s too late. If you do wait, you’re putting yourself in danger of total failure.
Waiting will destroy you.
I’ve reconnected with one of my friends from my post-college days. He and I still don’t have a good name for our organization, but that’s only a joke. We really know, after spending over 50 years in the business world, that the people we knew who did the best were the ones who made the most decisions, changed the most during their careers, took the most chances, set written goals and made a written plan to achieve their goals, and finally, when necessary, changed their methodology.
Here is what I can promise you: if you keep putting off till tomorrow what you SHOULD do today and allow things to just happen to you, you’ll fail.
Ralph LoVuolo is Sr. President of Mortgage Motivator, a consulting firm on the cutting edge of the mortgage business to help people achieve their true potential. LoVuolo Sr. is one of the founding fathers and a two-term president of the New York Association of Mortgage Brokers. Additionally, he served as Parliamentarian for six years on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers. LoVuolo, Sr. can be reached at [email protected], or visit him at http://www.mortgagemotivator.com
