But how do you correct your behavior and become more habitual? Here are our 5 steps to creating better sales habits.
I’m an educator by degree. During my undergraduate work at UConn, my fellow future teachers and I were taught that behaviors and habits are a result of combinations of rewards and consequences. If you wanted your student to develop certain habits or skills, part of the development, in addition to the teaching and coaching, was rewarding success and disciplining failure. Sometimes the disciplined approach was punitive; other times it was a matter of repeating the behavior, skill, or activity until they (the person being taught) got it right. Once they got it right, they were rewarded.
Given all of this background, here are my thoughts for today about habits.
- Good habits are called good habits because they contribute to the successful completion of the goals and objectives you say you are committed to.
- Bad habits are “bad” because, instead of taking you towards your objectives, they take you away. They keep you from accomplishing what you said was important to you.
- Keeping your good habits “habitual” is dependent upon your level of commitment to your goals. If you are truly committed and willing to sacrifice immediate gratification for the long-term good, then good habits stick.
- If you find that you cannot consistently execute your good habits, it is probably due to your lack of commitment to the things you say are important to you.
- “Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.” - Vince Lombardi
- Often the things/habits you need to be doing aren’t urgent: exercising, eating well, taking baby aspirin, getting enough sleep, prospecting, blogging, etc.
- Habits become urgent when something else urgent happens: heart attack, bodily injury, stroke, diabetes, organ failure, put on performance improvement program because of lack of production, lack of website activity.
- Your habits are expressive of your commitments.
How do you correct your behavior and become more habitual? Here are my 5 Steps to Better Habits:
- Identify goals and objectives that are non-negotiable
- Have a plan to achieve those goals. Make sure the plan is detailed.
- Have a system to track your progress, execution of the necessary habits, activities required to achieve your goals.
- Inspect what you expect.
- Have an accountability partner that loves you and cares enough about you to hold your feet to the fire.
