This one’s gonna sting. It's about you.
You are naturally wired to avoid doing the things you need to do to succeed.
If you’re in sales, this ought to cause a tad more than concern. (Oh, and as the saying goes, “If you’re lips are moving, you’re in sales.”)
For those who have a product of service to sell, it’s easier to simply not call. You don’t get up in the morning and seek discomfort. Our natural instinct is to follow that path of least resistance.
Instinct is difficult to overcome. For example, how would you not blink if a beach ball was thrown at your face? Instinct is deeply ingrained into every fiber of your being.
So what’s your antidote to this pesky instinct?
- Attach Pain to Procrastination – As you instinctively skip down the path to least resistance – use your fertile imagination to immediately play-out all the painful scenarios attached to procrastination. Bring in the 5 senses. Now, add feelings of embarrassment, disappointment, letting others down. Do this right and the pain will be too much to tolerate. You’ll jump to your own rescue.
- Put an Aikido Move on Least Resistance – Given we instinctively dislike resistance. Use this force of dislike to your advantage. Picture this: Depositing less money in the bank. Getting fired for lack of production. Looking for a new job or new client. Just like a martial arts master uses the momentum of a ‘haymaker’ punch to redirect in a fluid throw to the ground, use the consequences of resistance as a redirect to what you should be doing.
- Interrupt the Pattern of Least Resistance - When you realize you're slipping into the procrastination pattern, do something so physiologically unusual you psychologically pause for a reset. Example:
- You get to the office and start arranging paperclips, seeing how many pencils you can hold with your upper lip or poking around on Facebook (same thing as paperclip arranging and lip-pencil holding).
- Say to yourself, "Uh oh, I'm procrastinating." (with the voice of Rocky Balboa)
- Pinch your nose with one hand while waving your right arm like a lunatic. Throw in a “whoop, whoop, whoop” as if you’re one of the Three Stooges. You’ve interrupted the pattern. (Feel free to develop your own signature move.)
- Now, consciously and immediately follow-up this pattern interrupt with the most important thing you need to get done today.
It’s easier to sleep in. It’s less difficult to turn on the TV than to be proactive on the phone. It’s more relaxing to stay at home than to get in the car and meet a prospect.
Stop being a creature of least resistance. Engage in the three rewiring tactics above and you’ll create an end-game of an easier life. Isn’t that 'easier life' what your instinct wanted all along?
