“Under stress, we revert to previous habits.”
It was a simple line. I can’t remember where I read it. But it has HUGE implications. – If you’d rather listen to this podcast, CLICK HERE.
If I set a goal just out of my reach, I almost never hit it. What happens? I become a complete stress case! I tighten up, my brain stops working, and I start to get paranoid. Inspiring, I know. And then the accomplishment doesn’t get reached. Why? Because I reverted to previous habits.
I had a huge revelation this past weekend when I was in Puerto Vallarta. It was my third trip there, but the first one I paid for. I went twice on incentive trips. Charlie asked me about a few other incentive trips. I won all of them. I hadn’t realized this, so I needed to reflect a little bit more.
Why did I always win the trips? I didn’t count the dollars every day. I did, however, focus on the habits that would get me to the next level.
Ok so what does this mean to you?
If you are trying to reach a new level, you need new habits right? Ok good. You might be completely pushing yourself to reach this new level, and putting a lot of stress on yourself. This will lead you back into previous habits, NOT the new ones!
Old habits, old rank. Old habits will not get you a new rank. You can’t just do more of your old habits to get to a new level. So they say, “what got you here won’t get you there.”
So what now?
- Look at the new leadership level/rank
- Make a list of the habits of that rank
- Start building those habits on a daily basis
- Once the habits are in place, plan your push
- Once you are in stress, you will revert to prior habits, which are now the habits of the new level
Boom!
As a leader, you may be shooting for some higher leadership ranks, and you are dead set on making that happen by convention. I think that’s an awesome goal, but you can’t push yourself all the way there!
It will start with having conversations with team members on the habits they need to build to reach the rank they want. They can’t motivate themselves to the next rank.
As I was reflecting on this whole habit things, I realized that I had a lot of habits that were holding me back. I wonder if some of these might be holding you back as well.
- I procrastinate on my content. Creating content is one of my biggest jobs and I rarely reach my deadlines on time. Yes, I’m very busy and no, I’m not lazy. But this has become a habit that doesn’t serve me, or my team.
- I multitask too much.
- I can be overly controlling as a leader.
- I second guess my plans more often than the scheduled reflection time, leading to added stress.
- I stay at my desk all day and don’t get up enough to get my creativity to flow.
If I were coaching myself, I would insist on the following habits to take me to the next level as a leader and business owner.
- Daily recognition and connection with my team
- Daily content creation- even if it’s just a few notes
- Daily outreach and follow-up with clients and advocates
- Put myself in places where the industry leaders are. Learn more of what others are teaching.
- More observation and feedback of clients and our own coaching. This becomes the basis for much of my content creation.
If I had these habits, would I have to worry about profit? What if I obsessed about these habits at the same rate that I obsessed about my poor habits? You and I know exactly what would happen. I would go to the next level.
What would happen to you? What are the “old habits” that aren’t helping you reach the next level? What are the “new habits” you need to replace them with?
Let’s make a pact to establish these new habits together.
Thanks for reading today’s post. If you would like to continue to jump start your progress this year, join us for one of our upcoming FREE trainings by going to: emergesalestraining.com/freetraining. Hope to see you there!