Fluff, Action, Metrics & Effort

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"As I grow older I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do." ~ Andrew Carnegie

Most of us are suckers for inspirational words, quotes, movies and people. They uplift our souls and challenge us to be better than we are. That's a good thing. But for most people, sadly, inspiration is merely a pause, a respite, an entertaining interlude before we return to thoughts, actions and habits that have become ingrained and repeated over many years. So what's the disconnect? Why do such positive words, thoughts, missives, and those that deliver them, become so much 'fluff'? Why does it all become such baloney? Because fluff, entertainment and the feel good nature of inspiration is easy and addictive and behavior modification is hard and takes persistent discipline. In sales we see it every day. Great attitudes without Great Actions. Desire without Discipline. Declaring without Doing. Goals without Grit and Effort without Execution. We hear a lot of talk. See people with permanent potential and harbor hopes of better days. But you want to know how to really get better in sales, life or anything? Raise Your Baseline. Measure your actions and raise the bar. Take any activity or any action - Do more of it and do it better. Measure your metrics. For example: Get up earlier. Make more presentations, more contacts and more calls. Ask more questions. Listen more and talk less. Learn from a mentor. Do what others can't or won't. Be better prepared with a background profile on every target. Care enough to call, communicate and meet people when others don't. Try before 8am and after 6pm. There is not much traffic on the extra mile - make that place your home. The bottom line? Just having a great attitude is worthless. Being inspired is fluff unless you take consistently challenging actions.

Be Inspired - Take Action - Raise Your Baseline.