Overcoming Procrastination
Here is what I’ve been up to recently…building a birdhouse!
Yes, a birdhouse.
More importantly, I want to share with you how building this birdhouse can help you eliminate procrastination and ultimately getting more sales!
Here is my story,…
It was a cool Sunday morning, I was looking at the front yard. I have a beat-up birdhouse that my father-in-law gifted me. I thought to myself, “I wonder if I could build a new birdhouse.”
After taking the measurements, I went and got the necessary wood and material at Lowes.
When I got back, I found myself stuck staring at the wood thinking, “Argh, I don’t know about this.”
And, so I pushed it off day.
The next day, the wood was staring back at me and I asked to myself,
“Why am I scared?”
My inner voice responded, “Because you’re afraid of making mistakes.” That was the problem!
So I told myself,
“Why don’t we just assume the first birdhouse is going to be the worst one you ever going to build! It’s going to be a messy process, not accurate, and maybe somewhat ugly.
But let’s just build it and see what happens!”
And that is when the magic happened!
With ZERO expectation fear turned into excited anticipation!
Five hours later, I am staring at this new birdhouse like a proud father seeing their child for the first time!
Lesson #1: In order to make progress, we have to allow ourselves (i.e., give ourselves permission) to make mistakes.
Lesson #2: Sequence your steps into small achievable steps.
Lesson #3: ‘Improvise’ (i.e., shave, trim, recut) when something doesn’t quite fit or work.
Psychological Results: No more fear of building a birdhouse and when I build the next one it’ll be done better and faster.
So how can we apply this in sales?
Too often we’re afraid of making that:
- cold call,
- doing that demo,
- or making a presentation because we’re afraid of how it might turn out!
The next time you catch yourself procrastinating remember to allow yourself to make mistakes, and just take the first step.
Don’t focus on getting the perfect outcome, focus on accomplishing the task and improvising along the way.
Then, review, refine and redo.
Victor Antonio
