A mentor of mine once told me, "People make time for things they want to do." If someone doesn't want to participate, it ain't gonna happen. Back to the dynamics of motivation: Only you can light a fire within (Chapter 2). We must take responsibility for ourselves and our actions, and use SMART goals to stimulate motivation. Motivation is the difference between being proactive and in control, or being reactive, out of control. Become the author of your activities and your success. Make things happen rather than just reacting to events as they occur. The choice is simple: Either manage time and invest it wisely, or time will control you.
But I Don't Have Time!
How often have you wished for only "a few more hours" in your day? How many times have you searched for a magic answer, a quick fix, to relieve the pressures of time? If you are like most of us, the answer is: frequently. We live in an environment of unfinished tasks, half-done sales plans, incomplete reports, unread books, and endless personal chores. There is no question that the majority of us are time-starved, always running "just a bit behind." Would a 30-hour day help? I doubt it. It would just add six more hours of accumulated stress and frustration to our lives. Let's do a better job of managing the time we have.
In Chapter 2, you learned about five attitudinal characteristics of sales entrepreneurs and the impact those characteristics have on performance, personally and professionally. This attitudinal package—including time management—forms the backbone of the skills discussed throughout the model. Within the Sequential Model, however, time management is not a step on its own, although I do feel the subject is worthy of a chapter.
On the wishlist of salespeople's training topics, time management continues to dominate, as if there exists a magic answer, a quick fix to exonerate them from the necessary discipline required to be organized: the discomfort of discipline. Once again we tend to search for the easy way, the path of least resistance. The quick fix is available but not in pill form, not yet. It comes in the form of commitment and desire, coupled with the attitudinal package discussed in Step #1 of the sequential model.
The first step on the road to recovery is to recognize that you are the one primarily responsible for your own time problems and frustrations. Don't continue to rely on a plethora of well-rehearsed excuses to bail you out. The next step is to truly have the desire and the commitment to invest whatever is necessary to become organized. Without these ingredients, time management will continue to be a laborious exercise in futility and frustration, robbing you of your full potential.
By the way, you do have enough time.
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