How to Be a Winner Today and Tomorrow
All too often, after achieving their big goals winners take their foot off of the success accelerator and just coast for awhile.
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How to Be a Winner Today and Tomorrow
In my line of work as and author and speaker I write and speak often about how to achieve success. In every audience there are always individuals who have already made it to the top. These people have already paid the price and achieved their goals. They are winners. They crossed the finish line first, raised their hands, pumped their fists and celebrated. Winners get the accolades, trophies, trips the admiration on their peers and big paychecks to prove it. The one thing they don’t get is advice on how to be successful.;
If you are a top performer you know that nothing feels better than winning. But while you are cashing that big commission check, relaxing on the beach at your sales award trip, or walking on stage at your national sales meeting to pick up your trophy ask yourself remember that just because you are a winner today does not guarantee that you will be a winner tomorrow.
Winning was hard. It required perseverance, training, hard work and focus. But all too often, after achieving their big goals winners take their foot off of the success accelerator and just coast for awhile. Relaxing in the glow of their victory yesterday’s winners quickly forget that the game is still on. The world did not stop.
I was reminded of this lesson when I read a marketing slogan for a company that had just received a top award in its industry. The slogan simply read:
“When you’re in second place attack the leader. When you’re in first place Attack Yourself.”
This is the perfect advice for winners. Instead of stopping to catch your breath you must ask the question: “what next?” In twenty-first century business there is no time for complacency. You cannot afford the luxury of comparing yourself to those behind you. There is no time to rest. And though it is important to take time to celebrate and enjoy the fruits of victory, you must also create new goals for yourself. Consistent winners take each win in stride and raise the bar so that they keep reaching higher.
It is easy to look back poor performance or a failure with 20/20 vision and find all of the areas where improvement can be made. But it takes loads of self discipline and the heart of a winner to break down a brilliant performance and then take action to make small adjustments and improvements that keep you ahead of the pack. The great NFL quarter back Steve Young said once that “the principle is competing against yourself. It’s about self-improvement, about being better than the day before.”
This is what all elite athletes and elites sales professionals do. Real winners constantly attack themselves. They pick apart each performance and seek ways to improve. They view each victory as a small step towards new goals. It is this unwavering focus on constant improvement that separates the good from the great and makes today’s winners, tomorrow’s winners.
This is Jeb Blount, the Sales Guy. If you have a sales question please send it to salesguy@quickanddirtytips.comcreate new email.