Consistent Discipline = Personal Growth

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Sean Moore | | 2 Comments

John Maxwell teaches that everyone enjoys being inspired, but he then goes on to remind us that the key to personal development is this: Motivation gets you going, but discipline keeps you on the path of personal growth.  No matter how talented you are or how many opportunities you have, consistency is the key if you want to grow. 

If you’re growing at all as a human being, then you’re going to be a different person each year than you were the previous year. And if you consciously pursue personal development, then the changes will often be dramatic. As the famous journalist George Lorimer wrote and often remarked, “You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.” 

Your future success depends on your consistent approach to your personal development and daily improvement.  Imagine where you would be in one, five, or ten years from now if you consistently expanded yourself—which in turn would expand your horizons, your opportunities, and your true potential.  I wrote this blog post last year about improving yourself by 0.3% every day and the impact that improvement could have on your life, career, and well-being.

As E.M. Gray said, “The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don’t like to do… They don’t like doing them either necessarily. But their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose.”  In other words, the more in touch we are with why we want to grow (our purpose), the more dedicated and consistent we will be in focusing on personal growth, thus reaching our full potential and doing something great!  

So where do we start?  Start small!  One reason we may often disappoint ourselves when we strive for personal growth is that we try to tackle too much.  So when we fail or don’t get the immediate results we want, we get discouraged and demotivated. 

One of my goals this year is to run a marathon.  Every week there are several runs I need to complete.  The most important run is the “Saturday Long Run.” Over the course of 18 weeks, I gradually increase the length of this long run until I get up to 20 miles.  The thought of going out and running 20 miles (let alone 26.2 miles!) is unfathomable to me right now, but I can run 8 miles this week, 9 miles next week, and 10 miles the week after that.  As John Maxwell writes, “Small disciplines repeated with consistency every day lead to great achievements over time.”  

If we want to grow, we will have more success by growing in small amounts every day, rather than by trying to get where we want to go in one gigantic stride.

After we realize that growth often comes in small increments, we then need to be patient.  This has always been a challenge for me, as I have a driven personality—when I want something, I want results now!  Ask anyone who works with me or knows me well, and they will tell you that I can be impatient and even a bit of a bull in a china shop at times, and if I am not careful, I can charge right through people in the pursuit of my goals. 

Through time and training, I have learned to recognize when I am about to leave hurt people around me in the pursuit of a goal and have tempered my approach.  I love this quote from Saadi Shirazi, the Persian poet: “Have patience. All things are difficult before they come easy.”  So when you get frustrated in your journey towards personal growth, be consistent and stay the course, being aware of the people around you.

John Maxwell also teaches that it’s important to value the process.  The road to real growth will take time, so enjoy the ride.  Take your big goals and break them down into smaller goals and then enjoy the success of reaching those individual milestones. 

When I decided to run the marathon, I purchased a GPS watch that monitors my pace, heart rate, time, and distance.  My favorite part of the run is when I hit the “End Run” button on the watch.  Not because I am finished, but because the clever device gives me feedback—for example, it will say “congratulations,” “fastest mile,” “longest distance,” “best pace,” etc. I then plug the watch into my laptop and share my results with my friends and family on Facebook.  It’s amazing how motivated and committed to running I feel when I celebrate my small successes with myself, friends, and family. When we make a habit of reaching those smaller goals and sharing them with others, we become accustomed to achieving our goals and driven to reach the next milestone.

Knowing what you need to improve is just as important as knowing why you want to improve.  The how and what will only take you so far; you need willpower to carry you through the tough times when motivation is lacking.  Read this post on “finding your fight” if you want to explore this subject further.

To summarize: we will never change our lives until we change what we do daily. This means we need to develop great habits.  Discipline mixed with consistency is like the water and cement mixed together to create concrete—which represents those tangible habits we need to put us on and keep us on the path of growth.

Share this post

Look in the Mirror—and Cheer!

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Sean Moore | | 1 Comment

I love this commercial!  It cracks me up every time I watch it.   I often think we need to look at our quest for success and growth in the same way that children approach these things.  The thing I love about young kids is that they just ask the question, they don’t worry about whether or not they look foolish, and they don’t have self-limiting beliefs—they just believe they can! 

I love asking my kids what they want to be when they grow up.  I will often get some audacious answers—professional rock climber, movie star, astronaut, and yes, even the President of the United States (unfortunately, that one is only an option for our youngest since she was the only one born in the U.S.)!    

As the late Zig Ziglar stated, “It’s impossible to consistently behave in a manner inconsistent with how we see ourselves.”  In other words, we can do very few things in a positive way if we feel negative about ourselves.  Last week we discussed that we need to be intentional about our development.  John Maxwell teaches that growth doesn’t just happen. In order to begin our journey of growth, we need to look within, see ourselves for who we are, and visualize our potential.

David Sandler, the founder of Sandler Training, had an enlightening method for addressing challenges. He said this: “What you ‘R’ is not who you ‘I.’” Sandler believed that we enter the world as an I-10. That is, each of us arrives with a built-in self-esteem (Identity) of 10. He also knew that along the trials and tribulations of life, we may begin to forget we’re a 10 and may allow life’s experiences (Roles) to affect our outlook.  Sandler’s message was simply to separate your “I” from your “R.”

In other words, you are who you are—not what you do for a living. 

In the end, you need to guard your “I,” as you will never be able to outperform your self-image.  Furthermore, you shouldn’t be too concerned about what others think of you, as it’s far more important what you think about yourself.  If you want to become the person you have the potential to become, you must believe that you can!

A UCLA survey from some years ago reported that the average one-year-old child hears the word “No” more than 400 times a day. You might think this is an exaggeration, but consider this: when my children were very small and were doing something they weren’t supposed to, I would never say “No” just once, but I would usually say “No, No, No!”

And as our children grow older, the answers of “No” keep coming.  In fact, in their book The Answer, businessmen/authors John Assaraf and Murray Smith talk about the negative messages children receive growing up. The authors write, “By the time you’re 17 years old, you’ve heard “No” an average of 150,000 times. In contrast, you’ve heard “Yes, you can” 5,000 times.” That’s 30 No’s for every Yes, creating a powerful belief of ‘I can’t.’

What a tremendous challenge and a lot of negativity to overcome! If we want to change our lives, we have to change the way we think about ourselves. And if we want to change the way we think about ourselves, we need to change the way we talk to ourselves. I wrote a series of blog posts on self-limiting beliefs if you wish to explore this subject further:

Crocodiles in Our Minds

The Power of Positive Affirmations

The Unsolvable Math Problem

Fake It Until You Make It

You must learn to become your own encourager, your own cheerleader. Catch yourself doing something right and acknowledge it!

Every time you do a good job, don’t just let it pass; give yourself a “pat on the back.” Each time you choose discipline over indulgence, recognize that you made a great choice and that you are one step closer to reaching your full potential. Every time you make a mistake, don’t continuously beat yourself up and harp on other mistakes you might have made in the past; tell yourself that you will learn to do better next time.

Every positive thing you can say to yourself will help. Growth starts and ends with our perceptions of ourselves. With every positive step you take forward, you are growing and moving closer to your true potential and to the person you want to become. And back to the great commercial above—you too can be the starting quarterback of your success!

Share this post

Seeds of Success

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Sean Moore | | 1 Comment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_822718&feature=iv&src_vid=2JnYcuRW_qo&v=fsQaRBh1e9k

Greatness is in all of us!  We are capable of achieving our true potential and success.  To own our success and push ourselves towards it, we need self-awareness and commitment. I recently started reading books by John Maxwell.  He is a great encourager of personal growth, and I would like to share some things I have been learning from him over the next several weeks as I present a blog series on developing our capacity to grow. 

I believe every single person has the potential for success. 

Everyone has seeds of success within them. We need to cultivate, water, and feed these fledging beginnings of success. James Allen, a pioneer in the self-help movement, wrote a book in 1902 called As a Man Thinketh, which has sold over 20 million copies. His book promotes the idea that personal success is about growth—and that our growth needs to be intentional.  Allen writes, “People are anxious to improve their circumstances but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.”

One of the great misconceptions about personal development is that we often assume we will grow automatically.  As children, our growth was inevitable, so we became accustomed to that effortless process. We can mistakenly take an assumption into our adulthood that growth comes without effort on our parts.   Here is an amazing statistic that supports this claim: 42% of adults will never read another book after they graduate from college!  Personal growth does not just happen. Just because you are done with your formal education does not mean that you can or should stop learning!

We need to take ownership of our development, because no one else will do it for us. 

There is a great quote by Bruce Springsteen: “A time comes when you need to stop waiting for the man you want to become, and start being the man you want to be.”  If you want more in life for you and your family, you must improve yourself and own the process!

In his writing, John Maxwell discusses the Law of Diminishing Intent, which says this:  “The longer you wait to do something you should do now, the greater the odds that you will never actually do it.”  When we don’t act quickly enough, we find ourselves looking back over the years and realizing that we are in exactly the same place in which we started.  Often we think these thoughts: I am not ready now; I have way too much on my plate right now; once I finish this part of my life… The problem with this kind of thinking is that we will never get much done unless we go ahead and do it before we are ready.  If we are not actively pursuing personal growth, then we need to start now.

Assuming I have convinced you that personal development must be intentional, you need to also understand that growth can and will challenge you—you will make mistakes and will have to deal with fear.  If we are committed to grow, we need to get over any fear we may have of making mistakes.  If you wish to further explore dealing with fear, please refer to another blog post I wrote a few months ago discussing this topic.

Lastly, personal growth does not come quickly or easily.  I often quote Jim Rohn, and he has a great perspective on this. Rohn says, “You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.” If you want to reach your true potential, you can’t just wander through life, experiencing it as it happens.  You need to be intentional and seize every opportunity to grow, grow, grow.  Growth doesn’t just happen; we need to get after it and cultivate those seeds of success!  Stay tuned as I explore other areas of personal growth in the weeks ahead. I look forward to the excitement of growing together!

Share this post

A Glimpse into Success, Part III

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Sean Moore | | Leave a comment

As Vice President of Sales and Marketing at ConMed, I have the privilege of working with extremely talented people every day. I do not take this for granted, and I have decided to use some posts to shine the spotlight on some of our terrific employees and leaders. This post is the third in the series; feel free to read Part I and Part II. I hope you will enjoy reading about these remarkable people and their secrets to success in medical sales.

_________________________________________________________________

I would like to focus this week’s post on one of our talented Territory Managers. This particular colleague has been in her territory for a little under a year and has made a big impact during this time.  Her tenacious and positive attitude has driven her success with Altrus.  Although she has come up against difficult obstacles and tough competition, her customers continue to support her because of the confidence and trust she has built with them.  She knows that when she is working through these issues with administration, she is fighting for something that her surgeons believe in and feel will improve their practices.  This idea helps motivate her through each day.  This manager is also an expert at “running deep” within her accounts.  Every account that she is working in or targeting is utilizing or is interested in multiple proprietary products from ConMed.  She follows a strategic plan every day and utilizes her time extremely efficiently. Below are her answers to some questions I asked regarding her experience and strategies:

 

If someone wants to be in medical sales and, more specifically, wants to sell Altrus for ConMed, please describe what types of scenarios to expect.

If you love a challenge and enjoy thinking outside the box, you will love medical sales. If you hate having to think fast and dislike overcoming objections, you will hate medical sales. ConMed offers its employees an exciting, fast-paced environment—anyone looking to get into medical sales would be lucky to work for ConMed!

 

Have you ever had a surgeon that, at the outset, was completely disinterested in your product but is now a big believer? What changed that surgeon’s mind? How did you get through to him or her?

Yes.  Understanding the technology and the device played a big role in this surgeon’s mind being changed. I was able to take time and listen to the surgeon to find out what the needs were and why they weren’t being met (in addition to learning what the surgeon expected as the clinical outcome from the specific product). Educating the surgeons, explaining the technology so that they understand how the device would fit into their practices, and then allowing them to apply the technology all played a big role. Most importantly, however, I listened.

 

What has been your most exciting moment in the OR?

The WIN! The answer of “yes” that you spent months working on makes the long days and the several rejections received along the way worth every ounce of energy that you put into it.

 

What has been your most challenging moment in the OR?

The politics! The politics in the OR can be very challenging at times, and they differ from OR to OR—constantly keeping you on your toes. It can be a challenge to find the real reason behind someone’s answer of “no.” It often takes time and persistence, but you should never settle for the “no.” Keep going for the “yes”—it will happen. Finding the right person and not letting one or one hundred answers of “no” slow you down are the keys to overcoming this challenge.

 

How important is goal setting to your success? How do you go about determining your goals and achieving them?

Goal setting is important because it paves the way for long-term success rather than just a quick one-time sale. When making my goals, I first make a personal goal and understand what I want the end result to be, and then I put the steps that need to happen in writing so that I can achieve not only my personal goal but also ConMed’s corporate objectives as well.

 

How do you handle adversity in the field when things don’t go your way?

I don’t stop but instead reevaluate the situation and keep going with a new strategy to achieve the outcome that is desired. The moment you let one answer of “no” stop you from pursuing your goal, the less likely you are to achieve your desired outcome.

 

How do you plan your day?  How far in advance do you plan?

Tough question. I plan my day around my objectives for the day/week/month/quarter/year. Each day I know what outcome I need from that particular day and what I need to do to make it happen. In this field, days/weeks/etc. can change in an instant, forcing you to adapt to a different situation than was expected. As long as you have the goal in mind, you can quickly adapt, change your strategy, and keep going.

 

What is your best advice for a brand new salesperson? 

 Listen, be patient, and never stop learning.

Share this post

One Word to Describe Your Passion

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Sean Moore | | 1 Comment

This is a great scene out of the movie City Slickers. The conversation between Curly and Mitch demonstrates a simple yet effective strategy to find success and happiness.  One thing. What’s the one thing that drives you, motivates you, and gets you up every morning?  It’s up to you to figure it out. 

More than 206 million people (87% of us) made New Year’s resolutions this year, and by February 1(today), more than 50% have already given up on their goals. More than 75% of people will have forgotten their goals by the time summer arrives. 

These statistics came from a book I just read entitled One Word that will Change Your Life by Dan Britton, Jimmy Page, and Jon Gordon.  I decided to read this book because it came highly recommended by Ken Blanchard, who is one of my favorite authors. 

Blanchard says this about the book: “One Word is a great little book that conveys a profoundly simple idea.  Discover your one word for the year, own it, live it, and experience its impact on your life.  One word for this book: priceless!”  This book is a quick read (in fact, it only took me 43 minutes to read it), and it helped me discover my one word that I now have posted on my vision board.

The authors of One Word make the argument that most resolutions fail because they are based on a flawed foundation of more effort, willpower, and goal setting. This flawed foundation occurs when we set “to do” goals instead of “to be” goals. 

In other words, people set goals and measure success by what they accomplish instead of by who they become. 

The most important thing is not to change our goals but rather to change who we are. The authors advocate selecting a single word that will be your driving force for an entire year.  No goals and no resolutions.  Just one word!

We can choose words such as Serving, Purpose, Grace, Surrender, Power, or Discipline. By living and breathing one word for 365 days, we gain a whole new perspective on how we approach our year, and this gives us renewed purpose and meaning.  Words are powerful. If we find one word to live by, it can inspire, encourage, and turn the impossible into the possible.

I am not in complete agreement with the authors’ idea that we shouldn’t have written goals.  However, when going through their process to come up with my own one word, an ironic thing happened. I discovered that my one word is actually woven throughout all of my personal and professional goals.  My written goals now have a focal point and possess stronger meaning and purpose in my life.  I have my one word on my iPhone vision board to constantly remind me why reaching all of my goals in 2013 is so important to me.  

Last year I wrote a blog about finding our “Why Power.” This particular post talks about the fact that it is not enough to just have goals; it is also imperative to maintain a long-term perspective in order to stay motivated. It’s up to each of us to discover the “why” and to have the will to fight!

“Success is a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don’t quit when you’re tired. You quit when the gorilla is tired.” (Robert Strauss)

Passion will get you motivated, but determination will ensure that you fight the good fight. Having one word is a powerful way to create a narrow focus with a broad impact.  It’s my “Why Power!” It’s a constant reminder of why I get up every day and work so hard to reach all my goals, both personal and professional. 

Everyone wants happiness and success.  It’s those who own their goals, take responsibility for them, and under no circumstances give up on them who get ahead in life and reach levels of success—turning their dreams into reality!

If discovering your one word is a journey you would like to embark on, you can order the book by clicking on the icon below, and it will take you to Amazon.  Good luck and happy reading!

 

 

Share this post