Staying motivated

As Meagan stated in her post “It’s not just about the money… ”, at Greenfield we start our day with a positive focus, to share something we liked about our previous day. This could be something that made us smile or brought us personal satisfaction. I’ll admit that at first I didn’t really see the point but as time went on I began to appreciate it; at least one person will make me smile. So I take that smile and make it last. I’ve had my share of days where I had to “fake it ‘til I made it”. But I made it.

Remaining positive is sometimes easier said than done. We’ve all been in situations where we had to really search for something nice to say about someone or something.  Take Seinfeld for example; the episode where the gang went to visit their friends who just had the ugliest baby. Do you say the first thing that comes to mind or do you focus on the best feature? The pediatrician’s comment was, the baby was breath taking and judging by everyone else gasping when they saw that baby, it certainly was.
You can use the same tactics at work:

1. Find the one thing you really like about the project you’re working on or the hotel you’re representing and elaborate on it. Plain and simple: it’s easier to promote something you honestly like.
   
   
2. Another thing that really works for me is goal setting. Depending on the project I’m working on, I will either set a daily or a weekly goal. I try to set different goals and keep them attainable but not too easy. A small goal may be reaching my completions for the day or making one really good connection. A larger goal would be getting more leads for a project than forecasted. To stay motivated, I keep in
   mind that no matter what happens on each call; go into the next one with a smile and a clean slate.
   
   
3. Another tactic to staying motivated when prospecting is to imagine that you are the best call your contact is going to receive today. That you’re bringing them something they may not have considered or something they didn’t think could be done. Who knows, maybe its true!
   
   
4. Find something that makes you happy, work-related or not, and make it a part of your day. If you really can’t think of anything at all, talk to someone, maybe they have something you can borrow until you find your own happy place.

So was I crazy about it when we began sharing positive focuses each morning? No.
Did I change my mind after I saw the result?  Definitely.

It’s a very simple thing to do and takes almost no time and little effort but it can make a huge difference on how you go about your day. And I highly recommend it.