Unseen Reward

I have observed a phenomenon in life and business that will be somewhat difficult to describe.

As a Coach, It is not uncommon for me to assign action plans that lead my clients into daily routines that may seem mundane, repetitive, boring, or small. Outbound calls, handwritten notes, simple gatherings and gestures are often what is required to make your business go forward.

Jim Rohn once said, “Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.”

I don’t think I have ever come across anyone who didn’t agree with that on some level. And yet, there is something mysterious that occurs when you “apply the basic fundamentals” consistently.

I have observed that sometimes, when you apply the basic fundamentals in business or in life, you get results in other arenas. It is almost as if you are being rewarded for your discipline, but the reward arrives from a seemingly unrelated source. I think this may be why some people get going with a discipline only to quit.

Have you ever wondered why you engage for the good….and then stop?

Perhaps it is because we don’t interpret our efforts correctly. We often don’t see the correlation between the activity that we are doing and the positive results that we are getting, so we give up on the activity too quickly.

Let’s say that you are committed to the fundamental of making daily proactive outbound calls to people you have done business with before. I’d be shocked if you told me that for every call you made, you got a sale. (If it were that easy, everyone would do it.) Instead, I’d expect to hear from you that the calls are going ok, and maybe you’re not so sure whether you see the benefit.

But as you repeat the action over and over again, other positive things begin to occur in your business. Perhaps a call you made three weeks ago yields unexpected results today. It could be that pushing yourself to follow through with this discipline increases your follow-through with other disciplines. Your positive momentum can further improve the way you interact with your team, or plan for next year, or connect with a referral partner…..

Activity breeds activity, but not always in the way we expect.   Thus, if the benefit is indirect and we don’t interpret it well, then we may stop doing the activity - only to wonder what happened to our other successes.

The answer to all of this mysterious success is to make up your mind to engage in the fundamentals. Measuring along the way has great merit, but don’t forget that there may be some unintended reward that your measurements can’t capture.

Cheers to a great week,

Coach Steve

Comments

[Jessica Traffas]

This is so true. Sometimes the simple good feeling of knowing you did what you set out to do each day can bleed over into other aspects of life.

Thanks - I needed this reminder (especially for my Health Account) right now!!