I believe the cornerstone of high performance in any area, sales included, is your mindset and mental toughness.
Mental toughness is often discussed, but rarely understood.
It’s glorified on social media, but often misused.
To me, mental toughness is your ability to W.I.N. – focus on What’s Important Now.
It’s about being to block out all distractions and intentionally place your attention on what you believe is most deserving of it in that moment.
Mental toughness is also making a commitment to doing the best you can, with what you have, wherever you are.
Mental toughness is about avoiding the natural temptation to blame, complain, and make excuses.
Mental toughness is about being emotionally agile, so you aren’t emotionally fragile.
Mental toughness is not letting the outer world dictate your inner world. Not letting circumstances or events dictate your mindset and attitude.
Mental toughness is about being in the present moment. After all, if you want to win the moment… you need to be in the moment.
Here are the 3 components of being present… and of mental toughness.
#1: Next play: don’t focus on what just happened, focus on what’s happening now. Why focus on the next play? It’s the only play you can have an effect on. You can’t do anything about what just happened. It’s over. It’s in the rearview mirror. It’s in the past. Any mental, physical, or emotional energy you waste on the past means it’s not available to invest in the present.
#2: Controllables: there are only two things in the world you have 100% control over, 100% of the time – your effort and our attitude. Focus on maximizing those and learn to let everything else go. Any mental, physical, or emotional energy you waste on things outside of your control will take away from the things you do have control over.
#3: Process: goals are great for providing clarity, direction, and purpose. But once you’ve established a goal, you need to take your eyes off of it and put it on the process required to achieve it. Don’t focus on the results, focus on the daily habits, decisions, behaviors, actions, and micro steps needed to inch closer to it. As they say in sports, if you focus on the process, the scoreboard will take care of itself.
