We all have the same amount of time. When I choose to study between 6am and 7am before everyone in my house gets up, but you choose to sleep longer or watch morning talk shows, much is revealed about both of us.
I have had three distinct careers and am in a fourth as a trainer and consultant to successful recruiting firm owners. I have achieved top 1% to 3% status in each. However, and this is key, when I began each of those journeys, I was much less than impressive. I never leapt to the head of the pack out of the gate. As a matter of fact, I was often significantly behind the pack out of the gate.
You see, I not only acquire knowledge — I APPLY knowledge, too. I rarely invent, but I often study and apply.
For those of you out there who are frustrated because you feel you need to be significantly different than everyone else, I am here to tell you that you don’t. Follow and execute the path of others who have and/or are doing what you want.
Many great trainers give excellent techniques in each issue of this magazine. While implementing strategies and techniques of others, you then add yourself and your distinct services into the equation.
Apply and Thrive
Here are some simple steps to succeed:
- Find 30 to 60 minutes for at least three days per week where you can study AND apply new techniques you have learned. If you can’t find 90 minutes per week, frankly, dismiss your dream of being self-employed or becoming a great recruiter. Period.
- Pick one topic or idea you wish to execute upon and select a target date for its completion.
- Over the next couple of weeks you invest your three 30- to 60-minute segments in studying that technique (or whatever one thing you chose to execute on) and apply the knowledge.
- Once you have implemented the first strategy, move on to the next item important to your business. Just as it says on your shampoo bottle, “Wash, rinse, repeat.†This process is replicable.
a. Pick a day for the technique to be implemented, NOW, yes now… go write it in your calendar, I’ll wait!! Did you do it? Ok, we can move on.
b. Outline the steps to implementation. Don’t burden yourself here, just ask yourself, if this is to be done, what activities must occur?
c. Plot those activities out realistically between now and your target completion date. Plan on some distractions; don’t make the schedule too tight.
d. Add descriptions to each of those items. Now, the hard part, you must execute! You have a plan, so follow it.
Guys and gals, it is that simple. We over-complicate this by feeling we need to be masters of EVERYTHING before we start.
If you have been listening to or reading the training and/or interviews of successful recruiters, trainers, and owners, you will have heard they all had one thing in common: incremental applied knowledge.
They also made mistakes and yet they are still alive to talk about them!
Finally, the hidden unspoken benefit of applying this process is that you gain confidence in your ability to execute. You create the habit of execution.
Yes, execution is a habit; it is also a law of physics. Remember:
“A body at rest tends to stay at rest and a body in motion tends to stay in motion.â€
If you have been that body “at rest,†forgive yourself. You can only affect this moment.
Yesterday is gone and irrecoverable. This moment is a choice. YOU can choose execution and if you don’t, by default, you choose to stay at rest. You choose the status quo. What is your choice?