This week’s thought might seem a little simple and mundane and yet there is a deeper message here.

We engaged a repair man to fix the windows in our new house.

With some brute force from Ross to get them open and a large screwdriver or pole to hold them open, I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed to clean, what I estimate was 40 years of gunk and grime. Yuk. Double yuk.

I didn’t want the repairer to spread all that debris over the floor.

It took me weeks to systematically get them all cleaned and it was only last weekend that I figured out a better method for cleaning them.

Now you might ask, “Why didn’t I engage a professional window cleaner to clean them?”.

Two reasons:

1.      I didn’t expect they would take as long as they did to clean, and

2.      The renovation budget was way over maxed out, and

3.      I just thought of number 3, we were out of time to organise a third party.

For the first half of the windows, I struggled to scrub the build up of grime off the frames. I applied as much pressure as I could and went over and over and over the frames and they hardly looked any cleaner. Very frustrating.

So, as often happens, when things aren’t working out how we want, we ask “How can I do this better? Is there an easier way? There has to be a better way to do this?”

I looked in my cupboard. I found a cream cleanser and some Gumption. I decided to give the cream cleanser a go.

OMG! This stuff glided on and off. It wasn’t perfect but it was so much better than the earlier results I had achieved.

Not only was it quicker, it also increased my enthusiasm and motivation to get the rest of the windows cleaned.

When you have the right tools, the job is easier, gets done quicker with better results and is more motivating.

Now to the main point. How long do you struggle with something before you finally go looking for a better way?

How often do you “go it alone” without asking for advice from others who may have more knowledge or experience than you?

Your task this week is to look at your list of jobs and choose one that you’re struggling with or frustrated by the lack of results and send your brain looking for the answer to the question, “what’s a better way to do this?”

Try it. Your brain is a goal achieving machine. It must answer any questions you ask it. So ask better questions and do it quicker.

It’s so much easier and so much more rewarding when you have the right tools.

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“Some will. Some won’t. Next” was a saying I learnt from Bob Johnston, international sales trainer.

Bob’s intention was to help salespeople to not take it personally when potential customers said “No”.

When you think about it, it’s actually quite logical. Some will want your service or product and some people won’t want it. Some won’t want it now and some won’t want it ever. For those who don’t want it ever, move on to the Next potential customer.

This affirmation not only helps with mindset, it also helps with productivity because the salesperson doesn’t waste time or energy following up someone who doesn’t want the product or service and the potential customer doesn’t feel harassed into buying something.

This leads to my next point. It’s okay to say “No”. In fact, salespeople prefer you to say “No” if you don’t want it because it frees them up to move on.

I appreciate it when people say “No thankyou” to me. I don’t take it personally. They have their reasons. I accept their decision.

It sends me bananas (frustrates me) when I take the time to follow-up with people and my calls aren’t returned. It means I’ve either got to invest more time to follow-up, just in case they do want the product or service or I make the decision myself that they don’t want it and move on. The latter decision could well be an incorrect decision because they may want the product or service at a later date. Who knows?

Recently Ross and I have requested quite a number of quotes from various trades as we’ve renovated the house. We always make it a point to let people know when we’ve decided to go with another supplier.

Your mission this week is to be assertive. If you have decided you don’t want to purchase something, or you’ve chosen a different supplier, please speak up. The salesperson will appreciate it.

They know, Some Will. Some Won’t and they can move on to Next.

This week I’ve been totally perturbated, causing me to procrastinate.

Another way of describing perturbation is to freak yourself out.

Perturbation occurs when you are challenged and feel uncomfortable just before a breakthrough.

Vocabulary.com refers to perturbation as a “state of agitation”.

So what caused my freak out?

I decided to create a new online training program called The Loyal Lieutenant Masterclass Series, to support Seconds-in-Command to step up and create systems and processes in their businesses and/or departments.

No big deal.

I’m very comfortable “teaching”.

I’m very uncomfortable “selling”.

In the past, my “sales” webinars have ended up being “training” webinars, meaning attendees got enough training to feel confident that they could do it themselves and yet without the support and the in-depth training, I know they won’t be able to do it or will become too overwhelmed.

So this time I challenged myself to change my presentation and this freaked me out.

I’ve had to totally change my mindset. I’ve sought training and assistance from various people. I couldn’t do it alone.

One of my mentors helped me to see that consumers’ buying habits have changed. Before Covid, many were reluctant to buy online. Before Covid, most marketers thought they had to nurture their subscribers before offering them a solution to their problem.

According to my mentor, consumers want instant gratification. If they’ve got a problem, they want a solution and they want it now. They don’t want to be “nurtured”. They want their problem fixed.

That’s the mindset I’ve adopted. The seconds-in-command, the leaders, the managers who’ve registered for the webinar on how to create systems to save time and money have a problem and I have the solution that can help them, and they want it now. I am doing all of us a disservice if I don’t offer them the help, even though I’m as uncomfortable as hell in making the offer.

I’m sharing this with you because I want to encourage you, to freak yourself out. Get uncomfortable. Commit to doing something that will challenge you. Seek help and guidance. It’s the only way to grow.

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It’s 4:12am in the morning.

I got up especially early to attend an online training.

There was no email with the login details.

I checked last night and I double checked this morning.

That’s odd. They always send an email reminder.

I logged in to the training portal to get the link.

The training date is tomorrow.

Damn! I got up early just for this and it’s not on until tomorrow; that means I have to get up early again tomorrow.

Did they change the date?

I was sure I had it right.

I almost let myself go into the Primal state of psychological suffering.

I almost started to blame.

I almost started to get angry.

And I remembered, “Life is always working for us”, (even though at times it may not be to our preference).

Life happens for us, not to us.

So I changed my mindset.

How is this working for me?

It gave me the time to watch the training that I missed last week (because I slept in and forgot about it) and get caught up before tomorrow’s scheduled training.

It also gave me the topic for this week’s thought and it gave me the opportunity to remind you that Life is always working for us. Life happens for us, not to us.

We can change our mindset in a nanosecond. We can stop the suffering.

It’s a decision you make as to how you deal with the things that happen in your life.

Choose to see that it’s not happening to you. Life is happening for you.

P.S.  Click on the link to purchase your copy of The Loyal Lieutenant book and get access to many templates and checklists. Go to https://shirleydalton.com/books

P.P.S. Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thoughts delivered directly to their inbox. Go to https://shirleydalton.com/weekly-thoughts.