Sometimes, we have to trick ourselves. Especially when we are tired, or faced with something daunting that looks like staring up at the Cliffs of Insanity and saying “I have to climb up there?!?”
So here are some tricks to help you get started, be it training for that 10km race or making the 50 dials you need to hit your goal or running those introduction feeder lists for the week.
- Lie to yourself but begin. “I’ll only go around the block.” Get ready, start with the idea of only doing the bare minimum. But once you get started you get rolling, and momentum is on your side instead of hampering you. One block becomes two, then four, and then you do your run. Having your phoning list and making one dial turns into five, then fifteen, and then you look up and you are done.
- Chunk the task. Set a timer on your phone for 18 minutes and block out all the distractions and pound away at the phone, chip away at the mountainous task with all you have for a slice of time. When the timer goes off STOP, get up and refill your coffee or walk around the building as a reward and to reset your mind. Then sit down, reset the timer, and repeat. Until you have finished.
- Bribe yourself. “When I run these lists, I can have a beer.” I used this to reward/force myself to hit my weekly dialing goal as a new Rep for the first few years until I had the habit engraved in my soul.
- Gamify it. Get a partner to compete against, place a bet (loser washes winner’s car, a bottle of wine, loser wears a lime green leisure suit to office, winner gets better parking spot, be creative!) and let the games begin. One thing: have an out. If you both hit your goal, you celebrate together.
- Change of scenery. Have to make 25 dials today? Take your calendar, phone, and list and sit in the closet until you’re done. Next time, from your car. Or do it from someplace nice like a cushy chair, so you’ll want to stay after doing the first increment.
We all have things we don’t want to do because they are so huge, or they are just stupid (think of all those CE classes…), or we are afraid of them. But you know the old saying of how you eat an elephant: one bite at a time. Get your fork, sharpen the knife, and pour some ketchup on that sucker and go.
