This saying really resonated with me the first time I heard it. I was selling on the phone at the time and knew all about being driven by fear. I was afraid that if I didn’t meet the quota they would fire me. I was afraid that if I didn’t close any business before the end of the month I wouldn’t be able to pay my rent. I was afraid to cold call because no one seemed interested in what I was selling.
It was this fear that pushed me to introduce myself. He was there in the morning when I woke up. As I lay there, she overwhelmed me and pushed me out of bed. When I got to the office, and having procrastinated for most of the morning, he was there to push me into cold calling. Later in the day he was there to push me to make closing calls. Throughout the day (and the days turned into weeks and months) my fear of financial insecurity, of having made the wrong decisions in my life, of what my future would be like, pushed me through my life as a salesperson.
As I looked around my office, I wondered what I was doing wrong and why others in my office seemed and acted more confident and happy. The top producers driving the new cars and moving into their new homes didn’t seem very afraid. The two bosses who owned the company didn’t seem as scared as I was. In fact, other producers who seemed to be trying really hard and actually seemed to enjoy the challenge and their successes didn’t seem as scared as I was.
What was wrong, I wondered?
And then I heard the statement: “Fear pushes, vision pulls.” Someone asked me what my goals were for the rest of the year and I couldn’t tell them. He asked me what got me excited in the morning and I had to admit it wasn’t much. He asked me what I hoped to achieve in the next few years and I got no answer. He asked me if I had specific goals in each area of my life that I could really believe in, and I said no. And that’s when he explained to me about the importance of having a vision for my life.
He told me that before I could have a dream come true, I had to have a dream first. She explained that developing and having a vision she could believe in was what made the hard times easier to endure and the good times more rewarding. She told me that it was easy to develop a vision and once I truly believed it could come true, it was destined to manifest in my life.
After doing a lot of work with goal setting, establishing affirmations, visualizing, and imprinting my goals into my subconscious, my visions came true. Books like “The Secret,” “Beyond Positive Thinking,” and “The Sermon on the Mount” have helped me change my life and thoughts, and I highly recommend books like these if you want to learn techniques and methods to help you manifest your dreams too.
However, over the years, what I have found to be important is that if I don’t keep painting a vision for my life, fear quickly creeps back in to push me to take action again. While it works somewhat, it is very inefficient and uncomfortable for me and everyone around me. When I get carried away by fear, my life quickly becomes unmanageable and I start asking all the old questions again. When that happens, I know it’s time to create a new vision for my life.
What I’m doing right now is setting a two-year vision for my life and just thinking about it has already reignited enthusiasm and spirit that were briefly absent in the last two months. Just mentioning this to my wife has also strengthened her. Separately and then together, we are planning what the various areas of our lives will look like by the end of December 2013. We chose that date because it gave us enough time to do everything and having that time is important to allow us to buy in and believe that it’s possible. That is one of the keys that manifest.
The other key that has me so excited about the vision I’m creating is that it’s balanced and includes all areas of my life, not just my business. I am setting specific goals for myself in terms of:
Health & Beauty.
Finance.
Creative (in terms of books to write and publish).
Travel and fun! There are trips to Europe, NFL football games, Fall Colors tours, and more.
The vision also includes daily, weekly and monthly benchmarks.
And through it all, I stay focused on exactly how I’ll feel when I’ve accomplished it all. I’ll tell you, I’m getting excited just writing about it right now! I can’t wait to get on the phone! Over the past week I have woken up to a new energy and it is the power of being driven by vision.
If you’ve found yourself in a slump lately, or if you’ve sensed that some of the old fears are creeping back into your life, I encourage you to sit down over the next vacation and write down some specific goals and turn those goals into your vision. Read some of the books that inspire you to create the life you know you are meant to live, and share them with those who love you and whose lives will benefit from the dynamic and exciting vision you can create.
I guarantee you’ll feel better when you stop being pushed by fear and start being drawn to your vision…
Copyright (c) 2011 Mr. Inside Sales
