Mickey Mantle said, “If I knew I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself.” Luckily, we can identify personal habits that define success, and those that hinder success.
We can get away with a lot when we’re young, such as function on little sleep, eat badly, drink and smoke without immediate health consequences. We can run up our credit cards and have a whole lifetime to pay them down. Then one day we wake up and realize we’re middle-aged, our joints ache, we’re overweight, we sleep badly, and we are having trouble following the conversation we’re having with our customer.
As John Dryden, the English poet, famously said, “First we make our habits, then our habits make us.” Our daily lives are filled with them, so we can create them intentionally or they can develop by default.
To be successful on a sustainable basis, we need to develop good habits. So, while many of us prefer to learn these lessons on our own, we could save ourselves a lot of time, grief and pain by learning from others.
Personal Habits that Define Success
Be proactive by thinking ahead, so get out in front of something before it becomes a problem. This includes daily healthy practices:
- Document three things for which you are grateful
- Practice positive, optimistic thinking
- Reflect on lessons learned
- Set and achieve goals
- Develop positive relationships
- Minimize stress
- Read or listen to interesting books
- Look after yourself – diet, exercise, etc.
- Manage screen time and other distractions
- Dress professionally
- Be on time
What does this list have to do with sales? A successful salesperson is high energy, thoughtful, focused, helpful, respectful, and fun to be with. It’s hard to be that person if we don’t take care of ourselves first, because it’s hard to help others if we are unhealthy, pessimistic, uneducated, tired, or stressed out.
One of the most important rules in selling is to forget about ourselves completely and to focus when we are with them, entirely on the needs of our customer. We cannot do that if we aren’t healthy, happy and confident in our own abilities. The airline rule to secure our own oxygen mask first before helping others is relevant to sales.
You can measure your sales strengths and growth opportunities through our Pure Selling Skills survey. You can also contact us to learn more.