You Gotta Want it!
I wrote about the War of Salesrecently. Take a look as this post builds on that concept.
Human resistance is what keeps people from doing what they want to do.
How do we overcome resistance? I deliberately pondered this question as I sat in my car outside a real estate office in Victoria this past week. My coach had assigned me the task of “dropping by” on the brokers and managers who had not returned my phone calls or emails. (There were three)
I knew I would get out of the car and “do” the assignment and I felt a significant amount of resistance. I saw this as a great opportunity to learn about human resistance in a sales situation.
This resistance had both physical elements and emotional elements. Physically, I felt a tingling in my arms and an unsettled sense in my stomach. Emotionally I felt fear, uncertainty and excitement.
I was curious about my process of overcoming the resistance:
- I imagined different conversations with my prospect that were negative, awkward and ended in judgement and rejection.
- The next phase had me discrediting those thoughts as distorted assumptions and I built on this by recalling that most of my sales conversation were engaging and rewarding
- Without conscious awareness, I began a shift to a positive mindset by reminding myself that the service that I offer is exceptionally valuable to realtors and their broker/managers and it is my responsibility to make this service available to them.
- The final thought that I had before I got into action was that I was building a company that really mattered to me and to the real estate industry and that I had accepted that there would be some discomfort along the way. I had made a decision to trade this discomfort for the honour of being able to build The Nature of Real Estate.
- I opened the car door and with pride and confidence walked in to the real estate office
To step through our resistance is a choice that we make each time an uncomfortable situation arises.
In my case, I knew that I would step through it. I’ve been in sales a very long time and I know that when I do the uncomfortable work, great things can and do happen. Fantastic relationships are built, new experiences are had and I move my life and my world forward towards my desired outcomes. In other words, the potential outcomes matter to me more than the discomfort of overcoming the resistance.
The learning? To overcome resistance, we must have a sense of purpose or meaning that is stronger than the resistance.
It might be about making more money. It might be about having more time. It might be about having more freedom.
Likely it is about something that is uniquely important to you that comes about as a result of the money, the time and the freedom.
What is your bigger picture purpose? What do you feel passionate about? What gives your life meaning?
If your WHY is stronger than your resistance, you’ll be able to step through the resistance and get into action towards your desired outcomes.
What happens when the resistance is stronger than your WHY? Check back next week when we explore values and their role in Human Resistance.
“If there is a conflict between action and values, the result will be uneasiness in the form of guilt or shame”