Do You Fix A Problem Or Create A Solution?

This past week I attended the National Convention for Call Centers in Montreal. The name of the organization is CAMX. I have met over the years at these conventions some amazing people who have become very successful in our industry. My article this week is about a comment made by John Ratliff, the CEO of Appletree during a presentation he made to the convention attendees. John asked this question during his presentation. "Do you fix a problem or create a solution"?

To me the answer was easy however I also needed to ask the question why to fully appreciate its intention. It's understanding the question where the solution lies. There are loads of problem solvers out there who love to fix things. It's human nature. Very gratifying. To John's point though getting something fixed is not permanent. It can break or go wrong again tomorrow. Creating a solution to the problem brings you closer to making the problem go away indefinitely. Here in lies the game changer.

John really got my attention when he threw this out. What an interesting perspective. My interpretation from a success point of view is it brings us all closer to removing things that repeatedly get in the way of our personal success. At the most simple level when we fix a problem we are reacting to an event or thing that went wrong. When we create a solution we are both fixing the problem and insuring that the problem does not keep returning. Problem solvers are working in their business and solutions driven individuals are working on their business. Simply put. When you work in your business you are just a cog in the wheel. When you are working on your business you are the one who tunes the engine.

I my opinion the most difficult part of making the change to the solution approach is to schedule the time to fully understand why the problem occurred. We must also understand that creating a long-term solution takes planning. Once we find the solution we must prepare a policy or instruction manual on how do deal with the issue should it arise again. The purpose being that someone else can deal with the problem and not just one person. In business, if there is more than one person who can address the problem then we have removed the weakest link. Mr. Ratliff had insisted that one must ask the "why" question five times to really start to understand why this happened. Asking the question why is the first part to creating the solution.

When we create a solution to personal problems and issues we are better able to focus on things that will take us to greater heights. What we want in our pursuit of overall success is to remove the things that keep us in a state of limiting beliefs. Our lives can be easily controlled by reacting to obstacles. If we remove the reoccurring obstacles we have created a solution. This will allow us to spend more of our time doing proactive activities that will bring us success. Success lives in the activities we do toward making us grow.

Success Takes Discipline - How to Achieve Self Discipline

Imagine getting to the stage that you do the tough things in life on auto pilot. How wonderful would that be? It takes perseverance to get to that stage. The mind does some strange things that has an impact on our decision- making process. The Sandler Sales System calls all this negative stuff floating around in our minds "Head Trash". How true is that? The self-improvement industry is chalk full of books, Cd's and online support websites of some of the biggest names in the business. All this support is directed at a never ending supply of people who want to make an improvement in their lives. Heck, I have been a supporter of the business for decades. I love it to the point that I now write about my experiences and things that I have learned along the way. As successful as I have become I still keep searching for ways to make myself better. So what does all this have to do with self discipline? Everything.

To have self discipline does not mean that you are a boring person. It does not mean that you have your life planned minute by minute. To the contrary. When you have self discipline you have a tendency to get the hard stuff done first. This affords you the time to be spontaneous. More importantly you will make decisions on what you do in your free time based on your over all goals. I believe this to be true. One of my wife's and my common goals was to own a vacation property on the ocean. Thanks to my wife's business acumen and my ability to prepare and market the property was a real team effort. It worked so well we now own two vacation properties. Too make this happen we made a huge time commitment in the form of sweat equity. All our spare time for a year was dedicated to making our dream happen. We also made the decision to rent the properties when we are not using them. We have created an income stream to pay for the properties. We use the properties as a place for us to decompress,relax and have friends by for weekends when the properties are not rented. We are building a nest egg that will help ensure we have a retirement where we chose what we can do. The reason I use this example is simple. Each property took every spare moment of our time and effort to get them to the stage we are now at. Half doing it was not an option. How good is having someone else pay for our future and present day relaxation. It all boils down to how bad you want your dreams and goals.

So how do we achieve or improve our self discipline? Here are some tips that have worked for me.

The first step is to write down a few goals that emotionally charge you. I believe when you have goals that will make you feel good, the emotional attachment will drive you to succeed. Success is imminent when you are passionate about what you want.

The second step is to enter in your diary when you are going to work toward these goals. Yes. Make an appointment with yourself. This will give you a reason to say no when something else comes along. You simply say I am working on a project right now that needs my attention. Just imagine how liberating it is when you have a commitment this strong. Success is now in your grasp.

The third step is to find an accountability partner. This will take some effort on your behalf but it will be the reinforcement of steps one and two. An accountability partner is someone who you share your goals with. I personally have one. We have an appointment at the same time each week and we discuss our progress toward our goals. So how do you feel about telling your accountability partner that you did not work toward your goal this week. Exactly. It feels awful. I have learned from experience that having the right person as an accountability partner is key. Someone who is simply a cheerleader will not do. Your accountability partner must also have realistic goals. Both of you have important things at stake. It works.

Self discipline will bring control into your decision-making process. Self discipline will remove some of the second guessing we are all guilty of. Self discipline will help you focus on what you want to accomplish. Being in control of our emotions and working toward what makes us happy is a good thing for all of us. The work can be fun too when the end result will bring you so much happiness and joy.

Stop Making Excuses - Take Ownership Of Your Actions

When you make excuses it can say so many things about you. Things I would say are not enduring, It tells me you are not committed to what you said you would do. There was something more important that came along so you decided to do that instead. Perhaps you are faced with the fear of failure or you do not want to feel the rejection. In short you are living in the blame game. You chose to externalize your actions. You foolishly believe it's somebody else's fault.

In a real life experience, I was in a meeting with a Head Hunter where I was asked why I was recently fired from the high level position I held with a large corporation. I told the interviewer that I blew it. I said I had made the wrong political move. The interviewer looked at me puzzled and said" How interesting. Most people would have blamed someone else or externalized the situation." That's the way that I saw the situation. We all make wrong decisions and mistakes in our lives. For heavens sake own up to it. Find out what you learned from this? The best thing to do is create a clean slate and move on.

I believe that answers do not appear on their own. Answers only come after you ask a question. This is true even if you are problem solving on our own. When you have made an excuse you better have a real good reason because somewhere along the line, someone is going to ask you the question. Why? What happened? Some of my most favorite sayings and quotes come from Mark Twain. This one pretty much sums it up. " If you tell the truth you do not have to remember anything." Consider the notion that being dishonest is hard work. You constantly have to remember what you said. Channel your energies to something positive. As odd as this may sound, I believe that owning up to the truth, as hard as it may seem will bring your respect.

Excuses hang out with procrastinators. Procrastinators always seem to have a reason not to get it done. If your procrastinating, I recommend you search for the reason why. Procrastination is predicated on fear of the unknown and the inability to deliver on what you said you could do. For many of you and especially sales people, it's the fear of rejection. The easy stuff and the fun stuff seem to get scratched off the to do list with ease. I recommend you do the hard stuff first. You will find the balance of the day will breeze by with ease. I suggest you plan your day this way and there be no need for excuses.

To be truly successful in any aspect of life, we must have sound plans to move forward. When you take ownership of your actions you have removed guilt from the situation. Making excuses is easy. Success can be easy to if you are committed to your master plan and goals. Mistakes just become bumps in the road. No need to blame anyone else when you hit a bump because you are the one with your hands firmly on the wheel. When you make excuses you are not in control of your situation. To be fully in control is when we take ownership of your actions.

Do You Like To Win Or Do You Hate To Lose?

Everyone likes to win. That is a given. The reality is not all of you will win because you have not prepared yourselves to create the opportunity to win. When you hate to lose it brings up the level of commitment because the outcome of loosing is not acceptable to you. This leads to the question. Can you be successful without being competitive?

I was once asked this win or lose question in a job interview about ten years ago. The interviewer who was the owner of a fast paced growing company only wanted those people who had the burning desire to win. I knew in my mind the correct answer was "I hate to lose". It was for this instance the correct answer. It was not until after the interview and I was working with the company that I came to fully understand to true meaning of the question.

Winning is comfortable. It is good for our ego. Everyone wants to deal with a winner. It speaks volumes to your ability. We all know that to win we have to train and prepare ourselves for the match be it in business or on the sports field. In sports, it's a blend of physical and mental preparedness. In business it's about mental preparedness, the right product or service and the personality to win the deal. In many cases with business, losing is not an option. Your lively hood depends on it. I believe in the business environment one must adopt to the hate to lose side of the question. Losing is not an option.

I believe that many top athletes do well in business and especially in sales because they have the competitive attitude. Both my sons attended a boarding school and it was compulsory they play a competitive sport. The school knew it was important to have its students being very good on and off the field. The schools attitude reinforced what I personally knew to be true. Participants will win the day over spectators every time.

So how can you achieve that competitive edge? How can you obtain that burning desire to get to the top? I believe the following tips will get you started.

• Create and write down a goal related to you being the best in your field. Remember to make sure that your goal is matched with an action plan of steps to obtain that goal.
• Spend some time with a competitive winner. Ask some questions. Learn what it is that drives them.
• Write down how you would feel if you were the top in your field. This should put a smile on your face and have you pointed in that direction.
• Do some research on being competitive. Remember that being competitive is not always about beating someone else. It can just easily be about performing better than you every have before.

Everyone has the desire to win. Those with the burning desire to win are those who hate to lose. Success as we know comes in many forms. In the business world it's about relationships and the numbers. In the personal world it's about meeting milestones and personal achievements. To win we need passion and persistence. When you have those two elements, losing is not an option.