Frank keefer thought for the day/ managing expectations 10/26]

Hello Everyone,

Often times when we put a lot of time and energy into a project, recruiting
for example, and don't get the results that we are looking for we feel
cheated, become demoralized and lose our incentive. During these times we
need to stand back, look at the big picture, see what really happened and
fall in love with the process whether the result was what we wanted or not.
We need to embrace every facet of the journey. Lessons learned, particularly
during perceived failures can be priceless when put in the proper
perspective.

Often we fall into the trap of focusing on one or two major opportunities
and overwhelm ourselves with the hope of making it happen. When it doesn't,
we become deflated. Why? Because we have no back up plan, no one in the
funnel.

I have often said that this business is an apprenticeship. We need to learn
to manage our expectations and commitments. Focusing on one or two
opportunities is not the way to do it. It is like the story of the young
bull and the old bull on the top of the hill looking down into the valley of
heifers below. The young bull turns to the old bull and says, "Let's charge
down the hill, grab one of those heifers and make mad, passionate love." The
old bull turns back to him and says, "Let's just trot down and make love to
all of them." It's not about killing yourself for the grand slam home run.
It's about continuing to keep the funnel full and approaching each candidate
with consistence and persistence and getting hit after hit after hit. That
happens with a full funnel because your success is not based on one entity.

Too often we think success is based on the mechanics. While that is true to
the extent that we must take action, this business is cerebral. Once we
break that code and truly understand the mental aspects, like the old bull,
we realize that not only success in this business but every success in life
is cerebral when we accept it (success) as a foregone conclusion. It is
only self doubt that preempts that process.

More than anything that I have ever done, I have come to realize that it is
this business that ias the true gateway to understanding that philosophy.
For years I subconsciously knew that success was mental but it was MA that
brought it to the forefront of my consciousness. Why? Because other
businesses are impersonal. The loss of a sale or contract may be
disappointing but does not have the emotional impact of the disappointments
we experience in this business when friends and family blow us off. We don't
understand why they don't see what we see. It unnerves us. We feel rejected.
We begin to doubt ourselves. Our self esteem and our ego are damaged. It is
at that critical junction when failure seems to reach a crescendo and we
feel that we are swimming upstream against the tide that we are so fragile.
At that point we will either wilt or blossom. The choice is ours. We either
choose to reach deep within ourselves, grab that smoldering ember of success
, ignite the passion for success and become the Masters of our Destiny or
we choose douse the flame, surrender our will and become doomed as Slaves of
Fate.

When I am asked, "Don't you feel badly when people blow you off?" I say,
"Yes." But unlike those who surrender, I don't feel badly for myself but
rather for those who have chosen to be imprisoned in a cage of their own
construction. We are offering them a key to escape but they choose not to
use it and the universe does not allow us to open the cage for them. They
must do that themselves.

You see , success is always a foregone conclusion in all things that we do
IF we embrace it as a given.

When you truly reach that understanding this business will be the most fun
you ever had because you will realize that you have within your hands the
power to make a difference and change lives for generations to come. There
is no greater humanly power!

It's later than you think!

FJK