Its Monday morning again and a whole week ahead full of sales opportunities.
How do you quickly get over the Monday morning blues and start moving and selling?
Create the habit of a MMMM…. Monday Morning Motivational Meeting
As an entrepreneur with no one to push yourself but you and sometimes feeling lonely, it’s so easy to dread Mondays. Who cares where you are, what you are doing or what you are hoping to achieve? Who do you turn to for motivation, support and accountability?
When happiness researchers and positive psychologists talk about the importance of social connection, they are speaking in terms of quality, not quantity. They are talking about real connection, or what University of Houston courage researcher Brené Brown defines as, “The energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgement; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship”.
‘Only spend time with people who lift you higher’ – Oprah Winfrey
Find someone, ideally in the same industry so you can understand the jargon and shortcut your conversation, that you enjoy spending time with and is also looking to raise their game. Meet first thing every Monday for a maximum of 90 minutes and follow my top tips to stay motivated from Monday to Friday.
1. Be Smug
Measure your progress. So many people measure what they haven’t achieved rather than the progress they’ve made. It important to reward and tell our mind that we are moving forward. Celebrate your success however small. As a Marathon runner, if you didn’t measure your progress along the way it would be so easy to give up before crossing that finishing line. Your mind loves hearing all the good news and you are wiring yourself for more progress and more success every time you tell it how far you have come. Don’t wait until you’ve reached your goal to be proud of yourself. Be proud of every step you take towards reaching that goal.
ACTION: Make a list and tell each other out loud “I’m really pleased with myself because…”
‘The man on top of the mountain didn’t fall there’ – Vince Lombardi
2. There is no such thing as failure, only feedback
Turn your Inner Critic down or off. Don’t beat yourself up if things have not gone as well as you expected; allow yourself to understand that if you are not making mistakes, you are not learning and it’s unlikely that you are getting outside your comfort zone very often too.
ACTION: Make a list and tell each other out loud ‘I have learnt………
‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’ – Anthony Robbins
‘Comfort is the enemy of progress’ – PT Barnum
“It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed” – Napolean Hill
3.Collaboration
Learn to operate from a position of abundance, not scarcity, there is more than enough people in the world that need your product or service. Not everyone listens to the same music but there are enough genres for everyone’s voice to be heard and needs to be met. The huge benefit of collaborating with like-minded people magnifies, amplifies and intensifies your opportunities and sharpens your game to another level.
ACTION: Share your industry information: what’s new, what’s different, who is at the cutting edge of what you aiming to achieve? Who are the masters: what are they doing that can help you? What podcasts, books, Tedtalks, Youtube clips have inspired you this week?
“When you learn something with the intention of teaching it you get to learn it twice” – Jim Kwik Superbrain
4. Visualisation
The Unconscious Mind is unable to differentiate between fact and fiction, so give it a path to follow and it will switch on your RAS, which is like a heat-seeking missile. The RAS (Reticular Activating System) is a bundle of nerves at our brainstem that filters out unnecessary information so the important stuff gets through. The RAS is the reason you learn a new word and then start hearing it everywhere. It’s why you can tune out a crowd full of talking people, yet immediately snap to attention when someone says your name or something that at least sounds like it.
ACTION: Describe in detail, what your week ahead will look like. Describe the movie in the mind of your successes as if it’s already happened, use all your senses, use the past tense, e.g. I made the best connection with my clients, I sold $x amount of product/services etc. Make the movie come alive in your mind and describe it all in technicolour to your MMMM partner.
‘Energy flows where attention goes’
‘Live life as it’s rigged in your favour’ – Rumi
5. Accountability
As humans we do more to avoid pain than to gain pleasure, so either give yourself a consequence if you do not achieve your actions or plan a reward that you will give yourself when you do. And the role of your MMMM partner is not to let you off the hook of not achieving as this. And if they do, find another MMMM partner because if they let you off the hook, how often are they letting themselves settle for mediocre too?
ACTION: Tell each other what your specific actions for the week ahead will be.
‘If you hang out with chickens you are going to cluck,
if you hang out with eagles you are going to fly’
– Dr Steve Maraboli
Good luck and let me know if these 5 tips help alleviate any dread you have on a Sunday!
If you’d like to know more about what I offer entrepreneurs get in touch: mary@marybarrett.global
