Success Barriers

I couldn’t stop reading The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.  He is brilliant and captures the essence of Resistance. Yes, thats’s right, he has written an entire book on this topic. He refers to The Unlived Life as what we want but never really get to it. He asks “are you a writer who doesn’t write, a painter who doesn’t paint, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture?” Yes, all of us have something we have wanted but it has never materialized because we haven’t focused on it.

He refers to specific goals and activities where a higher degree of Resistence interferes and some of these include:

1. Writing, painting, music, film, dance or any creative art

2. The launching of any entrepreneurial venture

3. Any diet or health regimen

4. Any activity whose aim is tighter abdominals

5. Any act that entails commitment of the heart

I call these barriers to success and found a pictures that sums it up.

We surround ourselves with Resistance and he describes it as invisible, internal, insidious, implacable, inpersonal, infallible, universal, it never sleeps, plays for keeps, fueled by fear, most powerful at the finish line, recruits allies.

So true, I haven’t finished reading this book and no, I’m not resisting it- I’m actually devouring it because it’s spot on.

Many salespeople live the lives of artists. They must be creative, inspiring, dedicated, motivated and get past resistance. Just like the artist who starts with a blank canvas, the salespeople starts each month with an empty pipeline. Salespeople are only as good as the last sale they closed or lead they passed and they have to start all over again.

Tomorrow is a new month- don’t procrastinate, plan, prioritize and prepare. Make sure you hit your numbers half way through the month of February instead of the end of the month.