Tweet

Are you soaring or snoring? Handstand or quicksand - you make the call!

Written by: Eva Gregory

Article Overview: Are you greeting each new day with optimism and energy or are you feeling a bit lackluster? Are you dragging in the morning, slogging through mental, physical, and emotional quicksand throughout your work day, when school lets out, or any of those other times you want – and need - to be bright, cheery, energetic?

Are you soaring or snoring? Handstand or quicksand - you make the call!

Are you greeting each new day with optimism and energy or are you feeling a bit lackluster? Are you dragging in the morning, slogging through mental, physical, and emotional quicksand throughout your work day, when school lets out, or any of those other times you want – and need - to be bright, cheery, energetic?

Whether one is in transition or not, there are times in our lives when we lack that extra oomph, that shine, that spark that makes all things possible – even doable. Why is that?
The reasons can be one or several: career, relationships, finances, home life, health, school, fitness, schedules and time crunches, commutes, even the people we interact with on a regular basis. Any, some, or all can cause us to feel wiped out, depressed, stressed, discouraged, hopeless, exhausted, daunted, downtrodden. We know we should just simply ‘dig deep,’ rise above, and push onward and upward. Yet, at times in our lives, due to one or a set or circumstances and conditions that have changed or added up over time, it can feel nearly impossible to find that spark to drag ourselves out of the perceived muck. We have succumbed to energy drains – whether person, place, thing, circumstance – and need to get our groove back on! This may seem impossible if one is having a hard time finding the energy to pack a lunch AND water the plants.

It can happen to any of us. Take Helen, a single mother of a young boy, who gets up at the crack of dawn to dress, prepare herself and her son for the day, get him to the sitter, then commute 45 minutes to her job. During her work day, she thinks of her son often, feeling sadness that she can’t spend more time with him and worrying that she’ll miss so many milestones in his young life. Day’s end finds her doing the same in reverse: 45-minute commute, gathering son from sitter, arriving home to make dinner, spend a bit of time with her boy, and tend to household chores. Helen is as tired in the morning as she is a night; aware that she feels like she is not ‘running on all cylinders,’ she is trying to find light at the end of the seeming tunnel and knows something needs to change.
Conversely, we have Naomi, a stay-at-home Mom who left a very lucrative career about a year ago in order to be home full-time for her young daughter. Even though Naomi does not have to leave the house, she is finding it more and more difficult to even find the time to get dressed. Her daughter, Katie, seems to have so many needs and demands that Naomi is hard-pressed to get anything accomplished around the house and for herself during Katie’s waking hours. Naomi is exhausted, misses her career and coworkers, feels like she’s spinning her wheels, and is at her wits end. She’s not sure how, but knows she needs to get off of what she perceives to be a gerbil wheel of emotional hell.

Isn’t it odd how unique we are? It would seem that if Helen and Naomi traded places, all would be rosy and full of life’s passion. Since most of us know that is not realistic, what CAN we do to get our oomph back, banish the ‘quicksand,’ and once again, plant flowers?
Perhaps Helen can freelance or maybe her employer will let her outsource part of the work week, so she could perform her career tasks from home; she might be able to work evenings instead or cut back on her hours as well. Naomi may be able to hire a per diem nanny or place Katie in a play group or day care a few times a week; even an afternoon or two would free her to get groceries, clean house, enjoy some ‘me’ time, and even to find a way to re-enter the work force, either part-time or from home.

Both women are aware of how they are feeling and seem to know what is causing these energy drains, but what is the next step? The most important thing we can do when we all feeling the quicksand is to identify the problem – and then, choose a positive course of action with a positive attitude. We need to be able to identify the sources of our energy drains – and then find ways to say “No!” to them (or change our perspective about them) and say “Yes!” to our chosen solutions. How might we accomplish this?

Here’s an easy method:
Take a sheet of paper and draw two lines vertically from top to bottom, separating the page into three columns. On the left-most side, list those things, tangible or intangible, that you feel are sapping your energy. In the middle column, list any possible solutions for each item on the left. It’s okay to be creative. You are creating your own destiny here! Lastly, in the right-most column, jot down how you will feel when you have resolved the issue in the left-hand column. Spend some time with those positive feelings.

Energy, like water, seeks its own level. The Universe is always ready to help us, open doors, promote us, give us all we need – once we open ourselves to that vibrant flow of giving and receiving. It can not do that if we are looking down at our feet. Instead, identify your drains, choose to alter your course and/or your perception, and reach for the stars. If you have been missing out on that joie de vivre and zest for life, you are now in for a pleasant surprise! Seize the day.

Related Articles
  Salespeople Can Conquer a Sales Slump Like Getting Out of Quicksand
  Market Meltdown!
  Creating a Blog and Attraction Marketing
  Who Are You Talking To?
  Improve E-mail: Avoid the Quicksand

Article Tags: attraction, energy, Eva Gregory, giving, optimisim, positive attitude, receiving, soaring, success



Related Forum Posts
Re: Business Query....HElp me out! - Hi Sandeep, Welcome to the forum. There are many reasons why you are failing to get to the next step. Do you own a website? Is it appealing? Do you have a "killer" sales page? What do you write in your email? Maybe it goes directly to their spam folder? If you do get to talk to someone, try to close the deal at this one phone call, each call you make is getting you away from your target.
Crafting a script - Hi Andrew This is actually a pretty big topic. And it's so unfair to dump it on you because I've seen even experts mess up a telephone strategy. The trick is to develop a reason for calling that really is to the callee's benefit. If you can do that, and if you have a good backup document, you can often get an excellent appointment hit rate right from the first, ice-cold call. I don't generally recommend going for the appointment on the first call because here are the average stats for appointments on a call cycle of every 60-90 days: 1st call, less than 1% will agree to see you 2nd call, maybe 3-5% will see you 3rd call, maybe 7% will see you 4th call, maybe 60% or more will see you So if you go pushing for appointments too soon in the call cycle, you could well be turning them against you and ruining that beautiful 60% later on. Here's an example of a strategy that I did for a client - a recruitment agency, just recently. I discovered just by chatting to employers and hr managers (I asked them what their biggest staff challenge was) that they lived in fear of staff quitting on them. Staff retention was their biggest issue. So the spiel went "I'm calling because we've noticed that staff poaching is a bit of a problem in Perth right now, and that's not helping us either. That's why our MD is visiting local businesses to explain a simple strategy you can put in place to help stop poaching. He's going to be in Xville next Thursday afternoon, and again on Friday afternoon - which is best for you?" If they said they didn't want to have a meeting the spiel continued "Oh that's fine, of course I know you're busy. Would you like me to just email the report to you instead so you can read it when you've got time?" Most people said yes, they'd like the report. And of course the report contained a strong call to action (to have the MD visit). Lots of times even when they'd said no to the telemarketer, they called back to make the appointment after all. This is what I mean by a strategy, it's not just a call by itself. This particular strategy got an appointment rate of 3:7 calls. Pretty good for ice-cold. Three provisos with this: 1 The reason for your visit, and the content of the backup info, must be critically relevant to a crushing need your client has 2 You need to have a mature professional making these calls, not a teenybopper who sounds like they're just out of school 3 When you do go out to that appointment, make absolutely sure you deliver on what they're expecting -- if you turn it into "bait and switch" you'll lose them forever. Give them even more than they were hoping for. Hope that helps, and good luck. Best wishes Christine
Why So Much Time? - Hi Evan. I'd challenge you about how long a webinar takes to prepare. There are some simple models out there that would suggest that the time you need is a lot less than you might think. Remember, you are not writing it all down and just reading it out. 2 minutes settling everyone in 5 minutes outlining the call and the ground rules of listeners (if it's interactive) 10 key points of 3 minutes 10 minutes of Q&A 5 minutes of a sales pitch 5 minutes of a review of the call 3 minutes of goodbye If you are able to manage it so that the call is even more ointeractive (Q&A with others on the call chipping in with their ideas and you act as a facilitator), you workload is even less. The only time you need to prepare is the 10 key points and the marketing/e-mails. Pretty straight-forward! Regards
Re: How do you answer the phone? - When the phones were only phones, the ways of greeting someone on the call were different. Ever since the phones have become Gadgets, one gets to know who has called up in most cases. This also changes the way we attend the call and hence the greeting also varies. I generally see who is on call and greet accordingly as "Good (Morning / Afternoon) (Mr. / Ms.) (name of the caller)...". This definitely adds the personal touch. For others, when there is no name displayed, its the usual way.
JW Site redesign - I agree the Font is a little small. Also on the homepage I believe it will be effective for you to display an offer to sample your services - I believe you had one in your previous site. This is only constructive feedback.... I'm not sure about the length of the "quote" page - possibly too many questions. I wouldn't fill it out after seeing it but would pick up the phone to call you and deliver my thoughts over the phone. Maybe if you reduce the questions down to three/five questions without me having to explain in detail what I am looking for - I would complete it. One of your final questions would be: what's the best time to contact you? You can call the prospect then to get more details and you would record it during that session. I did this when I ran my webdesign company and it worked really well. my questions were: Name? Telephone? Email? Briefly describe your ideal website? Best day and time to call? I captured the details during the call-back.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Too Many Sales Reps Are Wimps

When Living the Dream isn't enough!

How To Calculate A Minimum Fee For Your Services

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.