What is that one thing that all successful people seem to know that others less successful don’t? Why do so many lose and so few win? It really is very simple. Successful people know the answer to the riddle. Others use it, but it always seems to work against them. Can you solve the riddle?
WHO AM I?
I AM THE ALLY OF ALL MEN THAT ARE GREAT AND I AM THE ENEMY OF ALL FAILURES AS WELL
I WORK WITH THE PRECISION OF A MACHINE, BUT I AM NOT MECHANICAL
IF YOU TEACH ME A TASK, I WILL DO IT ALMOST AUTOMATICALLY WITHOUT YOUR SUPERViSION
IF YOU ARE FIRM WITH ME AND TEACH ME EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT, I WILL LAY THE WORLD AT YOUR FEET
IF YOU TAKE ME FOR GRANTED AND TREAT ME LOOSELY, I WILL DESTROY YOU
WHO AM I?
Did you understand that it is a habit? If you study some of the most successful people throughout history, they all had rituals or habits they did everyday without fail. Once you find those little details you know produce results in life, in your business or in your relationships, it is the repetition of doing those things daily that produce long term desired results. Think about the riddle. We all use habits every day. There are bad habits like smoking, overeating, drinking to excess that usually have bad long term consequences. There are good habits like exercise, marketing your business, making time for relationships that usually have good long term results. It is all in our control which habits we use. Let’s look at how to form habits.
Psychologists teach us that an act becomes a habit if it is repeated consistently for 21 days. The dictionary defines habit as a noun –A settled or regular tendency or practice esp. one that is hard to give up. Just ask a smoker how hard it is to break a habit. If we build positive and productive habits into our lives we are unstoppable. We have all driven to a job or school the same route over and over. We all have had that feeling of “I don’t even remember driving in this morning”. It doesn’t mean we were unsafe or out of control. It just means our mind was in such of a “habit” to making the drive that we were able to think about other things or maybe even talk on our cell phone, oops, bad habit!
A habit is at its best when it becomes an unconscious competence. Meaning we do the task without thinking about it. No one past the age of 6 thinks about tying their shoe laces. It is an unconscious competent habit. Find those things in your business and make them a daily habit by doing them consciously every day for 21 straight days. You will soon reach unconscious competence start to see good long term progress. For example, I set a goal a year ago to write a new blog once per week. It started out being a real chore to come up with subject matter and finding the time to put it all together. Now over one year later, it is really a part of my week. I got in a habit of writing down ideas as they came to me so I don’t stress about subjects of content. All we need is to work on those good habits to live a very happy life. So start today, forming your new habits. Don’t procrastinate because that is a really bad habit!
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”–Aristotle
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Tim Wilhoit is owner/principal of Your Friend 4 Life Insurance Agency in Nashville, TN. He is a family man, father of 3, entrepreneur, insurance agent, life insurance broker, salesman, sales trainer, recruiter, public speaker, blogger and team leader with over 25 years of experience in sales and marketing in the insurance and beverage industries.
For me it’s always been, treat each client like I would treat my own family.
JP, that is certainly a great habit of excellence, thus why you are so successful. Thank you for sharing! “
The mis-spellings and grammatical errors in the riddle undermine the intrinsic lesson and are a detriment to the credibility of the present source.
I believe you must mean: precision, supervision, and loosely. Further, the term granite is incorrect and should be “for granted”.
This sort of thing is an indictment of the American education system that is pervasive and terribly depressing.
W.A.T.
William, I appreciate your pointing out the weaknesses of my blog. I copied and pasted the riddle in from another source and probably should have checked it closely for misspellings and grammatical errors. I guess some of us were not as fortunate to have formal education from outside of the US as you. Maybe a good habit to learn is to be a little nicer when making a point to a stranger. Thank you for sharing the corrections.
Here;s some quotes Id’ like to share:
“The time has come to roll up your sleeves, take a firm grip on your resolutions, and prepare for the real job ahead. At the very outset, one fact must be clearly borne in mind. If there is a Fifth Freedom, it is not “Freedom from Work.”
But work alone is not enough. If there is a secret of success, it is simply forming the habit of doing constructive things that failures don’t like to do. Successful men have a purpose strong enough to make them form the habit of doing things they don’t like to do, when it is necessary to reach their goals.
We all know the hold bad habits can have over our daily lives. But few of us are aware of the enormous influence of the good habits which sometimes guide us through the business of living.
Men form habits and habits form futures. If you do not deliberately form good habits, unconsciously you will form bad ones. You are the kind of person you are because you have formed the habit of being that kind of person. The only way you can change is through habit.
Man is a creature of habit. Psychologists say that less than 5 per cent of what we do is conscious action; habit governs the other 95 per cent.
Perhaps you are beset by bad business habits. Maybe you are not even aware of them. But if you are not quite living up to your full capabilities, the chances are that bad habits, or lack of good habits, are slowing you down. If that’s how it is with you, it’s time to swap bad habits for good. Let’s get at it.
The biggest and hardest job for a life insurance salesman is “bossing” himself. Many men never get the job done.
The very freedom of action, which attracts men into the business, is often their downfall. When agents look on freedom as the right to coast, they ignore a few simple “musts” that mean success. “Bossing” yourself into line with these “musts” and success is yours.
Duke, that is absolutley amazing! I take off my hat to you sir, that is more powerful than my blog. I REALLY appreciate you sharing this, it says it all! With Gratitude, Tim