Are you over the recession excuse yet?  If you’re still waiting for the old pre-2008 days, you’ll be waiting a long time. Welcome to the new normal.  It’s time for you to let go of the past and get going again.  There is a market of around $20 Billion Dollars for what you’ve got to sell. Most of us would be very happy with just a few crumbs from that table. So what’s holding you back?

1. You’re waiting for something. Stop waiting and start creating! If anything was possible, what would you do?  What accounts do you want? Go out and create something great for them. Learn their business and work to solve their problems.
2. You’re trying to make sales instead of creating relationships. Every buyer is a person. A person with the same needs as everyone else in this world. They are seeking solutions for problems at work. They want to look good to their bosses. They want to make their company a hero to their customers. They want to have fun. They want to deal with fun people who are competent and confident. Start treating sales as a relationship building process. It’s fun and it pays off with loyal customers and lasting friendships.
3. You think good is good enough. If you’re not working to be the best — and I mean the very best — you don’t deserve high margins or loyal customers. That’s right. You need to earn it. You need to be great every single time. It may not seem fair, but you’re only as good as your current project. In every project — go for the WOW factor.
4. You’ll take any job and do anything. Instead of becoming very very good at a particular niche, you use the Chinese Restaurant menu approach to the business. In case you haven’t noticed, the great restaurants have a limited menu and they do those things very well. Specialists always make more than generalists. Experts don’t get shopped for price.
5. You don’t work to be distinctive. You’re selling the same stuff from the same sources in the same way to the same people. That my friend, is the definition of a commodity. Any buyer who does not shop a commodity for the lowest price is not doing their job. You must be different. You must be distinctive. You must break out and stand out.

Get going and get growing. Write the happy ending to your story. Actively pursue your dream accounts and figure out ways to create value for your unique services. Treat your job as a relationship builder, a trust builder and a problem solver. Never settle for good. Be great. Specialize. Don’t just be a little different. Be distinctive.

Make this world a better place. Make this industry a better place. Make your home a better place. You can do it. Starting with you. 

A few years ago, I lived in downtown Chicago and joined Michigan Avenue Toastmasters. This was a diverse group of interesting people all dedicated to becoming better speakers and helping each other elevate their skills.  I took the #3 Bus up to the Magnificent Mile and cut through Water Tower Place to the Hotel Seneca every Tuesday evening. It was exciting, inspiring and motivating.  When I moved to Grand Rapids, I joined a Tuesday night Toastmasters Club that met at the same time but in a retirement home and with a handful of people and very little of the energy or excitement to which I was accustomed. When I whined about this to one of my Chicago friends, he replied, “Well, it sounds like you’ve got your work cut out for you.”  

What incredible advice!  It echoed the sentiment of Mahatma Gandhi who said, “You must be the change that you want to see in the world.”  We spend so much time fretting, worrying, complaining about things we don’t like. Instead, do the one or two small things that you can that will make a difference. 

We have unlimited power to allow ourselves to create beauty, love and art in the way that we live. You can be that creative force by doing one thing — BE YOU NOW.

Your gift is to be yourself — fully, fantastically and consciously — in this moment. Of course, you must love yourself to share yourself. 

You have everything that you need in this moment. So why should you worry? Worry is a fantasyland that you’ve made up and are suffering in even though it does not exist. If you believe that you know the future, life has not yet taught you just how quickly your life can change. You can believe in now. Indeed, it is the reality that there is and it is perfect.

The past is just as fabled. It is gone. It’s yesterday’s wind. Living with regrets, or worse, living with grudges, resentments or hatred over past events diminishes you and causes suffering.  Let go of the negativity from past events and discover the grace of forgiveness. It is something you do for yourself, not for the object of your negativity

We get to choose our thoughts. We get to choose our attitudes. Choose wisely.

Learn to love and to live with the awesome power that love gives you.  Fear is the opposite of love and fear is learned. Marianne Williamson said, “Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us.”

If you don’t love what you do, why are you doing it? You only get to go around once in this life, so make sure you’re doing it right. There is no dress rehearsal. This is it. You can create a better world, a better industry, a better company, a better family, a better you. Choose to create beautiful moments through your every interaction, your every choice.