It’s time. Recent events may still be lingering for a while longer, but there is no need for you to wait around for some sign, for circumstances to change, or for something good to happen to you. It’s time for you to make good things happen because of you. Here’s what you need to do to reemerge, reimagine, and recover.
Refuse
You can start by refusing to live in the past. Whatever happened over the last quarter is gone. Nothing in your past is subject to your control, your influence, or your opinion. Your temporal address, where you live, might be the past (regret), the future (anxiety and worry), or the present (the always present now).
Refuse to live anywhere that isn’t right here, right now.
Refuse to allow a virus or a recession to dominate any more of your time and your attention. Instead, do what you can to make a difference, and leave these things behind you. Refuse to carry them forward. There is no reason to bring anything into your future that isn’t going to be valuable to you when you get there.
Set down what is no longer valuable right here. Recognize what you have learned and how it benefits you.
Reform
There might not be anything more difficult for human beings than shedding their old, limiting beliefs for new, empowering ones. The events of the past may have caused you to believe that your year is over, that you can’t salvage your goals, and, if you have paid too much attention to what other people spout off as truths, no one is going to meet with you face-to-face. The new normal is already starting to show its age, and there has been nothing normal about it.
What you believe is your reality, even though there is mounting evidence that things are moving now—and gaining speed.
You might want to believe you don’t have time, but time is all you have. You might think that things are going to be more difficult when the truth is that people are always going to need help in bad times. The recent events have created an environment where change is not only necessary but one in which people are actively pursuing it. Reform your beliefs and the actions that follow.
Reimagine
No one escaped these events unharmed. Everyone shared in the adverse outcomes, even if the damage was worse for some than others. Whatever you set as goals and initiatives at the beginning of the year now need a revision. You need to reimagine your goals, your ambitions, and the results you can create now. Right now. On the back of these unfavorable events.
Reimagine what your clients are going to need from you. Reimagine what you are going to need to provide them. Reimagine how you spend your time. The end of the quarter is the perfect time to hit the reset button, reboot, and reimagine your future.
Your future does not depend on your past. Every decision you make can move you forward towards something better or leave you in a worse position because you have no vision pulling you forward and because you are taking too little action.
See something better.
Resolve
Resolve to do the work necessary to produce the results you want, even when it’s difficult, and though your clients and prospective clients aren’t able to move as fast as they would want to, or as quickly as you want them to.
Resolve to make a positive difference for your clients and prospects. Resolve to be a force for good, a force of light. There aren’t too many things as powerful as pure, unadulterated persistence. There is nothing wrong with being positively pig-headed when it comes to doing what’s right.
Get after it and don’t give up or give in.
Reemerge
Your clients disappeared. Many of them left the office and worked from home, and depending on where you live, your contacts might still be at home. You might also have dropped out of sight, ignoring your responsibility to the people you serve, and, like them, decided to wait this thing out. Now is the time for you to reemerge, to show up, to be seen, and to help people feel your intentions.
As a consultative salesperson, you should always be in front of your clients. You should be thinking about what they need, and you should help pull them back into the light with you. In all cases, what makes you a leader is your ability and your willingness to go first.
It’s time for you to reemerge, pulling as many people as you can with you.
Recover
The only way you recover your year, your business, your goals is by refusing to let the events of the past dominate your future or your present, something human beings have always done.
We overcome. We fight. We persist. We win, only to deal with the next urgency, emergency, or crisis.
Reforming your beliefs and deciding that you still have the power to act on your future is empowering. Decide that everything that happened for you, and you have a strengthened resolve to build that future now.
Start today. Act with a sense of urgency.
You will recover when you close your eyes and reimagine what comes next and by taking the actions necessary to bring what you see in your mind’s eye to life in the real world. Rewrite your goals. Reimagine your business. Then take unrestrained action to bring your visions to life.
Now is the time to show up. It’s time to be present in the present. It’s not enough to occupy space. Who you are and how you show up for your people is going to help you help them come out from their home offices and reemerge.
If you want to recover, the best thing for you to do right now is to help others with their recovery.
