Contacting Your Sphere Part 3

Imagine a truck driver that ran into a detour or hit a traffic jam and decided that they would not finish their delivery. It was to difficult and to much effort to make the delivery today.Imagine a mail carrier that felt it would just be easier to drop off all the mail at one house on the block and let that family sort it out and make sure it got to the right places.Imagine a sanitation engineer that decided that they would skip a few houses and not collect the trash and garbage. They decide that they will skip pick-up today and just do it next week.Imagine a 12 year old paper boy on his bicycle delivering some papers but decided to stop at the park and play baseball with his friends and skip the rest of his route.
Are those people acting like professionals?

“A professional is a person who can do his best when he particularly does not feel like it.” 
                  -Alistair Cooke

How do act like a professional? That is easy. Look at the people around you for inspiration. Does not matter the occupation, only their dedication, commitment and follow through to their occupation and profession. Acting like a profession goes far beyond the service and commitment to the consumer though. It’s about your commitment and service to yourself.

Professionals practice. Amateurs don’t.

If you are like me when you play a round of golf you might partake in an adult beverage or two. I show up at the first tee, stretch, take some practice swings and tee off. After I finish the 18th hole, I load up my clubs and I head home. Is this what a professional does? Do you think Tiger Woods routine looks anything like this? I seriously doubt it.I have a feeling Tiger shows up early to the range to practice his swing, hit balls, try different shots and use different clubs. Even after his 18 holes of golf he heads back to the range to work on anything that did not work during his round or perfect something he was working on. He practices. I don’t. I just play. He is a professional. I am an amateur.

“You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.”
                  –NBA Hall of Famer/Jerry West

Acting like a professional means knowing what you know and knowing what you don’t and knowing the difference between those. I’m constantly amazed at the type of real estate agent I see at regional, national or even local training. I see TOP PRODUCERS. Always. Why are they there? They are already successful. Top Producers are acting like professionals and are being learning based. They are constantly improving on what they know and learning about what they don’t know. They are practicing. Acting like a professional is doing things you don’t want to do, on days you don’t want to do them. Acting like a professional is being learning based. Acting like a professional is knowing what you know and knowing what you don’t.

Related: Contacting Your Sphere Part 1

Contacting Your Sphere Part 2