ONE LESSON

From the beginning of my sales career, I made it a point to be as efficient as possible with everything I did. I tried to make sure I was not “wasting time” and was remaining focused on my goal of winning a top producer award. I used to-do lists, built routines, and created structure in my life. Several years into my career, I was watching a YouTube video and heard the person I was learning from mention that they thought they were efficient until they saw how they were spending their time each day. Hearing this, my initial reaction was to judge the person on a lack of self-discipline, thinking I was not the same as them. Wow, was I wrong!

LESSON LEARNED: You are not as efficient as you think.

For the next few weeks after watching the video, the idea of seeing how I spent my time like the person did kept replaying in my mind. Essentially, I was afraid of what I would see. Finally, I relented and decided I would write down everything I did for the next two weeks. It was annoying to do this, but after I did, I was astonished at what I saw. Reviewing my notebook, I saw how much time I spent scrolling through social media, how long I spent deciding what to watch on Saturday night when relaxing, and how much extra driving I was doing instead of just looking at traffic first. Seeing all this grounded me, but it was one of the best things I could have done since it allowed me to revamp my days and become even more efficient, and create more time in my days to do whatever I want.