Greg's Right FIT #424

Quick notes to help you grow your business in less time with less effort. . . sometime next week. 

In this issue: 

- Thoughts on Decisions
- Being Human
- Random Stuff

Thoughts on Decisions

• Be data "informed" vs. data "driven" when analyzing and forecasting. A buying decision is far more complex than the data collection tools we have available. 
• When helping clients make decisions, give equal weight to the unknown in addition to the known. In other words, to be "sure," be willing to admit where you are "unsure."
• Options move decision-making forward. Options magically change self-talk from "should I?" to "how should I?"
• No options, or feeling like there are no options is a terrible feeling. Your brain shuts off. You have options, even it's between bad and worse. If you keep telling yourself you have options, your brain keeps you in the game. 

Being Human - Group activities

“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.” – Herman Melville

We've been on a movie tear lately. The weather is nice enough to walk to the theater, so we've been watching whatever film they happen to be showing. One of the best parts about seeing a movie is talking about it afterward. The shared experience gives us a reality to react to. 

Post-pandemic, group gatherings are still making a comeback. It's a muscle we need to exercise. At least it is for me. Once I got used to working from my little office without visiting clients, I find it hard to get back in the swing of things. It's hard to rebuild momentum. 

The first part of rebuilding momentum is reminding myself why I'd want to have momentum visiting clients in the first place. This is what my book "The Sales Momentum Mindset" refers to as Inspiration Motivation. My reason for needing more face-to-face time is because I get so many ideas from seeing workplaces in person. Seeing groups interacting. Online and via the phone, it's hard to do. 

The second part is activity. That's it. 

The nice thing about activity is it doesn't have to be in the exact thing you're trying to build momentum in. I simply need to start getting out of the home office more. Coffee shops were the start. A couple of times a week to write. Next comes some group activities. I started with concerts, movies, and other non-work-related activities like my writer's group. Now I'll look for some business conferences to attend. At the same time, I'll start making appointments to catch up with as many people as will see me. (It doesn't hurt that spring is near!)

By this time next year, I should be back to pre-pandemic levels of face-to-face contact. In the language of my book, I'll have that Continuation Motivation working for me. The holy grail of motivation.

Good stuff. 

Random Stuff

"We care about prison education, very simply, because prisoners get out." – Christopher Zoukis

This morning I listened to a speaker talk about decisions and options. It was a passing comment, but it jumped out to me because at not exactly the opposite of my beliefs, it's close. I consider options to be expansive, a magic trick for getting unstuck. My friend was suggesting not all options act this way. A choice between bad and worse is limiting. 

The speaker was Jeremy Bouman, one of my early morning pickup basketball buddies. He runs an organization called RISE (seeusrise.org) with the lofty mission of breaking generational cycles of incarceration. It's a big problem with no simple solutions. Jeremy has built an amazing organization, and it's making a measurable difference. Recidivisim, when a convicted criminal reoffends, is down in our state, due in part to the work RISE is doing. Jeremy got me thinking about my ideas on options. I love it when that happens. 

I'll think about this more. What I think Jeremy was trying to tell us in general, and me in particular, is that our ability to come up with options is limited by life experiences. It's hard, if not impossible, to consider options beyond what you've been exposed to. Especially when you grow up in survival mode. The work RISE does is exposing the incarcerated, their families, and employers in our community to new experiences. This creates new options for people in survival mode, exposing them to options beyond "bad" and "worse." From what I saw this morning, this exposure is life-changing for a lot of people. It's good stuff. 

If you're in Nebraska, where our prison system is expensive and overcrowded, learn more about RISE at seeusrise.org. Jeremy and his team are making a difference in the community. Five stars. Highly recommended.