Training Yourself to be Persistent -- Item #3

It's all in your head, it is said. To be persistent, you have merely to make up your mind to be persistent. Since persistence is a state of your mind, and since we know you can develop your
subconscious mind, then it follows that you can train yourself to be persistent. Tonight let's concentrate upon some things that will assist you to become persistent.

We need to make a pair of assumptions here:

1.  That persistence is a good thing to have, and

2.  That you desire to obtain that attribute of character.

If you disagree with either of these statements, run, do not walk, to the nearest exit. This post is not for you. While many of the following have either been discussed before or seem to be so very self-evident, we're going to run over them again tonight, expanding upon each.


Definiteness of Purpose

Knowing precisely what you would like to accomplish is the most important element of developing persistence. It is here that the goal must be established, that the measurement of the degree of
accomplishment of that goal must be identified, and the method of accomplishing that goal determined.

For example, let's entertain a very simple situation. Your goal might be to achieve the President's Club in 2001-2002. You know the requirement -- it's $9,800. That goal has been established by Avon. You may wish to set it higher -- say $10,000, but it would
certainly not accomplish your purpose to set it lower. It's pretty easy to determine what you must do to accomplish it. You must produce an average of $377 per campaign, spread over 26 campaigns, more if you're already several campaigns into the award year. If your average sale has been $20 per campaign,
you're going to have to average 19 sales per campaign.

Those are the mechanics of it, but what will make it happen? What will be the strong motivating force that will get you to make those 19 sales of $20? Let's list a few and see if any fit you:

     You'd like to achieve that Albee statuette and begin a collection of them to display in your living room.

     You'd like to stand up in front of the group with a big smile on your face while everybody claps because YOU MADE IT! I KNEW I COULD; I KNEW I COULD!

     You cannot see how your close friend is able to do it every year and you are unable to do it. What has she got that you don't have? Here the motive becomes resolution.

     You'd like to be able to prove that you have what it takes to bat with the "big sluggers" in your district (another baseball analogy).

     You'd like to earn the ability to get a guaranteed 40% for the entire next year of your participation (if you want that 40% now, bring that $377 up to $401).

     You'd like to have a fancy luncheon, courtesy of Avon, your regional manager, and your district manager, even though your DH cannot go.

     You'd like for Avon to remember you on your birthday and at Christmastime.

     You'd like to tap into all the free products that PC members receive during the year.

     You'd like to be able to sign in for district meeting and put your checkmark into the PC column, rather than the other column where the majority of folks are.

Do you think you could find a motivating force among those items listed? If not, let's add just one more: at some point you may have a child who could use a scholarship to a college. Perhaps that would be sufficient motivation to get yourself in gear. It
was for my mother.

Motivating force -- quite a term. But there is no immovable object in Avon. All it takes is a little planning, a little effort, and the recognition that in sustaining these items, you can successfully achieve whatever you set out to achieve.

And one element of persistence that you can accomplish is to work at it until you, in fact, have those 19 orders of $20 each. It may mean going to one more house. It may mean going to ten. It does mean that if you want it to happen, you must take the steps to make it happen. Like Robert Frost's poem said, you have miles to go before you sleep.


Desire.

How badly do you want that goal? That's what desire is all about.  Remember, we called it DOMINATING DESIRE. Dominating desire is when you want something so badly that you'll do darn near anything to get it. Every one of us who has had to shed a few pounds has
experienced dominating desire. For some, it's to look good in a bathing suit. For some, it's a desire to get to a size 10. For some it's a necessity to return health to an ailing heart.

It's at that point where we have decided that the dominating desire is important enough that we will forgo the Krispy Kremes and push away from the table, walk that extra mile, purchase some fitness videos or equipment, and do what must be done.

That final phrase of the last sentence is important: DO WHAT MUST BE DONE. Nobody can make you want to achieve President's Club. If you've ever been on a regimen to lose weight (and who of us hasn't been at one time or another) you're aware that it is a
repetitive activity, one that must be repeated per unit time, every hour of every day of every week or every month. Doing what must be done becomes a way of life.
    
In Chapter 10 of the book, previously discussed, I deal with the subject THE FIRE IN THE BELLY. Allow me to quote myself:

     "A passion for selling lies within you, and only you can tap the well. It's important, if you are to be successful at this, that you build a fire under your butt and install yourself into a comprehensive plan to improve your performance. Remember, each day you get better or you get worse. It's your choice. The building of that incentive requires that you push yourself. Only you can motivate you.  Any motivation you receive from me is cursory, at best. Your DM can persuade you to try new things. You can read interesting techniques and try to apply them. But not until you make a very specific decision that you will try something and SEE IT THROUGH, NO MATTER WHAT, will you develop that fire. And if it doesn't work, that you will try something else, again and again, until you find that specific combination of things that work for you."

So, how do you get the desire? How do you fan the flames? How do you get that burning passion that will keep your shoulder to the wheel each and every day? Among the answers to those questions will be a simple statement: make your plan; work your plan. We can add to it, but it's also sharing in every victory of every representative in our district -- in every enjoyment of accomplishment of our peers here on the loops -- in going to every celebration afforded to us and clapping until our hands get sore -- recognizing that these folks will do it for us, when the time comes.

This isn't the place to again extoll the virtues of a positive attitude. The book documents those and you can find evidences of it everywhere you turn. But it is the place where you can resolve, right now, to start every day with a positive attitude, with the recitation of the points contained in the last post, and with a smile on your face, and this confirmation in your heart:

              Y E S !!!   I  C A N  D O  T H I S !!!

And I can do it well. I can do it as well as anybody. I can do it the best that anybody could do it today. I CAN DO IT BETTER THAN ANYONE COULD EVER DO IT! In addition to making your day, those positive strokes will help to build that burning desire, that
dominating desire that will sweep you to accomplishment.


Self-Reliance.

Belief in your ability to develop and implement a plan will encourage you to follow that plan throughout its entirety. There will be people whose experience you can tap. There will be those
who will guide you like your parent guided you the day you learned to ride a bicycle, first one side and then the other. You can read here, there, and everywhere those things that will give you the knowledge. Every question you are asked and every answer you obtain builds that store of information necessary to permit you to respond accurately.

I received a request today that I honestly don't know how to answer. The lady requested a list of answers to FAQ (frequently asked questions) about Avon. In the nine years that I've responded to questions, I've never seen such a list and I think I would be unable to amass such a list. It's a fair request, of
course, but I can envision a unique question about every product offering we've had, and it seems that should such a compilation be made, it would be unwieldy. The easy answer would be that each
question can be answered in two words: "It depends." And of course, each set of circumstances is unique. It therefore follows that the only recourse is through experience. As Will Rogers said, "Good choices come from experience; experience comes from
bad choices." So the advice I must give her must center on her handling of questions and the resources available to her, and my encouragement to begin a course of study that will give her the knowledge she seeks.

I see another element of Self-Reliance here, also. While every one of us can post an incremental experience history, sooner or later it will be necessary to respond to a question where there
isn't a loop or an 800 number at our fingertips to provide the answer. At that point you must assume the responsibility to ferret out the answer. Taken a step further, you must assume the responsibility to make cold calls. You must assume the responsibility to go knocking on doors, stand at the tailgate and hand out brochures. ALL BY YOURSELF. And we know that once you've done that, the next time gets easier.


Definiteness of Plans.

There is no substitute for an organized plan. It has been said that if you don't know where you're going, you're liable to end up someplace else, and never know the difference. Plans come in all shapes and sizes. Plans get developed, tried, modified, or
abandoned and replaced by new plans. But if you wish to develop persistence, then intricateness of plan becomes an important step. For example:

     I will make 10 phone calls Monday morning.
     I will hand out 10 brochures Monday afternoon.
     I will knock on 10 doors Tuesday morning.
     I will visit 10 businesses Tuesday afternoon
     I will develop my regular customers' orders all day Wednesday.
     I will prepare my purchase order and get it into the box on Thursday morning.
     I will take Thursday afternoon off. I'm pooped!
     For another choice for Friday, see the next section.
     Friday begins the long weekend. I'll go to a movie, take in a concert, see a little league game, go to church, and lay out a plan for next week.

Don't look now. I just planned your week! This is nothing more than a set of tasks to which you can make a commitment. It is a set of tasks where you must rely on YOU to get them done. It's a set of tasks which, when coupled to 51 other similar sets of
tasks becomes a plan for the year. Commit to each in either its own task frame or its own time frame. You could, for example, make your phone calls for two hours every day of the plan. You could give out far more than 10 brochures by carrying them in the
car and depositing them at every stop you make. The alternatives are endless. But accomplishment requires nothing of me, nothing of your DM, nothing of your fellow representatives. What it requires must come from you and you alone, taking the plan you
have laid out, and following it as closely as possible day after day, week after week.


Accurate Knowledge.

I don't want to overwork the knowledge thing. we've dealt with it at length in previous posts. But I will ask you to consider working into your plan some study time. Set yourself up to work with learning your brochures' contents. Dig in the product
reference guide and tackle a section. Study the What's New and future brochures to know what's coming. Study your customers' histories so you can tell them when their favorite products will
be on sale.

There are many books on subjects that are relevant to these discussions. You'll find them at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Borders, and every bookstore in the land, down to and including the used bookstores. And (blush) I know where you can get one I feel might be useful to you.

There is nothing so destructive to your persistence than to be told "you don't know nuthin'." In my case, the question was "How could you possibly know anything about this?" So what do you do?  You find out, that's what you do. You handle the immediate
question with a commitment to learning and then you go learn, so that next time there isn't any reason you can fail to answer the question.

Remember, then, that "guessing" the answer, rather than "knowing" the answer shakes your confidence, and in turn, your persistence.  If you want to build solid persistence, then build your knowledge base.


Cooperation.

Persistence comes from the sympathy, understanding, and cooperation of your customers and associates. The previous post detailed the suggestion that you form a master mind trust for just that reason. Don't be afraid to seek counsel not only of your friends in the district and your friends on the loops, but
also those people with whom you come into direct contact -- your customers.

I wish I didn't have to read posts about how unhelpful other representatives in the district are or how unresponsive some DMs are. But human beings are human beings. There will be psychologists who will tell you that woman-to-woman transactions
are radically different from man-to-man transactions or even man-to-woman transactions. I've witnessed that for myself here when some loopers have put out sincere calls for help. Two men with a difference of opinion will "slug it out" and then have a beer
together. Two women with a difference of opinion seem to despise each other for a very long time. It's the way of the world, I guess. So it would seem that often cooperation will be less than available from your peers. But where you get it, cultivate it. If
it works, it will be a blessing. At least here on the loops there is evidence of support and encouragement.


Willpower.

What more can we say about willpower? Concentrate your thoughts on the development of a plan and its attainment; commit yourself to seeing that plan done step by step, even at the sacrifice of something that may temporarily be more interesting. It is only
willpower that will force you to do the uncomfortable thing. It is only the satisfaction of challenge met by willpower that will make you successful.


Habit.

Persistence is the direct result of habits you develop and utilize. You "learn" habit by repetition. You plant the seed in your subconscious mind so that when the appropriate stimulus is received, you will do things automatically. As you do them more often the mind will feed upon the experience.

Think back to when you learned to drive, those of you who actually learned to drive -- those who can drive a stick shift.  Remember how conscious you were about the accelerator and the clutch and their coordination? Remember how many times you came
up short when the clutch foot stepped on the brake? After time, those things became automatic. You don't think of them anymore, unless you shift between a standard and an automatic and must "relearn" one or the other momentarily. Those who can direct only
an automatic transmission-equipped automobile are not drivers, by the way. They are merely pilots. They have point and steer licenses.

Fear is cured by repetition that you force yourself to make -- over and over to the point of habit. Every stimulation of fear (a negative emotion) must be overcome by courage (a positive emotion). The more often that fear is conquered, the less terrifying it becomes. But nobody can do it for you; you must do
it for yourself, and often enough so that it becomes habit, pure and simple.


You May Now Enter Persistence Training.

There's no beginning. Neither is there any end. You can't say that from this day you will be persistent. You must build up to it gradually, taking conscious steps (even forcing yourself to take those steps) until that walking becomes unconsciously achieved. Reinforce the good habits with practice. Nip the bad
habits in the bud with a conscious decision to call out and utilize the good habit. You can do it. And say to yourself:

              Y E S !!!   I  C A N  D O  T H I S !!!

Goodnight.

Ken the Avon Man -- AOL IM kenlordjr
Rose Circle member, Unit Leader, Certified Beauty Advisor
District 7286 -- Tucson, AZ
Book: Becoming an Avon Representative available for $15.