There is no greater critic of my performance than me. Whether is it playing golf, writing a blog, or working with my clients. I can be hard on myself. Specifically, when it comes to golf, I can demean myself in ways I would never speak to anyone else. Usually, it’s after I splash one in the water, or the bunker of miss a putt under 10 feet. And it used to be worse.
I’m working on improving my performance constantly. I stop to reread emails, and blogs multiple times before I send them. I preplan my work with clients focusing on what we need to accomplish and anticipating objections. I prepare questions that I can ask and prepare for questions they may ask. I believe I’m more productive when I’m prepared. Still in golf, I practice, and I still frustrate myself with some poor shots. I can’t always control my performance. But I can control how I treat myself.
It occurred to me that I’m my own worst enemy. People learn how to treat you based on how you treat yourself and verbalizing my disgust with a shot not only hurts me, but it also hurts my relationships with my fellow golfers. When I play relaxed, I play better. I realize that getting frustrated affects the next shot and can lead to some poor scoring. I’m learning to let it go. I’m in control in how I’m treated on the golf course, and in life.
When you don’t receive the anticipated response from a prospect or customer, do you let your frustrations and emotions affect your “next shot”? Do you analyze why you didn’t anticipate the response? Your response can make or break a relationship. It’s critical to choose wisely.
1. Act. Doing nothing doesn’t move the opportunity through the pipeline.
2. Accept responsibility for what happened. Determine how you could have improved the situation.
3. Cut the negativity. Anger and self-loathing do nothing positive.
I practice and build processes to improve my performance. I build systems to measure my performance. I may never be a low or even middle range handicapper as a golfer, but I will still try to improve, and I will continue to work on quieting my inner voice that berates my performance.