Stop Feeling Guilty and Focus On These Seven Steps…

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Peter has been an independent life insurance agent since 2010. In our Zoom consultation, he asked me for help with his focus and his guilt feelings.

“I’m making a living,” he told me, “But I know I could be making more and be more mentally satisfied.”

When I asked Peter what he meant, here’s some of what he told me:

“I’ve watched all of your YouTube [TOT] interviews and read everything I can find from top agents.  I see where I am and where I need to be to be successful. But that gap is so huge for me that the “to-do” list seems too long to even start.” …

“I feel paralyzed. I feel guilty about not working when I’m with my children and I feel guilty when I’m trying to get something done in the home office and not with them. I want to make more money, but I’m not willing to work 70 hours week.”…

Here’s part of how I answered Peter:

“Peter, you don’t have to work 70 hours a week to be a successful. You just need to focus, and the two issues you mentioned, fear and guilt, are keeping you from doing that.”

“The fear comes from being overwhelmed by the number of steps you’re seeing on the way to your “high diving board,” instead of focusing on just a few steps right in front of you.  The guilt comes from not having clear boundaries between our family time and our work time.”

“Both of these are paralyzing, but both can be addressed, by how we work…”

If you’re feeling any of what Peter was telling me, some of the ideas he and I discussed might help:

  1. Decide where you want your practice or business to be in each of the next three years and write it down with as much detail as you can.
  2. Even if it seems intimidating, create a “To Do” list of projects you need to accomplish to make your Year One vision a reality. Put everything down, even if the list is ten pages long.
  3. Go through the project list and find the three projects that could have the most immediate impact on your business–NO MORE THAN THREE. Put the big list away and write these out separately on a much smaller list. Then, for each of the three projects, create a “task” list.
  4. Create a master weekly schedule that starts with your family time and time off.  Take away the guilt by giving your family first choice on your time.  Then, put into the work schedule the things you need to do on a regular basis, along with a block of time to work on each of the three important projects, and a block of time for thinking and planning. Leave open spaces for all of the things that might pop up during the week–especially if you’re working from home.
  5. Honor your family time as if it were a major client commitment. Make an “appointment” with your spouse and children. When you are with them, be truly with them, so there is no guilt. But when you’re on work time, be truly on work time.
  6. End every day by deciding on the six most important tasks you need to accomplish on the next day. To the extent possible, make sure these get done in the open spaces on your schedule.
  7. Review the “big list” weekly to find and focus on the three most important weekly projects for the coming week.

Peter left our conversation excited and ready to make the changes we discussed on his own.  I have no doubt that if he can, he’ll be much happier and make much more money. And he knows that we can create a coaching program if he wants help with this.

If a conversation like the one I had with him could help you feel excited and confident, contact me to set up a time to talk.

And in the meantime, keep REACHING…

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16 Disciplines

I suppose it would have been more fun if I called them 16 “hot tubs” for advisors, or less intimidating if I called them “practices,” but after 17 years of working with and observing how the most successful advisors, it's clear that there are branches of knowledge involved. 

 

Practice these simple 16 disciplines daily and watch how quickly and easily your practice grows.

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