So here in Australia today is the “Race that stops the nation” – The Melbourne Cup. Personally I don’t care much for horse racing being a Vegan and animal liberationist. But many do and that’s okay. All to their own, right? Everything is a choice. Everything.
It’s interesting how many I come across who, every single time a holiday comes along, they take ‘time off’ from their business. They use things like school holidays, Christmas holidays, Easter, Pupil Free Days, Melbourne Cup – the list is endless. “Oh but I can’t make it on that Zoom call – I have a champagne lunch to attend.” “Oh but my kids’ are home from school that day”. And that’s okay. Perfectly. There is absolutely no judgement here at all. But if you were working for someone else, would you seriously call your boss and tell them that? Probably not.
The point I am making here is that every choice you make carries a consequence. I love how Jim Rohn used to say “never miss anything” – and he was right. That Zoom call you miss may mean you could miss a critical piece of information that could really shift things for you. It could mean that you won’t be invited back if this becomes a common excuse. I must admit I do this myself. I kind of run with the ‘3 strikes you’re out’ philosophy in life. I invite someone to an event three times – if they continue to give me excuses, then I don’t invite them back again. Because it becomes a part of their persona. A part of their ‘modus operandi’. It may not necessarily be a holiday excuse – but something else. I do tend to distance myself from people who give constant excuses. But holidays is always an indicator.
Now I’m not going to single people out here and embarrass people but I want you to WAKE UP!! What are you missing because of your constant excuses? Are you hearing these from your team, your friends, your family frequently? If so – it could well be YOU doing the exact same thing.
You see you only have results or excuses – it is impossible to have both. You’re either making excuses why you don’t have the results you really want or you are just doing whatever it takes to achieve those results. There’s no middle ground here.
Now a few months’ ago I wrote a blog post about Mums in particular making their children their excuse instead of their reason. And it applies here equally. Now clearly I wouldn’t recommend calling a whole heap of people/prospects/team members whatever on a Sunday or a public holiday. But DON’T STOP YOUR MOMENTUM!!! It astonishes me how many people quite literally ‘clock off’ during Christmas and January like the silly season consumes 24 hours’ a day, 7 days’ a week for 60 days! I mean, really?? Does it?? I have had people tell me this – I kid you not! “Oh Fiona I’d love to come along to that training but December is just so busy for me with Christmas preparations and school holidays. I just don’t have time to work my business.” Then perhaps you don’t have time to create the success you committed to when you got started in Network Marketing. Just saying …
Coming into the holiday season especially for your Americans with Thanksgiving and then Christmas, NOW is the time to put the pedal to the metal. Start creating a Christmas plan – and be ready to rock it! So many people leave it until the last minute to buy Christmas presents and if you’re there ready with your hampers or gift boxes etc – you will do very, very well and end up pocketing a small fortune and gain some new and possibly very loyal customers. Or you could just allow the ‘silly season’ to overtake you. It’s up to you.
Everything is a choice. You can choose to look at public holidays and indeed any holiday as exactly that or use the time wisely. You are not a traditional business so don’t treat it like it is. This is not a ‘bricks and mortar’ business that closes on Sundays and public holidays. Now I’m not saying don’t take a break. That is the furtherest thing I could suggest. But what I am saying is don’t slow down the momentum you have created by taking a few weeks’ off just because the rest of the population does. You are not working a J.O.B. here. You are making a difference in the world and in order to do that, you need to do things differently. And this includes not taking all of December and January off. Two whole months’!!! Come on – what makes you think that if you don’t follow up your team and/or customers for two months’, they will stay with you? All of that hard work for nothing.
So take time off but make it calculated. Plan for it. Don’t make it two months’! Make sure your team members and customers are cared for and loved. Make sure you still have marketing running. Still answer your phone and reply to e-mails. If you truly love every single little thing about what you do, you won’t make excuses. You won’t mind taking the calls and replying to the e-mails because you love it so much. This should never be work. It should be LIFE. Think about it.