At Sandler Training, we develop professionals in sales, management and customer service. Professionals have a commitment to be the best they can be. They do things a little differently than the average performers.

What do the most successful professionals in any industry have in common?

They study. They invest in themselves. They practice. They have systems and processes and they use them. Finally, they are driven by passion and purpose.

In my studies, I recently read the book OFF Balance by Matthew Kelly, where he describes living a passion and purpose filled life and I highly recommend it. He says passion and purpose come from personal clarity about how you live your life.

What is the best way to live?

As human beings, we thrive when we seek happiness. Some people mistake this for pleasure or instant gratification. However, what people really desire is satisfaction. Pleasure lasts only as long as the activity producing it. Satisfaction is sustainable health, wealth, and happiness. Learning to make great choices is integral to leading a rich and fulfilling life.

Matthew Kelly describes three philosophies of our age that stop us from achieve sustainable happiness and excellence in our lives and businesses:

1. Individualism – What is in it for me? This fosters greed, selfishness and exploitation.
2. Hedonism – A philosophy that emphasizes pleasure as the ultimate goal of life. The hedonist motto is: “If it feels good, do it.” What if everyone on your team only wanted to do what was enjoyable?
3. Minimalism – What is the least I can do? Minimal effort for maximum reward. Minimalism is the enemy of excellence and the father of mediocrity.

These philosophies are lazy attempts to answer the question: “What is the best way to live?”

A more strategic and fulfilling approach are 3 simple principles:

1. Live to become a better version of yourself, not a second rate version. Be yourself, but a better you. Make good life choices that take you there. You have free will. You get to choose how you live your life.
2. Virtue defines the best way to live. Who would you rather spend time with; generous people or selfish people, courageous people or cowardly people, humble people or prideful people, patient or impatient people? The whole world prefers virtue. Virtue is the essence of excellence in life and business.
3. Self-control and delayed gratification are the keys to living for a better tomorrow, better health, and greater influence.

Individualism, Hedonism and Minimalism lead to decay of personal self-control and the demise of our ability to delay gratification. Leave pleasure seeking activities, and choose a better way to live.

Choosing happiness and satisfaction in life and business lead to an increase in our passion and purpose, and give us more energy.  Your energy is directly related to your capacity for life. The more energy you have, the more you can accomplish.

Choose to take your life and your profession seriously. You control your income. You control your time. You decide how you will live your life. In what areas of your life are you seeking pleasure vs. satisfaction? What is the number one thing that would move you to being a better version of yourself?

I challenge you today to decide to study, invest in yourself, practice, and have a system that produces the results you desire. Decide to be the best you can be.

Steve Montague
Sandler Training Kansas City – http://www.effectivesales.sandler.com/

By Bill Bartlett

 I am fascinated by the way clients, prospects and salespeople, in general, define success. It is usually very personal and intimate, and reflects their perspective on their own life. Some define it in terms of income as in “he who dies with the most money” is deemed successful. Others use the importance of their job to determine whetheror not they are successful. A third group speaks of balance, though it is rarely achieved.

We all learn to define success, and to a certain degree failure, at a very early age. It happens when we receive our first report card in grade school. Whether we were educated in a pass-fail system or an A – F system, the marks all of us dreaded were the words “fail” or the letters “D” and “F”.

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