• Why aren’t you moving forward?
• Why do you feel “stuck?”
• Why is your success track not moving fast enough?
• Why don’t you have what you want?
• Why don’t you have what you feel you deserve?

Those are not tough questions.
Those are LIFE questions. Your life.
If these questions are uncomfortable to you, it means you aren’t sure of the answers. And I can’t spoon-feed them to you. But you can discover them.

Here are a few more questions to ask yourself that will give you insight into the answers ahead. I have not provided answers. You gotta do that:

• What is holding you back?
• Who is holding you back?
• Do you take responsibility for your success?
• Or are you blaming others for your inability or failures?
• Are you taking actions toward your success?
• Or are you blaming things or people for your situation and inaction?
• What’s your dream?
• What are you working toward?
• What’s your level of belief in what you do?
• Why do you second-guess your choices?
• Why do you let other people get in the way of your success?
• Why have you not forgiven others for past mistakes or wrongdoing?
• Why do you blame yourself instead of considering it a learning experience?
• How are you investing your time (reading)? How are you spending your time (watching TV)?
• How is the time you’re investing contributing to your growth?
• How is the time you’re spending contributing to your growth?
• Who are you associating with?
• Who is helping you?
• Who is holding you back?

OK, I admit, these are stinging questions. But face it. If you don’t ask yourself these questions, who will? The funny thing is that if someone else asked these questions of you, you’d say that person was nagging you. The reality is that when you ask yourself, these questions become nagging questions. A much better perspective.

So, what’s all this got to do with sales? Easy answer: Sales starts with the salesperson. If you’re not right, sales ain’t right. And the way you think about sales and the way you think about yourself will directly affect your results.

Each of you dreams about who you want to become and what you want to achieve. The reality? Without an ability to take action, those thoughts and dreams stay stuck in your mind. They are known as pipe dreams. The dream is there, but you don’t really believe you can achieve it. Well, here’s the good news: you may actually be able to. The secret lies in two words: “transfer” and “action.”

Transfer the mental image to a physical action.
Transfer the dream to a successful game plan.
Transfer the plan into actions.
Achievement actions.

Here are the 5.5 success keys:

1.The key is time allocation. Your ability to set aside time to begin to make your dream a reality. Time to learn, time to meet others, time to plan, and time to take action steps toward what you want, IN SPITE OF WHAT HAS BEEN HOLDING YOU BACK.
2. The key is your focus and self-discipline. Your focus and self-discipline will determine your success. Allocate some small amount of time EVERY DAY, even if it’s just 30 minutes. Make daily progress toward your achievement, your success, your dream.
3. The key is thought conversion. Converting the thought into an action.
4. The key is “the daily dose.” Define what you want and break it into achievable actions.
5. The key is the thinking that dominates your mind. Go back and re-read The Little Engine that Could. Think you can. Change your word-thoughts. Add words like dream- plan-support-belief-small daily actions-consistency-drive-focus-self-determination-and passion.
5.5 The key is you. Positive attitude is your glue. Purpose is your fuel. You are the driver. You have the key to the car. Without you (and your roadmap, of course) you will never arrive at your destination.

Here’s the GREAT news: With the winning words and formula you create for yourself, not only will you arrive at your chosen destination-but when you get there, you’ll be staying at the Ritz Hotel, baby.

Think about how you want to “arrive.” You can “just arrive” at your destination, like you do at work. Or you can arrive at your destination in the style you choose. Once you begin to exercise personal choices that make you feel successful, more success will come your way. I promise.

About the Author:

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of twelve best-selling books, including The Sales Bible, The Little Red Book of Selling,�and The Little Gold Book of Yes! Attitude.�His real-world ideas and content are also available as online courses at www.GitomerLearningAcademy.com. For information about training and seminars, visit www.Gitomer.com, email Jeffrey at salesman@gitomer.com, or call him at 704 333-1112.