In sales, more than in most other professions, these two muscles need to be continuously exercised. Flaccid discipline leads to disappointment and the absence of accountability to procrastination.

Hopefully, you’ve set some inspiring goals for 2020 and feel strongly about achieving them. What I want to impart to you today is that goals without discipline and accountability are often ephemeral. Most of the people I have coached in my lifetime can imagine success. Most of them can set a goal, imagine its completion, and trace the path backward from success to inception to layout the way to succeed.

What they need next is to have the discipline to write the plan, break it into manageable pieces, and take the actions. Having someone to be accountable to helps enormously with this. My good friend Mike Sadoski is my workout partner even though we live 300 miles apart and never exercise together. Mike and I text one another after each workout. I continually surprise myself with how much my accountability to Mike means to me. It’s so important to me to check in that I find myself texting him as I’m leaving the gym or completing a run, even before I get to the car!

On days when I’m on the fence about getting a workout in, a text from Mike, telling about his workout will get me off my butt.

Discipline is a muscle. Its strength grows with use and atrophies with neglect.

Accountability aids greatly in building discipline because accountability disallows rationalizations. Dr. Rob once taught me that the way to spell rationalize is RATIONAL LIES.  The lies and excuses I can rationalize inside of my own head, will not be accepted from my coach or accountability partner.

I hope you have a good coach or a good friend like Mike in your life, and I hope you have a strong plan for 2020 with your year is off to a roaring start!  If not, hit me back here and I will try to help.

Own your sales gene…