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“Life is difficult. This is a great truth; it is also an ironic truth. Because once we truly understand and accept it, we no longer view life as difficult.”

These paraphrased words were written by M. Scott Peck, M.D. in his 1978 book, The Road Less Traveled, one of the greatest books ever written about leading a full and complete life.

His words apply to all of us in professional sales careers. Sales is a challenging, frustrating and intense career to pursue. Those outside of sales think all we do is play golf and cash big paychecks. We know differently.

Just as Dr. Peck suggests, once we accept the fact that everything isn’t going to be easy in our sales career, we are then free to stop expecting things to be perfect. Our careers will never be ideal; we should never be surprised, or even annoyed, by problems.

The definition of frustration is a blocked goal. If we give up our goal of a problem-free sales career we automatically reduce our frustration level. We are then free to use our emotions and energy on more productive things like customer relationships and relationships within our company.

What aspects of our careers do we unrealistically think should be perfect? The short answer is people (i.e., sales managers, customers, prospects, department heads and corporate executives).

Just like us, everyone struggles with the desire for their life to be flawless too. The reality is that we all waste a lot of time and energy waiting for paradise on earth. It is not to be found…here.

Rx: Know that we are going to face problems every day and that virtually 100% of them will be generated by people. Since we know this, we can choose not to waste any of our personal resources on frustration. We can instead choose to channel our energy, intellect and emotions toward improving ourselves, our company and our service to our customers.

© 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

Tags: career

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