“Fixing” Your Environment
Ever been to a county fair and played those carnival games?
If you pay close attention, you’ll figure out that most of them are “fixed” to make winning WAY more difficult than it appears.
The carnie tosses the ball without hardly looking, and it knocks over all the pins. Easy. You toss the ball with perfect aim and focus, and it only knocks over half of them. Two dollars gone.
The carnie has somehow ”fixed” the game to make it very difficult to win for the average player.
In much the same way, we can often find opportunities to “fix” our lives to make it easier for us to succeed at whatever it is we are pursuing.
Ever since daylight savings time has come into effect (the beginning of November), I’ve found it very difficult to work past 6PM. Why?
1) When it gets dark, I have difficulty reading the numbers on my street sheets and the house numbers.
2) When it gets dark, I tend to start getting cold.
3) It’s usually very inconvenient for me to eat lunch because of my schedule, so I often find myself STARVING by 5PM and anxious to leave the field and get something to eat.
All three of these factors are literally costing me money on a daily basis, and preventing me from reaching my goals as quickly as I potentially could.
After some thinking earlier tonight, I realized that by “fixing” a few little factors in my environment, I can literally start making more money immedietely – without any complicated changes to my sales techniques. How?
1) I can find a light that clips onto my binder for easy viewing of my street sheets after dark that also swivels up so I can read house numbers.
2) I can invest in a nice pair of thin, yet warm gloves and start keeping additional layers of clothing in my car so I’ll stay warm and comfortable during those evening hours when the temperature drops.
3) I can start packing a light lunch each day to keep myself from getting hungry and wanting to leave the field to eat at a restaurant…which will actually save me money from the beginning.
All of these are ways that I will be altering my environment to make it easier and more comfortable to work longer hours…and more importantly, the evening hours when more people are home!
Lesson learned: Stop trying to use willpower to get yourself to do what you don’t want to do. Instead, find ways to “fix” your environment so that the right things are easier and more convenient to do, and so that you end up actually WANTING to do them!
