During the first six months of my sales career, I was a mess. Here I was: a graduate of the University of Florida, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering. I had some work experience - one year of consulting in which I traveled all over the country. Now, I decided to move home to Florida, and start my career in sales. It was going to be a piece of cake. I just got done hopping on and off planes multiple times per week, and now all I had to do was sell copiers to businesses in two zip codes in the Tampa Bay area. How hard could this be?
Well, let’s just say those first six months were the most difficult months of my career. I couldn’t sleep. I was constantly ruminating about my work. My commute to and from the office was always in the dark (and I started in mid-June). I was failing. It seemed like the harder I worked, the worse it got – sort of like gripping a golf club too hard. This was the first time in my life that success wasn’t immediately follow hard work. In the real world – especially in sales – success trails hard work by months or years. No one told me. I was stressed to the point where my health was probably in jeopardy.
One day during this period, I was listening to one of my sales tapes in the car – one of Brian Tracy’s programs – and he mentioned the idea of meditating. I was so curious about this practice that I tried it the next morning. It was practically impossible. “Really? All I can think about is my promising career and self-confidence crumbling in front of me, and you want me to focus on my breath?” I kept trying because I heard how magical meditation was for managing stress, and as I’ve mentioned – I was a mess. Although I entered this practice thinking it was a solution to a temporary problem, I learned after a few months of practice that meditating wasn’t a silver bullet, but it had become a central part of my day. Today, 23 years later, I continue to meditate for 15 minutes every single morning.
So, why should you, a sales professional, begin meditating? What’s in it for you? After all, those 15 minutes are precious. Below I’ve listed five reasons you should meditate. After reading these benefits, please read my final comments because they’re critical to your success.
- You’ll be distracted much less throughout the day. Meditating is “attention training”. We have parts of our brain that control our focus. If we let our default brain run wild, we’ll be busy throughout the day, but get nothing done. To be happy and productive, we must be attentive to our objective – don’t check email while working on a proposal, don’t get wrapped into fixing a problem that the service department can handle, don’t obsess about your daughter’s basketball tryout this afternoon, etc. Just like bench pressing increases the strength of your chest, shoulders, and triceps, meditating increases the strength of your “focus muscles”. Think about it for a second: if you can focus on your breath for 15 minutes and ignore the gazillion other thoughts that pop up, it’ll be super easy to keep from checking Facebook 74 times a day on your phone.
- Your stress about work will almost disappear. Your stress won’t disappear completely. However, you won’t have those peaks or extremes. My best luck has come in times when I’m in a routine of working out and meditating. When I’m doing both (which is most of the time), my stress stays level. Over the last two decades or so, I’ve had hundreds of experiences in which my brain is waiting for the flood of stress signals, but they don’t come. It’s kind of cool. A recent example happened just after Thanksgiving when I was doing my monthly business analysis. Many of our 2018 engagements that were supposed to close in October or November were still open. Not dead, but 2018 wasn’t looking too healthy. If I hadn’t been meditating consistently, I would’ve stressed about it – I probably would’ve panicked. Of course, I was concerned, but it was manageable… and now I’m slammed for 2018. Like most things, it was nothing to worry about, and my mediation practice kept me from worrying.
- You’ll get sick less often. When I’m meditating regularly, I don’t get sick that often. When I skip a few days here and there for a few months in a row, I get sick. When I’m in the rhythm of daily meditating, I feel a connection to my body unlike any other time. From that connection, I feel as though my immune system is stronger. Hokey? Yeah, but I don’t care – it’s better than losing 30 days per year of productivity because of four colds that have me hacking up a lung.
- You’ll become more creative. Check out our post from last year, What would Manhattan be without Central Park? In your crazy days of managing accounts, driving sales, answering to the whims of everyone in your professional world, and being a parent, spouse, grandparent, community leader, friend, and neighbor, you need a Central Park in your life. Working out is good – ok, working out is great – however, nothing calms my mind more than a deep meditation. When I have two or three days of strong mediation exercises, I have ideas pop up randomly. In today’s modern world of selling, you better get creative, or find something else to do. Meditating will make you more creative.
- Meditating will become one of the most enjoyable parts of your day. Although I’ve been meditating since 1995, I did it because I had to do it. However, about seven or eight years ago, I realized how much I enjoy it. It’s not just a discipline that I have to practice to keep balanced, but it’s a 15-minute exercise that I enjoy every morning. I look forward to it. I have fun with it. Don’t think it’ll take you 15 years to enjoy it. My perspective was my fault – I used to look at a lot of things in the process of life as work, and only enjoyed the outcome. As I’ve learned in my 40s, the fun of life is found in the process.
So, that’s it. If those five benefits don’t convince you, I’m not sure what will. Now, how can you meditate? I’m not an instructor, but I have ideas. You can be coached by a transcendental meditation trainer. A day of training will cost about $1,500, but every person I know that has done it swears by it. I haven’t invested in formal coaching because I’ve got a pretty good practice, and experienced people have told me to stick with it. However, if I were starting from scratch, I would consider paying for it. There are many books on the topic. I like 10% Happier by Dan Harris as an introductory. It’s not instructional, but a fun book that will help you understand the practice of meditation in our western world. 8-Minute Meditation by Victor Davich is also very good for beginners. Two other authors that I like are Joseph Goldstein, and Jon Kabat-Zinn.
One last word … give it a few months. The first 50 times you meditate might be full of mindless thoughts, but that’s ok. Remember, it’s a workout, not a game. You’re working the part of the brain that helps your focus. Even if you fail 99% of your sitting, and have 10 seconds of focus, then you’ve won.
