FInish strong:
Master the habits of champions to end the year strong
When champions have a chance to win a golf tournament on Sunday, close out a tennis match in the 5th set, or achieve the goal they set for the season, there’s nothing better than playing to their potential coming down the stretch. Similarly, financial professionals strive to maximize their performance as they strive to achieve their year-end goals – AUM objectives, revenue expectations, sales goals, or net new asset aspirations. As you transition into the last quarter of the year, are you doing everything you can to ensure that you finish strong? Below are three tour-tested strategies that, as a financial professional, you can implement this quarter to end the year strong.
MANAGE YOUR RESOURCES
After three quarters of sustained effort, you can’t finish the year strong if you run out of gas. Champions ensure that they remained fueled and rested to run through the finish line.
Take a critical look at your eating, sleeping, and exercise habits to ensure that you have the resources needed to give your best effort over the last quarter of the year. Like champion athletes, you can engage in “periodization training” – the fluctuation of two periods: 1) intense, deliberate work and 2) recovery & preparation. Strive to give 100% intensity to your primary goals (prospecting, team development, nurturing advocates) for a defined period (4 weeks), and then take a well-deserved weeklong break to rest, recover, and prepare yourself for your next deliberate work cycle. Scheduling and anticipating an impending break will give you the confidence to put the pedal to the metal for 4 weeks without fear of running out of gas.
SURROUND YOURSELF WITH WINNERS
When the demand to perform is at its highest, champions rely on others for the support and guidance needed to excel. Professional athletes turn to player support team members (coaches, caddies, trainers, family) who provide the accountability, direction, and support needed to finish strong. On the PGA Tour, we have a saying – “Never dine with bad putters.” Why? They’ll spend dinner making excuses as to why they couldn’t make any putts – bad greens, bad luck, bad conditions without ever looking into a mirror to see if they themselves might be bad at putting.
Champions, on the other hand, surround themselves with high achievers with high expectations. Champions want to be pushed, encouraged, and supported to reach their goals, even if doing so means taking an honest look at what barriers might need to be overcome along the way.
Will you be spending the last quarter of this year dining with bad putters, or will you surround yourself with winners who will be by your side as you strive to finish strong?
FOCUS YOUR ATTENTION ON INTENTION
When coming down the stretch, it is easy to get ahead of yourself and look toward the finish line before you are there. Champions train themselves to stay in the moment and focus on the task at hand – the strategy, the habits, the processes that have put them in the position to win.
Rather than question the result by asking
“Can I hold on?” “Will I win?” “Will I achieve my goal?”
champions focus their attention on their intention – playing the next shot, the next point with a defined strategy. Champions relay on their established habits to remain focused on their strategy and gameplan, not the outcome, result or endpoint.
As you strive to finish the year strong, what is your gameplan? How many clients will you meet with each day? How many prospects will you get in front of each week? With which centers of influence will you deepen relationships?
Whether you are behind or ahead of your goal for this year, take the steps we’ve discussed above to finish
strong. Avoid the tendency to coast on past performance or kick the can down the road to next year.
If you are a team leader, manager, or strategic partner looking to support those you serve,
contact me anytime at 954-752-3333 or rick@drrickjensen.com
to discuss your needs and how I can help.
TO HELP YOUR ADVISORS FINISH STRONG, CONTACT
DR. RICK TO SCHEDULE THE WEBINAR/SEMINAR BELOW
