The Wedge: Two Pains in Life

Have you ever laid in bed with the alarm going off and pushed the snooze button? You’re thinking: “Come on, just 15 more minutes.”

A few minutes later, the alarm goes off again, and you either get up or push snooze again. Suppose that you’re getting up early to go work out. You might step into the kitchen and say to yourself: “Let me get a cup of coffee first. I need to wake up before I go to the gym.”

You get your coffee and turn on the TV in the kitchen to catch up on the news while you drink your coffee and you get hooked on ESPN’s recap of the weekend’s games.

As you’re sitting there drinking your coffee, you see the cinnamon roll leftover from Sunday’s brunch. “Oh, that would be tasty,” so, you pop it in the microwave to warm it up a bit, before you eat it.

Now you’re 15 to 20 minutes into what was supposed to be your workout, you’ve had your coffee and your cinnamon bun, then the dog starts whining that she needs to go outside and do her business.

Five minutes later you’re back in the house after caring for your dog, and at that point, it’s easier to just get on with your normal day than it is to go workout. So, you do. Workout is skipped, coffee and cinnamon bun consumed, dog has been handled, then you head into the shower and soon it’s off to work.

Two Pains Revealed

According to Nick Saban, head football coach at the University of Alabama: “There are two pains in life. The pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, you’ll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment.”

Discipline is a simple verb. It means to train oneself to do something in a controlled and habitual way.

It seems that disciplined people are like robots — they disregard their emotions and they just go and do. They have trained themselves to not consider their alternatives. “I said I would work out, so I work out,” — robotic.

For those of us who suffer with discipline issues, we get to experience disappointment in our lives.

Disappointment is an ugly word.

Disappointment: The feeling of sadness or displeasure caused by the nonfulfillment of one’s hopes or expectations.

Two Secrets to Never Feel Disappointed Again

The easiest way to never feel disappointed is to have no expectations, hopes or dreams. All you have to do is lower your expectations down to what you have now, and you’ll never feel the sadness caused by missing out. Set low goals. Set low expectations for yourself and your family. Never measure your progress, and you’ll never feel disappointed.

The other secret to not feeling disappointment is through a life of self-discipline. Train yourself to do what you said you would do.

Saban Has Buddies

Philosophically, Nick Saban, Bill Belichick (head coach of the New England Patriots) and Bill Walsh (former head coach of the San Francisco 49ers) are all in the same mindset.

Bill Belichick is often quoted as telling his players: “Do your job.” Belichick has five Super Bowl rings to validate his way of doing things.

Bill Walsh is the author of “The Score Takes Care of Itself.” He has three Super Bowl rings. He believes the score will take care of itself when his players are well-trained and high-ly disciplined, too.

Here is what they all have in common. They believe in process.

You know what “process” is, but let me share the definition anyway.

Process: A series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end.

Now to the meat of Nick, Bill and Bill.

Neither Nick Saban, Bill Belichick or Bill Walsh focus on winning. They focus on living in the moment — not the past, not the future, but right now. And in the right now or the process. For these gentlemen, there is a process for everything.

Coach Walsh would work with his receivers on a 10-1/2 yards’ downfield (not 10, and not 11), juke left, turn right and the ball would be there. Mess up the pattern and you mess up the play. Get the process right, and you’d have success. Get it wrong and the ball would hit you in the back or be too far out in front to catch.

Another Saban quote: “What happened yesterday is history. What happens tomorrow is a mystery. What we do today makes a difference.”

To Saban, everything makes a difference. That’s why discipline is at the root of his philosophy.

Building Your Agency Book or Growing Your Agency’s Business

Here are five processes that you can use to grow your book, or if you are the leader, grow your agency.

We refer to them as the “Top 5 Money Making Activities of a Million Dollar Producer.”

1. 1. 1. 1. Overserve the top 20 percent of your accounts by putting them on a written services timeline.
         2. Then ask your top 20 percent of accounts to introduce you to their relationships (your target prospect).
         3. Prepare to dominate your competitor by doing a pre-call strategy in advance of going on the sales call.
         4. Go on the sales call and leverage your differentiation to find the prospect’s pain. Build a service plan and help the prospect fire the incumbent.
         5. Get your partner in and cross-sell the account.

Each of those steps has a well-defined process that could be “trained” over and over to near perfection.

Nick, Bill and Bill would all agree. Focus on the process, and the results will take care of themselves.

Yes, there are two kinds of pain. The pain of a disciplined process and the pain of disappointment.