Selling is a role where we experience rejection more often than most people.
How well do you manage buyers saying “No”? Do you take it personally, or are you able to accept and learn from it, and move onto your next potential sale?
Your answer to these questions will be impacted by your resilience, willpower and grit.
In a previous post I suggested there are two types of resilience: Reactive and Proactive Resilience.
Willpower and Grit are examples of Proactive Resilience and the stronger your willpower and grit, the more capable you will be in managing rejection from buyers, and all the other tough stuff life sends your way.
How Willpower and Grit Impact Trust
One of the three lenses of trust is the confidence and control you require for Self-Trust.
Your confidence required for self-trust includes your sense of ‘self’ (self-worth, self-esteem, self-acceptance, and self-efficacy).
Your control required for self-trust is the application of your self-determination and this is impacted by your willpower and grit.
Strengthening Your Willpower
Your willpower is like a muscle. If you don’t use it enough it becomes weak, but if you are in a situation where you need to constantly use it, it can become fatigued.
For salespeople who are constantly struggling to win sales, this can lead to overwhelm.
The good news is you can strengthen your willpower, grit and self-control.
In her wonderful book The Willpower Instinct researcher and author Kelly McGonigal makes this point:
“The best way to improve your self-control is to see how and why you lose control”.[i]
Activity: This week take time to focus on one of the following:
- an area of your life that you would like to stop experiencing, or experience less
- an area of your life that you would like to start experiencing, or experience more
- an area of your life that is currently at risk, but you would like to continue
Once you’ve selected which of the above areas you’re going to work on, take at least one positive action toward achieving improvement.
Remember, any difficult or challenging thoughts or feelings that might pop into your head are just thoughts and feelings – they don’t control you … you have control over your choices and actions.
So, align your intentional actions with your values and take a step toward being the best version of yourself and toward living a good life.
Just having a crack at doing this activity will give you a stronger sense of self-determination and achievement.
Each activity demonstrates that you do have the willpower – the control over your choices of action – regardless of any difficult or challenging thoughts or feelings you might experience along the way.
25 Contributing Elements to Living a Good Life
This topic of Willpower and Grit is just one of 25 contributing elements to living a good life that I write about in my book LIVING in the Light of Day.
If you haven’t got your copy yet (in hardcover, paperback, kindle/ebook or audiobook versions), you can Buy It Here.
[i] McGonigal, K. (2012). The will power instinct: How self-control works, why it matters, and what you can do to get more of it. Penguin Group, London, UK.
