When You Already Feel Overworked

A very common challenge that many direct sellers and network marketers face is finding the time to work their business when their schedule is already more than busy. Perhaps the most fascinating thing about this topic is the question people ask me secretly but never publicly, namely:

"How can I psyche myself up to make calls at night when I'm tired, I've been working all day, and the last thing I want to do is get on the phone and talk to people?"

Before answering the actual question, I believe it is important to understand why these direct sellers and network marketers feel it necessary to ask this question in secret.

Have you ever noticed how the people in this industry love saying that they only work their business part-time?

Even top leaders brag how they only work the hours they want to work, and that they love earning full-time pay for part-time work. When others hear reports like that, they naturally assume that this business is easy for all those people who only work it part-time, and they cannot understand what is wrong with them – why can they not achieve the extraordinary in just a few hours a week like the top super stars?

AH! Can you see that you might feel embarrassed to admit that you struggle with the desire to spend any more time working, even if it is just part-time, when those around you appear to be doing so well by working part-time?

If you are already feeling overworked, certainly this industry can easily appeal to you because you hear how some people are earning a sizable income from working part-time, and you see this as a way out of a job that monopolizes your time and your energy. However, I am willing to bet that you are trying to figure out a way to motivate yourself to work your business after you get home from work.

Plenty of people in the field tell me: "I'm really finding it difficult to make the calls I need to make at night because I work so hard during the day. I'm hoping that what you said today will finally motivate me to just get on that phone from now on."

Surely you have heard the ol' saying, "insanity is doing the same things over and over but expecting different results." Well, expecting that you are going to come home from work tomorrow and suddenly feel motivated to call your customers is doing the same thing but expecting different results.

It is not motivation that you need. Obviously you are already motivated. My goodness – you are overworked yet you started a part-time business! It is time to recognize the fact that you are already highly motivated.

The problem is that you keep doing the same thing and expecting different results!

After you have worked all day it is only natural for you to walk into your home and want to relax. Indeed that voice inside your head will even tell you, "You need a break. You've worked all day. Besides your customers are coming home from work too and they don't want to be bothered by a salesperson!"

Just in case you did not realize it, that is the exact same voice that will practically give you a lashing when you head off to bed, "Well, well. Another night without you making a single call to any customer! Is this how you propose to pay off your starter kit? You know, if you weren't so lazy you could probably achieve something in this business. The first thing you HAVE to do when you get home from work tomorrow is to call your customers!"

The key here is to outsmart that little voice before you get home from work tomorrow because it is only going to convince you to take a break and to call your customers later.

So how do you outsmart that little voice inside your head? I thought you would never ask!

Take a list of 3-5 customer names and phone numbers with you to work. At lunchtime make 1-3 calls. Immediately after work make 2 more calls in your office before leaving or in your car before getting on the road. Then on your drive home you get to congratulate yourself for doing something to move your business ahead today.

When you cross the threshold of your home, you get to relax without a single ounce of guilt. Oh, and remember that little voice? For the first time in years it's silent. AH! Peace and quiet like you have never known – it is awesome!

Now I have to warn you… this may cause your business to move ahead rather dramatically. One direct seller began following this suggestion and 6 months later she had 9 people on her team. Another direct seller who implemented this simple technique recruited 7 people in 6 months.

The results can be rather impressive when you start doing something completely different than what you have always done before.

Make 3-5 calls every day but make them before you come home from work! When you do this, you force that nagging little voice to "take a hike" and you allow something else to take its place. And that something else is pure, unadulterated desire.

When you let your desire lead you, you discover new energy and creativity, and you just might find yourself arriving home and choosing to make a few more phone calls to your prospects and customers because you want to!

It probably goes without saying that doing something because you want to as opposed to doing something because you feel you have to produces decidedly different results!

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