Star Builder

Background

When life is crazy, as it has been for me over the last couple of weeks (not withstanding watching the world cup), things can slip. It happens to us all, but it is whether you recover from this lack of progress or spiral out of control. The impact of a couple of weeks of non-productivity could ultimately be that you give up network marketing altogether.

This article covers how you can best protect yourself from slipping into this state, and how to recover from it when you're in it.

Organisation Essentials

Every week there are two things that we must do in network marketing:

• Speak to our immediate downline
• Follow up any new leads or people we have already spoken to

Additionally in order to stop the business from plateauing we need to keep up appropriate activity levels:

• Speak to several new people daily
• Regularly have home business reviews or equivalent

The thing is some weeks life just happens, and despite our best efforts of using the planning sheets or diaries, after all it can all get too much when we have so much on our plates. The problem is when one bad week becomes two, and two becomes three... and before you know it you have fallen out of the habits of success and you may well begin to question your belief.

This is when you need to start taking action, though the problem is that when you are in this low you may not recognise it or be too low to know what course of action to follow.

Recognising When You're In A Rut

So how do you recognise you're sliding into a rut, or deeply in one? Ask yourself the following, and if more than a handful are true you have probably entered a rut:

• You have not spoken to anyone within the last week about the opportunity
• You are not completing any tasks and some of which seem to prevent you from doing anything
• You feel caught up in turmoil where everything is on top of you
• You are frustrated by your lack of progress
• You have little drive or motivation to do anything
• You are struggling to sleep properly as your mind races and overloads
• You feel that everything you do goes wrong
• You are not sure what to start first as a result you don't start anything

If these sound familiar to you then look at the next section...

Recover Using By Eating That Frog

Brian Tracy author of the book Goals! wrote a book called Eat That Frog, with some excellent tips on time management that can help get you out of the rut. Following these techniques can also help prevent you get there in the rut in first place:

• Write down all the things that are on your to do plate, and prioritise things that must be done and those that are urgent. Do not tackle something that is of a medium or low priority if there is something of a high priority still to do. Apply the 80:20 rule, 20% of the tasks will give you the 80% of the achievement.
• Just think of what you could achieve if you had just another hour or two each day, finding this time is not as difficult as you might think - avoid watching television for a week, or wake up an hour earlier. You get the idea - it is about prioritisation.
• Ask yourself many times each day, what I am currently doing, is this the best use of my time right now.
• Be realistic about what you can achieve in the time available, and stop beating yourself up about what is still on your plate and haven't done, and take a moment to reflect on what you have.
• Just like when you were at school and put off doing that project until the last minute, all the time you hold off doing something that must be done the more it weighs on your concious. Eat the big hairy tasks first, once it has been tackled a weight will lift from your shoulders and you'll find yourself strangely having more energy and drive.
• Spend 10 or so minutes each evening before going to bed in order to plan for the following day, whilst reviewing what you have achieved that day.
• Revisit your goals, these provide you with the motivation to keep moving forward.

Remember if you're in a rut, and despite all of this advise you still can't get yourself moving, call on your upline. They are there to help you succeed too, and it is the relationships that you build in network marketing that will help you sail through most challenges that you are likely to be facing.

Good luck from all at the Star Builder team, remember he or she who prepares wins...