Recently, I have been trying to develop some habits which will have a positive effect on my life.
Image Courtesy of Stuart Miles/Freedigitalphotos.net
One of them may seem a bit silly: Make my bed every day.
This is a task that has always eluded me since I was a child when my mother, who was a bit OCD, would insist upon it. I think I rebelled against it and have had an issue doing so. However, as Gretchen Rubin wrote in her blog-turned-book: “The Happiness Project” the most popular resolution for happiness is making your bed. One of the reasons, she thinks, is because it is one small step that causes you to feel like you accomplished something. Besides, I don’t know about you, but it only takes me 1 minute and 34 seconds to make my bed – I actually timed it the first day so I wouldn’t have an excuse – and I like coming home to a neat place.
Another habit, with a much more profound effect on my health, is drinking at least 8 glasses of water each day. I realized that my energy level was so low because I was truly dehydrated. This resulted in being too tired to do the things I wanted to do, and the things I knew I should do. Since I have incorporated this habit into my life, my energy has skyrocketed!
So, I downloaded an app to my smart phone (Habit Bull) which reminds me every morning to make my bed, and every hour to drink a glass of water. The app allows me to track my progress (by the way, I am 10 days into the challenge of making these habits stick and I am proud to say I have been successful in achieving these daily goals).
There will come a point where both of these tasks (and the others I will start to add on to my habit list – including business related habits) will become automatic and I won’t need a reminder to do them. Some say that it takes 21 days to make a habit stick, others more than two months. Regardless, if you keep doing something, it becomes deep-rooted in your habits and you begin to do them automatically.
Why am I bringing this up in a Rainmaking Recommendation?
Because becoming a Rainmaker is just about forming good habits which you do on a constant and consistent basis till it becomes almost rote.
A good Rainmaker doesn’t think about picking up the phone to create a relationship with a client, prospect or referral source. It is just their habit do to so. A good Rainmaker doesn’t think: “Ughh I have to post to social media or write a blog”, they have made it a habit to post something on a regular basis. A good Rainmaker doesn’t think follow up – it’s become ingrained in their daily activities even when they are “too busy” to do so.
Whether it is conscious or not, Rainmakers have developed certain habits which, used consistently, have helped them create their books of business.
What Rainmaking Habits do you think you can begin to cultivate to get more clients?
My next blog – which will be posted this Friday – will be about the specific habits you should consider creating in order to build your book of business.
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