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I recently watched the documentary, “Pumping Iron.” It was shot in 1975, and is about how Arnold Schwarzenegger competed for (spoiler alert), and won, his sixth Mr. Olympia title.
I watched it, not because I have a secret desire to parade in front of strangers in a Speedo, slathered in oil and flexing my underdeveloped muscles.
Nope, I’m about as likely to take up bodybuilding as I am basket weaving.
The truth is, I love to learn from people who are passionate about what they are trying to accomplish.
I like to look for insights on how they think.
In Pumping Iron, there is one moment when Arnold explains how, if you want to be a champion, you can’t let any external, negative force affect you.
He jokingly said, ”If my car was stolen outside right now, I don’t care. I can’t be bothered with that. The only thing I would do is have my assistant call the insurance company, and laugh about it.”
That is the exact same mindset that I observed in one of my sales coaches. A few years ago, I enrolled in a very expensive coaching program. (For the record, it was worth every penny.)
The head coach was a guy named Marc Von Musser. Marc used to be the director of coaching for Tony Robbins.
He was, hands down, the best sales coach I have ever met in my life.
Marc once told me that, if someone cuts him off in traffic, he won’t let himself get angry because it will negatively impact his sales for the next three days. When he told me this, I kind of thought he was nuts.
How could a little righteous anger at a dumb driver affect your sales later that day?
It turns out, Marc and Arnold were both on to something.
In psychology, there is a concept called “selective attention.” It is the mind's ability to focus on a few things in the midst of the overwhelming amount of stimulation we are constantly bombarded with, moment to moment.
Here is the thing—we get to select what is important and what is not.
Marc knew that getting upset at one random driver would not really change his sales that day, but he also knew that, by letting himself focus on negative and angry thoughts, he would be tempted to find more of them.
It wasn’t the one thought that was the problem. It was the brain's ability to quickly find you another one.
Your brain is effectively saying, “Hey, you found this negative thing important last time, so here’s another one.”
We’ve all met people who can find the problem in every situation. They might make great auditors, but they really struggle with sales.
I recently recorded a podcast on this very topic:
I once heard the phrase, “Whatever you focus on expands.” If you want to build a successful, thriving business, you need to learn to focus on the right things.
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