Take Action Now if You Want to Succeed as a Financial Advisor
Financial advisors often fail or stay at a mediocre level because they procrastinate. They don’t understand that success requires looking to the future, setting goals and working hard to achieve those goals. Instead many advisors think they can get by day by day on the bare minimum. Unfortunately, success doesn’t just ‘happen’. No matter how talented you are your star won’t rise unless you get proactive about growing your business.
Write down your goals and review them regularly
If you don’t set concrete goals, you will meander. For example, if you don’t set targets around prospecting, you won’t get to see enough people to grow your business. Write down your goals, make sure they are realistic and attainable, and keep them on your desk so you can refer to them constantly.
Regularly check that your targets remain relevant and reasonable. Don’t – like so many others – start with good intentions and fall into bad habits. Neglecting to track and measure your progress will lead to only one thing – certain failure.
Take responsibility
Keep company with like-minded people in order to stay upbeat and proactive. But don’t rely on others to pick you up when you’re down. Your career is your responsibility; whether you reach your goals or not is down to how determined you are so push yourself through the tough times if you want to succeed.
Fear of success will stop you in your tracks
Steer clear of self-sabotage. Don’t fear success. It’s often a fear of success rather than a fear of failure that causes us to self-sabotage. It’s paralyzing to not be able to live up to your own expectations by feeling you’re not good enough or smart enough. ‘Partying the night before the presentation’ is a form of self-sabotage which happens when you lose faith in your ability to succeed. It’s a form of behavior that provides you with an escape hatch; it’s an excuse you can give to yourself for not doing well.
Procrastination is a form of self-sabotage
Procrastination is self-sabotage too – ‘all talk no action’ – for example spending your time preparing to prospect rather than actually prospecting – that arises not out of laziness but out of a fear of success.
Don’t compare yourself to others
Don’t compare yourself to others, do your best to focus on the task ahead – your daily goals. Decide to be positive and consider all setbacks to be bumps in the road to success rather than career-stoppers. Compete only with yourself. See your skills as changeable and improvable. Stop repeating the past, and don’t ignore the negative consequences of your actions.
Take control
It’s not up to the fates to determine what happens next, it’s entirely down to you – so believe you can control your own success. If you’re not content with your current success strategies try something different.
Keep moving forward, don’t let discouragement catch up with you. Set yourself up to succeed. Recognize that you have been given an opportunity to make a success of your business. Don’t squander this valuable opportunity.
Don’t look back with regret
Don’t look back one day and regret not having done more to improve your business. If you need to initiate a prospecting campaign, or get referrals from clients – do it now. If you have a good idea for a seminar book a date and start preparing. Don’t sit there contemplating rather than performing actions, because if you don’t act another advisor will get there ahead of you.
Never have to say ‘I could’ve been a contender. I could’ve been someone’ (Marlon Brando, The Waterfront). Seize the moment and act now before it’s too late.
