Grab that pen and paper, close your eyes, clear your mind. Deep breath.
Now think about your wine work life.
What are the deepest negatives? The people, places, things, and experiences that suck the soul out of you, ruin your confidence, and instigate frustration to the point that you think about leaving the industry.
What can you write on a NOT to do list?
What actions, types of people, physical work, etc. are depleting you? What are the bad habits you know you have that are keeping you from your goals? What can you eliminate to help achieve the goal of being remarkable?
Write them down. Make a NOT TO DO list.
Can you just stop doing these things cold turkey? Probably not. But it’s a blueprint toward a destination, and gives you the structure to look toward elimination of these items in your life as a goal.
An example:
When I was a wine sales rep on the street I added one thing to my not to do list: to stop chasing bills and money owed of my worst offending customers (which was basically their problem becoming my own). So one week after building up some confidence, I stopped doing it for the worst offenders.
What was the fallout? Three important accounts yelled at me, one of them called my boss and demanded I should be fired (my boss supported me), all of them treated me horribly for about a month or two … and then they started paying on time and even mailing their checks instead of waiting for me to pick them up. They redirected their bad mojo onto others, knowing that it wasn’t going to work on me.
Did my sales go down in those three accounts? You better believe it. About 20%. In the end that meant about $3000 out of my pocket.
I figured I spent 150 hours a year (3 hours a week, minimum) chasing them to pay their bills, which amounted to $20 an hour, which was far less than what I was making otherwise. By converting those three hours a week toward accounts that bought more wine and paid their bills on time, I made about 23% more money by the end of the year. With less stress, less tension, and more positiveness.
Think carefully about your Not To Do list. Move toward those items as a goal. It may take years, but it’s working toward a goal that is too important to ignore: a better you, and a better life.