If you haven't read Eckhart Tolle's, The Power Of Now, I encourage you to do so, as he goes on to say,

“Get the inside right. The outside will fall into place.”

Eckhart Tolle's message is about personal responsibility in fostering happiness and peace.

By focusing on your internal alignment, you can influence your external circumstances positively, creating a more harmonious life experience.

At Selling from the Heart, we believe the inner work transforms the outer success.

In a crazy, hyper competitive, and technology fueled world, this quote truly emphasizes the importance of inner peace and self-awareness as the bedrock to experiencing harmony in the external world.

Your first mirror moment:

• Speaking of inner peace, when's the last time you've had some quiet alone time to work on your heart?

Simply stated, heart in sales, this is not a dirty word nor is it something you run from.

My challenge to the sales community... If you can bring your heart to your personal relationships, then what prevents you from bringing heart to your professional relationships?

Within a sales context, the image of a heart often gets associated with softness or being too mushy gushy. The heart is strong and powerful. It is the driving force of our life, one heartbeat at a time.

Your success becomes crippled when there is an unbalanced connection with your heart.

Embracing a heart-centered approach rests with your ability to stop, look inward, and reflect upon the course of action you know is the right, rather than succumbing to the external pressures and misaligned sales crapola that quite frankly doesn't work any longer.

"Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success."

Swami Sivananda

By investing in your heart and mind, you start layering the foundation for meaningful success that resonates deeply within yourself and impacts those around you, that being your clients.

What does this all really mean? Let's break it down.

Heart: It's about the emotional investment. When you care deeply about what you do, it injects your actions with passion and energy. This emotional connection motivates you to overcome challenges and persist in the face of adversity.

Mind: Engaging your smarts ensures that you approach tasks thoughtfully and strategically. This allows your mind to innovative solutions and improvements in even the simplest tasks.

Soul: This is about your values and purpose. When your actions align with your core beliefs, they become more meaningful, fostering a sense of fulfillment that transcends mere achievement. In other words, you stop going through the motions.

• What's one thing you will do right now to work on your heart health?

• What's one thing you will do right now to work on your mindset?

Your heart is the driving force to your survival. Plain and simple, if your heart stops beating, we know what happens. Therefore, we take good care of it. We exercise, we eat healthy, and we try to avoid stress; all in the name of heart-health.

Question becomes... How well are you taken care of your sales heart?

I encourage all of you to think about the following...

How can you sell from the heart if your heart is broken?

SUCCESS COMES FROM THE INSIDE OUT

The sales world tends to place great value on the outer work. The number of weekly meetings, the output of sales calls, sales KPIs, and the progress toward quota attainment.

The outer work is measurable, it's tangible and it looks like work.

However, when you solely focus your attention on all the outer work, this does not make you more successful or even more valuable as a salesperson.

When there's an imbalance with the inside work, meaning the acts and practices focused on clarity, purpose and vision, all the outer work you do starts to become draining which soon starts to deplete your sales production.

The work one doesn't see may be the work that matters most.

I believe success built on internal strength is more sustainable than that which relies solely on external validation or achievements. This external benchmarking is mentally draining.

When challenges arise, and you know they will, a strong internal foundation helps you navigate difficulties with grace and determination.

To quote, Dr. Christine Carter, Ph.D., VP, Content Development, BetterUp,

"If we are to be our most productive, successful, and joyful selves, we must learn to value Inner Work® in the same way that we value Outer Work."

Dr. Joe Dispenza so eloquently says,

“Our personality creates our personal reality.”

If you're unwilling to do the inner work, you will keep reliving the same life, the same problems and challenges… Why? Quite simple, because your personality, beliefs and thoughts are still the same.

You behave in alignment with the beliefs and thoughts you have and think.

The stories in our mind become the stories of our lives.

Doing the inner work means having the courage to look at yourself, taking responsibility for your actions and doing whatever it takes to find alignment.

Doing the inner work means looking yourself in the mirror as you acknowledge that you're responsible for whatever you're experiencing.

To reinforce the importance of the inward journey, ponder this quote from Osho, in Everyday Osho

“Sooner or later the outer poverty is going to disappear—we now have enough technology to make it disappear—and the real problem is going to arise. The real problem will be inner poverty. No technology can help.”

ARE YOU WILLING TO LOOK INSIDE?

The journey to growing sales at exponential rates starts with understanding who you are at your core. It's becoming in tune with your deeper self. It's the ability to recognize what lights your fire, what makes you happy or sad.

To sell from the heart, you must take responsibility for your results.

You can't blame others or point fingers when things go wrong. You must be willing to look inward to determine what you could have done differently to make the outcome better.

It's not about playing the blame game but self-examination. Taking a true look at yourself and congratulating yourself on what you did right and planning to become stronger in the areas that you're weak.

Carl Jung nails it,

"People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own souls."

It's human tendency to avoid self-examination. Facing your inner self is challenging, however; it's essential for personal growth, authentic living, and your mental well-being.

Growth comes from facing uncomfortable truths about yourself.

Your second mirror moment:

• Are you avoiding facing your own sales soul?

• How well are you dealing with your emotions?

• How well are you reacting when your sales life goes astray?

• What areas do you need to work on when it comes to your personal growth and development?

When you absolutely understand who you are, you will start to make a conscious effort to improve yourself, how you communicate with others and how all of this impacts your sales results.

Here lies the question...

Do you have the courage and stamina to bring your heart to your sales life?

Grab the books that will transform your sales results

EMBRACE YOUR HEART

“Wholehearted living is about engaging in our lives from a place of worthiness,” Brené Brown writes in Daring Greatly. “It means cultivating the courage, compassion, and connection to wake up in the morning and think, no matter what gets done and how much is left undone, I am enough.”

What are you willing to do to develop the courage and compassion to better connect with your clients?

Brené Brown reinforces this at so many levels, and why I believe the key to sales success starts at the heart level.

She discusses wholehearted people as having:

• A sense of worthiness

• Courage

• Compassion

• The ability to connect with others

• Gratitude

• Leaning into joy

• Vulnerability

Your third mirror moment:

• How many of you are bringing the words above to your client relationships?

What concerns me is many in sales become results driven and commission breathing, as opposed to outcome driven and difference makers.

All too many in sales are looking outward as they're being led by their brain. Their inner core values have been thrown to the waste side as money and profit become the driving force.

“If your goals aren’t synced with the substance of your heart, then achieving them won’t matter much.”

Danielle LaPorte

When your aspirations resonate with your true self, they become more meaningful and fulfilling.

GROW YOUR HEART

If you want to grow your sales, if you desire to reach greater sales heights, then you must be willing to grow your heart.

This all starts with some self-awareness.

"I think self-awareness is probably the most important thing towards being a champion."

Billie Jean King

What are you willing to do to become a sales champion?

SELF-AWARE

Self-awareness involves recognizing and understanding your thoughts, emotions, behaviors, strengths, weaknesses, and motivations.

This understanding helps you make better decisions and navigate life's challenges more effectively. This becomes mission critical as we know how challenging the sales world is.

Self-awareness means you know yourself so well that you become amazingly happy, fulfilled and content.

Your fourth mirror moment:

• Are you living as the real you and not some sales facade?

• Do your thoughts match your actions?

• Does your walk match your talk?

I believe living a lie comes out sooner or later. Living a sales lie is even worse. This will ultimately mess with your career.

Are you aware of what makes you come alive?

Are you aware of what makes your clients come alive?

Becoming self-aware is a valuable trait which contributes to happiness, fulfillment, and contentment. We know this is just one piece of the puzzle.

Achieving new levels of sales success requires a combination of self-awareness, meaningful relationships, personal growth, and pursuing goals that align to your values and passions.

By focusing on these interconnected components, you create a sustainable path toward success. This not only enhances your performance but also leads to greater fulfillment.

I encourage you to embrace this approach and watch as it transforms not just your sales outcomes but also your overall professional journey.

SELF HONESTY

Becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable is what ferocious self-honesty is built upon.

Self-honesty means to acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses, as well as your successes and failures, without deception or self-delusion.

I encourage you to think about this one...

"Do one thing every day that scares you. Those small things that make us uncomfortable help us build courage to do the work we do."

Eleanor Roosevelt

How can you become ferociously self-honest if you struggle to deal with any discomfort in your sales life? You can’t and you're only fooling yourself.

In the hyper competitive world of sales, those who are willing to take risks, step out of their comfort zone and create some discomfort for themselves will be those who will reap the biggest rewards.

Self-honesty is one huge aspect of personal growth, self-improvement, and building authentic and meaningful relationships.

Self-honesty is about intentionality. You must remind yourself of the value of authenticity in all aspects of your life. You do this by creating an environment that encourages open communication, both internally and externally.

THE TIME IS NOW TO GROW YOUR SALES

Unfortunately, the sales world is riddled with braggadocious and bravado filled behaviors, where name brand suits, Rolex watches and fancy cars only mask the insecurities.

We all have imperfections. We all have baggage. We all have something hiding inside the sales closet of the past.

Selling From the Heart is the new sales economy.

It's about knowing your values and living by them.

It's about getting radically honest with yourself.

It's about doing the hard work to make sure you add meaningful value to your clients.

What's powering your heart engine right now?

Proverbs 4:23 states,

"Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."

As we bring our time together to a close, I encourage you to become intentional with what you allow to shape your inner world. Recognize the profound effect this will have on every aspect of your life and watch your sales career soar to new heights.

Originally published on Larry Levine's LinkedIn.