No One Drops You Off at the Top of the Mountain

This coming weekend (always the first weekend in August), thousands of bike riders will take part in a cancer fundraiser known as the PanMass Challenge. It starts in the middle of Massachusetts and ends up in 108 miles away in Provincetown, the tip of Cape Cod.

I’ve done it four times.

PMC started 30 years ago when a guy named Billy Starr and nine of his buddies called The Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston to tell them they were doing a sponsored ride and will bring them the check.

“Yeah, yeah,” DCFI said. “Whatever.”

That first check was $10,000. It was not enough to make a dent but enough to get their attention. The ride caught on and, well…

The 2023 goal is $70,000,000.

That’s quite a mountain!

When I was training for the ride, I taught myself a trick to beat the hills; those long, slow inclines that burn your legs. It’s something I use today when I have a sales mountain to climb.

The trick? First, just focus on making it halfway.

That’s it.

Don’t worry about the whole thing. Just half.

Once you get there, you now have the second half left. It’s still daunting, but my trick will work here, too:

Make it halfway.

There. Now you are 75% done.

Go half again.

And again.

But taking that massive task apart and breaking it into smaller chunks, you can reach the top of your challenge.

Every challenge in your sales life can seem daunting. Start by going halfway, then half again. And again. Each time you make it, that success spurs you on to the next part of the climb.

Soon you’ll be at the top, looking down, feeling proud.

And without the wedgie I felt in Provincetown those four times.

It’s ideas like this that make up The Sales Vault. Visit SalesVault.pro or call Bill Farquharson at 781-934-7036.