Mental toughness isn't about forcing a perfect plan. It's about being adaptable. When you're low on time or energy, do a shorter or easier version of your habit. This "bend but don't break" approach prevents you from quitting altogether, making you more resilient and consistent long-term.

Maximizing daily output does not maximize yearly output. Long-term success requires investing in activities like building trust, relationships, or skills, which often yield no immediate returns and may seem inefficient day-to-day. Consistently choosing short-term tactics over long-term strategies ultimately limits growth.

Forget “loving the process.” The process is a non-negotiable requirement for achieving goals. Treating it as a task that must be done, rather than an activity you must feel passionate about, removes debilitating emotion and ensures consistent, high-quality execution.

Motivation is a fleeting emotion, making it a poor foundation for long-term success. True excellence comes from building habits based on discipline and consistency, which are conscious choices that allow for progress even when motivation is absent.

Instead of aiming for peak performance, establish a baseline habit you can stick to even on bad days—when you're tired, busy, or unmotivated. This builds a floor for consistency, which is more important than occasional heroic efforts. Progress comes from what you do when it's hard.

Even top performers struggle with the discipline for repetitive sales tasks. The problem isn't the difficulty of the work, but the absence of a clear, compelling reason to do it. Discipline requires sacrificing present ease for a future goal; if that goal is fuzzy or already achieved, motivation collapses.

The word "discipline" often has negative connotations. Instead of viewing it as a restriction, redefine it as the specific set of inputs required to achieve a result you genuinely desire. If you don't want the result, the problem is your vision, not your discipline.

In many sales organizations, the performance bar is surprisingly low. Reps can stand out and become top performers simply by consistently showing up and executing the minimum required activities, as many of their peers fail to do even that.

You aren't competing with people who are more talented; you're competing with those willing to put in more imperfect reps. Success requires showing up consistently and learning in public, while others wait on the sidelines to be 'good' before they start. The key is persistence through the awkward phase.