Hector_LaMarque_-_01_Managing_And_Mastering_You

The speaker emphasizes the importance of managing and mastering oneself to achieve success. They share their personal experience of asking themselves every hour what they did to move closer to their goals. They stress the need to be proactive and prioritize tasks that align with one's goals. They highlight the lack of self-discipline and time management among many people and encourage listeners to develop these skills. The speaker also discusses the importance of scheduling and planning each day in detail to maximize productivity. They emphasize the significance of keeping promises and not relying solely on memory. They assert that managing time effectively is crucial for achieving superior results. Hey, good morning everybody. Hey listen, I got some great stuff today, I think, that's going to help you a lot. I know it helped me tremendously and it's on managing and mastering you, which is the key to success. It always has been, always will be. You know, one of the things that I did in managing me, I asked myself this question hour by hour and I really did do this and if you can develop this habit, it's going to have an amazing effect on your life, on your business, on everything. I promise you. I know it did for me. I know it allowed me to be just ultra, ultra productive. So this is the question I asked myself every hour when I was awake, while I was really in the throes of building my business. I said, Hector, what did you do in the last hour to move you closer to your goals? I would check my watch and if I was with somebody, I would do it to myself in my mind, you know. But I asked myself this over and over, what did you do in the last hour to move you closer to your goals? So sometimes, you know, if the answer was nothing, I didn't do anything, it motivated me to get busy in the next hour doing what I needed to do, not what I wanted to do. That would move me closer to my goal, which would be maybe making a phone call, stopping by and prospecting somebody, doing whatever it is that I needed to do to move myself closer to the goal where I was headed. I mean, so I was always checking myself because what happens to a lot of us is we don't do this. We don't manage ourselves very well and all of a sudden, you look up and six hours is gone, a whole day is gone, a whole week is gone and you didn't do anything that would move you closer to your goal. And so if those of you who are struggling, who haven't done as well as you'd like, I guarantee what's happening to you is you are not doing this. You are not managing yourself. You're not managing your time well and hours upon hours, days upon days, weeks upon weeks, in some cases, months upon months and in a lot of cases, years go by where you're really not doing anything concrete moving you towards your goals and you've got to get a handle on this. You've got to learn how to manage and master you. That's the number one thing you have to learn how to do. All the rest will fall into place. If you can learn how to manage and master you, then that's the key to success. That's how you're going to get where you want to go. So by doing this every waking hour, what it did, it made me infinitely more productive. You can imagine if you were managing yourself for an hour, how much more productive every day would be, every week would be, every month would be, every year would be. You would get stuff done that would blow your mind. So it's those little choices that you make hour by hour that determine the outcome of your life. It's not just the one big decision you make, it's the moment by moment ones that create your present reality. So whatever you've been doing moment by moment has created where you are, what you have, what you've accomplished, what your financial situation is, what your personal relationship situation is, everything has come out of the choices that you've made moment by moment. So be real realistic, it really is moment by moment, but we'll break it down to hour by hour. It's a little more manageable to do it hour by hour. So by managing yourself hour by hour, you're going to be amazed at how productive you become. You will over time smoke your competition because a number of people who actually manage themselves, it's so small, it's hardly even worth talking about. I mean there are very, very, very few people who manage themselves. Think about your own situation, you're hearing me say this, you know, I know, the vast majority of you hearing this call don't do a very good job in this area. You know you don't, okay, but that's okay. You can make a new decision about managing yourself. You can start the process and you know what, sometimes you'll fall off the wagon a little bit, but get back on. Learn to manage yourself hour by hour just by simply asking yourself that simple question, what did I do in the last hour that would absolutely move me closer to my goals, right? Ask yourself that question over and over and over again, okay? And you watch what starts happening. Just make a commitment for the next month or at least until the end of this month. Start doing that. Start really, really doing it. Maybe put a little timer on your watch where it beeps every hour so that you can, it will remind you or on your cell phone, so it reminds you to do that. Reset it, then go again and then see what happens, see what you actually do. This little thing here made me a multi-millionaire, I'm telling you right now, because it got me to do what I needed to do, not what I wanted to do. Look around you. You're going to see how few people have self-discipline, a strong work ethic, and great people skills. There are very, very, very few people that possess those three characteristics that you must develop, even if you don't have them now, even if you haven't had them in the past. If you have a desire to be significantly, hugely successful, you have to develop self-discipline, a strong work ethic, and great people skills. Those things are non-negotiable if you're serious about winning big in your life. The good news is if you possess them, you're automatically going to put yourself head and shoulders above virtually everyone else, I guarantee it. You'll be 98% plus of the people out there. The other 2% that's remaining, it's a dogfight. Regardless of where you end up there, you're going to place yourself in a rare group of the 2%ers. 2%ers are the people that get everything done in this country. They're the people that are responsible for everything significant that happens in this world, not just in this country, but in this world. Those 2%ers are the ones that are the goers and blowers, the doers, the ones that manage themselves well, the ones that have incredible self-discipline, great work ethic, good people skills. Those are the ones. Those 2%ers are the ones that create all the innovations that make everything happen that you see. All the great things you are experiencing today in your life, all the great innovations, they come from those 2%ers. What you want to do if you're serious about succeeding is be in that 2% group. That's a rare fraternity or sorority to be in that 2% group. What does your schedule look like? Ask yourself, what does your schedule look like? If you do not meticulously manage your schedule, then someone else is going to be in charge of it. They are going to determine where you end up. In most cases, that's your boss. Your time is limited. Everybody has limited 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You've got to sleep. You've got to eat. There are some things that you have to do. Some of you are part-time. You've got to go to work. You have a job that you have to do. Your time is limited, some more than others. You can never recoup lost time, guys. If you lose time, if you waste time, if you let a day go by, an hour go by, a week go by, a month go by, you can never go back and get that time. That time is gone forever. That's one of the things that all of us have in common. We all have exactly the same 24-7, the same time. The people that succeed on a very significant scale, they do a lot better job of managing that time than the people that don't. It's really that simple. If you don't guard your time with total attention, you're going to get inferior results. That's what's going to happen. Look, I work relentlessly on my time management. What I did each night before I went to bed was to schedule the following day hour by hour. I literally sit down. I used to use a day timer. I used to write it out. Now you can have a phone. You can do it in your phone. You just print it in. You know what to do. I used to have a day timer, a little junior day timer, small, so I could carry it in my pocket if I needed to. I would write down every day, every hour, exactly what I was going to do the following day. I would never go to bed without making sure I had a schedule written out for the following day and have every day account, every hour accounted for, and write down exactly what I was going to do. For example, I wrote down the time and phone number of every call I needed to make. If I said I was going to call you at 10 a.m. and I would write down your name, John Smith, at 10 a.m. and I would put the phone number right there, right there next to your name, so I wouldn't have to look it up. It would be right there in the day timer, so I would write the name and the number. If I said, if you were a client of mine, I said I was going to get some information back to you at a specific time, say at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, I would write that down and what the information is I needed to get. Right at 4 o'clock, I would look at my thing, I would make a call to you, and I would give you that information. I wrote down everything. Everything I told someone I was going to do for them, whether it's a client or whether it's an agent, I wrote down everything I needed to do to the smallest detail. I never, ever, ever, ever, ever trusted my memory because I had too much going on. It's so easy to forget little things when you're busy, busy, busy, so I would never, ever trust my memory. I wrote everything down. Let me just repeat that. I wrote everything down. You need to do this. This is so important, and I didn't want to forget anything, especially the things I told my clients or my agents I would do. I didn't want to forget. I didn't want to be a flake. I did this because, look, every time you forget something, your esteem and your trustworthiness begins to erode for the person that you forgot to do something for. They start to hold you in lower esteem, and then they start to trust you less. Every time you forget something that you said to anybody that you were going to do, you're going to have a little bit of a challenge. They're not going to trust you. If you want to build something great, you must be trusted by anyone you do business with, your clients, your agents. You've got to be trusted by those, so forgetting a promise is not acceptable. The only way to be sure you will remember is to write everything down. Never leave anything to memory, or you're going to be sorry you did, and I know a lot of you do this. Just think of all the times you said you were going to do something, and you go, oh, I forgot. Well, oh, I forgot, you can't do that too many times before people go, he's a flake, she's a flake, I can't trust her, I can't do business with her, I can't join her in business or him in business because I don't trust him. Your agents go, I can't work, I can't go full-time with this person. I don't trust them. They never do what they say they're going to do. Now, do they tell you that? No, they don't tell you that. They just don't stick around, okay, and you can't build something great if your clients and agents don't trust you, all right? So write everything down and do everything you say you're going to do. When people know you always do what you say you'll do, right, you become an extraordinary person because those people are rare, a person they want to do business with and be in business with. That's what you become, a person that those people want to do business with and want to be in business with, okay? So lots of times I was sitting with a client, and they asked a question, and I didn't know the answer. I said, you know what, I'm not sure about that, but let me write that down, and I'll get right back to you tomorrow afternoon at 4 o'clock. So then I'd write down the thing. I would look that up. As soon as I got home, I'd find out the information. I'd write it down on my day timer, call so-and-so at 4 p.m., give them the answer, and then I would make sure I did it. Then when you do that, that person goes, holy cow, they did exactly what they said they were going to do. This person's amazing. That never happens. Get what I'm saying here? Think of the people you know who always do what they say they'll do. I guarantee you it's a very, very short list. What you want to do is be that person, and it will allow you to build a following of clients. Clients will trust you. They'll be much more open to referring you to other people, and your agents will be the same way, because that's significant. That really differentiates you from everyone else. Just think about how many times somebody told you they were going to do something, and they didn't do it. How did you feel when they didn't do it? Happy? Excited? You loved them more? No. You trusted them less, and it made you feel like you didn't want to do business with them or hang around them or whatever. Just think about that. Think how you felt the last few times somebody said they were going to do something and didn't do it. By writing everything down the day or the night before, you'll be able to sleep sounder and get more rest. This is one of the things I learned by ... I actually went through a class by the Franklin Company that did the Franklin Planner, and one of the things they talked about at great length was that when you write every single thing down before you go to bed, you will sleep better. It's true. You don't worry, because there's nothing to worry about. It's already there. You don't have to go, oh, I hope I remember this. You don't need to remember anything. You just need to write it down, and then when you get up in the morning, you look at it. It's right there. There's no need to be stressed out. You have it written down. You know you're going to get to it. It's there. But when you don't write it down, then you start worrying about, oh, I hope I don't forget this, and you have these lists in your mind going on, and it's much more difficult to sleep. You having a problem sleeping? Write everything down. In addition, when you get up, you can hit the ground running, because you'll know exactly what you're doing hour by hour. You'll know exactly what you're doing hour by ... There'll be no doubt as to what you should be doing. Sometimes you get up, what do I need? If you get up in the morning and go, what am I going to do today, you're screwed before you start. You have no chance. You have to know what you're doing the following day. Highly successful people keep a very, very, very accurate, tight schedule. You might say, well, I don't want to be on a schedule. Well, then you don't want to be successful. You don't have to be on a schedule, but then you're going to be mediocre and not get anything done. Your productivity is going to be in the crapper. You've got to be on a schedule if you want to be successful. The main reason people do not succeed is they allow for too much wasted time in their days. Wasted that doesn't do anything to move them closer to their goals. Most people go through life totally unaware of why they are where they are. If I could look at your schedule over the last week, month, year, or the last five years, I could immediately tell you why you are where you are because of all those gaps in your schedule because there's nothing written down. Your schedule is a telltale of your current life situation. How you spend or invest your time results in your current life situation. If you've been spending time, wasting time, or investing your time, we can see immediately why you're succeeding or why you're not succeeding. If you want to change your life, you must control your schedule. You are the one person who has complete control over your schedule. There can be no one else you can, with any good conscience, blame for your current life situation but you because you control how you spend or invest your time. Nobody else does that. Even if you have a job, the hours that are outside your job, because your job hours, your boss controls your schedule, but outside of your job, unless you're working 400 hours a week, and that's an exaggeration, I know, but I'm just saying, if you're working a typical 40 hour a week, 50 hour a week, whatever, you still have a considerable amount of hours outside of work that you get to control 100%. You need to start controlling that time because that's what's causing your current life situation. Good, bad, or indifferent. Unless you're willing to have the self-discipline to manage you and your time, then someone else is going to gladly do it for you. It's going to be either your boss, so let me just say that again, someone else will gladly do it for you for his or her own good. Your boss is the most likely culprit, so whoever your boss is, they're the one that's going to manage your time and determine where you end up. Mastery over oneself is the key to mastery over one's life. To write that down, mastery over oneself is the key to mastery over one's life. It starts with your thinking, then your actions. Those two things create your results. If you're not happy with your current results, all you have to look at is your thinking and your actions to see exactly why you are where you are right now. Go look at your schedule. If you keep a schedule, most of you probably don't even keep a schedule, but if you have one, look at it. I promise you, you'll see why things aren't going like you'd like them to be going if they're not. You'll see it immediately. If you're not happy with your current results, all you have to do is look at your thinking and your actions, and you'll see why you are where you are right now. Look, in our business, the things you must build into your schedule to maximize results is one, personal development. That would be like your time management skills, your sales skills, your leadership skills, your people skills. Those are probably the most, from the personal development standpoint, you need to master time management. You need to master sales, which is overcoming objections, how to present, etc., leadership, how to move people, how to get people to follow you, how to get people to want to help you, and your people skills, because if people don't like you, they won't help you. In fact, if they don't like you, they will sabotage you. A lot of you that are having challenges getting people going and getting a team going is because people really don't like you that much. You may not even realize it, but you're doing things, saying things, acting in such a way that the people around you, they don't want to help you. They don't really like you that much. You better study that. Les Giblin. You can go on my website at hectorlamarck.com, order Les Giblin's Skill with People. Read that. All right? Time management, take a time management course, right? Like I said earlier, Franklin Planner, they have a great time management course. Take that course. Sales, well, you listen to my Overcoming Objections CD. It's on hectorlamarck.com, Overcoming Objections, Leadership, anything on John Maxwell is great, okay? Prospecting, number two, you've got to have in your schedule prospecting. You've got to schedule in prospecting time. It's got to be a specific time. You've got to make time every single day for prospecting. I don't care when it is, but you've got to do prospecting. You've got to schedule your appointments. You're setting appointments. When are you going to set those appointments? Who are you going to call to set those appointments, okay? Everybody that you're wanting to set appointments, they should be written in and it should be a specific time when you're going to call those people to set those appointments. Number four, presenting. You've got to schedule time for master your presentation, for putting together the best presentation possible and how to present, okay? Number five, you've got to schedule in learning how to overcome objections. Like I just said, hectorlamarck.com, Overcoming Objections. Get that CD. In my opinion, if you were smart, you would listen to it a couple hundred times. That seems obsessive, but the whole key, if you can't get people, turn them around from no to yes, you can't stay in Primerica a long time and you can't make money and you can't teach people to make money. You've got to make that a fundamental cornerstone of your business, okay? Learning how to overcome objections. Number six, you've got to master our product. You've got to schedule in time in your week on learning how our insurance product work, how our mutual fund products work, how our every product works, okay? Anything that you're selling, you've got to know it inside and out. You've got to have total self-confidence in relation to your products. You've got to know why they're great, what they do, why they're better than what they're doing right now, why they're better than what the competition's offering. You have to know products inside and out. Number seven, you've got to master recruiting at the kitchen table. You have to learn how to ask the right questions to recruit people at the kitchen table, okay? You've got to learn how to do that because if you can't recruit, you can't build a business, okay? You've got to master recruiting at the kitchen table. Number eight, you have to master training new recruits, which in effect, training new recruits is duplicating you. The higher quality of your training of new recruits means a more higher probability of you duplicating yourself. If you don't do a great job at training new recruits, then you're not going to duplicate yourself. You have to be able to transfer what you know, your skill sets, how to do it, how to get results to your new recruits. Your ability to do that, to train your new recruits and transfer your know-how, your skill sets to the new recruits is how you duplicate you. If you don't pay a lot of attention to mastering how to train people, how to simplify things, how to make things clear so that the new person gets it, understands it, knows how to use it and utilize it in the field themselves to get the same kind of results you get, then you can't duplicate yourself. You've got to be able to do that. By doing these things, you essentially guarantee having huge success, guys. All success requires a commitment, self-discipline and amazing work ethic and massive action. That work ethic is massive action. You cannot behave like your peers and expect to win big. Look around you. Are your peers doing all the things I said here earlier? Are they doing these things? Because it requires extraordinary behavior and the behavior I've outlined in this talk. I never wanted to be like my friends in the business because none of them were doing all the things they should be doing to win big. If I did what they did, I would be mediocre like they were mediocre. I did not want to be like them. You have to go above and beyond. You have to have extraordinary behavior. You cannot behave like your peers. You do not want to be one of the guys or gals. That's a mistake. The good news is every one of you can do it, but you must decide. You're going to control your schedule and your time or is it going to be your boss that controls your schedule and your time? If you can't do this, if you can't control you, if you cannot manage your time, then you're going to have a boss forever. You will never be a business owner. You will be an employee lackey, somebody that somebody else tells what they have to do. You don't want that to happen. You are in control of your future. You control it. Nobody else does it. You make all the decisions ultimately of what you do. You just do. Make sure you do this. This is important. This is a short message. It's probably going to be 25 minutes. This is a message that you should listen to over and over again until you get this down because what I just said in this 25 minutes is absolutely critical to you succeeding in a big way like you want to. I guarantee it. I did all the things I'm telling you. I know they work. This is not theory. It's not conjecture. It's not hypothetical. It's what works. I guarantee it. I absolutely guarantee it. Go do it. Manage yourself. Win big. Everything is in your own control. You control it 100%.