THE HARD WORK OF SELLING 

Selling is hard work. It is one of the most difficult jobs in our economy. As a salesperson, you face continual rejection, potential failure, persistent disappointment, setbacks, obstacles and difficulties not experienced by most people. Selling is not easy and it has never been easy. It never will be easy. It will always be varying degrees of difficult, from hard to very hard, to very, very hard. And to be successful in selling you must be tough, as well. 

YOUR ATTITUDE MAKES THE DIFFERENCE 

In selling, your attitude is probably eighty percent of your success. Your attitude is the outward expression of everything that you are, and everything that you have become over the course of your lifetime. Your attitude has the greatest single impact on the people that you deal with. The development of a positive mental attitude is the indispensable requirement for great success in your field. 

LEARN TO BOUNCE BACK 

Psychologists have defined the "hardy personality" as the type of personality that is most suited to the rigors of the modern business world. The hardy personality, the personality you need to develop, is resilient, optimistic, tough, strong, and capable of bouncing back continually from temporary disappointments and defeats. 

RESPOND CONSTRUCTIVELY TO STRESS 

A positive mental attitude is a constructive response to stress. It is a solution-oriented, objective approach to difficulties that you face every single day. A positive mental attitude is expressed as a general optimism toward life and the inevitable challenges of earning a living. A positive mental attitude is the most outwardly identifiable quality of a winning human being, and it is the characteristic most closely identified with success in selling of all kinds. 

PRACTICE MENTAL FITNESS EVERY DAY

To become and remain physically fit, you must engage continuously in physical exercise. To become mentally fit, to develop the kind of attitude that leads on to success and happiness, you must engage in continuous mental exercise. It is a never ending process. Just as you do not achieve physical fitness and then discontinue physical exercise, you can not achieve mental fitness without working on it regularly, every day, like breathing in and breathing out. 

ACTION EXERCISES 

Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action:

First, decide in advance that, from now on, you are going to respond in a positive and constructive way to each and every stress situation in your life. Be tough! 

Second, practice mental fitness every day by forcing yourself to remain cheerful and optimistic in the face of difficulties and disappointments.