Taking time out and debriefing how things are going is extremely important! Think about sports. How many sports have some type of a break in them? Almost all of them. What happens during the breaks? Adjustments.
In fact, they may even take a time out to make some immediate adjustments, if they can.
"Hey, Anderson! Your tackling sucks. If you keep doing that poorly, I'm going to have to pull you out of the game."
Of course, depending on the coach, the language might be much spicier than that. But what would happen if they waited until the end of the game to make adjustments?
They've already lost at that point!
If you're making cold calls, stop after five calls, and see if you're making any mistakes. You can usually identify a mistake pretty quick, if you stop to debrief. Then make an adjustment.
That's much better than adjusting after the end of fifty calls. Because you may have blown forty-five calls that you didn't need to blow! But you didn't take the time to check in and debrief.
The same thing applies to bigger goals as well. I have my clients do a bit of a checkup about once a quarter. I ask them to examine where they are for the year, and what needs to change moving forward.
I've asked some of them, "If we hadn't done those checkups in the middle of the year, would you have done what you were supposed to in order to reach your goals?"
The response? An overwhelming, "No."
And yet most of us don't do take that break and check-up. But it's powerful if we do!
So if, like most people, you find that you don't always hit your goals, be sure to take a break. Examine what you've been doing, find what you've been doing wrong, and make an adjustment. Then after some more time has passed, do the same thing again. And again.
You might also be interested in:
