Are you happy in your job as a financial planner or adviser?
I often speak with financial planners or advisers who feel stuck in a rut and want to reinvigorate their work.
Maybe they have been doing the same thing for a long while and simply want to change. Sometimes they want to do things differently but experience doubt. Sometimes they find certain aspects of their job unrewarding.
So, how do you begin to turn this around?
This article is about how you can immediately bring more love, joy, and enthusiasm to what you do.
Why can financial planners get stuck in a rut?
I used to be a consultant for Jim Horan, who created the original ‘One page business plan‘.
I once remember being in a conversation with Jim when he said:
‘The only thing that develops naturally in a business is complacency.’
This has always stuck with me. I think it is so easy to rest on our laurels, lose our edge, and begin to tolerate average or below average performance.
I know this is a trap I have fallen into before and it is one of the reasons I now continually invest in coaching.
Experiments never fail
I have just read a wonderful book called ‘Experiments never fail‘ and attended a class with the author Dale Dauten.
The message of Dale’s book is:
‘Try lots of new things’.
But there is also something else that is super important too:
Do not be attached to the outcome.
What stops us trying lots of new things?
The primary reason we hold back from trying new things (and this is precisely why we get into a rut and fall out of love with what we are doing) is that we take failure personally.
So, we need a new way of understanding things.
Dale insightfully points out that experiments never fail because you are just finding out what works and what doesn’t. Whatever way an experiment goes it does not matter because the whole point is that you learn something.
He has worked with many successful businesses and the ones that continue to thrive and prosper are the ones that keep experimenting. He pointed out that even in the most successful cases, only about 25% of new ideas are successful.
Be the casino, not the gambler
Have you noticed just how many online casinos have sprung up?
There are dozens of them because they are a license to print money.
Why?
Because the gambler always loses.
When you are holding back and not trying lots of new things you are gambling – with your business, your prosperity, and your happiness.
But when you are willing to try lots of new things, without being attached to the outcome, you are being the casino.
And the casino always wins.
PS. Click here for my top 10 career boosting books for financial planners and advisers.
