“Nothing worth doing is not worth doing poorly until you can do it well.”

“Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.”

I was reminded of these quotes when I spoke with two other friends yesterday. I was talking to them about what they were going to spend their time doing in 2010 to generate business. Both of my friends are in the real estate industry but the have different roles. One is a Realtor and one a Mortgage Broker. Now, let me first say that I am not singling these friends out to pick on them. What I recognized in them is behavior that we are all guilty of from time to time, including myself.

When I asked each of them what they had planed for the year as far as a strategy to improve their businesses, each of them indicated they would be making more calls to past and potential clients. I asked my mortgage buddy, “how many calls have you made this year so far?” He hung his head and held his hand up making a circle with his fingers.

My Realtor friend exclaimed with a bit of frustration in our conversation that she didn’t have time for blogging and making videos and other social media. She said she was too busy with her hour of power. (For those of you that aren’t familiar with the term, it describes an hour each day in which you perform an activity that you believe will be the best use of your time in an effort to produce business.)

I asked her what she was doing in her hour of power. She said she was calling past clients. This,  by the way, is a fantastic way to spend your hour of power. I believe this is a far more productive strategy than blogging, shooting video, or Facebooking. It should take priority over all other methods of getting yourself out there. This being said though, when I asked her how her calls were going she said she hadn’t started yet. She still had to send out a couple of letters before she could call her client base with a follow-up call.

I admit it! I’ve done this. I am guilty. Heck, I still do it more often than not. This blog is as much a pep talk for me as it is for you. I also know that to delay your calls until your perfect plan is set up is many things. One thing it is not is perfect. The moment is never going to be right. You will never be completely comfortable making that call, the stage will never be perfectly set. This strategy is a stalling tactic, subconscious or not, that is symptomatic of call reluctance.

Not only is this tactic going to delay your results, but when you finally get to the moment you’ve been planning for, the call reluctance will still be there. Don’t kid yourself, picking up the phone two months from now isn’t going to be any easier than picking it up today. However, not picking up the phone today, is much easier than picking it up.

Just ask yourself two things; What is the result I am receiving by not picking up the phone? I’ve got news for you, you’re probably living that result. Then ask what is the result I will receive when I do pick up the phone? That’s the life of which you dream.

Stop planning for perfection. Anything worth doing is worth doing badly. Just do it.