2 crucial and surprising factors impacting your success

Stated that way, I think it's pretty obvious that learning agility is essential today. (That's why I wrote a book on it. To learn more, check out Agile Selling.) But let's get back to the real issue here — love of learning. 

It's the love part that makes a difference, which brings us to a few complicating issues …

First off, recent research has shown us that when we try to learn something new, our brain goes on red alert. We're in foreign territory. Things could get bad. So our brain tries to divert us back to our "same old way" — the pattern that worked before.

In short, our own mind is working against us here. To be successful in today's constantly evolving business environment we need to learn new things, yet our natural systems are voting "NO."

Things get even more complicated when you consider that most of us had our love of learning extinguished as kids.

Learning was work: It was about writing papers, taking tests and getting graded on subjects that we cared little about. Digging in and learning more was simply not cool.

When we get into our jobs, we want to quickly be trained on what to do. We want people to tell us the right way: "Here's the secret sauce for [fill in the blank]."

Whether it's setting up a meeting, dealing with objectives, or making a perfect pitch, we don't want to have to think about it, much less experience failure.

In fact, I bet that right now you want me to net it out: "Jill. I get it. I need to love something that's not on my 'favorite thing to do' list. Give me the three things I should be doing to change that."

I can't. Then you wouldn't learn anything. And experience the fun of discovery. Or the job of finding a better way.

To change things, we need to tap into our natural explorer.

Remember the younger person who got up every day with a sense of wonder about the world, and then went on missions to explore it.

For me, the best way to tap into my natural curiosity is to pose a question that starts with "How …"

• How can I get more prospects to respond to my emails?

• How can I shorten the sales cycle?

• How can find more prospects who are interested in buying now?

See where I'm going with this? By posing the question, I tap into my brain's natural curiosity. It has a puzzle to solve and it needs to find answers. It starts noticing and remembering things that it didn't before. It gets me thinking.

The next step is to turn a question into a personal challenge, telling yourself, "Let's figure this out."

Once you do this, you soon realize that your current level of knowledge is insufficient for finding a solution. And that's where you start throwing yourself into learning. It can be hard work.

Ultimately, you'll find new ideas and approaches that can change everything. Of course, that means you have to do things differently, which — as we know — sets off your brain's alarm system.

But here's the coolest part about your brain: The neocortex part of your brain (which is the center for higher reasoning) can override the fear center, if you actively take control of it.

That means you have to start talking to yourself … like this:  

"Of course you're uncomfortable, Jill. You don't know how to do this yet. If you figure this out, it'll take less work to find more high quality prospects. That's what you want. So let's work our way through this."

When you start experiencing success with this — even learning just one little new, more effective way of selling — it inspires you to repeat the process.

Before you know it, you're a sales experimenter and loving the challenge of figuring things out.

And, as the research shows, feeling a much deeper sense of personal well-being. Grateful too!

Sign up for The Lead and get a new tip in your inbox every day! More tips:

• • How to build wealth through writing
  • Want results? Ask your clients' opinion (part 2)
  • How to take control of your habits & find success

We're on Facebook, are you?