Monday Motivation, 4.27.2020

Written by: Ben Rogers

Every Monday, The Rogers-Long Team meets for one of its two weekly meetings. The Monday meeting always ends with “Monday Motivation” in which a few minutes are spent listening to one team member presenting a quote, a quick reading from a book, a scene from a movie, or anything else they find motivating to provide a “spark” to the whole team on a Monday morning.

One of my favorite hobbies is studying the parallels between sports and business so for a guy like me, NFL Draft weekend is one of my favorites. It’s the most interesting and entertaining combination of high-level business decisions combined with raw emotions – from executives and players alike.

After the draft – for me personally – I experience some sort of let down because it’s all over. I crave more of it! (It’s why I wrote this on a Sunday morning.)

The biggest difference between those involved in the draft and everyone watching it is that we don’t always have the cameras on us. We don’t have analysts and fans consistently watching and grading our every move and talking about it the next morning. But what if you did?

Let’s take a second and put ourselves in the shoes of two different people: first, the person making the draft pick – The Decision Maker – and second, the person getting drafted – The Draftee. In both situations, imagine that you had someone analyzing and publicizing your every move.

The Decision Maker

As The Decision Maker – for an NFL team, for your business, or even for your family – you’re always on the clock. You must make decisions that put yourself and your team in the best position for success. Here are two important values that you must act on as The Decision Maker:

• PREPARATION
  • Some people rely on the belief that they’re simply not good at making hard decisions. This is not a naturally born trait – it’s simply a lack of confidence. The good news is that it can be improved through preparation. The recipe is simple – preparation increases confidence.
• CONVICTION
  • As The Decision Maker, you will have to make difficult decisions – ones that don’t always make every person involved happy or satisfied. A leader has ironclad emotional control, meaning that they believe in conviction over emotion. Decisions must be made without emotion attached to it so that you can narrow your focus on certain tasks to get the job done.

Put yourself on the clock and consider these questions – what are some areas of life that you can be better prepared so that when the bullets start flying, you’re able to make a confident decision? Are you a prisoner of your emotions or do you have the conviction the make decisions despite the way you or others may feel about it? 

The Draftee

As The Draftee – as a potential NFL draft pick or a prospective employee – you’re always being interviewed and graded. You must strive to be at your best no matter if you think someone is watching or not. Here are two important values you must act on as The Draftee:

• INTEGRITY
  • Integrity means doing what you say you’re going to do for yourself and for others. These are compounding actions – following through on what you say you’re going to do is just as important for yourself as it is for your team. Your level of integrity rests solely on your shoulders.
• ATTITUDE
  • As The Draftee, you don’t always get what you want. You might get drafted to a team that you feel is not the right fit. You might be put in a position where you feel uncomfortable. But in the end, 10% of life is what happens to you and 90% is how you deal with it.

What’s your draft grade? If someone had eyes on your every move, would you be doing what you said you’d do to improve yourself and others around you? Do you have the attitude to make the most of any fire you get thrown into?

Life and business are a lot like the NFL Draft. Sometimes you’re The Decision Maker and sometimes you’re The Draftee. You’re either “on the clock” or you’re given a grade. Lucky for you, you don’t have ESPN analysts recapping your actions the morning after the big day…but what if you did?

Monday is great day to wipe the slate clean. It’s draft day – are you ready?

Ben Rogers, The Team Leader of The Rogers-Long Team, has been in the real estate business since 2012. In 2014, he began The Rogers-Long Team with Kevin Long, which produced over $25,000,000 in volume production in 2017. In addition to selling homes and leading the team, Ben hosts a podcast show called the “The Bottom Line”, which can be found by clicking here. The Bottom Line is a Podcast that links lessons learned from sports, business, and life and is targeted at those who are striving for excellence, while ‘Average Sits on the Bench’.