Skip Steps to Get (Major Gifts) Success: Part 3
This is Part 3 of the 4 part series.
Success (and money) LOVES decision and action! How do we get smarter about raising major gifts faster to enjoy the success we want sooner? How do we find a rich life balance? Can we skip some steps along the way? How do we intentionally incorporate experiences into life to leapfrog over some of the rough parts as well as move through the learning more quickly?
Here are Four Steps you need to take to Skip Steps to Success!
- Figure out what’s important to you – professionally and personally.
- Focus on BOTH components of success – the thought process and the specific techniques.
- Seek out all types of mentors and educational experiences.
- Realize you are closer than you think.
Today’s Feature Topic: Seek out all types of mentors and educational experiences.
If you are not growing, you’re dying. Think about it. Either your plant is growing or it’s going the other direction. It’s not “not growing.” It’s declining. This blog is not just about having mentors….it’s much deeper than that. It’s about IF and HOW you choose to GROW in your life.
I met Zig Ziglar, you know…the handshake-at-an-event kind of “meet” and I was thrilled. Zig said, “People often say motivation doesn’t last. Neither does bathing—that’s why we recommend it daily.”
Yes, we become what we think about. You will reap what you sew into your mind. WHAT and WHO are you listening to, reading and watching? This concept in the core of your mentor and educational experiences!
Here are my TOP 5 Tips to Achieve Continuous Growth
1. Make growing a daily priority.
Not hours…minutes, but every day. Subscribe to a few “daily motivations” that make you feel uplifted. Keep the ones that make you smile and sit up a bit taller. Unsubscribe from the rest. I’m not talking about fundraising tips here. I’m talking about short messages about gratitude, generosity, faith, spirit, believing, looking for good, seeing possibilities, joy. I like Simple Truths. They sell small personal growth books and also share free video and written pieces that are terrific. Do you have a favorite source? Hit reply or please comment and share!
2. Minimize the negative – starting with the news.
I devour personal-development programs. Those who have been wildly successful, spiritually and financially, share one common action. They don’t take in a large dose of the daily news. Bad news sells, and journalists are trained to create powerful mental images that most vividly burn these negative headlines into our brains. And as if this is not bad enough, we take those downers out with us and spread it like manure. “Did you see the shooting…flood…war?” The mental and emotional energy we invest in this negative weight is lost to all the good we can do each day. Now I know many of you work to counter these evils. BRING ON THE SOLUTIONS and I’ll listen and give!
3. Invest some bucks.
Too often I hear, “We don’t have professional development money so I can’t attend.” Bull. Reach into your wallet and step up for yourself. What is your own personal and professional development worth to you, your success and your family? How valuable is participating in workshops, teleseminars, AFP meetings and coaching that lifts your spirit and deepens your confidence? IT IS PRICELESS. The folks who “don’t have time” or “know that already?” Right, we all know them – the frustrating colleagues! The folks who come to my MORE Major Gifts workshop and say, “This was a stretch for me, but worth every penny,” are the ones raising more money. My Major Gifts Success Club is a cheap $10 bucks a month – but some can’t find 2 hours to listen and participate. It’s not about the money or the time. Investing in your own education is about how you value yourself.
4. Seek out formal and informal mentors and coaches.
Life joy and success is about making the right choices more of the time. Coaches and mentors help by coming from a place of wisdom and experience. Coaching is today’s Badge of Honor for leadership who place such importance on maximizing their growth that they engage in hired, structured coaching relationships. The hitch is to choose well. Has the mentor/coach been successful at doing what you want to learn from them? If you want to ask for $1 million gifts, work with someone who has successfully ask for $1 million gifts, not $100,000. If you want to achieve a calm, structured work/life balance, work with someone who has achieved this. You want to adopt the successful mindsets, practices and habits. While it is a journey, they should be farther down the road than you! Trust, support, genuine caring, and helping you take responsibility for your results are all important components.
5. Variety is the spice…
We, in this honorable and novel profession of fundraising, have a plethora of opportunities for professional growth. Continuous improvement is about learning the “best practices.” Degree programs, certification programs, on-line videos, workshops, hand-on experiences, conversations with colleagues, friends at church or synagogue, Tony Robbins and Joyce Meyers. Marcy Heim for that matter. Explore those near to your specific niche, and investigate tapping. (What’s that you ask?) The point is GO LARGE and go often to that place to grow.
Feed your joy, power your enthusiasm, adopt changes and systems, structure for freedom, continue to grow! Remember, the way you make people feel about themselves says a lot about you. Are they growing because of you?
Invest in Joy!
