Picture yourself as a long jumper on the track and field on a warm spring afternoon. Feel the warm breeze on your face and the sun hit your exposed arms and legs and feel your heart pounding the blood through your body. From your peripheral, you see the crowd in only blotches of colors because you are focused on a single white board. You spent hours preparing yourself for this moment, measuring and practicing your steps for the perfect approach.

You start the approach. The first two steps are just getting your speed built up, and after 10 to 15 steps you've reached maximum speed. The second to last step is shorter than a normal running stride, and the most critical of all steps allows you to lower your body mass and push your hips forward all while maintaining high velocity. Finally, you jump. For those of you unfamiliar with track and field, I would like to introduce you to the penultimate step.

The penultimate step is the second to last step prior to takeoff, particularly in the long jump event. It sets the jumper up for the correct trajectory, and it's critical in launching the jumper into the jump with purpose and conviction. By definition, penultimate is an adjective meaning next to the last, but one in a series of things. The penultimate step is the most critical of all steps. The penultimate step is your preparation step, and your success is found in your preparation.

My favorite quote hangs on my refrigerator. It says, "The will to win means nothing if you haven't the will to prepare," by Juma Ikangaa, the 1989 New York City Marathon winner. You can't win a marathon without preparation, and very few people can even finish a marathon without lots of preparation. We must prepare. Are we preparing properly in our business?

Why do we change how we prepare for appointments as we get more experienced? Remember how much we prepared and practiced as new advisors? We did this because we didn't have very many cases, and we couldn't afford to be cavalier about them. Another reason was we had more time and fewer distractions, so we put in the extra time to prepare. How do we prepare today? Are we just grabbing the proposal and taking a glance at it on our way out the door to the appointment? Or do we spend time reviewing it and rehearsing what we are going to say to the clients?

Just like preparing for a marathon, we must schedule our preparation and practice for our appointments. It is the penultimate step to our success in the appointment, and the key to success is preparation. Take the time to practice your approach, practice your process, practice your practice.

Transcript

Why the penultimate step is the key to preparation

Author(s):

Vanessa Y. Bucklin, MBA, CLU