Perfect practice
Several years ago, I had the great pleasure of inviting an Olympic athlete to speak at one of my advanced membership development and retention workshops. A parallel we discussed between professional new member sales and athletics is the fact that " practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. " As an athlete, he shared that he spent more than 1,000 hours in pre-competition practice for every one minute of competition. I encourage everyone to think about their "perfect practice time." If the 1,000-to-1 ratio sounds like a bit much, at least consider the words of Abraham Lincoln: "Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."