Trust Your Swing
Sometimes Thinking Gets In Your Way
By Jeff Bajorek
Friday morning, after two meetings rescheduled, I found myself with a few hours of white space on my calendar and a weather report that was nicer than average for April in Michigan.
I decided to hit some golf balls outside and play nine holes at a short executive course not too far from my home. (If there’s a better way to spend 90 unexpectedly free minutes, please let me know.)
As expected, my swing was a little rusty. My tempo wasn’t perfect, my timing was off here and there, but those mechanical issues weren’t what separated my good shots from my bad ones.
The biggest difference was my commitment.
When I was fully committed to the swing I needed to make, focused on the shot, not on what might go wrong, things worked out. Even the “bad” shots weren’t that bad.
But when I second-guessed? When I hesitated or tried to steer the ball instead of swinging freely? That’s when I got into trouble.
The harder you try in golf, the harder the game gets. Ironically, making a great athletic move barely involves your conscious mind at all.
My mentor calls it “Bajorek-ing it” when I do this, and it applies as much to selling as it does to golf.
I don’t know many salespeople who don’t know what to do. That’s not the problem.
The problem is they get stuck in their own heads.
They think too much about doing it “right” or avoiding doing it “wrong.” They force conversations that don’t feel natural. They try to protect themselves from failure instead of committing fully to the process.
That’s how good talent ends up producing bad results.
That’s where mentorship makes the biggest difference.
A good mentor doesn’t just teach you the fundamentals. They teach you the “in-between” stuff: when to commit, when to trust your instincts, and when to just let it rip without worrying about perfection.
They help you stop Bajorek-ing it.
Golf instructors can tell you how to move your body. Sales trainers can tell you what questions to ask. But the great ones show you how to trust yourself when it’s time to act.
The return of the golf season means I have a marathon coming up.
For the 12th (!) year in a row, I’m playing 100+ holes of golf in a day to raise money for a cause that’s near and dear to me because of the mentor mentioned above.
As I have over the past few years, I’ve put a little incentive program together for those willing to donate. Four more mentors have agreed to donate their time and their wisdom to an exclusive interview series.
In these fireside chats, they’ll share the mindsets that helped them succeed, key skills to build upon, and the advice they wish they’d had when they were starting out.
This is a little more structured than the programs I’ve done in the past, but I love the direction, and I think people will get a lot of value for their donation.
It’s not very often that I directly solicit my network for things, and when I do, I try to make sure there’s value returned in the process. That is certainly the case with this program.
You get asked to support a lot of causes throughout the year, so I have no expectations of you, but there are reasons why people tend to participate year after year, and I’d love to show you.
Thanks for being here until the end.
This week, make it a point to think about the in-between stuff. That’s where all the magic happens, and where the great are separated from the rest.
Jeff Bajorek is a sales consultatnt who helps sales teams design and implement their sales strategies with a focus on the fundamentals, and by noticing what others don't.
Website: www.jeffbajorek.com