Ever have one of those days when you just can’t get going? Nothing seems to work. No matter how hard you try you just can’t get out of the parking lot both proverbially and literally! You try calling prospects, all you get is voice mail; you try to write some sales emails and you just can’t seem to be able to put two words together. After a while you just want to give up, call it a day and go out and play.  But you can’t do that! You’re a professional salesperson. There is work to be done, customers to call, people to visit (soon hopefully). So, what are you going to do? How can you lift yourself from these old summertime blues?

The most important thing you can do is to find some inspiration, find something that will spark your interest and get you to yes, forget those blahs and get so interested in something that it will get you moving again. You need a way to “fool” your psyche and put yourself back in action gear.

Here are nine ways to fool those old blahs away and get on and have a good and productive day.

1. Read a book, or parts of a book that has inspired you in the past. Anything about business and marketing that will get your mind going again.
2. Watch an inspirational Ted Talk or some kind of You Tube talk. Take a look at one of Steve Jobs product introductions, or anything featuring Tom Peters.
3. Call a work friend from the past. Someone you haven’t talked to in years, see how they are doing, reminisce about when you both started out and talk about where you are today.
4. Write your goals for this year, heck this week, or even for five years from now. Decide where you want to be in five years and then develop a plan on how to get there.
5. Call up people who you know will take your call, preferably customers you are close enough to that the relationship has gone into the “friends” mode and you know they will take your call because, well they just like talking to you.
6. Work on something important, but not urgent, like a sales flyer or a sales email. The thing is to work on something that is not due today so that you have no pressure to finish it today. The secret to the blahs is often that there is actually too much to do and what you feel is lethargy is actually you weakening under the weight of all the things you have to get done.
7. Speaking of which, do something easy enough that you know you can get it done. When you feel as if there is too much to do, too many plates that need spinning that you are afraid to take that first step. And every time you do take a step, you think of the seventeen other things you need to be doing so that you just freeze, the thing to do is to just get started. And get started with something easy. Something that without a great deal of time and effort you will be able to cross off your list with ease. Then go on to the next easiest task and before you know it you are getting somewhere, crossing things off and working your way down your list!
8. Clean your desk. Clearing away the mess on your desk is a great way to clear away the mess in your head. I just read Mary Kondo’s new book Joy at work where she shows you how to declutter your workspace and start getting productive. Please save me the protests about you knowing where everything is and this is how you like to work, a mess is a mess no matter how you try to spin it and in the end it contributes to your lack of get up and go.
9. Call a co-worker, I know it’s hard being on your own, this is one of the problems with being in sales, you’re alone a lot, especially now when you can’t freely visit customers. But you can call a co-worker, or even set up a Zoom call with a number of your associates to see how everyone is faring. But please make it productive rather than a gabfest. Set a theme and create a conversation about what everyone is doing to cope with the situation of not being able to visit customers. Pick each other’s brains on what each of you is doing. Together you can share ideas, come up with something that all of you can do that will help you get sales and in the end help the company as well as one another.
10. Go for a walk. That’s right, as a devoted walker I can’t tell you the number of times I have set out on a walk trying to figure out a problem. I am always amazed at how most of the time by the end of my walk, about an hour, I’ll have the solution to that problem. Try it, it works!

Take a walk…it’s only common sense.