DO YOU HAVE A FORREST GUMP ATTITUDE?

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by not having an attitude to seemingly overcome adversity? Do you feel stuck with motivating yourself? Are you frustrated with your level of inspiration around you? Do you lack the desire to have a can do attitude. If so you may find it in the most unsuspecting areas.

One of my favorite past-times is watching a good movie. As a Professional network marketer I actively seek lessons from everything that I do whether it is from reading a book, listening to a seminar, or even watching a movie. Because I am an advocate for education, I have learned that I can not only enjoy myself I can learn something from it as well.

I want to ask you what movies you think are great network marketing movies. What I mean by that is movies that help to inspire, or teach us to continue to believe in ourselves, or something that teaches perseverance and determination? As a Network Marketer we should have the mindset of forward progression, especially since we know we have to move to keep our work moving forward. Standing still does not and never will cause us to move forward and grow. But it seems that often in our businesses we are not moving forward because we are studying-to-death while sitting in front of our computers.

“A LOCAL IDIOT” CAN GIVE GREAT ADVICE

As I mentioned earlier I love movies and I would like to talk about a particular movie that has been an inspiration to me as a Network Marketer and that movie is Forrest Gump. Forrest Gump was the most coachable individual that I can think of. As a Network Marketer we have to develop, recruit and coach and the Forrest Gump character is the ideal recruit. He is the type of individual you would like to duplicate because they would all possess the “Run Forrest Run” attitude.

I recently watched this movie with a different perspective. In the beginning of the movie, Forrest could not walk because of a disability with his legs and back. His condition was so severe that the doctor told him that he would never walk. But there was a moment in the movie where Forrest and Jenny were walking down a dirt road and three bullies began to chase him. Jenny yelled “Run Forrest, Run” and he did. Forrest experienced his breakthrough, he literally broke through his leg braces and from that point he was healed and began to walk without assistance. That is exactly what we have to do as network marketers. At some point in hearing what you should do you will have to breakthrough your braces of business rhetoric that holds you back from making things happen and obtain the success that you really desire.

It is funny how in the movie Forrest Gump overcame adversity and had to deal with it again when he became a teenager. The same bullies were in a truck chasing Forrest when he began to run across the football field lightning fast and the local football coach asked “who the heck is this guy?” and someone responded “That’s only the local idiot.” A short time thereafter he was playing college football. Forrest not only faced adversity and overcame it he showed how coachable he was. He did not even know what he was doing when Jenny yelled run nor did he know what he was doing when his football coach said the same. What he did know is he needed to just do it and he did it trusting their advice and making mistakes in the midst of it all.

As network marketers it would serve us well to do exactly what Mr. Gump did. We’ve got to get to the point where we say “I’m just going to run and do exactly what those leaders who have success tell me to do. I am going to just run with this business and see then what will happen in the end. Just like Forrest did when Jenny told him to run, he ran out of his hindrances his braces. When his football coach told him to run he scored a touchdown. Think about if your first attempt to run you run right out of your hindrances (fear, recruiting, etc.) and then take the second attempt to run and you run and score a touchdown (become the top earner, earn that car, earn that bonus, etc.) If you have the “Run, Forrest, Run” attitude you end up with success every time.

Like Forrest we may feel stupid in our business. Maybe we do not know everything, remember it is a journey. Often times we think we need to sprint but really we need to remember we are running a marathon. It takes time to learn all that we need to learn. We may stumble, bend a little but we will not break if we keep that Forrest Gump mentality and just keep running. In the end it will work out well.

Forrest had developed a can do attitude. He knew he could overcome anything that came his way. When he and Bubba started a shrimp boat business and Bubba died and he became the Captain with Lieutenant Dan and they were faced with much opposition like having no shrimp, you know what they did; they kept casting their net and running. Forrest even decided to go to church until something happened. Let me tell you what this means in Network Marketing terms. We need to keep attending those webinars, calls, events, team meetings, etc. (this is network marketing church). We need to stay connected to the source that keeps us inspired and helps motivate us to continue moving forward.

Forrest faced sadness when his mom passed away. And what did he do he ran. He ran from one end of the country to the other and many joined him not even knowing why he was running they just wanted to be with him. His consistent actions attracted the “Run, Forrest Run” attitude. So Put on your shoes and start running and don’t stop. Think about the leaders in our industry what sets them apart from the rest is that they are still running and they do not stop, which allows their energy to attract people to them. If you continue running you will attract people that want to run with you too.