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Here's a question that'll mess with your head: What do you do when you're making seven figures in sales, crushing every goal, and suddenly … you just don't feel the same motivation anymore?
That's the question Matthew Feit from Toms River, New Jersey, posed on an Ask Jeb episode. Matthew's living the dream that most salespeople chase their entire careers. He's at the top of his game financially. He's proven everything he set out to prove. And now he's stuck in this weird limbo where the fire that got him there has gone cold.
If you're shaking your head right now, thinking this is a champagne problem, you're missing the point. This is one of the most dangerous positions a high achiever can find themselves in, and it's costing top performers their edge every single day.
The Jim Story: When Achievement Becomes Your Enemy
Let me tell you about Jim. Years ago, when I was living in Florida, I had this sales rep who was an absolute monster. Top of the ranking report. Presidents Club. Rolex on his wrist for winning. Then one day, his director of sales wanted to put him on a performance improvement plan. In sales, a PIP means you are a dead man walking.
I drove up to Jacksonville thinking there had to be some mistake. When I sat down with Jim, I realized the problem wasn't his ability. The guy was still incredibly talented. The problem was he'd won everything there was to win, and he just didn't have the next goal driving him anymore.
Here's what I learned: The things we do in sales are hard. They're repetitive. We deal with difficult people. It takes massive discipline, which is simply sacrificing what you want now for what you want most. But when you don't know what you want most anymore, that discipline evaporates.
Jim's answer surprised me. He wanted a Harley-Davidson, but his wife wouldn't let him buy it. So I worked out a way to structure his commissions so he could get his Harley while still bringing home the money his wife expected. Suddenly, his sales went through the roof again. He had something driving him.
The Cognitive Dissonance of High Achievement
Here's what's happening with guys like Matthew and what happened with Jim: They've got this level of cognitive dissonance. Part of them is a stone-cold high achiever who needs to be achieving. The other part is saying, "I don't feel it anymore. I don't have that juice."
When you're younger or earlier in your career, you're sketching out goals constantly. I remember having a goal book where I wrote down everything I wanted. One of my goals was a house on the inter-coastal waterway in South Florida. I achieved that goal. Then one day I'm sitting there going, "Well, what do I do now?"
It's easy to get comfortable when you don't know where to go next. But comfortable is the enemy of excellence in high-performance sales cultures.
What Do You Really Want?
I hit the same wall this year. Twenty years building this business, book number 17 coming out, and I'm asking myself the same question Matthew asked: "What now?"
I finally figured it out. My wants aren't things anymore. Maybe in my 20s and 30s it was about what I was going to own, but today it's different. It's about what I want to accomplish and who I want to work with.
I realized I want to work with people and companies I know I can help. That are a challenge for me. Where I can watch them grow and enjoy seeing them succeed. Who really want to work with me and see me as part of their organization, not as a vendor.
As a result, I've been rearranging my world so I can be very picky about what I'm going to do, who I'm going to work with, and who I'm going to speak to. I want to do things that give me joy and fulfill my purpose, which is to help people sell more. That's why I believe God put me here.
The Twenty Year Vision
When I was a little older than Matthew, I looked at my life and asked: "What are the next 20 years going to be like?"
I had won every award you could win in sales. I was operating at the top level of a Fortune 200 company. I had the accolades, the money, all of it. So I asked myself that simple question.
What happened over those 20 years completely changed my life. Everything shifted. I wrote my first book when I was 38. It wasn't great. But it was my story, and it was the beginning. I made a goal to write five books in five years. Twenty years later, The LinkedIn Edge is book is number 17.
Here's the thing: When I was 38, I didn't know exactly where I'd be at 58. I just knew I was going to make a massive impact over the next 20 years as I pursued my purpose. It was simply about helping people.
Stop Thinking, Start Doing
Matthew mentioned wanting to write a book about his journey and helping other people. That's a perfect path for someone at his level.
Here's my advice: Sit down and look ahead. If you were looking at yourself 20 years from now, what would you want that person to look like? It's not so much about what you want to achieve. It's about who you want to be.
Don't wait for the perfect vision. I didn't have some crystal clear picture of where I'd be today. I just knew I needed to change and make an impact. The journey gets you there, but you have to start moving.
For Matthew and for anyone else who's climbed every mountain in their current world: You have everything it takes to do whatever you want. You know that already. But if you get more time to just sit in your vacation home, you're going to go out of your mind in no time because you'll know you're not living up to your potential.
The question isn't whether you should keep pushing. The question is: What are you pushing toward? Answer that, and the fire comes back. Ignore it, and you'll keep wondering why success doesn't feel like it used to.
The best part? Once you reconnect with your purpose and set new goals that actually matter, you'll discover that all those skills that got you to seven figures become even sharper. You're not starting over. You're leveling up.
Jeb Blount is the author of 17 books including the groundbreaking classics Fanatical Prospecting, Sales EQ, Objections, and Inked. In The LinkedIn Edge, co-authored with Brynne Tillman, Jeb teaches sales professionals how to leverage LinkedIn to build their personal brand and fill their pipeline with qualified prospects.