February has always been an odd month in my mind. I sill have trouble understanding why there are fewer days. I can explain it, but scientifically it’s just abstract enough that I have to admit it does not necessarily fully make sense. I like the more colorful explanation that Augustus Caesar wanted his month to have the same number of days as Julius Caesar’s month so he stole a day from February and gave it to August. It is also one of the coldest months which really means something here in Wisconsin where the month’s average low temperature is -9 ºF.

Maintaining commitment to professional development and professional productivity in February can be challenging. Sales in nearly every industry tend to slump during the month. My dad tells an interesting story about February that I think puts professional productivity in a better respective than some examples of more conventional wisdom.

In December of 1979 my dad graduated college. He has been a sales person all of his life. His first full month of sales was February 1980. In March, less than three months in he first job, the boss called him in the big office. My dad was unsure what to think and it was possible he got in trouble for something. Turns out that my dad’s sales figures for the month of February were better than anyone else in the company — for February and for a lot of the other months besides. The boss asked him how he pulled it off. His co-workers who had understood February to be a “slow month” also wanted to know what he did. My dad’s response was pretty simple: “nobody told me February was supposed to be a bad month.”

Beginners luck? Maybe. I think staying focused on work, having the passion typical of new professionals, and not being burdened by the counter-productive expectation of a slow month, are better explanations for my dad’s success that February. You get what you expect.

February is half-way over. What are your expectations for the month?

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