HOW TO SET REALISTIC GOALS
Brent Widman, Southwestern Consulting here. This is something crazy to me when I walk in to speak for different sales organizations. One of the things I always ask is how many of you have your goals written down? And let’s just say there are ten, or one hundred people in there. Typically there is probably anywhere from 10 percent to 20 percent of the people that raise their hand and say, “You know what? I have my goals written down,” which is crazy to me.
How do you know what you’re going for? How do you know what you’re going towards? And I get it. They don’t have to be perfect, but you should set realistic goals. And then find somebody to help you out if you don’t know how to do it. What are those short term goals? What do you want to accomplish in the next month? Maybe it’s today. Maybe it’s next week. Maybe it’s next month. Maybe it’s next quarter. Maybe it’s next year. Whatever it is, write those things down periodically.
Know what you want to do. It’s okay, it’s okay if you don’t hit them, but you’re going to do everything you can to hit them because they’re going to be in here and then they’re going to be written down. Write them out, write them out. And then here’s the next step, and here’s where it gets real.
Ask somebody to hold you accountable to them. Give them permission to question and challenge you if they think you’re coming up short. Yeah, you might get mad. You might get frustrated. But they’re doing what’s best for you because you asked them for help. Check the ego. Get out of your own damn way. Write your goals down and just do this. Figure out what’s important to you and just take the time to do it. You’ll be amazed how that starts to affect your world.
ENJOY THE JOURNEY TO YOUR GOALS
I just got to tell you, life isn’t what happens when you get there. Life is what happens along the way. We all have goals. We have things we want to achieve. We all have things that we want to do. And it doesn’t matter if it’s today, next week, next month, next year. Stop thinking “I’m going to be better when I get there” or “when I have this, when I do this.” It doesn’t matter. You need to enjoy the journey on the way to reaching your goals.
I’m not saying don’t have goals. I’m not saying, don’t write down your goals. But what I’m saying is, don’t let that define you. Let you define you. Let me say that again. Don’t let the end result, those things that you’re going to do some day, or be someday, or accomplish someday, define you. You are right where you should be. No matter where you’re at your business, where you’re at your life, whatever’s going on. Don’t look at this as when I get there, I’m going to be great or I’m going to have this.
You’ve got to enjoy the journey. And sometimes that’s hard. Sometimes you’re going to put your head in your hands and go, “What the hell did I get myself into?” But that’s the fun part about it. That’s what’s going to get you there. That’s what’s going to make you stronger on the way there. That’s part of building a business.
TRACK YOUR GOALS BY WRITING THEM DOWN
I’m going to ask you to do me a big favor here. I want you to write down your goals. I know so many people that don’t do that. I’ve heard so many people say, “you know, I have them up here” or “I know they’re at that type of thing” or “I know what I want to do.” Just do me a favor. Take a step back as you read this, think about what I’m saying, and just write them down.
And then here’s what we need to do. And this is where it gets a little bit dicey, a little bit harder. But we need to look at what we want to achieve this year, at the end of the year, and please again write down these goals again. And then think about what do you need to do every day? Or by the culmination of the week. What do you need to do to lead you towards that goal? Because if we don’t know the steps that we need to take, call. Ask to find somebody for help. Whether it’s me as a coach, somebody that can help you out. If you don’t know how to do it, don’t just give up and shut down because you don’t know what to do.
That’s the biggest thing I see here, that we don’t know how. So we don’t do it. Know what you need to do every day, and it doesn’t have to be this big thing. It can be in sales. It could be a couple of phone calls. It could be all sorts of things, like I want to run a marathon, or I want to lose weight. It could be just little things every day that we need to change the habits of what we’re doing. Or we need to implement habits of what we need to do. Write it down.
Take it backwards. Know what you need to do. One foot in front of the other. We know the adage. And eventually you will get there. If you’re tracking your goals, I promise you that you will get there. If you stick with it, you’re going to have days that are hard days to get you off track. But as long as you continue to come back to it, because you know what you need to do, you’re going to get there.
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