Imagine…you probably wouldn’t hop into an airplane if you knew the pilot was going to get up into the air and simply fly around aimlessly until he landed somewhere. Nor would you expect to succeed in college if you didn’t have a set schedule of which class to attend, when, and for how long. Sounds kind of ridiculous, right? Many areas of our life simply wouldn’t make sense if they didn’t have a plan, a roadmap to follow, a purpose. So why do so many entrepreneurs make the grand effort to start a business without writing down a single goal?
The importance of having a plan and setting goals is paramount. Not only long term goals – “I will be in the top 5% of the sales force by December 2010” – and short term, intermediate goals – “I will make 10 sales this quarter” – but daily, actionable goals, too – “I will make 15 calls today to new contacts.”
Work backwards. What’s your long-term goal? Write it down. (And yes, I mean actually taking pen to paper, people, there are studies out there to prove that writing it down is necessary.) Then, take that long term goal and break it down into intermediate goals. If your long term goal was 2 years away, where do you need to be in 6 months, 1 year, and 18 months from now to hit your 2 year goal? Write those down. Break them down as far as necessary. When do you say when? If your goal is detailed enough to generate a daily or weekly to-do list, you’ve gone far enough. Take your earliest goal, say your 6 month, and determine where you will be in 3 months and 1 month to hit the 6 month mark. Take your 1 month goal, what do you need to do every day this month to achieve that milestone? There! You’ve reached to purpose of goal-setting: to generate your daily action plan.
If you know where you’re going and you know how to get there, then achieving your goals becomes less of a wish and more of, well…a sure-thing. You know what else? You’ll have the confidence and clarity that yes, you ARE in fact going in the right direction.
Write down your goals, break them down to help generate your daily plan of action, and watch your aspirations come to life.
(This post based on a recent discussion in a TwoSalesGirls.com forum.)
I'm an author, marketer, and mommy who loves to read, write, and drink coffee. My husband and I live in suburban Kansas City with our two little girls. This site chronicles my world. Thanks for stopping by!
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