Recently, thanks to a bet I made with my brother, I have begun training for a half marathon. Beginning with a solid foundation of couch sitting and snack eating, I knew that I had to think about how I am going to attack this challenge because I was way over my head. I ran to the huge dry erase board in my room, which looks exactly like the mirrored doors to my closet and began to right out a list of goals.
Let’s be honest goal setting isn’t the most fun thing in the world, and for most of us we would rather play the “let’s get started now and see where we end up” game. I know that I used to play this game for months at a time, never realizing that I wasn’t moving forward. with my new-found love (Read: acceptance) of running, and a definitive date set about one year in the future, I knew that I couldn’t play those games with myself, I knew that I needed a plan.
Setting up goals is essential to making change. Whether it is a personal goal to stupidly run longer than a human should need to, or you are trying to improve sales tenfold at your company, goals give you a target to aim for. The problem with this is that you have the “X” but missing the rest of the map. It’s hard to find treasure that way if you ask me.
To put together a full treasure map to success through goals, you need to think about not only the goal you are trying to reach, you need to set in place a plan to get you within reaching distance of that goal, to grab that goal, and then to support you in what happens after the goal is attained. To go back to the treasure map analogy, you want to find the “X”, you must dig up the treasure, and then you need to get that sweet, sweet treasure back to your pirate ship. Having the goal in mind doesn’t give you a full picture of what you need to do, that is why you need to plan.
TO HELP YOU PLAN FOR AND ATTAIN YOUR GOALS, HERE ARE MY TOP 5 TIPS TO GOAL SETTING:
SET YOUR MAIN GOAL
“What, why is setting your goal one of the top 5, shouldn’t that be a given?”
Yes, it is a given that if you read this far into this post you probably have a goal in mind, but did you actually set that goal? Setting a goal means more than just having an idea. You need to ask yourself a few questions. Questions like, “When will this be attained? What are the things I need to do to reach this goal? Is it even possible to reach the goal in that amount of time?”, are all great questions to ask before you have your goal set.
my main goal is to run a half marathon, I have the date set, I figured out a running program to follow, and I believe that I can reach my goal in the allotted time. My goal is set.
If you are increasing sales for your company than ask yourself, what multiplier am I trying to reach, by when am I going to reach it, how am I going to increase it (Plan), and is it possible in that time frame.
SET SMALLER “MILESTONE” GOALS
Take the time to plan “milestones” at regular intervals until your main goal deadline. This does two things that tremendously increase your chances of reaching your goal. First and most important, it give you little victories along the road that will keep you and your team motivated. Secondly it gives you a status update to let you know where you are on the path and allows you to course correct before it is too late.
With my running adventure, I have registered for both a 5k and a 10k race, the prior being in three months and the latter set for 6 months out, this will allow me to see where my stamina and endurance is at regular intervals to find out if I need to put in more work, it will also feel good to complete these shorter obstacles on my journey and be a boost to my moral.
For your sales goals, set quarterly checks, have a competition among team members, find ways to check your growth and keep it fun as you move closer to your deadline.
STAY ON COURSE
It is easy to start to stray from your original course as time ticks by. Far too often people change path on their way to reaching a goal, this could be for many reasons, but usually life just gets in the way and something must take priority over your goal. If this happens you need to remember your original goal and create a new plan of action to get to it.
As far as running goes, injuries can happen at any time, it is important to take care of your body but as soon as I heal, planning takes place and deadlines are adjusted accordingly.
Your sales goals are the same. Unplanned time off happens, after you take care of what your issues, planning and adjustments are key to getting back on track.
PUT TRUST INTO YOUR SUPPORT SYSTEM
Let your intentions be known. There is no better motivator than the people in your life cheering you along the journey, also not letting those same people down is an extremely powerful motivator. Let the people you care about know about your goals, trust them to help you along the way, and listen when they offer you advice. They are there for you.
Running can be very lonely, many times you are just trying to find time to get your miles in so when I first announced my goal, I set up a forum and group chat that allows for people who are in the know to offer tips and motivation, they want to help so I make it easy for them.
Your sales goals are the same, rally around your team and let your intentions be known, trust that they have the same vision, and work together to find the right path to victory.
STAY POSITIVE
Change takes time, sadly all that time also makes it hard to stay motivated as you move forward. staying positive while you keep working for your goal can get very difficult, especially if you have had to overcome some trips along the way. The other 4 steps all help you stay positive as you move forward but of course sometimes positivity fades no matter how hard you try.
Switching up your routine, gamification, and reward systems are all great ways to keep yourself pushing through the hard times. In running this could be racing against yourself, or finding a running app that has you run from zombies or the like. In your sales world, motivation can come from your team, maybe try a new method for a bit to break the routine.
Goals are the way that we create meaningful change in the way we do business, build relationships, or even how we run farther than necessary in a civilized world that has Uber. They make staying focused easier, and they give us a reason to keep trying when things get tough. With a good goal set you can move mountains, or climb one at least.
If your goal for this new year is to get your company on to a new cloud based ERP, contact us today to see how he can help.