I recently overheard a business associate make the statement: "Goals suck!" "Why," I had to ask, "do goals suck?"
My visibly upset friend said, "I missed my numbers again. I didn't bring in or close as much business as I had planned. My goals never come true," he exclaimed. After a few minutes of investigating the method that he utilized to establish these important and necessary fundamentals of his business, I said to him, "you mean your 'wishes' suck?"
Real goals do not demand luck or hope. Or, can it be said that they "come true." By the way, this same associate had stated previously that he had set a goal to make $1 million in the next 12 months. Understanding the size of his current business opportunity I asked, "How long have you had that particular goal?" The answer was, "I make it every year."
See what I am saying? This was not a goal but merely a wish. A wish has no energy; whereas a real goal contains the energy that you will need to accomplish it. Instead of providing energy a wish diminishes your energy and devours opportunity. Why? It causes you to lose tangible focus and serves to demoralize you when the "wish" does not come true.
So, how do I set goals? Real goals start with you.
Real goals ask:
Do you have the knowledge and ability necessary to accomplish this plan?
Do you have sufficient assets to accomplish this plan?
Are your liabilities too great to accomplish this plan or do you need to adjust?
Do you understand the process of improvement?
This assessment must be honest. The fact is that you currently have the knowledge, assets and ability to accomplish "a" goal but you may not possess the ability yet to accomplish "the" goal you prefer. If not, this little test will help you assess your needs.
Then ask the same questions regarding the business opportunity. Consider the weakness and strengths, assets and liabilities, employee depth, and don't forget the market. Sometimes we establish goals that are unrealistic due to the market conditions. The market does matter.
Only when all of these components are honestly measured and categorized will you be ready to begin to understand enough about you and your business to even consider the establishment of a goal. Real Goals require considerable effort before you are ready to say; "By this date, I want X."
For example: In my business www.oxpublishing.com/JPATE/ we initially said "the market is X big and by X month we should have X number of affiliates sending us X number of customers." It didn't work that way. Instead we found that setting goals for volume was the last thing we needed to do. Only after we began to focus more on ourselves, our organization and our customers did we see real improvement of volume.
Every business is the same. You too can focus on these basic questions:
1) How can we improve customer satisfaction?
2) What systems do we need to improve affiliate training and product knowledge?
3) What do we need to know that we do not know right now about the best practices and systems to run our business?
4) What do we need to know about the market?
Only when you understand these areas of your business will you be prepared to form an action plan?
Yeah, but I want to set goals of X number of additional closings per month by X month now!! OK, go ahead. Make a wish but the real progress for your business will only come after you have implemented the process of improvement in enough areas of your business to make a difference. Until then, you are only making a wish.
Next week: The Process of Improvement: How Do I Start?
We all have the need to improve ourselves. You can start today by finding a book, a life improvement coach or joining my performance enhancing Creating Wealth and Jump Start webinar series. These action packed webinar series will help you improve your life, increase your performance, build your business, and learn about new areas of the industry and techniques that can you close more loans.
If you want to know more about these webinars, email me at
