Hitting the target
Brian Tracy International chief executive Andrew Phillips believes you must have a plan before you can achieve long-lasting success
Set yourself a target to achieve success
In our conversations with hundreds of top salespeople and business owners over the years, we have found that they all have one thing in common: they have taken the time to sit down and create a clear blueprint for themselves and their future lives. Even if they started the process of goal setting and personal strategic planning with a little skepticism, every one of them has become a true believer.
Every one of them has been amazed at the incredible power of goal setting and strategic planning. Every one of them has accomplished far more than they ever believed possible in selling and they ascribe their success to the deliberate process of thinking through every aspect of their work and their lives and then developing a detailed, written road map to get them to where they wanted to go.
The pursuit of happiness
Happiness has been defined as “the
progressive achievement of a worthy ideal, or goal”. When you are working
progressively, step-by-step toward something that is important to you, you
generate a continuous feeling
of success and achievement within yourself.
You feel more positive and motivated. You feel more in control of your own life. You feel happier and more fulfilled. You feel like a winner and you soon develop the psychological momentum that enables you to overcome obstacles and plough through adversity as you move toward achieving the goals that are most important to you.
Determine your values
Personal strategic planning begins with deciding what it is you believe in and stand for – your values. Your values lie at the very core of everything you are as a human being. Your values are the unifying principles and core beliefs of your personality and your character. The virtues and qualities that you stand for are what constitute the person you have become from the beginning of your life to this moment.
Your values, virtues and inner beliefs are the axle around which the wheel of your life turns. All improvement in your life begins with you clarifying your true values and then committing yourself to live consistent with them.
Successful people are successful because they are very clear about their values. Unsuccessful people are fuzzy or unsure. Complete failures have no real values at all.
Values clarification is the beginning exercise in building self-confidence, self-esteem and personal character. When you take the time to think through your fundamental values and then commit yourself to living your life consistent with them, you feel a surge of mental strength and well-being. You feel stronger and more capable. You feel more centered in the universe and more competent of accomplishing the goals you set for yourself.
Apply it to work
In the process of going through our own day-to-day business operations it’s often easy to lose sight of the power and impact of training. There are many important needs, wants or problems that can be satisfied with training, as shown below.
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action. First, decide for yourself what makes you truly happy and then organize your life around it. Write down your goals and make plans to achieve them. Second, begin with your values by deciding what it is you stand for and believe in. Commit yourself to live consistent with your inner most convictions and you’ll never make another mistake. Finally, identify your areas of weakness. Take action and invest in training your staff and yourself.
Does your business have these needs?
- A need to deal effectively with unmotivated and disillusioned staff and management;
- A need for clearly defined goals and a road map to achieve them;
- A need for visionary and inspiring leadership;
- A need for increased sales effectiveness;
- A need for increased efficiency;
- A need for increased focus and persistence;
- A need for higher closing ratios;
- A need for improved teamwork;
- A need for improved coaching and counseling;
- A need for management and staff to develop more creative solutions to challenges they face in a rapidly changing marketplace;
- A need to increase repeat business;
- A need for clear priorities.
