What’s the Most Important Thing?

Ever made New Year resolutions?  Ever kept any?  Here is the secret to keeping that resolution!  Two of my real-life experiences resulted in the next few episodes.  Those experiences will give you a new perspective, too.  Make a realistic goal which will result in good progress in your life.

First Real-life Experience.  I drove to my regularly scheduled appointment with my trainer at the gym on January 2^nd.  To my great surprise, I couldn’t find a parking place!  Usually no one is there at that time of day.  Slowly the truth came to me.  These are all the idiots who made a new resolution of going to the gym daily this year.  So, I know I’ll have my parking spot back in about three weeks after most of these people quit coming.  This realization reminded me how few goals we set at the beginning of the year come to fruition.  That is sad!

Second Real-life Experience.  I read a very good book which I’d like to recommend to you.  The Four Disciplines of Execution by Sean Covey, Chris McChesney & Jim Huling.  Although the book is designed more for companies and people who are building organizations, I certainly found great personal application, also.  I’m going to share some of the content and weave it with the idea about setting goals.

I’d like to encourage you to choose ONE PRIORITY area in your life on which to work in the next twelve months.  Answer the question, “What matters most?”  The biggest mistake made when setting goals and ambitions is setting too many.  I have fallen prey to this for years.  It’s been the biggest obstacle in my professional career.  I always want to accomplish fifty things at once!  The truth is none of us can do that.  The best way to make improvement is to pick one thing to accomplish.  If you could change only one thing over the next twelve months, what would that be?

Consider every area of your life before you choose:  marriage, parenting, health, credit card processing business, sales career, etc.  Someone may be thinking, “Well, one thing would be getting a check for a half million dollars.  That would make everything a lot better.”  Why is that a bad goal?  You have no control over it!  Your one thing must be something over which you have control.  Here are some ideas:

Marriage:  “I’m going to make sure I have one date night every week with my spouse.”

Child Rearing:  “I’m going to spend an extra hour a day with my kids.”

Health (Personal testimony):  “I’m going to hire a trainer and meet at the gym three times a week.”

Sales:  “I want to increase my closing percentage by 10%.” or “I want to increase the number of contacts I make.”  You must be tracking. You need data to understand the one thing which will have the biggest impact on your goal.

You could probably choose one thing in several areas of your life.  But choose the one which would have the biggest impact overall in your life.  Discipline yourself to focus on that one area for the next twelve months.  Refuse to work on two or three things.  This is either the year you work on one thing, or the year you don’t work on anything!

Decide the ONE PRIORITY to work on this year.  Then tomorrow I’ll give some tips on how to make sure you make an impact and move the needle forward.

Read the previous article here:  http://bit.ly/2D9unfK  How Much Can You Make Selling Cash Discounting

Read the next article here:  http://www.ccsalespro.com/where-is-your-scoreboard/  Where is Your Scoreboard?