Set goals to succeed in the new year

Yogi Berra said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.”

It doesn’t make much sense, but we all know what he meant. As the year draws to a close, we should all be thinking about next year’s goals.

Another thing we must all face is a work/life balance. Most people don’t have a plan to balance their work and personal life. They do whatever the job requires and hope the rest works out.

That’s not a plan.

One of the earliest quotes I memorized was by Thomas Carlyle: “A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder.”

This is the goals-setting system that I’ve found works the best. Rather than going wherever the wind takes us, we must choose our direction.

Here are some tips for setting goals in the new year:

•Set goals in all areas of your life. You should have work goals, personal goals, physical goals, financial goals and relationship goals. Unless you set goals in all these areas, one will always take precedent over the others.

The only way I’ve seen to get work/life balance is to force balance by setting goals in all areas — the overall goal being work/life balance.

•Write your goals down. If they aren’t written down, they are just a wish, a hope or a dream — but they are not goals. We know writing things down impacts our psyche.

•Set a time frame. That should be easy. Goals can be set hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually. Without a time frame there is no win or lose or sense of urgency. And the smaller the time frame the better. Smaller short-term goals will be more easily achieved.

•Tell someone important to you about your goals. It could be your spouse, parents, boss or friend. The only requirement is that the person be someone you want to come through for. This adds an element of commitment to the process. It’s the reason we get married in public with our friends and family. It adds commitment to what we are doing.

•Set high and low goals. The largest companies in the world use this principle. They have an external projection of earnings and an internal projection that’s higher. They tell shareholders the low goal but everyone is working for their internal budget (the high goal). This works for individuals, too.

•Set activity and results goals. By setting activity goals, you can control your results. Every results goal should be broken down into the activities required to achieve it. A certain number of phone calls leads to a certain number of appointments. A certain number of appointments leads to a certain number of sales. Sales equals commissions, and commissions lead to your results goal.

Follow the same thinking with all of your results goals.

One final thought: No excuses! Don’t use your circumstances as an excuse not to reach your goals.

Sales consultant Tom Black hopes to provide a touch of humor, inspiration and motivation for those along for the ride in the roller-coaster career of sales. Learn more at www.tomblack.com. Email tom.black@bancsourceinc.com.