Goal Setting: The First Step to Achievement
The current year is about to end. It’s only a few days and we welcome year 2011. At this turn, it is only fitting that you will lay out plans ahead. All of these plans must answer the most important questions in your life:
1. What are my dreams?
1. What are my dreams?
2. What is it that I really want in life?
3. How do I achieve them all?
These questions all related to setting goals and achieving them. Goal setting is an important exercise for network marketing enterpreneurs; without goals, we would just drift along. Goal setting allows us to be proactive, instead of just being reactive. We've all had days where we just seem to leap from one crisis to another, but we know that it's not a preferred mode of operation!
However, goal setting isn't enough. Goal setting is just the first step to achievement. Imagine, for instance, that your goal is to lose weight. Knowing that goals need to be specific if you're going to have any chance of success, you decide that you will lose 15 pounds by a date set four months from now. Time passes. Four months later, you get on the scale. Are you surprised to discover that you haven't lost any weight?
Goals Need Action
You shouldn't be. While you started out well, by setting a specific goal to achieve, you didn't perform any action to help you achieve the goal. What's missing from this scenario is a goal setting strategy to help you accomplish the goal you have set. Without a goal setting strategy, or series of actions, that you are going to use to work towards the goal, whether or not you achieve the goal you have set is just a matter of blind chance. And blind chance is no way to run a successful business! To be successful, you need to make things happen, not just let things happen.
The Winning Goal Setting Formula
So when you're setting business goals in network marketing (or any other goals!), use a goal setting formula that incorporates a strategy or strategies for accomplishing the goal. For example, suppose that you want to increase sales. When you're setting this goal, don't just write, "I will increase sales." This goal is too general.
First, specify the goal. "I will increase my group size this month by 25 percent". Setting a specific goal builds in the criteria you will use to evaluate your success; in this case, at the end of the month, you'll either have increased group sales by 25 percent compared to the previous month, or you won't.
Every goal you set needs to follow this basic goal setting formula: "I will (specific goal) by (specific actions I will follow to accomplish the goal)." You may have several specific actions you will take to achieve your goal, rather than just one.
Goal + Action = Success
What happens when you go beyond the basic step of goal setting? Evaluating your success or failure is easy, because your goal is specific rather than general. And suddenly, instead of just having a goal that you may or may not achieve, depending on chance, you have a specific battle plan to follow to achieve the goal you've set. Instead of setting yourself up for failure, you've set yourself up for success.
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