Goals: To Infinity and Beyond!

If you are in the sales profession, you know ALL about goals. You have weekly targets and monthly targets. You have quarterly quotas and annual goals. You have goals for the number of new prospects generated per month, the number of phone calls per day, the number of closed deals per year, and the number of dollars closed per week/month/year. You are no stranger to goals. In fact, compared to many folks, you probably know quite a lot about goals. The language of goals is something you use every day in your career.

You can apply your goal setting and achievement skills to create a vision of success in all areas of your life - not just in sales. Have you ever thought about your professional goals as they related to all the other goals in your life? Do you set goal targets for your personal life the same way you do for your sales career? If you do not, why not? You know that by creating a goal with a target date, you are much more likely to achieve that goal. So why not apply this principal to all areas of your life, not just your sales career?

Think of it this way: What do you want your life to look like in 10, 20 or 30 years? And we're not just talking about your professional life here. Think about your entire life, including your personal goals such as those related to family, health, financial and spiritual success. And now I'll ask you again: What do you want your life to look like in 30 years? What are your larger goals in life? What do you want to ultimately achieve in your lifetime? You may need to think about that question for a little while. And when you identify this broad, overriding goal in your life, your “purpose”, if you will, your life will come into a different focus. When you develop a goal such as this, you have a far reaching target that can guide your actions.

To achieve your goals, they must be written down and assigned a target date. Write down the categories of your life and develop a goal for each with a target date for completion. Develop the action items you will need to accomplish those goals and assign target dates for them as well. Now you will need to break those actions into daily tasks/steps to achieve one at a time. You will learn to view your life differently; every moment will become more precious as you seek to achieve your life goal plan. (If you find this exercise challenging, go to www.GoaL-Link.com and request a free trial of the goal-setting toolset. GoaL-Link was specifically designed to create, set, track and achieve goals in all areas of your life - it was "purpose-built" for this activity!)

By implementing this writing exercise, your sales goals will become connected in the wider context of your life. In your sales career, this will mean that your sales career goals will become a supporting piece in your overall picture of success in life.

Understanding how your sales goals correlate with all other goals in your life may help you sell more in less time. You will feel more empowered in your life, resulting in improved attitude and performance. As a result, you will focus more energy on working on the right things, and good results will naturally follow.

Take these steps today:
1. Identify and develop your major life purpose
2. Determine the supporting goals for each category of your life: work, family, health, spiritual
3. Develop smaller, supporting Action Steps to begin to achieve those goals
4. Set target dates to complete those Action Items and Goals
5. Write down items #1-4 and post where you can see it daily
6. Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan – now see what wonders emerge!

To Infinity and Beyond.... Well, maybe.