Are you making progress toward your goals?  Last week we started a series of “check-ups”.  These check-ups are quick questions that help you make sure you making progress in different areas of your life.  The first part of this series was a health and fitness check-up. Today we move to a goal setting and progress check-up.

Once again the questions are all pretty simple.  There are no tips here that you haven’t read before…. But are you doing them?  Do you have your goals in place, and are you doing what you need to in order to move towards those goals? The questions are all YES or NO questions.  If you answer NO then you should make it a priority to complete the project and change your NO to a YES.  If you answer YES to all of these you are likely making significant progress towards your goals.

Question #1 – Do you have a clear understanding of the mission and values that drive your life?

Setting goals is irrelevant if you don’t have clarity about who you are. This means you have a clear understanding about the values that drive you and the overarching mission of your life.

Values are the core beliefs that drive you and guide you. They set the parameters around what you will do and what you won’t do.  They are internal and fixed.  Identifying these values is vital.  If you don’t identify your values you may find yourself inadvertently working against your values; doing this will make you miserable.  For example, if one of your true values is family-time, and yet you spend all of your time at work, then even success at work won’t satisfy you.

Your mission stems out of your values; it is what you are meant to do, or who you are meant to be. Your mission can be broad and yet focused; broad enough that you have lots of ways of living it out, but narrow enough that you have a clear purpose and direction.

Question #2 – Do you have your long-term goals written down?

Long-term goals stem directly out of your mission; they reflect where you want to be, have or do in the distant future.  Some of these long-term goals may be ten or twenty years down, and others might be thirty or forty years. For example, if you are thirty you may have a long-term goal of retiring comfortably at sixty.  This would be a long-term goal.  You need to write this down and clearly define what “retiring comfortably” means.  Another example might be that you want your business to do $100 million in sales.  This might take ten years to complete, but it’s a clear goal that you want to achieve.

Any goals you have need to be written, dated, and specific. This is true, even for your long-term goals. You will likely have several long-term goals.  One way to think through and determine your long-term goals is to imagine what your ideal day would be like at some date in the future.  Write out what you would have, do and be at some date in your future.

Question #3 – Do you have shot-term goals for the next three-five years?

The next step of goal setting is to have short-term goals for three to five years out.  These are often a lot more clear and vivid.  Naturally, most of these short-term goals will be direct steps to help you achieve your long-term goals.  In essence, the short-term goals are the next major steps that you are working on. Make sure they are challenging goals that will advance your life in significant ways.

Question #4 – Do you have current goals for the next three to four months?

Likely the most important goals to have clearly defined are your current goals.  Current goals can be anything from one year goals to one month goals.  I recommend quarterly goals as the best option. Three months is a great length of time for you to focus on a few projects and goals.

Remember that these current goals can just be steps towards your short-term and long-term goals.  By breaking down the longer goals into more basic projects you will be more focused and motivated to see success.  You might not be able to see a lot of progress towards a long-term goal, but if you break it down to immediate goals of three or four months long you can be encouraged as you see daily progress.

Question #5 – Do you take your immediate goals and divide them into weekly goals?

The final step of breaking down your goals is to have weekly goals that build towards your immediate goals.  Your weekly goals can be set as a part of a weekly review time that you schedule each week.  This is where you can examine your accomplishments from the previous week, review your immediate goals and set new goals for the following week.  I follow my weekly planning process as part of this review process.

Question #6 – Do you have things that remind you goals throughout the day?

You can’t just set goals and forget them.  Ok, you can, but you won’t succeed in achieving them.  Instead you must think of your goals throughout the day on different occasions.  One great way to do this is to have reminders that you will see throughout the day.  These can be things in your home or office that help you to connect to your goals and inspire you to move towards them.

There are a lot of ways to set these kinds of reminders.  Some of my favorites are:

• tape photos of your goals to your mirror
• use a screen saver or desktop photo on your computer
• design a goals poster and place it somewhere you will see it
• put reminders and photos on the fridge
• put notes on a bulletin board

Now that you have your goals clearly set, have a weekly review process in place, and have things to remind you of your goals throughout the week all that is left to do is to work.  Do the activities that you have set out to do.  Get started and go!  Before you know it, your goals and dreams will come true.

Written by:
Danny Gamache – The Success Professor
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Last week, in my article “How Fatherhood Has Changed My Life” I mentioned that I’ve learned the importance of working in bursts.  A burst is when you take a short period of time and work full-out for that period of time.

Working in bursts is valuable for many reasons:

• you can make use of short periods of time that might otherwise not feel productive

• you can complete a short burst when your motivation is to low to start something bigger

• you can get  a lot done with focused energy

So how do you best work in bursts?  Here are some tips:

1. Have projects arranged

The only way you will be able to make use of a short burst is if you have your projects arranged in an easy to use system.  One way to do this is to use folders for each and every project you have that you are working on.  This is one of the most valuable things that I took out of Getting Things Done (see my review here).  By having each project in a folder you only need to have to one folder on your desk at a time that you can focus on.

2. Know the order of importance

Having your projects arranged is only half the battle; you need to know what order that they need to be accomplished.  Which project is the most important?  Doing a burst session on a low priority project might be valuable, but doing that same burst on your top priority project will allow you to excel.

There are many ways of establishing your order.  It can be as simple as a to-do list that you rank or it can be an elaborate process that is part of a full productivity system.  I use my weekly planning system to prioritize my products based on the goals I am pursing.

3. Have a clear workspace

The next step is to make sure you have a clear workspace.  Get rid of everything except the project that you are working on and any tools necessary to complete that project. If you have your projects arranged and set in individual folders you should have no need for a cluttered desk.

Having a clear workspace helps you to focus. You won’t be distracted by other things on your desk that vie for your attention.  You won’t be tempted to pause what you are doing to work on something else.  It also gives you the ability to spread out and organize yourself as you move forward on your project.

4. Turn off all distractions

The point of your burst period is to single task. You don’t want to be moving back and forward between tasks.  In order for you to do this you need to turn off all distractions.  The biggest distractions are often forms of communication.  Things such as email, telephones and Twitter can easily pull you away from the task at hand.  Closing your email box, web browser and putting your phone on silent will allow you to work without interruptions and get a lot more done.

If you work in a public place that is prone to interruptions put a “do not disturb” sign on your door or wear headphones to indicate that you are not to be interrupted.  This may take some time to train those around you but once they learn your policies it will be well worth it for you.

5. Have a pad of paper and pen off to the side

As you work away on your project, your mind will naturally tend to wander at times.  You’ll think of new ideas, projects that you could start, or things you need to do.  Having a pad and paper at your side will allow you to record your thoughts and return to your main project. Your mind will then forget about the thought and focus on the project. If you don’t write it down you’ll be tempted to take action towards what has come to mind, and your brain won’t be able to refocus on the project.

6. Go full out for a predetermined period of time

Once you have taken these steps you now need to work; work hard and steady for the time that you have set aside.  This is the essence of working in bursts.  Go full out, using all of your energy. If possible set yourself a time limit as to how long you will work.  Having a deadline for when you will stop working keeps you moving.  It also gives you something to look forward to.  So you’ll be both pushed to work harder during the time you have, but you will also be assured that a reward is coming when you are done that time.

Working in bursts is powerful.  It will allow you to get more done in a short period of time.  Perhaps you only have a short period of time.  It’s easy to put off meaningful activity because you “don’t have enough time.”   Instead you can do a burst of activity towards an important project.  Perhaps you don’t feel motivated to settle in and work.  Instead commit to working just a short time in a burst.  Often getting started like this with a burst will give you momentum to carry forward and keep working.

How can you apply bursts?  Take a minute right now and don’t leave this article without taking some action. Write down three priority activities that you can do in a burst period, and write down at least three different times of your day, or situations that you face, where a burst effort might be appropriate.  Now go and do it!

Written by:
The Success Professor – Danny Gamache (Follow me on Twitter: @successprof)

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Deadlines are an extremely valuable tool to use as you pursue your goals. As a college professor, I see this all too clearly.  If assignments didn’t have deadlines, most students wouldn’t complete them.  If you left every deadline until the end of the course, all of the work would be done at the end of the course.  Deadlines naturally spur people, pushing them to complete the project at hand.

The same phenomenon can be seen when you are preparing to go on a vacation.  Have you ever noticed how much more work you get done on the day before you leave? It is because you have a firm deadline looming, and tasks that need to get done before you leave.

This phenomenon can be used as you pursue your goals.  Having a deadline will force you to move forward. You will need to work hard to reach your goal by the deadline, and as the deadline gets near it will inspire you focus hard and get the project done.

Here is how to make use of deadlines to help you reach your goals more quickly:

1. Make a deadline for every major goal that you are pursuing.

Every major goal you have needs an accompanying deadline.  If the goal is important enough for you to set and pursue then it is important enough to have a deadline for completing it. If you set the deadline for the major goal, you can then break down the goal into monthly and weekly components that will help you stay on the right timeline.

Some of your life goals may be continual, or ongoing, goals.  These might better considered habits that you are working to create.  For me, these include things such as working out five times a week, writing five days a week etc.  While they don’t need to have an extra deadline, you should do a weekly review of all of these goals to ensure that you are making progress.  By doing this you are able to create a weekly deadline to have completed that task the number of times you want.  So, for example, my workout goal has a weekly deadline; to reach it I need to have worked out five times by the end of the week.

2. Make the deadlines external

The best deadlines are deadlines that are set for you by someone else. For students the deadline for handing in an assignment often helps them have the surge in energy needed to finish.  For you it might be the tax filing deadline that creates action as you drop other things to get your taxes done.  Both of these are examples of external deadlines.

As you set personal deadlines for achieving goals, you need to hold yourself to them like an external deadline. You can do this by putting some form of external pressure on your internal goals.  You can do this by:

• sharing the deadline with many people around you so that they hold you accountable and apply peer pressure
• placing your deadline around an existing external deadline, such as a vacation, holiday or special event (ie. making your goal to complete your project before you leave for an Easter weekend trip)
• giving yourself a significant reward, but only if you complete your goal before a set deadline
• committing to someone else that you will complete something by a certain time so that they can take the next step in the project
• having a partner that you work with and both share the same deadline

Any of these methods can help increase the power of your deadline by applying external pressure.

3. Make the deadlines firm

Many times people who are pursing a goal will set a deadline only to continually be pushing back the deadline because they aren’t going to reach the goal.  You need to make the deadline firm. There cannot be any extensions.  You simply need to get it done.  If you get in the habit of giving yourself extensions you will start to rely on them.  Eventually you will get in the habit of never reaching the deadlines that you set for yourself.

4. Make the deadlines appropriate

You deadline needs to be appropriate.  This means that the deadline cannot be too easy to reach, or too hard. If it is too easy, you simply won’t get started because you will always believe you have all the time in the world to complete your goal.  After all, you believe the goal is really easy to achieve by the deadline.  Unfortunately when this happens the time will fly by and you may not think about the deadline again until it is too late.  You need a deadline that will cause you to get started right away.

The deadline also can not be too hard.  If the deadline looks like it cannot be met, you will quickly become discouraged and stop pursuing the deadline; you will give up, because you don’t believe you can succeed in time.

Instead, make the deadline challenging, but reachable. In order to do that you will need to learn your tendencies.  Do you tend to overestimate what you can accomplish with your time, or underestimate your ability?  I tend to overestimate how much work I can get done with my time.  Because of this, I need to make the deadline a little easier to reach than I would first expect.  If I expect that I can get a project done in two weeks, I better give myself a deadline of three or four weeks to be more realistic.  Some people work the opposite and always think a project will take longer than it really does.  If you fit into that category, set the deadline for a shorter period of time than you might first expect.

5. Complete, Celebrate, Commence

These three Cs are the cycle for achieving goals with a deadline.  The first C is to complete the project you are working on.  Work really hard towards a goal with the focus on completing it. If you are like me, you likely have the tendency to have a number of project lying around that are started, perhaps even near completion and yet not finished.  One place I notice this in my life is how many books I have partially read.  Often I find myself part way through several books, but not completing any of them. To break this trend, focus on completing the project.  You can set a new deadline for completing the project if you are nearly done well before the original deadline.

The second C is to celebrate.  Once you have completed a major project or met a major goal you need to pause and celebrate.  Find a way to celebrate that is a true reward. For me, a steak dinner at my favorite restaurant is a great reward for completing a major project.  This has to be something you do rarely enough that it truly feels like a great celebration.  Your celebrations may change from goal to goal depending on what feels like a reward to you in the moment.  Bigger goals that took more time and effort to achieve should have a bigger celebration than small goals.

The final C is to commence.  After you have celebrated, you need to commence progress towards your next goal; set a deadline and get going.  Notice that this final C does not take place until after you have completed the previous goal and celebrated its achievement. If you start sooner, you’ll end up with too many projects to focus on.

Using deadlines that are firm, appropriate and have external pressure will help you make progress more rapidly towards your goal.  Set deadlines for all of your major goals and then follow the cycle of the four Cs to reach those goals.  You will quickly move onwards and upwards towards the success you desire.

Written by:

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

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In general I am in favor of having important goals in a variety of areas of life.  You should set goals for your work life, your family life, personal growth and for any other important role that you have (see my previous post on setting short term goals). Having these various goals allow you to pursue a rhythm in life; one that will allow you to make consistent progress towards all of these goals.

The Paradox

The paradox is that in order to achieve all of these goals you will need to have periods of imbalance; times when you get out of rhythm and focus completely on a major goal for a short period of time.  During this time you will need to allow yourself the freedom to leave other goals for the short term to put all of your efforts into what is immediately important.

I am just coming out of a three back-to-back periods of focused imbalance.  Towards the end of January an opportunity came up to significantly expand my home business affiliate program in a short period of time. The only catch was that it required that I drop almost everything else for a couple of weeks.  By doing that, I was able to achieve more in two weeks than I would have expected in two months.  Following that period of imbalance towards my business goals, I had a couple of weeks of focus that was required for the volunteer work I do as part of a church’s leadership time. I turned from there to a period of imbalance towards my job as a professor.  This semester I took on an ‘overload’ where I teach an extra course for extra pay.  To do this well, I took a period of focused work on class prep and marking.

Success Comes in Spurts

When pursuing goals of any sort you can count on the fact that success comes in spurts. In some projects a spurt is required to get momentum started and get moving forward.  In some projects it is a final spurt towards the finish line that is needed.  School is built around spurts (exam time and when term papers are due), most jobs are built around spurts (busy season, year end etc.), and even pleasure activities are built around spurts (set vacations).

You can see this in athletics as well.  In some sports a burst at the beginning is the key to building momentum that carries through to the finish.  The 100 meter sprint is probably the best example of this.  It is the early momentum that the runners create that carries them through to the finish.  In longer races, such as the 10,000 meters there is usually a gradual build up before a surge towards the end.  In professional team sports, we also see this spurt towards the end – called the playoffs.  However, before the playoffs many teams will have a spurt period where they go on a several game winning streak to help propel them into the playoffs.

The fact that success comes in spurts is not a bad thing; in fact it is part of the way we are built.  Spurts allow you to use an increased level of energy and carry a higher level of excitement for a short period of time. This can be followed by short periods of rest and recovery.  Further, if you have a number of areas in your life that at various times require a short spurt, simply changing focus can help provide another burst of energy.

Know what you are doing

One of the keys to effectively having a period of focused imbalance is to know what you are doing.  You need to be deliberate about the fact that you are taking a period of time to be focused on one goal over others. It is very easy to slip into a period of imbalance by accident.  This occurs when you end up focusing on one goal at the exclusion of others, but you do not do this on purpose; it just kind of happens.  When this happens your period of imbalance is likely not very focused, and it can have extra negative effects on your other goals. You want the move to being a period of imbalance to be a deliberate decision because it is the best thing for your life as a whole.

It is important that if you are taking a period of focused imbalance, and doing it deliberately, that you don’t feel guilty about the goals you put to the side. It is easy to feel regret and dwell on what you are not able to do for these other goals.  You need to remember that you are leaving some goals for the short term because of an opportunity to advance your overall long-term goals even further.

Of course all of this implies that that you have long-term overarching life goals.  If you don’t have a vision for what your life should look like, you will not be able to make decisions about when you should take a period of focused imbalance. Start by setting long-term goals for what you want your life to look like.  This vision should guide your short-term goals and the decisions you make about how to pursue them.

Keep all your goals in sight

During a period of focused imbalance it is important that you still pay attention to all of the goals you have, even in the areas you are temporarily putting to the side. This helps you to keep the long-term in mind, but also helps you to always have other important goals in your conscious.  There may be places where your goals overlap and something you are working on can carry over towards another project or goal.

You should review all of the roles in your life on a weekly basis.  Do your weekly goal setting, even during a time of imbalance.  Use this opportunity to deliberately consider each goal, remind yourself about why they are important, and consciously consider whether you should continue in the period of focused imbalance.

Keep your minimum activity level

Part of this process is recognizing what your minimum level of activity is for each of your life roles. Some roles will be things that you can completely set aside and do nothing, but likely most of your goals will need a basic level of activity even when you are in a period of imbalance.

Many of my roles require this minimum level of activity.  For example, my job as a professor requires that, at a very minimum, I prepare for and teach my classes, and have suitable office hours.  There are some things that I can put aside for a short period, but teaching my classes and holding my office hours are part of my minimum activity level.

One of the areas I “dropped the ball” over the past few weeks is with my minimum activity requirements for this blog.  With the focus on this blog being only a handful of months old, I had not gone through a period where focused imbalance took me away.  Because of that, I had not built in the minimum activity requirements for this blog.  My minimum activity requirements for this blog should have been, and will become, a minimum of two posts a week.  That means even during a period of focused imbalance I need to take the time to write, even a little.  Knowing my minimum activity level also frees me up, during those times, from promoting the blog, writing guest posts etc.

My period of imbalance allowed me to complete or make significant progress towards several of my goals. Because life generally moves in spurts, it is important to acknowledge the need for periods where most of your attention needs to focus on one specific goal over others.  Be prepared for this by having clarity over your life goals so that you can make deliberate decisions about your activity when you need to. Keep your goals in sight at all time and be sure to keep your minimum activity levels and your periods of focused imbalance will help you progress rapidly towards your goals.

Written by:
Danny Gamache – The Success Professor

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As we end 2008 and start 2009 it is natural that we should be taking time to set goals.  Last week, I shared about the concept of setting shorter goals.  In that article, I shared how you can improve your goal setting and achievement by setting goals for either three month or four month periods.

As a professor, the four month goal setting period works perfectly because of the natural flows of the school year.  The first four months include a busy semester.  This semester, I’m teaching an extra class than normal.

The second four month period is the summer months.  During this time, I do not have classes to teach.  Instead there is time for increased study, research and writing.  My wife and I are also expecting our first child near the start of this four month period, so there will be many life changes to consider when setting goals for this time period.

The third four month period is again a teaching semester, with a different course load and different set of obligations. It is because of this natural life separation that I am setting goals for a four month period (rather than quarterly goals that are common in the corporate world).

I share my goals with you for several reasons:

• public accountability is always valuable when focusing on goals
• you can see the format I use, and the types of goals that I set
• you can hold me accountable to my goals
• you can get some ideas for goals of your own
• you can get to know me a little better

Be sure to share some of your goals in the comments below.

Here are some of my goals by category.  I have been intentionally vague on a few numbers that are rather personal (particularly financial goals). I do have specific numbers for these set in my goals.

Teaching/ Professor

• finish academic article and submit to peer-reviewed journal
• develop PowerPoint presentations for Human Resource Management course
• integrate more illustrations/videos into Quantitative Methods course

Success Professor Blog

• publish 6 guest posts per month
• increase to a total of 1500 RSS subscribers (approximately double current)
• average 4000+ visitors per month during period

Home Business Affiliate Program

• accept 12 new affiliate partners to work with
• total growth of 50%

Financial Goals

• put as much as possible on to retirement plan by Feb. 28
• increase emergency fund

Fitness Goals

• get to target weight (approximately 10 lb. drop)

Personal Development

• read 6 books, including one on writing

Spiritual Growth Goals

• continue role in church leadership
• read Jesus and the Eyewitnesses by Richard Bauckham

Now that my goals are set, I incorporate them into my weekly planning process. I also review my goals frequently throughout the week, and I will have another goal setting time at the end of the four month period.

What are your goals?  Share a couple of your goals below as a way of publicly declaring what you are going to work towards.

Written by:
The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

Like many others, you may use the start of a new year to set goals for what you want to accomplish over the next year. These goals may be business goals, personal goals, or more informal resolutions. If you are like me, you enter the year with a lot of energy and excitement towards reaching those goals, and yet throughout the year many seem to fade out of focus and do not get achieved.

Part of the problem is that although a year is a brief measure of time in the course of our lives, it is often too long to stay focused on achieving our goals.  There can be too many unexpected events that can occur in the course of a year that through us off track and derail us from achieving our goals.

Some people solve this somewhat by breaking down annual goals into monthly goals.  This can certainly be a good step, but it is too easy to let the start of a new month go by without reviewing your goals and set goals for the next month.

To solve these problems, set your goals for a three or four month period.  If you ever follow the stock market, you’ll notice that corporations release quarterly reports.  This allows them to focus on distinct three month periods. The government also releases many economic statistics on a quarterly basis.  You too can take advantage of this premise by breaking your goals down into shorter periods.  By breaking the year into quarters or thirds you gain many advantages:

• you have a clear timeline that is of significant enough length to achieve recognizable and meaningful results
• you will have a better understanding of your schedule
• you should have a good idea about important life events in the upcoming time period that require your attention
• if you get off track on a particular goal you don’t wait until the end of the year to reengage
• you can use the understanding gained in one time period to set better goals for the next time period
• you get three or four points in the year for a recharge session where you are able to review your accomplishments and set new goals (perhaps have a quarterly celebration and/or retreat)

I leave the actual length of these periods up to you, as they should be based around your particular life schedule.  For example, I am setting goals for four month periods this year. For me, the four month time frame connects well with my schedule as a professor.  The first four months represent the first semester, this year with a heavy teaching load.  The second four month period represents the summer time period with a reduced teaching load and more time for research, writing and travel.  The final four moth period represents another semester with a different teaching load and different set of life circumstances.  By breaking the year down into four month periods I am able to focus on goals that are relevant to my life at each particular period of time.

As you go to set your goals here are some reminders to help you set good goals:

• set goals for each important area of your life
• make your goals measurable
• goals should be challenging and yet attainable
• short-term goals should be in alignment with your long-term goals and life purpose or mission

In upcoming posts I will share with you some of my accomplishments from the past year, as well as my goals for the upcoming four month period.  Start working on your goals and be prepared to share a goal or two.

Happy New Year!

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
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A few years ago I was at an event where I had the privilege of seeing the “Flying Wallenda’s” and hear their story.  The “Flying Wallenda’s” are a hire wire tight-rope act.  Their performance is breathtaking and scary, even to watch.  One of the things that they shared is an important lesson for life and business as well.  In explaining how they do their tight-rope walking, they shared how they would walk with their focus on something out ahead of them, and they would then move slowly towards that point. They would not look down, not even at the wire.  They would only focus on the one point straight ahead of them – the point they wanted to walk towards.  As trained professionals, they would always get where they were aiming for.

This principle can easily translate into our businesses and the rest of our lives – whatever we focus on is what we will move towards. This is always true, and works clearly in our lives and business.  Where you are today is primarily a result of what you have focused on in the past.  If you focus on failure, chances are that you will fail more than you will succeed.  If you focus on the next step towards your goals, you will move in that direction.

What you focus on also will determine which of your goals you make progress towards. If you focus on how you can be a better parent, then you will make progress towards that goal.  You will leave work in good time and do what it takes to spend time with your children.  If your main focus is advancing in your career then you will likely make progress towards that goal.  You likely will stay late at work, take work home with you, and do what you can to make your boss happy.

This isn’t magic and it isn’t something that happens all at once. It is just good success psychology.  I see this principle all of the time in my job.  As a professor, I interact with a wide variety of students with different goals and maturity levels.  It is clear the ones who focus on the social side of their college experience – they will take the steps towards more social interaction.  What they may neglect is their school work and their marks.  On the other hand, the ones focused on achieving excellence in their studies will likely do well on their assignments.  This doesn’t mean that they will all get A’s.  While many will, some will score B’s and C’s.  Because they focused on pursing excellence, they will no doubt do better than they will otherwise.  They may not be the best, but they will all move towards the goal they are focusing on.

This principle is a major reason why more people are not successful in their business. They get distracted and look away from their goal.  These distractions can come in many forms.  You may get distracted by your work, by your family, or by entertainment.  Certainly many of these can be good things.  They are not things you want to neglect.  You need to ask are they taking you away from focusing on your goal.

The starting point for this process is, of course, your goal.  Before the “Flying Wallenda’s” even stepped on to the tight-rope they picked their goal – the spot they would focus on. They clearly fixed that spot in their mind and in their sight.  In business and in life, you must know your goal and it must be clear.  You must be able to picture your goal in your mind and be able to clearly articulate your goal in an instant.  That way, when you step out into your day you always can have your goal in mind.  By focusing on your goal in this way you will always be doing things to move towards it.  If you look to your goal throughout the day, you will not miss opportunities to move towards your goal.

Once you have your goal you need to step out and move toward your goal. Do this even if there is fear.  I imagine the “Flying Wallenda’s” still have fear when they step out onto the tightrope.  Moving toward every significant goal will require moving past fear and out of your comfort zone.  When moving through fear it is extra important to keep your eye focused clearly on your goal.

Just like the “Flying Wallenda’s” we are moving towards what we focus on, whether we realize it or not. Once you realize this you can move towards goals that YOU chose.

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
Related articles: Six Steps to Plan Your Week for Success

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No matter what type of organization you lead, business you run, or what kind of personal goals you are pursuing, one of the keys that will determine the level of your success is momentum.  Momentum is defined as “the force of movement”.  It can help decide how high you will go and how quickly you will get there.  At the same time, momentum can often prove illusive; something that seems to be here today and yet is gone tomorrow.

WHAT DOES MOMENTUM LOOK LIKE

John Maxwell calls momentum “the big mo”.   In his book “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”, he says that “Momentum is really a leader’s best friend.  Sometimes it’s the only difference between winning and losing.”

You know you have momentum when you run over obstacles in your path like they were nothing.  Momentum is when things happen with ease, one success follows another and forward growth comes quickly.  Momentum allows leaders to move past mistakes quickly, and any kind of change is possible.  People throughout the organization are motivated to achieve more, and at a higher level. Momentum makes the leader look good, because success seems to happen easily.

If you’re in sales, momentum is when sales come easy, one after another.  In fact you are confident going into the next sales call that you will make the sale.  In your personal life momentum is when you are meeting your goals one after another.  It is when your life is in balance and everything is going right.  You get the idea – it’s like dominos once one thing falls, the rest follow suit.

HOW TO ACHIEVE MOMENTUM

1. Achieving momentum starts with creating forward progress.

Getting started is the most difficult part.  It’s like the law of inertia:  an object in motion tends to stay in motion, and an object at rest tends to stay at rest.  Momentum is what happens when you get moving.  Whatever your goal is take a step towards it now.  This is why I suggest starting your day with a power hour. Your power hour allows you to do something first off in the morning that gives you progress towards your goals right away.  You create success within the first hour of the day, helping you gain momentum.  Once you are in motion for the day you are more likely to stay in motion and continue on towards your goals.

2. You are responsible for the momentum of your team.

Momentum starts with the leader, and then moves outwards and impacts the entire team.  If you lead a team of people in any form then you are responsible for the momentum of your team, you can’t place the responsibility on anyone else. Team momentum starts with your personal momentum.  You need to be motivated yourself and moving forward, before you can motivate others.  Understanding this will allow you to help your team to follow these steps towards momentum.

3. Have a clear vision and goals for your future.

Develop a vision for where you want to go and keep that vision out front.  Continually remind yourself and your team about the vision you are pursing.  Your vision should be important, not just to yourself but some way of contributing to the world and the well being of others.  This kind of vision will inspire. Then starting from your vision set your goals.  Make your goals clear, concise and dated.  Develop ways to remind yourself about your goals and vision.  Review your goals list daily, and put photos around your workspace and home that remind you of your goals.  Use these reminders to inspire you to move forward.

4. Apply the principle of massive action.

In the Olympic 100m sprint, the most important part of the race is leaving the starting blocks.  Sprinters that have a quick reaction time and are able to leave the start with power are often able to get so much momentum that they can’t be caught later in the race.  In your business you need to leave the starting blocks fast.  Even if your business is established you can get out fast by restarting your business – do that today and go!  If you are looking for customers, make a massive amount of prospecting calls bringing in a large amount of new customers; if you’re promoting your web site, do massive amounts of promotion – whatever you do to grow your business or to achieve your personal goals, start creating momentum by doing massive amounts of what it takes to succeed.

5. Follow one success immediately with another.

When is the best time to try to set an appointment with a prospect?  The best time to make a new prospecting call is immediately after you just set an appointment.  When is the best time to do a sales presentation? It is immediately after you just made a sale.  Far too often people will stop and take a break after they meet some goal or objective.  They think they deserve a reward and they take a break.  I’m all in favor of rewarding yourself for success but if you do it immediately after a small success, you’re limiting the momentum you can achieve.  If you’ve just had success in a particular goal, whether its making a sale or meeting a deadline you have gained a tremendous amount of energy and confidence from that action – so take advantage of it and make the next step.  You are most motivated immediately following a success, make use of that motivation to continue the forward motion you’ve started.  Reward yourself later, keep moving forward now!

6. Create Wins for Your Team

Having seen your success, the motivation of your teammates will be rising.  You can capitalize on this by putting them in situations that allow them to see some wins in what they are doing.  Look for any way you can of helping them succeed.  The more wins they can have, the more confidence they will have and the more momentum they will be build.  Make sure you are not neglecting the massive personal action at this time as well.  You need to maintain personal activity while working with your team members at the same time.
Following these steps will help you create “the big mo”.  Hold on tight, because momentum can propel you and your business further towards your goals in a short time than you might even imagine.

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
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