What does this guy in the picture below have to do with Goal Setting?
And how can a cute puppy help you achieve more?
Read on to find out how you can achieve more, reach your goals, and be a happy in the process.
Let me begin by saying – I'm not your rah-rah, motivational speaker or anything like that.
This is just a sneak peek into what works for me and I hope you can pull a tip or two to help you accomplish your goals..
I realized a couple of years ago strategies that work for me to gain momentum and I've used it to my benefit over and over again.
For some, we need a little motivation to push us.
I'm one of those people.
I get comfortable.
And as a result – sometimes I find myself willing to settle.
There's times I find that I feel invincible – like everything I touch turns to gold, and feeling strong and healthy.
And then…
There's those times, when I lose the momentum.
And in those cases, I want to bury my head under my pillow and not get out of bed for a week.
I lose the drive to conquer.
The drive to achieve.
I'm sure you've felt the same way at some point in your life.
This technique will help you break the negative pattern, get clear on a goal, and create momentum which is what you need.
Let me backtrack to a few years ago sitting in a Real Estate seminar in Phoenix, Arizona.
One of the guys speaking loved racing as a hobby.
And the one thing that stuck was what he'd said.
“When racing, they teach you to look ahead at where you're going. If you look to the wall – that's where you'll end up.”
Walls are bad.
Transitioning this to the world of business – you need a target.
A goal.
If you focus on the debt, the credit cards – it's going to rob you of any creative juice you may have and your frustration will only grow.
So, here's what I do to get more done and get my ass moving.
- Pick out something you really, really want. It's got to be something tangible.
- Set the goal or your target.
- Set the deadline
- Create a plan for how you're going to get there.
- Decide on something you hate doing that you'll do in the event you don't reach your goals.
- Make the commitment to someone that will hold you accountable (even consider going public with it and writing a blog about your daily experience.)
So, let's break down these 6 steps.
Step 1. Pick out something you really want.
This is something that you've wanted for a while. A tangible item or it could be an experience.
But it's something that's not a necessity.
So, for example, it could be a car, a new watch, a trip to Disney.
Whatever. Just something you've wanted for some time.
Step 2. Select Your Goal Or Target
What's your goal? Are you wanting to reach a certain dollar figure in sales?
Get more leads? What is it exactly that you want?
For most of you this will be a financial or sales goal but really applies to anything you're doing from health and fitness to entrepreneurs.
Step 3. Set the Deadline
There's more than one way to skin a cat but I work better with shorter term goals.
Goals that are 90 days or less.
Now, I've got a much larger goal and idea of where I wanna be in 3-5 years, but it seems so far out of reach that if I focus on that – I feel overwhelm and never move.
With a 90 day window, I can reverse what I need to accomplish in daily task to meet my goals without feeling overwhelmed or that I'm trying to tackle this huge mountain that seems unattainable.
Step 4. What's your Plan of Attack?
How exactly do you plan to get there?
This will all depend on where you're currently at with your existing business and your previous experience.
Do you have a list?
Do you have a product near completion?
Or are you starting from scratch?
In other words, most of you probably know me for being an SEO guy, however I'm also a product creator, affiliate marketer, consultant, and I drive a lot of traffic with Email Marketing.
So, if I'm looking at my deadline window – where am I at to get me there the quickest?
SEO may not be the best avenue to reach my particular goal.
Essentially, know how you plan to kick the goals ass.
And work your way backwards.
What do you need to accomplish monthly, weekly, and daily to reach your target?
And work like hell to reach it up until the final days of your deadline.
Step 5. What is it that you hate?
For me, it's landscaping. I hate it.
Anytime I work in the yard, I get all stuffy with allergies.
And I'll avoid it at all cost. Just ask my wife.
Now, here's what you do.
You commit to doing the one thing you hate if you fail to reach your goal.
Say it's landscaping, it could be that you'll shave your head (hey there's an idea).
It has to be something drastic to get you moving.
For many, we will push harder to avoid the things we don't want.
Others will push for the goal.
This way you're getting the best of both worlds.
And Step 6. Commit to the plan with someone you trust.
And even better is making it public.
I'll give you an example.
The puppy you seen at the beginning of this post is Vedder.
My 1 year old Golden Doodle.
About 6 months before we got him, I made a deal with my wife.
If I reached a certain dollar figure in revenue within 90 days – we'd get the dog.
If not, I'd do the landscaping.
And as you can see, he's here with us in a big way.
Within 60 days, I'd already reached 90% of my goal…
That's what happens when you light a fire under your ass while you have some motivation to getting more done…
This is not a ‘think it' and it will come or a rah-rah session.
You've got to put in the work.
And I'm thinking down to the last hour of the 90 day window of what I'm going to do to reach it.
To put this in perspective – I bought a Hummer (this has been my favorite vehicle and something I'd dreamed about for a long time) and got Vedder all within a few months of each other just from using this strategy.
What Happens When You Come Up Short?
It happens to all of us.
We set a goal and something happens to prevent from reaching our target.
Well for starters, if you made the landscaping bet – get your landscaping tools out.
Because, you've got to follow through.
However, if you didn't reach your goal, take a look at the progress you made.
How close did you get?
My guess is that if you followed the formula above – if you didn't reach it, then you got extremely close.
Closer than if you'd not pushed yourself.
So, re-evaluate your goals and set the next 90 day target.
And 90 days isn't set in stone either.
You may find your ideal time line to be 30 or 60 days.
And I know some that do better with bigger goals.
This is just what works for me.
I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did writing it 🙂
If you're looking to make money from Affiliate Marketing or SEO, then join my Inner Circle – it's full of cutting edge SEO tactics you can implement this afternoon.
UPDATE…
Just to give you an update from the initial writing of this post.
Vedder turns 2 today and here's an updated picture from a few weeks ago for a quick shot for an ad I'm running.
