Formula for Success, Part II
To review, the Formula for Success has 5 steps.
1. Clearly state your goal.
2. Have an end date for your goal.
3. Get accountability partners.
4. Take action daily.
5. On the projected date of completion, close down.
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This blast is part II of a seven-part series describing the Formula for Success. You have spent some time considering what you want. Just that will make you more successful. Now you will want to get very specific with your goal and commit it to writing.
Step One: Clearly state your goal.
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” — Lewis Carroll
Why Set Goals?
In business, you must set goals to be successful. The alternative to setting goals is – you take what you get. Many people operate in this fashion and that’s fine. But typically, the show-up-and-take-what-you-get attitude does not lead to a successful business. When you set goals, you are taking an active role toward creating your future and you are much more likely to get what you want. Goal-setting is the key to growth. Only about 3% of people actually write down their goals. In an interesting study in 1979, interviewers asked new graduates from Harvard’s MBA Program and found that:
■84% had no specific goals at all
■13% had goals but they were not committed to paper
■3% had clear, written goals and plans to accomplish them
In 1989, the interviewers again interviewed the graduates of that class. You can guess the results:
■The 13% of the class who had goals were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent who had no goals at all.
■Even more staggering – the three percent who had clear, written goals were earning, on average, ten times as much as the other 97 percent put together. (What They Don’t Teach You in the Harvard Business School, Mark McCormack.)
So step one – state your goal in writing. It is important that your goal be clear and specific. For example:
This year, I am going to gross $10,000 per month. I will only work in the area of personal injury. I will work no more than 50 hours a week. I will continue to exercise 3 times a week. I will rent an office for which I pay no more than $700 per month in rent.
Note how this new attorney has stated specifically how much money she intends to make and the amount is “gross”. She states the practice area she will work in and the specific number of hours that is her weekly maximum. She is also specific on exercise and monthly rent.
Note that she has stated her goal in specific and declarative language – “I am going to” versus “I want to…” She is stating her intention rather than her hope or even her goal.
When you state something declaratively like this, your mind pays attention and it begins to look for ways to get what it is you have said you are going to get.
Our next installment will come within the next week – until then, practice writing out your goal – specifically and intentionally. Post it here if you want some feedback on it.
