Daily Habits

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step – Chinese proverb. 

Our hopes, dreams and aspirations are extremely important to our success.  Whether we are discussing work, student, or home life, we all have a picture in our minds of what success looks like. 

With that picture in mind, you have probably set some goals to achieve your definition of success.  If you just started crafting your goals, please see the post from a couple of weeks ago entitled, 2020 Vision.  You can access it here

Many people set achievable goals and flame out before reaching them.  Why?  What is the difference between those who succeed and those who give up? 

A goal is only as good as the person who is going to see it through to completion.  And this is only accomplished through developing the daily habits, or steps, it takes to cumulatively reach your destination.

No matter how big the goal, you have what it takes to reach it!  Too often, however, people set grandiose goals and never take the daily actions required to meet them.  I am convinced that by taking your goal from the finish line back to the starting line will greatly increase your chances of victoriously completing it!

Let me explain.  For example, a freshman in college has entered the higher education domain with a goal of one day achieving a bachelor’s degree.  When first starting, it seems massive and overwhelming to imagine four years of study, work, and finals in order to graduate. 

So, the freshman learns quickly to focus their energy on passing each semester.  To get through the semester, they must succeed in each of their classes.  Breaking it down even further, the freshman must focus on the assignments and expectations in each of those classes.  Finally, the successful student figures out the daily habits required to complete the assignments for the classes of each semester that ultimately results in obtaining their desired degree.   

We can take the same approach with any goal.  Want to lose 50 pounds this year?  Want to out produce what you did last year at work?  Want to have a closer relationship with your significant other?  Think about the finish line, while focusing on each step that will get you there.  What are the daily actions you must take to help you reach your goal? 

Our sales team is busy laying out their goals for this year and we are taking the same approach.  They determine their annual goals and then we spend time breaking them down into what daily actions must occur to reach them.

For example, one team plans to produce 208 quality sales leads for FY2020.  We are now working to focus not on 208, but simply what it will take for each of the team members to produce just two leads per week.  Two people getting two leads for 52 weeks equals 208 leads for the year!

Taking it one step further, we talk about the daily habits required to produce a minimum of two sales leads per week.  Doing so has caused our team members to analyze their day and help them determine how much time and effort they will require to capture those leads.

This simple, yet effective, way of focusing big picture success into manageable daily habits is the key to obtaining any goal.

Remember, your goals must be positive, purposeful, measurable and attainable.  No matter the goal, work backward and break it down into monthly, weekly, daily and/or even hourly action steps that you can focus on completing.

Those steps will compile over time and will produce your desired goal.  Now get to work, one step at a time!