If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going…

If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will lead you there.

Remember the conversation that Alice had with the Cheshire Cat?  Alice didn’t have a clear idea of where she wanted to go and asked the Cheshire Cat, “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to walk from here?”

The Cheshire Cat responded, “You’re sure to get somewhere if you walk long enough”

This story demonstrates the importance of knowing where you’re going…your goal as it where.

I’m preparing for an upcoming Warrior Sales Coaching presentation.  In sales performance and goals are the driving factors for success.  If you don’t know what outcome you want you’re sure to fall short. And on sales this is the kiss of death!

Knowing your outcome is equally important in life.  We tend to think about setting goals for big…really big…super big objectives.  But if you can’t or don’t set them for the smaller goals you won’t set them for the larger ones either.

If you consider how you do anything relates to how you do everything (Festinger, 1957; Hoelter, 1985; Willensky, 1960) the importance of knowing what you want for ALL goals is critical.

I’d like share one subpart of my Warrior Sales Process –

Keys to an Achievable Outcome

“What do I want?”

1.     Stated in the positive

• What you want vs. what you don’t want
• Move toward vs. away from

 2.     Self-initiated, self-maintained and in my control

• Am I doing this for myself or someone else
• Does the outcome rely solely on me?

3.     Specific evidence procedure

• How will I know that I am getting the outcome?
• What will I be doing when I get it?
• What wilI see, hear and feel when I have it?

 4.    Context clearly defined

• Context of goal clearly defined
• Where, when, how and with whom do I want it?

 5.     Identify needed resources

• What resources do I have now?
• What resources do I need to acquire?
• Do I evidence of achieving this (or similar) before?
• What happened if I act as if I have all the resources required?

 6.    Is it ecological

• Good for me, good for others, good for “community”
• Who else will be affected by this?
• What do I want to keep the same?
• What is the real purpose why I want this?
• What will I lose or gain if I have it?
• What will happen if I get it?
• What won’t happen if I get it?
• What will happen if I don’t get it?
• What won’t happen if I don’t get it?

 7.     Identify the first step to take

• “The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step” Lao-Tzu

My request is for you to take one of your goals and run it through the above steps and see if it meets all the criteria.  If it doesn’t what can you change so that it does?

Please let me know in the comments below