Two secrets to getting what you want

Some years ago, I started AdQuick, a printing and advertising company in Franklin, TN. In the production area was a white board where I had listed each month’s sales goals. As the month progressed, I marked where we were in relation to the goal.

A funny thing happened each month – we hit or exceeded each sales goal. There wasn’t a single month when this did not happen. Reflecting upon this and other similar situations that involved goal setting, each time I set a goal, the goal was achieved. Dissecting these occurrences, I found a couple of things:

1. At their foundation was a plan.
2. When focusing on a goal, actions, thoughts, and behavior align to make for better decisions and greater creativity that move you toward your goal.

For the first discovery, people who achieve what they want usually have a plan. As a sales professional, over the years I have worked with really good, really bad, and mediocre reps. Aside from the expected personality traits of a good sales rep, such as charisma, diligence, and having a real interest and understanding of what they were selling, the really good sales rep also did a lot of planning. Each day, at the start, they knew exactly what they hoped to accomplish and structured their time so they would accomplish their goals. Thus, superstar sales reps are never surprised by their success.

Conversely, mediocre and not so good reps usually do not invest much time in planning. Time is their enemy and they float through the day reacting instead of acting. For me, there is not a day I do not conclude with a to-do list for the following day. This helps me prioritize and focus my efforts so I can keep moving forward. And I am not exempt from crisis. But once the crisis has passed, I return to my plan. Think of it as taking a car trip from New York to California. Half-way to your destination, along your charted path, your car breaks down in Nebraska. You wouldn’t put down roots in Nebraska, would you?

The second discovery is a little bit more mystical in how it happens but is, nonetheless, very real. It works much as a laser does, in that a single-minded focus on achieving a goal channels your energy so that you plan more effectively, come up with brilliant solutions, or has you say just the right thing at just the right time, among a bunch of other amazing things. It is also infectious and rallies others in your life or organization that, in turns, has them coming up with just the right solution to help in attaining the goal. Great salespeople and sales teams know these two secrets and you can put this same magic to work for you in crafting the exact career you want.

Why you should have a 4-hour workweek

We live in a world where we are measured by the hours and years we put in at a conventional company but, strangely, we admire, model, and study individuals who have “made it” by not following that same path. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT?

Take Sir Richard Branson of Virgin-everything fame. Sir Richard never held a Monday-Friday, 8-5 job working for anyone other than himself. Now, I am not knocking conventional work schedules but it makes me wonder why we humans are so eager to adopt the 40-hour work week, sometimes in environments that absolutely stifle ingenuity, and then chalk that up as being a measure of success. We’ve got people being catapulted head-long toward retirement, without so much as giving a sideways glance to what’s going on around them, and not even really remembering the trip. It’s a lot like taking the bullet train in Japan. You’ll get where you’re going in a hurry but chances are you ain’t gonna’ remember anything you saw en route. Is this what we’ve become?

However, there is a bright spot here even if it seems its all doom and gloom. I once heard that whenever there is a crisis, money changes hands. I mentioned this before in another blog but I think now, more than ever, the present state of unemployment, etc. can actually result in some ingenious people turning this to their advantage. Timothy Ferris has a whole new take on this. For those of you not familiar with Timothy Ferris, he wrote the interesting book, The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich. A quick perusal of the back jacket cover claims: “Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan – there is no need to wait and every reason not to” and “How Tim went from $40,000 per year and 80 hours per week to $40,000 per month and 4 hours per week.”

I once worked for a company where my boss told another VP (actual conversation): “If Kathy never worked another day this year (it was April or May), she would still have exceeded her annual quota.” At the time, I felt pleased with myself, but then I started thinking. However, instead of thinking, if I had already earned more than what was expected or needed, why couldn’t I take off the rest of the year and travel, write a book, sleep in … no, the thoughts went to, I can do more work and then once or twice a year take a week off to recover from all the hard work. If I can accomplish more in ¼ of the time it takes some people to accomplish, and if I am satisfied with those earnings, why not take off? But that old Puritanical work ethic thing keeps getting in the way of taking time in life to enjoy, well … life.

I think the big question here is: Is there a real reason you, specifically, need to be working in a structured environment with set days and hours? I emphasize the word “real” because for those who have “made it”, they don’t seem to view ‘work’ the way most of us do.

"Perfection is not when there is more to add, but no more to take away."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince)

One simple strategy to achieve what you want

What if I told you that you could accomplish anything you wanted? Would you believe me?

OK, here’s a challenge for you: Think of something you want to accomplish. For the next five minutes, think of all the ways you can accomplish it and write them down. Not a single solution is off-limits.

For example, say you want a different career. Start by writing:

1. Research what it takes to have that career.
2. Assess current skills and knowledge to determine if a starting point already exists.
3. If so, re-write resume to reflect skills and knowledge to pursue that career.
4. If there are no required skills and knowledge, acquire necessary education.
5. Research schools or programs to get that education.
6. Ask people who already have that career what they did to achieve it.
7. Peruse job listings in that field.
8. Hire a coach to keep you focused on your goal.
9. Apply for jobs in that field.
10. Ask an organization to allow you to spend a “day-in-the-life” in that career.
11. Get up 30 minutes earlier each day to spend time researching.
12. Become an intern in the desired field.
13. Email everyone you know and ask for advice on how to get where you want to go.

I admit I only spent 3 minutes coming up with these action items but even at that, I came up with 13 ways to start moving in the direction of obtaining a new career. And none of them appear impossible to do, do they? Notice, too, there isn’t a single obstacle. This is a major point and I will let you in on a little but incredibly powerful secret as to why not a single roadblock was introduced in this list:

Your mind cannot hold opposing thoughts at the same time.

If you’re busy focusing on how to accomplish something, you cannot simultaneously be focusing on how not to accomplish something. Put another way, if I am thinking about how to prepare chicken for dinner, I cannot, at the same time, be thinking of how to barbeque ribs. Therein lies the difference between people who get what they want and those who do not. They simply program their minds to think of solutions instead of obstacles.

Now, go write your list.