TAKE ACTION, AND UPDATE AND CONFIRM YOUR PLAN

Identifying or setting goals can be hard. Acting on the plan is harder, and committing to the plan consistently to achieve the goal is harder still.

It’s easy to start second-guessing or wanting to tweak your plan or strive for the elusive “perfect plan.” This can cause delays and may kill your ability to achieve your goals. At some level of “rightness,” it’s time for you to stop working on putting your plan together and start taking action to achieve the goal.

As I said in my blog at www.salesproductivityinsider.com (July 26, 2012), “Successful sellers take action when others don’t and take actions that others won’t.”

Action means productively moving forward, not just filling your days. To achieve your goals, act on the activities you have outlined and then regularly review, update, and confirm your plan. This checkup ensures you are acting on the things that are most relevant and timely.

A common misconception about setting goals is that a written goal is set in stone and must be met as originally outlined. Not true! Every day brings new considerations that may affect the goal itself or the path to reaching it. That is why an effective goal achievement process includes the opportunity to review your goals, adjusting your priorities, plan, and time frame as needed.

One of my favorite examples of this is when I was working through a review of my goals with a colleague. I was frustrated because I had not made any progress on one specific goal that I had in place for the previous three years.

My colleague asked me the following questions: “If you haven’t done anything about this goal in three years, how important is it to you? Does it belong as one of the six goals you are focusing on right now?”

My response was slow in coming because I had never considered that question. Then I blurted out, “Well, I guess it mustn’t be important or I would have done something about it by now, right?”

He responded, “Then why is it is one of your goals?”

I said, “Because someone told me I needed to learn to golf if I was going to succeed in business. So I made it a goal.” (Yes, becoming a proficient golfer was a goal of mine for three years.)

He laughed and said, “You seem to be doing fine in business without golfing. It’s okay to replace that goal with something more meaningful.”

Wow! I had permission to remove and replace a goal. Instead of feeling like a failure whenever I reviewed my goals and recognized my lack of progress on it, I was able to decide that the goal wasn’t that important to me. The relief I felt was huge.

Years later, I’m still not a good golfer and my business has grown every year. Thank goodness I had someone who was willing to ask me questions to help me clarify the why and what of my goals.

Regular checkups also allow you to acknowledge and celebrate progress or make the necessary adjustments to achieve your goals. The 4R’s for goal reviews work well: Review, Renew, Revise, or Replace.

• Review: Read your goals and the plan to achieve them. Use metrics to gauge your progress. Are you on track? If yes, move to Renew. Not on track? Revise or Replace.

• Renew: Recommit yourself to the goal and the time frame. Consciously think through the next action steps and how you will feel when the goal is accomplished. Note your progress.

• Revise: If the situation has changed, revise your goal as needed. Maybe the timing is off, the outcome needs to be edited, or the people involved have changed. It’s okay to make those revisions to create a realistic goal relevant to today for you.

• Replace: Remove and replace a goal if it no longer fits. Just because a goal made sense when you wrote it doesn’t mean it still makes sense today. It’s okay to replace a goal with one that is more meaningful and timely. Use a new Goal Planner to identify and plan for the new goal.

Update your stakeholders after each 4R checkup. They need to know your goal progress to be effective.

Determine how often you will use the 4R’s to stay on track—at least monthly is recommended. Then schedule thirty minutes on your calendar for this checkup.