Goals are different for everyone and in order to succeed your goals must be meaningful to you, they must matter! For some, educating children, a new car or moving to a better neighborhood may be important. For others getting a lake or ocean front home may be a priority along with the time to relax and enjoy it. Still others may seek freedom from financial worry during their retirement years or to spend them enjoying exotic travel.

Energize yourself by finding a clear, ambitious goal that is important to you and that you’re excited about achieving. A successful individual must have both income and activity goals as well as the genuine desire to render excellent service to customers and prospects. In the end, your business and career are the means to achieve your highest and most meaningful personal priorities.

While you can’t guarantee outcomes, you are in charge of your activities. After defining an income goal it’s critical to know exactly what you will need to do in a year to reach it. The next step is to break down what needs to be done to reach your goals into daily activities and simply do them each day. Inch by inch, anything is a cinch and it’s only by executing the right amount of daily activity that you can assure yourself of the desired result.

Clear, challenging goals are essential and give meaning and direction to work and life. But a goal alone isn’t enough. There has to be a deep per¬sonal belief in your own abil¬ity to achieve it. By breaking your income goal into daily activity requirements, what may seem huge and overwhelming begins to become manageable and realistic. This isn’t about skill or competence. Many competent people fail. It’s about confidence. Develop that confidence thru training, research and gathering data. If you’re new in the position, research and know what it takes to succeed! If you’re experienced, keep good personal records so you know the activities and averages for your own results. Whether you’re a rookie or seasoned veteran…the key to achieving your goals is to multiply the proper activities to get the results you want.

For example, if it takes you 30 requests to get one convention booking and your goal is 40 for the year, you know you have to ask 1,200 people. That number may seem overwhelming but let’s look further. By working a 48 week year that’s 25 people each week. Breaking it down to daily activity, that’s 5 people per day. Can anyone ask 5 people a day to book next year’s conference with them?

Choose goals with which you can personally identify and that are well defined and concrete. Understand the components, as well as the hurdles you will need to overcome to reach them. To achieve your goals you must believe that they are worth¬while, given your own values. You should feel stretched, but not overwhelmed.

To succeed you must clear negativity and leverage strong emo¬tions. No one likes to hear no, but rejection is part of success. In the example above, 1,160 people will say no and more than a week may pass without getting a commitment. Achieving big goals is accompanied by managing stress and pain. You need a way to process painful emotions and inner tensions. A support group to share fears and frustrations or sports can help ease the tension.

That source of support could be anything from a hobby to a special place that has an energizing effect. It might be family and friends. You must have a reliable source of positive energy and a burning desire to achieve your personal goals whether that’s educating your children, living free of financial worry, travel to exotic places or buying your dream home.

Finally, you must develop the ability to maintain focus and the key is visualization. When Thomas Watson founded IBM he developed a clear picture of what the company would look and act like when completed and visualized his goal as if it were done.

What will your goal look like when it’s accomplished? Can you picture your children receiving their diplomas, moving into your dream house in a wonderful neighborhood, playing the finest golf courses or traveling to those exotic locations?

Can you picture the next prospect saying yes and feel the excitement as they sign the contract? Can you see your associates enjoying their careers and being happy that you recruited them? These pictures are more important than anything else and will support you through your most difficult times. The clearer these pictures, the stronger your determination and persistence toward accomplishing your goals will be.

You need to prepare a written list followed by a mental model of the actions you will take, a road map to follow. Imagine yourself performing a specific set of actions each working day to bring you to your goal. This prepares you to act positively when obstacles inevitably come up. Once you have done that, you need to summon the courage to commit.

In A Bias for Action by Heike Bruch and Sumantra Ghoshal .say commitment; “Means taking ownership for the ultimate outcome. You must take time for conscious reflection, for considering your alternatives, and for asking yourself if the business and personal goals feel right. Do you really want them? Are they exciting? Do they match your personal values and beliefs? Can you stand behind them both rationally and emotionally?”

Harnessing willpower is not something that happens by itself but it is essential for accomplishing any ambitious undertaking. When you feel like “jumping ship” and you will, only willpower can keep you on course. Defining goals, overcoming negativity and using visualization are the ingredients of unstoppable willpower…and the formula for MPI member success.

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