by Jimmy Harris
15 or 16 years ago, I was a 30-something, married, father-of-four disc-jockey-cum-desk-jockey who had spent the last decade behind a microphone getting fat eating free baked goods while going broke in radio, and was then trying to get my fledgling on-hold business off the ground working out of the enclosed carport of our 1100-square-foot 3-bedroom ranch.
In an attempt to change my family's prospects, I found myself reading a book about goal setting by a sales trainer named Brian Tracy. Pretty good book with some good fundamental ideas on how to accomplish things. But at the end of the chapter, Brian suggested an exercise which he said would help. but I thought was a little... silly.
He challenged me that if I really wanted to complete my goals in the next year, I should write them down as though I had already accomplished them, write a deadline, and he virtually promised it would happen.
In spite of my misgivings, I decided to try it, and wrote a financial and fitness goal:
"I earn 100,000 per year and I can bench press 300 lbs." Deadline: Dec 31st
Then, I put the book down, left the "reading room", and... went back to work.
Sometime later in the following year - maybe February - I was astonished to realize that silly little exercise had worked! For the first time in my life, I had seen 6 figures in my bank account and had witnesses watch as I slowly and carefully bench-pressed 315 lbs. on a flat bench... all before December 31st.
To be clear, I didn't even do the other stuff I was supposed to do. Like post the goals on the bathroom mirror and read them every day, etc. All I did was read the book, write the goals, and go back to work.
So what happened? Did I put power into the universe by writing those words down?
Well... no-at least not the "cosmic" universe. But something very real , and very basic, happened in the universe inside my mind, will, and body. Was it a coincidence? I had tried many, many times before to get my bench up to 300 lbs... but always unsuccessfully.
No, the results were real, and were a direct result of my little goal-setting exercise.
So if it wasn't magic, or coincidence... what happened?
I'm no psychologist, but I can tell you this: setting goals works. I've used this same goal-setting exercise to complete an international body transformation with my wife, run my first marathon by age 40, and become 100% debt-free by age 50. The results? My wife and I not only competed, but won our Category in the Body-For-Life Contest in 2002 (click here to see before and after photos). I ran the Atlanta Marathon in 2006 (one year later than hoped for due to a training injury), and we got out of debt in September of 2013, at age 48.
How This Works
When you take the time to clearly define your goals, and then write them down as though they have already happened, you are putting all the collective parts of yourself - Your Will, Your Mind, and Your Body - into motion that you are about to get something done.
You see, just like us, our Wills, our Minds, and our Bodies are basically lazy and unfocused. They just lay around waiting for us to tell them what to do. Even worse, we wait for our bodies to tell us what to do. But when you set a serious, focused goal, you have just served notice that it's time to get to work!
YOU inform your WILL... Your WILL passes this on to your MIND, and your MIND thinks creatively and recruits your BODY to get out there and do what needs to be done to accomplish the goal YOU, as the leader of this group, has decided should be accomplished.
Consequently, I found myself picking up the phone and making more and better sales calls and hitting the gym regularly and intensely. In other words, by committing my goals to writing, I have given myself marching orders. I now had a specific, intentional focus and a direction to work in.
Isn't is interesting how much we can accomplish when we work with focus and intentionality?
So, what are your goals?
Whatever your goals, I want to challenge you to write them down, put a deadline on them, and see what happens!
I know I'm going to!
Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
Naked Plug for winonhold
If your goals have to do with growing your business, give us a call. We can help yousound more professional, keep your customers informed, and increase your average ticket size for pennies per day, with our proprietary on-hold advertising program we've built just for Winsupply stores across the nation.
PS - Interested in Digital Signage, Overhead Music, or Scent Marketing? Give us a call at 888-465-3661. If there is enough interest, we're going to build it out Just For You!
