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Why I’m Going to Dominate 2014

Brief History

If you haven’t figured that out yet, I’m a big advocate of goals. I set them all the time, I achieve them as often as I can, and it brings me clarity to go through the process of setting goals. Just as in life, there is just as much we can take away from the journey to our goals as we can achieving the goal itself.

When making our goals, we have to go through a process instead of haphazardly putting things down for ourselves. If we do that, we might end up chasing vanity metrics in our businesses and waste time pursuing things we don’t actually care about in our personal lives. I hope today’s post in combination with yesterday’s post will give you some insight into how I set goals.

Nuts and Bolts

First, I reflected on a previous portion of my life/work and it just happened to be 2013 as a whole. New Year’s Resolutions are cliche for a reason, it works great to reflect and start a new year fresh after some rest with friends and family. But these are goals, not resolutions.

Next, we need to think about what we want to do next with our lives/work. I suggest this as quite time without technology where you can focus on the future with zero distractions. For me it was an hour walking up and down The Battery with my notebook and my phone turned off. You have to find a place where you are comfortable and have no distractions.

Finally, write down your goals on paper so you can see them and then make them public so you stay accountable. For a more detailed explanation of goal setting and follow through, check out this work from a couple months back.

2014 Goal Setting

Here are a select handful of my personal goals that I want to share with you. I am sharing these for 2 reasons: 1.) I hope you get some very clear examples from how I do these and the planning I’ve already put into them. 2.) I am putting my goals out into the world so that I don’t make myself a liar. When the whole world knows I’m writing a book, they’re going to put the pressure on me to finish it. If you all know my goals, you won’t let me quit, and I won’t let you down.

Here are the reasons why I’m going to crush 2014:

Volunteer Once Per Month
- Date to Completion: Once Per Month
- Why: I always enjoyed our community service days when I was in college whether it was mentoring, volunteering, or helping with the Special Olympics. I haven’t done much of that in my recent years and I want to start giving back.
- How: I have my first volunteer day setup on January 25th in Charleston with a friend that gives out clothes and food at the homeless shelter. I’ll find something similar each month and dedicate at least one day to something other than myself.
Learn to Speed Read
- Date to Completion: 3/1/14
- Why: I’ve always wanted to learn, but never applied myself. Since quitting my job I’ve had to find a lot of things on the internet for myself and I realized how easy it would be to spend a day researching ‘how to’ on the web and YouTube. This also ties into another goal, I’ve become obsessed with reading and I want to do it more but I don’t always have the time.
- How: I’ll spend a few afternoons/evenings researching and compiling information to go through. I’ll practice as often as I can and test my reading speed from Day 1 (when I do the research) to March 1 (when I want to have this completed). I don’t know how fast I read now, but I’ll test it and set a specific goal to get better once I understand the process.
Build a TV Stand
- Date to Completion: 5/1/14
- Why: I worked for 6 & 1/2 years in the promotional furniture industry where most furniture was made cheap and looked relatively bland (to me at least). So I have always wanted to scrap the furniture in my living room and completely remake it from hand. I did this with my coffee table already and it was and awesome experience.
- How: This is something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but didn’t have the time while I was training for a marathon. And now it’s cold outside… So I’ll wait until Spring. I have sketches of it, but the hard/fun work remains to be done.
Write an eBook
- Date to completion: 6/1/14
- Why: I need practice before I write MY book, and this is a simple way to start and get some practice. Writing a blog post is a relatively short thought, but a book is more in depth. I’ll be asking for some help, so be on the lookout! This is also practice for monetizing my blog (see below) that I need to work on throughout the year.
- How: This is much simpler than publishing a book, it can be done on Microsoft Word and saved as a PDF file. When it is complete it will be available through the blog.
Complete a Sprint Triathlon
- Date to Completion: Summer Time
- Why: I finished a marathon last year and that was an awesome experience that pushed me to my limits physically and mentally. I want a new challenge and for anyone that worked with me at the GPLA, you know swimming was a challenge in and of itself.
- How: I don’t have a date yet because I have 3 other immediate goals ahead of this one and I’m not going to jump into any water until it’s warmer out. As long as I give myself 4+/- weeks of training I’ll do just fine. I have a bike, I can run anywhere, and there are multiple bodies of water here in Charleston to choose from including an Olympic sized pool 2 blocks from my residence.
Monetize my Blog
- Date to Completion: 10/5/14
- Why: Why not? I love to write, some of you think I’m half-way decent at it (although I want to improve drastically), and it’s fun for me. So why not try to make some money from it?
- How: I’m not sure yet, but my decisions will be public when they happen. For example, if I choose to use affiliate products (where I post a link to a product and if any of my readers make a purchase, I get a commission) I will notify you before I post that link. I have always been transparent and I will not compromise that.
Read 40 Books
- Date to Completion: 12/31/14
- Why: Because I love reading. It strengthens our minds, it opens us up to new worlds, and it gives us time to think, process, and come up with new ideas. Not all great readers are leaders, but all great leaders are readers.
- How: I am currently reading 2 paperback books and I just finished my first book of the year from Audible.com (yes, I count a ‘listened to’ book as ‘read’). I need to finish approximately 3 per month, I’m already 1 down and well on my way with the other 2 for this month. I spend anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours reading depending on the day and my schedule. Please send me suggestions!

This may seem like a lot, but when it’s all broken down these are spread out evenly across the year. Notice that I don’t have as much at the end of the year due to holiday travels. Some of these tie together to form common these as well, this is very helpful for me. Also notice that these are varied experiences from physical accomplishments to creative projects and philanthropic work. Do the same with your goals, make them varied so you don’t burn yourself out!

Do me a favor and ask me about these when you see me. You don’t have to put me through 21 Questions, although I wouldn’t mind that. I want to accomplish all of these things and more this year and I need your help to do so. It doesn’t have to be the one I’m currently ‘working on’ in the sequence I’ve laid out, just ask me. And yep you guessed it, I’ll be talking about these goals and what I accomplish all year long.

Good luck in 2014, make it the best year yet!

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What are some of your goals for 2014? Leave them below and I promise I’ll help keep YOU accountable as well! Leave a comment below or chat with me on social media, I’d love to hear from you.

If you enjoy what you’ve read, sign up for my email updates. You only get emails when I make a new post, it would be an honor to have you join the community!

Have a great day!

6 Lessons I Learned from Running a Marathon

A few days ago I started a series called ‘Leaving my Comfort Zone‘ that I’ll be adding to about once per week. I have always heard amazing people and entrepreneurs talk about growth, and they never seem to mention being comfortable. They always use words like, “terrified” or “nervous” or “unsure” when describing pivotal moments. I want to share these experiences with you so we can all learn from them.

The Back-story

In Spring I decided I wanted to knock something off my bucket list this year. I had been running much more frequently and began to see that I loved it. I was already good at it, or so I thought, I was running 15 +/- miles/week at that point. And it had been a while since I challenged myself physically. Shortly after, I signed up for the Kiawah Island Marathon and began to train. Here are the 6 Lessons I Learned from Running a Marathon.

(1) Pivotal Moments Can Make Us (or break us)

Once I signed up, I began to run one long run per week to prepare… Until I pushed it too hard. My IT band didn’t want me to run this marathon. Now I couldn’t even run 3 miles without wincing in pain. How was I going to make it 26.2???

Should I quit or should I push on? If I quit, nobody would blame me, it’s a difficult feat that only 0.5% of Americans have completed. But I wasn’t going to let myself off the hook that easy. I have had this on my bucket list and I want to do this before I die. I was pushing on, it was decided.

Fortunately for me, my brother is an athletic trainer and I had a specific therapy regimen to follow within days of my injury. Had I not resolved to do it, I never would have called him. Jim Rohn said, “If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.”

(2) My Hobby Became a Job

When I first started, I loved to run. It was stress-relieving, it was fun, it was a great workout, and I used the time to listen to audio books. But after the injury I started a strict training schedule that required me to run 4 days per week. Due to my injury I needed a good 20 minute warm-up and I needed at least 45 minutes to cool down properly, and that was just on running days. I needed to do additional exercises 3 times per week, I needed to ice myself down in certain places up to 4 times per day, and I was to take ibuprofen like it was candy.

I was spending upwards of 15 hours each week on this ‘hobby.’ I was sick of training after only a couple weeks in! I found out how committed I was when the reality of how much time and effort required became apparent. I had to sacrifice comfort, sleep, time, tasty foods, and social commitments to ensure that I could finish this race. This was not meant to take over my life, but that’s what I knew I needed to do to finish the race. Had I not been committed to this, I would have flaked out and been content with not giving it my best effort.

(3) Haters come from Everywhere

Whenever we put ourselves out there and announce our goals, we set ourselves up for criticism. People will question our motives, they will question our abilities, they will even question our sanity. But when we know we want something, nobody’s words are going to stop us. Here are some things I heard while training:

“Why?”
“It’s how long? Is that physically possible?”
“Are you running for a cause or something?”
“Are you sure? Why?”
“That sounds terrible”
“I don’t get it”
“Why are you doing this again?”

Very rarely did I hear, “That’s awesome! Good luck!” or anything similar to that. It’s not that people truly want us to fail, but when we put ourselves out there it makes others realize what they’re not doing in their lives for personal growth. They don’t mean to drag us down, but that’s what they’re attempting.

When we go against the grain, it scares people. Don’t let their fear of being different stop you from doing something your heart and mind are set on. Let them stay in line, let them be content, let them say what they want, but don’t let them stop you from accomplishing your goals.

(4) Nerves are Good

My brother arrived the day before the race and from the minute he saw me, he knew something was wrong. I had been getting slightly sick, I hadn’t slept well, and my legs were tired. I was so nervous I could barely sleep the night before the race. What if I didn’t finish? What if my knee didn’t hold up? Had I trained hard enough? What if I get really sick tomorrow?

I questioned myself because I was nervous, that was a good thing. I knew I had trained hard enough, I knew my body could handle this, I knew why I was doing this. I was leaving my comfort zone and headed into uncharted territory, I was pushing myself to a place I’d never been.

(5) Challenges Multiply When we’re Close

Right before the gun, during the national anthem, I realized that the hard part was out of the way and all I had to do was run. This is why I started this. It was time to check this box and cross this off the bucket list!

After a while my legs seemed weak, or maybe that was in my head, I’m still not sure to this day. And then I had to pee. And then my knee brace popped off. It was only mile 6… I had 20+ miles to run and I was a wreck!

But I reminded myself why I was there, how much I’d put into this, and resolved to finish this race come hell or high water. I was back on track. Then I hit ‘The Wall’ at mile 17. Side cramps, throbbing in my knees, dry mouth. My body was trying to tell me how stupid I was. I had to slow down and walk more times in that 2 mile span that I did for the entire previous portion of the race.

After mile 20 it was all mental. I turned off my iPod and just focused. Everything hurt, but I was determined to finish, I was not going to be beat.

(6) We Can Amaze Ourselves

After I finished I could barely stand, but the pain was good. Lots of people are capable of doing great things, but few people actually do them. I felt accomplished when I finished, and nobody can take that away from me.

The best part is now I have grown my comfort zone. I know that I’m capable of doing this and I know how high I have to set the bar next time I want to push myself.

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What are you doing to get out of your comfort zone? Leave me a comment or connect with me on Twitter, I’d love to hear your thoughts on personal growth!

P.S. 9 Days till Christmas!

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Race Results

Time – 4 Hours 7 Minutes 40 Seconds
Pace – 9:23 average mile
Results – 15th place in my age group & 348th place overall
More details here

Blogger Meetup: How to leave the Comfort Zone behind

I’m not sure what I expected to get from this blogger meetup

I kept hearing that in order to have a highly trafficked blog, networking with other bloggers is necessary. I didn’t really know why, but I figured it was because we could send traffic to each other from time to time. After Googling “blogger meetup + Charleston” I landed in a Meetup group set for Barnes & Noble on 12/5/13. I didn’t know what to expect from the situation, but I was hoping to get some tips on how to improve my blog and I was just haughty enough to think I could give some out too.

I was a little nervous, but I wasn’t about to let that stop me. I was about to go on a ‘date’ with 6 strangers (that’s how many RSVP’d) and share with them a personal project that I’ve been caring for like a child. I have been working on this blog a little bit each day since I started it back in August, and now I was about to open it up to be scrutinized by people who have been doing this longer than me… I felt like I was about to go watch game film back in my CSU days and Coach Staggs was going to rip me for something I didn’t see.

Getting out of the “Comfort Zone”

For years I have heard that we need to constantly get out of our comfort zones in order to make progress. I taught a guest lecture at CSU a few weeks back and asked the 2 football players in the room if they had ever gotten better at an easy practice. They both shook their heads “No.” We only get better in difficult situations.

The same theory applies to our everyday lives. When we constantly push ourselves to try new things and go out on limbs, we are constantly pushing to be the best version of ourselves we can be. Nobody has ever won an award for coloring in between the lines. We only get better when we get out of our comfort zones.

What actually happened

I arrived to 2 very nice, helpful bloggers that immediately asked me about my site. What type of content is it? How often do I write? Have you thought about adding this? I loved it. I wasn’t being mocked for having a basic site and they immediately made me feel comfortable about my decision to come to this.

I soon learned that each of them were as normal as me and my apprehension was soothed. One of them is a life coach and I was immediately intrigued because I’ve always wondered how people got into that profession and how they actually make money from it. The other is a lawyer and this is her side project that she has packed with inspiration, for which I’m obviously a sucker. We talked for a bit about how to improve each of our blogs and upcoming projects we’d like to take on, all offering suggestions where we could.

I learned some great tips to improve my blog from some very nice people and I can now say I belong to a ‘blogging mastermind’ group. The next time we meet I want to be able to offer more to the group and have some good suggestions, I found myself taking more than giving and I don’t like those scales to be unbalanced. But the others didn’t seem to mind, they were happy to help and I’m very appreciative. The experiment was a success!

Making it a habit

A few days leading up to this I found myself getting nervous and wondering if the people I meet will be way ahead of me in their blogging prowess, or if they would all be awkward and silent, or even worse if they liked me and wanted me to come back for the next one… Do I want another commitment???

Seth Godin refers to this as ‘the lizard brain‘ and he regularly speaks about why we need to beat it back as vehemently as possible. When we are scared of something, that usually means we need to go towards it. We are often more scared of the potential within us than actions we should take to reach that potential.

So now I have been, it was great, and I was able to successfully step out of my comfort zone to try something new. Just before this meetup I decided I need to do this more often, I need to get out of my comfort zone more often. If you’ve read any of my blog, you know I’m all about some public accountability so here it is:

Every week I’m going to get out of my comfort zone and do something that I’ve never done

Each week my comfort zone will get bigger and bigger, so each week will be a new challenge. Of course I’ll be writing about this so get used to that feeling of “That sounds cool, I should try something new, too,” because I want you to feel that. If you’re reading this I want you to take something away from it and get better, so what are you going to do this week to get out of your comfort zone?

Please let me know what you do to get out of your comfort zone, it can be small – not everyone has a large comfort zone – but if it pushes you, that’s what matters!

Connect with me on Twitter or Linkedin, I’d love to hear what you have going on.

Have a great weekend!

Follow Through – Goals Won’t Just Attain Themselves (2/3)

Wednesday was the beginning of our series on goals and I wrote of the importance of goals as well as how to come up with them. Today I want to elaborate on how to set them in stone, what to do with them once we’ve set them, and how to actually achieve them. The point of setting goals is to complete them, deciding them is first step. Fortunately, if we’ve already decided our goals, the hardest part is out of the way! Now it’s time to follow through.

Since deciding on what we want to accomplish is out of the way, we can now set our goals in stone. Up to this point we have goals that are pretty flimsy and need to be solidified. Everyone has heard of S.M.A.R.T. goals and it seems cliche but it’s true, our goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. If we’re not Specific and the goals aren’t Measurable, how do we know if we’ve ever achieved them? If they’re not Attainable or Relevant, than why bother working towards them in the first place? And if something is not Time-Bound, we can procrastinate forever and fool ourselves (and others) into believing we’ll get it done ‘someday.’

Bad Example: “I want to save money”
Good Example: “I am going to put away $250 each month into savings for a year”

My Goals are broken down into two categories: Things I want to accomplish by a certain date and things I want to accomplish every day. This is what works for me and this is how I have learned to form good habits. I have longer-term goals such as owning a home on the beach in my hometown by the time I’m 35 and finishing a marathon on December 14th, 2013. I also have daily goals to read, write, do a devotional, and call my Dad. I track these things so I don’t forget to do them on a whiteboard in my room. These serve as daily reminders of what I need to do each day to shape myself into who I need to be. I must do these things each day if I want to accomplish those life-long goals. The daily goals tie into the longer term goals and reinforce them, helping me take baby steps each day towards moving mountains. For example I write every day because I need to practice if I ever want to finish my book.

So up to this point we have set our minds on something and it’s more than likely been all thought. But what is the difference in thinking about something we want to accomplish and thinking about that taco we had for lunch yesterday? Not much… It is easy to have a thought, it is harder to clarify it in conversation, and it is even more difficult to write it out. So a goal is not a goal until is is written down. Writing a goal down A.) Helps clarify what that goal is B.) Serves as a reminder of what we committed ourselves to C.) Is the second step in our process.

Goals can be written down anywhere that is prevalent and they should be written out by hand, not typed. There are scientific studies behind this, but I won’t elaborate here, I just know I my goals are much more attainable when I write them versus typing them. We can write them on an index card and laminate it to carry around with us, we can post it on the refrigerator to see each day, or my personal favorite is to take an dry erase marker and write them on my bathroom mirror so I have to see them each day. This is my way of ‘looking my goals in the face’ each day.

Once a goal is set, a plan of action needs to be taken. For someone that wants to lose weight, the first thing to do is clear out the fridge of all the mayo, carbonated drinks, sugars, etc. and replace them with fruits and vegetables as soon as possible. For me it was to start the blog and commit to writing each day, setting time aside for the book each week. For the person that wants to save money it’s to start a budget immediately and take out that first $250 from the paycheck before any other expenses are covered. Our paychecks, just as our time spent at work, will expand to the allotment we give it.

The next part of the plan to meet our goals is accountability. Writing out the goals is the personal accountability part, but telling others is the public accountability part. In Goal Setting I gave an anecdote about the sales guys and asking them to set goals for themselves, this was my way of making them accountable to me. We would review their goals from the previous meeting to see what they had done to meet their goals, if they had met them, and what their next steps were. One in particular wrote that he aspired to having his own store some-day, and he was able to achieve that goal not 12 months after he wrote it down and we discussed what it would take to make that happen and I have never been so proud in my life. My way of public accountability is to send out this blog to as many places as I can find. All I needed was a few readers to text me or email me and say they liked what I had to say and to keep it up, and now I know I have people that are expecting me to write. THANK YOU!

I hope that the length of this post has made us fidgety to get working on our goals and that it has given a full spectrum of how to do it effectively. If not, please leave me a comment or get in touch with me for any clarification that you’d like to see on the blog. Thanks for reading, now put these words into action!

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Here is an amazing podcast on goals from the Entreleadership Team of the Dave Ramsey Network about goals that helped inspire me to write these.

Goal Setting (1/3)

One of the very first topics I wrote down in my idea roll for blogging was about goals. I have always been a huge believer in them and I have always implemented them in my life and work. Plus, every time that I hear about them I am inspired to revisit and renew my own goals for the coming weeks, months, and years.

The first step in the goal-making process is to dedicate some time to think about what it is we want. Is it a raise? Is it more time with family? Maybe it’s to finish reading that book we’ve been putting off, or to start getting fit again. Goals can be related to anything in our lives that we deem worthy, they do not just have to be work-related. I encourage people to have goals for different facets of life, it helps us to keep a balance. If all of our goals are work related we end up being workaholics and we neglect our personal or family lives.

When I managed a number of sales people in the furniture store I would have a goal review every 4-6 months with them. This was not a time for me to impose my thoughts, it was my time to listen to what they wanted to accomplish. The ones that didn’t have goals were forced to think about what they wanted and put it on paper, this opened a lot of eyes. The ones that had goals liked this exercise because it helped clarify what they wanted and gave them an opportunity to talk it through with someone. I would have them write down their goals on a sheet of paper (hand-written, not typed) then I would keep a copy and they would get the original as a reminder of what they had committed to. If we did not have that sit-down many of them would not have put any thought to their goals.

What is going to be the catalyst for us to write out our goals if we haven’t done so already?

What have we done recently to help our teams accomplish their goals?

We often hear or read about goals and think, “Yeah I know, goals are good,” and it goes in one ear and out the other. I want to encourage anyone reading this to stop what you’re doing and write down 3 things YOU want to accomplish. They can be short-term goals, they can be long-term goals, anything you want to do with your life. Todd Henry wrote The Accidental Creative and he closes out this book with a story by a South African man that asks a question about where to find the richest land on Earth. Some people said it was Wall Street, other said oil fields. But the answer to the man’s question was the graveyard. He proceeds to explain that there lies all of the unwritten books, the projects never finished, and the businesses never started of all the millions of people throughout history. He then goes on to explain a theory he has to ‘die empty’ without that unfinished work inside us.

What do we want to accomplish before our time runs out?

Take some time to think about what it is that you want to accomplish. Make time in the schedule with no distractions to think about it. Turn off the phone, leave the music out of it, and just think for a while. I love to stay moving so taking a walk with a notepad and a pen is the best thing for me. Don’t rush, give yourself at least 30 minutes if not more to think about what is important.

Goal setting is the first step, it gives us a clarity of direction. When a goal is set, we can ask ourselves if our daily actions are helping us get closer to our goals or taking us further away instead of just drifting along like so many others.

I will address how to follow through with our goals tomorrow, making them is just the beginning!

Overcompensating

As I was watching football on Saturday as CSU beat Coastal Carolina University, I couldn’t help but draw parallels to the work world. The team played well as a unit and there was no overcompensating for each other, allowing each individual to their jobs to the best of their abilities.

The CSU defensive coordinator was making bold moves to stifle the highly touted CCU offense they were playing. In football as with anything in life, when faced with a tough opponent a bland game plan won’t cut it. And CSU did not have a bland game plan. Often times they would blitz everyone on the field with the exception of their Cornerbacks, leaving them in what is known as “Cover Zero” meaning they have no help from a safety. Typically, there are more defensive backs or linebackers to help the Cornerbacks, but not when they are all blitzing. The Cornerbacks would match up with the wide receivers on the outside of the field and everyone else would rush the Quarterback. This is very effective at putting pressure on the offense, however it can be quite risky if the Cornerback doesn’t make a play when the ball is thrown his way. He is one-on-one with the Receiver and if the ball is thrown in his direction, he only has to beat that single Cornerback if he wants to get a touchdown. I loved this play calling because it made everyone on defense even more accountable for their play.

The key for this to work is to have excellent Cornerbacks that play at a high level and do not let the Wide Receivers make any catches. CSU’s Cornerbacks came to play and had multiple pass-breakups in these situations. They did their job and forced Coastal Carolina to play 9 versus 9, eliminating the play of the receivers in those situations. When this happened, the other 9 defensive players could hone in on a fewer number of potential ball carriers and make plays faster. The defense could make decisions faster by eliminating the potential threat of the receivers. And the great part was that the other 9 players on defense didn’t try to do the Cornerbacks’ jobs for them, they did their own job during the play and then came together to talk about what worked and what didn’t work in between series.

How does this work in businesses? It plays out like this when we don’t need to cover for each other. A great sales team can cover up a flawed product for a while, but not if the company wishes to build a good reputation for quality products. And a great manager can put in overtime and work themselves to death with a sub-par team, but only for a short time before burnout sets in. There will always be a need for collaboration in the workplace, however when we start to do each other’s jobs because we don’t trust each other we begin to take a step backwards. That football team could never have won the game if the Linebackers and Safeties were overcompensating for the Cornerbacks by trying to help out. The best help they could give was to do their jobs to the best of their abilities and trust that their teammates do theirs.

Be the kind of co-worker/partner/contractor that does not need to be overcompensated for. As we do our jobs to the best of our abilities we become more valuable to our organizations, we build confidence, and we begin to take on more responsibility.

Leave it all on the field

Most sales people have quotas and goals that must be met.

A quota for X amount of sales and a goal of X + Y amount of sales. The quotas are often requirement, meaning if that particular sales person doesn’t make their mark for a succession of two or three periods their job is in jeopardy.

However, at the opposite end of those quotas are goals.

In most cases goals are set for each period and have an exact cutoff date: end of the month, quarter, year, etc. This practice is good on paper, but sales people see what they have to do to not get fired (quota) and what they need to do to make more money (goal) and they just reach above that mark without striving further.

Case Study

I had a friend that sold copiers for a large company and they structured her quotas and goals on a monthly basis. She was excellent at this job so when she had a goal set at the beginning of the month, she’d go out immediately and achieve her goal within 10 days of receiving her objective.

Good for her!

She got the rest of the month to do whatever she wanted to. But what if that company would have incentivised her to work the entire 30 days of the month?

I’m not criticizing her, I’m pointing out that the company has flawed bonus structures. THEY ARE ONLY GETTING 33% PRODUCTION OUT OF THIS PERSON THAT WAS EXCELLENT AT SELLING COPIERS.

In any other industry, if a person or machine is only doing their job at 33% efficiency they are going to be replaced, quickly.

What if they could have structured her commission to continue rising each month with no cap or final goal? What if they would have structured her bonus plan to have tiers that were easily attainable and unlimited so she could continue to push herself even after small achievements had been made? What if they wouldn’t have given her any quotas or bonuses and asked to her to sell as many as she could?

Guarantee that last one would yield the highest results of all.

Too often we settle for the low-hanging fruit.

During my time playing football we went through a season that pinned our backs against the wall and we had to play every game as if it were our last.

We could “leave it all on the field” because if we didn’t win the game today, the game next week wouldn’t matter in the chase for a championship. When we realized this and we put ourselves in that “no tomorrow” mentality, we knew we couldn’t save some sales for next period, we had to get them all in this period or there wouldn’t be a next.

We needed 100% efficiency in each game, and we needed to get better at the same time. We won 5 games in a row and won a conference championship when we finally decided that “there is no tomorrow.”

Learn to finish each month, period, game, contest as if it’s our last and great things will happen.

If we’re in the position of structuring incentives for our company, don’t look to have a good plan “on paper.” Instead look to build a good plan that our sales people will respect and chase after at all levels, not just enough to keep their jobs.

Leave it all on the field today!

Play to Win

When faced with choices, there are the safe ones and there are the best ones and they are rarely the same thing. In sports we have a popular saying: “You play to win. You don’t play NOT to lose.”

When we play “not to lose” we are making timid choices. We coach scared, we play scared, we don’t take risks with our business, we simply protect what’s ours. This usually happens when a team is up and ‘defending’ a lead. In business this happens when we have developed a successful product or service and we shift our mindset in order to NOT lose customers. We get comfortable and we do what we have to (which is usually the bare minimum) to keep the lead or customers we have instead of going out on a limb for more.

We operate with the mindset that there is more apparent risk in ambition than there is in maintaining our current situation. The sad part is that when we start playing “not to lose” we change the mindset that got us that upper hand to begin with. Don’t play NOT to lose this week, play to win.

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