Regardless of your role within your firm, you have goals. You may have set them yourself or you may have a boss that walked in and laid them out for you. Either way, there are things that need to be accomplished before year’s end or within a few years.
Reaching some goals is pretty easy so I’m not going to talk about low hanging fruit here. I’m going to talk about the goal that either scares you to death or exhilarates you. Take a moment to think about that big goal and answer these
questions:
- What would it mean to you if you actually achieved it?
- How would you act differently after achieving it?
- What would you take on that you’re not currently?
- What would you leave behind?
- Why is the goal truly important to you?
- What’s standing in your way of achieving it?
Good. Those aren’t always easy questions to answer. It’s always better to think about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It helps to put everything in perspective.
Now, let’s focus on what’s standing in your way.
Do you have the skills necessary to reach your goal? Do you have the time? Do you have the energy? Think about what’s holding you back. If nothing is standing in your way, I’d contend that your goal isn’t big enough. Think bigger – dream a little. If you have an income goal that seems well within reach, go a little deeper. You want your big goal to be attainable, but just out of reach. More often than not, we have a mental block around what we can achieve. For some people, there’s never enough time. For others, they’ll never be educated enough or experienced enough. The psychological barrier stops them from moving forward. The attainable goal becomes unreachable and they decide to focus on something else like cleaning their office or tweaking their website.
More often than not, we have a mental block around what we can achieve. For some people, there’s never enough time. For others, they’ll never be educated enough or experienced enough. The psychological barrier stops them from moving forward. The attainable goal becomes unreachable and they decide to focus on something else like cleaning their office or tweaking their website.
We’ve all heard the stories of the uneducated kid that went on to be the top salesman. Or the working mother raising four children while making a six figure income from two jobs. For these people, failure is not an option. It’s not in their vocabulary. They don’t let those limiting thoughts enter their mind. They have a vision for their future and nothing is going to hold them back.
For a lot of business owners, they have a goal in mind, but they’re not sure how to get here. One thing is for sure, what got you where you are today probably won’t get you here you need to be to reach your goal. If business growth is your goal, you have to become a better marketer. You know you should promote your services, but there’s always something better to do. There’s always billable work that pops up; and of course, the office could always use a little cleaning. A lot of business owners are mentally blocked then it comes to marketing their own services. And it seems easy to justify. After all, a steady stream of referrals isn’t a bad thing. No, it’s not a bad thing; but let’s go back to your goals - your vision for your business. Is it performing the way you want it to? To quote Michael Gerber, “are you working on your business or in your business?”
The good thing about mental barriers is that they can be broken down. I spend a lot of time with clients determining their barriers to marketing and helping them turn it around. The process isn’t difficult, but it does require you be honest with yourself.
Your goals mean something. They’re the future of your business. They are your hopes and dreams for your firm. And there are consequences for not achieving them. It may come in the form of lost opportunity. It may seem like your goals are unquantifiable. Yet in my experience, you can quantify almost every aspect of your goals; you just have to keep digging. When you start looking at the lost opportunities that result from burying your head in the sand when it’s time to market, you realize that your business could be completely different. You begin to realize that you’re leaving a lot of money on the table by staying in your comfort zone. If you could no longer think those negative thoughts about marketing, you’d generate more opportunities for growth and profit.
If your biggest obstacle is mental, don’t let that slow you down. Whether it’s getting more training to develop the skills you need or simply changing the way you think about marketing, you control your own destiny. The key is to take action now. Just do something. When you dream big about your business and imagine living the life you’ve always wanted, you’re not going to let a little thing like a limiting mindset hold you back.
