Even SMART Goals Need Smart Action Steps to Succeed

Goals are fundamental to turning a business dream into business success, and SMART goals are the standard in business planning. Most of my clients have heard of SMART goals, and I suspect you have too. But just as a refresher, let me remind you that SMART goals are: Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Tangible Even SMART goals can fail you unless they’re accompanied by smart action strategies, and that’s what I want to talk about today: Smart Action Steps to Achieving Goals. Put Your Business Goals on Your Calendar The easiest and one of the most effective action steps you can take is to put your goal on your calendar. In other words: Give yourself a deadline. When should this goal be attained? Until you move action steps and your goals onto your calendar, you have great ideas but no real means of achieving them. Make Time to Succeed Set aside the time to reach your goal. Too often, we ‘add’ goals to our business days, somehow hoping our days will expand to meet them. (Wishful thinking!) As long as goals have no time allotted to them, we have no plan to achieve them. How to Plan Your Steps and Checkpoints For most business goals – whether it’s sales, productivity, or other business-related goals – you’ll increase your chance of success exponentially if you have prioritized action steps and checkpoints to keep you on track. So, block out the time for the action steps you need to take to reach your goal. Creating successful action steps: Think through the steps you need to take to reach your goals; make them specific. Prioritize your action steps and set target dates. Identify checkpoints along the way to your ultimate goal. Move your action steps and checkpoints onto your calendar, allowing sufficient time for…

Business Motivation – November 6, 2009

DO THE NEXT THING Keeping a little ahead of conditions is one of the secrets of business. The time to repair your roof is when the sun is shining. So, do things before they need to be done. Let your advance worrying become advance thinking and planning. Position yourself ahead of time in the best place for you. You’ll gain the advantage in any situation through the medium of time. When you think ahead of any approaching action you’ll always have the advantage. You’ll be the winner. When you do what is necessary, all the odds are in your favor. (Reprinted with permission, Sam Maitz, Director of Marketing Technology, Leadership Management® International, Inc.)

Business Motivation – November 4, 2009

Opportunity Knocks All The Time The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, for time and chance happen to everyone. Take a second look at what appears to be someone’s “good luck.”  You’ll find not luck but preparation, planning and success-producing thinking. Opportunity is around you all the time, but you have to be ready for it. When your chance comes, you must have the equipment to take advantage of it. When you’re prepared for opportunity, your chance for success is sure to come. The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success. The tide of opportunity comes to everyone. (Reprinted with permission, Sam Maitz, Director of Marketing Technology, Leadership Management® International, Inc.)

Business Motivation – November 2, 2009

You Can Make Up Your Mind To Be Anything You’re special and unique among all the creatures on the planet earth. You’ve been endowed with the capacity and the power to create desirable pictures inside your mind and to find them automatically printed in the outer world of your environment. You’ll gradually grow into any condition you desire, provided you first make yourself in habitual mental attitude the person who corresponds to that condition. Picture yourself vividly as winning, and that alone will contribute immeasurably to your success. All your dreams can come true, if you have the courage to pursue them. (Reprinted with permission, Sam Maitz, Director of Marketing Technology, Leadership Management® International, Inc.)

Business Motivation – October 30, 2009

You Always Have A Choice You don’t have to buy from anyone. You don’t have to work at any particular job. You don’t have to participate in any given relationship. You can choose. You steer the course you choose in the direction of where you want to be today, tomorrow, or in a distant time to come. You hold the tiller. You can decide to alter the course of your life at any time. No one can ever take that away from you. You can decide what you want and go after it. It’s always your next move. === Reprinted with permission Sam Maitz, Director of Marketing Technology Leadership Management® International, Inc. For more information about Strategic Essentials small business training and education programs or our coaching and consultation services please call 775.826.8282 today! Strategic Essentials primarily serves business owners, business leaders, entrepreneurs, managers, supervisors and decision makers in Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Tahoe, Truckee Meadows and surrounding communities. Strategic Essentials is a Managing Partner for Leadership Management International.

Business Motivation – October 28, 2009

The Highway To Success Is A Toll Road You must give up something to get whatever you want in life. The greater the value, the greater the sacrifice that will be required. Everything has a price. You pay a price if you want to make things better, and you pay a price for just leaving things as they are. Nothing worthwhile will come easily to you. Work, continuous work and hard work, is the only way to accomplish the results that last. You’ll find no success at bargain basement prices. === Reprinted with permission Sam Maitz, Director of Marketing Technology Leadership Management® International, Inc. For more information about Strategic Essentials small business training and education programs or our coaching and consultation services please call 775.826.8282 today! Strategic Essentials primarily serves business owners, business leaders, entrepreneurs, managers, supervisors and decision makers in Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Tahoe, Truckee Meadows and surrounding communities. Strategic Essentials is a Managing Partner for Leadership Management International.

Business Motivation – October 26, 2009

You Have Unlimited Potential No matter what the level of your ability is, you have more potential than you can ever develop in a lifetime. Don’t think about the things you can’t do. Think about the things you can do. There is no such thing as no chance. You have powers you never dreamed of. You can do things you never thought you could do. There are no limitations to what you can do except the limitations of your own mind. Your range of available choices right now is limitless. Look at things as they can be. Never say never. === Reprinted with permission Sam Maitz, Director of Marketing Technology Leadership Management® International, Inc. For more information about Strategic Essentials small business training and education programs or our coaching and consultation services please call 775.826.8282 today! Strategic Essentials primarily serves business owners, business leaders, entrepreneurs, managers, supervisors and decision makers in Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Tahoe, Truckee Meadows and surrounding communities. Strategic Essentials is a Managing Partner for Leadership Management International.

Business Motivation – October 23, 2009

Success Is Closer Than You Think Every situation, properly perceived, becomes an opportunity. But you have to act on them if you’re going to be successful. Distant pastures always look greener than those close at hand, but real opportunities are right where you are. You must simply take advantage of them when they appear. You can start where you are at any time. Success is all around you. It’s not in your environment, it’s not in luck or chance, or in the help of others. Success is in yourself alone. You don’t need more strength or more ability or greater opportunity. What you need is to use what you have. Learn to seize good fortune, for it is always around you. You must go to success, it doesn’t come to you. Open your own doors to opportunity. === Reprinted with permission Sam Maitz, Director of Marketing Technology Leadership Management® International, Inc. For more information about Strategic Essentials small business training and education programs or our coaching and consultation services please call 775.826.8282 today! Strategic Essentials primarily serves business owners, business leaders, entrepreneurs, managers, supervisors and decision makers in Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Tahoe, Truckee Meadows and surrounding communities. Strategic Essentials is a Managing Partner for Leadership Management International.

Business Motivation – October 21, 2009

Leadership Is Action Not Position All successful people became successful because they gave some talent or ability in the service of others. You can contribute in some way to others no matter how small your talent. You too, can become successful. No one achieves success without being of service. The essence of success is service. The successful don’t use others, other people use the successful, for above all success is of service. Everyone has to be someone to someone to be anyone. === Reprinted with permission Sam Maitz, Director of Marketing Technology Leadership Management® International, Inc. For more information about Strategic Essentials small business training and education programs or our coaching and consultation services please call 775.826.8282 today! Strategic Essentials primarily serves business owners, business leaders, entrepreneurs, managers, supervisors and decision makers in Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Tahoe, Truckee Meadows and surrounding communities. Strategic Essentials is a Managing Partner for Leadership Management International.

Business Motivation – October 19, 2009

Your Mind Sets Your Limits Everything is possible when you believe it’s possible. What you envision you can do, you can do. What your mind can conceive and believe, your mind can achieve. Success is actually a state of mind. Start thinking of yourself as a success. Know in your heart that you can do the job you’ve set out to do. Believe in yourself. === Reprinted with permission Sam Maitz, Director of Marketing Technology Leadership Management® International, Inc. For more information about Strategic Essentials small business training and education programs or our coaching and consultation services please call 775.826.8282 today! Strategic Essentials primarily serves business owners, business leaders, entrepreneurs, managers, supervisors and decision makers in Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Tahoe, Truckee Meadows and surrounding communities. Strategic Essentials is a Managing Partner for Leadership Management International.