Last week truly was an interesting week. The direction I was traveling on Monday completely changed paths by Friday. I am still working towards the same goal, but I had to take personal inventory this week. I came to the realization I was traveling down a road that I thought was going to take me closer to my goal, but it wasn’t working the way I had hoped. I had to sit back, evaluate my plan and come up with a new one. This was an AHA! moment when I had to take my own advice. While I have adjusted my plan, I never changed my goals. I was able to take what I had learned, and come up with a new strategy. Today’s article discusses what to do when you aren’t getting any closer to the goal, and it offers a challenge that I hope you accept. It could change your life for the better! Thank you for reading!
This Isn’t Working!
The objective of setting goals is to cause you to grow and to achieve something you’ve never accomplished before. Having a goal without a plan is just having a dream. You need to create a plan and take action with that plan as your guide. Take action… nothing will happen until you cause it to happen.
What Happens When the Plan Isn’t Working?
When you are creating a plan to achieve something you’ve never done before, there will invariably be some dead ends or strategies that simply don’t work. This is fine! It just means the plan needs work, but don’t change the goal!
Before taking off on an adventure towards a new goal, you should do some research. Find someone that has done what you want to do, and try to mimic what they’ve done. Obviously, they’ve cleared a path and if you follow that path then you’re likely to face less opposition. However, as with anything in life, no two paths are ever identical.
Step Back!
This is where you need to be able to take a step back and review your plan. Find where you need to make changes. This is always a pivotal time where you need to be careful. Let’s say you are in sales and a big part of your prospecting involves networking. You’ve been going to two networking events a week for months, but you aren’t getting any qualified leads! You aren’t filling your pipeline with prospects! You’re not making any money, in fact you’re spending money with no revenue. In the meantime, your kids need braces and the car needs new tires! Here is where you might say “networking doesn’t work!” But let me ask, is the problem really that networking doesn’t work? Are you networking in the wrong places? Do you talk to the same people at every networking event?
Seek Advice
Before you decide to quit networking all together, seek advice. This doesn’t mean asking your neighbor for his opinion, unless he is an uber-successful salesperson. Most people ask their buddies for advice in areas where their buddies aren’t experts. It would be ridiculous for someone to ask their neighbor for advice on a toothache. You probably want to visit a dentist for that. However, many people will go to their neighbor or buddies for career advice. We do this even if our neighbor is no more successful than we are, or in another line of work!
When you seek advice, get the right advice. Seek help from someone who has worked in your specialty, and has been there and done that! Find someone that is knowledgeable in what you need to resolve, and someone that you can trust. I like to use mentors in this area. Choose a mentor that has knowledge and experience. A mentor should be someone that has no vested interest in you, other than your success. This means they aren’t dependent on you and they don’t have baggage that might cloud their advice. A mentor is someone that is fully committed to helping you succeed.
Adjust the Plan
Don’t give up on the goal, but change the plan. Take the advice of mentors and other trusted advisors and create a new plan. Remember to change the plan, not the goal. If you’re traveling across country from New York to California and the bridge that will get you over the Mississippi River is unpassable, you’ll find a new way to get to California. California is the goal. If the original plan didn’t work, develop a new plan. In this case it will probably mean taking a detour to another bridge. This happens all the time. Often, when people face the plan adjustment, they change their goal instead. Maybe what I was going after was too lofty. Maybe I am not worthy to achieve that goal. There are many doubts that people have. Dismiss the doubts, and create a new plan!
The Challenge
The challenge this week is to look at what it is you’ve set out to do. Maybe even dust off your 2017 New Year resolutions that you fell short of. Were those goals worthwhile? Did you fall off course because you hit a challenge? Create a new plan and see if you can’t get those goals accomplished. It’s not too late to make 2017 THE YEAR OF YOU!
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Andrew Shaffer,
Shaffer Ingenuity