When posed with this question, people often will come up with a number goal with an arbitrary figure, such as $100,000 this year or $250,000 this year, which are, by the way the two most common goals I hear. Why is this true? I feel it generally comes from an external belief that is prevalent that when you make $100,000 or $250,000 you are now considered successful. “If I could just make $xxxx, then I would be happy!” Ouch…happiness and fulfillment does not come from reaching a milestone at a given time.

Your personal growth will begin when you develop a purpose or reason for doing better than you are doing now and becoming a better salesman, person, and a better you; than you are right now. For me, and for many others, it is when achieving the goal becomes more than just the money and more than just the accomplishment. It is when you clearly recognize the value and importance of becoming a better you and you validate that purpose by doing the activities that support your cause. It is far more important to be the type of person who knows how to build a business that profits $250,000 per year because with it you learn the universal laws of compensation, attraction, and the systems required to make it happen. The cool thing when you operate this way, you still achieve the monetary goals.

To reach any worthwhile goal, you will have to stretch yourself beyond where you are now and grow as a person. Part of this is setting small mini-goals (progress goals) as *check-off* points to evaluate where you in relation to achieving your big goal. If on track, awesome! If off track, adjust and keep going. The only failure is quitting and to stop trying to achieve.

Tim Twietmeyer, North Face sponsored athlete has listed as his words to live by; “There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is being superior to your former self.”

Good Advice to consider when deciding what you want next in life.

Through interviews with hundreds of coaching clients it is common to hear goals (and frustrations) expressed as wanting to succeed so they are keeping up with their friends and parent’s expectations. This can be a powerful motivation. The bottom line is that the next step has to be something that YOU and YOU ALONE can identify as success or progress towards what you want when you achieve it. This could be as simple as a goal for today, this week, or this month. The big goals are often not bad, impossible, or unachievable goals; just goals that need to have a more realistic time-line, which you can’t establish until you know exactly where you are at. You will accomplish amazing things when you get involved with accomplishing the small things, starting today, RIGHT NOW.

This is one reason coaching is so effective. We KNOW that the big goals are possible and we also KNOW that you must BELIEVE in the goal and your ability to achieve it. Your coach helps set those progress goals and keeps you accountable to your achievement and pulls you (or pushes) back on track when things are not happening as fast as you would like.

We offer a complimentary coaching session for those who are seriously excited about accomplishing more. Please complete the Contact Form by Clicking Here and we will contact you shortly.

When we act in a way that we feel that serves the other person … are we doing that from our perspective or theirs. What if what we feel is best for the other person is not what they feel is best for them. In this case, our actions are detrimental to our relationship and hurts the other person … even though our intentions are the opposite. This gets worse when we act selfishly and justify our actions that affect other people because we convince ourselves that we are also acting in their best interest. Who are we to decide what is best, or good enough for someone else? This might be the problem with the *liberal* part of our society is that we are making value judgments on what is best for our fellow man. Of course, their are problems with the *conservative* part of our society that assumes that a transaction is zero sum in which someone wins and someone loses. “if the less fortunate want to succeed, then they just need to work harder” … Balance please.

I believe that the world does not reward those that work *hard*, but those work smart and intelligently. By intelligently, I mean that you act *after* you think of the cause and effect to you and your your family and to those you interact with. The corporate world is continually *selling* the virtues of hard and continued work with the *promise* of some future reward …. which is neither defined or guaranteed. The common man is *sold* on working for the common good and on continued loyalty and the future *promise* of some level of future comfort, yet they keep raising the bar without raising the reward. Clearly, someone is working for their own best interest or the best interest of the ambiguous shareholder, which most often is the leech that expects a greater return for his money and time than he would ever give to the people that do the work.  This is the equivalent of someone looking after his own interest and then telling you (selling you) that they are looking after your best interests …. while driving nicer cars, living in nicer houses, and going on better vacations.  No one is better than another man and from that logic everyone needs to negotiate a bargain that lets someone else *keep* their value.  The argument is that if someone strike a bad deal (by continued to work through coercion) that they are agreeing to the deal.  Not so … if the deal is struck by manipulation, not only does the *winner* get less than he expects, but the *loser* will rarely perform at his or her highest ability and will always be looking for the bigger, better, deal (bbd).  Why not let that person get that bbd with you and have a long a profitable relationship for both of you?

So….If we all work for our own best interest….and we expect and…*let*… the people interact do the same… won’t we return to the same level of pride and quality that is sadly missing today in this world? A return to excellence and prosperity requires the recognition of value in the efforts and ability in everyone, not just yourself.

Here is what I see …. there is a general discontent and dissatisfaction in this world today as people who have ability are forced to either put up with receiving less than they deserve for their production which has caused the general man to “go on strike” and produce less than they are paid. The man acting in his own interest without recognizing the reciprocal in his counterpoints continue to demand more … but with coercion, rather than cooperation. Then we reach the boiling point, where we all say no more. Never never never again.

Here is the alternative…Your brain is the most beautiful and perfect thing you have. Use it. For good. Think of how you can provide a service that is rewarded equal to the quality your provide. Refuse, flat out, to let anyone who does not provide a fair bargain or expects to bargain by coercion. Go on strike! If the people of the world that use logic and their brains to strike fair bargains in the exchange or goods and services through cooperation…then we all prosper.

Act in your own best interest by providing a valuable service to the world and expect no less from the people you interact with and we are truly acting in the best interest of the world.

“I shall never live my life for the sake of another man, nor shall I ask another man to live for the sake of mine.” – John Galt

I hope that you enjoy this post. – Jeff McElroy. If you like this type of information, please click here to subscribe my newsletter.

The concept of marathon is very special. Many people don’t even know what a marathon is. They ask how long is the next one you are doing. They may even ask if they have shorter marathons. A very common question is WHY????????

If you have attended any of my seminars you may have heard me make the point that we, as humans, are consistent. It is not common to see someone who is a superstar in one area of their life and a flop in another. A superstar tends to be a superstar all the the time in all things they make a *commitment* to, while a flop … well … you get the point. The key is the word commitment. Commitment happens when you make a decision to do something and then take you take action … and you continue to take action … and then you continue to take action … and then you achieve what you originally set out to do.

In marathoning, I know that you can take someone who is out of shape, overweight, and cannot run a mile and in a relatively short period of time (4 months) have them complete 26.2 miles in about 4 hours. I know, because I have been that person. The goal was clear, complete a marathon. The strategy was not. I had attempted marathon training before and like many people, it became less important of a goal when the miles get long or it starts to hurt. You don’t just wake up on morning and go run a marathon because you want to (some people can, but not most). However, you can wake up on any given morning and decide to run a marathon. Once you make that committment you must put into action with the appropriate strategy. You need to build a base level of fitness, increase your strength and speed, find your pace, and build up to a long run, like the one I just completed this weekend … and educate and prepare yourself about the subjects nutrition, hydration, blisters, chaffing, cramps, clothing, and most importantly, how to stay mentally focused on the task. With all this preparation which is really the evidence of my commitment, I am ready to race again … with the goal of finishing and … a specific time goal … which I will keep to myself for now as I am only racing against my prior self in this race. After 3 marathons this year, I am allowed to start thinking about my completion time.

So back to the question of WHY? Why do I do it. The same discipline required to train for a marathon is required to complete the event called *my life* You can achieve anything and everything you commit to achieving if you are willing to do the work, persistently and consistently. I run marathons because they are difficult and I need to have my brain thinking that difficult is not a problem and impossible is a word for someone else. If the task is hard, so what? If obstacles come up, so what? If it hurts, so what? If it takes longer than you thought, so what? Whatever is important to you, define exactly what it is and then develop a strategy to achieve it. Start today. Nothing is more important than today, until it is over. Finishing is the only thing that can validate the cause

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Learn how to close 100% of the prospects you present to by using 3 simple, easy to learn, easy to understand, and easy to implement strategies. That is right, eliminate anyone or anything that stops you from reaching your goals … even your well intentioned general manager who is only interesting in reaching his goals. Don’t be *his* tool … work for *your* future.

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