05.20.09
Posted in goal setting, planning at 10:29 am by Marianne Trost
I was reminded today of the effectiveness of setting goals that are bite sized.
Like many of you, sometimes I have so many new ideas and so many goals on the list that my energy and focus get diffused among them. Or worse yet, the goal appears to be a bit too time consuming for the present moment, so I put off tackling it until a more opportune time. Meanwhile opportunity passes!
When you take a larger goal and break it into mini-goals, everything becomes a bit more manageable. So, yesterday I set about taking my larger goals and breaking them into bite sized chunks. Then I put a reasonable and realistic timeframe on each of the chunks and calendared them into my Outlook through the remainder of the year.
When I went back to my “e-mails” and my “tasks” and my “to do pile” this morning, it was much easier to push some of the accumulation out into the future for later consideration (without feeling guilty and without worrying that an opportunity would be missed.) It was even possible to discern things that don’t even need to be on the radar screen right now because they are not part of my current, calendared mini-goals.
Large ambitious goals are VALUABLE. It is important to think and play BIG. However, if the size of your goals is keeping you from executing on them, mini-goals can help overcome the stagnation.
If you have been struggling with finding the time to put together your business development plan, or compile your contact list, or draft your marketing materials, or update your website, etc., consider setting smaller, bite-sized mini-goals with reasonable timeframes to help you reach your bigger goals. Together they will help you achieve your bigger goals faster than you ever imagined.
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09.03.08
Posted in planning at 11:47 am by Marianne Trost
Two clients mentioned to me last week on two separate occasions how lucky they were to get a new opportunity. Both had actually done their homework, visualized the outcome in advance, and put themselves out there for the new opportunity. Then this morning my daughter told me how lucky I was to get a new opportunity (which we’ll talk about later so this e-mail is not self serving). Yes, I do feel lucky, but in retrospect, I did exactly what my clients did i.e. I did my homework, created a few action steps, visualized the outcome, and put myself out there.
Is it really luck? Or is it something else? Someone once said (and I wish I could remember whom, so I could give her/him credit!) that luck is “preparedness meeting opportunity.” There is something to that.
When we think through the opportunities we want in advance, do our homework and create and act on a roadmap for getting them, then… when opportunities presents themselves… we either see the opening we otherwise would not have seen, or we are ready to go after the opportunity in a way that we would not have done had we not been prepared.
How does this relate to business development? I have rarely seen anyone get just plain “lucky” (but it does happen, or is it that the “lucky” person was open and prepared for that possibility too??). There is typically a story behind every new client and every new opportunity. And, that story usually involves some form of action i.e. preparedness meeting opportunity.
So, if you have the chance today, visualize one opportunity you would like to create, think of one or two things you can proactively do to create that opportunity, commit to doing those things, and keep holding the positive outcome in your mind. That way, when the opportunity presents itself, or the next step to creating the opportunity comes in view, you’ll be prepared to go after it. You just might find that you’ll be “lucky” too!
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