I trust your "NEW YEAR" is off to a great start! I also trust you ended or began the year by setting some great goals and that you are busy implementing your plan to have one of your best years ever! But, in case you found yourself blinking through the rush of the holidays only to find yourself a few weeks into the "NEW YEAR" trudging the same roads as last year, I wanted to offer an alternative and reminder about goal setting.

GOALS will help you focus on the MOST important parts of your business and life. That's the premise behind Brian Tracy's book, Focal Point. Here's a brief excerpt:

"This simple story illustrates and summarizes the most important single principle of success, achievement and happiness in life. Your ability to determine where you put the "X" in each part of your life is the critical determinant of everything that you accomplish, or fail to accomplish. This "X" is your focal point. This is the one thing that you can do, at any given moment, to get the very best result possible for you in that area. Your ability to choose the correct time, place and activity to place your "X" has more of an impact on your life than any other factor."

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Last week, I wrote about making a commitment to get better. To follow on that post, I want to discuss another idea I learned from Brian Tracy called the "1000% Formula." I was reminded of it after reading this article about how 1% improvements led to "Olympic Gold" for the British Cycling Team. These concepts are based on the "Slight Edge Theory" or "Marginal Gains Theory."

 

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Zig Ziglar used to call it a "check-up from the neck up." And I was recently reminded of it while reading this Gallup article on the Psychology of Entrepreneurs.

Your most important opinion has little to do with sports, politics or religion. But as an "A Player," it has everything to do with your success. 

Your most important opinion is the one you have of yourself.

This opinion, known as your self esteem, is so important that almost everything you do is aimed at increasing your feelings of self esteem or protecting it from being damaged by other people and circumstances. In his book, Honoring The Self, Nathaniel Branden states, “The greatest barrier to achievement and success is not lack of talent or ability but, rather, the fact that achievement and success, above a certain level, are outside our self-concept, our image of who we are and what is appropriate to us.”

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"A Players"--Are you wasting your "talent"?

It shouldn't be hard to gather, after reading a few of my posts, that I am a proponent of personal responsibility and pay for performance. I do not believe that just because you maintained employment at your current company for another year you deserve a raise. You deserve a raise if you increased your value to your present employer (i.e. you cut costs, increased revenues, became more efficient, learned a new skill, took on a new role, etc.).

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First, I don't like having a tie around my neck all of the time either and enjoy dressing down just as much as the next person. But, if you are looking to outdistance the competition and put yourself in a position to win...

[fa icon="thumbs-o-up"] Career Coaching 101--ALWAYS BE MINDFUL OF DRESSING FOR SUCCESS!

Many years ago, I made a decision that I would rather explain being over-dressed than counted out for being under-dressed. This decision came on the heels of a situation where my boss and I went to negotiate a matter with a client. Neither of us had ever met the client or been to their office, but were told by our operations staff that the client was always dressed casually in jeans. Now, we didn't wear jeans, but we did go business casual, in dress pants and shirt. When we walked into the office, all of the people we were meeting with were dressed in suit and tie. They had won the negotiation before it even started. I've never made that mistake again!

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