See It To Believe It — Be Specific About Your Goals

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Big goals that are most likely to be achieved start with a vivid picture of what success will look like. It’s where I started with my Olympic medal aspirations, and it’s where you need to start with your business goals. Your picture provides the foundation to guide and support your daily priorities.

To develop your picture:

  • Take time to stop. Settle your mind, get away from distractions, and get ready to think.

  • Dream about the details of what success will look and feel like.

  • Act. Making progress toward that success you’re dreaming about begins with the first, small step. You’ve laid your foundation, now get going!

Related: Olympic Lesson: Plan a Strong Finish

Transcript:

You’ve got to see it to believe it.

As we’re getting closer to the Paris Olympics, I’m remembering all the little details that I implemented when I was training for my Olympic swim. And these are ideas that you also need to be implementing into your business.

One of them was having a very clear picture, a clear image of what success looked like, how I was going to feel upon succeeding. . .

Even on my logbook, on my training logbook, I had a picture of John Naber, who, at that stage, was the world-record holder for the men’s 100- and 200-meters backstroke. And John actually went on to win the gold medals in the Montreal Olympics in both 100- and 200-meters backstroke. When I was training for my 1988 swim, I used to watch a video called The Fast and The Furious. It featured Victor Davis and Alex Baumann. And I watched that video religiously, almost daily. It was a 55-minute-long video detailing about how these two swimmers, both world record holders, were training and the intensity with which they approached what they did. If I was swimming today, I would be tuning into The Last Gold. Wendy Boglioli, a personal friend of mine, has a phenomenal story about the 1976 US women’s relay team that I would be watching to have that image of what victory looked like, to have those pictures of what all the hard work leads to.

When I talk with advisors, though, many of them are vague. I ask them about what they’re trying to do with their business, and they’ll say things like, “I want to help as many people as possible,” which sounds noble. There’s definitely nothing wrong with helping people, but how many? We know we can’t help 3000, so there is a finite number that we want to have in front of us. Or they will say, “I want to grow this business as big as I can.” Again, to what size? You could double the business and have a heart attack in four years or lose a marriage.

You’ve got to be specific about what want to achieve. The biggest companies know the value of imagery. There’s a reason why Meta owns Instagram and Google owns YouTube. They know the power of video, the power of a picture. They invest in that because they know we’re going to be switching on to those things, captured by the images of what’s happening.

The power of a vision is so, so important! Even God uses it way back in Genesis with Abraham. In Genesis 13, when God’s encouraging Abraham about the number of descendants he’s going to have, he says to him, “Look out at the grains of sand, and if you can number them, you’ll be able to number your descendants.” You’d think that would be enough, having God tell you that. And yet, two chapters later, in Genesis 15, he pulls Abraham out of the tent at nighttime and says, “Look up. Look up at the stars, Abraham. And if you can count them, you’ll be able to number your offspring.” So both day and night, God’s given Abraham a picture of where he’s heading, of what he’s going to do, of what he’s going to achieve.

It’s so, so important you have a picture of what your end objective looks like so you can take a step back and, then, simply figure out what your priorities need to be. To do this most effectively,

  1. Stop. Take some time to settle your mind. Take some time to calm down. Unplug from all of the content that’s swirling out there, and take some time to think.

  2. Dream. Think about where you want to go and dream about what that would feel like. Imagine how you’ll feel once you hit those hundred ideal clients. Imagine what things will look like once you have those two sales assistants hired. Imagine how things will be from that point onward.

  3. Act. Respond.. Take that first step. The whole process involves stopping, stepping back and planning, and then taking the small, first, incremental step towards achieving that picture.

But you’ve got to have that picture remain vividly in your mind. It’s where it all starts. In my Distraction-Proof Pathway process, I outline a great way to do that. (Get the fillable Pathway Worksheet Word document here.) It follows the TARGET Goal steps. I’ve included both of those in this post so you can download the material and then set your own objectives.

If you want to talk about this, email me. I’m happy to talk about the goals and objectives you want to achieve, give you some feedback, and then have you set on your way from there.

I look forward to bringing you another Distraction-Proof Advisor Idea next week.