There is only one thing worse than not achieving a goal and that is achieving it.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Are you a goal-driven individual?

First, do you regularly set goals for yourself?

Do you then plan just how you’ll achieve them… and once having planned your work you work your plan?

If this is you, congratulate yourself. You are literally one in a million and the world is your oyster.

In theory.

People who set goals… people who achieve goals are a precious minority of any community, for-profit, or not-for- profit organization.

They are the people who live the celebrated epigram, “Lead, follow, or get out of the way.” When they lead, they perform the leader’s task with efficiency, organization, and, yes, joy.

When they follow, they listen to the designated leaders, making sure they know their task, then doing it.

It is a thrill and a privilege to know such people, not least because they create an environment conducive to success.

Why then have I said that there is only one thing worse than not achieving a goal… and that is achieving it?

In this article I shall make clear the problems that afflict the special people, the performance oriented people, the movers and shakers. Keeping successes coming, greater successes, important successes, more magnificent successes is never inevitable. And here’s the rub, just because you were successful today, by no means ensures you will be successful tomorrow.

Indeed, the world is awash in one-time successes who once were the center of attention, the golden boy or girl. They had what everyone else wanted… but having didn’t mean keeping. That proved to be not only elusive… but, after a time, impossible.

There is nothing sadder than listening to an individual once undeniably successful… now talk and live exclusively in that past; the success they had was fleeting and its continuing absence noticeable and glaring.

I am here to ensure that you do not become that sad individual, the person for whom the calendar always says yesterday.

1) Successful people aim for a sequence of successes, not just successful episodes and incidents.

Review the history of the prevalent “once-upon-a-time” successes and you will see that their success was limited to a particular time, place, and thing. It was isolated, unique in their experience, non-recurring. The situations of successful people are radically different.

They do not succeed one or twice and live off their decaying laurels forever; instead, they aim to have success after success after success, until the very idea of failure is unthinkable.

2) Successful people see life as a gigantic planning opportunity; an unequalled opportunity to bring home the bacon time after time after time.

The successful lead lives where what they do and how they do it is always linked to the master plan that they have worked on for their entire lives. No incident can be viewed in isolation, because every incident is a step towards larger goals and greater successes. For such people any success is nothing more than a step to ever greater success.

3) Successful people analyze what went right and what went wrong in each success they attain. Every success is not a conclusion, but a necessary learning opportunity.

By definition successful people place each and every success under a microscope giving it a full and complete scrutiny. Successful people study success; it is in fact their constant endeavor to turn each success into a learning laboratory.

4) Successful people have a succession of goals. Moreover these sequential goals are written down, regularly reviewed and updated… and always represent more challenge and responsibility. For the successful, life is a step ladder, never a sofa and easy chair.

Do you have such goals? Are they written down? Do you constantly consider just what goals achieved today mean in terms of more substantial goals and achievements tomorrow? As successful people grow and mature they become masters of such questions and answers.

More things successful people do.

5) Successful people are all about the future. They focus is on now, of course, because it is in this now they must learn the essentials of success and achieve each individual success.

But successful people always keep an eye on the future. They focus on what they want in that future, vividly aware that what they do today and how well they do guarantees the future of their desire.

6) Successful people make mistakes.

There isn’t a person alive who doesn’t make errors of commission and omission. Successful people know that reviewing today’s errors ensures tomorrow’s victories. And as it is victory they want and insist upon above all, each error is analyzed, understood, turned into part of the primer on success.

7) Successful people are not defensive.

The characteristic response of the unsuccessful to areas where they have erred and need a different, improved response is defensive. Such responses will be of the “no one told me. I’m innocent. It’s her fault, it’s her fault” variety. These responses are a clear indication that the person in question has little or no idea what successful people say in such circumstances.

“Thank you for pointing this out to me. I have made written notation of what you want.”

Bingo, with such a response you are no longer defending the indefensible, you are instead turning an error, a misunderstanding, a questionable act into a valuable learning experience.  Successful people keep journals, diaries, etc.

So long as you live you can become a success story all your own. One thing you need is the most detailed and thorough notes about yourself. Remember, every single thing you do either assists success… or retards, even destroys it. That is where detailed personal journals are mandatory.

In such documents, you put yourself under a keen scrutiny which never ends and which must be both complete and honest.

The extent to which you fail to have and keep such personal information is the extent to which you are prepared to jettison intensely valuable information… and all the successes which might have hinged on their existence and use.

9) Successful people thank the people who helped them.

Successful people are people who are beneficiaries of constant assistance from parents, other family members, teachers, clergy, coaches, etc., a process that only ends with death.

Successful people feel privileged to acknowledge and recognize the hard work and sincere assistance provided by many, many others. Unsuccessful people feel diminished by such help; not enhanced by it.

The avoidable tragedy of The Void where there are no new goals to take the place of old goals achieved.

The worst thing that can happen to a person who wants true, continual success is to finish a goal… and not know what he/she should be doing next. As indicated above you must always have goals that go beyond even the most major goals you are working on now. There must never, ever be a gap… for that is an opportunity for losing track of your objectives and becoming directionless.

Now that you have read this article with its admonitions and recommendations, you will never have this problem. With clockwork regularity you will always conclude a goal, knowing just what major goal follows.

Your job is to turn the achievement of success into an unrelenting, never ending system. And now you know how to do it.

Four things successful business people will do today…that you won’t!

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Friend, let’s get one thing straight from the get-go. Successful people are going to do things today that you won’t. Read this, and you’ll discover what they are.
1) Successful people don’t just let today happen…. they plan for today… yesterday!
What did you do before you left your office yesterday? If you’re successful, you planned your success for today, determining your clear objectives and laying out the documents, materials, and other things you need.
In other words, you knew what you’d need, and you had it readily at hand so you could, without special effort, pick up first thing today what you so carefully planned…. yesterday.
Organization, a constant focus on time management and efficiency, not caffeine , are what the successful bring to the table. They cannot and do not consider yesterday concluded… until it is organized as the spring board to a successful today.
2) Email a stupendous offer just before you leave your work.
Want to walk in tomorrow to sales? To lots of great prospect leads?
Then email a terrific offer BEFORE you leave.
Most people, bushed, fatigued, tired, upon leaving their offices are contemplating the pleasures of the rest of today. But not the successful.
Successful people are mad keen on organization and efficiency… and constant bank account pleasing cash flow. They know that today’s dollars are the result of yesterday’s offers. Successful business people force themselves to stay, no matter how tired they are, no matter how pleasurable the day’s forthcoming events, until they have crafted the stunning offer that ensures cash flow throughout the hours they are not present.
This offer must be a lollapalooza… the best yet.
As I write, much of the United States, much of the rest of the world is mired in an anaemic economic recovery that is, at best, just limping along.
Yet, by staying focused at all times on the main event, successful business people will flourish and achieve even the most ambitious of business and financial goals.
The key is having cash readily at hand…. and the means to generate more…. at will.
This means offers, better offers, the best offers, never-ending offers.
Because you will be tired at the end of the day, craft your end-of-day offers earlier. To ensure that it delivers the big success you insist upon, shape that offer when your mind is fresh and your abilities keen. Aim to make your offer better than you have ever made before; aim to make it a stunner, head turning, a cash gusher.
What the most successful business people know is that cash is king, especially when other people, people who do not have and do not use such offers, don’t have it. If you focus as on your #1 Priority the shaping and constant sending of eye-popping offers you will have the cash, and thus the freedom, your less focused and clever colleagues lack and will always lack.
3) Call three prospects who have been hanging on the fence, uncertain about buying, and tell them you have the talking turkey offer of all times… if they will act now.
Offers come in many shapes and sizes… but one thing they all have in common is the “act now” factor. Offers to work must have deadlines… and the very best offers mean prompt, immediate response… no dithering allowed.
Most people, you see, even most business people, dither, offering excuses when decisive action is called for. In fact most people are not decision makers; rather, they are decision avoiders. The offer is made for such people, for only a truly superior offer will get these torpid ones to act at all, much less act on your speedy schedule.
Now, be honest. Did you, before leaving your office yesterday, call at least three people with a special, once-in-a-lifetime, knock ‘em, sock ‘em offer?
Or did you just turn off the lights and lock the door?
Want money?Then outline a “for my best customers” offer… and call them to discuss it. (You may also use email to send the offer… but never expect such an email to close the deal. For that the phone is the key).
Pick up the phone, I say, and, upon reaching these prime (if delaying) prospects, verbally embrace them, “Mary, you and I have been in contact for many years. I was thinking of you and wanted to make you a spectacular offer. Have you got a minute?” Then deliver the offer of offers, tellingly delivered, resoundingly delivered, convincingly delivered. This is a Special Offer…. for a Special Person. Deliver it accordingly.
4) Select 5 customers and give them a special unexpected gift.
People have always liked and will always like to get presents. It makes us feel wanted, warm inside. The most important people in your business are your customers; we all know that. However, what have you done lately to warm the cockles of their hearts? Not much, right? Change that today.
Pick a few customers, 5 is a good number, and give them a special gift, report, some free product, any kind of emolument… something that says simply, honestly, “I value you!” Then send it out.
Your customers will be pleased, gratified, impressed. No wonder. In our busy world, too few take even a little time to do the right thing; that thing that identifies you as a quality individual, well deserving of such customers. Out of the enhanced good will such valued offerings engender will come business, lots of business. You deserve it.
Are you going to be the business success you say you want?
You now know what to do. The question, therefore, is whether you will do it,and when.
24 hours from now, as you reflect upon this day, you will know just how successful you will be, based on what you have (or have not) done. It won’t take any longer than that to see how well you’re going to do. You see, now as always, the success you get (or forego) will be upon the actions you take and how well you do them. In short, it’s all about you.
Bon voyage.

How to stay focused and make money on days you DON’T feel like it!

Did you lay in bed this morning unwilling, unable
to get up? Did every fibre of your body demand
more time in the sack? Was it a struggle to
open an eye… and get up?
Sure enough, if today wasn’t like this, some
of your many tomorrows will be. You need to be
prepared for such inevitabilities… because they
can and will occur and can and will sabotage your
ability to make money. Here are some suggestions
that’ll help you rise and shine… suggestions I use
myself when getting up and getting going are most
decidedly NOT my first priority!
1) Create a “to do” list before you go to bed.
The key to making tomorrow organized, efficient,
and profitable is what  you do today. Make it a
rule before you retire for the night to draw up a
clear, clean, specific “to do” list. Write it, read it
over, put it next to the bed… then turn off the lights.
While you’re sleeping your subconscious mind
will be busily at work helping you organize and
implement the items on your list. Even when your
body is screaming for more sleep and all the
creature comforts it can get, the brain — and
your crucial “to do” list — will be helping you get
up and at ‘em.
2) Take a cold shower.
The British empire, the largest the world has ever
known, was practically built on a cascade of frigid
water. Its young men, pillars of the imperium, were
shipped off to prep schools and immediately
subjected to the jarring temperatures which will work
for you as well as it worked for them.  Don’t stand
there and debate…. turn up the cold tap and plunge!
You’re about to be invigorated, rejuvenated,  primed
to run your empire.
3) Do some exercise.
Are you huddling in a corner of your kitchen,
hands gripping a cup of joe, comfy in your bunny
slippers? Whoa! This isn’t helping getting your act
together. You need some brisk, bracing exercise…
the kind guaranteed to send vital oxygen to that all-
important brain.
Put the steaming liquid down and kick up your
heels… or quick-step around your back yard or
up and down your street. With every step your
brain will exult. The key isn’t coffee… it’s oxygen.
Move bristly and infuse it where it must go for
maximum good.
4) Give yourself an easy, immediate success.
Don’t feel like doing anything? Then give yourself
an easy, immediate success. This should, of course,
have been indicated on your “to do” list. Before you go
to bed be sure to post on your list an easy thing,
a thing that will start today’s sequence of successes.
Once begun, as we say in New England, is half done.
What could this “easy” thing be?
It could be calling a long-time customer to get
a nice re-order or following up with a new customer to
whom you’ve already sent a proposal and quote.
One success engenders another. Even a small
success is sufficient. Start successful, remain successful.
It all begins when you least feel like it.
5) Put on your head phones and engage with
some stirring music.
Still need help getting into gear? Go to the play list
on  your computer and choose something rousing.
What? You don’t have such a play list? Start it
today. I can assure you, you are going to need it.
Here are some of my sure-fire upbeat selections,
guaranteed to get you going:
Wake up Little Suzie by the Everly Brothers (most
appropriate, don’t you think?)
Think by Aretha Franklin.
Natalie Cole’s version of Pink Cadillac, and
J.P. Rameau’s always motivating Tambourins I-II
from Dardanus.
Your list may well be different from mine; the
important thing is to have a list you can access at
once. Turn up the sound… and move your body.
Your uplifting selections are moving you towards
another successful day.
6) Visualize what you’ll get when you turn this day
into a success.
All too often we work without conceptualizing why.
We work today because we worked yesterday.
This is not nearly good enough.
Remind yourself just why you’re working and what
special thing today’s successes will help create.
In my case, for instance, I have a pile of auction
catalogs stacked high next to my computer. I motivate
myself on days when such motivation is needed by
looking at the things I want from auctions coming up
quickly. Getting myself focused and together is a
precondition for maximum acquisition. Visualize
success; then do what’s necessary to achieve it.
7) Still not alert and moving? Then take the day off
formally and properly.
Like most people these days, you are working
more and longer than either your parents or grand
parents. We are the most leisure-challenged
generation ever.
The plain fact is, you may be unable to get up and
resolutely face the day because you’re just worn
out. If so, take the day off… sleep in, sleep properly,
sleep, relax and goof off without guilt. You’ll be the better
tomorrow if you take what is necessary and do not
regard it as an indulgence but physical need.  Enjoy!

You SAY you’re in business, but that proposition is dubious, as this article reveals in shocking detail.

Author’s program note. One of Broadway’s happiest and most enduring musicals is “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.” Written by Frank Loesser; it was released in October, 1961 to immediate acclaim — and a Pulitzer Prize to boot. Most recently it was revived with Daniel Ratcliffe — famous for his eponymous role in the Harry Potter films — starring in the lead role originally done to mischievous perfection by Robert Morse, simultaneously menace and mastermind.
I have selected one of the lesser tunes from the production for the occasional music to this article. It’s called simply “Coffee Break”, and you should go to any search engine now to listen to it. It’s about how the absence of coffee — and therefore the coffee break — raises more anxiety and lamentation than a plague of locusts and completely stops the whole company, convinced that the end of the world as they know it is at hand. Oh, my! So much grief for one missed cuppa. However, the real shock is not that the coffee was late for the company coffee break, no indeed; the real shock is that more time, trouble, energy, irritation, and anger was expended on this event than on anything else that entire day… including the company’s business they were hired to transact…until the outrage about the coffee break was surpassed by certain stale items on the lunch menu… thereby diverting everyone’s outspoken attention to this even greater snafu.
The sad part is that this kind of ludicrous “crisis” and massive waste of time does not occur solely or exclusively on Madison Avenue or in Broadway shows… it is most likely the way you are running your “business” and why it doesn’t prosper.
That’s why today, I am going to put you and your “business” under the most minute scrutiny, the better to help you understand that your business, as you currently organize and run it — cannot make the desirable profits of your imagination… until such time as you rethink everything — absolutely everything — so that the focus of your energy and action every day is NOT the coffee break… but actually doing BUSINESS. And as this analysis develops right before your very eyes, you are most likely to be chagrined, embarrassed, and horrified – and that’s just for openers.
On the acute need to perceive what you are really doing every single day.
You say you are in business, correct? You say you want substantial, increasing profits, correct? You say you are a hard worker; indeed that the sun never sets on all the work you do, the tasks done, the challenges confronted, correct?
In short you are about as swift, intelligent, able and valuable a business person as business has ever seen and that your DNA should be donated to the nation so that generations yet to come may have the benefit of you and your unmatched business expertise and execution.
You, of course, are even now nodding your head in sage agreement with this flawless description of you and your business acumen. Modest though you are, you cannot but admit that you are the very paragon and model sketched above… just like Kansas City, you’ve gone about as far as you can go.
It is this proposition swallowed hook, line and sinker by the overwhelming majority of business owners of every kind that keeps you trapped in a business that doesn’t grow, expand, prosper and that does not make and will never make the profits you consistently and repeatedly say are the reason you are in business to get and enjoy.
YOU and your business under our microscope.
Now, it’s time to knuckle down to the important, sure-to-be-shocking analysis of what you do during your “business hours”… for you cannot improve your business until you know precisely what you do and precisely when you do it.
Business is about two things and two things only…
Quick! Can you guess what they are? The correct answer is 1) the generation of qualified prospects and 2) contacting these prospects, making them the most lavish, persuasive offer ever, then closing the deal forthwith. This is the two- step dance that keeps you in business, expands your business, and leads to money, money, money… yours, all yours.
Now let’s see just what percentage of your average day focuses on these two key points… and what percentage of your business day goes to anything but these two essential tasks.
You’ll need a pad, a watch, and total honesty.
To make this crucial scrutiny work, you will need to be clear about what you do, when you do it, and how long it takes to do it. In other words, you must start by creating a detailed picture of your average business day… and why it either works to produce the prospect leads and orders you need… or why it doesn’t. Give this essential project which can launch the most profitable epoch for your business your fullest attention. Nothing will come of this project unless you are careful, thorough, and complete.
Your first task is to list all the things you do during your average business day. These will include but will certainly not be limited to
* all breaks, kind and duration;
* non-business related telephone and other communications;
* time spent “surfing” the Web, especially at sites unsuitable for visits during business hours;
* gossip with friends and co-workers;
* writing ad copy;
* creating offers that make sales;
* time on the telephone etc where you connect with prospects, and either upgrade them to be qualified prospects, or close them by making sales.
Get the picture? What you’re trying to do is this: show yourself in unanswerable detail what you do on the average day that has absolutely nothing to do with the identification and closing of prospects… and how much time and effort you expend generating prospects and closing them.
Reforms must follow identification of what you are doing wrong, over and over again.
Chances are, you will be shocked and abashed by what you discover, for instance now seeing that you spend far more time surfing the Web and gossiping on the phone than you do on that same phone contacting prospects and closing deals. Such pernicious reality must be dealt with at once, for it is costing you money every single day.
Start today.
Do you care whether your business succeeds or fails? Do you care whether you make more money than less? Do you care whether the limited time you have on this planet is transformed into the maximum amount of coin of the realm, and so serenity, security, satisfaction?
That is why you must do this necessary exercise, and do it today. For you see, succeeding in business without really trying makes a dandy theme for a witty musical… but can in no way be regarded as a truth to build your ever more prosperous business by. That truth will be vividly apparent to you as you implement the recommendations of this important article.
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