Why Goals Don't Work

"Stop setting goals. Goals are pure fantasy unless you have a specific plan to achieve them."

     Stephen Covey

Today, January 1, 2017 this is what I want for all of my readers:

• To define the lives that you want to lead and to live them
• To have an extraordinary and fulfilling relationship with your work
• To have a richly rewarding love life
• To love who you are and who you are becoming

For much of my early professional life, I was a sales manager in three multi-national companies and one highly robust local firm. During those twelve years I was responsible for goal programs. I led annual, bi-annual, quarterly, monthly and weekly goal programs. I was also responsible for corporate, regional, branch and individual goal programs. Everywhere that I went, I was asking people for their goals. Five to ten percent of my sales people produced approximately ninety percent of the revenue. These elite sales professionals were too busy to participate in goal discussions. They were closing deals, running to meetings, taking a call they had been working on for months, etc.

The remaining sales people always had carefully crafted goals and projections.

Cleary, something was askew about goal programs. 

Not long before I left the staffing industry, we had the most overheated real estate market in the history of Los Angeles. People flew in from other countries to join in bidding wars on properties in tony areas of the city. Some properties went up in value by 20% in one month. People were jumping into the industry. In the "Platinum Triangle" (Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Malibu) homes were going on and off the market in 24 hours. 

And yet, the average income of full-time real estate agents in the Platinum Triangle was $16,000. The ones that were into 7 figure incomes were running door-to-door, meeting-to-meeting as if their hair was on fire. The rest sat in the office waiting for Caravan. Many used the time to write out their goals.

The number one problem with virtually any type of goal program is that it is focused on the future. Consequently, our mind can make up compelling stories to keep us out of the discomfort of change. Nothing of any value happens in the future. The only place that action can happen or even miracles can take place is right here and right now. People who operate in that space have made a commitment to use every waking moment to create the lives they want to have. They don't wait and they don't hope. When we place a goal into the future, the distance between today and six months leaves room for all types of mischief. If I am going to be in my ideal weight in six months, that leaves quite a bit of time to slip in a cookie, to miss a day at the gym or to go whole hog and see how much weight I can gain while watching a cheap movie. (It can happen). 

 Today, this morning, right now is the time to start the life you want to have. Tomorrow will always be "out there." Instead of picking something you want to work towards, try selecting what you want to live for today. What is so important right now that you are willing to change your behavior immediately, that you are willing to pursue each and every day. Most of us can't select more than one.

Pick the most important and live there every day.

Happy New Year!

Brought to you by David Harder, President - Inspired Work, Inc.

 Upcoming Events:

THE INSPIRED WORK PROGRAM

Saturday & Sunday, January 7 & 8 (Los Angeles) or February 11 & 12

Another year? How about getting the biggest relationship you have on the right track. It's your work! If you are like many of us, you spend most of your waking hours getting ready for it, traveling to it, being at it and recovering from it.

When we redefine work as "a relationship" your best outcome is based on your unique gifts, the person that you have grown into and actionable answers in how to get there now and on your terms.

Over 42,000 people have used The Inspired Work Program, a sophisticated, immersive, two-day experience to transform their relationship towards work. For most, the journey represents solutions for everything in way of fulfillment, self-definition and renewed meaning & purpose. The outcome is practical and learnable.

The experience itself is meaningful, joyful and profound. You witness breakthroughs in everyone around you. It is so bonding and moving that we have alumni groups going back twenty-six years.

• What would life be like if you solve the biggest challenges you have about your work?
• How would you touch the lives of everyone around you if you are leading the life you want to have?

We can help you or someone you love step into that journey in early January with transformative results. Many times, loved ones jump into this experience together.

If the future seems to be arriving too quickly, if you are having challenges trying to make change work for you, don't miss it. The experience offers support the rest of most anyone's working life - for the better.

See You in a Truly New Year!

For more information, call (310) 277-4850

For a program overview, click here.

To enroll, call our office or click here.

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Inspired Social Networking

Begins again on Monday, January 9

with three additional virtual sessions.

When Inspired Work dug its way out of the "great recession" we looked at the potential of social media to build engaged and tailored communities that would grow our community and our revenue. So, we threw "the norm" out the window.

Was it successful? Inspired Work's revenue transformed. The founder David Harder grew his participative connections to over 11,000 and his syndicated blogs reach over six million readers.

He shares,

"This is the single quickest way to build a new community around your mission, your business, your career and your success. Not only is it a wonderful resource for well-established business development professional, it works for those of us who develop shyness and anxiety around anything that involves selling."

We offer a unique experience that elevates of your social networking efforts into a high-touch, creative, engaging and thoroughly effective experience. We promise the outcome for you or your team will exceed your expectations and every aspect of the work will feel better than before.

The people who can transform your career or your business are out there waiting for you. We show you how to reach them and draw them to the table.The program shows you how to reach them, bond with them and build an effective, perhaps even life-changing relationship.

Why would you want to attend?

Because you will step back into social networking with the kind of confidence that can only come from well-informed and very effective new skills. You will find a thread that reshapes each aspect of successful networking into a whole. Use what we teach and you will find a new community customized around your needs, your mission, your vision and purpose.

For a program overview, (Click Here).

To enroll, call (310) 277-4850 or to enroll online (Click Here)

Coming Next Summer: