As work commences in earnest, many of us are (or should be) reviewing and re-setting our goals.

To gain skills in setting goals and accomplishing tasks, consider participating in Goal Setting and Getting Things Done Training Course offered by pdtraining in Melbourne and other cities in Australia.

his is one of the most important processes in the business life of all successful people.

Over the next few blog posts, we will examine the importance of several factors in goal-setting, but first, let’s look at why goal setting itself is so critical to business success.

To the new business initiate, it often seems that setting goals is too difficult, and wouldn’t really make any difference anyway, and that surely working hard each and every day will lead to progress in the “right” direction.

Certainly, the willingness to work hard is a pre-requisite for long-term success, but how do you allocate your time and efforts?

If you do not have a defined personal objective (a GOAL), you will always be working “In the Situation” (ITS) instead of “Towards your Goal” (TYG).  In this mode, you are always looking to maximise the benefit to be found in the constant flux of the present day, as opposed to directing your efforts towards a specific objective.

The difference between these two positions is massive.

If you are working hard ITS, you are running frantically toward successful resolution of whatever is closest, most visible, or the quickest WIN (next sale, current client, latest politics, whatever), and in 1, 2 and 3 years, you will still be doing exactly that.

Working TYG is entirely different.

Let’s look at an ice-cream truck owner as a simple example:

ITS – you follow any group of kids you see, driving around the parks they cut through, burning fuel and time, sometimes catching up with them before they get to the net-café/arcade/whatever, sometimes not!  Sometimes, there may even be another group of kids coming the other way, and all you have to do is stop and sell!  Cool!

TYG – Choose a week, pay your ugly brother to do his best with the truck, accept that it will be only 50% of what you could do in turnover, and that you will probably make a Net loss for the week.  Spend the week riding your bike, watching the movement patterns of the kids (keep your BlueCard handy!!). Take lots of notes.  Starting the following week, pre-position your IceCream truck where the largest concentration of potential customers will have just walked through a big un-shaded area.  Use less fuel all summer, make way more sales and profit!

Next post, we will look at what the required elements of a real business goal actually are, but they can be summed up as: S.M.A.R.T.  Stay tuned for more!!

P.S. As yet another pdtraining Australian 1^st for 01/2011, we are going BLOG interactive!

Submit your current situation in detail including your first name, current position, situation, industry, email address and country) to [email protected] and I (>25 years sales experience in several industries, >14 years training experience, >8 years experience as a global market development manager) may choose you as a pdTraining Online S.M.A.R.T. Goal case-study!

If so, you will get personal advice and assistance in setting your 2011 PBG (Personal Business Goals).  The advice and your (edited) situation will be published on this blog, but your specific company, name and location details will not.

If you are chosen – free personal advice to you! AND you get to help many others in similar situations who read the blog, at zero cost and zero risk!

Well…. almost zero cost: If you see me (I’ll be the good-looking guy in the pdTraining polo shirt) in Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne, I will expect you to buy me a cup of good coffee and share more of your story and progress!

Related Article…

Pdtraining delivers 1000’s of professional development courses each year in Brisbane, Sydney, Parramatta, Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra and Perth, so you can be assured your training will be delivered by a qualified and experienced trainer.

All public Goal Setting and Getting Things Done Training courses include am/pm tea, lunch, printed courseware and a certificate of completion.  Customised courses are available upon request so please contact pdtraining on 1300 121 400 to learn more.