Put another way – are you Aimlessly Wandering?
“I don’t think this is how I’m meant to wear this tie dear?”
What do I mean by Aimlessly Wandering?
“To be running your business, and not really know where you’re headed”
I’m asking because yesterday I asked a very large list of people across a number of groups I belong “how do you measure success?”, and very few of them could tell me.
And of those who did share what success means to them, no two answers were the same – that’s interesting to see the range
But the part that was a concern was this: Only one of those answers could be accurately measured.
Now I say this with a huge amount of love and respect for those who were good enough to share with me – not having a measurable goal?
That scares me.
“Busy and Blind”
That tells me:
1. There’s a large number of people out there working hard
2. Trying to get some type of result or outcome in their lives
3. That isn’t clearly articulated to themselves
4. And so can’t be measured
…so how will they know they’ve reached their goal?
And what about you?
How are you going to know?
If you’re reading this and you still don’t know, then stop.
Stop, stop, stop stop stop.
Just stop.
Please 🙂
If you do NOT have a small list of numbers that you track, as indicators to how successful you will be, you need to stop.
Stop Now
Stop, and give it some thought.
Think about it:
How will you know when you’ve arrived?
Are you at risk of sitting on the speeding train called ‘i’m busy’ – and fly past the point you’re meant to get off at?
Worse still, you might end up thousands of miles away from where you’re meant to be – and you’ll only realise it when it’s too late?
The time, money and effort to get back to your true calling may be huge – It might even put your ‘sweet spot’ out of reach.
Don’t Let Your God Given Talents Go To Waste
You don’t want that, do you?
How can you avoid missing out on being the very best at the thing only you can be the very best at?
This is the point where you want to pick what’s most important to you.
I’m not going to tell you what I think you should measure – every person and business is different, but there are a few metrics that could be a good place to start for your thinking.
A Few Example Measures
There is a step-by-step on how to work this out, I’ll tell you more near the end about that, but first – Which of these most appeal to you:
1. Revenue
2. Profit
3. How much you can pay yourself each month
4. #’s of people you’ve been able to help
5. #’s of customers
6. #’s of happy customers
7. #’s of referring customers
They’re just a handful – you’ll see too the last four are all slightly different ways to look at your customer
What About You?
Out of all this though, the most important question is:
What is your goal in life?
The answers, and measures should flow from there.
Then you’ll know you’re on track.
On the right track.
Heading in the right direction.
When you’re headed in the right direction, everything becomes easy – you’re able to performing well more of the time – heading towards peak performance at what you do.
You’ll know too the point you’ve achieved what you ‘set out to achieve’.
I’m not saying by the way that you only have one target. You just have one target at a time.
- Pick
- Aim
- Fire.
When you hit it, then you can pick your next target, and keep going from there.
But you need a target.
Agreed?
What Do You Do Next?
I’m aiming to write a follow up to this, to help give a process on how to best work this out – about measures, and something called pre-emptive measures – very powerful concepts that make sure you only spend your time on those things that will give you the best results
(And if you commented below, I’ll be able to let you know as soon as I publish it here – over to you…)
Join in, share what you use as your measure(s) today, and if you don’t know, that’s ok too – you can share that too – not everyone does – that’s why I’ve written this (and i’ll be spending time to help get you some answers soon)…
The measure’s I use in my business? In order: 4, 1 & 2 (I’ve asked you to share, so sharing mine first to start the ball rolling)…