Chapter 3
Goal and Action Planning
Making the Most Rain
I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.
—E.B. White
Avoiding what we know we should be doing. Doing something other than what we should be doing. Justifying our inaction. There’s something confounding about our capacity as human beings to know we should be doing one thing and then avoid it like a peanut butter and tuna fish sandwich.
In our personal lives, we know we should clean the garage, call our dad to say hello, and exercise at least three times this week.
But we don’t.
In our sales efforts, we know we should make five more calls before the day is through, organize our contact list and our follow-up process to become more efficient, and invite that client out to dinner.
But we don’t.
Procrastination wins all too often. Worst of all, we know that by doing the sales activities we should do, we will achieve much greater financial and career success than we have now. The benefits are real and tangible. But we still don’t. There are a million excuses reasons we give ourselves to justify why we can’t do what we should. Here are a few favorites:
- Don’t have the time right now.
- Have other things I need to do first.
- Can get to it tomorrow.
- Was derailed by other people’s requests and agendas.
- Need some balance in life so I am going home now.
- Not certain this is the right thing to do.
- Doubt whether I will succeed at this.
- Don’t ...
