January is one of those months where some people seem to be very motivated! Most people, particularly those in sales, tend to set themselves some pretty "stretched" targets in the New Year. Some of these will be for work and some individual. Certainly, I know a whole host of people who are going to... lose weight, stop smoking, keep fit, decorate the house, spend more time with their partners, work harder, prospect more consistently, close more decisively, start work earlier,work later etc. etc.

Unfortunately, statistics show that, like February's fast waning gym members, most of these so called New Year's Resolutions will fall by the wayside! There are a variety of reasons for this so I thought it might be useful to give you my top 10 goals setting tips so that you can give your goals a quick health check. Maybe after reading this you might decide to cull a few excess ones or maybe even set some if you haven't bothered as of yet!

When I run seminars and workshops I often ask who has goals and who doesn't. It's astonishing the number of people who have no goals. They claim that this makes them happier but I think this is more about not understanding the true meaning of goals and their purpose. Me, I wouldn't get on a boat with no target destination and I wouldn't join a company with no idea what I was going to be doing...

Goals must be for you! One of the main problems with most goals is that they aren't really for you. I often ask salespeople about their targets or their aims and they tell me what they think I want to hear or what their manager told them they ought to be going for. These kinds of goals will not motivate or inspire. They'll be the first to be broken. Your personal goals need to be in alignment with your values. If you're thinking about work goals and you don't know what your work values are, tray asking yourself, "What's important to me about work?"

Goals must be congruent with who you are and there must be no secondary gain for not achieving the goal. Last year, I did some coaching with a senior manager who said that he wanted some extraordinary results for himself and his team. Despite this he was taking no congruent actions to achieve his goals. When we explored this in more detail we discovered that if he achieved his goals he would get promoted away from the job that he truly loved. This secondary gain he was getting from not taking action was holding him back.

The achievement of your goals must be inside of your control. Setting goals such as, "More clients are going to buy from me" not particularly useful as it's not inside your control. You cannot make clients buy from you. On the other hand, you can control your activity so a goal like, "I am going to canvass consistently this year so that I can reach my target number of clients" or "I am going to improve my sales skills so that I can focus on increasing my conversion ratios" would be very valid.

Goals need to be viewed in the positive. We cannot not focus on a negative!! "I don't want to eat chocloate" or "I don't want to be given the runaround by clients" will have you focusing on the exact thing that you don't want. "I want to eat healthily" or "I am going to work in partnership with my clients" would help you to focus on the positive side of the situation.

Goals need to be visualised in panoramic detail. The more detail you see in your mind, the more real it feels to you. Our minds struggle to tell the difference between something real and something vividly imagined. Because of this, we can create a golden goal that motivated an inspires us and that we truly believe is achievable. Athletes imagine themselves winning races over and over before they ever run the race and we can gain the same benefits too.

Imagine your goals in vivid detail... what do you see, hear, feel? Where will you be? Who with? What are you doing? Compare the difference in your mind between a sports car and a Porsche Boxter in black with black leather interior, Bose stereo. You've got your favourite music on... you're parking outside your house... see what I mean?

Goals need to be measurable and defined. Some goals are too woolly and non-specific. Not only will these not motivate but you also won't know when you've got them and when to celebrate! Goals like, "I want to be happy" or "I want to be successful" just don't fly. As they say in the US, "That dog don't hunt!" You can often meet people with these kinds of goals who seem to have everything but they're never satisfied... why? Because they are not specific enough. The key questions is, "How will I know when ...I'm happy / successful etc?"

Goals need to be timed. This is crucial. When will I start? When will it be completed by? How long will it take? Etc. This stops excuses and specifies importance. It's also contextually important. If I said to you, "Would you like to earn a million pounds?" you'd probably say, "Yes". If I added, "Over the next 50 years" you'd more than likely not be so happy! But what about 25 years? Or 10? Or 5? Or 6 months?

Commit! Commit! Commit! One of the primary reasons that many people fail to achieve their goals is because they can! They set them privately and in such a way that when they back-out or relapse they don't lose face! Would you stand up in the middle of the office and say, "I am going to double my sales this year, you just watch!". I know that some of you would (and good on you!) but the majority wouldn't. Now, when you've stopped thinking that I'm being unfair because it's not possible... ask yourself this question, "Could I double my sales if my life depended on it?" Ahhh, so that's changed it.

Reconsider, why it is that you don't stand up and commit again...because you already know you don't want to put that kind of work in! so go back to your values and what you really want and set yoruself something that you do want to go for. When you've done that... write it down, tell people, shout from the rooftops. Make it really difficuly for yourself to back out!

Surround yourself with goal oriented people. We become most like the people we spend the most time with. If you spend your life with goal oriented people who know what they want and go out and get it (and assuming that you like and respsct them) you are highly like to start to display those characteristics. On the other hand, if you spend your life listening to and whining with sales losers you're going to find it really difficult to set and achieve great goals. If you don't know any sales or business superstars ... find some. Attend a seminar, read a book, listen to an audio, network online. This support network can work just as well when it's virtual.

Take the first step now. Anthony Robbins (motivational author and personal development guru that I highly recommend you read) once said that you should never leave the scene of a goal without taking some action. He was right. COnsistent action is key to achieving success.

Good luck with your goals for 2006!

For the last 10 years, sales motivational speaker and author, Gavin Ingham has been helping sales people to explode their sales performance by turning self-doubt, fear and lack of motivation into self-belief, confidence and action.

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