STILL WRESTLING WITH NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

Now I have gone past two months of trying to live up to my January 3rd resolutions. Some of my efforts are resulting in new habits, but I am still struggling to make things go forward.

After announcing that I wanted to be able to do 25 pushups I was pointed to a program called 100 pushups. Its goal was to get you up to 100 consecutive pushups which was far more than necessary. However the method, although simple was what I needed to overcome my obstacles. It was so successful that I decided to up my resolution to 50 pushups and also take on another program called 200 situps and alternating days work up to 50 situps.

My real goal is just to be more fit. Strength is part of that, but I also wanted to improve my cardio-vascular conditioning. I have been short of breath (also partly due to being overweight). I also identified not sleeping very well as another concern. I can appreciate that developing one area of fitness helps another and that I should not neglect diet, strength, cardio vascular powers, rest and flexibility.

On the work front I had developed some bad habits. My work situation changes from time to time, but I have worked with the idea I need to make a lot of specific "efforts" in order to make enough presentations to people who would buy whatever I am selling. I define an effort very loosely, but intended to encourage such things as dialing, visiting, sending out emails, leaving voice messages, noting when people do not answer the phone or do not have their business open, sending out newsletters. The real key is talking to decision makers, but the efforts are an important step to that goal and also keep me active even when nobody wants to talk to me or I don't feel up to it.

Setting a goal lets me know when I am not doing what is necessary. Some efforts seem pretty insignificant and they certainly are not all equal. However once you stop making efforts you can get into a rut. My experience tells me that a big part of selling is numbers. I have broken it down to two factors--one is quantity and the other is quality. It is easy to measure quantity, but not so easy to measure quality.

Quality includes such things as preparing, timing, targeting, prospecting, following up, being well rested.

I can get near my goals on a few days, but not able to average my goals. A big part of that is that I have less projects to work on. That should change soon, but in the meantime it is discouraging. Still the goals beckon. When you can't do a lot, you need to do what you can.