It takes a team

Change and growth is impossible on your own. Staying focused and motivated by yourself is impossible. We are emotional creatures. We base almost all our decisions on how we feel. As a result we are a mess of contradictory objectives. When the pressure is on, the boss is looking at my numbers, or wants to see a report, hear a presentation, when I am accountable I am scared. When I am scared I am motivated.
Hopes and dreams come at us at all times. We seldom can control our emotions. Because we are constantly taking in information and processing our goals and motivations change constantly. They can become opposed in an instant.
You might say on one hand I don’t want to have to work hard. Then almost with the very next though think about how you want to accomplish more. I quit the highest paying job I ever had because I did not travel six days a week. My priority changed. Would I make the same decision now? I am not sure. I am more apt at staying in pressure but at the same time I was sacrificing for the money. I missed my home, my family.
This scenario plays out large and small all the time. One second I want to reach my sales quota and then 30 seconds later I feel tired and wish I could cut out early and go watch a movie. You may want to move one second and then the next want to stay a couple more years where you are at. To stay focused takes more than just you working on your own, it takes a team.

Subjective lag measures

Overall satisfaction is subjective. We can continue to work on the money part and constantly assess the other. And you know what, often times when you stop and look back, even if you didn’t hit your goal it is then you appreciate the journey.
Graduation from high school is a goal, graduating from college. But those are made up goals because you are paying someone for the privilege of putting you through a system. It is a form of entertainment though it does have value. You can put that on a resume and apply for jobs that have more money. When I got my MBA I was instantly able to check a box on applications I hadn’t been able to check previously.

The objective

Very few of us live in a black and white structured league with records and playoff systems and a shiny trophy at the end. We have only one quantifiable metric we can measure, money. The outcome most of seek for personal growth is to increase the amount of money we earn in a given time frame. You are trying to get you more income. Your goal is to make more than you made the year before. To keep moving up the scale and see how high you can get.
Making more money than the year before is the objective. You can measure it. One number is greater than the other.
From here forward that is the objective you are trying to reach. If you accept that, keep reading. If that does not sound like you there is no point to continue.
I am not saying growth and making more money are the only things in life that matter. But in the narrow confines of this work that is what we are talking about. I am not going to talk about much other stuff here.

Give people an experience

“Come in and welcome.” You are in control, don’t ask questions of what someone likes, rather anticipate needs. If you don’t know what they like to drink order coffee, water, tea, lemonade, and soda. Give them a gift. Tell them where to sit “You can sit right here.” The vast majority of people float through life looking to have an experience and expect to pay to receive it. Give them an experience.

Maze

The first maze is easy. You might be able to see which route to go and quickly solve. The second maze you might have to stop and look but you can see which way to go. The third requires more ability than you possess. What do you do? Usually just pick a route if you hit a dead end back track and go different way. Trial and error.

That is good if we stick with our objective, to exit the maze. But in life we tend to get emotionally attached to our routes. Back tracking, retracing, staying focused on our objective get lost. We enjoy the journey then hit a dead end. We try to bargain, cajole, reach our objective while staying in our dead end.

Bifurcate the maze, color in the negative space, start from finish, left hand right hand trick.

2 types

My sweatshirt says coach. Everything about me says I am here to help you reach your goals. There are two types of people that need coaching. First people that don’t know what their sweatshirt says or they want it to say. They need help going through the process of chafing their mindset and liking at the world of objectives.

Second are people that tell me exactly what their sweatshirt says, I can see it but they want an extra set of eyes to keep them focused during the process.