I am not, nor have I ever been, a morning person. Even at birth, I didn’t want to ‘wake up’ (I was 4 weeks over my due date- keep in mind this was in the 70’s…)

In grade school, I got scolded a lot from my mother to ‘get back to bed’ when I would sneak downstairs to see what the grownups were doing. Later in high school, I had a flashlight under my bed to read the 2-3 books I had going at the time. Getting up 5 min before the bus got there was normal.

Secretly, I like mornings. I love sunrises. (Stalk me on Instagram or Facebook and you’ll see a lot of sunrises and rainbows.) That brief quiet before everyone else gets up, including the birds, is heavenly. But I am more likely to see those by staying up all night than by getting up early. Because 9 times out of 10, when I set that early morning alarm, I hit snooze because at that moment in my warm bed or with an interesting dream- whatever reason it was that I wanted to get up early just doesn’t seem as urgent and compelling as a few more minutes of sleep. It’s not as real.

Except it’s not ‘just a few more minutes’ is it? Because if you are like me, you may have learned that 15 min delays one thing, and that delay delays the next thing, and by the end of the day- you are an hour or two behind schedule and some tasks are either left undone or I have to do them later in the afternoon/night.

And so, like many of you- I wake up later than I wanted, curse myself... and the cycle continues.

What's the fuel that drives you to your sales goals?

This is that time of year when everyone has new goals. Executives tell their directors what the new quotas are. Directors inform the managers how they and their teams will be measured. Everyone is planning to ‘kill it’ or ‘crush it’ in the next year. A few will, most won’t.

Clients come to us with their goals and we challenge them to think bigger than their company quota, we dig into their why, and ask questions to help them visualize what they will do with the money. Previous clients come to us with new goals and want our feedback. Because I practice what I teach- I do the same thing for myself and recently joined a mastermind group to get pushback, perspective and feedback.

When I was challenged to think how I would 10X Unbound Growth, it took about a day for it to sink in. What would that look like? How would that accomplish the mission? What would I do with the money?

What would I need to do differently? What did I need the most to make it happen? Using the scientific method to analyze last year’s data and find the gap to reach the 10X goal- it struck me. I hypothesized that I needed 3 more hours a day. Ok 5am- here we go...

Lessons learned:

• If your goals aren’t a little scary- they’re not big enough. Find others who will challenge you to think bigger. Spend time with your loved ones and daydream about the life you want together.
• Break your goals down into actionable steps that happen at regular intervals. Use historical data to determine what has worked and find ways to scale it. Seek objectivity (by asking others) about what hasn’t worked, ask why, and if improving it is outside of your control or influence, stop doing it.

How do you reach those goals?

In the book ‘The Only Sales Guide You Will Ever Need’, Anthony Iannarino writes about getting up at 5am everyday and how that changed everything. So I set my alarm for 5am…

And hit the snooze button the next morning. WTF!

What I had visualized life would be like if my goal was reached wasn’t with me when I started to open my eyes at 5am. It seemed too far off and intangible. I needed something I could see in front of me (metaphorically speaking- it’s still dark at 5am).

Then I thought- what do I want to see when I open my eyes? What do I love most about mornings? The sunrises. So on Saturday morning over coffee with hubby, we mapped out what we want our bedroom and master bath to be like. We joked about the enclosed toilet, a towel warmer, and getting a jacuzzi tub for our tired muscles. We daydreamed about the walls of windows to look out over the lake and see the sunrises and the full moon rises and having a quiet place to read. And I thought to myself, if someone told me that I could have this if I get up at 5am everyday- I’d do it.

So I set the alarm again. And hit snooze again. I was getting up earlier, but not early enough yet. I was about to give up. Hubby and I went out for New Year’s Eve and of course stayed up too late celebrating. He slept in most of the day- which he never does. When he got up he said; “Man, staying up that late really messes with me.”

And that’s when I realized the reason I wasn’t getting up at 5am was that I was sabotaging myself at night. If getting up at 5am is the discipline I needed, what was keeping me from doing it?

Developing any discipline means deciding what you are willing give up because it prevents you from accomplishing your goal. In my case- eating, TV, checking email and reading on a screen after 8pm are all things that keep me from going to bed early. It also means you need to figure out what it is you need to make it easier to develop the discipline. For me, that meant having the coffee automatically ready at 4:55. My clothes and slippers needed to be in arm’s reach. My yoga stuff needed to be ready to go as well. That meant making sure it was all done the night before.

So I did those things, and the alarm went off. As I reached for the snooze button the first thing I saw was my small bedroom window. And I thought of it being bigger, with a wide open cathedral ceiling- and I put my feet on the floor.

Lessons learned:

• Having a goal, a reason for the goal, a visualization of the goal, and even a plan to accomplish the goal is not enough if you do not also know and develop the disciplines needed to do the actions necessary to execute the plan.
• Self examine your daily habits- do they support or prevent you from developing your discipline? I use journaling to self examine and document my day at the end. Some have used time trackers- do whatever works for you.

Where are you  in your goal planning? Still gathering data? Thought it out, but haven’t written it down? Do your goals seem too far off and unreal? Are you having a hard time figuring out what will put your feet on the floor? Are you self- sabotaging yourself by hiding or covering up your weaknesses and thinking- this is just who I am and will continue to be?

If you are unsure if coaching can help you, or don't know what is holding you back, or need help digging into what motivates you, feel free to check out the recaps from the Live Sales Lab!