The habits you develop today will determine your outcomes tomorrow.
It was F.M. Alexander who coined the phrase “people do not decide their futures. They decide their habits and their habits decide their futures.” This couldn’t be more true. Your outcomes do not happen overnight and waiting on luck is a risky maneuver.
As I coach my clients on their goals, which are secondarily important in our relationship only next to their “why,” I encourage the development of action-based goals. While it’s fun to say you will earn $1 Million this year, it is also not something you can guarantee. I say this as a statistician of conversion ratios and if you think of this as blasphemy or me a hypocrite, please stick with me. Outcome goals have their place, however, they must be supported by action.
Know your numbers
I coach my clients on knowing their numbers and calculating conversion ratios. Believe me, I’m the first to reverse engineer your success, celebrate your 25% appointment close rate, and put a dollar amount to every phone call you make. It’s fun knowing that even though someone said no, you still made $50 for calling them to get that answer. The trouble with strictly setting outcome-based goals is that missing your target a few weeks in a row when you worked hard, is likely to affect your mindset and your commitment to your goals. Why would you keep giving it your all if you feel your actions will not help you achieve your goals?
Pro tip: Set the results goal at the top, support it with activity-based goals, and check in regularly. Which of the goal progressions below looks most attainable?
- Annual Goal: $1M in Revenue
- Monthly Goal: $83,333.33
- Weekly Goal: $20,833.33
- Daily Goal: $4,166.67
- Annual Goal: $1M in Revenue
- Monthly Goal: 10 Sales closed
- Weekly Goal: 10 Hours Lead Gen
- Daily Goal: 20 Outbound Calls
When you focus on the activity, you control your success. When your goal for the week is to complete 10 hours of lead generation or to make 100 outbound calls, you can control the measurable results and you confidently know who to blame if the activity is not performed.
Real-time Adaptation
In the second example above, a business owner who knows her numbers and that 10 sales per month would achieve her yearly goal no longer needs to focus on the annual goal. She can focus on the activity which supports the monthly result goal and scale accordingly. For example, if she finds at the halfway point in the month that her 200 outbound calls and 20 hours of lead generation have only produced 4 sales, she can scale her activity for the remainder of the month and add either 50 calls or 4 hours of lead generation to the second half of the month.
Form a habit around it
Once you are clear on your activities, you can build habits around them. The University College of London conducted a study on the time it takes to form a habit. What they determined was that it takes on average 66 days of consistency to form a new habit. Once you determine your new habit, it’s time to commit yourself to its formation.
3 Tips to Successful Habit Formation
- Make your habit measurable – You should easily be able to answer the question “how will you know when you’ve completed it?”
- Get accountability – Enlist a friend, trusted colleague, or coach to hold you accountable for completing your mission.
- Track your progress – Download your own 66 Day Challenge habit tracker. Hang it somewhere you can see it when you are likely to complete the task… or better when you’d be tempted not to do so.
Bonus! Check out this episode of The One Thing podcast where Gary Keller shares his experience with habit setting and host Geoff Woods shares tips for identifying the habit you choose to form.
