How To Get A Promotion: Establish Your Goal

Establish your goal. You cannot reach a goal you do not have. Zig Ziglar tells my favorite story about the importance of having goals. A coach has the men's basketball team in the locker room just before the big game. And he says in a loud voice, "Are we going to win this game?" And the players start yelling, "Yeah coach, we're going to win this game!" And the coach says even louder, "Are we going to win this game?" And even louder, the players start yelling, "Yeah coach, we're going to win this game!" And then the coach yells even louder, "Ladies, I don't think you heard me, "Are we going to win this game?" And even louder the players yelled, "Yeah coach, we are going to win this game" And they started pounding loudly on the lockers with their fists.

And then the coach said, "Well then, get out there and do it!" And the players nearly tore the hinges off the doors getting out to the basketball court. They grabbed the balls off the rack and began dribbling and went to shoot and noticed that someone had taken down the goals.

The captain of the team went to the coach and said, "Coach, someone took down the goals, how can we play the game of basketball without goals?" Good question, how can you play the game of life without goals? What if you got on an airplane with a pilot who didn't have a goal? What if he took that airplane off the ground and said, "Well, I think I will just fly these folks around?" Pretty ridiculous, huh? But did you know that is how most people are living their lives? They go to work today because that is what they did yesterday and that is what their friends do and they have no definite goals and that is why 95% of the people in this country live day-to-day worrying about money.

You have to have goals. I will give you an important key that I use and one that many successful people use - invest in a notebook - not one of those school notebooks, but a nice, 9" x 12" leather-bound notebook because this notebook is special. It is going to help you become very successful. For that reason, we are going to call it your success journal. On the first page at the top-left, write the word, "Goal", semi-colon and then write down that position or promotion that you want or whatever your goal may be. Something magical happens when you commit a goal to paper. Once you commit a goal to paper it looks reachable. And when a goal looks reachable, it becomes reachable.