Tony Robbins is famous and admired for many things. Today, we’re going to break down a piece of advice from him regarding achieving business goals. Take a look at the below quote by Tony Robins. Of course, it’s simplified as hell but also real. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a shorter recipe for achieving business goals. It’s how I frame my personal mindset, how I run my own business and how I pitch my services to potential clients. Shall we break it down?
If you talk about it, it’s a dream. If you envision it, it’s a possibility. If you schedule it, it’s real.
Tony Robbins
If you talk about it, it’s a dream
Let’s talk about your business goals and dreams. Why did you start your company? What’s your next big business goal?
What do you hope to achieve with your business? Most likely the reasons can be divided into two parts, internal and external. An example of an internal goal is to spend more time with your family or being financially stable. While an example of an external goal is to help other first-time entrepreneurs start their business.
Whatever the goal and whatever your dream, it’s yours. Own it. What does your business look like a year from now? And, 5 or 10 years from now?
For me, an important business goal of mine for 2019 is to be able to hire additional part-time staff such as an editor for this blog. Another two is having a steady and predictable income stream and to improve my revenue by 10% every 6 months.
What’s your dream? Is it growing your revenue 5% month over month? Landing more higher paying clients? Sailing off to the Bahamas for a whole month with the little ones? What is it?
If you envision it, it’s a possibility
A business goal – or a dream – is nothing without articulation. When it comes to mental health and mindset, a significant component of it is visualization. For this purpose, all I want you to be able to do is to identify what your day to day looks like if your business goal has been achieved. This vision makes it a lot easier to keep going and sets the business goal into perspective. Let’s say you achieve your business goal, tell me what’s it like. There is no right or wrong answer.
How does it feel to have earned your first million, regularly spending time with your family or helping your hundredth first-time entrepreneur?
The second part of envisioning is thinking about the journey to achieve the said goal. It’s okay if the details here are a little unclear but take a minute to identify the steps it takes to reach the business goal. For example, in order to spend time with your family, you might need to have a reliable team in place, a certain amount of monthly or yearly revenue to support this team and your family, working with a specific type of clients and a successful marketing campaign.
These steps don’t have to be overly complicated. We’re just envisioning for now. Working backward is a powerful tool because it sets up for the third pillar of this quote. That’s because if you have a plan, you can execute it.
If you schedule it, it’s real
Now that you identified your business goals and have a good idea of what it takes to get there, you can schedule the time to start the journey towards it. You know what you must do. Even if you don’t know the exact next step doing research on how to move forward is the first step.
The most important part about achieving your business goals – any goals for that matter – is taking action. So put some time aside and keep moving forward. The important thing is to keep showing up regularly. Even if it’s little by little. You must commit to achieving those goals; otherwise, as Tony Robbins suggests, it’s all just talk. Put in the work!
Taking regular action can get your business far, quickly. Don’t ever underestimate this.
Pitching my own clients
I’ve briefly mentioned at the beginning that I use the framework outlined by Tony Robbins’ quote to pitch. That’s 100% true. The reason for this is because I don’t want to waste my time with people who aren’t committed. I take my clients’ goals seriously. And, I can’t do that if they aren’t sure where they want to go or whether or not they want to take action to get themselves there.
My job isn’t to convince you that you need me or my services because, honestly, if you’re not certain then there is no amount of pleading that will change your mind. I have a business to run too; I’m not going to waste my time chasing after non-committed, unqualified leads. I’m better off working and helping those that are 100% committed to their goals of growing their business. Those people are go-getters, and they will benefit from working with me significantly.
It’s why one of the big questions I discuss with my clients is the ROI they’d like to see by investing in working with me. I’m not here to make something pretty for them, I’m here to get the results to get them closer to their business goals.
Personal mindset
I try very hard to practice what I preach. I wouldn’t be where I am if I didn’t. I’ve been open about my struggle with depression before. Taking the time to figure out what I want my life to look like and committing even a few minutes per day helps keep me moving forward despite my depression. It’s how I’ve personally been able to get a grip on it.
As of this writing, I’ve been having a rough time for the last couple of weeks. I’ve been neglecting to show up for almost everything that matters to me – both personally and professionally.
The thing is, I know that if I showed up little by little – even a few minutes a day – eventually I’d find my momentum back and get back in my grove while getting out of my funk. So, I’ve been doing precisely that this week, I’ve been showing up for 5 min a day, then 10min then 15… I’m getting back up.
The takeaway
If you have a business goal you’d like to achieve sit down, think it through and follow through on Tony Robbins’ quote to make it a reality. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking to boost your sales by 10% or 50% week over week or if you want to make enough money next month to finally travel to Rome.
