Clarity is an absolutely essential ingredient for you to reach your full potential in business. Napoleon Hill, in his classic book Think and Grow Rich, said, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” He goes on to explain why having a clear definition of what he wants to accomplish is a critical factor in his success.
For business owners who really want to be “on purpose” for success and take their business to the next level, I define “clarity” as follows:
Clarity is determining exactly what results you want to achieve and when you want to achieve them.
The key word in that definition is “exactly”. If you don’t take the time to define your goal in exact terms, you’re not setting yourself up for success. Instead, you’re setting yourself up for a guess.
That’s how it is.
An objective that is not clearly defined will not be clearly achieved. Part of the goal may be achieved, but you won’t be completely satisfied with the results unless you take the time to define the entire goal up front.
So why is clarity so important?
Without clarity, your business moves from one place to another like a ship without a rudder. But clearly, you run your business “on purpose” and you will create amazing results, both for yourself and your clients!
This can be better understood with an example. Several years ago I worked with a business manager named Dan who helped run a company based in Massachusetts. dan had
some lofty ideas of what I wanted to achieve, but they weren’t defined in much detail. He also knew that he wanted to achieve a lot of results in a short period of time, but he didn’t have a good idea how he was going to do it.
In other words, Dan was like many business owners and managers I have met over the years. He wanted to accomplish a lot, but he needed help getting clarity on his ultimate goal and the time frame for achieving it.
The first thing I did with Dan was help him coach him to identify his most important short-term goal. Once that was done, Dan and I worked together to figure out what time frame our goal would be to accomplish this goal. And once we were clear on our goal and target timeline, both Dan and I felt much more confident about our chances of success.
In this case, Dan’s schedule turned out to be quite aggressive and we both faced a lot of opposition from people who thought it couldn’t be done. Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. Dan achieved his big goal and he did it within the four month period he had set for himself.
So how can you learn from Dan’s success and develop clarity for your business goals? Here are some questions to get you started:
1. Remember in Step One (“Understanding”) when you were asked how you measure
success in your business today? Well, you have to use the answer to that question to fill in the blank below:
What have you accomplished in the last three months in your business in terms of _____________?
(i.e. typical fill-in-the-blank items are money, profit, or new customers)
2. What goal would you like to achieve in the next 90 days?
3. Once you achieve this goal, what do you want to do with the extra money and extra time? In other words, what do you personally get as a reward for accomplishing this goal?
4. Looking back, what was the best month you’ve had in your business in terms of ______________?
(insert the chosen measure again in the blank and then answer the question)
5. Can you summarize what happened that month (or that period)? In other words, what specific actions did you take that led to those amazing results?
Let’s use another example to show you how easy this process can be. Suppose a woman named Cindy is the proud owner of Cindy’s Teddy Bear Company, which she does
Personalized teddy bears for children of celebrities and upper class families.
In last week’s Insight article, Cindy wrote that the two biggest reasons she’s in business are to positively affect children’s lives and to earn enough money to be financially free. Cindy also thought about how she measures her success and determined that the number of clients she has is the most important thing to her.
Cindy came up with the following answers to the five clarity questions listed above:
1. In the last three months I have gained 72 new clients.
2. I would like to get 100 new clients in the next 90 days. I’ve never done this before so this is a very exciting goal for me!
3. When I reach my goal of 100 new clients, I will invest half of the earnings in my personal financial freedom account and spend part of the earnings on a week-long vacation to Mexico with my family.
4. In my best month, I gained 30 new customers.
5. During my best month, I think the main reason for my success was that I implemented a marketing campaign in a local community and followed up on every opportunity that came my way.
Nice job on Step Two, Cindy! You are now ready to move on to Step Three.
Are you starting to get the idea and see how easy it can be to develop clarity on your own? When you focus on the questions above and answer them honestly, you’ll be laying the next brick in your boost foundation.
Take some time in your calendar this week to think about your answers to these questions. And if you have a business coach today, take the time to review your thoughts on these questions with him or her, too.
Being very clear about what you want to achieve in your business in the next 90 days is a very important step in catapulting your business into massive momentum. Take action and get answers to these questions today.
You’ll be glad you did!