Three Ways to Stick to Your Resolutions

Each New Year, we go through the time-honored tradition of making resolutions.  Health clubs, Jenny Craig, and similar organizations spend virtually their entire marketing budgets between December 26-January 31.  Why? Because most resolutions involve losing weight or quitting a habit.  They have tiny window to take advantage this opportunity since statistics show we tend to abandon our resolutions by mid-February only to fall back into our same old routines.

May I suggest a different approach to goal setting?  This is one I have practiced with great success for a number of years.

• Set personal goals on your birthday. I have found this to be very powerful.  Think about it.  You plan to retire or have a net worth of your choosing by a certain age.  For my fiftieth birthday, we rented a home on the water in Nassau Bahamas – one of my favorite places in the world.  That morning, as I sat alone on the deck watching the sun rise, I reflected about what I wanted to achieve by the time I was fifty-five and again at sixty.  I am talking life-altering goals.  I will spare you the details, but nowhere on that list was my current job.  Not that it was a bad one, in fact it was a great one -it just didn’t fit into my life plan.

• Set professional goals in August. You have very little control over when a client travels. As a salesperson, can influence when they book.  We know the travel sales year is September to August, not the calendar year.  Since suppliers judge your performance based on the calender year, setting your goals in July or August for the selling year will help set yourself up for higher commissions, co-op, and support from your preferred suppliers. 

• Create 30-60-90 day action plans. It is difficult to any goal without a clear path to follow. Action plans will help you stay focused on your priorities and the path with achievable milestones to reach your goals. Make sure they are readily accessible so you can refer to them regularly.

I am not a fan of New Year resolutions, but if you tie your goals to important milestones in your life and business, your likelihood of achieving them increases exponentially.

Dan Chappelle is a professional business advisor and best-selling author.  His training and consulting firm helps develop sales focused business leaders and entrepreneurs in the travel and tourism industry. His book, Get Your S.H.I.P. Together: The Wealthy Travel Agent Guide to Sales, is available on Amazon.com.

For information on the Wealthy Travel Agent Academy’s business building programs, visit: www.DanChappelle.com

©2019 Dan Chappelle, CCI Inc.