Today, I want to talk to you about two words that can make or break a lot of what you're trying to do in business development, personal growth, and professional development, and that is understanding the connection and collaboration that you have to have with a timeline and strategic thinking.
Why do those two things go together? Well, if you don't have a timeline, there's no way in hell that you can create a really effective, strategic approach to getting things done. One of the things that I think is so important about it, and it's something a lot of us, me included, top of the list, top of the class is, if you want to get in better shape, one, you've got to define what better shape is. First, how much weight do you want to lose? What's your ideal weight? What's your body fat? And all that kind of stuff that the trainers and personal fitness people can help you with. But if you don't know what that goal is, and you don't know when you want to hit it. How do you develop and manage a personal improvement plan? A personal fitness plan? If your goal is to lose five pounds, but it's within five years, that's a pretty weak strategic commitment that you have to make. But if you want to lose 15 pounds in 90 days, well, that's a very, very strategic commitment that you've got to make to working out, eating right, developing exercise habits outside of just a gym workout. It's how you decide what you put in your body, to make sure your body gives you what you want out of it.
So I always want people to think about business development along those same lines. If you want to add 20% to your business revenue by the end of the year, well, you've got to strategically approach your marketplace. You've got to strategically consider who you're going to sell what to, and you're going to have to strategically figure out how you get those numbers where you need them to be. Deadlines create strategic thinking. There's no strategic thinking needed when there's no deadline commitments.
So don't let these two vitally important parts of business development and personal success take you away from the goals you want to achieve. Commit to both of them by when and how will I do it? And you'll find with those two ideas constantly in the forefront of your mind, you'll hit your goals more consistently, and you'll be more consistently rewarded when you hit those goals.
Timelines and strategy go together. You can't have one without the other.
Take care. Have a great Friday, great weekend. Talk to you next week.
