When I was a new sales puppy, I read a ton of sales books. Many books suggest that without goals – you will not achieve success.

The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever   seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way and who will be sharing the adventure with them.      Denis Watley

Early in my career, I set upon one goal: To earn enough money so that money was not relevant. I grew up in a family that was always struggling for money. We were well taken care of, but went through some very tough times. To me, my goal was simple: Make enough money so that I don’t have to worry about money – ever.

In the early stages of my career (When I was 24/25) that became a simple goal: break the $100,000 income barrier. To ensure that I understood my goal every single day, I taped a big sheet of paper to my desk with the numbers $100,000 in a big bold font. Every day, I would get up and look at that number, every evening I would close out my work with a final look at that number. Everything I did was focused on that one goal – breaking $100,000.

This had a very concrete impact on my actions: I prioritized, I worked harder, I built a very big pipeline so that if I closed 1 in 3 deals I would make my $100K number.

That year, I made $103,000. The next year, I made $176,000.

That same philosophy can be applied to many things. For example, two years ago I wanted to break 90 as a reasonably new golfer. It was a big psychological barrier and required focus – but I set my sight on the goal and built a plan on how to attain it (practice, reading, lessons, etc.) That year, I broke 90.

I often ask people that one question: What are your goals? If you don’t know your goals, how are you going to figure out what needs to be done to attain them? In the end, it is goals that make the difference, we make our own fate …. The below should say ‘Those with goals get to be an astronaut’.