It amazes me to see how many business owners and sales people are "too busy" to make money.  Are you too busy to make money?  Most of them know and can clearly spell out what they need to do to get ahead and yet they don't do it.  Why is that?  Do you know anyone like that?  Are you that person?

The path to high achievement and success isn't a secret.  If you are a sales person or a baseball player, your path is a path of practice and numbers.  The more you practice the better you get and the more you swing at the ball the more you will get the hits.  What stops most people from achieving more is they hit their personal limit for the strikes or the "no" responses people give them.  Many others hit their goal and settle into a comfort zone.  Either way progress stops.

Babe Ruth was the strikeout champ and the home run champ the same year.  That is how most sales people work too.  Those that can take the "no" answer and press on are the ones that will get the most "yeses" if they practice and show up with the right tools.  Babe Ruth could hit a home run with a plastic bat no more than I can sell internet marketing services with a portable AM radio.  We both need to show up with the right tools for the job.

The key in both cases is to understand priorities and stay organized.  In order to get onto the path of success, you have to pay all of your dues up front.  Until Babe Ruth was a super slugger or Zig Zigler was a super salesman, they both paid their dues.  They practiced while others played, they did while others didn't, and then when opportunity was there they took action and swung for the fences.

When I tell people that they need to just take action and pick a direction, they almost always ask "How?".  The answer to that question is with discipline and planning.  A disciplined approach to planning will not only get your dues paid faster, they will allow you to accelerate down the path of success.

A simple way to approach this is to end each day and write down five or six things you will do the next day.  Put them in order of importance, and get the most important one done as early as possible or as the saying goes "Swallow the biggest frog first."  If an emergency pops up, put it on the list and check the importance.

Each Week, do the same thing.  On the last day of your workweek create your list of major goals for the next week.  I keep those goals on a dry-erase board for everyone to see that walks into my office.  When I write down "3. paint deck", and everyone sees it, a funny thing happens, if Friday rolls around and I haven't painted the deck, I get my tools out and start painting.  If you say you are going to do it, do it.  If you aren't going to do it, gut it out and say, you are not going to do it.

With my list for the week complete, my mind is free to work out the details while I go play on the weekends.  The toughest part of the exercise is saying that certain tasks are not important and not putting them on your list.  We all think we can do more.  When you start writing out your lists, you'll quickly see what you really do get done and what you don't.  By creating a realistic list and really getting it done, we feel better and others feel better about us because we did what we said we would.

Success is action and direction.  Getting to a goal that takes 1000 steps starts with six steps a day, and in turn six smaller goals each week.  Very rarely are extra steps in the right direction, stick to your written tasks and goals first, say no to the extra steps and reach for your goals.