Do you want to know what makes a business successful? It’s not profit, reputation, or impact. It’s not marketing or finance. It’s not whether you’re sitting in a Herman Miller chair or on a park bench. It is when you set business goals and achieve them.

Without business goals, you will never know “What’s Important Now?” You can work on anything you want and never hold your business accountable. If you don’t set business goals, success will remain intangible and impossible to find. After all, how can you reach for what you can’t see?

So how do you set business goals and achieve them?

One or Two Goals, Max

We have enough going on with just “living” our lives. We have to shower, eat, work, clean, and the list goes on and on. You need to set one or two goals, max, because you won’t have time for anything else. You need to put all of your eggs in one basket and devote your time to fortifying that basket. You’re a business person and your time is limited. You simply won’t have time for more than one or two goals.

Command Your Ship

The leadership expert John C. Maxwell said, “A Pessimist complains about the wind. An optimist expects it to change. A leader adjusts the sails.” And that my friends, is how you create a business goal. You need to look at something you control and aim to control it. Don’t focus on the weather, focus on what you can do to change the weather.

Two Versions Of Your Goal

You need to have two versions of your goals. You need to have one goal that you think you can achieve and then one goal that is much higher than the first. You never know what you might accomplish and you don’t want to sell yourself short by setting your goals too low.

Make Your Goals Public

When I started this “Success Factors” series I committed to one article per day. Let me tell you, it’s hard. It’s real hard to find one unique article per day to write about. Yet, here I am, staying up all hours of the night and losing sleep to make sure I get one article up per day. My goal is public and I don’t want to fail.

Do Something Today

I just launched Prevential.com and I kept asking myself, “What can I do right now to grow my audience?” So I started a blog series. Instead of trying to optimize my website for search engines, I focused on what I did best and started writing immediately.

Forget Effort. Manage Activity

It doesn’t matter how hard you work. What matters is how much you do while you work hard. So, if you’re trying to sell shower doors, you should contact 500 people instead of 400 people. Don’t work on improving your conversion ratio because that could take a lifetime of practice. Instead, focus on what you control and that’s how many people you talk to.

Now, how about you join the conversation?

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Do you want to learn how to make your company successful? Join Prevential and follow the Success Factors blog series daily in January 2009.

Whether you’re a blogger or a C-level executive, you have tons of distractions — e-mails, phone-calls, girlfriends, personal finance, and the list goes on. Unfortunately, these distractions hurt your ability to get things done and achieve success. But, if you ask yourself “What’s Important Now?” and listen, your whole world changes. You turn your ringer off, you close your inbox, and you tell your girlfriend you will talk to her later. Success is “What’s Important Now” and it’s time to focus.

It sounds so simple and it is. Pat Riley, a New York Knicks coach, pioneered “What’s Important Now” to help his players keep their head in the game. He knew they dealt with distractions like sponsors, women, and business deals, but he needed them to play basketball. He needed to make sure that his players played their best so the New York Knicks could win games. It wasn’t about the skill because the players had it, it was about the motivation and “Whats Important Now” helped them get it.

Now let me tell you how “What’s Important Now” can help you in life and business.

You Only Have 24 Hours

You can be the most productive person in the world and you will still have 24 hours a day like the rest of us. When you’re starting a new business, you have a ton of responsibility, but you need to focus on the 20% of inputs that gets your the 80% of returns. I know you’re talented and can do anything, but you certainly can’t do everything. So, you need to use “What’s Important Now” to filter your schedule and make sure you do the right things the right way.

The Multitasking Myth

What most people call multitasking, David Crenshaw, the author of “The Multitasking Myth,” argues that its really called switchtasking. People can’t do multiple things at once, so they switch between tasks. While they do this to become more productive, it actually has the opposite effect and Crenshaw demonstrates this perfectly in his book. So, if you want to take control of your life, all you need to do is answer “What’s Important Now” and put all of your eggn that basket.

The Success Factors Prescription

All you need to do is answer “What’s Important Now” and align your actions with it. If you’re blogger, stop checking your stats and commenting on blogs and just blog. It is that simple and you can make it that simple throughout the rest of your life.

What’s Important Now?

I would love for you to stick around and read Prevential.com, but if it isn’t “What’s Important Now,” what are you waiting around here for?

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