Aspire for greatness

If you aspire to greatness, how do you know if you are on track? I had an advisor call me recently and ran into another one at a football game, and we discussed goals: where they want to go, what they want to do. They asked me some interesting questions about how to know if they are on track. What can they do to stay on track? I thought back to a recent assignment my children had in school. We were going over their weekly sheet that showed where my kids were ahead of schedule and where they were deficient. I started thinking about a report card.

Here is an advisor's score card. Use a point system. For 90 and above, you get an A; 80-89 B; 70-79 C; and anything under 70 is an F. To be great only takes 10 percent more effort. So here is your score card. What we are trying to do is create a score sheet that you could fill out weekly. If at the end of the month you total "x" number of points, you earn a certain grade. This can be done monthly, quarterly or annually. Average out your score to see if you are on track for all areas of your life. First and foremost, I am focusing on revenue in my practice.

Let's say you want to generate $600,000 in revenue a year; that's $50,000 a month, or $12,500 a week.

• Hit weekly goal = 5 points
• Hit goal four weeks a month = additional 5 points Total possible points for the month = 25 points
• Take two days off per week = 2 points
• Take 10 days off per month = additional 2 points Total possible points for the month = 10 points
• Workout three days per week (minimum 75 minutes) = 2 points
• Workout five days per week = additional 2 points Total possible points for the month = 10 points
• Self improvement (at least one of the following: read, listen to tape, watch DVD or attend a conference) per week = 2 points
• Self Improvement for four weeks = additional 2 points Total possible points for the month = 10 points
• Client event (anything for your clients) = 10 points
• Each referral = 1 point 20 referrals per month x 1 point = 20 points
• Call referral and set appointment = 2 points Call 20 referrals but set 5 appointments, in addition to the referral points, earn 10 points for the appointments = 10 points
• Take 2 days away on a mini-vacation with one overnight stay = 10 points (By the way, when I talk about time off, you are not checking e-mails, not receiving phone calls and you are not discussing work.)

The bottom line is that you are trying to engage in activity that creates great results. You can do this by tracking your progress. If you were to score an A every month, you are going to have a pretty balanced life, because you are going to be taking care of yourself and you will have more time to spend with your family. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to make a lot of money and die young or if you can't enjoy the money you are making.