Photo Marketing Mentor

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Do you make decisions from where you are and what you’re currently experiencing -or- from where you want to be?

That was the question that was posed to me by one of my business mentors and I’ll tell you, when I first heard it, I didn’t fully understand it.  As he continued I began to grasp the questions deeper meaning and how it affected the future choices I’d make for my life as well as my business.

For example, every time an opportunity presented itself that could help me grow my business be it signing for a workshop, investing in a particular course or hiring a coach, even just getting out of the house to attend a free networking event my decisions always seemed to boil down to what something was going to “cost me”.

In other words, I was focusing on the payment instead of the payoff.

This had become such a problem that I often miss the very opportunity I sought. As a result not only did my business suffer but I did personally as well.

I don’t know if you read my recent article “Are You Playing A Bigger Game?” , but in that article I wrote about how I wanted 2010 to be year where I stepped up and played a bigger in my business and my life. In order for that to happen it was going to require me to make some new choices.

In 2009 I definitely went through my series of challenges and while I made it though the year it ended pretty much the same way it began, excited about my business but still somewhat confused. That confusion pretty much colored every decision that I made including decisions that could have provided me with a great deal more clarity, focus and success.

So allow me to ask you a couple of questions. The first, what goals did you make for yourself at the beginning of 2009 that didn’t come to fruition? It could have been anything from having an exhibition of your work, to landing your ideal dream client, to even taking that photography workshop in France.

Second, what decision or decisions did you make regarding those goals that created the results you received?

For example, let’s say you had an income goal and for the purpose of this exercise let’s say you wanted to increase your income by 25%. So to achieve this you decide that you need to attract 3 additional clients. Now that you have a concrete framework to work with what would have to do attract these 3 new clients?

Perhaps you need to make 10 to 25 additional cold calls each week, totaling 40 to 100 prospects calls per month, and with a closing ratio of 3%, thereby securing your 3 new clients.

Okay, so now that you’ve made the decision to increase your income by 25% and to achieve this you decide you need three new clients and you know what you have to do achieve this goal. You’re all set, it easy, right? Well not so fast! Let’s say you don’t like making cold calls and you’re not sure how to find new prospects to cold call anyway so you’re right back to square one, right? Again, not necessarily!

Let’s say that you’ve been presented with an opportunity to work with a sales training coach who can help you get over your dread of cold calling. So now you’ve found someone with a proven track record of working with creative people who need sales training, but you hesitate contacting them.

Even though you know this coach has worked with other people in your niche and you’re fairly certain they can help you achieve your goal with just a few sessions but, you decide against hiring them because, “your afraid” or, “you don’t have the money” or, “you’re unclear or unfocused”.

You’ve determined they can help you, you need their help, but you make the decision to not hire them from the place  of (fill in the blank) rather than from where you want to be which is getting the skills to close 25% more business! Do you see how this works?

The bottom line is this. We are the total sum of our choices. If you choose things that don’t serve you, that don’t empower you, that don’t stretch you, you will continue to live an unfulfilled and unsatisfying life.

I ‘d like to take this opportunity to give a little homework, nothing too complicated I promise and there’s a gift for you for playing along at the end.

First write down at least three things that you want to accomplish in your business this year. It could be anything.

Second, after each item on your list, jot down three actions you can take that can move you forward in accomplishing this goal.

Finally, and here is where this exercise gets really interesting, write down as much as you can about what has stopped you in the past from achieving this goal.

You see, often it’s not that we don’t know what we want, or that we don’t know what steps we have to take to achieve it, no, when we aren’t achieving our goals especially goals we’ve desired for a long time it typically boils down to something bigger than practicality.

Now, here is my gift to you, take each goal that you wrote down earlier and ask yourself, “If I already achieved this (goal) what decision(s) did I have to make that made this goal a reality?”

When you come up with the answer that is the decision you have to make now, prior to your goals achievement.

I’d like to invite you to make 2010 the year that you make decisions that propel you towards your greatest desire. And remember, change is going to happen anyway, so why not make decisions from the place of where you want to be. Nothing will improve the quality of your life faster.

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