Act as If........You've Made It

I am sure if you are reading this Blog, or any business related Blog for that matter, you likely have a casual interest in improving your life. It doesn't really matter how exactly you would like to improve your life; as few examples are promotion, raise, change of job, exceeding your sales target, better work life balance, less stress, more responsibility.....the list could go on and on.

The bottom line to achieving any goal is to take action towards your goal. You may ask, 'how do I do that?" Taking your objection even further you might say, "if I could give myself a raise, I would!" Fair enough.

Assuming you have a clearly defined goal in mind, here is what you should do. Act as if....You've Made it.

Back to achieving a raise at work. Ask yourself, who at my work currently makes your desired salary? How do they act? What value do they bring to your work? What are they doing differently than me?

The last question is almost a trick. You might be tempted to answer, "they aren't doing anything different than me..." This is a mistake, THEY ARE! The mere fact they make more than you currently make means they ARE doing something different than you, you have figured out what it is.

Donald Trump has said in the past "Fake it till you make it" in many of his best selling books he flaunts how he bought entire multi-milliion dollar buildings with no money down. Donald Trump in the early days say himself being a multi-millionaire and acted as if he was one....well BEFORE he was a millionaire.

If you are working in a corporate office let's say on the lower half of the corporate ladder and your goal is to be on the upper half of the corporate ladder; then study the people already on the top half of the ladder. Interact with these people, ask them questions, and observe how they do things.

Now you need to act as if you are currently on the top half of the corporate ladder. Here are some tangible examples you can implement:

1. The VP of Sales is the Chair of a Charitable committee at your office.....volunteer to work on the Charitable programs at your office.

2. Your Directory plays hockey every week; start playing hockey every week (or if you can't play hockey stay current on the NHL so you can atleast talk about hockey)

3. Your companies leadership is looking for new product innovations....make a new product suggestion.

4. If your companies competition is gaining momentum in the market....study your competitor and understand what makes them different.

If you simply stick to your job description and don't seek out opportunities to help your company improve then you will never achieve your goals.

Set your goal.

See yourself achieving your goal.

Act as if you have already achieved your goal.

And you will soon have achieved your goal.