It’s the last month of the third quarter – are you close to reaching your goals? Are you on track to hit those numbers and aspirations you set in January? Are you way ahead or did you fall behind? 

By this time of the year, you will likely know how close you are to achieving your goals. If you’re on track or even ahead of where you want to be congratulations! You’ve done well for yourself this year. But, don’t get complacent; keep up the hard work. When it comes time to set your goals for next year, set the bar even higher.

What if you’ve fallen behind your goal target?

The good news is, if you’ve fallen behind, you still have time to correct your course. Even better – you have time to get back on track before the end of the year!

People fall behind for many reasons, the most common of which is life. Life has a funny way of taking your best-laid plans and crumpling them up, doesn’t it? It’s normal to experience setbacks and challenges throughout the year. For example, you or someone in your family loses their job or gets a new one; an unexpected change in family circumstances – good or bad – can force you to rethink your priorities; or perhaps you experienced an expected financial setback. Whatever it was, it was major enough to cause you to put your goals to the backburner. And, it’s normal to take some time to process the setback and its impact on your life before continuing on; however, it’s all too easy to make your business and goals a low priority in your life permanently.

This is the biggest mistake network marketers make. They experience a setback or life change and then lose sight of their goals and business. It’s impossible to reach your goals if you don’t make goal completion and your business a top priority. After you experience a setback, it’s normal to take a short break; however, it’s just as vital to get back in the routine of achieving your goals. That is the daily habit of connecting with your network and making your business a top priority.

What if you didn’t experience a setback, but just never developed the habit?

That happens, too. Sometimes falling off track isn’t due to a major life event; it’s because you never fully developed the habit in the first place. In the first few weeks of the year, you were on fire making contact with your network. You were working hard to build relationships. You were motivated and excited to reach your goals. You may have thought, “This is MY YEAR!” and had visions of all the success you hoped to achieve.

But then your motivation began to wane. Perhaps one day, you didn’t really feel like messaging or connecting with anyone, so you didn’t. “I’ll just do double tomorrow,” you justified to yourself. Unfortunately, when ‘tomorrow’ came, again you didn’t really feel like doing your daily activities. Suddenly, it’s been a few weeks and you haven’t connected with anyone in your network. You’ve done no Power Hours and you’re avoiding check-in calls from your upline.

Now, we’re approaching the final quarter of the year. You’re ready to make your business a priority, but you’re just not sure how to go about it. After all, it’s been several months – what were your goals, anyway?

Get back on track to reach your 2019 goals

It’s totally possible to get back on track and reach – or at least get close – to your goals. The first step, of course, is to prioritize your business every day. None of the following tips will work if your business isn’t a top priority. Now, that doesn’t mean it must take over your entire day; instead, set aside one whole hour a day to do your activities; this includes connecting with your network and checking in with your goals.

Love the goal process

You’ve heard the old adage that life is about the journey more than the destination. It’s true! Of course, have your end-goal in mind and revisit it each and every day. 

Pro tip: Keep your goals posted where you’ll see them daily. Place them on a sticky note on your bathroom mirror, a goal board in your office, or a background on your phone.

The most important part of achieving any goal is the journey you take to get there. What do you do each day to chip away progress toward your goal and what you learn along the way? So many of us only focus on the end result – the end goal we’re striving to reach. We become so wrapped up in the final result that we don’t appreciate the process of getting there.

A large part of the process is developing the habits that are sure to nurture your success. It’s getting in the habit of connecting with your customers, prospects, and distributors on a daily basis. You’ll find out how you can help and then follow up consistently to build and maintain those relationships. Check in with your progress toward your goals every day; this will not only refresh your memory about what you’re striving for but also keep track of your numbers. Seeing data associated with your goal provides perspective, which you’ll need to stay motivated along the way.

Another reason to enjoy the process? You’ll be less likely to burn out. When the focus is only on the end goal, you get wrapped up in all the things you haven’t done. Loving the process helps you focus only on what you need to do right now to help you succeed later. As a result, you’ll stay consistent and enjoy your business so much more!

Take small steps toward your goal

It’s tempting, in your excitement to achieve your goal NOW, to take the biggest step you can toward your target. And, then…keep taking huge steps until you’ve achieved it. Unfortunately, what usually happens is you take that big step and then….nothing. You’re so exhausted from taking a dramatic first step that you just get tired. You’re too overwhelmed, and/or frustrated to take the next step, no matter what size it is.

We’ve all seen it (or even done it). We fall behind connecting and following up with our networks. So we try to make it up by spending all day playing catch up. Or, we create such huge goals for ourselves that we create an impossible situation for ourselves. For example, if you fell off track for a few weeks, you may consider spending the week catching up. That may work for a day or two, but then you think: “Didn’t I get into this business so I could enjoy my life? Why am I spending all this time shackled to my computer or phone working?” Good question!

Instead, break your big goals into smaller goals that you can achieve each day, week, month and for the quarter. It’s easier to achieve the goals and you’re more likely to stay motivated.

Pro tip: Once you’ve created your big goal, break it into steps to reach along the way. This will make the process less overwhelming and help you stay on track to reaching your goal.

Lose the excuses

Excuses are like belly buttons – we all have them. When we fail to live up to expectations we’re quick to make an excuse to explain our actions or lack thereof.

• “I couldn’t meet my weight loss goal this month because I went to three birthday parties and, I swear, that cake just chased me down and made me eat it.” 
• “I haven’t connected with my network this week because, well first, I slept in really late because I was up all night with this awful head cold I got from one of the parents on school orientation night. Then, I’ve been out straight getting my kids back into a schedule now that school has started again. Then, the washing machine kept making that weird thump, squeak, thump noise so I spent all of Wednesday debating whether to call the repairman or just go on Amazon to find a replacement…”
• “I didn’t contact everyone I needed to on my Dashboard because it gave me a list of people that I just don’t feel like contacting. I mean, Sandy gave me that funny look earlier in the week when I saw her at Costco. And Dave, well I can’t contact him this week because he’s on vacation with his family. In fact, most of these people are busy, so I’ll just take some time off…”

In the time you spend creating reasons to NOT do something, you could’ve just done it. And, you could have made a move toward achieving your goals.

Pro tip: Instead of making an excuse, just do it. You’ll be glad you did.

Get accountability to achieve your goals this year

Want to achieve your goals this year? Get accountability from a group of other high-achieving network marketers. After all, accountability is practically a requirement of goal achievement. Sign up for Elite Business Bootcamp. You’ll get all the tools you need to thrive in your business and connect with other successful network marketers. Click here to learn more.