Four More Words That Will 'Shape' my 2014

Last year I posted four words on my bathroom mirror: FINISH, WRITE, SHAPE, and YES.

Based on last year’s success, this year I decided to create two four-word categories. One for achievement and one for improvement. Not ‘goals’ in the sense that you may be thinking about – rather intentions that I consciously and subconsciously work on every day, and build success all year long.

By posting the words on my bathroom mirror, I consciously see them each day, and subconsciously think about them and act on them regularly. Because they’re right in front of me every morning and every evening, they are inescapable mental confrontations. Oh, and the process works.

After I explain each achievement and improvement word I have selected for this year, I’ll provide a lesson that you can incorporate into your life as you select your word or words. The lesson is the motive behind the word so you can use the same principle as you generate your words.

Last week I wrote about my four words on achievement. They were: ADVISOR, DIGITAL, POWER and TIME. (If you missed it, you can get both parts by entering the words IMPROVE ACHIEVE in the GitBit box at www.gitomer.com.)

This week it’s four words about improvement. Improvement means GET BETTER at what you’re already doing. If you’re looking to start something new, and make it happen, that’s achievement. For example, when you want to achieve your sales plan, you must improve your sales skills, presentation skills, or your networking skills.

On the improvement side of life, my four words are:
INSTAGRAM – BLOG – SHAPE – BEST

INSTAGRAM – It’s the new Facebook. Thousands of teenagers are abandoning Facebook every hour and refocusing their social efforts on Instagram. Interestingly, Microsoft Word, the word processing program I use to write with, thinks Instagram is a misspelled word. That’s a pretty good indicator of where Microsoft is in the social media world: nowhere. You have to figure there’s got to be a pretty good reason Facebook paid a reported one billion dollars for Instagram. For you as a salesperson and/or a business person, there’s got to be a pretty good reason as well.

Here’s what I intend to improve this year: I already have a business and personal account. My personal account is jeffreygitomer. My business account is gitomer. I want to let my family, my customers, my friends, the readers of my books, the followers of my blog, the subscribers to my YouTube channel – all of my social connections – have a chance to view me as a person and as a business person. And you need to consider the same. Every day or so I post a picture to my personal account. And every day it is my intention to post one meaningful quote on my business account. My intention is to give my followers something to think about, something to learn about, something to smile about, and something to replicate. I try to be both a lesson, and an idea.

LESSON: All of your connections both business and personal need to see your human side, and her intellectual side. There’s an opportunity in Instagram for you to create a leadership position.

BLOG – I intend to make my blog much more personal this year. On salesblog.com (pretty good URL, eh?) I’ll be posting on-the-road insights from my travels, kitchen thinking, morning thinking, ideas I captured from reading, and the most important ideas I’m capturing from and for my daughters and granddaughters.

LESSON: A blog is a place to document and expose. When you put yourself out on the Internet, blogging is the best way to be found. Hundreds of millions of people have jumped on that bandwagon and will stay there. The key to blogging is consistency. At the moment I post two or three times a week. You should begin by doing the same. Just a paragraph or two, but make sure they contain keywords that others can find as they search about you, your products and services, and your company.

SHAPE – Last year I failed to lose the weight I promised myself I would. This year I have a personal trainer and a new eating habit set in motion. My mantra will be better health leads to increased wealth.

LESSON: I didn’t achieve my goal. I didn’t follow through on my own intentions. But the lesson is not failure. The lesson is persistence. Just because I didn’t do it last year, doesn’t mean I won’t get it done. If you don’t meet a goal, if you don’t achieve your intentions, keep moving baby!

BEST – One thing that the BEST people I know have in common – they’re all seeking to become better. My best skills on the business side of my life are: selling, speaking, writing, humor, friendliness, and creativity. The reason I’m excellent at those skills is that I seek to become better at them every day. My driver is very simple, I just ask myself this one question: Am I doing the best I can right now?

LESSON: Ask yourself this question after EVERY meeting, phone call, project, and social and social media outreach: Is this the BEST I can do?

Hopefully the words I have chosen for improvement and achievement, and the lessons I have provided, will inspire you to write and define your words for the year. Interestingly, you most likely mentally know what they are, but have yet to bring them to the visual surface as Post-it Notes on your bathroom mirror.

Want both columns and my bathroom postings from last year? Sure you do! Go to www.gitomer.com and enter the words IMPROVE ACHIEVE in the GitBit box

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].