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Ready, Fire, Aim

Written by: Rebel Brown

Article Overview: We're so busy doing, we don't know when we're done.

Ready, Fire, Aim

That's kinda backwards, isn't it? I catch myself doing it all the time. I get an idea, remember something I need to do, all while I'm in the middle of something else. I'm distracted by the new thought, so I get up to go fix whatever, grab whatever, do whatever, so I can come back and focus. But then sometimes I can't remember where I was going or what I was going to do. Or I see something along the way and stop to do it, then move on to something else, and remember my original goal, um well, sooner or later.

50+ mentalpause may be partially to blame.

But not really.

The pressure to deliver is the prime suspect. We have to do something to feel worthy, to make progress, to stay ahead of the crisis that is sure to come. So we rush into action, ahead of thinking through our plan. We focus on the doing more and more, pointing to activity as progress. We take action without fully understanding our strategy and goals - without a picture of success.We do, do and do again and wonder why we never reach our goal.

We're so busy doing, we don't know when we're done.

We head into markets, firing with all our value, assuming something will hit a willing buyer right between the eyes. We send out marketing campaigns every week - cover the proverbial wall with stuff - assuming something will stick. We cold call potential customers with the same androgynous script, firing our chest-thumping messages at them before we understand their specific goals or focus.

Doing without a goal is wasted energy.

A crisp, well-defined goal helps us tune our doing to be most effective. With a specific goal in sight, we can leverage all of our actions into a coordinated effort. When we have a target in mind, each step of doing becomes a building block for reaching out ultimate goal. We're more efficient, we get more done and we're more successful.

We can only hit the target when we aim first.

So the next time we get that urge to rush out and do something for the sake of doing, let's all slow down. Plan, take aim and then do. We'll get much better results. And who knows?

We might just hit the bulls-eye!

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Article Tags: crisp, grab, marketing campaigns, new thought, prime suspect, proverbial wall, right between the eyes, target, willing buyer



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