Personal Development On Purpose Anybody can develop himself or herself if they really put their mind to it. There comes a time in everyone’s life where they have that opportunity. Changing economic conditions, life’s occasional challenges and unannounced opportunities can present the chance to step up to the plate and improve. Any new situation can present an opportunity.
If a person begins a new job, there is usually a new learning curve that must be mastered. This is a form of self improvement that is mandated from without. It is a forced mode of self improvement. While this will produce improved results, it may only be a temporary fix. The method of self improvement that lasts comes from within.
Self improvement in a real sense occurs only when an individual feels so strongly about his or her present condition that change becomes the only viable alternative. Maybe this is getting close to a “back to the wall” solution, but without that urgency, a solid commitment is difficult to maintain.
In order for a person to reach the next level of achievement, a new set of skills needs to be created. This can only happen when the problem is critically identified, broken down to manageable portions, and then actionable steps are taken to solve the problem.
For example, let’s examine the case of the salesperson who needs to increase his income by 20% over the next 12 months. This is the problem to be solved. The next step is to break the problem down to manageable portions. If his income last year was $70,000, that means that a 20% increase would make his income goal for the following year to be $84,000, or an increase of $14,000.
$14,000 divided by 52 weeks, or the number of weeks in a year equals $270, which is the amount of weekly income increase he needs to create. When we do the math we find that the salesperson earns $580 per sale, one extra sale every two weeks will enable him to reach this goal.
That amounts to 26 additional sales for the year. So if the salesperson can increase his activity to the right proportion, the goal will be accomplished. Currently it takes 10 sales calls for the salesperson to obtain one sale. Consequently if he needs 26 new sales, then an additional 260 additional sales calls need to be made over the course of the year, or an extra 5 per week. If the statistics hold true, then the goal will be met.
It is the experience of most sales managers and seasoned salespeople, that the activity to sales ratio does not vary much at all from year to year, so these statistics should hold true.
Here is an example of how self improvement occurs in any area. The problem has to be broken down into manageable segments to they can be processed and actively dealt with. Once a person can exert control over a situation on purpose an entirely new confidence comes over him or her, and new ground is gained by design.
