How to set fail-proof habit-based goals and change

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Posted on 12 August 2022 by Maya Saric

We have all read about the importance of goals, yet the majority of people don’t really have them. Are we being lazy or is there a problem with goal setting?

The problem is with how we have been approaching goal setting. We sit ourselves down and come up with a list of things we want for ourselves. Whether the list is, written on the back of a napkin on New Year’s Eve or the result of a formal planning process meeting all the SMART goal rules, very few of us actually achieve these. Every time we fail at reaching a goal, especially one that was super important to us, we build resistance to goal setting. Nobody wants to prove to themselves, or anyone else who reads our bathroom mirrors, that we are a failure. Setting goals we didn’t achieve is unconscious proof, at the very least, that goals don’t work or, at worst, that we are a failure. Either way, why would you willingly do it again?

It’s better to never set goals than to keep setting goals you never achieve. You need to achieve some success to prove you can succeed and then you will be able to succeed going forward. You know this from kindergarten; when you get a gold star you work harder to get the next one.

How to set fail-proof, habit-goals and start changing your life.

Set the bar so low it’s impossible to fail.

For example, if you wish to improve your fitness or change your body, start with a type of exercise that you can do wherever you are and in whatever you are wearing; like running on the spot for 5 minutes a day. Even if it means doing it at the side of your bed before you lay down to sleep, in the bathroom at airports, or before you sit down to enjoy entertainment (TV, social media, reading etc). No matter where you are in the world, how pressed you are for time and regardless of what you are wearing you could do this.

In terms of fitness/health/size outcomes doing this every day will do far more for you than jogging for 30 minutes once a week.

Extend/intensify the habit so that it keeps being impossible to fail at.

There are several ways of extending any goal. Use the aspect that is easiest to achieve and move up in small increments. If time is your greatest hurdle don’t change that part of it. Change something else, like run with your hands on your head or by bringing your knees up to your chest. Anything so long as the extra limit is equally fail-proof. Introducing equipment like weights (on your ankles or in your hands) limits the venues you can do this so increases the likely hood of missing days and getting out of the habit.

Don’t change existing habits, add new ones

If you have firmly established your 5-minute daily run at its maximal doable level (hands on heads and lifting knees to chest) you’re feeling ready to make more body improvements. It’s tempting to drop your simple routine and go big. Don’t stop doing those 5-minute runs to substitute another activity like; going to a gym or playing a sport. ADD ONE of these at a time as an additional separate habit. Remember to set up the new habit in a fail-proof way.

To learn more about making changes in your life and become a better you read The What Why and How of Getting into Action and the Myth of Motivation

A Positive Mental Attitude is key to success

Posted on 22 March 2015 by Maya Saric

“Sales are contingent on the attitude of the salesman – not the attitude of the prospect ” William Clement Stone (May 4, 1902 – September 3, 2002) Author of the book ‘Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude’ 1960

Stone is one of America’s rags to riches super stars. From selling newspapers at 6 years old to owning the news stand at 13. Together with his mother they started what was to become America’s largest insurance company, Combined, when he was 16. Within ten years they had over a thousand agents selling insurance across the United States.

He credits his success to Napoleon Hills book Think and Grow Rich.

More quotes by Stone https://thesecretmeister.wordpress.com/2007/04/25/w-clement-stone/

Greatness is a team act

Posted on 25 June 2014 by Maya Saric

“We are, each of us, angels with only one wing, and we can only fly embracing each other.” – Luciano Decrescenzo

Like me Luciano must have believed it is too hard to achieve greatness alone. The focus on the individual genius in business, the push for a ‘personal brand’ takes us further from the reason humans have become the dominant species on the plant: our strength is in our ability to co-operate.

Co-operation is our greatest strength. Whether that be physical co-operation (circling the wagons) for our safety or intellectual co-operation, sharing medical research, we get better outcomes when we work together. When we are isolated we do less work which means we achieve little, as we preserve our energy to survive till help arrives.

Humans have very complex social structures underlying our survival and quest for greatness. Co-operation not competition brings out our best. The smallest workable unit is the couple, then a family of three, to villages and then tribes. Where do you belong?

About Lucian o Decrescenzo

Luciano Decrescenzo, the Italian writer, filmmaker, and intellectual, has published 28 books on subjects ranging from Greek philosophy to his own childhood in Naples. He was born in 1928 and worked as an engineer for IBM for several years before turning to philosophy and writing. He has also directed, written, and starred in a number of Italian language films and received honorary Athenian citizenship in 1994.

Could you have a career in real estate sales?

Posted on 24 November 2013 by Maya Saric

Ever dreamed of a job in the country’s highest paying industry? Why not a professional career within your own community that can give you a six figure income after 2-3 years and where it is possible to break through the million dollar personal income barrier.

Start at $35,000 and in 5 years build to $350,000 and in 10 years the world is your oyster. Spectacular success is possible for those who are suited. You cannot achieve the same in any other industry that quickly no matter what your qualifications.

But what happens to most people that enter the industry? 90% fail and are gone within 2 years. Luckily 50% of those that start in residential sales are gone within 3 months. Lucky that they haven’t wasted more of their lives living at the basic level before working out it’s not for them

Step 1

Find out which job within Real Estate will suit you so you build a career around work that you will be successful at doing.

There are a few very different paths in the industry and they each require a different temperament of person.
Our selling IQ system, Sales Inventory Profile, will show you where your natural abilities are the best match. Then you have to develop skills. There is no point in learning about the whole industry if you are best suited to one area.

The major roles in real estate are;

Residential listing and sales (this is the best paid but hardest to do)
Buyers agent
Property Management
Commercial property
Project sales or Display homes

Step 2

Once you know your fit the best way to get a job is to approach the bigger agencies within 10 KM of where you live and ask for an interview. Most owners will say yes just out of courtesy to members of their local community. Agents out side of 10 KM won’t be interested in hiring you anyway as travelling longer distances every day and at night is too hard and you will exhaust yourself and leave them.

Step 3

If you are under 25 or have been out of the work place for a while you will need to work on reception for a few years to build skills and area knowledge. Don’t let yourself be rushed into taking on more than you can do well.

Feel free to Email me directly if you want to discuss any of this.

Maya Saric

How To Series Episode 6: How to Sell

Posted on 10 October 2013 by Maya Saric

Many of us get into selling entirely by accident and many of us are petrified of being sold to. But selling is just a conversation – it is as simple as that. But selling is a conversation with a purpose; selling is a conversation at the end of which someone makes a decision. As a salesperson, you need to guide the conversation to a point where somebody can make a decision and that is the only thing to it. It’s deciding when is the end, and how much information do you need, to buy?

So, it’s a conversation between people, which means you need to ask as many questions as you’re giving answers because in order for a customer to make a decision, they need to have all of the facts and figures. Yet, when they come to you when you first meet them, they don’t have any questions because they don’t know, yet, what it is that’s missing in their framework, and that’s why it’s a conversation. You need to explore what they know, and what they believe in order to fit the new information in so that it makes sense to them. So, giving your blanket product information and the Ten Top Benefits of buying my teaspoon is not a conversation, and therefore, it’s not selling. You need to find out, first, what they know, what they believe, and why they wish to buy one. And then, you present your information.

Emotions in Selling program provides lots of various, specific things about how to converse, how to provide information, and how present yourself in such a way that engenders trust. Because if they don’t trust your information, then they won’t accept you.

Selling is a conversation – it is as simple as that.

How To Series Episode 5: How to Close the Sale

Posted on 19 August 2013 by Maya Saric

Selling is a conversation. At the end of which, somebody gets to make a decision. At the end, we close.

How do you know when that conversation is at its end?

Some training programs will say, close, close, close. Close a million times. Close all over the place. Close every second that you can. In fact, that’s not true. If you close too soon and all of the issues haven’t been fully resolved, in your prospect’s mind, they won’t be able to make that decision. If you force it or in some way try to corner them into it, you get a generic reaction where they will automatically say no and it’s very hard to recover from a point blank No. you can also let the conversation ramble on way too long, spend way too much time, give them way too much detail, not be really clear on what the final aspect that they need to resolve is, and talk your way around the conversation so that you totally confuse them, and then you can’t close because now they are overwhelmed. You need to be really clear about what sort of information they need form which they are capable of making that decision.

So what sort of information needs to be contained in the conversation?

While selling is a conversation and we all know how to converse, it is much more complicated than that and you need to understand both the psyche of the person that you’re dealing with, the content of your product, and how that fits into their current situation or their current… the way they run their current business.

If you are interested in learning how to sell and learning how to close and when that moment is, and how to maximize your calling rate, you really need to understand those facets. We run a training program called Emotions in Selling which clearly identifies how people make decisions. What will get in the way? How to build trust? Because if they don’t trust you, they won’t buy from you no matter how well you explained the product. Finally, when have they had enough content that they can make a stable decision that they won’t freak themselves out the next day or when they talk to somebody else back at the office or at their own home, and see that in fact, they’re not ready to decide? They need to be fully aware of what they are buying and confident before close will stick.

Learn how to identify what the needs are thoroughly and how to have that conversation so that your product answers those needs before you close them.

For more on Sales Training & Coaching, contact Maya on 0407 005 290 today.

Enjoying the series? Check out the next episode: How to Sell

How To Episode 1: How To Recognise a Sales Person

Posted on 22 July 2013 by Maya Saric

You need staff and you need to interview a pool of candidates and see which one of them can sell.

There is a myth that some people believe that they can recognize sales people as soon as they see them, as soon as they chat. To some extent, that is true because during the chat, they will exhibit some of their selling abilities. Certainly, they will exhibit their communication style but whether that style is the right one for selling or not is harder to tell, so being able to be a good communicator is a really small fraction of the equation for being able to sell.

Another myth is that, it’s their energy, the twinkle in their eye, the spring in their step, their motivation, their ambition that really counts, so people that really want to succeed, that are passionate about selling or the product, or some other aspect of their life, this energy will exude when they are selling. This energy may indeed exude when they are selling but it isn’t going to help them sell. Their energy levels is about how interested they are in selling all their product which is certainly helpful, but their ability to sell is what’s crucial. There’s a huge chasm between being interested in something and then you are able to do it.

I have a great passion for quantum physics and a whole bunch of engineering topics but I’m never going to make an engineer because despite my passion and interest, I don’t have any of the relevant abilities. So we have a sales test that identifies the 75 attributes which you can never see in an interview that allows people to sell. It’s not a skill-based test because skills are something that people can develop, you can teach them, you can change them, and you make skills better. what you need is that they have the core capacity on which to build those skills. Find out if your candidates can sell before you interview them, before you get mesmerized by their passion and certainly do observe for yourself as many of those skills that they may possess, but remember the current skills can be topped up, that core capacity. It’s either there or it isn’t.

Visit our Facebook page and leave a message for Maya, or call her on 0407 005 290.

Next in the series: How to Cold Call

Maya Saric – The Sales Psychologist

The Sales Psychologist

Category Archives: SalesTribe