The Next Phase

Eventually, you will reach your goal that you set weeks or months ago. At the time, it might have seemed like a pipe dream or a "best case scenario" that you hoped to attain. But, through hard work, careful research and determination, you finally made it. Now, the hard work begins. You have to maintain it or incrementally improve upon your results.

For example, if you set a goal of getting in peak condition, losing 30 pounds or perhaps completing your first 10k in years, it is relatively easy to get started. It is difficult, but not impossible, to stick with a plan. It is really easy to declare success once you hit your milestone.

The challenge now will be keeping your gains and continuing to improve upon them. Instead of huge gains, you will be forced to accept stability or 1% gains in performance as wins. For the type A personality, this presents many challenges including the acceptance that future results will be less apparent and not accompanied by fanfare.

Likewise, if you are striving to reach new goals in business development, your efforts will eventually change from conquest to maintaining status. Your book of business may have increases from $200,000 to $400,000 per year, but you will find it harder to see 100% gains continue over the long term.

The key to success in both of these examples is adopting the changes you made to get you there into your permanent personal and career lifestyle. They can't be viewed as one time fixes that allow you to revert back to your old ways. To have continuous improvement, most of your time should be spent identifying the most successful components of your program and fine tuning them to perfection.

Never lose your momentum. It will allow you to earn compound interest on your gains.