I’ve only had one job with quarterly sales goals and commissions tied to those sales. I’m not motivated by commission, but I am very competitive—especially with myself and the clock—so as a quarter’s end came into view, it was easy to apply some pressure to close those deals.
And at the end of every quarter, as I would send those buzzer-shot emails to get a deal in before it ended, I would think about all the work I did that quarter before the end was in view. Because the only way you have a chance at a game-winning buzzer-beater or Hail Mary pass is if the board is stacked with points you’ve earned before that. So, when the game (or quarter) ends, which point (or dollar) matters more: the first one, or the last one?
Like many of my posts before, it all comes down to consistency. When I first wrote about my step streak, I said, “Streaks are great because they force you to focus on the activity required to achieve the goal instead of the goal itself. In other words, if you want to walk 10,000 steps a day for 100 days, what matters is taking each step each day instead of taking 1 million steps.”
And when I ran 500 miles in 2018, running 47 miles in the last 10 days of the year in order to make it to 500, I really learned that the 500th mile doesn’t matter any more than the first, 27th, or 312th. And the only way to reach a goal is to put in all the work—not just the final touches.