Remember - motivation is an inside job!

With the right sales motivation, you can become as successful as you want to be!

However, you must come to grips with this fact. If you aren't outrageously successful at this moment, thinking about it won't make it happen.

This is an especially busy time of the year for most of us, I know it is for me. I'm looking at where I've been this year, where I am at this moment, and where I want to be at the end of 2008.

Here is a short list of things you can do to make 2008 your best year ever in sales:

1. Analyze what worked for you during 2007.

2. Likewise - analyze what didn't work for you during 2007.

3. Establish personal and professional goals in writing for 2008 - goal-setting is critical for sales success.

4. Put these goals on a white board in your office - the bigger the white board the better.

5. Create action plans for all goals with specific completion dates - these dates should be added to your electronic calendar.

6. Call your biggest and best customers and thank them, again, for their business.

7. Get the biggest trash can liner you can find and toss away everything that isn't absolutely essential to your success. Go through your office, your car, and your briefcase.

8. Ask yourself, "What is holding you back?" It's a serious question which deserves some serious thought.

9. Ask your sales manager what his priorities are for 2008. Don't assume you know what they are. Listen carefully to his response.

10. You should also ask your best customers the same question.

11. Allocate 30 minutes a day to reading about your profession - okay listening to CDs is acceptable. This requires discipline. You will become an expert and a giant in your industry if you do this. If you don't, you'll just be in step with the mediocrity brigade.

12. Get involved with a mastermind group which means starting one if you have to. My group, Masters Speakers International, of course we had to give it a sexy name, has been meeting four times a year for 10 years. My time with this group of talented people has made a huge difference in my life and in my business.

13. I can't tell you how many e-mails I receive saying, "as soon as I start making more money, I'm going to start buying some of your products." Unfortunately, good intentions won't make you outrageously successful. Investing in yourself is a requirement, not something that depends on your income. Your personal business Library is a good predictor of your future success. You can't put a price on a good idea. And it takes a steady stream of good ideas to become outrageously successful.

14. Here's another sales tip - don't try to do everything yourself. You'd be absolutely amazed at what you can outsource for a very reasonable price. The next time you have a small project you wish you could give to somebody else, go to www.elance.com and see what they can do for you. You just might be surprised!

15. Finally, it's impossible to be good at everything. If there is something that you are not good at and you need to be good at it, for Pete's sake hire a sales coach. A good sales coach won't cost you anything. Yup, a good coach doesn't cost, he pays. A good coach can help convert your sales weaknesses into sales strengths.

It sad but true, not everybody wants to be outrageously successful.

Some people don't want to be accountable for their results - they prefer a pity party. Some people prefer mediocrity over superiority.

Some people postpone living to sometime in the future, when in fact the only time we are guaranteed is today.

We live in a great country, we really do. Sure things aren't always hunky-dory. But you sure do have to admit that America has unlimited opportunities for those who have desire, focus, ** discipline **, commitment, passion, and a great deal of enthusiasm for life and for business.

Van VanBebber says, in The Wall Street Journal, "We should all save and study more, and spend and weigh less." That's pretty good advice as we head into the New Year.

His advice, however, requires a great deal of self-discipline. Becoming outrageously successful also requires a great deal of self-discipline.

Do you have what it takes to do what it takes to become outrageously successful?

Let's go sell something . . .