Making the Most of 2022!
January is almost over!! Can you believe it?! The first month of 2022 is coming to a close. Is time flying by for anyone other than me? No? Ok.
Well, this is a great time to look back at your New Year’s Resolution or Goals that you’ve made.
Goal Setting. This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, mostly because it is a new year and because I have been thinking about my future and making decisions about what I want for my family.
There are many different ways to set goals, but I have found one very effective way; making your goals measurable and having a plan! I’d like to share with you guys my method of setting achievable goals.
First: Create a realistic goal
Second: Make a plan
Third: Be accountable to somebody other than yourself
Step 1: Create a Realistic Goal:
Any of us can set a goal and not reach it. Have you ever found yourself feeling discouraged because your goal seems so far out of reach? That is not the purpose of goals; the purpose is to better yourself and make progress.
Your goal should not leave you feeling discouraged they should leave you feeling MOTIVATED!
Example from a real estate agent perspective:
I can set a goal of hitting 60 transactions this year. That would mean five transactions a month. for some agents and in some housing markets this might not seem like a big deal. But when I look at last year I was only able to get 7 transactions all year. The market has been very different than my 2020 year when I was able to get 20 transactions. Looking at this data I can see that 60 transactions is very unrealistic. When I review my goal at the end of January and I see that I’ve only had one transaction so far my goal of 60 transactions was made me feeling very discouraged.
Now let’s say I decided to make a goal of 24 transactions this year. This is a very realistic goal. That would mean two transactions a month. When I review this goal at the end of January I see that I was only able to get one transaction this month but I don’t feel discouraged because I know that I can make that up within the next 11 months.
How do I know what’s realistic?
1-know yourself
You need to know what you are capable of. Is this your full-time job or is this just a hobby? How much time can you actually devote to your goal per day?
2-look at your past experiences.
If you have made similar goals in the past, were you able to reach it? What stopped you from getting there or what helped you achieve it? Is your current goal too far away from the goal you were able to achieve in the past? How much more can you handle this time around?
Starting with smaller achievable goals can be very helpful in reaching your long-term goals.
Considering all of this information decide what your realistic goal is and write it down:
A major part of making a realistic goal is to make a measurable goal. Meaning it is easy to mark that it was attained. Examples! If I make a goal of being a better person in 2022, how do I know if I have achieved it? A better goal to measure that would be help 20 of the local homeless in 2022. When the end of the year comes. I can look back and hopefully name the individuals I helped and hopefully (if I did it with a good heart) became a better person.
Step 2: Make a plan
This is the step I think most people skip when creating a goal. Not having a plan leads to failure. If I have my goal of 24 transactions but no way to get there how am I supposed to achieve it?
Let’s say I am on a road trip and I’d like to drive all the way from California to New York in 7 days but I don’t do any research on roads and routes how, successful will I be in getting there? I would most likely get lost in a different state somewhere along the way. There is not a straight path easily follow a bowl without doing research.
The best way to make a plan is to break it down. How much time are you giving yourself to achieve this goal? Break The time frame down into sections. If it’s a full year goal months are a great way to break it down and you can break it down even further from there into weeks and days.
I will share my real estate goal again. I want to get 24 transactions this year. Monthly that means two transactions. Broken down into weeks that means one transaction every two weeks.
How do I break it down even further? I can’t do 1/2 a transaction a week, but I can break it down until what leads to a transaction. Here are the steps to get into a real estate transaction from my perspective:
Marketing
Finding the right person and having initial contact with them
They become a lead. I stay in contact with them.
I start to work with them listing their home and we officially list it.
Marketing their house, open house, review offers, etc. It takes about 1 month (in this market) to close a transaction.
Looking at this process I see that the first step is marketing. I need to look at how much marketing it takes to get one lead. If I’m doing an event I see that I have to talk to about 5 people to find 1 person who’s interested in selling or buying a home. Out of those people who are interested 1 in 3 actually follow through and are ready for the next step. So how many people should I talk to daily to reach my goal of 2 transactions a month to reach the end goal of 24 transactions this year?
Breaking down your goals can take some time and math, but if you’re serious about reaching them I believe it is a necessary step.
The most important thing is breaking down that large elephant and putting it into bite size pieces. You need to do those pieces on a daily. So take your goal, decide what you need to do daily and then incorporate it into your schedule.
Step 3: Be accountable to someone other than yourself
Being accountable to somebody else always makes me feel more motivated to be successful. If your goal is about your job or work, a great person to be accountable to would be somebody that you work with and you can check in with weekly. if you have a good open relationship with your boss and you feel comfortable talking to them about your goals they might be the perfect person for you to be accountable to. If your goal has to do with your family your spouse or a parent might be a good accountability partner. Another good idea in this accountability partnership is for them to be accountable to you for something as well so that you guys feel the obligation to check in with each other and you can share progress and failures openly and get some constructive advice.
Whoever you choose make sure that you are willing to open up about your goal and your shortcomings. You need somebody who will help motivate you to do better next week.
Once you have decided on a person and spoken with them about it make a plan on how often you will be checking in with them. I have found that weekly is usually a pretty good time frame.
Other tips for achieving your goals:
Think about your goal DAILY
Have some sort of PHYSICAL REMINDER of your goal. Whether it is a poster tracking your progress or your goal written down on a piece of paper.
Do more research on your goal. Look up what helps others achieve similar goals.
Find something that motivates you that you can use when you feel discouraged. Is it a small reward system? A candy bar when you do your daily plan for a week straight? A specific music playlist that pumps you up? Watching the Biggest Loser? Looking up dream body types? Looking up the vacation that you want to be able to go on? Use this tactic when you start to feel discouraged and unmotivated.
Review your goal regularly and adjust as needed. If you’re halfway through your time frame and you see that your goal is becoming very unrealistic, adjust it. Make it still stretch you but keep it possible so you don’t get discouraged.