Last time we talked about nailing down your top 3-5 goals for the year. I hope you took some time to do that. If you didn’t, it’s not too late to get those down on paper. But goal setting is about more than just writing them down; creating a plan for achieving your goals is the important part.
We also talked about the importance of your “why”. What is the reason or the big payoff for achieving your big awesome goals? Success can be pretty illusive if you don’t have a clear “why”. To put it another way, “What will make you hang in there when the going gets tough”?
Once you have your goals down on paper, then it’s time to get to work on the “how” part of this equation.
Your Foolproof Tracking System
Here’s the secret; all you need is a great big wall calendar.
Now you might be asking, “Why not just put it in something like Google calendar”? Because it’s not right in your face where you have to look at it each and every day. Your calendar becomes your accountability partner.
Some folks might be able to handle having this buried in a folder on a computer. But most people will find that they are much more successful if it is staring them in the face.
Putting Your Plan Together
Once you have decided on your 3 to 5 big goals, it’s time to take a look at them. Ask yourself this; have you built in some fun and some personal or spiritual goals? Or, when you look at your goals are they all about work?
I talk a lot about building a lifestyle business and how you can absolutely do that with real estate; create a life and the business that you love. However when I look back at what I have actually been doing the past few years, most of what I see is work related. I have completely failed at truly leading a balanced life. This will be the year I finally change that.
Don’t get me wrong; it’s not only good but also necessary to be very focused when you are building a business. There will be many times you have to work late or on weekends. That is the life of an entrepreneur.
But there comes a time when you will be completely burned out if you haven’t found a way to balance your work life and your personal life.
Break it Down before Writing It Down
Before you start to fill in your calendar, you will want to list each goal on a sheet of paper. Then begin to break those big goals down into parts or steps. Once you have your steps, then you can begin to schedule those on your calendar so that you can implement your plan.
Here’s an Example
Let’s say that my goal for this year is to implement a direct mail program. The first thing to do would be to identify exactly what that would entail. My steps might look like this:
- Decide on which niche(s) I want to market to
- Determine where to get a list
- Buy the list
- Determine whether I will do the mailings or outsource them
- If I will be doing my mailings, decide on a database to use for storing my contacts. I will use this for printing my direct mail pieces too.
- Purchase a database if I don’t already have one
- If I want to outsource my mailings, I will need to research some mailing services and contact them
- Put the list into a database in order to do the mailings or upload it to a direct mail service
- Set up systems to track my mailings
- Set up a website to drive traffic to if needed
This just gives you an idea of breaking down the process. If you want to create real estate investing products or build a website then you would follow the exact same procedure. The point of this exercise is to take any goal no matter how big it is, break it down into bite sized pieces and put that on a calendar. Make an appointment with yourself to get it done.
If you missed the first part of this article just click here …..
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I love my whiteboard Justin. You should get one this weekend. I started with some great big pieces of paper and started my plan on that. Then I transferred it to the whiteboard. (I wanted it all neat). I plan to write about that again this week since it’s “goal time”.
Thanks for reading.
Sharon
Great article Sharon! I’m setting my goals for the new year next week and I’m going to use your whiteboard idea.