I began investing in real estate in 1998. Many of the people that follow my blog know that I owned and operated a successful home inspection business for 17 years prior to making the leap to full time real estate investor. During those years in the home inspection business, it never ceased to amaze me how many beautiful homes we would inspect that had serious defects. Many times during the home inspection process, the homeowners would admit that they had put in a $30,000 kitchen knowing that the house structural damage. They would ignore the underlying structure time after time and spend a lot of money making the home “pretty” hoping that those problems would go unnoticed.

As we close 2010 and most of us embark on creating a long list of goals and resolutions for the New Year, it occurs to me that goal setting has a lot in common with home inspections. Homes must be built on a strong foundation; it must support the home that is built on top of it. In the same way, before we can design our best selves for 2011, we have to look at ourselves much in the same was as our home to determine if we have the proper foundation to take on these challenging new goals.

Take some time and look back at 2010. Be honest!

–   What did you do well? What could you have done better?

–   What things did not go well for you?  What part did you play in these outcomes?

–  Make a list of the things that bring you joy and do more of those things in 2011.

–   List the things that move you away from your purpose or your joy and eliminate them!

When you think about how you want your life to look at the end of 2011, look at every aspect of your life. Take a little time and do an “inspection” of your foundation. Sure, goals that move you toward building your business are important. But you can’t achieve those goals if you haven’t built a strong foundation of health and fitness.  And all of the business success in the world doesn’t mean a thing if you have to neglect your family to accomplish those goals. Make 2011 the year that you build a strong foundation and finally achieve balance in your life.

Happy New Year!