The price of success must be paid in full, in advance. – Brian Tracy
There is a difference between a wish and a goal. There is a difference between a dream and a commitment.
Think back for a minute and consider this question:
Where did you learn how to set goals?
If you’re like most people, the answer is nowhere. At least when I was in school, there was no class on goal-setting. Neither my parents nor any parents that I knew set goals. The television shows I watched had nothing about goals or how to set or reach them.
We all know what a goal IS, and intellectually get the concept of setting a goal (I’m going to run a marathon this year) and yet we tend have great fuzziness when it comes to the process of setting a goal, what constitutes a “good” goal, and how to go about the process to achieve it.
Here are three keys to clarify a goal and the process to reach it.
Identify the specific sub-goals and the action that needs to be taken
When I meet with newly licensed real estate agents, we go through a process to help them set a goal for the first year in the business. It’s very straight-forward – the goal is the dollar amount they desire to earn in their first year in the business.
The thing is, a desire is not a goal. We may WANT to make $100,000 in our first year, and it doesn’t become a real goal until we identify what specific actions are required in order to get us there, and then commit to taking those actions. That is when the desire becomes a goal.
In some cases, the actions we must take in order to achieve the goal are not particularly exciting to us. We may actually think we do not like them. And yet our preferences have absolutely no bearing on those actions or that goal.
What is, is.
If you want to net $100,000 in your first year in real estate, working in an average first-time-home-buyer price range of under $300,000, you are going to have to bring in close to $18,000 per month in gross commission income. That means you’ll need three to four closings per month. Which means you’ll need to go on at least double that amount of appointments (possibly more like triple that, depending on how big your personal network is.)
Which means you are going to have to connect with a LOT of people. As in, 100 or more per week. Consistently.
Like it, don’t like it, doesn’t matter. The buyers and sellers will not magically come and find you. You must find them or you will not achieve the goal.
Commit to consistency in your actions
In other cases, we might be okay with the activity, generally-speaking. We might even really enjoy it, like how I enjoy writing. And yet even there, a boredom will set in. Because reaching a lofty goal (like writing a book) requires that you do the action again
and again
and again
and again
and again
and again
and again
and again
and again
and again
and again
and again
and again
and again
and again
and again
and again to the point where only the most abnormal individual will not become utterly sick and tired of doing this SAME SHIT FOR THE 300TH DAY IN A ROW.
And yet the goal doesn’t care.
The outcome isn’t affected by whether you like it, or by whether you’re bored.
Which leads us to the third and MOST important point about doing the action that will take you to accomplishment to the goal:
Own your Mindset.
If you’re going to do something you don’t like, that sucks. Especially if you need to do it over and over again in order to get a result.
And if you’re going to do something over and over again to the point where you’re bored to tears, that kind of sucks too.
But guess what?
It’s your choice not to like it. And it’s your choice to accept boredom. Those preferences, thoughts and feelings exist in precisely one place – your own mind.
Choose to like it.
Choose to be excited about it.
Make a calendar on your wall and put a red X on every single day that you do the action which you KNOW will bring you one step closer to the goal. Don’t break the chain, as Larry Seinfeld is reported to have said. Don’t miss a day. Make it a contest and challenge yourself.
This is how you reach a goal.
And by the way, if you are completely unwilling to do the action that is required to hit the goal, that’s okay. Don’t beat yourself up. That just means you haven’t got the right goal. Because we get to choose what we commit ourselves to. And the key to determining what the right goal is for you is to ask yourself:
Am I willing to commit to this? In boredom and suckitude? Is the outcome worth it to me? Is who I will become along the way (disciplined) worth it to me?
This is how we differentiate between a goal and a wish.
So do you have goals? Or do you have wishes?