So have you made any New Year’s Resolutions? What is the difference between goals and resolutions? Is the New Year too late or is it just in time?
I personally don’t believe in resolutions. I believe in goals. I started on my goals for 2009 in November. I add some until mid December and then put them to paper. Some of you may call them business plans. I too have a plan, but I prefer goals. I believe goals are important. I have worked on goals every year since I was in my teens.
In my teens, they were sports goals. I wanted to get stronger and faster. By the time I was 18 I was the Colorado State Power Lifting Champion. At 19, I was 3rd in the country. I won 2 State records. I hit my goals. Then it was the grocery business and management. I was the youngest manager they had. After that it was karate and real estate. In karate, I now have a 3rd degree black belt. In real estate, I have sold 3200+ homes.
So how do I achieve those goals? I do it with reward/penalty. Fred Grosse taught me many years ago about setting attainable goals. I also implemented a reward/penalty system to motivate me. I had the ground work from my early years. I needed to make it a competition in my later years to keep me interested. I mean look at us. What motivates us?
The reward/penalty system more applies to the actions I need to do to reach my goals. For example on the personal side, I want to attain my 4th degree black belt by 2010. I need to do 52 karate workouts in 2009, and 112 karate workouts in 2010, prior to my test. I train 4 days a week including 1 karate workout, 1 running, 1 yoga and 1 weight lifting. The reward is a nice bottle of wine on the weekend. The penalty is “NO” wine and an extra workout the following week.
With my business goals a basic premise to my success is to call the 1400 people in my database 3 times a year. This breaks down to 28 calls per day. In addition I have follow up and cold prospecting to do. Its 2 hours a day 5 days a week. If I get my calls in, I get to play golf. If I don’t, I don’t play golf.
I instituted this type of accountability with my buyer agent Tony. He was struggling with a daily schedule and planning. He and I wanted to improve it. So he must have a daily plan and accountability sheet done every day. He must do it 30 days straight. He misses one day he gives me a check for $25.00 to give his ex-wife. He succeeds, I buy him a nice bottle of wine. Do you think he’s missed a day? Not on your life!!
This is a great time to have goals. Goals are steps to a greater self. The only way to achieve them is a plan with steps. Those steps need accountability. Accountability will bring you to your goals/resolutions.
Good Luck & Happy New Year!!
Thanks,
Brian
