In my previous post we recognised that unless we start to plan now for success in 2015, at best 2015 is going to be yet another mediocre year, or worse.
But we also saw that by planning now, we can make 2015 our best year in property ever.
But the key question is, what does that mean in practice?
I’d suggest the answer lies in a simple 5 step process which looks like this:
• Decide what we (really) want
• Set goals to achieve what we (really) want
• Make a plan to achieve those goals
• Take (vigorous and persistent) action on the plan
• Regularly review progress and tweak (the plan) as necessary.
The process itself might seem simple but it is also extremely powerful, and if we follow it we can often achieve far more than we realise is possible.
However, the bad news is that few people follow it properly, even if they try to follow it at all.
Take, for example, deciding what we (really) want. That’s obvious, isn’t it? Don’t we all know what we really want? Well, at a superficial level yes, but unfortunately, for a lot of us, that’s where it stops.
I mentor and coach property investors one-on-one and commonly I meet people who are very earnest and genuine in their desire to succeed in property, but they haven’t really thought through what that means for them. In other words, they haven’t really thought about and identified what they really want, and how property is going to provide it for them.
Often they have vague ideas about, “ Making some money”, or “Owning a few properties”, or “Building a nest-egg as a pension” or “Generating a bit of income”.
All these are worthy ‘wishes’ but are too non-specific if we are going to translate them into goals, tangible goals we can plan to achieve.
I do have some sympathy. Sometimes their ‘wants’ are a little vague because they aren’t entirely sure what property can do for them, especially if they are relatively new to property. They think getting into property is a good thing, because their friends have, or the headlines in the newspaper says prices are going up, or because they watched a TV programme where someone made money from doing up a property but, when pressed, they don’t know exactly what they can actually achieve.
Interestingly, I meet many people who get into property without fully knowing what it is they want to achieve, and so they drift. Determining and deciding what you want to achieve is a crucial starting point but surprisingly many people gloss over this. The trouble is that with nothing specific to aim for or to achieve, the inevitable result is that they achieve far less than they could or should.
But assuming that we do know what we want, what then?
Then there’s the whole process of goal setting which, again, can be problematic. Even if we form precise financial goals which we want to achieve, articulating our financial goals as property goals can be a stumbling block for many.
This is especially true if we’re starting with limited experience in property and aren’t sure how much money we can expect to make from a specific property, or type of property, or by following a specific strategy or technique.
That’s why I have refined the process to include this step in my home study course and resource How to Have Your Best Year in Property Ever which I’ll tell you about in a later post.
We need to set goals but as I get more experienced in this process I realise that success isn’t just down to setting goals, it’s about the quality of the goals we set.
By the way, please don’t switch off at the mention of goal setting. I know that goal setting can seem a bit ‘old hat’ but it’s absolutely fundamental to our success. I’d be prepared to be bet that at least 95% of successful people, perhaps even 99% of successful people, have got to where they are by goal setting, whether they have a recognised formal system, or they just did it instinctively. So if it works for them, there’s a great chance it’ll also work for us.
So in my next post we’ll start to look at six ways we can ensure that the goals we set really will help us to make 2015 our best year (in property) ever.
Here’s to successful property investing
Peter Jones
Peter Jones B.Sc FRICS
Chartered Surveyor, author and property investor
thepropertyteacher.co.uk
Author of How to Have Your Best Year in Property Ever
