In this series of posts we have 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. If we want 2015 to be our best year (in property) ever we need to plan for it now.
In the previous post we saw that, whether we think goal setting is old hat or not, it is one of the foundational activities and disciplines undertaken by most, if not all, highly successful people.
So it follows that if we want to be successful, we should do the same.
But, even if we are convinced of our need to set goals (and I hope we are), if we want 2015 to our best year (in property) ever, we don’t want to set just any old, wishy-washy goals.
So in this post we are going to look at the first three of six things we need to think about when we set our goals for 2015, to supercharge our chances of success.
Number 1 – Goals must be in writing
Goal setting is a written activity. Why? Because unless they are captured on paper, goals are merely wishes, nothing more than wishful thinking.
There’s something about the dynamic of writing a goal which makes it real, and studies have shown that you are 50% more likely to achieve a goal if you capture it in writing.
Even better is to capture it in writing and to then declare it publicly. Today it’s easy to proclaim your goal to an immense audience using social media. I have heard in the past that we should not be too open with our goals in case negative people steal our dreams and tell us that we can’t achieve them, but now the perceived wisdom is that declaring them publicly increases the motivation to achieve and to not lose face.
I guess it makes sense, some people might respond better to a combination of the carrot (four or five Super Reasons why we want to succeed) and the stick (the pain of admitting defeat in public).
Having said that, failing to meet a goal isn’t a failure, especially if we give it our best shot, and is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s a learning experience and opportunity. We learn from our experiences, good and bad, and then try again.
And one of the positive benefits of a public declaration is the support, encouragement and practical help and advice we can solicit from our network, especially if the declaration is made in front of like minded people.
Number 2 – Your goals should be big enough to make a difference
Let’s face it, many of us prefer to play it safe and to not stick our necks out. But guess what? If we set mediocre goals were going to have a mediocre life, and who wants that?
If we are going to set goals we may as well set big ones. After all, it takes little more effort, energy and planning to achieve a big goal than it does a small one.
Having said that, saying, “May as well”, makes it sound a bit begrudging so let me rephrase that. We should set big goals! Come on, what we need is life changing goals that are going to make a difference, a big difference. If they aren’t going to make much difference, then why bother setting them?
If we want our best year (in property) ever, then let’s set big goals to make it our best year ever!
You can spend your time working on average, mediocre goals or you can spend your time working on extraordinary goals. The choice is yours.
And talking of choice, the choice of goal that you make will undoubtedly come down to mindset, which we thought about earlier.
What you decide to work on is everything. It’s either going to be big enough to make a difference, or it’s not, so you may as well just go for it.
Number 3 – Focus on a few meaningful goals, rather than multiple goals.
Why should we focus on a small number of goals? Because we all have limited time, resources and energy, so we don’t want to spread ourselves too thin and risk not achieving any of our goals.
So set your goals in order of priority of which ones will produce the greatest benefit or, put another way, will be the most life changing, and devote most of your time and energy to the top two or three.
Let me just make a quick proviso. At the moment we’re talking in the context of setting our property goals.
But you may want to set goals in several different areas of your life, not just one, and that’s fine.
I’d suggest you focus on the top goal in each area of your life, perhaps even just have one goal in each different area of your life, for example one for business/property, one for finance, one for health, one for family, one for personal growth and so on.
Of all those goals, you might make one goal, the one goal that will most definitely change your life the most, once achieved, the top priority.
And then prioritise the remainder in order of importance and how much time and effort you will put into the achievement of each.
If we had limitless time, energy and resources they could all be of equal priority and importance, but unfortunately we have to accept that can’t be the case and so we need to decide which ones we’ll put most effort into.
So, for example, you may decide that your number one goal should have 50% of your time (energy and resources), number two goal should have 25%, then number three goal 10% and so on.
Then we need to be disciplined and stick to that order and priority, and not get distracted.
In my next post we’ll look at the last 3 things we need to be aware of to set supercharged goals, to make 2015 our best in (property) ever.
Here’s to successful property investing
Peter Jones
Peter Jones B.Sc FRICS
Chartered Surveyor, author and property investor
