People set goals in order to achieve them. Why, then, do so many people set goals but NOT achieve them? As a coach who works with real estate professionals and investors around the country, I regularly see two distinct patterns for this.
 

1. You know what to do - but you don't do it!
Or you don't do enough of it, or you don't do it often enough, or . . . you get the idea. There are many possible reasons that you might fall short on the action required to achieve the results you want, including:

• being spread too thin
• not having the tasks broken down into easily do-able pieces
• allowing yourself to get distracted
• having too many goals

Every obstacle listed here actually has a solution. Your unique combination of obstacles that you set up for yourself can potentially be "resolved." Once those are resolved, you, like my real estate clients -- agents and investors alike - are likely to get an unusually high degree of traction from 3 things:

• clarity: What are you working on? You should have no more than 3 bullets.
• structure: How are you going to get there? To get an idea of what this might look like, take a look at ForeclosureMass's excellent "Monthly Goal Tracker"
• accountability: How are you held accountable? Who else knows what you commit to do, weekly and monthly?

These three things, built into your week, can bridge your gap between knowing what to do and consistently doing it.

2. You know where you want to go - but you don't REALLY know how to get there!
You know where you want to end up -- but you don't actually have a solid game plan for getting there. If you are in this category, there is great value in developing a strong and detailed business plan, based on two things:

• proven strategies that deliver results
• your unique strengths and gifts

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There is no single one-size-fits-all way to grow your real estate business, regardless of whether you are in sales or investing, residential or commercial. What's crucial is to grow your business in ways that are aligned with your values and based on your strengths. But they have to be methods that work! Investors and real estate professionals are by definition highly independent people. And many initially balk at a worksheet like the Monthly Goal Tracker. But it works! Your goals need to be translated into a detailed enough action plan that you know exactly what to be doing every week.

I'm not talking about having every moment of your life programmed . . . but there are people in the business who honestly don't know how many leads it takes to get a listing. Or how many appointments they have to book before they will seal a deal. So they don't generate enough leads or get enough appointments - and then they're disappointed by their results!

Having said this - and hopefully addressing some of the doubts that inevitably come up around goal setting, let's look at setting some goals. I recommend that you come up with 3 big business goals to reach in 2005:

1. A Financial Goal -- whether it's actual dollars earned, dollar volume transacted, or number of transactions
2. A Systems or Operations Goal - how do you need to upgrade your systems in the coming year to support a bigger business? By "systems" I mean technical, people, or self-management systems.
3. Whatever YOU Need It To Be. If it's not immediately clear to you what it is, give it time to percolate. Start working on your plan for achieving the first 2 goals. In the process, you'll probably stumble onto the third. If not, let it be about prospecting - filling your pipeline.

One of your greatest assets is your own personal drive and ambition. Knowing how to channel that drive into focused, intentional, consistent action is key to your success. Harness that drive with goals for '05!

 
Sharon Teitelbaum, MA, PCC, coaches real estate professionals and investors by phone or in person. She has been a coach since 1995, and is a licensed real estate broker in MA. She offers an initial consultation at no charge to people considering hiring a coach. She can be reached at Sharon@STCoach.com, 617-926-8393.

Her new book, Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued: Restoring Work-Life Balance, which will be available in late January, 2005, can be ordered at a pre-release price of $15 at her website, www.stcoach.com.

Sharon also coaches high achieving women with young children, and professionals seeking greater work-life balance.