ForeclosuresMass - ForeclosuresMass Monthly - Feature Article - What's Your Next Step? Develop a Plan That Works For You (February 2007)

Our natural tendency is to dream large: "I want to run a marathon," or "I want to earn good money investing in real estate!" Dreams are important, but to turn your dreams into reality, you need to develop a written game plan that includes a series of action steps and milestones.

Let's use the example of running a marathon. For someone who has little, if any, athletic experience, running a marathon is a huge undertaking. This person starts off with good intentions but often quits after a few weeks - tired, sore, and disappointed.

A more experienced runner, on the other hand, builds a complete game plan before she even begins her first training session:

Like the experienced marathon runner, a real estate investor must formulate a game plan in order to succeed. Whether your goal is to move from dreaming about investing to actually closing your first deal in 2007 or doubling your investment income this year, you need a plan.

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Step 1. Get informed - Great! You want to be a real estate investor. But the question you need to answer is, "How will I get there?" To answer this question, you'll need to do some investigating.

If you have no experience with real estate investing, your game plan begins with signing up for courses, reading books, and joining real estate investment clubs where you'll meet successful investors. In short, you have to get out of the house and into the world.

It's not only beginners who need to get informed. Even if you've already closed deals and made some money as an investor, your next step may be to learn more about negotiation, evaluating properties, or fine-tuning your business model.

Step 2. Develop and write out your plan - Successful people, no matter what their endeavor, always work toward their goals via a written game plan that includes short and long-term action steps and milestones broken out by month and week.

A written game plan is absolutely critical to success. When Arnold Schwarzenegger trained for the Mr. Olympia and Mr. Universe body building contests, he used a yearly/monthly/weekly/daily plan that included everything from the physique he wanted to obtain by the start of competition to short-term achievements. (He ultimately won seven Mr. Olympia titles and three Mr. Universe titles - more than anyone in the world!)

Having a concrete plan - one that states, for example, that on January 12 you'll look at the Community College offerings to see if they have a real estate class for the coming Spring semester - is powerful because it's an explicit do-able action, which is vastly different from thinking, wondering, or imagining. With a plan, you're in the realm of action, which is where things begin to happen.

Developing a written plan takes time and thought - it's not something you can do in a two-hour stint on a Sunday afternoon. You'll need to consider your current work and family commitments, your financial outlook, and your own personal energy levels.

And, don't assume a game plan is static. You can and will need to amend your plan as you go along, based on things you learn and events that take place.

Having a plan also helps you look at the whole process more realistically. If your goal is to purchase and flip a property, your game plan needs to include ALL the action steps necessary to achieve this goal. A game plan for flipping a property might include the following steps and milestones:

Notice how each of these steps can be broken down into further action steps. Before you refurbish a property, you may have to gain expertise on how to hire and work with contractors - something you may want to get started with before you make a purchase.

So what happens when, despite your plan, you don't move forward? Even people with the best plans can get stuck - which leads me to step number three.

Step 3. Learn to recognize your mental blocks - If you can't seem to accomplish your goals, you have a task that's been sitting on your "back burner" for months, or if you just feel "stuck," you may be experiencing a mental block that's preventing you from moving forward.

Mental blocks come in many forms and can be based on things that happened to us years ago. Two examples include:

It can be difficult to realize exactly what is blocking you. One thing you can do is to listen to your self-talk. If you find yourself saying, "I can't do this," or "I can't afford to invest," then you'll need to stop and figure out what's going on. Once you tap into this negative self-talk, you might ask yourself, "Is this really true?" For example, is it really true you can't afford to invest? How do you know?

It can take months to work through a mental block, and for some of them, such as fear of success, you may need an experienced coach or therapist (two very different types of professional help) who can help you work through the limiting beliefs.

To turn your dreams into reality, it helps to know your next step in the game. To develop your game plan, do your research and talk to successful people who can show you the ropes. Develop and write out a plan that includes short- and long-term action steps and milestones. And, find people who support and encourage you - and who can celebrate with you when you reach your goals.

Work-Life Coach Sharon Teitelbaum was a presenter at the MA Association of Realtors 2005 Leadership Academy and was featured in Realtor Magazine, published by the National Association of Realtors, in "What Life Coaches Can Teach You," by Bridget McCrea. Her 2005 book, Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued: Restoring Work-Life Balance can be purchased at her website. Contact Sharon at Sharon@stcoach.com, or at http://www.stcoach.com/.