New Year Resolutions

Happy New Year! I know a lot of you are looking for a “break out” this year and some are looking to continue their multifamily growth in 2015. No matter what your goals for the year are, they all begin with one very important concept… Focus!

At the beginning of every year most people make crazy resolutions that they never keep. We make resolutions to eat better, get on a crash diet, start that extreme workout program etc. While these resolutions start with the best intentions we usually don’t follow them through or at least not to the extent we had planned on.

In the business world this is what I call the battle of the “Comfort Zone” vs “Shock Zone”. This can probably be applied to our daily lives as well. When I first became a real estate student I realized a very important lesson. The need for FOCUS!

In most cases focus is easier said than done. This is why we make all of those crazy New Year’s resolutions and then don’t keep them. It’s not the lack of focus (although that may play into it). The problem is setting goals that not only take us out of our comfort zone but that take us all the way into our shock zone.

I define the shock zone as a goal that is almost impossible to keep or attain due to the level of focus and commitment that is unreasonable. This is why we don’t stick to the crazy crash diet or exercise program. They’re too extreme. We all need to set goals that definitely keep us out of our comfort zone but not ones that take us to the shock zone. You have to decide for yourself where your comfort zone begins and ends and how to stay just out of it.

As for the real estate business I suggest setting small, short term goals that make you work outside of your comfort zone but that are still attainable. One of my first real estate mentors taught me to make two offers a week. This is what I call a discipline goal. It is short term and resets each week. If we don’t make two offers this week then we have to start over and make 4 the next week to catch up. My mentor didn’t tell me to go close on 1000 units in Q1 of 2015. For most of us that would be an unreasonable goal (shock zone) and would not likely be attainable and then would set us up for failure of the goal.

Here are some other “discipline goals” that many of my students have had success with:

• Call 2 agents/brokers a week
• Analyze 2 deals a week
• Attend 2 networking events a week
• Make 2 new potential private money contacts a week
• Ask for 2 networking referrals a week

Notice that these goals are attainable and reset each week. This is why I call them discipline goals. They are not some kind of crazy resolution that would be very hard to keep but they will keep you out of our comfort zone on a weekly basis. If you get to Thursday afternoon and you haven’t competed them…you better get to work! Discipline goals are also the back bone of long term goals. We can all set lofty plans for the future but if we don’t go to work on a daily basis to achieve them they are not goals but dreams. Dreams are nice but they don’t cash at the bank.

Now back to the focus part. Focus is much easier to maintain when we have set reasonable goals. Long term (3-5 year) goals are attainable with focus on the goals for today and for the rest of this week. Once you have set your long term goals…forget them. Write them down and put that in a file somewhere and then focus on what you are going to do this week. Every year it’s good to pull out those long term goals and review them or amend them as necessary but then get back to work on what is in front of you right now. If you can set reasonably attainable short term goals and focus on a weekly basis you have the major ingredients needed for success in real estate and in any business.

Good luck,

Bill Ham