How to Plan the Perfect New Years Resolution

With the new year now well underway, it might be time to start revisiting those new year goals that you put in place just a few short weeks ago.

While most people will quickly forget about what they hoped to achieve this year, if you’re really wanting to improve your life and your business, now is the time to double down on your efforts.

If you’re struggling with your new year's goals, here are some ways you can make better plans so you can actually achieve what you want in 2023, and reach your fullest potential.

Be specific to you

Your new year's resolution should be specific to you and your journey, not anyone else's. While this goes without saying, it’s important that you become very specific with the way you outline your goals.

In life, if you say you’re going to “lose weight this year,” you’re setting yourself up for failure. Your goals should be specific and have further details around it like how long you give yourself to hit your goals and also what steps you’re going to take.

In real estate, you might want to hit a certain number of properties that you’ll sell this year. For this goal, you should state exactly how many properties you want to sell, for example, 25. Then you also need to break that down, so your goal will be “I want to sell 2 properties every month. To do that I will make 100 phone calls per day and do 10 listing presentations per week.”

Based on what you’ve achieved in the past, you’ll know that if you make a certain number of phone calls, you’ll be able to generate a specific number of listings which will in turn lead to the sales you want. Break down your goals, make them specific to you and set goals around the processes that will get you there.

 

Learn from the past

When you’re setting goals you can’t simply pull targets out of thin air and hope that you’ll miraculously arrive at your end result.

You need to set goals and processes based on what you’ve done in the past. The good thing is that every year that you’re in the industry, it does get easier, but that doesn’t mean you can take your foot off the pedal.

The best place to start is by analysing what is working well for you and what's not. This often starts the year before. Go back to your last 12 months and analyse where your leads are coming from. Typically you’ll find that 80% of your work is coming from just 20% of your efforts. Your job is to identify that 20% and do more of it.

Then you can set goals based around doing more of those activities that have proven to generate revenue. This way you’re not only setting goals but setting smart and achievable goals at the same time.

 

Be realistic

One of the appeals of real estate is that you are in control of your own earnings and your fate, reaping what you sow. The harder you work the luckier you will get. However, when it comes to setting goals you still need to temper your expectations.

If you’re consistent and work hard you will see steady improvement each and every year, notwithstanding the natural ups and downs of the overall market. However, if you’re setting your goals too high you could be setting yourself up to fail.

With the market cooling in 2023, it might be unrealistic to expect to write the same numbers that you did in 2021 or 2022 at the height of the property boom. And just because you don’t hit those previous highs, doesn’t mean that you’re not moving forward.

When setting goals, you need to set realistic expectations so that you believe within yourself that you are able to achieve them. If you set lofty goals that aren’t realistic, your mind has the potential to sabotage you. Look for small improvements in every area of your business, not a huge jump in performance during a difficult market. Over time, those small incremental improvements add up, so it’s your job to focus on the things you can control and over time you will see exponential growth.

 

---