GOALS - How I Will Get Back on Track and Stay There! (YOU TOO!)

As you can see from the date on my last post, that it’s been a while since I have written on this blog. So what happened? Life happened! The problem is I wasn’t in the driver’s seat. Ok, I was in the drivers seat but I wasn’t driving very well! I got sidetracked. Ever happen to you? In a nutshell, here’s what happened to me:

• Made a promise to myself that I would break into real estate investing
• Revved up my wholesaling business to raise capital – made a logo, designed a postcard, put together a mailing, sent it out, got a bite, did my first wholesale deal, made $15,000!!!

WOOO HOOO! Life is good right? No! WHAT HAPPENED? I wasn’t getting many calls on my mailings and I was spending a lot of money (truth is, I didn’t give it long enough!). So I decided to get my real estate license to find deals. Money was tight so I thought "I’ll do the agent thing to bring in quick cash to pay the bills but still do investing." WRONG! Being a full time mom and a full time agent leaves no time for investing.

This was that fateful turn in the road that distracted me and got me off track. So for the last few years, all I’ve done is sell homes for a commission – another J-O-B!

WHAT TO DO?
Get right back on the horse and this time take a road map so I don’t go down the wrong path! Here’s how I plan to implement my JOURNEY. I hope this will help you too.

HOW TO STAY MOTIVATED?
I’m going to put systems in place that will keep me accountable.

1. Put My Goals Out There Every Day! I have a list of 8 goals (my favorite #). Notice the order? This is the order I will do them. Action items on top!

• 3 “this week” goals in the order they need to be done. 
• 1 month goal
• 6 month goal
• 1 year goal
• 5 year goal
• Ultimate goal

Put them everywhere! On my bathroom mirror, on my car dashboard, in my wallet, homescreen on my phone! Then every week recalibrate!

2. Accountability: Get an Accountability Partner (AP)! The key here is to have a check in with someone weekly to go over your objectives. My “one week” goals are the ones my AP will be asking me about at our next meeting. Knowing that meeting is coming up will make me motivated to act for fear of having to say “This week I failed to do what I said I was going to do”. Oh, and I'll post them here! Now if I don’t do it, you all will know! Nothing more uncomfortable then putting this blog post out to the community – Now I have to do it to save face!!

3. Reward Myself: I’m pretty good at staying motivated if I have my eye on an attainable prize. Not my big goal prize but something little to reward myself with. Something like this:

• If I get the first draft of my business plan done by Friday, I’ll surprise my kids with going to the ice cream shop after school…YUM!
• When I have 2 successful meetings with would be investors, I will get a manicure.
• When my website is up, I will binge watch “This is Us!”

All of these things have built in reminders in them. Every time I drive by the ice cream store I’ll say “Oooh, not yet!” or I look down at my shabby nails and say “Better get on it!” And of course, my husband asking “When are we going to watch This is Us?

4. Surround Myself With People in the Biz: I also realized that when I started selling real estate, I was hanging out with agents, not investors. I stopped going to the meet-ups and didn’t have time to read on BP and slowly all those relationships faded away. THAT CHANGES TODAY. 

• Get over the shame of falling off the wagon and reach out to the people I met a few years ago. This sounds like calculated networking but in reality, I really like those people. We had a lot in common and we fed off of each other! I genuinely liked being around them! SO GO BE AROUND THEM AGAIN!
• If I click with someone and I really think I can learn from, I’ll take them out to lunch!
• Read and post on the BP forum daily!
• Listen to Podcasts and then reach out to the people I find inspiring!

5. Take a Good Hard Look at Where I Bring Value to the Table: When I find someone I think would be a good mentor or partner, I need to think of how I can make their business better. Nobody wants to hang out with people that constantly ask questions or ask for favors. I have to ask myself, “What do I have that they want?” Lasting relationships are built on give and take where both people win. I need to make myself valuable!

6. Keep Learning: You never know enough in this business so suck it all in! I drive a lot so I listen to books on tape. Here are some of the best books I have learned from:

General topic books:

• The One Thing – by Gary Keller
• You Are a Badass – by Jen Sincero (be prepared to crack up!)
• The Richest Man in Babylon – by George S. Clason
• The Meracle Morning – by Hal Elrod

Real Estate Investing Books:

• Rich Dad, Poor Dad – by Robert Kiyosaki DUH!
• The ABCs of Real Estate Investing – by Ken McElroy
• The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No and Low Money Down – by Brandon Turner (It really is good! : )

HINT: Many of these books are available on Hoopla for FREE! Now there is NO EXCUSE!!

7. Ready…Set…Go! There is no time like the present. Learn from my failures and put that learning into action. I will not be part of the group that lives on the periphery of this business. Reading about it, dreaming about it and saying “Some Day”. I will be a part of that small minority that pulls the trigger and actually does it! AND YOU CAN HOLD ME ACCOUNTABLE TO THAT!!!

CHALLENGE: Write a comment with your own goals AND COMMIT TO THEM HERE! Then I’ll be a witness! – we'll all be! You’ll be surprised at how putting them out there will give you the nudge you need to take action! HOPE TO HEAR FROM ALL OF YOU SOON!