Real Estate Investors need goals Too by Melvin Feller MA
As
a real estate investor, I want to challenge you to start setting some
goals, but remember if a goal is not in writing, it is simply a
conversation. It must be in writing and it must have a deadline. Here
are a few guidelines for setting goals in real estate investing.
Goals Must be Specific
I
want you to be specific and include details but start rough. When you
start rough for example, you want a Mercedes. You do not have to get
into the details about what color, what options, that sort of thing,
just write it down. Make your list huge, what kind of home do you want,
what you want for your family, college education, spend more time,
travel, anything you can think of. You can come back later and
prioritize them and set them up as to what you want in one month, three
months, six months, twelve months, then three, five, ten, twenty,
thirty-year goals. The more goals you have, the happier you will be, the
longer you will live, and the more prosperous you will be.
Goals Must be Believable
Remember
this, your goals must be believable, by you, or you will not pay the
price. They must be believable, they must be just out of your reach, but
you must know you can reach them if you really strive to do it.
Goals Must be Measurable
You
cannot set a goal to be financially independent. There is no way you
can measure that. You cannot manage what you cannot measure. You need to
set a goal for the amount of income you want per month, per year, the
amount of equity that you want in properties ñ one, three, five, ten and
twenty years. It must be measurable. That way you can break it down to
what I call practical to the ridiculous. If you know you want to earn
$250,000.00 a year, you know that is about $20,000.00 per month. That’s
just one flip every other month or 2–3 wholesale a month where I live.
One of the things I have learned is, successful people set their goals
quickly and they make adjustments as they go along. Just like successful
people make decisions quickly, they do not vacillate in indecision or
what I call sometimes; get mixed up in a funk of negativity.
Goals Must be Congruent
Your
goals must also be congruent with your actions. You cannot set a goal
to work harder, longer hours AND a goal to spend more time with your
family. Those are not congruent. They must be congruent with your
actions.
Visualize What You Want
Another
good thing that will help you with your real estate investing goals is
to visualize what you want. If you see yourself as already having
achieved the goal, you will fake out your mind and your mind sees the
goal as already having been achieved. It’s called “fake it till you make
it”. I used to do this all of the time, by creating a “dream folder”
with pictures of all the things I wanted, right down to the car, house,
and income.
Just
take a minute or two each day and think about life as it is with your
goals already accomplished. It’s really easy when you get used to it.
Work Your Goals
The
next thing you want to do is work your goals, work on the priority that
moves you closer to your goals every day. Plan your week carefully,
focusing on what the late Stephen Covey called “Big Rocks”. The big
rocks are the most difficult things to do mentally, not physically, that
produce large results. If you wanted to fill a bucket with big rocks,
small rocks, and sand, you need to put the big rocks in FIRST. If you
don’t plan, the sand fills in first, and the big rocks don’t fit.
Number Your Goals
Number
your goals in the order of importance. Not only is the goal important
but so is the reason. Sure, you want a car, but why do you want the car?
Sure, you want more money, but why do you want money? You want to be
able to spend more time with your family, you want to be able to travel,
you want to buy a Hummer, and you want to have an ocean front condo or
send your children to the best college. Whatever it is, the reason must
be there. The reason is more important than the goal itself.
Review, Monitor and Make Adjustments
Another
thing you need to do is review, monitor and make adjustments on your
goals. You have to be flexible. Some things are not going to happen, you
have to face that, but you need to continuously strive to get better
every day. If you will work harder on yourself than you do your job then
you will always be growing. Remember that last sentence and write it
down as it is worth repeating.
The Goals Must Have a Deadline
As
I mentioned first, your goals must have a deadline. A goal without a
deadline is just a dream. When beginning to set your goals, I want you
to set your goals in four basic areas:
Financial
You
will set goals based on income, equity or net worth, and cash flow. All
of these are financial goals and are easily measurable. Don’t get
overwhelmed with the numbers, though; focus instead on the short-term,
intermediate goals that will result in long-term success. For example,
if you want to make $25,000.00 on a particular type of deal within a
month, focus on how many calls you need to make a day to find such a
deal. Learn how to buy real Estate with “Little or No Money Down” or
other creative ways.
Health
If
you don’t feel good, chances are that you are not working at your
maximum capacity. So, I want you to set some health goals to stay
healthy. Remember “an apple a day”? What if this is right and you are
not doing it? Start small, though, you don’t try to tackle all of these
at once, but you need to be healthy not only for you but for your family
as well.
Family
Set
family goals. What is an example of a family goal? Maybe you want to
take four vacations a year. Maybe you want to visit a new state, three
times a year or five times a year. Maybe you want to go see the
Grandparents two or three times a year; but maybe not. Anyway, you get
the point.
Faith
You
need to set some spiritual goals, some faith goals. Without faith, life
will beat you up, eat you up, and spit you out. Remember, all the
“crap” that comes at you is nothing but fertilizer for the harvest about
to come.
Another
thing I want you to think about is the people you associate with. Take a
minute and think about this. If you think about your ten closest
friends’ annual salary and divide it by ten, then that is pretty close
to what you make. I’m not telling you to get rid of your friends, all
I’m saying is whom you associate with, is who you are like, so please
keep that in mind. Don’t get rid of your friends, just get some more
that are where YOU want to be in the future.
As
you can see, setting goals in real estate investing takes some work,
mental discipline, and THINKING which is why so few people do it!
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