5 Strategies to Stay Positive While Chasing Your Goals
When we are going after a goal, we spend most of our time focused on the journey. When we do finally reach that goal, often, we acknowledge it, and then move on to the next goal. Since hitting the goals most times takes longer than it takes to acknowledge our success, we need to ensure that we pay close attention to our own internal happiness and positivity that keeps us motivated. If not, it could lead to us feeling like we are spinning our wheels and slipping into unhappiness. One of the things that I try to focus on as I’m going through my goals, is to maintain a level of happiness as I go through and knock out new deals, new LOI’s, and new partnerships.
I’ve come up with five ways to help keep my internal positivity on track with my goals:
1) Remind Yourself of What You’re In Control of Changing
As in business and in life, they’re only a few things within our control that will ultimately make a difference. I focus primarily on what I can change, what I can make better, and how I can help others. I avoid getting overwhelmed by things that I can’t control. For example, if a contractor does not deliver their work on time, I ask myself what I can do to improve the situation. Believe it or not, this is extraordinary hard as we all have bad days and sometimes obstacles get in our way. But if we can even control our emotions and maintain a positive mindset, you can see through the obstacle and get on the other side of it.
2) Watch your Language
I talked a little bit about this in the last video in terms of using positive language when speaking to investors. The same thing goes for speaking to yourself. If you’re able to keep what you tell yourself in check, you will do so much better. Do you say to yourself: “I screwed that up. I am such an idiot” or “I can’t believe I’m doing this. I’m such a fool”. All this inner dialogue gets built up inside your own head. It’s like you’re programming yourself with these limiting beliefs. It may seem harmless, but believe it or not, it impacts your overall way of being. You mustn’t allow that sort of self-talk to enter your mind. It’s detrimental to yourself and to your future. If I notice I’m having negative thoughts about a situation, a good rule of thumb that I use is if my brother messed something up, would I berate him? Of course not. So don’t berate yourself.
3) Commit to the Goal, Not the Path
Having a goal with a purpose is good for your brain. It establishes a focus.
Once you understand what your goal is and commit to it, you must make sure that you don’t get confused between the commitment to the goal versus the attachment to the path to get there. If you think you know one way to get to the goal, then you will only see certain opportunities. You’re only going to go in the direction that your brain is familiar with. It’s like you are putting blinders on and ignoring anything that can help you achieve the goal.
Committing to a goal means doing – within the limits of your value system – “whatever it takes to get there” vs “it has to happen this way and at this time using this process”. For example, if you are counting on a friend’s money to invest in a certain deal, but for some reason, that money is not available anymore, think creatively other ways to get that funding. Stealing or doing anything out of the law is not an option. Go through your social media contacts and find potential investors. Organize your proposal and start talking to people as soon as you can. Maybe the very same day. Make it happen. Don’t make the mistake to talk yourself into doing things only one way. It may/will turn you off to looking at other possibilities to realizing their vision.
When your approach is more like a matter of commitment and you do whatever it takes to reach your goal, it frees your mind. It opens your brain to seeing many more possibilities an make that goal happen. You will see other people to network with for collaborative efforts or you will use other methods to reach out to investors that you hadn’t considered.
4) Focus on Measuring Progress
When you are focusing on what’s in your control, like I mentioned earlier, you then set metrics around that. If you hit all the metrics you defined, then you will have success.
For example, if your goal is to buy an average of three 12-unit apartments for a total of 36 units in the next 12 months. you already recognize that you will need to put in some work to get there. Break it down into metrics – metrics you can control.
So, to hit your goal, you plan on sending out 20 mailers a week to prospects in your target area. Of course, you can’t control how many of those mailers result in a lead. But what you do control is making sure you are sending out 20 mailers a week, tracking the results, and continuing to hit that number month after month. So, you should focus less on the long-term, external results (the 36 units) and more on completing and tracking the task at hand (20 mailers a week). As long as you hit that goal week after week, you can be happy with your results or possibly double down if things are not moving fast enough.
5) Make Yourself a Priority
It’s good to have goals and the ambition to bust down walls to reach them, but you also need to pay attention to your health, business relationships and take time with loved ones or you will not be happy.
As real estate entrepreneurs, we often neglect this. We are so busy building our businesses that we may neglect our bodies, in terms of diet and exercise, and stress our relationships with our spouses. It’s important to take care of your health so you can be around to enjoy the fruits of your labor while making time for the people you love and want in your life.
Another important aspect is personal development. This means setting aside time to read books, attend seminars, and be around others that fortify your habits, so you can work more efficiently. The objective is to positive habits that almost allow you to run many important aspects you do on autopilot. Like brushing your teeth; You don’t need to think about how to do it, you just do it.
For those that have a hard time prioritizing their well-being, try implementing one small habit that will help you. Repeat it every day and track your progress. For example, you may want to get into the habit of writing your goals first thing in the morning over coffee. Make a promise to yourself the night before that you decide to keep. Have everything ready the night before; Do the dishes and leave everything ready for your coffee, Put your pen and notepad on the kitchen table. From there, follow-through. And spend a set amount of time writing your goals, maybe 5 minutes or the time it takes to finish your coffee.
Then once you create that one habit, make it a priority and eventually it’s just going to to be something you do as a matter of course. Then you can add another one. Be careful not to add too many new habits at once as it takes us time to adjust and accept the new habit. You don’t want to quit part way through.
So, again the 5 strategies to stay positive while chasing your goals:
– Remind yourself of what you are in control of changing
– Watch your self-talk
– Commit to the goal, not the path
– Focus on measuring progress
– Make yourself a priority
What do you guys think? What strategies to you use to stay positive as you knock out your goals? Let me know in the comments.