John Bendall of RE/MAX Classic Group in New Jersey discusses the best way to set goals

H  Would you play basketball without a basket?

H  Would you start driving without knowing where you wanted to end up?

H  Have you ever noticed that they put a picture of the cake on the box?!

H  Would you shoot arrows without a target?

H  No, you’re too SMART for that!!! J

SMART is an acronym for you to remember how to best set goals.

H    S is for Specific.  Be very specific with your goal.  Many people set vague or uncertain goals.  It should be very exact what you want to see at the end of the rainbow.  It’s a pot of gold.  It’s a black pot of gold with gold coins.  It’s a 55-gallon black iron pot with 19^th-century genuine Liberty coins salvaged from the famous S.S. Central America Shipwreck. You get the idea.

H    M is for Measurable.  How will you know if you get there without the ability to measure if you got there?  This is like the NFL playing games but without keeping score.  This is like having a long-jump contest, but not measuring after each jumper.  You need to know how you are going to measure it, then you need to measure it.  Sometimes this requires tools (weight scale, MS Excel, tape measure, etc.)

H    A is for Attainable. This is one that is most debatable for me.  Who is to fully determine attainability?  My impressions on this are to shoot for the moon.  Let’s say you just finished a month with 4 transactions and you set your goal for the next month to write 10 contracts.  For some, that would be called a stretch.  And to fully succeed, you HAVE to stretch yourself.  Let’s say you achieve 7.  Did you fail?  NO, YOU DID 75% MORE BUSINESS! Let’s say you set your goal for 5.  Would you get 7?  Too often, we sell ourselves short rather than shooting for the moon.  Here is where there is a caveat to the story: When you are just getting your confidence in something, it’s better to set your goals in small increments so as to not overwhelm/disappoint/frustrate yourself. 

H    R is for Realistic or Reasonable or Relevant.  I’ve heard all three.  I believe Attainable and Reasonable/Realistic are nearly the same thing, so I like to use Relevant.  Relevant begs the question, does accomplishing this goal help me achieve my mission, my purpose, my vision for my life?  Relevant means looking at the big picture and making sure that the goal fits into the BIG GOAL. Our team goal is to increase our referrals by 20% in 2006.  People who refer you business are happy with your services and they are Raving Fans.  Our purpose is to create Raving Fans by providing World-Class Service.  Getting referrals is MUCH more important than a certain volume, transactions, etc. because people can help you achieve it because they understand your goal.  Keep it Relevant!

H    T is for Tangible or Time-Bound.  I would argue that BOTH apply and are important.  If it CAN BE Tangible, make it Tangible.  It’s easier to achieve a tangible goal.  The picture of a car, a watch, a house, a mouse (from Disney), etc. is VERY POWERFUL in PULLING you toward the goal.  Set yourself a deadline for achieving a goal and I’ll discuss in a few sentences taking that to the next level.  Where I could have made this more tangible is tying a tangible reward to attaining this objective.  Going to a STAR  POWER  University, a Christmas Party at xxxx, something. 

Here’s how to take this to the next level:  I call this Achieving Success Daily.  Setting a goal of 50 Referrals means nothing if you wait until the December to try to attain it.  BUT, if you break it down to a DAILY GOAL, it seems much more appetizing.  That is a mere 1.37 Referrals a day!  Are you kidding me?  A team of 12 and we can’t get at least 1 referral per day!?!?!  The next step is to analyze the time/attempts to achieve this goal.  If I can get one referral per 5 phone calls, I should make 10 calls per day to get the 1.37 to 2 referrals.  10 Calls!  That’s it!  That takes approximately 1 hour.  In my schedule, I block off an Hour of Power, make the calls, and therefore, the goal gets achieved.  That’s why I call it Achieving Success Daily and this is why I have achieved what I have in the short time I’ve been doing real estate.  Break it down into small increments, daily…hourly and even the mightiest achievements can seem simple.  The journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step.  Just imagine if you planted a tree a day, wrote a handwritten note a day, found a buyer every day, found a seller every day, found a referral every day, cut your diet by 300 calories per day (that’s two Cokes, you’d lose 30 pounds that year), etc.   Ok forget about drinking less Cokes…just kidding…

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