With the new year just days away, you’re probably thinking about all the different things you want to accomplish in 2020.

Let us help you.

Today on Stay Paid, Luke and Josh offer rock-solid advice for setting (and crushing) all your goals in the year ahead.

Key Points:

• Set higher standards and work relentlessly to attain them.
• Reverse engineer a plan that enables you to achieve your goals.
• Spend less time “playing business” and more time doing things that move the needle.

Don’t be afraid to set your goals too high.

Most people abandon their New Year’s resolutions before the spring, and only 8 percent keep their goal through the entire year. Why is this the case?

Most people lack the confidence and follow-through needed to achieve their goals. Ed Mylett believes that confidence is created by promises that you’ve kept to yourself. In other words, when you keep promises to yourself, you’ll build confidence.

The reason why people don’t keep these promises is that their standards are low. Keep this in mind while you’re making your New Year’s Resolutions and setting goals for your business. You’ll never outgrow the standards that you set for yourself.

In many ways, your 2020 has already been written, because the thoughts you think influence the actions you take. That’s why you need to set ambitious goals and dedicate yourself to making them a reality.

Rob Gronkowski said he doesn’t miss the negativity in the Patriots locker room. Tom Brady would be unhappy about 10 wins and 1 loss. Any given game could always have gone better.

To use an example from the NBA, Lebron James once cussed out his teammates for not hustling enough when they were up by 30 points.

Substitute these top athletes for a top producer in any field. All of these people succeed because they set goals and pursue them relentlessly. Stop worrying about whether you can actually achieve your goals or not, and start aiming higher than what you think you could possibly achieve.

Reverse engineer your goals.

As an old proverb goes: “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

At ReminderMedia, we’ve made it a practice to reverse engineer our goals. We have a big goal in mind and then work backward—figuring out what we need to do in order to hit it.

Gary Keller’s The Millionaire Real Estate Agent outlines how different types of marketing campaigns will generate and convert leads at predictable rates. You can take those numbers and implement those same strategies in your business, while expecting a similar result.

Let’s say your goal is to get 30 transactions in 2020. Figure out what it would take to get to 30 transactions in terms of monthly numbers. Determine where your current deals are coming from, and then begin focusing on what you did to get those deals.

Start with appointments. Once you’ve figured out how many appointments you’re getting, you can determine how many of those people are converting into customers. Determined which types of activities generate the most relevant leads—for example, Facebook ads or cold calling—and then you can focus on doing those activities more often.

At times, tracking your success doesn’t feel productive. But you need to do it in order to find out what’s working. If you’re making calls and not keeping track of how many calls it takes to close a deal, you won’t know how effective calling actually is. On the other hand, once you know these numbers, you can use that information to guide your day.

Keep your “why” in mind.

It’s important to know why you’re really doing what you’re doing. What is the greater purpose you’re looking to serve? Is your goal to spend more time with your family, to send your kids to a better school, or to have more time to spend on your hobbies?

You’re more likely to pick up a phone or knock on a prospect’s door when you know what your “why” is. That’s why you should write down your goals constantly. When you have a tangible reminder of what you’re working toward, you’re far more likely to reach those goals.

Don’t waste your time doing things that don’t move the needle.

Be careful not to spend too much time planning or tracking at the expense of the things that actually drive business.

A lot of people will set goals the wrong way and “play business.” They spend too much time in meetings instead of doing things that move the needle. It’s not enough to simply talk about what you’re going to do—action is the key to success.

Schedule 7-minute meetings, like Gary Vee does. You don’t need to spend 30 minutes in a conference room just because that’s a nice, round number. Many times, you can get far more done in a shorter amount of time.

Create healthy habits.

If you don’t set goals, it’s because you don’t have the habits that enable you to set goals. Figure out what you need to do to make your goals a reality, and then make those things a part of your daily routine. Over time, you’ll notice results.

For example, if your goal is to lose weight, exercise and diet will get you there. The same is true for your business. By tracking and taking action, you can learn what it takes to get results. From there, it’s about how driven you are and how much fight you have in you.

Action Items:

• Write your goals down on paper.
• Raise the standards that you have for yourself.

Resources:

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