Crush This Year Part 4: How I Set Goals

Howdy, folks, today I’m going to conclude our Crush This Year series by giving you some tips on how to effectively set goals.

But before we go any further, if you missed the first 3 parts in the series, you might want to catch so we’re all on the same page:

• Crush This Year Part 1: Fear and Failure
• Crush This Year Part 2: The Credibility Hack
• Crush This Year Part 3: Embracing Challenges

Well, I guess you’re all caught up so let’s get down to business…

The Goal of Effective Goal Setting

Now, you must realize, goal setting takes purposeful action on your part. I’m going to teach you my handy-dandy acronym to guide you through setting goals effectively.

SMART is an acronym standing for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. Let’s break it down and make it a bit more tangible now…

Specific Goals: A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal. With a specific goal you must answer the six “W” questions:

1. Who is involved?
2. What do I want to accomplish?
3. Where is the location?
4. What is time frame?
5. What are requirements and constraints?
6. What are the reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal?

Example: A general goal would be to “Get in shape,” but a specific goal would be “Join a health club and workout 3 days a week.”

Measurable Goals: A measurable goal is when you establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set. When you measure your progress, stay on track, reach your target dates and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs you on to continued effort required to reach your goal, you have reached a measurable goal.

To determine if your goal is measurable, ask questions such as:

• How much?
• How many?
• How will I know when it is accomplished?

Attainable Goals: Attainable goals are when you identify goals that are most important to you, and you begin to figure out ways you can make them come true. You develop the attitudes, abilities, skills and financial capacity to reach them. You begin seeing previously overlooked opportunities to bring yourself closer to the achievement of your goals.

You can attain most any goal you set when you plan your steps wisely and establish a time frame that allows you to carry out those steps. Goals that may have seemed far away and out of reach eventually move closer and become attainable – not because your goals shrink – but because you grow and expand to match them.

When you list your goals, you build your self-image, see yourself as worthy of these goals and develop the traits and personality that allow you to possess them.

Realistic Goals: A realistic goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work. A goal can be both high and realistic, but only you can decide just how high your goal should be. Be sure that every goal represents substantial progress.

A high goal is frequently easier to reach than a low one because a low goal exerts low motivational force. Some of the hardest jobs you ever accomplished actually seem easy simply because they were a labor of love.

Your goal is probably realistic if you truly believe that it can be accomplished. Other ways to know if your goal is realistic is to determine if you have accomplished anything similar in the past or ask yourself what conditions would have to exist to accomplish this goal.

Timely Goals: A timely goal should be grounded within a timeframe. With no timeframe tied to it, there’s no sense of urgency. If you want to lose 10 lbs. … when do you want to lose it by? “Someday” won’t work. But if you anchor it within a timeframe, “by May 1^st,” then you’ve set your unconscious mind into motion to begin working on the goal.

T can also stand for Tangible: A goal is tangible when you can experience it with one of the senses, which are… taste, touch, smell, sight or sound. When your goal is tangible you have a better chance of making it specific and measurable and thus attainable.

Know and Remember This

When you’re setting goals, you’re going to want to set very specific financial goals for all the benefits that they’re going to give you in your personal life.

A wise man once told me that, “The goal in the game of life is to live life to the fullest.” When creating your SMART goals, focus on how you’re going to use the money that you make to live your life to the fullest.

Now, here are examples of some short- and long-term SMART goals…

Quarterly goals:

• Set up wholesaling business systems
• Grow your buyer’s list by 100 pre-qualified buyers
• Wholesale three houses for $15,000 profit and use the money to pay off credit card debt
• Finish putting together your power team

Six months goals:

• Wholesaling business is now running smoothly and creating $10,000 a month in cash consistently
• Purchase one house from my long-term rental portfolio at a significant discount so cash flows
• Have my assistant trained to answer and screen lead calls
• All basic business functions outsourced

One year goals:

• Save $50,000 in cash
• Own two cash-flowing rental properties in good neighborhoods
• All marketing functions are on auto-pilot or outsourced
• Have 1,000 buyers in my cash buyer database
• Set up a self-directed IRA

3-year goals:

• 10 cash-flowing rental homes in my portfolio with all management outsourced
• $650,000 in pure equity and $250,000 in cash reserves
• Passive income from investments of $7,000 or more per month
• $20,000 in my self-directed Roth IRA

5-year goals:

• $500,000 in cash reserves
• $1 million in equity
• Investing business on complete auto-pilot and spending more time with family
• Purchase my dream car, Maserati
• Investing tax free within my IRA in performing notes
• Take on a young investor to mentor
• Give $10,000 a year to my favorite charity or charities

Fancy, huh? I aim to impress. But seriously, I hope you guys take it to heart and go out and absolutely CRUSH THIS YEAR. When ya get to the top, tell them Cody sent ya. J

Until next time then,

Keep rockin’