The start of a brand-new year is a great time to reflect on lessons learned and make bold plans for the future.
It doesn’t matter if you’re just starting out or starting over … the possibilities are endless!
We’re sharing practical tips for getting off to a great start in this new year … and new decade.
In this episode of The Real Estate Guys™ show, hear from:
- Your practical host, Robert Helms
- His practical joker co-host, Russell Gray
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Vision, Mission, and Values
For our last show of the decade, we’re going to talk about how you can gear up and prosper in a brand-new year.
When you have clarity of vision, strategy and tactics become evident.
We all want to know how to make money in real estate … but sometimes the true vision isn’t that clear.
It’s a great time in history to be thinking about clarity of vision because we’re entering 2020 … and we all want to see with 2020 vision.
So, today we are talking about how you can figure out how to go from where you are to where you want to go. It starts with getting a vision in your mind of what success looks like for you.
Anytime we have a challenge or an uncertainty, we sit down and ask ourselves … what is the vision? What are we trying to accomplish? What is the why?
You only have so much. You only have so much energy. You only have so many resources. You only have so much focus … so you need to know what to say yes to AND what to say no to.
If you can get a clear vision … and articulate that vision to other people … then everyone knows what they need to do without micromanaging.
On the other hand … if you lay the ladder of success against the wrong building, you’re going to get to the top, look around, and realize you are in the wrong place.
Your vision isn’t peripheral to your investing … It’s fundamental. It’s the foundation of everything you do.
Vision, mission, and values are three different things … but together they can really chart your course.
As we said before, vision is what success looks like in very clear terms. Mission isn’t about what success looks like … it’s the why behind what you do.
Mission is the reason what you are doing matters.
The best missions … in our experience … are those that are about making a difference for the better.
This could be with your community, or for a spouse, for your children, for your friends, for your employees … if you get up every day and are motivated to support someone else and make the world better … that’s a mission.
Values are really about the methodologies … what you’re willing to do and what you are not willing to do.
A great exercise is to sit down and come up with the six top values in your life … the things that really matter to you in life.
Stephen Covey says that highly effective people begin with the end in mind … all of these things help you do that.
Today, we’re going to give you some tools that you can use to actually get to where you want to go.
Start, Stop, Continue
One of our favorite tools is what we call Start, Stop, Continue.
Simply put … at the end of the year, you step back and look at the year and see everything you’ve done and ask, “What are the things that I should continue doing?”
This could be a particular area, market, or partner that has served you well.
Then, you have to ask, “What are the things that I need to stop?” Maybe it’s the way you spend your time or a personal or business partnership. Maybe it’s a market that you need to get out of.
After you have decided what will continue and what will stop, it’s time to ask, “What should I start doing?”
These could be new habits, new beliefs, new partnerships, new markets, new product types, new activities, or new people.
This is an exercise that requires you take time, sit down, and confront the brutal facts.
There may be things you are doing every week that aren’t serving you well … and these aren’t necessarily bad things.
Sometimes you have to say no to the good in order to say yes to the great.
If you’re busy … like most successful people are … you don’t have a lot of extra time. So, you have to make room in your schedule either through delegation or by removing items from your docket.
You can’t really create more time … but you can leverage time.
Once you have determined how to bring more good energy into your life, you need to create a productive structure to get it done.
Then, you establish clear goals, strategies, and action plans because you can allocate them into the structure.
Zero-based Thinking
The next tool in our arsenal is something we learned from Brian Tracy many years ago. It’s called zero-based thinking.
The question you ask yourself is, “Knowing what I know now, what would I do differently?”
Knowing what I know now would I get into this relationship? Knowing what I know now would I get into this particular deal? Knowing what I know now would I get into this marketplace?
And if the answer to any of those things is “no,” now is the time to change your course.
Maybe your accountant isn’t that great … but they’ve been your accountant for so long you just haven’t ever really considered leaving. Now may be the time.
Sometimes what you find yourself looking at is a personal relationship. If there are people in your life that don’t affect you in a positive way, it’s time to cut ties.
Zero-based thinking only works if you are willing to be brutally honest with yourself. You have to admit your mistakes.
But if you can, you can set yourself up for your best year yet.
For more tools for getting off to a great start … listen in to the full episode!
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