How to Accomplish Your Big Goals for the Coming Year

Success is never bred from talking. Nor is it achieved by wishing, hoping, or even believing. Dreaming and having a goal is important, but ultimately, success is achieved through taking action. Adjust, review, learn from past mistakes, and then take action again.

I am often amazed at the number of people who talk about ideas that actually translate into nothing. Saying something doesn’t make it real without action. For instance, I’ve often heard folks say things like:

“My business is going to crush it.”
“This year, we are going to do a TON of business.”
“I am going to be a millionaire.”
“My house is going to be HUGE.”
“I’m going to earn a whole lot of income.”

All these statements haven’t defined anything. Some of the statements are vague. Others have an overstated sense of pride or ego, but contain no real information. And all of them don’t actually explain how to make things happen.

State the Goals Plainly

Make the goals so clear and simple that anyone can understand them. When the goals are apparent, you’re able to create a clear path to get to them. They make sense to you and can be easily explained to others. These goals should also be aligned with what you actually want to accomplish.

Clear goals look like this:

Acquire 10 single-family residence rentals in the next 12 months in the $100,000 range, netting roughly $200 a month in cash flow.
Flip 12 properties in the next 12 months, with an average net profit of $25,000 per property.
Review three or four turnkey companies and pull the trigger on purchasing two turnkey properties within 12 months.
Buy a first investment property by house hacking a duplex that is roughly two beds/two baths and around 1,000 square feet per side, renting for at least $900 per month.
Increase revenue $120,000 for the year, or $10,000 per month, by doing one additional wholesale deal averaging $10,000 per month.
Work toward my dream home: 4,000 square feet, near the mountains, no more than 30 minutes from the office, priced around $500,000, requiring at least $100,000 or 20 percent down payment.
Stabilize financial situation by having 12 months of cash reserves, equaling $100,000 in the bank.

Write Them Down

Review your goals with regularity—preferably every day. Understand the goal and be so excited and driven to solve that problem you wake up and go to sleep at night thinking about the goals. Be obsessed with them. Talk about the goals, how you will achieve them, and what it will mean to you once you have achieved them.

Formalize a Clear Plan to Achievement

Once you have laid out the goal, make sure to take a step back and think through the problems that could arise. If your goal is to save up to $100,000 in reserves, then how much do you currently have? How much are you contributing to this goal per month?

If you don’t have additional income, what is your plan for saving money, and how much? Stabilize that income. Understand your next quarter pipeline. Review your current monthly budget. Don’t have a budget? Create one! Once your budget is laid out, ask yourself: How can I affect my spending while still living a similar lifestyle?

All of these questions come around the original goal, but now are tactical instead of strategic. Once you have the strategic objective, the problem is now what action to take to have the desired outcome.

Get Help From Someone Who’s Been There

If your goal is to own, say, 100 houses, you need to speak with someone who has actually owned 100 houses. There are so many people who have opinions about how to get to where you want to go. That’s not helpful. You want to receive mentoring and help from someone who has a business that looks like what you want your business to look like.

I distinctly remember early in my career meeting with a mentor and him laying out how his business looked. He had many “legs to the stool” within his business, including a brokerage, rentals, fix and flips, and lending. These are all amazing parts of his business, and an inspiration to my business and goals to this day.

What I learned very quickly, however, is it’s one thing to have many great or significant goals, but each of them requires your attention and time. It’s so easy to underestimate them and then fail to achieve any of them. Pick one goal and work like hell at it. Make it clear. Have a process or plan to follow it. And once that goal is achieved or that part of the business is running, then move to another different or bigger goal.

Track Results and Hold Yourself Accountable

If you aren’t tracking your way to your goal, it’s not really a goal. And it surely isn’t important to you. Your goal is meaningless, and you should re-evaluate it.

Track what is happening. If it’s that savings goal, and it’s month three, do you currently have $15,000 put aside toward that $100,000 goal? Why or why not? What is stopping you? Is it the income, or is it that you’re blowing too much money on other things?

Make adjustments. Spend less. Review and calibrate your actions to get the results you desire. Don’t make excuses. Share what is happening with close friends or mentors who understand and are helping hold you accountable as well.

Most of all, don’t simply talk about it. Talk is meaningless. The result is what you have from taking action. Success of the goal equals how well you have planned, reviewed, executed, and taken the proper steps to achieve that goal. Thoughtfully select, plan, and execute those goals.

What goal would you like to achieve in the coming year, and how do you plan to achieve it?

Share with a comment below!

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.