Over the past few weeks I have discussed some of the obstacles and thoughts we have had on different elements of working towards goals. Topics such as motivation and comparison have featured in some of my previous posts, http://lifeaboutthehouse.com/motivation-mind-set-and-comparison/
For us, our focus is family and our vehicle to achieving our goals is property; (hence why a lot of my content will be related to our property journey). However, so much of our work on mindset applies across all areas of our life not just the houses.
Of late, we have had to deal with a lot of paperwork, delays, worry, uncertainty and processes that have quite frankly swamped us mentally. Our ‘bounce back ability’ has taken a few hard knocks and has left us feeling, well, a lot less ‘bouncy’.
After reading some great books and gaining insights, we had to work on having the right headspace to go after those huge goals. This week I thought I would share a quick activity myself and Matthew did to help us; A: focus and B: work out the steps to get to those goals (that right now seem insurmountable, so far away and to be quite honest s*** scary).
Getting clear on the goal: Activity
After reading The One Thing, there was a section on working out the daily small things that build up and up to the big goal, like dominoes. (If you want to try this out, all you need is a pack of ‘post it’ notes and a clear wall).
We started with the areas of our life that formed our top goals. For us, it’s areas like family, cash flow needed, learning (not property related), giving back, social, health etc. The summarised goal goes at the top of the wall and we worked backwards, step by step. This makes you focus, it’s easy to chunk areas together, but when you take it all apart, they are made up of lots of moving parts like clock-work.
Our Goal Example
£xxx cash flow per month > How many rooms > How many properties would that be@ £1000 per month > How many offers made on a 1:15 conversion of accepted offers > How many viewings to get those offers > What area will provide those properties and so on.
By the end of it, we broke down a large number that seems way out of range, into achievable daily steps. This isn’t a new technique, I have seen post it notes in so many trainings and as assessment tools, but for us, having a colourful ‘post it note tree’ on our wall, just made us feel like we could get a handle on it. Sometimes, getting started or changing direction is the hardest bit when the end seems so far away. It also made us focus on us.
Do you ever listen to what other people want to achieve and get swept up in their goals? I find myself sometimes listening to people talking about dream cars for instance and all of a sudden I have gone from being able to name 4 cars to wanting an F Type. Yes it is a beautiful car, yes it would be awesome, but it doesn’t fire me up and get me up in the morning.
I have had to remember what does, because losing focus on MY whys made me feel lost.
We aren’t all driven by the same thing, we don’t all want to be billionaires and that’s ok. I saw a quote but can’t remember who it’s by, so, to summarise “remember why you started”. Always.