KGCI: Real Estate on Air - 10 Vital Checks for Setting Your Path to Success!

Episode Date: November 12, 2024

Hello, goal setters. Welcome to a transformative episode of goal setting mastery on the Simple Truth with Stuart. I'm your host, Stuart, and today we're diving deep into the art of setting your path to success. Get ready for a masterclass in goal setting that will propel you towards your dreams. Now, have you ever felt like your goals are as elusive as a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow? Or fear not. In this episode, we're not just talking about goal setting. We're providing you with a comprehensive toolkit to master it. Consider this your roadmap to turning your dreams into achievable milestones. Think of this as your personal goal setting boot camp. We will walk you through the 10 vital checks that will ensure your goals are clear, actionable and aligned with your vision for success. Whether you're aiming for personal growth, career advancement, or financial prosperity,

these checks are your secret source to goal setting mastery. From clarifying your objectives to breaking them down into manageable tasks, we'll explore the essential steps that will turn your aspirations into reality. Because in the journey towards success, setting the right goals is half the battle one. So grab that notepad, perhaps a cup of tea to fuel your inspiration. And let's dive into goal setting mastery. This is the simple truth with Stuart where we believe that clarity breeds success and actions fuels achievements. So let's embark on this journey together for some inspiration and the strategies that will improve.

empower you to set goals that propel you towards the life you desire. This is Stuart. So now let's keep it simple, keep it real, and let the master goal setting together. Remember, your goals are the blueprints for your future success. So make sure they're clear, actionable and aligned with your dreams. You've sent your goals and you're getting excited. But are you actually going to be able to achieve those particular goals? Well, according to science, only 8% of people actually achieve their goals.

So this actually begs the question. How do you increase the odds in your favour? It almost sounds like a Hollywood movie. Well, I'm going to share with you 10 simple checks that you can do for your goals to improve the chances of you actually achieving your goals. And with these 10 little checklists, you can actually move that percentage from only being 8% to almost 80%. And the last 20%, well, that's your commitment.

That's you having to physically do it. So let's get into having a look at what are these little checklists that you can actually go through. And many of them, you're going to actually go, oh, I've heard that before, Stuart. I know that one. That's actually quite straightforward and simple. But are you actually using it? Are you actually sitting down and using these 10 checklists? So let's go through them and I'll go through them in a fairly rapid pace.

But at any stage, you can always, you can always rewind back and re-listen to them. So what's the first one? Well, the first one is the most obvious. It's the one that you can Google. It's the one that you get told by almost every single coach that you speak to. Everybody that talks about goals they talk about, yep, I know you were going to say it, a smart goal. And there is actually a difference when we start looking at goals. And goals for many is kind of like something that we dream about.

And that's one of the reasons why when we have into that category. of a dream, we actually, it just never gets achieved. So we use this acronym smart. And having this acronym smart just really helps to break it down. So if you've never heard this acronym before, well, I'm going to share it with you. And if you have, I'm just going to recap and always ask you, are you using it? So smart. It's S-M-A-R-T, quite straightforward and simple smart.

The S. Now the S stands for specific. You see, when you get to a specific on your goal, you actually remove any level of ambiguity because you'll know exactly what it's going to look like. So you need to make sure that it's very, very specific. The M, it stands for a measurable. And why do we want something measurable?

Well, how do you know if you've achieved the goal, if you can't measure it? You know, it's something where you say, I would like to do this and it's out in the clouds. Well, when you get to the clouds, how do you know? Well, you use measurables so that you know that you have actually achieved it. That's big. A, now this is the third letter. A stands for attainable.

Now, this actually strikes a balance between what is challenging and what you can do. So many times we actually set ourselves these particular goals that's way outside of our particular capabilities. So what we need to do is we need to make sure that we're bringing it down to something that is attainable. So, so important. The R, it actually starts for being relevant. And does it actually link to any form of vision in your life? So look at what you're doing in your life. And is this goal relevant to your life?

If it's not, if it's something that's totally outside of anything that you can think of, there's no relevancy to it, which is actually going to give you even more of. a challenge to actually achieve it. And the last, well, I'm sure you've all guessed it. Yep, it's T for Time Bound. And this becomes such an important factor. In order for us to actually achieve a goal and remove what we like to call procrastination, we actually put a deadline to it.

So think of it this way. You've actually booked yourself a holiday and you're driving out at 2 o'clock on Friday afternoon to go on holiday. Now, how many times in that morning of the Friday, you get so much done and you're on time to get in the car, maybe you're off an hour late, but you actually get into the car and off you go. You see, if you just say, I'm going on holiday,

the chances are you might leave at 10 o'clock that night or Saturday morning at 9 o'clock. So we set ourselves that particular time bound so that we eliminate that procrastination, and we know when it's deadline. So this is the smart goal acronym. And this is the first little checklist. So when you're actually writing down your goals, you can just use this as a simple.

S specific, M measurable, A, attainable, R relevant, and T timebound. Very straightforward, very simple. So that's the first checklist. Is your goal smart? Now, let's have a look at the second one. And this when I have a coaching call with all of my clients, we set up there. a particular goal. And I ask them this particular question.

Why is that goal so important to you? And that actually starts to bring this goal to a new life. Because you see, when you've got a big enough why that is linked to that particular goal, and in fact, a big enough why has some form of emotional connection to it. When you have a big enough why, it's actually going to give you this self-motivation and this drive that you can actually do it and you want to do it because it's going to have some kind of meaning to you. So yes, goals are supposed to be challenging

but they need to have some form of why, some form of purpose that actually lies behind it. So you ask yourself the question, do you have a big enough why? Or ask yourself this question once you've identified your smart. goal, you can actually ask yourself the question, why is this goal so important to me? And write down an answer on that. That will actually give you the actual why behind that particular goal.

And it's so, so important. Now, the third little checklist is, have you made the time? So many times we actually create these particular goals, but our life is so busy. And when we start to say, well, I want to achieve a certain goal, for instance, I want to climb Kilimanjaro, one of the tallest mountains in Africa. Well, what can I actually do and to do that? Well, I need to do all the training. I need to do all the eating. But then you look at your schedule.

You look at your actual day. And you say, well, do I actually have the time in my particular day to do the activities required to achieve in that goal? Yes or no? because we do run a busy life. So have you made the time for it? And can you make the time for it? It's so, so important because remember, in order to achieve a particular goal, it requires activities.

And it's those activities that needs to fit into your schedule. So have you created the schedule for it? And do you have the time to put it in? So many times when I sit with my clients and I have the conversation about their goals and the activities. And then we start looking at their business activities, their personal activities, basically their work life balanced activities. I ask them the question.

So when are we going to do this? Are we going to do this between the hours of 1 and 2 a.m. every morning? Which becomes a bit of a humor side of it. However, the realization comes in that maybe we've picked on something that's a little bit too big for us. Or maybe it's something that we haven't actually shuffled to fit into our potential. calendar and schedules. So the third checklist is have you made time for it? Can you fit it into your schedule? Can you readjust your calendar so that you can actually put that into play?

So, so important. Now, we've gone through the place where you've actually identified your goal. You understand why it's so important. You say, yes, I have the time. I'm going to do it three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, from 9 a.m. till 10 a.m. So I've got all that in place. are feeling great about this, the energy starts coming up. Now what you need to do, and this is the fourth one, is have you actually started to make that a habit? Is it something that it's a chore where you're going, oh my gosh, I've got to do this again today?

Or have you created it as a habit where you get up and you just do it? You actually have got that energy because you know, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from 9 until 10, this is exactly what I'm going to do. I'm not questioning it. I'm actually going to create it and it becomes a habit. And when you start getting it to be a habit, it becomes a natural progress for you. And what you'll find is once you get to that point where it becomes autonomous, it just automatically happens.

Man, those goals just click your fingers and you've achieving those goals left right and center. So you need to make sure that you've actually identified that it's going to have to be a habit. and is it something that you're going to stack a habit? In other words, you're going to bolt this onto another existing habit to make it easier for you, or you're going to do this and you're going to end it with something that creates a habit or a reward of some sort. You need to make sure that it's in your calendar and it's got to become a habit, not something that is a chore so, so important for you. Now, the fifth one is something that so many people just do not have.

And that is what we call an accountability partner. Someone that is going to hold you accountable to it. You know, when you're going through this whole journey of identifying the goal, understanding why it's so important for you, actually then starting to break down to put it into your calendar so that you know that you've got the time and everything's been rescheduled. you're starting to change it from a chore over to a habit so that you're really getting yourself involved with this.

Who's holding you accountable? Because what can happen on a Wednesday morning, you suddenly go, you know what, I'm not actually feeling. I've got a little bit of a headache. And that's like at 6 o'clock in the morning. And you start with that motion of, you know what, I'm going to take it easy today. And just before 9 o'clock, you go, you know what?

I know the headache is gone. I just want to ease into the day. So I'm not going to do it today. I'm going to do it on Friday. I'm going to carry it on Friday. And then you get to Friday and, oh, you know what? Actually, I'm going to take this week off and I'm going to then do it on Monday. And when Monday comes, Monday's just so busy because there's been so much work that comes in.

And next minute you look at your watch and it's 11 o'clock and you go, oh, I actually forgot to do it. No, Wednesday's going to come and then it falls off. if you have someone that's holding you accountable and it's straightforward and simple, it can be something like someone phoning you and saying, hey, did you do it today? Yes or no? Simple. Did you do the activity? Yes or no. It could be an accountability partner as somebody that you do it with. So for instance, if you're doing something that's based around health, maybe it's going to the gym or eating healthy, you can actually be doing it with a accountability partner. So they're actually holding you accountable and you're

You're holding them accountable, which increases the chances of actually getting yourself to achieve it. So make sure that you've got that accountability partner and they've got to be working with you, not against you. It's not somebody that goes, oh my gosh, I don't think you can do this. This is just outside of your capabilities. You need to make sure it's somebody that is supportive and somebody that says, hey, why didn't you do it? And they're going to start making you feel really bad when you have not done it. So get that accountability partner into your side, work with them, meet with them, talk with them, and get them to hold you accountable, make you feel, I didn't do it.

And even, I've done this with a number of clients, especially when they're in the sales aspect and they need to make a certain amount appointments a day. I'll say, did you make those appointments? They say, no. I say, well, here's a challenge for you. When you don't make those appointments in a day, you need to pay something to your accountability partner. So you need to get hold of your accountability partner and say, look, if I don't do this today, I'm going to pay you X. And trust me, when that accountability partner knows that they can make some money out of you,

they're going to be phoning you every single day or every single time that you've scheduled it and said, hey, did you do it? Yes or no. They want to hear you say no because they're going to say, right, now you owe me X. And that's going to start to burn your pocket where it's going to give you that little bit of motivation. So are you accountable to anybody? you need to have that accountability partner. So, so important. So now we're going to get into really the last couple of checklists.

This takes it beyond. And this is really when I'm working with clients on a one-on-one basis. I start taking it a little bit further than just the basics of what we can read on Google, Internet, et cetera. And what I've shared with the first five, I'm sure you've heard it over and over again. Now the next five, you may have not heard before. Now, the sixth one is can you actually see yourself achieving that goal? Now, what I mean by that is can you visualize yourself?

So, for instance, if you have a goal to upgrade your car, buy a new car, can you visualize yourself sitting in that car, holding your hand on the steering wheel, hearing the engine raw, the smell of the car. Can you actually see yourself achieving that particular goal? Maybe it's losing weight. Can you actually visualize yourself buying that outfit that you can actually fit into? Maybe it's a running or a cycling goal. Can you see yourself crossing that finish line? If you cannot, you're starting to put up a limiting belief. So what you need to do is you need to be able to visualize yourself, actually seeing yourself achieving that particular goal. And it is so important that that visualization becomes real.

You can feel it under your fingers. You can actually under your skin. The senses are heightened when you think about it. In fact, it starts to become like an emotion of excitement. So can you see yourself achieving that goal? And it's quite a simple question. I say to a lot of my clients when we've gone through the process. and I say, well, can you see yourself?

And they say, I'm not too sure. Yeah, I can see it as a chat. Well, there's the block because if you cannot see it, how are you supposed to do it? You need to be able to see yourself. You need to hear it, taste it, smell it. You need to have all of those senses so live like you've actually achieved it. It is so, so important. Now, many of you have actually heard of this.

It's called a vision board. and the vision board is always done in the incorrect order. You see, for a lot of people, they start with the vision board and then they start creating their goals. I do this in reverse. What I do is I actually create the goals, go right through to the whole process, and then I say, can you visualize it? And I say, from that visualization, now we've got a very specific goal, not something that is cluttered with so much. We've got a specific goal. Now we start to actually put that onto our vision board.

very very specific and that just reminds you of your goal that you can actually see it and helps you to get that particular feeling that you're going through it so it's so important so you can see when I'm doing a vision goal or vision boards I do it in reverse and you can understand why I do that in reverse now the seventh little checklist is it's kind of it's internal to you and it's your self-belief do you believe that you You can do it. Because very many times we have ambitious goals. These are goals that we are wanting to achieve.

They are big. They are bold. They excites us. They tick all these boxes to make our life different. We can visualize it. But do you have the self-belief that you can do it. And I know that you can do it, by the way. It's not a matter of fact of, do I believe you can do it.

I know you can do it. Every single one of us out there can actually achieve our goals. but we do have this limiting belief within our minds that can kind of say, yeah, I can see it, and there's a hesitation, and it's that self-belief. If we drop that down below a certain notch, ultimately, we start having the negative self-talk, which really it talks us out of actually achieving that goal. So you need to actually have that self-belief that you can tackle. You can achieve that particular goal.

And when you start believing in that particular fashion, ultimately what's going to happen is you're going to go, hey, wait a minute, I can actually see this. That goes too small. I need to make it bigger. I need to actually take this to be bigger and bolder. I need to actually, instead of doing it in six months, I need to achieve this in maybe two weeks. I need to start bringing it down a notch. So you need to start having that self-belief of I can. And I know every single one of you have that.

It is so, so important to have that self-belief. Now, the eighth little checklist is really one that puts a smile on my face when I have the discussions with my clients. And it's something where when you're actually doing, and I've said this before, a goal requires activities. Those activities should never be chores. They should just flow into a habit. But most importantly, these particular activities, you should be grateful for actually doing them. Now, what I mean by grateful, it should make you feel good. When you actually go out and do that particular activity, which is a journey to achieving that particular goal, you should have the sense of, hey, that was actually good.

That was fun. I actually enjoyed that. I actually want to do it again because that gives you this little self-motivation and this dream. and this drive to say, hey, I can actually do this. You see, you've got to be grateful for the journey that you actually are going ahead and what you're doing. It's not something where we wake up in the morning,

oh, I haven't achieved my goal, and boof, I just drop down. No, it's something where I'm doing activity number one. I do activity, guess what? Just by doing that activity, you've actually moved yourself one step closer to achieving your goal. And that is a success. and that's what you should be grateful.

You should actually go, that was amazing. I want to do that one again. Instead of doing it three times a week, I want to do it five times a week. Instead of doing it five times a week, I actually want to do it ten times. Twice a day, once in the morning, once in the off. You can see how the excitement starts to come through. When those activities are chores, they fall into a negative category. You're not getting that gratification.

And ultimately, it's going to stop. And when you stop doing those activities, you don't achieve the goals. So you've got to look at those activities. If it's an activity that you don't enjoy, well then you ask yourself the question, how do I make it an activity that I will enjoy? How will I make an activity that I will enjoy? And that's when you're going to start getting to that level of excitement to achieving your particular goals. It is so empowering when I meet with clients and they go, you know what,

They just want to talk about the activities that they did in this particular week. There is so much excitement inside of them. And then I say to them, but your excitement is on your activity. Your excitement's not on achieving the goal. No, but the activity was absolutely amazing. It gave me an experience. And I'm going, well done. Now you're seeing the journey that we're actually going through.

And when they achieve that goal, I can tell you now, they achieve that goal that excitement is through the roof. It is absolutely amazing. It's like they've won a lottery ticket because it's something which they felt originally they could not achieve, but they've gone through this particular process, but they've enjoyed the journey. And when you enjoy the journey and you achieve that goal, you're going to do it again. Your next goal that you actually set up, you're going to be excited for it. And you're going to start achieving more and more goals as you're going through. So remember, when you're looking at those particular activities, it's a journey and you're You need to enjoy it.

It needs to be something which you go, man, that was absolutely fantastic. Now, the ninth little checklist is, see, many of our goals, I've got clients that will set a 10-year goal, a 5-year goal, a 1-year goal, and these goals are so far out. And time seems to become slower and slower in trying to achieve it. That deadline date just seems to always get pushed further and further and further. So what we actually do is we use a process which is goal setting to the now. And what that actually means is taking a big goal and breaking it down and saying, well, what is the smaller version of that? And we commonly call that a milestone.

And we break that down into these little milestones. So, for instance, if you're wanting to lose weight, well, you could actually say, all right, I want to lose X amount of percentage. So once I've lost 5% there's a milestone. So let me work to achieving a loss of 5% of my current body weight. Then my next milestone is 10%. My next milestone is 15% until I get to that 20%. You see, when you take that bigger goal and you break it down into smaller goals,

those smaller goals are called milestones. And now when we look at our activities, the activities, that journey, becomes a lot of fun because now you've done two, three activities you've achieved a milestone. You've got a level of success in you that starts to build you up

which means you now start in the next journey you do the next set of activities which you're enjoying, you hit the next milestone which is a bit bigger and as you're going through before you blink you've actually surpassed your original goal and you're actually now starting to work on a goal that has actually not even been set by yourself.

It's just you've pushed straight past it. You're actually on a journey where you're actually just starting to accept this is my life of success doing these activities. So check number nine is all about taking that big goal and seeing how you can break it down into milestone goals. And the easiest way to do it is if you've got a goal that you want to achieve in the year, well, ask yourself the question, where do I need to be in six months, where do I need to be in three months, where do I need to be in one month. Where do I need to be in one week? Where do I need to be at the end of today? That is those milestone goals. And if you achieve what it is for today, that will put you on track

to achieving that weekly milestone, which will put you on track for the monthly, the quarterly, the biannual and the annual goals. So set out those little milestone goals so that you can actually get yourself in progress. And it's such a great way. We always use this particular analogy and life like if you want to climb Mount Everest, you don't just start to the bottom and in one day walk straight to the top. No, you've got different levels of base camps that you go through to. And when you're setting up that task, base camp one, that's your milestone. That is where you're heading towards. Once you're there, you tick it off, I've achieved it. That's a small goal. Then base camp two. And you do the same. Then base camp three, do the same. And then it's summiting.

and you can see how we break it down into these small pieces. Each one is so significant to getting you towards your particular goals. Then the final, and this one here is really when I'm working with clients, as I mentioned, so many of them set up their 10 year, their 5 year, their 12-month goals. And these particular goals, we cannot forecast what's going to happen in the future. We cannot forecast what's going to happen in, say, 20 weeks. time halfway through the year. What we need to do is we need to then start to break down these particular goals, as we've mentioned, into milestone goals. But what I add into this is I then

look at these particular goals and I say, right, so we have an annual goal that we'd like to achieve. Let's break this down into a quarterly goal. So we work over three months, 13 weeks, and we actually say here is this particular goal and this is the alignment goal all the activities that we do now we actually focus to achieve it in 13 weeks in a quarter three months the reason why we do that is three months goes by so quickly before you blink you've actually hit that quarter down when you set a goal each quarter this is what I'm wanting to achieve and you actually start working towards that that actually puts you on to alignment to achieving that annual goal. So we start out by thinking about our annual goal,

but we break it down to these milestones. And the one that really highlights, the one that we do a lot of celebrations on, is when we hit those quarterly goals. We hit those quarterly goals. We celebrate that. And there's a bit of a psychology around that little quarterly goal. And the big thing is,

is if you are pushing that goal too far out, as we're going through the activities can become a little bit monotonous and we tend to say we have to do this and we have to do this and you start to push yourself and burn yourself out and then it disappears if you set yourself a goal that is just and I'm not referring to a milestone I'm talking about an actual goal that's only a week away whether you achieve it it's gone it's it's kind of it disappears and it doesn't actually feel like you've done anything

and it can also be that if we set it as a too short a time maybe it's a too big a goal. So having it is one week when, hey, in fact, we actually need three months to do it. That three month mark, that quarter is really a sweet spot with most of the clients that I actually work with. As I start to guide them down to, what is that quarterly goal that we need to? 13 weeks, we can break that down and then we can actually start to move ourselves closer to achieving all of these particular goals. So these were my 10 checklists that I've actually then just shared with you. So when we look at them, one, set those goals up to be a smart goal.

The number two is ask yourself the question, why is this goal so important to you? Remember, that's the why it's the purpose that drives around. The third one is have you actually made time in your schedule to allow you to actually do it? Don't just say that you're going to do it. You need to make sure that you've booked those particular times. The fourth one is once it's into your calendar is making it into a habit, not making it into a chore. So it's got to be something that you can actually put it into your diary. It becomes a habit where you just automatically go ahead and do it.

The fifth one, do you have that accountability partner? And are you going to be paying them loads of money when you don't actually do it? The sixth one is that visualization. It's actually seeing yourself achieve that goal. You've got to have that feeling under your skin. Hey, I achieve it. It's absolutely amazing. That visualization is so important.

Number seven is that self-belief. You've got to believe in yourself that you can achieve it. I can. Start with those words. So, so important because when you can actually believe it in yourself, that you can do it, trust me, everything else goes out of the actual window. The eighth one is actually being grateful for the journey that you're going on. This is all about enjoying the activities and actually embracing them.

You finish an activity, you actually feel on top of the world. It actually gives you the sense of gratification that you're moving towards that particular goal. And once you've achieved the goal, you actually just want to do it again because it's such, such a memorable journey that you've actually gone on. The ninth one is taking these big goals and actually breaking them down into milestone pieces. So these milestones are small segments of that particular goal to help you to actually achieve that bigger goal. They always say, how do you eat an elephant? One mouthful of time.

But please don't eat an elephant. We don't want to kill any animals out there. And the last one, the 10th checklist, and this is really one of those little tip checklists, is set a goal for a quarter, 13 weeks. Have that as this particular position that you wanting to actually achieve. because when you've actually achieved that particular goal in that particular time frame, what you're going to find is you're actually going to feel great about it.

It really helps you. It's not too far out. It's not too short. It's actually the sweet spot for you to actually go out and actually achieve those particular goals. So remember, your goals are the blueprints for your future success. So now make sure they're clear, they're actionable, and they're also lined with your dreams.