Setting Goals, Looking Back to Move Forward

It’s that time of year again.  As we start nearing the end of 2008 and looking forward to 2009 now is the perfect time to start thinking about your goals for the up coming year.  What do you want to accomplish?  What are your dreams?

I was chatting with an agent in my office yesterday and we were talking about our business goals for the upcoming year.   I don’t know about you, but patience is not a virtue that I possess large amounts of.  When I set a goal to do ‘x’ amount of business in the next 12 months, secretly and am hoping and expecting that it will really happen in the next 3 months and then I can spend the next 9 months on a beach somewhere soaking up sun and enjoying drinks with umbrellas in them!  I’m pretty good at achieving my goals, but so far, not that good.  So how do you manage your emotions and expectations when you get into the GAP?  The GAP is defined as the space between when you set a goal and when it actually happens.  How do you stay  positive about moving forward and knowing that it will be there when it hasn’t happened yet?

As I was pondering this I started to look back into my past and realized some pretty interesting things.  Turns out I am pretty darn good at this whole achieving my goals thing.  Here are some examples:

~ When I first moved to the Seattle area as was not overly familiar with the different cities and what they offered I remember driving down 108th Ave in Kirkland and thinking that this would be a nice place to live some day.  Today I live 2 blocks from where I was when I had that thought.  And to make it even more interesting, when we were looking for houses we were actually looking in Bellevue, and yet we still ended up living in Kirkland!

~ When I was pregnant with Ryan, our second son, I ended up in the hospital at 34 weeks with pre term labor.  I remember saying a prayer and asking for my pregnancy to go at least 3 more weeks. (Babies are considered full term and healthy anytime after 37 weeks.)  Ryan was born 3 weeks and 3 days later healthy as can be.

~ When I was in college, years ago, I remember having a conversation with friends about what we expected our starting salaries would be in our new jobs.  I said that I would expect to make at least $40,000.  My first year in real estate I made $39,986.78.

Even just typing these things out makes me smile and fills me with confidence.  My guess is that each and every one of you has similar stories like this.  I would encourage you to write these down somewhere and take a look at them whenever you are getting anxious about accomplishing a goal.  I guarantee that it will boost your confidence and make you feel like you can conquer the world!