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The #1 Mistake When Setting an Annual Financial Goal

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So today is “Cyber Monday”, the first Monday after “Black Friday”. Yes, I admit I have participated in the cyber extravaganza and Amazon will soon be shipping gifts to several family members. So some of my holiday shopping goals are accomplished, but there are many more to achieve.

The holidays are a great time to reflect on what you have to be thankful for, the important people in your life and on your own accomplishments, not only personal but also professional. These reflections can be a catalyst to setting additional goals for continued growth.

From a commercial real estate perspective, these reflections tend to be focused on one’s financial accomplishments, or simply put – how much money you made. I would share with you that focusing on how much money you make in one given year is a short-term perspective. Leadership speaker Jim Rohn suggested, “your bank account is a reflection of where you have been, not where you are going.”

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Don’t get me wrong, financial goals are drivers, motivators for most. However, the vast majority of professionals I speak with cannot share with me why they set their financial goal. For example, many commercial real estate practitioners have informed me they “want to make $1 million, because it means something!” OK, but what exactly does it mean? Does it mean you had a good year, a great year, and if so, what does that mean to you and your career?

And that’s the problem with focusing on a single number. Your annual financial goal should represent a variety of things to you, the least of which is number itself.

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Perhaps reaching a financial goal represents progress in your career, maybe by reaching a financial goal you are able to fund your kid’s college, or pay off your own educational loans. Maybe you are able to buy that new car or house or go on that vacation you have been putting off. Reaching a financial goal may allow you to fully fund one or more of your retirement accounts. And that is the key to a financial goal. There must be another reason for pursuing a financial goal other than it simply being a number. For it is the “why” that drives the pursuit and the eventual accomplishment of most goals.

Setting goals is critical to your success, so critical that I will focus on goal setting on the blog this month. Don’t you want 2016 to be your best CRE year yet? To make this happen, you need to set clearly defined goals that you will commit to achieving. Once achieved you will gain competence and in that competence, confidence to pursue and achieve more.

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Next week, we will be providing a video blog on the importance of setting goals, how to set them, and more importantly, how to pursue them to best increase your chances of accomplishing them. For now, enjoy your Cyber Monday, and clear off some of those holiday shopping goals. Just don’t shop during prime prospecting times.

One Response

  1. Funny I’m working on my goals right now. Everything from putting the budget together to new ways to approach marketing. Hope to be done in the next few days. Wow it takes a lot of thought to get it all put together.

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