Video Mystery Shopping Tip: Set Realistic Goals – or – Why you can’t lose 10 lbs. overnight!
My high school senior picture
Next month I am heading to Long Island, New York for my high school reunion! There is something special about going to a high school reunion. It’s as if you are stepping back in time! It’s always fun to see old friends and reconnect. So, in preparation for my big trip I have decided I want to lose a little weight. I have given myself one month to lose 10 lbs. I should easily be able to attain my goal of dropping 10 lbs in a month, right?
In order to achieve my goal, I have created action steps, like: exercise daily, eat nothing but salads and drink enough water daily to launch the Mayflower, the Pinta Nina, and the Santa Maria! At the end of each week, I will weigh myself to measure my success. If all goes according to plan, I should be able to fit back into the same jeans I wore in high school, who cares if bell bottoms aren’t in style anymore?? I have set my goal and I am going for it!
In new home sales, we are constantly setting goals for ourselves. How many homes are you going to sell this month? How many prospects are you going to call? How many realtors are you going to reach out to? Our professional lives revolve a lot around our professional goals. But, these goals must be realistic! If your professional goal is to sell 10 homes per month, yet your traffic is only 2 people a week, you may want to rethink your goal!
So, how do you go about setting your professional goals? Are they realistic? Or, are they too high or too low? When setting personal and professional goals, I like using the SMART goal system.
Specific – Get crystal clear and focused on your goals. General: ‘I want to sell a lot of homes this year’
Better: ‘I have sold one home a week or 52 homes a year’. (I also state my goals in the past tense as if I have already achieved them!)
Measurable – Establish a system for tracking your progress with each goal.
Attainable – Once you identify your goals, and write them down, it is easier to devise a plan to attain them. Do you have all the tools and resources you need? If your goal is to become a stronger closer, yet this is an area where you are not strong, you may want to consider sales training, working with a sales coach, or reading books on how to improve your technique.
Realistic – Are you really going to be able to accomplish your goal? My goal of dropping 10 lbs in one month is realistic. However, if I had made my goal 10 lbs. in one week, it would not have been!
Timely – What is your time frame for achieving your goal? In setting goals, you must have a beginning and an end. It isn’t enough to say ‘I want to sell 10 new homes’. Instead your goal should be: ‘I have sold 10 new homes by December 1st’
So, make sure when setting YOUR professional goals you are being SMART. Have an action plan in place to achieve your goals, and stay focused on the end result! As for me, my goal for the month is to keep working the plan! And, I have my bell bottoms hanging in my closet just waiting for me to do it!
