How To Set Goals and Smash Them (Special Mindset Monday )

How many times have you set a goal and not followed through?

Discover why it's vital to set goals in such a competitive industry, the importance of having your "why" & how to hold yourself accountable...

I'm going to be breaking down how to set goals and stick to them. I wanted to cover this topic because I realised you could have all the property education and knowledge that you need, but it's another thing actually getting your first property. There's a famous saying: to know and not do is not to know at all. 

If it's not enough to know, you've got to take massive action, and you have to stick to it. Consistently doing the right thing day in, day out is the key to being successful in such a competitive industry. 

How many times have you set a goal and not followed through? 

Setting goals will take you far, but it's the "why" behind the goal that will get you to that next level. Goals in isolation are not enough.  

In this episode, you will learn

• The difference between HMO and SA

• A review of each strategy considering six performance indicators

• How I discovered and why I take a hybrid approach

• Is diversifying the right option for you starting out?

To learn more listen to my new podcast and subscribe! Available on iTunes, Google, Spotify and others or click “play” on the player below!

After listening to this episode, I want you to be really, really honest with yourself. Are you doing your best? Have you got goals? Have you got the right "whys" to power you on?

For more inspirational content request to join my Creative Cashflow FB group here. Join a community of likeminded people with ambitious property goals, where I post daily property insights and motivational content. 

As always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me directly. You can direct message me on Facebook or join and ask me your questions within the Creative Cashflow Community.

Podcast Transcript↓

[00:00:56] Simon here and welcome to another episode of the podcast where we talk property, Creative Cashflow and how to be financially independent today, not in 25 years. And on this show, I'm going to be breaking down how to set goals and stick to them. And I came about this idea because I realised that it's one thing having the knowledge and the education, but it's another thing actually doing it. And there's a really famous saying: to know and not to do is not to know at all.

[00:01:33] Ok, so if it's not enough to know, you've got to take massive action and you've got to stick to it. And if you consistently do the right things day in, day out, you'll be successful in anything. And I genuinely believe in that. But I think a lot of people say, set goals, you know, what are your goals? Set goals. And there's a hidden missing detail that if you don't do, you will fall flat on your face time and time again. Now, what would you say is the most common form of goal-setting?

[00:02:07] You got it.

[00:02:10] New Year's resolutions. New Year's resolutions are the most common form of goal-setting because everybody thinks, OK, it's New Year's, I'm going to set some goals. I never normally set goals, but once a year I will. OK, and how many of those actually come to fruition? You go gym on the 2nd of January it's packed.

[00:02:33] How about April the 1st? How about September? How about when it's December and it's freezing? There's a fraction of the people left.

[00:02:43] So stick around to find out how to make your goals more powerful. So, step one. I want you to do this exercise with me. I want you to set three goals in three minutes. You know, don't overthink it, just keep it real, keep it natural, keep it easy, if you have to think about your goals too hard, then you don't really want them. And if you've got the time to spend, you know, hours on setting your goals, then you're not being productive, you're not doing enough action. So set three goals in three minutes. The first three things that come to mind. Once you've done that, I want you to stress test them by choosing real Whys. OK, so let me give you an example, if you say I want to spend more time with my family.

[00:03:32] And I say, why?

[00:03:35] And you say, well, you know, like, they're not going to be here forever. That's what I really like to do. I want to create memories. You know, good time with my family is more important than the superficial things or working myself to the bone. They're all decent Whys. OK, so you can keep that one. So that would have passed the stress test. If you turn around and say, you know, I want to get in great shape and I say, why? And you say, well, to be honest with you, I'm 16 stone now, I'm a little bit heavy. I'm struggling to, you know, keep up with my kids or I'm getting short of breath or I'm unable to be as active as I want.

[00:04:14] Once again, that's another great Why. On the flip side, if you say that's when I have six pack abs. And I say, why? Well, you know, because I want to look good on the beach. Why? Well, just because then people are going to look at me and think I look great. OK, well, then what? Well, that's it. OK, and is there any real consequence to you not achieving that goal if you don't have the six pack abs? Not really. OK, then, so that one wouldn't pass the stress test.

[00:04:50] Because I'm going to get to this in a minute, but when times are tough, you need to have a strong underpinning, a strong Why to keep you going, OK? And by the way, it doesn't need to be strong to your mate, it doesn't need to be strong to me or your mum or your dad. It needs to be strong enough for you. So, you know, six pack abs could be really important for you and you might have a Why behind that which keeps you going. So, you know, it's not objective. It's subjective to who you are at that time. Another mistake I see when people are setting goals is they're not measurable. Make sure whatever this goal is, it is measurable. You know, a certain amount of properties, you know, a certain amount of weight loss, a certain amount of hours or occasions with your family, make sure it's measurable. Otherwise, how are you going to know when you've met it? So, step number one, set three goals in three minutes. Step two stress test them, as I just did to find out the three that can stick around. Step three is then time-stamp them. Have you ever noticed you tend to do better at your goals when you've got a set deadline?

[00:06:06] What I mean by that is...let's take the weight loss thing.

[00:06:12] Most people lose weight for a special occasion, they lose weight for their wedding, or if you've got a holiday, you might have a day, something to work towards. If you just say, I want to get in good shape. There's no Why. There's no metrics. There's no time-stamp. Then what is it? Where's the urgency? Goals need to have urgency to make you get up and go at them. So the third thing is you need to time-stamp them. And a really cool way of doing this is to go on w w w dot future me dot org. That's w w w dot future me dot org. And it allows you to write a note to your future self.

[00:06:50] So, you know, you might write a note today saying, you know, for the day before your wedding and say, hey, lean Simon. You've done amazing, you've lost four stone, you're eight percent body fat, and you look great. Well done.

[00:07:11] And what happens is, you know, the day before your wedding, you'll open the e-mail, you'll get the email to yourself. You'll be like, yes, and you hold yourself accountable. In the flip reverse, if it gets to that day and you've not done it, you're going to feel pretty bad. And in that particular example, there'd be nothing you could do. But if it was in a property business and you said I'm going to have two rent-to-rent deals by the 1st of January and you get that email, and you've not done it and you know you've not given it your best shot. That's not a good feeling. So you need to hold yourself accountable by creating a deadline. Step four is you need to repeat this process every week and see which goals stick around. So if you choose three goals in three minutes every single week, Sunday is a great day to set goals, set them with your wife, with your family, with your other half. You'll notice the ones that are fleeting and the ones that stick around. The ones that stick around time-stamp them.

[00:08:11] OK, and then here's the key, so because you've gone through that process, once you've got those goals, you've set the three. They're measurable. You've stress-tested them, you've repeated it every week, you've time-stamped them, you've seen the ones that stick around. Then, what you need to do is when you're feeling beat up, you want to lean on your Whys, OK?

[00:08:36] Setting goals will take you far, but it's the why behind them that would take you to the next level. And what I mean by that is goals in isolation are not enough, they'll never be enough.

[00:08:53] Because the reason you want these goals is because of the Why, so you need to focus on the goals, but also focus on the Whys. And I guess just a closing thought, because I'm keeping it short and sweet, is, I want you to be really, really, really honest with yourself about what you've been trying to do over the last few months and what you want to do over the next few months, maybe years. Are you doing your best? Have you got goals? Have you got the right Whys to power you on? Because if not, then maybe they're the wrong goals. If you don't feel that fire in your gut, then maybe you just need to put things down a second. Reassess, look at your Whys and reset goals, which is fine. It doesn't take long to be successful once you're in the right line and you apply yourself daily, don't worry about that. Don't worry about having to start again or throw yourself into something new, because that's what I did. I knew I needed something else outside of music. And I went on a soul searching journey and found property. And in a couple of years it's changed my life. So don't be too proud to change things up. So I want you to be serious. Think of your goals, think of your Whys, stress-test them, time-stamp them, do it every week and get going. When the going gets tough, lean on your Whys. So, yeah, that's all for me, guys. Thank you very much for tuning me. If you like inspirational motivational content like this, please hit me up on social media. And of course, guys, remember, don't wait 25 years, get creative and get serious about your goals.

[00:10:44] Thanks for listening. Gor more information, check out Simon Smith online dotcom. See you next time.