Do you know what time of year it is?
If you know me at all, you know what time of year it is…
We’ve just about reached the halfway point of the year…
And it’s time to see how many of your goals you’ve accomplished since January.
You do this not as an act of self-inflicted pain and humiliation…
But rather, as a way to assess the progress you’ve made…
And decide if you need to make a midcourse correction or two.
Be honest about your progress…
A big part of self-assessment is honesty…with yourself.
Whatever goals you set for yourself this year…
Now is the time to really track your progress.
For instance, are you on track in your debt reduction strategy?
Or did an unexpected expense come up and explode your plans?
Have you bought that first or second property yet?
Or have you not taken that important next step yet?
Is your reno property on the market yet?
Or is your contractor still playing games with you and you haven’t had the time to fire him and hire a new one?
Do you see what I’m getting at here?
Falling short doesn’t mean failure
If you’re not where you thought you would be by this time…
It’s NOT THE END OF THE WORLD.
Nor does it mean that you’re a failure or a bad person…
It means that sometimes things don’t happen the way we want or plan for them to…
That’s life…
And that’s real estate investing, too.
But just because you may not be as far down the track as you planned to be…
The only thing that matters is the answer to the following question…
Are you still moving forward?
That’s the biggie right there.
There’s no need or benefit is working in absolutes…
It’s not an ‘either I’m right on time with my plan or I’ve failed’ kind of deal…
That’s not realistic…
Especially when you don’t control all the variables.
You can’t control your company getting bought or going bankrupt and losing your job…
You can’t control the weather, or a rainstorm delaying your reno project…
You can’t even control what your significant other does.
All you can really control are your own actions and responses to a situation when it doesn’t go as you planned.
But that’s plenty of power in your own hands.
Instead of feeling badly about missing your goal…
Look at it in a different light…
Determine how much of any given goal you were able to accomplish.
For example, if your goal was to pay down $30,000 in credit card debt so you could qualify for property loan…
And you only managed to pay it down by $10,000…
You haven’t failed…
You’ve made 33 per cent progress toward your goal…
You’ve moved forward, haven’t you?
Have you improved your situation?
You’re better off than you were in January, aren’t you?
Of course, you may need to re-evaluate the time frame of the goal itself.
Remember, your goals must not only be measurable…
They must be achievable as well.
At this point in the year, you might need to take another look at your goals…
What you thought was important earlier in the year may not be so important after all.
Say that you haven’t been able to replace any of your income with cash cows yet…
Even though your goal was to get a cash cow with $300 a week in passive income by the end of June…
And you haven’t found that cash cow yet…
Chances are, you’re still better off than you were before.
You’ve looked at many of them…
So you know the market better.
You’ve bid on one or two of them…
But didn’t get the deal.
That’s okay—you’ve gained knowledge and experience that you didn’t have before.
Do you have control over your life?
Now, when you look at why you’re not as far down the track as you wanted to be…
Be honest with yourself.
When it comes to setting and achieving your goals…
You need to have a structured routine…
Where you hold yourself accountable every day and every week…
And track your progress every step of the way.
Sometimes, doing just that simple thing is difficult for people…
If you aren’t organized with your time and your money…
If your mind is going ten places at once, 90 miles per hour…
Day after day…
Getting to all the other stuff that you wanted to achieve never happens, does it?
So if the answer to the question, “Have I made real progress toward my goals?”
Is a flat ‘No’ or just not a ‘Yes’…
You’ve got some soul searching to do, haven’t you?
Re-think your goals
Take this halfway point through this year to sit down quietly and re-think what you need to do to be in a position to start making progress toward your goals.
You also need to identify those things and events in your daily schedule that aren’t important…
Or those things—or activities–that block you from doing what you need to be doing…
You need to reset your goals for the second half of the year…
Make them simple and powerful…
Like taking control over your time, your money and your mind.
Begin today!