Three Things to do When Planning for 2018

Let’s take a quick moment to focus on the upcoming year. It may seem far away, but it will be here before we know it. Plan and prepare for it with these three actions.

Reflect

I want you to really reflect on the things you’ve done well in 2017. This goes back to the Pareto Principle. If any of you have read Tim Ferris’s book or Gary Keller’s book, it always goes back to the 20 percent rule–focusing on the 20 percent that’s really bringing you the business. What you need to do with the rest of this year is start taking note of what’s working for you now, so then in 2018 you can double down or triple down on what’s successful. This is important because when you focus on the things that are working, all of the sudden you start seeing everything come to place as you want.

Upgrade

I want you to upgrade. I want you to upgrade your mindset. I want you to upgrade the people you hang out with. I want you to upgrade the books you read. I want you to upgrade you. The best way to do it is to take a look at your friends, the books that you read and the thoughts that you put in your head.

The things that you think, the things that you’re talking about, the people that you talk to and the books that you read can really help you get to that next level in business and in life, so I want you to upgrade by reading better books and by striving to hang around people that are good for you. Look for those who are going to be able to help you and take you to that next level because wherever you want to go, there are people that have already reached that level.

That’s why I love LabCoat Agents! There are people out there that have already done what you aim to accomplish, and in this community you can learn from those people. Set your focus as they have, upgrade your thinking to match theirs and make 2018 the year you succeed in new ways.

Systematize

Let’s throw out the term “goals” for a second and focus on the word “systematize.” I really want you to create a system for how you want to go about getting to your new goals for 2018. We talk about goals all the time–“Yeah, this year I want to do this in volume” or “This year I want to read this many books” or “This year I want to make this much money”–but we lack the vocabulary of “I want to create this system to help me reach these goals.” So make sure you’re focusing on your system, not so much the goal.

Sure, you need goals to know where you want to go, but you need systems to know how to get there. For example, if closing 50 transactions in 2018 is your goal, it’s probably not going to happen if you go out and start trying to piece together that kind of success randomly. But if you have a system in place and continually reference the things you’ve been doing well, you can place next year’s goals into a functioning system to ensure they are reached. Start thinking of how you are going to get there. Does that mean farming in a specific area? Are you going to start mailing there as well? Should you create a Facebook community? Figure out your system for reaching the success you want.

The takeaways?

1. Write down what’s working well, and focus on bringing those successes into the next year.
2. Upgrade the books you read, your mindset and the company you keep, in turn upgrading yourself.
3. Make goals, but make sure they are met by systematizing the work you do.

Watch my video covering these topics here!