Joe Rand’s Year-Round Resolutions: The Secret to Success Is to Think Big and Set Realistic Goals

The first months of a New Year is always a fast-paced period amid a flurry of activity — jumping back into work that was put on hold during the holidays and kick-starting a host of new projects.  Every successful businessperson knows that this can also be the ideal time to plan for the months and year ahead, as well as to reflect on what worked and what didn’t in the previous year.

Joe Rand recently provided more than 265 of Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty agents with valuable tips for planning and setting goals for the year ahead in a “New Year Resolutions” class, sponsored by Hudson United Mortgage. According to Joe: “Most people make resolutions in the New Year, but almost immediately break them because they haven’t built the goal-keeping infrastructure they need to succeed. In this high-energy and engaging session, we showed our agents the right way to construct goals for the new year.”

Joe talked about the importance of taking the time for reflection — looking back at the previous 12 months, and then setting realistic goals for the next 12 – and to always think “Big!”

Here are some additional tips to make 2019 your most successful and profitable year ever, according to Joe Rand:

1. Productivity and time management are the keys to success. Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day, but it is how you spend that time that makes all the difference.
2. Review and reflect on the past year. Look at where you are in your career and where you want to be; evaluate what went well for you and the areas in which you can improve.
3. Make a game plan for the months ahead. Turn your reflections into action in the form of setting goals. Create “Big” goals for the entire year and smaller goals that complement and help you reach your main goal; outline how you’ll reach those goals and include a timeline-action plan.
4. Don’t let good ideas vanish. The specific goal is not always what matters – it is really the follow through that matters most.
5. Take advantage of new apps and technology to boost your time management skills, as well as connect, schedule and close deals more efficiently. Opcity is an app that many brokers are using to help run their business, find leads, convert deals and streamline the entire closing process.
6. Revisit your goals and your action plan at least four times a year. Your goals can change throughout the year for any number of reasons. As circumstances change, your goals may as well.
7. Clean up your Inbox. An overflowing inbox is one of the biggest sources of stress at work. Leave this stress behind with a fresh, uncluttered inbox. This is not the time to simply select all your emails and mark them as read. Thoroughly go through your messages keeping two things in mind – is it urgent and can it be deleted? Reply right away to any urgent messages and remove yourself from email chains that you don’t need to be a part of. From there, create filters to help keep your inbox as clutter-free as possible and schedule a time to clean out your emails at least once a month.
8. Finish as many small tasks as possible. Check the small tasks off your list first in order to clear a path to hit the ground running with the bigger projects. Stop procrastinating — set aside 20 extra minutes each day to reply to emails, file paperwork and tie up loose ends. It’s often the little things that matter the most.

You can learn more tips and insights from Joe Rand in his just-released book: How to be a Great Real Estate Agent, available on Amazon.