Do you want to know one of the biggest reasons why many people don’t hit their goals?
The answer is neatly captured in this quote:
“We are kept from our goal not by obstacles but by a clear path to lesser goals” – Robert Brault
I only heard this quote back in September but I love it and refer to it regularly, both to remind myself and to share with others who care about their progress. Just this week I chose to share and unpack it a little with our Thursday Power Hour Mastermind group where the message behind it was well received.
To explain the quote a little, too often we are trying to accomplish too many things and not focusing on the one key thing, and getting it done. This might be because the one key thing feels difficult or a little scary, and there are ‘lesser’ goals we can work on that feel easier and make us feel busy – things like opening/responding/deleting emails, tidying our desk, reading the news, possibly some browsing on rightmove…..
You know what I’m shining a light on – there are multiple things that a property entrepreneur can busy their time with but that don’t actually move the needle in relation to your big property goal.
Most people’s activity is based on what’s urgent or most pleasurable in the moment and therefore that activity is producing a combination of urgent outcomes or very short term satisfaction. This is at the cost of creating one’s future vision.
For all those who have read Brian Tracey’s brilliant book “Eat That Frog”, you’ll know that the core message is to start your day with the biggest, most important, and most dreaded task. If you’re serious about your property goals this is a philosophy you will want to adopt – doing the right thing first, and consistently getting it done.
Typically, both the task itself and the act of doing difficult tasks first thing in the day, will be outside most people’s comfort zone and hence will be met with resistance. That’s why people opt for the ‘lesser goals’.
If you want to become highly effective you need to get better at identifying your property related ‘frog’ and doing that 1 thing in an uninterrupted flow state for 60-90 minutes each morning.
Whether it’s sourcing and analysis based work, phone calls to surveyors or potential end users, or creative work like creating marketing content, you will know the kind of tasks relevant to your property business. The ones that really pay off when completed, and done consistently. Why not make a note to self right now of what those ‘frog’ activities are.
I’ve been following the work of psychologist Dr Benjamin Hardy of late and he explains that as you get better at showing up and completing the ‘frog’ work, it builds your identity capital by having this track record of work behind you, and that gives you self confidence and momentum. In other words, you’re building the identity of- ‘I’m the kind of person who identifies the right thing to work on, and diligently works on it first thing to a satisfactory completion point’.
Hardy also explains that when you first start practising this (ie focusing on the ‘frog’ first) it can feel like urgent things are piling up on you. However what helps is changing your perspective to recognise that when you focus on the frog you’re creating a better life for yourself and controlling your schedule. Your whole life becomes better because you’re emphasising the important and eliminating the urgent and ‘lesser’ things.
Challenge yourself to eat that frog- identity the thing that will most help you accomplish your headline property goal and take some time to schedule it and set the task up the night before. If you like the result it produces, then do it again the next day.
Here are 3 frog eating questions to help you get started:
#1 What are my highest value activities?
#2 What can I do that will make a big difference?
#3 What is the most valuable use of my time?
With that said, what is the ‘property frog’ you need to eat right now?
[Image credit: 123rf.com]