Chris Prefontaine explains why New Year's goals fail: they stay vague and untracked. He shows how to turn them into concrete plans with checkpoints and accountability partners, and introduces the October Theory, which means starting your planning in October so you enter January ready to execute.
Chapters
Raise your hand if you set goals in 2025, say January-ish. You set some New Year's goals or just goals in general. Raise your hand. Okay.
6.
And how about January of '24? I'll go back a year. Set some goals that year? Okay. Who feels like they absolutely nailed all their goals in '24 and '25 from what you set in January? Nobody. Usually get a couple. My point is this: well, don't make them feel bad. What happened here? That's where I'm going. So let's fix that, guys, right? Would that be cool? Yeah, like let's fix that. And I here's my my I'll call it a theory on this. We set these that would be nice goals, right? That'd be cool. But do we really believe it? That'd be cool. Yeah, goals. And that's different from. A plan like Rick mentioned, he had a plan that's different from a plan where, Alan, you go, yep, I want that. And we sketch it out because it is predictable. Now we've done this. I'm going my 34th year. I think I've got some of it, not all of it figured out. So if you say, here's where I want to go, we'll sketch it out. And then you just have to say, I'll be held accountable and I'll stay with this pathway with you. And then it's not a would-be nice goal. It's an absolute plan with some checkpoints in there and some accountability. And some predictability. Would that be good? Every game for that? That's the goal. That's part of my goal. Carla, I had her hand up. Carla, you got a question?
No, I'm participating. I raised my hand when you said put your hand up.
Okay, good deal.
Thank you, Carla. What a good— what a good—
Carla is with Heidi and Fran here, you guys, so that we only could fit so many people. So thanks for being on Zoom, Carla.
Well, what's cool is who brought up the October theory? Was it you, Philip? Last time, why did I? Why did I?
This second time, you better not just start taking credit for. I don't see.
It's like, fill up, create the October theory. Everybody know what the October theory is?
Not sure where to get started? Go to smartrealestatecoach.com/getgoing for free books, strategy calls, and a whole bunch more. We're going to help you get going the wicked smart way. We've been after this for over a decade, doing exactly that.
Probably something like we would think, but it's uh. October is basically the last quarter of the year, right? October, November, December. The October theory is like you start in October for your next year so that way you can gain an extra quarter. That's why you guys are in the right place at the right time. I know it feels a little cramped here, but you guys are in the right place at the right time because a little sacrifice of, you know, elbow room in order to get a better jump on 2026. Especially considering most people in this room said that they did not accomplish their goals. Well, how do we accomplish our goals? Well, maybe we give ourselves a little bit more time, some more tools, and improve our skill set.
