Chris Prefontaine argues that 10-year goals distract real-estate professionals from the small wins that actually build momentum. Using half-marathon training as an example, he shows how crushing daily micro-goals like a 2-mile run or hitting your lead-generation target matters more than abstract long-term vision.
Chapters
Throw out your 10-year goals. They're an absolute waste of time because if you don't hit the goal right in front of you, the goal that's most important, you're never going to reach that 10-year anyways. See, a lot of us are taught to do these big visionary goals or to write down our 10-year goals, write down our 10-year plan, but we forget to attack the goal that's right in front of us. See, right now I'm training for a half marathon, and I've done it before, and I've told myself every single time I run a half marathon it's the last time I'm ever going to do it. But for some reason, here I am again telling you this story. The half marathon is an amazing, great goal, and we're going to call it the 10-year goal right now, because as we break it down, you're going to be able to really identify why the goal in front is the most important. See, when I'm planning out my weeks and planning out my months in order to reach that goal, I have these micro goals. And these micro goals are going to consist of 7 miles, 5 miles, 2 miles. But the hardest ones that I've realized are the small ones that are the next day. The next day's goal, right? It's really easy mentally in my mind right now to be running that half marathon. It's really easy in my mind to be running that 7 miles, that's 2 That's 2 weeks down the road. But what I found myself when I'm running at 6 o'clock in the morning and doing that short 2-mile run, that I am mentally exhausted. Why? Because it's the goal in front of me that's the hardest goal right now. But I know if I can just power through this short sprint goal, then I'm going to be able to reach that long-term goal. As I look at the associate community, as I look at the real estate investors that we work with, when they come into the community, they are energized, they're excited, they have this big vision. They think of themselves as millionaires, and one day they will become millionaires. But for right now, they have to reach those short goals. They have to reach those goals that will help propel them to that To that million-dollar goal or whatever that lifestyle goal may be. So while they're in the middle of making phone calls, they have the exact same feeling that I have when I'm in that short 2-mile run. Because in comparison, everybody that's working towards their first deal is a short sprint compared to the long-term goal of building out this real estate business. But it's amazing how mentally we get stuck in this short sprint, and we don't believe we're gonna make it. See, as I'm running that 2-mile run, there's certain points in time that I wanna quit. And I know speaking with associates that while they're making their calls to sellers and trying to build this business and create this workflow, that there's times that they wanna quit. That's why I say throw out that 10-year goal. That's great that you know where you're going, But the only thing that matters is the goal directly in front of you. And in hindsight, looking back on my real estate career, I had plenty of those times where I wanted to quit, plenty of those times where that short sprint was the weight of the world, where I just may not have made it. But now we got a great real estate business, we're able to help Associates and students around the country do real estate deals, so it was totally worth dealing with all that. And soon those associates will see that as well. Soon you will see that the small goal that's in front of you, although it may seem daunting now, is small in comparison. When you're looking towards that ten-year goal, when you're looking at that goal right in front of you, it's about breaking it down into that small increments. It's about creating those wins. So. When I reach that 2-mile goal, or when you reach your leads goal for the week, you celebrate. So it helps you get further along. We would love to help you be able to create out that game plan. And I do encourage you to go to smartrealestatecoach.com/action so that way we can help you strategically put this together. Because when you're facing what may seem like a daunting short-term goal, It's the bigger picture that's gonna matter. Now, I know at the beginning I said throw out this 10-year goal, but that's what's gonna keep you driving. But you gotta crush the goals in front of you.
