Catch Up Or Give Up - Part 2

Now that I've made the decision that giving up won't work and taking it easy is unrealistic, it's time to start catch up on my annual goals. Fortunately, I've already accomplished 25% of my goals, unfortunately that was in 50% of the year! Now it's time to put a plan in place and get back in the game. Here's how I'm going to do it:

1. Get my mind right: All the excuses I've been telling myself for the past few months are just that, excuses. The end result is that I've allowed things to get in my way, slow me down and trip me up. Although it didn't feel like it at the time, I made the conscious decision to let the excuses throw me off track, and now I'm making the decision NOT to let them get in my way. Yes, there will always be something going on that can keep me from accomplishing my goals, but truthfully there always has been and there always will be something ready to get in my way. As Donald Trump once said, "problems and setbacks are a part of the game. If you're not running into challenges, you're doing something easy and probably not that valuable - and it's probably not going to make you much money."
2. Focus and discipline: The things you work on every day are the things that are successful. I've realized that what I've been lacking is focused activity. I've been skipping out on my marketing, phone calls and sales appointments. When you break it down it's really simple, if you see enough people you always hit your numbers. I've NOT been seeing the people because I've been too busy putting out fires. I've been doing a $12 an hour job and expecting $1000 an hour results. I've been re-active instead of pro-active. From here on out I'll set aside the 2-3 hours per day needed to market FIRST and then put out fires second and I'll be disciplined to stick to it every day. 2 sales appointments a day will solve a lot of problems in a hurry!
3. Go big: I know a lot of people who do amazing amounts of production in relatively small amounts of time. People like Van Mueller and Tom Hegna do more production in two weeks than the normal folks do in a year because they go big! All of the big producers do it in different ways, but they've all found ways to go big. Here's how I'm going big for the rest of the year:
1. Marketing alternative RMD strategies to 70+ year olds.
2. Marketing safe investments for the 10 most important years of your retirement account to 60-70 year olds.
3. Marketing a mortgage payoff plan to every client who owns a home
4. Marketing a rent replacement plan to every client that does not own a home
5. Marketing a guaranteed paycheck for life to every client that is retired
6. Marketing the ultimate birthday gift to every client one month prior to their next birthday
7. Marketing the ultimate Christmas gift to every client that is married
8. Marketing my referral program
9. Marketing to my past clients with a re-acquisition program
10. Marketing a tax reduction plan to all clients over the age of 59 1/2
4. Measure what matters:  When you measure what matters, what matters always improves. If plans aren't measured, results aren't tracked and activity isn't monitored then how do you know what it and isn't working? How would you know if you were being productive or just keeping yourself busy? You wouldn't, and I wouldn't. That's why I'll be logging my activity every day and making sure that every night when I leave I know I've done my best and I've won for that day. I've always believed that activity leads to productivity, but I know that it must be FOCUSED activity in order to accomplish my goals.

I know catching up and accomplishing my goals won't be easy, but nothing worth achieving is. After all, if it were easy, everyone would do it. Successful people form the habits of doing the things that the mediocre either cannot or will not do. Personally, I think most of the time they simply will not do it because it is far easier to be mediocre than successful. It takes a lot less work to just get by than it does to get ahead and it is much simpler to give than it is to catch up. However, I have no intention of being mediocre and hopefully anyone reading this feels the same way. If you've read this far, I'm sure you do. Kick ass in the second half of the year, I know I'm going to!

Catch Up Or Give Up?

The year is 50% over and I've only achieved 25% of my annual goals. Should I try to catch up or just give up on this year's goals?

Disclaimer: I'm writing this for myself. It may or may not help anyone other than me, but it's been one of those years and I've been really challenged to keep my head above water.

There is a season for everything and for everything there is a season. A time for rate increases, and underwriting revisions. A time for record setting hail storms and out of control wildfires. A time to be understaffed and a time to be staff-less. A time too travel to much, play too much and work too little. Whatever the reason - or reasons - sometimes you find yourself in a year where everything that can go wrong or get in your way, does. For me, this has been that year and it's really been weighing on me lately.

If things continue at this pace I'll end the year having accomplished only 50% of my annual goals. I'm at a cross-roads and need to decide what to do with the rest of this year. Should I try to catch up - squeezing in 75% of my production goals into 50% of the year? Should I adjust my goals and lower my expectations for the year? Or should I give up and consider the year a loss? Truth be told, in a year like this I could use a break! I could take it easy for the next six months and coast, re-charging my batteries and getting ready for next year.

The problem with that route is explaining  to my family why we don't have the money for our annual family vacation or half of the other fun stuff we do each year. Don't get me wrong, no one will starve if I don't keep pushing myself, but do I really want to set the example for my kids that when the going gets tough, the tough...take time to coast for awhile?

That means coasting is off the table and I'm left with either adjusting my annual goals to a lower, more reachable, level or going all out and all in and finding new ways to knock it out of the park in the next 6 months. Either way, I'll be better off than if I just quit trying, but I think the right choice can be best expressed by a wise Indian saying I once heard: "better to shoot for the moon and hit an eagle, than shoot for an eagle and hit a rock".

So, it's settled. Now I just need to figure out how to produce 75% of my production goals in half of the year. I'll have some thoughts on how to get that done in my next post. I know it won't be easy, but achieving goals rarely is. I'm used to finishing on top and I know it's still possible even in a year where things are stacked against me. I really do believe you can accomplish everything and anything you put your mind to, now it's just a matter of getting things going again. I'm looking forward to reading this post again at the end of the year and telling myself "I told you so, I knew you could do it." If you're having the same kind of year as me, I know that you can do it too!