“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, award-winning writer & journalist
I love the simplicity yet poignant truth of that quote. Whether it’s a personal goal or a professional one, you really can’t achieve anything unless you have a detailed plan for accomplishing it.
So, the idea for this blog post was sparked by an interesting video I saw about why we should stop daydreaming.
Sounds like a downer, right?
But there are certainly some valid and thought-provoking reasons shared in the video…
Visualizing and fantasizing about your future success does have some value, because it affects your beliefs. Plus, it makes subtle modifications to your choices and actions.
But, it can also have a negative impact, too.
So now, I want to share some of my own related insights.
I do think that when you’re building a business (or anything of value in life), you should start with the end in mind. If there were a metaphor for this, I would probably describe this process as a ladder.
For instance, before you climb a ladder, what is the first thing you do? You look toward the top, right? You see the upper rungs of the ladder, and you mentally prep yourself before you even begin approaching them.
In the same way, it’s essential to think about the “top rungs” of your REI business — which are the end results or successes that you’d like to achieve.
To start, you simply need to paint a vivid picture of your future.
Create Your Dreamline & Reverse Engineer the Steps
I’m a big fan of Tim Ferriss who, in “The 4 Hour Workweek”, described the process of imagining a vivid picture of your future lifestyle as creating a “dreamline.”
Basically, you want to make a vision that gets you juiced up when you imagine it.
BUT — that’s just the first step. If you stop there, you’ll get a little bit of value out of your vision. You need to take step #2, which is to reverse engineer the steps you need to take to get from “here” to “there” (from where you are now to where you want to be).
And then, add your intent to fiercely focus on that next step until it’s taken.
Building the Ladder: A Wholesaling Example
So, to make this more tangible, let me give you a situation…
Let’s say you’re building a wholesaling business. Before you even start, you should visualize or create a dreamline of what your business will look like in 3 years. And make it VIVID.
Don’t just think about the money you’ll be making. Also consider:
- Will you have people on your team or will you be working alone?
- What tasks will you be doing on a daily basis?
- What tasks will your team members be doing?
- What hours will you be working?
- What will your work environment look like?
The more detailed your picture, the better (and this can include reading wholesaling books).
Next, imagine your business just 1 year from now. Consider the same items I outlined above.
Then, visualize the specific steps or “ladder rungs” that you need to take to get to Year 1. To determine the specific steps, you need to glean from your own experiences and insights.
And (*sharp intake of breath*) you might also have to guess a little bit.
Maybe one of the steps in the ladder, for instance, is to get solid documents. Other steps might be:
- Finding local pros to connect with
- Building an MVP cash buyers list (just your best 10 cash buyers – not a huge list!)
- Joining your local REIA group
- Placing your first ad or bandit sign
- Determining the “sweet spots” (zip codes) for cash buyers in your area
- Mailing your first batch of letters
After you determine the steps you need to take in your first year, think about what order they should be in. THEN… focus like a laser on that first step. That becomes the most important one.
Your next task is to determine which steps are needed in between Year 1 and Year 3, and so on.
Remember: You have this big dream that you imagined – but don’t just sit there and fantasize. Focus hard on achieving that first step, or rung in the ladder, and go from there.
Check out the action steps below and take note — I’m going to go into more detail about Action Step #4 in next Monday’s DDA. So stay tuned for additional insights on this topic.
Until then, remember that you’ll never get anywhere if you stand at the bottom of your ladder and fantasize about what’s at the top. Think about your steps… and work hard to achieve them.
Success Ladder Action Steps
- Define success in detail.
- Reverse engineer the steps needed to get from “here” to “there.”
- Focus on the first step.
- Remember that it’s still an unproven vision (an experiment), as this point; and the only result of an experiment is the RESULTS you get.