Don’t be late for 2008!

Isn’t it funny how we are all innately designed to feel good about a fresh start? The brand new year brings with it a sense of hope, of potential for the as yet tarnished year. We look at the calendar and see 50 odd weeks ahead of us and wonder at what the year called 2008 will bring us. Many people are into setting resolutions; I prefer to call them goals. What property related goals do you have this year?

Some of the areas you may like to set goals in could include home ownership, home improvement and renovation, purchasing an investment property, selling off property, building a home, upgrading to a bigger home� the list goes on. Whatever area you choose to focus on the key is to make sure you have clarity about the goal.

One effective way to help focus this process is to use your imagination to describe your life as you would like it to be by the end of the year. This allows you to see in your minds eye what you would like to achieve, and then how to get there becomes a lot clearer. When it comes to property this is a lot easier than “life” as you can quite easily describe the physical aspects of the property. For example, you can say “My house is freshly painted and has a new roof.”

And then there’s the challenge of sticking to the commitment. Perhaps one of the reasons that New Years Resolutions are so often cast aside is that they don’t seem to create the same level of commitment that goals can. Sure there are people that make them work. A friend of mine reported to me over the break that she had achieved 8/10 for her 2007 resolutions. But many make hopeful statements, call them resolutions, and then wonder if they will ever happen. Often resolutions can leave you traveling in circles.

One previous business mentor of mine had a fantastic and simple process for helping him to achieve his goals for the year. He wrote his goals out for the year nice and neatly, (everything was done neatly in crisp handwriting!) and then he broke the goals down into four quarters. He made a short list of the goals he had for Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4. This way he had a concise list to focus on and could tick them off as the year went on. Another benefit was that there was little risk of him needing to achieve everything in the last two weeks! How many of us are guilty of leaving major goals to the last minute?!!

So make sure you make progress this year instead of traveling in circles. Set some clear goals and break them down into quarters. I wish you all the best for the coming year in whatever you set out to achieve. After all, we don’t want you to be late for 2008!

Phil Strong
CEO Wisemoney