Stop setting goals! But first, let’s talk about why…

It would probably to shock you to hear that I do not set goals any more. Yes, that is correct- I am an over-achieving, record breaking sales person who does not believe in the power of goal setting. In fact, it’s my strong opinion that goals only cap our potential, or prevent us from accomplishing the very dreams we so boldly desire. We have been told for years that this is the key to success, and I am hoping that in the time it takes you to read this blog, I will have sparked your curiosity to commit to a different way.

So let me give you some context about how I came to believe that goals are destructive. It all started 5 years ago when I got fired from my job. At that point in my career my most successful year in mortgages was 167 fundings, I was considered a “Top Producer” in my field. I followed goal setting religiously, had a vision board, listened over and over to “The Secret”. I was the quintessential poster child for the power of manifestation, and then I lost it all…

To date getting fired still is the most traumatic event of my adult life. No one tells you what happens when you get fired. It was literally the most emotionally crushing time of my life. I spent hours crying, shaking and hiding under my covers. The stress caused me to lose 7 pounds, and all of my eyelashes. I was so ashamed I could hardly show my face. There was no way I was in a goal setting mindset. I was being consumed by survival.

Lucky for me though, I have always surrounded myself great people. Because of my best friend Keane, Rick Rubie (the head coach and owner to The Core Training) heard my story and called me during that transitional weekend. Our conversation was life changing to say the least, and centered around the idea that in every circumstance we are presented with a choice: to be a victim or be the boss. That conversation was a turning point for me, it helped me get out of bed and start making calls.

I started with all of the contacts in my cell phone and instead of playing the ‘he said she said’ game on why I had been let go, I decided to own the narrative laid out for me. (Yes, there were lots of reasons I had been fired that day, but bottom line, no one fires someone they like and if you ever find yourself in this position know that quality people avoid drama like the plague). Every phone call I made included a sincere apology and a question about what it would take for me to earn their trust again. These phone calls along with my paper lead trackers and Facebook ads addressed to my clients helped me rebuild the database I had lost. I was a woman driven by purpose and I made sure that each phone call I made was impactful.

The first 30 days were the scariest and most exhilarating of my life. My only focus was to make as many calls and see as many people as possible. In our coaching program we call this completing the greatness tracker. I submitted to this process over and over and over again. I stopped concentrating on the end result because I felt that I could no longer control the outcome. I just focused on completing activities.

This first 30 days I was pushed way beyond my comfort zone, and the results were astronomical, we closed 19 loans! NINETEEN freaking loans… the most on average we had ever closed up until this time was 16, and that’s when I knew that all of the goals I had ever set were just a cap on my potential. I realized that surrendering to process is the magic behind results. I am not sure how this truth evaded me, just like with dieting I know that consistent exercise and healthy eating will make you fit, it’s just not what they teach sales people.

I am not saying that submitting to a process is easy, and I relied heavily on my “why” to keep me going. I even came up with a mantra to fire me up: “You are not a weak link”. It was inspired by one of the most hurtful things said to me upon my firing. I usually draw on painful things to move me forward. They are the easiest for me to tap into, and let me tell you this one had power. It was enough to wake up every day at 4:30am in the morning to be at work at 5:30am to review files call for conditions at 7-10am start prospecting from 10am- 5pm and call back leads till 8pm. I did this over and over again until I had built a team and technology to help support our production.

Here is a good strategy for how to discover your why. Ask yourself what is the most important thing you want to accomplish? Then ask yourself why it’s important? Once you have answered that, ask yourself when did you first realize that it was important and how did you see this manifest in your childhood? Most of deep desires to accomplish “goals” are rooted in dysfunctions created when we are younger. For example, I have always struggled with co-dependence, because I came from turbulent upbringing. I constantly felt that I needed to be perfect in order to keep the status quo. I developed a huge fear of letting people down, which is why I worked so hard to make people happy. Tapping into this dysfunction this fear of letting people down has always made me work so much harder for them. It’s kind of my super power ☺

Throughout the years my mantras have become less dramatic, but never less powerful. Last year my mantra was “We break records” … and it was my best year despite being the most competitive rate market I have ever seen, being pregnant, and having my husband almost die due to an esophageal perforation.

I know that there a people reading this saying “yeah right a mantra and a greatness tracker” … but that’s the truth. My focus is on mastering the process of prospecting and wowing our clients. I can confidently tell you that there is a good chance my activities are more intentional than most. For example, I only count calls and face to faces conversations where I asked for a lead or set an appt. I usually am seeing more than 30 people in a given week, have two leveraged events, and 20% of the people I talk to are new to my database, meaning I have never met them before. I am committed to making sure that we uphold our core values of Client first and work diligently every day to make sure that we are always doing the task and then some. For me mastering the process is about being the best, for the sake of being the best not the biggest. It just so happens that when you are constantly trying to perfect, you have BIG results.

There is one last element I think you need to have in order to accomplish big things and that is an issues list. I keep a working issues list at all times because processes will change, so will guidelines, technology and expectations. You have to be flexible and always willing to work on the things preventing you from mastering the process. For example, this year we set out to increase the value that we provide to our clients with Money Tip Monday videos… The process we had set in place is filming on Friday, with one week editing timeline and three days of promotion. The first obstacles we had to plan for was scheduling time to record, and then coming up with content. I think we have done great on this far, but we failed to anticipate, what happens when one of gets sick or has to travel. How many emails we could send out in a given day, and what happens when we are promoting an event at the same time we need to send out our MTM videos. These are all things that we are currently working on, and will continue to develop solutions for. It is just as important to pay attention to how to remove obstacles and come up with contingency plans. Something is always broken or can be improved I promise ☺

So to wrap this up, goals kept me focused on the outcome instead of the process. It made be believe that I was only capable of “so much”. I am extremely lucky to have lost it all so that I could really gain the most important lessons of my life. My deepest wish for you, is that by reading this today, you will decide to live and act by purpose. Focus on the process, and solve for your issues! I believe strongly that success is found in the little actions compounded over time and not by the things we say out loud!

All my best to you my friends! May this be your best year ever!

Lizy