Goal Setting…The Right Way

by: William Tingle

Effective goals motivate and inspire us, they increase our chances of success, they focus us, and reduce frustration. An effective goal setting process helps us understand where we currently are, helps us choose where we want to go, and assess the best steps to take to reach our ultimate outcome goals.

Three Types of Goals

There are 3 types of goals: Outcome goals, process goals, and performance goals and they work together for the overall picture of how things will work to get to our desired outcome. Each of the 3 types differs based on how much control we have over it. We have the most control over process goals and the least control over outcome goals.

Outcome Goals (Results)

Outcomes goals are specific and spell out the results you hope to achieve in the end. This is where most people stop when creating their goals. For example, I will buy 20 houses in 2020. While the outcome goal gives you a target, it doesn’t really tell you how to reach it. In business and competitive sports, outcome goals may be goals like winning a championship or buying a specific number of properties or making X number of sales. In these cases, outcome goals compare your performances with those of other competitors. Here is another example. A high school student may set an outcome goal to become a doctor. That goal means that she would have to take exams and compete with other students over a few spots into medical school. While you can study hard, you don’t grade your exams. While you can prepare well for your interviews, you don’t hire yourself. As such, with most outcome goals, you can take steps that influence the outcome in your favor but the results are ultimately not under your control.

Process Goals (Behaviors)

Process goals (also called procedural goals) are the behaviors or the strategies that will help us to perform well and increase our chances of achieving our desired outcome goals. It’s the goal that sets the path to an outcome goal. For example, the process goal for buying 20 houses in 2020 may include generating 50 leads a month or calling 10 sellers a day or making 3 offers a day on listed properties. Process goals help you focus on changing behaviors and habits that are necessary to get the end result. If you don’t like talking on the phone, you will have to modify that behavior to make those 10 seller calls a day either by learning to not dislike the activity so much or by hiring someone to do it for you. The nice thing about process goals is that they are within our control.

So…let’s go back to our example of an outcome goal of buying 20 houses in 2020…

Sample Behavior (Process) Goals:

I will call sellers for 30 minutes a day, five days a week, for a period of one month making 10 calls a day.
I will make offers to 100 MLS sellers every month.
I will do 30 door drops per month on preforeclosures.

Notice that all goals, whether they are outcome, process, or performance goals, need to be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Performance Goals (Standards)

Performance goals set the standards at which we will perform our process goals. This is focused on results. For example, in business, process goals are like core values that spell out how you will behave to achieve your goals. Performance goals are actually the results you produce that affect the bottom line. For example, not simply generating leads but actually converting leads into deeds. Meeting your performance goals on your process goals is the surest way to achieve your outcome goals. For example, the performance goals for buying 20 houses in 2020 based on the process goals above may be to buy 20 houses by calling sellers 30 minutes a day, mailing to 100 MLS sellers and doing 30 door drops per month.

Divide Goals Into Short-Term, Mid-Term, and Long-Term

Goals can be categorized according to time into short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals. I have found this to be the best way to do them because you have milestones along the way to actually measure your progress. This lets you fine-tune and make changes as you go to allow for things that work and things that don’t work. Making changes to get more results and stopping activities that waste time. For example, this year we quit using bandit signs and targeting divorce filings because statistically, the effort didn’t produce the results that mailing to MLS or Preforeclosure listings did. Long-term goals help motivate and focus us on the big picture. However, they can seem too big and too far removed. For this reason, it is best to break down a long-term goal into smaller short-term and mid-term goals and to celebrate when you meet those small milestones on the way to the final outcome goal. For example, a goal to buy 20 houses in one year can be broken down to 2 houses per month and 10 houses in 6 months.

Combine Outcome, Process, and Performance Goals for Maximum Success

Research has shown that combining outcome, process, and performance goals increase the success rate. For effective goal setting, you should incorporate all 3 into your mission statement for the year. Once you have set your outcome goals, you should stop focusing on the outcome goal (or end goal) and really focus daily on your process and performance goals which are the behaviors and standards that will get you to the end goal. For example, you’ve decided that you want to buy 20 houses in one year. Great! Then stop focusing so much on that but start focusing daily and tracking on the behaviors and standards that will help you buy those houses.

When setting goals, you should visualize and choose the desired outcome. After that, you should focus on the process and your performance. Anybody can choose an outcome goal, and that doesn’t mean they will achieve it. But it takes courage, discipline, and leadership to do your process and performance goals which will lead you to victory.

This is true for athletes as well. You are not in control of who wins the tournament. What you have in your control are your process goals (behaviors) and your performance goals. If you focus on what is in your control, what is outside your control often works out well.

Because getting started investing can sometimes move slowly, I encourage newbies to celebrate when they are succeeding at their process and performance goals because in due time they will reap the benefits of achieving their outcome goals if they do not become discouraged and quit. This is true with most goals.

I have bought houses for over 20 years using a technique I call “Sub2” that never requires me to borrow money or pay cash for houses. Want to learn how to do it, too?

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