Are you a builder who doesn’t have time?
Here are some great tips on how setting smaller personal goals that align with your values can help your business.
Watch the video now, or read the transcript below.
Amelia
It’s really important that you actually pursue your goals in alignment with the kind of life that you want to lead, so that when you achieve the goals that you’re working towards, it actually has meaning for you.
Duayne
So Amelia as we know, builders have got their favourite saying which is they don’t have enough time. Obviously that leads onto other things. What do you think residential builders do wrong when it comes to personal goal setting?
Think Big, But Start Small
Amelia
Yeah, it’s an interesting one, isn’t it? Because I think a lot of the time builders have these really big goals about what they want to achieve. They start with these really massive, very, very challenging goals. So then when they don’t achieve them, all of a sudden they feel despondent. It’s difficult, and they go back to their old habits and ways of doing things.
If you set smaller, much more achievable goals, there is actually science that shows that this helps you get dopamine hits.
It helps you see success on a smaller scale, and that builds momentum and those smaller goals as you start to achieve them actually then build to the bigger goals that you’re wanting to do.
There’s a saying that “we completely overestimate what we can achieve in a week, but completely underestimate what we can achieve in a year”, and that translates to a year to 10 years, all of those kinds of things. So I think starting small instead, and making sure that you get those small wins will build momentum to the bigger stuff as well. Do you see that as well with the way that you’ve learned about your goal setting and that kind of stuff?
Duayne
100%. And look, that’s probably another thing that held me off from doing the thing. It would definitely be something that would hold people back from doing Live Life Build, because they see all these builders out there on social media, and they’re doing fantastic things when you and I know very well, that some of the ones that look like they’re doing really good on social media are actually doing quite bad. So you’ve got a lot to live up to.
Putting yourself in a situation where you set your goals so high, you just never get there.
That was the same thing for me. It just started with one thing, really small things, and then it just grows and grows and grows and you get more passionate about it.
Making It Personal
Duayne
What do you think that they should focus on? What’s the focus when you’re setting a goal? What should be some of the things that they work on to make sure they do succeed?
Amelia
I think it’s really important as a builder, and as a person, to identify what your strengths are. What you are good at. It’s going to be a lot harder to achieve goals that are just things that don’t come naturally to you. And it is that thing, once you build momentum, then you can start tackling the stuff that might be more challenging and could be overwhelming if you just went at it cold turkey.
I think too it is that thing, like you say, we see those people on social media who look like they’re just nailing it in life, and yet we know that in the background, their business isn’t doing so well. Or they’re not personally doing well. I think too it’s really important as you’re starting to look around, we are fed a lot of videos and imagery and people that we’re supposed to aspire to that have the lifestyles that we apparently want to lead.
Particularly I see a lot of guys in marketing, with the flashy car, and the big house, and the boat, and they’re saying, “if you just do this, it’s simple. If you just do this, then you’ll get all of this.”
But if your goals are different, and if you have other things that you want to achieve with your life, there’s no point in you trying to follow the formula that they’re following because that’s not going to be in alignment with the kind of life that you want to lead.
I remember having a business coach say to me, you can’t plant apple seeds and look for the pear tree. And you know, it’s really important that you actually pursue your goals in alignment with the kind of life that you want to lead, so that when you achieve the goals that you’re working towards, it actually has meaning for you. You’re not chasing somebody else’s version of your life.
Duayne
Yeah, definitely. Making sure they align with your values is a big thing. And look, I must admit over the years I’ve probably got sucked into that as well. But it can be incredibly hard these days with social media, and a lot of builders would be looking at other builders and you see these incredible homes that they’re building, and it looks like they’re doing incredibly well and it is hard to not want to aspire to be that. But it is super, super important that it’s aligned with your values. Forget about everybody else.
Forget about the rest of the world. Forget about all the garbage we get told. But you really need to figure out what it is you want your goals to align with.
Amelia
Most definitely.
If you would like some more tips specifically designed for builders around personal goal setting and improving your business, why not check out https://www.livelifebuild.com/blog/personal-goal-setting/. Don’t forget to also subscribe to our YouTube channel where you can listen to our latest coaching information for residential builders https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC910gjshd8R63JyeRC40-JA