Distraction-Proof® Advisor Ideas

We’re eight percent of the way through the year already, and I’m taking calls from advisors, some of them discouraged by feeling they’re off track already to meet their 2019 objectives.

When I ask them to tell me these objectives, they list a ton of them – from fitness objectives to business objectives, to personal objectives, to things that they want to be doing in their community. Understandably they’ve got a myriad of these great-sounding objectives that now, upon starting to miss and feel like they’re behind by month one, they come out super discouraged.

I ask them to tell me how they’d feel by the end of Q3 this year if they were just achieving maybe four of those objectives, be it fitness or business or personal life. They tell me they’d be absolutely thrilled.

So, then I have them back up a little bit to where we are now. I encourage them to tackle two key objectives that they want to achieve, ideally by the end of this quarter. So pick a business objective and a personal objective.

For instance, I then talk with them about client segmentation. This one advisor, in particular, was trying to get his head around doing that. We were then realistic about the time frame that would take – getting in touch with his broker/dealer, finding out about different revenue streams that different clients were generating for him. So, being realistic about the time frame, we’ve set a 90-day goal to have this done.

Then there was the health issue. He wanted to lose 15 pounds, be in bed by 9:00 each night, and be dating his partner at least once a week. To which I said, “Let’s back up a little bit. Let’s look at the first thing we can control easily. Let’s look at getting to bed by 9:00.” So these are the two items we’re concentrating on for these first 90 days of this quarter: client segmentation and to bed by 9:00.

Interestingly he’s already come back to tell me, “And now I’ve [also] set a date time with my partner, where we’re dating Thursday evenings each week.” Already he’s done this twice, and he’s now seeing that instead of exhausting himself by trying to do and integrate eight or nine great things, but into every single week, just by stepping back and taking things a day at a time and focusing on maybe one or two objectives, he’s really able to do this. What’s more important, he’ll go on to build habits in doing this.

So,

1. If you’re already feeling a little behind with the objectives you’ve set for this year, don’t worry. Don’t panic.
2. Step back and break these down to maybe one or two key objectives that you want to achieve and have formed habits for over the next 30-90 days.
3. Do that – realistically set out the steps involved. If you’re going to get to bed by 9:00 each night, you may have to tweak how much time you sit and watch some TV. You may have to plan to start heading to bed by 8:30. Whatever those steps have got to be, plan for them responsibly. Start implementing them, and you won’t come out dejected.

By the end of Q3 you’re going to have ingrained phenomenal habits. You’ll nail Q4 and kick off 2020 with some powerful, ingrained habits.

I look forward to bringing you another Distraction-Proof Advisor Idea next week.