The successful people in this business always say one of the keys is to set goals for yourself. Short term goals, long term goals, goals for the year, month, week, day, etc... As you can see on the right side of my blog I listed 5 or so goals I have for the next two months. I tried to be specific, as it helps to measure progress. If you set a goal of "doing 1 deal by the end of the month" you may get overwhelmed because there are A LOT of small details that go into getting that deal. I say that you should break that "goal" up into smaller parts. What I mean is, what are the steps necessary in order to get 1 deal?

• Get a list of 1000 leads
  
• Send out 250 mailers per week for 4 weeks.
  
• Send out Second round of mailers (250 per week for 4 weeks)
  
• Go to Real Estate Meeting on mm/dd/yyyy and pass out a buyer signup form
  
• Call 10 for rent signs and talk with the landlords
  
• Talk with sellers who call and practice with them
  
• Put out 10 bandit signs to test an area
  
• etc...
  

I would say those goals are much more achievable, and can be done quickly and routinely. And for everyone of these you can check off, you are that much closer to your ultimate goal of a deal!

For me, staying on track is a constant battle. There are so many things that you can do to get that first deal that I end up scattering my efforts all over the place. All this does is cause nothing to get accomplished, but a lot of things started and unfinished. You have to be organized, relentless and always moving forward.

In 2009 I will do that!

Happy Investing!