Have you ever noticed that some people seem to be able to juggle all of the responsibilities, the challenges, the problems, the demands of the various areas of life and make it seem easy?"? Have you ever wondered about people who seem to come out on top no matter what happens to them?"? Do you wonder how some people are so successful at juggling life without dropping their sanity?"? How are they successful?"? Why are they successful?"? I believe the answer to those questions lies in two places---attitude and planning."?

It has been proven over and over again that, for the most part, successful people have specific goals."? In the book, "The 11 Commandments of Wildly Successful Women", 125 women were interviewed who achieved extraordinary success in both their work and their personal lives."? The interviewer found that most of these women had one thing in common: they all knew where they wanted to go -- they had goals -- they created their own plans and they focused on making them happen.

Are you too busy to set goals for yourself, or feel like you are a failure at achieving many of the goals that you have set?"? Effective time management helps you gain control of your life--at least, as much control of life as it is possible for us to have!"? An article on www.optimizeyourlife.com makes the following statement, "The secret to effective time management is to always know what to do next.""? Sounds simple, right?"? But, to always know what to do next, takes some self-examination and then, planning.

So, how's your planning?"? Do you have written goals right now?"? Chances are, your answer is probably "No.""? Some studies have shown that less than 1 percent of Americans write specific goals for themselves each year."? Another study estimated that only 15 percent of real estate agents have written goals."? Because of my conversations with agents, I personally question that statistic."? I would guesstimate that the actual number of real estate agents with written goals is much lower than 15 percent."? That's a shame, because there is power in writing down your goals."?

To demonstrate that point, let's look at a study done at Harvard University more than 40 years ago."? Researchers polled the graduating class of 1953 to find out how many students actually had clearly written, specific goals and a plan for achieving them."? Only three percent of the class had taken time to write down their goals."? Some 20 years later, researchers polled the same group of graduates to see how they had fared in life."? It turned out that the three percent who had written down their goals had accumulated more wealth than the other 97 percent of their class combined!

From these two studies, we can see that it is clearly evident that there is power in setting goals and creating a plan."? So, how do you get started?"? You can visit an office supply store and buy templates or you can purchase software for writing business plans."? The drawback to these methods is that they are not usually designed especially for the real estate practitioner."? There is a robust online business planning system, CreateAPlan, that is designed specifically for the real estate practitioner."? The online software service is a simple, easy-to-use, "point-and-click" application designed to make business planning, marketing activities, budgeting and tracking quick and easy."? For more information on CreateAPlan, you can visit www.createaplan.com."?

"?Regardless of the method you choose, increase your level of success and productive use of time by setting goals within a thorough business plan."? This will give you the structure, accountability, and direction you need to plan your way to measurable, realistic success in the real estate industry."?

"?Rhonda Hamilton is a professional speaker, author and consultant."? To read other articles by this author, visit www.RhondaHamilton.com.