For 2025, Don’t Set Goals—Set Standards

by Steve Shull

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been walking you through each of the 6 Building Blocks—the only 6 things you need to do to build a sustainable, scalable, stress-free real estate business.

We started with Building Block #1: Practicing Mindfulness. 

Then we hit Building Block #2: Optimizing Time. 

Last week, we explored Building Block #3: Cultivating Relationships.

Now it’s time for Building Block #4: Implementing Standards—and it’s absolutely the PERFECT moment for it.

Because we’re just a few weeks away from the new year, and this is the time when everyone starts thinking about setting their goals for 2025.

I’m about to tell you something you’re not going to like…

You don’t need goals. 

In fact, setting goals will do you more harm than good.

Instead, you need STANDARDS.

Goals and standards are very different. Goals are about your results, and if you’ve been paying attention, you know that you do NOT control your results. 

Your efforts are just one of many factors that determine your results, and all those other factors are OUTSIDE your circle of control. You have no power over the market. You have no power over your clients’ behavior. Those things have a massive impact on your results, like it or not.

Your standards, on the other hand, are about your actions—which are entirely within your control.

How are you going to run your business and life on a daily basis?

How do you spend your time? What kind of people do you work with? What do you require of them? 

Most importantly, what do you require of yourself?

Your answers to these questions matter because we adjust to the standards we set.

In everything in life, you’re either adjusting up to a higher standard, or you’re adjusting down to a lower standard—or no standard at all.

Adjusting down is comfortable. It’s easy to say yes to everything and have no boundaries, filters, or requirements. It even seems like that’s what will lead to the best results. You see this all the time with commission—agents discount their fee thinking they’ll get more business that way. 

 In reality, adjusting down to low standards only keeps you stuck in mediocrity. You settle for low-quality clients who don’t value you, you accept a discounted fee, and you provide passable service in return. 

How on earth can this EVER lead to excellence on any level?

It can’t, period. Excellence and high standards go hand-in-hand.

Nowhere in life is this clearer than in sports. Look at Tom Brady, Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, Simone Biles…the top athletes in any sport. NO ONE has higher standards than they do.

These people are top performers BECAUSE they demand more of themselves, and of everyone around them. In every workout, every practice, every competition, they give maximum effort. They are always on time and prepared. They never let themselves off the hook.

These standards are MUCH more powerful than raw talent or ability.

In my 11 years playing serious football, from high school to the NFL, I saw lots of guys with natural talent. Plenty of them had more talent than I did. 

But all too often, they let themselves off the hook. They didn’t hold themselves to the highest standards. And so they washed out—they didn’t make it to the highest levels.

Because the higher you rise, the more natural talent everyone has. Talent is no longer a differentiator. Only your standards can set you apart.

Holding yourself to high standards sounds hard…but it actually SIMPLIFIES life tremendously.

Most agents spend way too much time thinking about what they’re going to do. 

Should I make CRM calls or make a social media post right now? Should I drop everything to go show this property? Should I discount my commission to win this client?

You’re probably entertaining questions like those practically every minute of every day. In the back of your mind, you’re never sure if you’re doing the right thing. You’re always wondering if there’s something better you could be doing.

That takes a HUGE amount of mental and emotional energy, and it keeps you from being fully present and engaged in what you’re actually doing.

When you have standards, those questions disappear.

Your standards tell you exactly what to do.

They streamline your daily decision making processes.

And most importantly, they protect you from your worst instincts and impulses. They keep you from chasing low-probability opportunities, false promises, and other shiny objects.

And if you’re doing it right, you should actually end up doing LESS.

Yes, you read that right. 

Most agents make the mistake of equating busy with productive. Busy is comfortable—if you’re busy, you must be succeeding, right? 

But being busy has nothing to do with making money. Making money comes from doing the right things consistently, at a high level. 

Having high standards means you waste less time doing the wrong things, and you push yourself to do the right things more efficiently…which means more time for YOU.

How many times have you wished for that in the past year?

So as we reach the end of the year, you have a choice…

You can put yourself through the usual goal-setting exercises, choosing meaningless targets for results that are completely outside your circle of control…

Or you can learn how to RAISE YOUR STANDARDS.

If you’re ready to set high standards, Game Plan 2025 is the place to start.

I know you’ve been hearing us talk about it for months now. 

You’re probably sick of hearing about it.

You’re probably thinking you can’t afford to spend hundreds of dollars on a coaching event.

You’re probably reluctant to take a whole day off from running your business.

And yet, in the back of your mind, you know that if you don’t prepare for this coming year in a different way, it will be the SAME as last year.  

So join us on Tuesday, in person or online.

Take the day to get your head on straight…

To raise the bar for yourself…

To let go of old habits that don’t work and start new ones that do…

And to immerse yourself in a community of agents who are all walking the same path with you.