Are you achieving your goals? Medicare agents can find tremendous success in their careers, but whether or not you actually achieve your full potential often comes down to your goals – what they are and how you go about pursuing them. These goal setting strategies can help you achieve success.
1. Don’t Be Afraid to Think Big
J.K. Rowling once said, “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.”
Sometimes you need to push yourself, even if that means you run the risk of failing. If you always accomplish your goals year after year, ask yourself if you could be doing even more.
2. But Also Be Realistic
You want to challenge yourself, but you also want to make sure you can actually achieve your goals. Otherwise, you run the risk of giving up. The trick is to find balance. Pick goals that push you but are within reach if you do your best.
According to Scientific American, one way to do this is to break a big goal into smaller subgoals. These smaller goals are less overwhelming and easier to accomplish. For example, the Scientific American article says that the goal of learning a new language can be daunting, but language apps make it accessible by creating small goals of completing one short lesson a day.
As a Medicare agent, your goal may be to reach a high level of premium. You can break this goal into the smaller goals that will help you accomplish this, such as following a certain number of leads each week.
3. Know Exactly What You Need to Do
Mary and Sue both want to improve their finances in 2026. Mary resolves to be more financially responsible. Sue resolves to save $12,000 by the end of the year, meaning she has to save $1,000 each month, and she creates a new budget that helps her achieve this goal. Each month, she checks her progress and adjusts her budget as needed.
Who do you think is more likely to succeed?
It’s easy to say you want to be healthier, more successful, or more financially savvy, but actually achieving these goals is another story. Think about exactly what you want, and then identify the steps you need to take to achieve this goal.
For example, if your goal is to increase your revenue, how much more revenue do you want to bring in, and what activities can you commit to in order to achieve this growth?
4. Don’t Set It and Forget It
According to Pew Research Center, 13% of U.S. adults who make New Year’s resolutions have not managed to keep any of them just one month into a year, and only 59% have managed to keep all of their resolutions.
A big goal is a long-term commitment. When you create your goal, don’t just wait until the end of the year to reflect on how you’ve done – by then, it will be too late to make any adjustments if you’ve fallen behind on your goals. Instead, build regular checkups into your goal. What do you need to accomplish each month, each week, and each day? If you get off track, what can you do to get back on course?
You don’t just need a goal. You need a plan.
5. Use a Goal-Setting Framework
There’s a science to setting goals. People who study goals have created frameworks to help guide people toward effective goal-setting practices. There are several to chose from, including SMART and PACT.
- SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely, describing the five characteristics of an effective goal.
- PACT stands for Purposeful, Actionable, Continuous and Trackable. It’s a slightly different approach to goals that focuses on being able to track your progress over time.
Pick a goal-setting framework that fits your needs, and use it to fine-tune your goals for success.
One More Thing – Don’t Forget About Support
When you’re working toward a big goal, it’s nice to have some support. PTT Financial is here for you. Our training, retail and marketing opportunities can help Medicare agents reach their goals. Learn more.