The one thing financial advisors can do to hit their 2017 goals

What if there were just one thing that would almost automatically guarantee you’d hit or exceed all of your goals in 2017? If such a thing existed, would you like to know about?

See also: 3 significant challenges for annuity advisors in 2017

Well I’m here to tell you, it does exist. And I’m going to share it with you right here.

The No. 1 thing every financial advisor can do to make sure they hit their goals for 2017 is: Stop relying only on experience alone and start to actively learn from the experiences of other successful people in the industry.

It’s easy to forget that we now live in an age where we have almost instant access to thousands of years of collective experience of both our peers and the people who’ve gone before us. And all we have to do to take advantage of this knowledge and wisdom is to seek it out.

I love this saying: “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” But so few people are willing to be a student and seek knowledge. The ones who do, however, are the ones who grow exponentially year after year.

See also: 3 insurtech trends to expect in 2017

Who else wants 90 years of experience… overnight?

If you spend 30 years learning your profession, you should be much wiser than someone who has spent only one year in the field. But what if you spent one year learning from three different people who each had 30 years of experience?

You would be gaining 90 years of hard-won experience from those three people. Therefore, you would be wiser in one year than most people who have already been in the business for 30 years.

The idea here is that you want to stand on the shoulders of giants. Learn what they’ve already discovered, then build from there.

So many people spend 30 years discovering things in their own experience that has already been learned. That’s the hard and time consuming way.

Imagine if a scientist did the same thing. Imagine if he had to learn everything from scratch, without learning from the scientists that went before him. If that were the case, we’d still be in the Stone Age.

The point is, to make rapid progress we need to actively learn from the experiences of other successful people in our industry. With that in mind, keep reading for three specific things you must do this year to reach your goals in 2017…

Mentorship can be as beneficial for the experienced professional as it for the learning professional. (Photo: iStock)

No 3: Find a successful mentor or coach

First and foremost, you need to find a successful mentor or coach who can provide you with knowledge, feedback, inspiration, wisdom, and accountability.

Keep in mind, too, that just having someone who can “soundboard” with you and listen to your ideas is very valuable. Often times they will go back and forth with you, sharing other angles that you may not have considered which sharpens your idea altogether.

See also: 7 benefits of being a mentor or mentee [infographic]

The biggest problem in your business is often the biggest opportunity for growth. (Photo: iStock)

No. 2: Read a book on a topic you know you need to improve on

What’s one problem in your business that needs to be fixed? The biggest problem in your business is often the biggest opportunity for growth. Fix your biggest problem and your year is going to be a huge success. Trust me.

Related: Lost sales leads: 4 common problems

So what can you read that addresses that problem and helps you to improve? Find that book and devour it. Learn all you can from it, and it will get your mind thinking of solutions.