Didn’t reach your targeted sales volume this year? Here’s how you can be sure to attain it next year: don’t focus on it. Instead, focus on developing a system that can yield such results. Rather than thinking, “I have to reach this number to be successful,” focus on mastering the tasks you must do every day to help improve your sales. Here are three ways to cultivate a process-oriented attitude.

1. Don’t put all your effort into one monumental goal

By restricting your motivation to a year’s-worth of production – perhaps in sales volume or in number of homes sold – you position yourself to feel like you’ve failed if you don’t hit the mark. Lost in the frustration of not reaching your number might be the fact that you improved your marketing tactics throughout the year, or the fact that you finally developed an efficient method of client follow-up. Focus on daily improvement and successes.

2. Think only about long-term success

Top producers have established a system to handle all the aspects of real estate, and they execute it daily. Top producers remain focused, too. They wouldn’t be able to do that if they cared only about making a few big transactions a year. Why? Because top producers are in this for the long-haul; they’re in the business for a career. The best agents are those who stick to a daily system of production; each day, they dedicate time to studying the market, so that they know a bit more than the day before. Small but consistent steps of improvement lead to long-term success.

3. Listen to feedback

Send a quarterly survey to past clients and ask them what they valued most about their experience with you. Clients might not perceive you as you see yourself; your biggest selling point might not align with what they value. The more in-touch an agent is with his or her public perception, the more they can play to their strengths and improve on any weaknesses.