Ask most any real estate agent to tell you about their business plan and they'll talk about listings taken and sold, buyer sales, gross commission income, their marketing budget and maybe some tax planning. There's one more element to your plan that can have a huge impact on your results - Giving.

The great thing about giving is that even the smallest amounts can make a big difference. Amber Riviere, a virtual assistant in Baton Rouge, LA is working on the CARE MORE Giving Circle Challenge. Here's a sampling from Amber's blog of what CARE can do:

• $50 can send an Afghan girl to school for one year
• $600 can keep 10 girls in Sudan in school and teach them about AIDS prevention
• $1000 can provide a day's supply of emergency rations to 330 families

Throughout ActiveRain there are probably hundreds of examples of what you can do. There are a dozen more ideas in this post: Giving Back - a new ActiveRain group. And if you have successes or ideas to share or just want to get involved, we'd love to have you join the group!

Giving is not just about money. Think about what you can do with your time, expertise, resources or how you could leverage your sphere of influence. Imagine the possibilities when add yourself into an equation that includes the concepts of 'Pay it forward' and 'Six degrees of separation'. That's powerful!

Randy Prothero wrote an excellent post about getting involved in your community. It's no coincidence that Randy is consistently a top agent in his market. From a table by the window in a small coffee shop in Minnesota, the Retired Codgers are taking positive steps to protect our environment. Maybe this will turn out to be a variation on the butterfly effect - 'When a codger sips his coffee ...'

In the end it's not about being the top agent in your city, dominating your market area, or shattering sales records. The real question is 'what did you do with all of your success?' Just take one more step in your business planning. Instead of starting with 'I want to make $xxx in 2007', make it 'I will give _____ in 2007' -- and let giving drive your marketing, production and income.

By shifting your focus just slightly from earning to giving, you'll find that your motives are pure, your presentations more sincere and people will be drawn to you and your cause. In The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, Gary Keller calls it your 'Big Why'; for others it's called 'Yawp'.

As Winston Churchill said, "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." All my best to you and yours for a healthy, prosperous, generous and rewarding 2007!