As 2016 quickly comes to a close, many people begin to set their focus on “out with the old, in with the new”.
If we were to ask 20 people what a new year is all about, most likely at least 17 of them would say “Starting fresh and setting goals”. The other three would roll their eyes and say “that crap doesn’t work.”
Let’s be honest… most of the time goal setting doesn’t work. We get to the end (or middle) of the year and look at the list of the 25 goals we excitedly wrote down in January with great expectation and we can maybe check 3 or 4 of them off the list. Frustration and disappointment with ourselves sets in. Great that we got a few things done, but why weren’t we able to check more things off that were important enough to make the list? Why is our business still not close to where we want it? Why do we wrap up most years feeling discouraged?
Three reasons: 1) We lose focus; 2) We don’t have a plan that we’re relentlessly committed to; and 3) We don’t put the accountability structure in place to hold our feet to the fire along the way.
What has 2016 been like for you? Are you a goal setter? In our private FB group with our motivated and driven clients, there’s been a lot of talk about this topic. Especially after our 30 for 30 Hub Challenge where gym owners made some giant leaps forward in their businesses. The questions involve – How do I set personal and professional goals? How do I help athletes set goals and hold them accountable? We all want to make this new year the very best.
In this blog post, we’ll lay out a plan to help you set personal and professional goals. And then next week we’ll tackle how to help your members set and achieve their goals.
Many people have written about setting goals. Some giving a step by step plan for creating goals, some saying goal setting doesn’t work. The concepts I’m about to spell out for you aren’t new. Goal setting processes have been around since the beginning of time. As humans, we’ve been created to crave progress. What you have in the blog post is the consolidation and repackaging of some of my favorite ideas from a handful of really smart and successful people (Michael Hyatt, Donald Miller, Chris Brogan, Chris Marhefka, to name a few). It’s a result of my countless hours of study on how to best set goals that I can actually hit and celebrate.
This is only one way. But it’s a way that works.
First let me say… You have to attack this as if you were creating a plan for a new business. Resolute. Determined. Creative. Focused. Give yourself permission to think about all your options. Set aside a block of time. Take off 3-4 hours (during the time you’re most fresh and creative) and go somewhere where you can think. A coffee shop. Your kitchen table. A friend’s house (when they’re not there). Somewhere quiet and comfortable. Somewhere free from distractions. And be sure to keep your email closed and put your phone on airplane mode.
Alright, ready? Let’s dive into the 7 Step Approach…
These steps should be completed in one sitting and each step should build on the previous.
Step 1 – Write down 3 creative words (or short phrases) that you want your life to be about this year. Think big. Mine for 2016 were “Find a Way. Inspire. Be Thoughtful.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come back to these three “words” this year to reset my thinking. Maybe for you it’ll be words like Reinvest. Untangle. Equip. Build. Home. Conduit. Focus. Magnet. Consistency. Say “No” More. Pause. Adventure. Lean In. Think of areas in your life where you want to take action. What do you want to be known for this year? Choose only three. Once you’ve chosen them, be sure to put them in places where you’ll see them often. Use these 3 words to inform all your work in the rest of the steps.
Step 2 – Write down these 10 categories – Health. Family. Friends. Love. Joy. Business. Spiritual. Learning. Finances. Fitness. Choose one big goal for each of these. Only one. Be specific. Make it measurable. Want $20k in savings? Want to remember people’s birthdays this year with a handwritten card? Want to take 2 weeks off without being completely stressed? Have you always wanted to take salsa lessons? Want to read a book a month? Think through each one and choose one big goal for each category.
Step 3 – Create one 60 Day Power Goal. Review all your 10 goals above. In this step, you’ll create one (only one) goal that you’re going to get done in the next 60 days. This will be a goal that will make a lot of those other 10 goals possible. Once you accomplish it, a handful of the 10 goals will be closer to being done. For example, maybe included in your 10 goals are something like the following… you want to be more present with your significant other, you want to not work 16 hours a day, you want to go out at least once every other week with a friend, etc. A Power Goal might be to create (and stick to) the habit of spending 30 minutes per day working on your business. This would get you focused and will directly affect a handful of your 10 goals. Your Power Goal needs to be accountable to a number. Thirty minutes every day. Don’t make this goal “comfortable”. Very little worth talking about happens inside our comfort zone. Comfortable, easy goals aren’t really goals. They are a to do list. Think big for this Power Goal. It will have a domino effect on your 10 goals.
Step 4 – Do a massive brain dump. Don’t focus on your 10 goals, focus on that one Power Goal. Write down everything you can think of that it will take for your Power Goal to become a reality. List the challenges, the steps that need to be done, the potential barriers to accomplishing it… just brainstorm for 10-20 minutes on that one Power Goal.
Step 5 – Write down how life will be different if you hit your Power Goal. You don’t need to spend a lot of time on this one… just brainstorm for 5-10 minutes. Continuing with our example… if you hit your goal of establishing a 30 minute routine every day to work on your business, how would your business be different? Maybe you’d get a handle on your marketing efforts. Maybe you’d create an event calendar for the year instead of haphazardly throwing together events last minute. Maybe you’d finally get your systems and processes documented. How would your personal life be different? Would you have more time for your own fitness, friends, family, etc. if you developed laser-like focus?
Step 6 – Break your Power Goal down into 2 week sprints. This is where you begin to back into making that goal a reality. Over 60 days, you’ll have four 2 week sprints (8 weeks total). In this step, you lay out your action steps. Daily/weekly action items to move you closer to your goal. First week might be setting up reminders on your calendar, finding a template to follow (if you need that), finding and setting up accountability, etc. Second week might be identifying what you want to accomplish during your four 2 week sprints of (using our example) 30 minutes per day. The key is to work backward. You’ve got your Power Goal, now lay out the small action steps of what needs to happen to make it a reality.
Step 7 – Set up your accountability structure. First things first, set a daily reminder on your phone to determine the two things you’re going to do today to reach your 60 Day Power Goal. Next, find other people to hold you accountable. Who are those few you trust to help keep you on track?
Once you complete the first 60 days and hit your Power Goal, you will celebrate (this is important!) and then create another 60 Day Power Goal. Keep going like this throughout your year, setting 6 individual Power Goals, and by this time next year, you will have hit all 10 of your big goals.
To help with Step #7, we are going to be launching -through our Hub platform– a Set & Crush Your Goals Challenge at the beginning of January. We’ll create a course in Hub that we’ll walk you through on Setting & Hitting Goals. It will include options and templates to help you create and track your goals. The first two weeks, we’re going to be helping you set and develop a routine for your personal goals. The following two weeks, we’re going to be walking you through setting up a system to help your members determine and hit their goals. This Challenge will include the accountability you need through a private FB group and regular emails to make 2017 the best yet. Would love for you to join us! More info on this to come.
This step by step plan is not a lazy man’s way of getting things done. It requires work. It requires the discipline to not only do the work up front, but to revisit it often (at least every 60 days) and keep at it on a daily basis. The sad reality is that few will set goals that they actually achieve this year. Be different.
When you combine an insatiable drive to set goals that make an impact on your world with a refusal to throw in the towel, you give yourself the best chance of hitting that success you’ve only dreamed about before.
Join us in making 2017 the best yet!
Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success. ~Pablo Picasso
This post was written by Julie Weldon (julie@321goproject.com).