Your friend/ family member asks you:
“Hey what are your goals coming up for 2024?!”
And you fall for it
Every.
Single.
Time.
You tell them your goals, and the response you get?
A response as if you’ve already achieved them! An outpouring of words of validation, support & affirmation ensue.
You get the dopamine hit/rush as if you did the thing you said you’re looking to do (even though you didn’t even do it)
And that’s the proverbial “end” of you & that goal
There's a better way to respond at the end of this post, so stick with me here.
So, what do we do instead?
1. Set short, medium & long term goals.
Have a goal setting session with yourself & start with an overarching theme.
This “theme” will serve as your OKR’s (Objective Key Results).
Will this year be a year to build, maintain, or restructure?
- Identify the overarching goal for the year
- Lifestyle changes associated with that goal
- Health habits associated with that goal
- Professional achievements
- Relationship goals
- Results associated with the above
For example:
I want to improve my online business & help more people than I did in 2023, but in less hours. So I’ll have to “restructure”.
You must learn to love, respect & believe in yourself. To accomplish this, begin by restructuring your current self-programming.
- Marshall Sylver
That means the goal is to increase my efficiency & effectiveness of my use of time so that I can achieve that goal. I will have to focus on higher reach/visibility tasks to grow my audience so those who need what I offer can find me.
Like my business, I'll keep my workouts efficient & in a place where they’re the best use of my time & yield the most results.
I also want to improve my relationships with my family & friends that are in my circle. Compartmentalizing will be helpful to completely show up in circumstances with others. When we're able to do this, it provides a more fulfilling experience than "showing up"
There also needs to be a large degree of faith in the process here. I have to actually believe in my ability to do the thing I'm looking to do here, or else im wasting time. If don't have faith in my own processes or framework, why should anyone else?
Needless to say, you’re going to have to be your own cheerleader (or hire someone to help support) to a degree here & champion yourself/your goals.
“It's easier to act your way into a new way of thinking, than think your way into a new way of acting.” - Jerry Sternin
Find what the "big rocks" are that you need to move (processes) to get you closer to your goal, and start moving them.
A perfect plan without any execution is simply a wish.
That plan itself won’t actually get you anywhere.
Speaking of processes….
2. Aim for the processes associated with your goals.
“Yes, results do matter. But if you optimize for the outcome, you win one time. If you optimize for a process that leads to great outcomes, you can win again & again” - James Clear
An outcome focus will tell you whether you achieved a goal, where a process will show you how you got to that goal. I won’t get to my goal I mentioned above because I stated it I also have to :
- Focus on my nutrition to support consistent efforts daily
- Work on out reach & getting eyeballs on my content - Workout (No one is taking advice from someone who does not practice what they preach)
- Generate leads & conversations with potential clients
- Create valuable & compelling content for those consuming it
- Make sure I sleep 7 - 9 hours of restful sleep each night
- Stay laser focused on the things that are in my control
A process oriented goal will help to build self-confidence to continue your efforts.
If I want to lose 50 pounds, I’m going to have to lose the first 5, 10, 15, 20 & so on before I get to that larger number.
If I can see that my approach is working, I am more likely to stick with my goals.
This is actually a great segway into the next point..
3. Set yourself KPI’s (Key performance indicators)
The “I” in KPI can stand for a few different words, the purpose of them is to keep you:
- Informed
- Involved
- Interested
- Inspired
Having these "I's" in your process allows you to create inertia & build momentum along the way.
If I'm:
- Lifting more since my last workout
- Losing inches
- Feeling & looking leaner
Then this is visual proof to myself that what I am doing is working.
But, that doesn’t mean that the same approach will continue to work throughout the entire year. Remember, we’re working on dominating the entire year here not the first quarter.
“The most important part of a plan is planning on your plan to not go according to plan”
- Morgan Housel (Author of the Psychology of Money)”
In Q1, you plan to get stronger & lose weight. It’s post holidays, and you’re on the “new year new me” mentality. You joined a gym January 1 & you’re dominating the first 10 weeks of Q1.
You’re down a few pounds, your clothes fit better, confident and your partner wants more “social” time with you ;)
March break hits & your routine gets completely thrown off. The approach you took from the beginning of the year isn't going to work, as your demands are different now. It's harder to carve out time for yourself & only your wallet is getting leaner/losing weight from membership dues.
If you had a quarterly review (which I do in my program you can apply for here)
You would of had the opportunity to:
- Look ahead to this moment back in February, to prepare you for it.
- Review highlights of your wins for the first 10 weeks of the year
- Come up with a game plan to reassess & refocus your approach on your trip & once you’re back.
It can be challenging to believe that we can achieve a lofty goal that seems out of reach over the long term.
There's a saying I refer to often from Clement Stone:
"Big doors swing on little hinges"
I usually reword this as
"Small hinges open big doors"
The smaller efforts & inputs have a greater affect on your long term goals than you think. Stacking 1 - 3 months of small wins 3 - 4 times a year will set you up for an entire year of success.
Think of it like when you were in school. You didn’t show up everyday, then, out of no where have one exam that determines whether you go to the next grade.
You had:
- Homework
- Assignments
- Quizzes
- Tests
- Exams
It was the exact same process highlighted above.
3. Assess & reevaluate:
Let's use a quiz as an example.
You either crush the quiz, it crushed you, or you did not do terrible. To get through the rest of the semester, you'll have to brush up on certain aspects of the course, or the entire thing.
Crushing the quiz:
- You're down 1-2lbs/week over the last 12 weeks & lost inches
- In a calorie deficit
- Performing all your workouts
- Sleeping well
- Hitting 7k steps daily.
It crushed you:
- You put on weight when that wasn't your goal
- Missed >50% of your workouts
- Had bad sleep hygiene
- Did not track food intake
- Did not move much.
Not terrible:
- You maintained your weight, or have lose a few pounds/inches.
- In a caloric deficit, but have a few road bumps from social & special occasions
- Hitting 80% of your workouts
- Getting "good" sleep
- Getting a collective 50k steps per week
From here, we reassess the game plan to:
- Keep things the way they are (not broken, don't fix it)
- Make adjustments to remove barriers & roadblocks (rethink goals & approach)
- Brush up on how to focus on the goals we've set & use our success to build momentum.
This isn't new.
You’ve had the framework on how to do this from when you were a child. It’s no coincidence that in North America there are two 15 minute recesses split with a half hour lunch at school. Don't believe me? Then why does it also so happens to line up with the way your work breaks are when you’re an adult?…
You were being primed & taught behaviours you would need to adopt by as an adult. We can prime ourselves as adults, to achieve our personal goals, too.
From a young age, you're conditioned to live life in a framework that is an evaluative process to measure our progress (like exams, tests & quizzes). These are ways we make sure we're moving in the right direction over a greater period of time.
So, instead of getting that cheap result-less dopamine hit I spoke on in the beginning of this post, look for ways to have the new year work for you.
There are few things that feel as good as when we see those we care about & love achieving there goals. Yours want to see you win, too.
A famous East African proverb comes to mind here in closing this post.
“Alone a youth runs fast, with an elder, slow, but together they go far.”
To go further than you have before, having someone come a long with you who has done it before, can be a lighthouse throughout the process.
How to respond to the question from the beginning of this post
“Hey what are your goals coming up for 2024?!”
***
Instead, of what you're "going" to do, respond with the processes associated with that goal.
*Hint* - they're in the crushing the quiz bullet
This puts you in a position to have social support within your network to help achieve the behaviours associated with your goal.
Talk about how you want/how you are doing (Insert processes here) & how they can help you stay on the straight & narrow. They will be happy for you, but them wanting to see you win will also make them feel like they’re part of the process with you.
The people who love you , want to se you do well & win - let them in on it!
If you’re interested in having that kind of support for your goals in 2024, I’d love to have that conversation. Feel free to click the link below to set it up.
Apply for Coaching Here
I hope you found this insightful, inspiring & educational.
Santo