- The Aligned Work Newsletter
- Posts
- How to Set and Achieve Goals (Or at Least How I Do It)
How to Set and Achieve Goals (Or at Least How I Do It)
A Guide to Goal Setting
Read on: Website
Abundant Mind #010
Read Time: 5 minutes
Have you ever wondered if you were doing goal setting right?
There are a lot of guides online like SMART goals, OKRs, or even the 10X rule.
These are great frameworks on goal setting especially for corporations and leadership teams.
However, I do find them a bit rigid or even pressure inducing when it comes to setting goals for life.
I personally have tried all of these and it’s served me well for the season of life I was in at the time.
What if there was a way that we can set goals with less pressure?
In this newsletter, I want to build off of the previous newsletter I posted, and share a more relaxed way to set and achieve goals.
Start with A Long Term Vision
The value of a long term vision is NOT so that you get exactly what you envisioned.
It’s more so that you have a clear idea of what direction you are headed.
If at some point on the journey you feel that the vision doesn’t align with you anymore, you can always change this to a new one that does align with what you want.
No shame in that.
In an online course I took called Money EQ by Ken Honda, he shares how to make a “Wealth Map” that encompasses different areas of your life.
He suggests to create this with 7 areas of life in mind:
Family
Friends & Community
Health
Personal Growth & Spirituality
Work
Impact
Finances
I will share my personal Wealth Map here.
For the sake of having an appropriate length for this newsletter, I will share 3 areas that are most important to me right now out of the 7 that are outlined in the course.
I see myself enjoying my time with my wife, Bea. We go on weekly date nights, we are both happy with where we are and who we are as a married couple. I see myself mentoring our teenagers into better and better people. I see myself supporting my children in their dreams and what they want to do in life. I see myself traveling out of the country with my family at least once a year, and traveling out of the country, just me and Bea, 2x a year.
I see myself racing short distance triathlons and cycling regularly. I see myself playing golf as well with friends. I see myself making health the center of my life so that I have a lot of energy to enjoy life and be able to give to others.
I see myself having a successful one-person business through the power of social media and content creation. I see myself helping a lot of people through my work and helping improve the lives of many people through my content, coaching, and mentoring. I see myself as a serial entrepreneur, helping the growth and transformation of multiple businesses while doing this all in a state of flow and enjoyment.
Notice that I word everything in the present tense.
As I conceptualize and think about these areas of my life, I imagine it as if it is already happening.
This allows me to bring excitement and energy into this exercise which inspires me to start working on these different areas.
I invite you to do this yourself.
Go ahead and get a clean sheet of paper and a pen.
Use the block quote above as a guide.
On the top left portion write “20 Years from now (20__), I am age ___
Then under that choose 3 areas from the 7 that are most important to you.
And then… write.
Now, just writing your long term vision is not enough.
To find further clarity, you must set your milestones in the form of goals.
Goals across 3 years, 1 year, and 3 months
Once you have finished crafting your long term vision, drill it down into a set of 3 year, 1 year, and 3 month goals.
This is so that you have a better idea of what you can start doing on a day-to-day basis.
If you don’t do this and just stop at the long term vision, you won’t have clarity on how to move forward.
In this section, I’ll share my own set of 3 year, 1 year, and 3 month goals for the areas of Family, Health, and Work as an example.
I preface each set of goals with the sentence stem: “Wouldn’t it be cool if…”
This, in my opinion, takes the pressure off of goal setting.
You can use this as a guide in crafting your own set of goals.
Wouldn’t it be cool if:
1. I maintain a lean and muscular physique at 150lbs
2. I have raced a Half Ironman Triathlon finishing with a strong finish time of 5 hours and 30 minutes
3. I can run a 10k under 40 minutes
Wouldn’t it be cool if:
1. Bea and I are expecting our 1st child.
2. Bea and I have complete time freedom and we work whenever we want to.
3. We have traveled to over 5 different countries in the course of our marriage together.
Wouldn’t it be cool if:
1. I have a successful Youtube Channel.
2. I have over 1M followers across all social media platforms and I’m already earning well from sponsorships and affiliates.
The next is the set of 1 year goals:
Wouldn’t it be cool if:
1. I have trimmed down and have a lean physique at 150lbs
2. I’m back in a regular triathlon training schedule and I have a dialed in nutrition plan.
3. I can run a 10k under 50 minutes.
Wouldn’t it be cool if:
1. Bea and I have just come back from Europe and enjoyed our extended honeymoon.
2. We regularly go ballroom dancing and can now dance well to any song together
3. We go on weekend staycations once a quarter.
Wouldn’t it be cool if:
1. I am posting long form content via videos or podcasts once a week and starting to grow my audience on Youtube
2. I have helped over 10 people multiply their income through coaching sales, leadership, and business.
3. I have over 100k followers across all social media platforms and I’m starting to earn my minimum livable income online.”
Finally, here is my set of 3 month goals:
Wouldn’t it be cool if:
1. I have released 12lbs and hit 150lbs from 162lbs
2. I get back into regular triathlon training and hit a 50 minute 10k run
Wouldn’t it be cool if:
1. Bea and I are on target with all church wedding requirements
2. We go dancing once a week
3. We have a staycation somewhere
Wouldn’t it be cool if:
1. I reach 5,000 followers on Instagram
2. Bea and I are in a financial position to comfortably move to ____ Residences BGC
3. I’m learning and starting to post long form content in the form of either a podcast or a youtube video”
Try it out using this format and see how you feel as you do it.
This ought to give clarity on what you can start to do daily to move the needle forward in each area of your life.
In Conclusion
Doing this exercise and re-aligning with it regularly is something that can move you to act coming from inspiration.
Have it somewhere that you can see it regularly so that you are reminded.
Remember, measure the gain, not the gap so that you continue to feel inspired as you move towards your goals.
From this exercise, you can also already come up with daily or weekly actions that you can take that are in alignment with your goals and vision.
Let me know how your experience of this activity is if you do accomplish it.
My prayer is that these ideas will help lead you to the life that you desire.
You deserve it.
Talk soon,
Zach
Reply