Don’t you love this time of year for thinking ahead and planning? You’ve got a year’s worth of vast, uncharted territory ahead of you.
What will you do with it? Where do you want to be by the end of 2015?
Goal setting (Physical,Financial,Career,Relationships,Investment,Business,Skills..) is so important to me that I cannot resist year-end planning articles. I’m pretty sure I read every one that crosses my path. But — truth be told — I ignore most of them.
When it’s time to plan, I stick to my own little system of four very simple questions.
Rule #1? The answers must be written down.
There’s something about committing to your goals in writing that makes this system work. I can’t explain it, but decades of doing this have shown me that simply thinking about the answers to these questions doesn’t help you to retain them the way writing them down does.
If you want to join me, read the questions below first. Then grab some paper and a pen, or open up a blank page on your computer or device, and let’s get started.
QUESTION 1: How do you feel by the end of 2015?
Choose a few words to describe the way you want to feel by the end of next year. Think about your whole life:
Physical,Financial,Career,Relationships,Investment,Business,Skills..your personal and business relationships; your health; your community. Choose a few words that describe how you want to feel in these areas of your life.
Important: these questions should be answered using present-tense language. In other words, answer this question like this:
“By the end of 2015, I feel ________”
QUESTION 2: What does your success look like?
How do you use your success goals to help you feel the way you want to feel by the end of 2015? Does your success need to change? Does it grow? Does it shrink?
“By the end of 2015, my success ________”
QUESTION 3: What overall strategies do you use to accomplish the above?
Now that you know what you want your success to be, how do you accomplish this? What strategies do you use?”
By the end of 2015, I implement these strategies: ________”
QUESTION 4: What will you focus on each quarter to get you to your goals?
Time to make an action plan.
Break down your strategies into actions, and assign actions to the quarters of the year.
What do you focus on in the first, second, third, and fourth quarters of 2015 to help you achieve the changes in your success plan and the way you want to feel by the end of the year?”
For each quarter in 2015, this is what I do to reach my goals: ________”
Repeat this for all your goals Say,Physical,Financial,Career,Relationships,Investment,Business,Skills…
Good Luck…!