WEEK 104: GOAL SETTING

Goals are great for planning, but ...

REFLECTIONS (learnings and actions): Today I want to talk to you about an integral aspect when you want to achieve success and your dreams.

Goal setting.

Now there is a ton of information out there about this, but this is one area I have had to work to find clarity in.

Why is this?

One of the main reasons is we get so focused on the end results, which can cause a sea of uncomfortable feelings. They will make you question what you are doing, or even worse, cause you to give up on the very thing that is so close achieve.

It has taken me about a year and a half of experimentation, but I have been able to create a goal setting system which helps you achieve massive success, without wanting to quit within a week of starting.

Take a looksie below...

1. Goals are good for planning, but focus on your inputs to make progress.

I learned this early on in my LYP from James Clear and it has been validated by many others along the path. 

Setting a goal is necessary to help you identify a target to aim form, but if you want to make progress focus on your inputs (daily decisions and actions).

You will make incremental progress at best if you solely focus on the end result.

2. Choose Identify, not result/appearance based goals.

We often choose goals which are based in a certain result.

For example, run a half marathon or lose 15 lbs (6 kilos). These are good, but what happens after you run the half marathon or lose the weight? What's next?

I have learned that most people that achieve a certain result, often return to a previous state where they are at the same, or worse place before they started.

Instead of choosing a certain result, choose an identify based goal.

For the two examples above, running a marathon and losing 15 lbs would be based off the identify of being a person in great health.

Thus, your goal would be to be the healthiest person you can be, which would allow you to take the continuous actions to validate this new identity.

3. Aggregation of Marginal Gains

I have a secret...sustainable change takes time!

We often times see a fantastical story where we have a sudden surge of motivation! We start a task, but then slowly fizzle out. Or, even worse we reach a certain level of success, and then let ourselves go until we are at the same position we started. 

Why is this? 

Most people do not know the mechanisms for sustainable change.

This is where the Aggregation of Marginal gains comes into play.

AMG is the strategy where you create sustainable change by making 1% improvements towards anything you want to achieve.

For the running a marathon example above, you start by walking a mile and adding 1% increase in length each time you exercise, instead of running 5 miles straight out the gate. It is pretty surprising, but you would increase your initial output by 34% just by adding 1% improvement over a a 30 day span.

Why does this work? 

Well, 1% by itself is insignificant. Even with the hardest task, you would not blink twice about doing 1% better. 

However, when done consistently, can produce amazing results.

4. Achieve small wins to validate your new Identity.

You have set your new identity based goal and know you will use the AMG to achieve it.

But, what actions will you need to take to achieve this?

Taking on a goal to achieve massive success and your dreams will require heavy change, and it will take time to do this. 

You will probably think you are not able to do such a thing when you start and this is exactly how I felt when I started my LYP.

Write a book, no way?

Start a successful online business, not to mention two others others...where do I even start?

I did not have the identity in place for me to believe I could such things, but I got there through small, daily wins. 

It does not matter what you do every once in a while, what matters most is what you do on a consistent basis.

That is why you start small with actions which prove your new identity based goal.

5. Iterate and focus on inputs to make progress

Like I mentioned above, goals are great for planning, but your ability to focus and implement your inputs determines how much success you will make.

Often times, we get stuck on the result, or lack their of, which spirals us down a path of negative thoughts and NO ACTION.

Achieving any of your goals will be an iterative process, where you will have to try over and over again. 

It will not happen magically overnight or in one attempt! 

6. Measure and report your performance 

It is quite simple. What you do not measure you can not change. 

This is one of the biggest mistakes I see others making when I discuss how they can reach new levels of success, or achieve their dreams. 

This is something I struggled with before I started my LYP, as I complained I am not able to do x, y, or z. However, I did not one, measure, or two, report on my performance at the time. 

For example, I always complained I did not have enough time before my LYP. This was before two kids. 

How I said this now, I have no idea. The kicker is that I had no idea how I used my time before kids as I never tracked or reported on it.

Can not stress the importance of this step enough.

Want to make changes in your life? 

Start measuring and reporting on your performance!

I use the STREAK app, but there are million out there which can help you track your inputs, daily decision and actions. This will allow you to learn and modify from your actions so you can accelerate towards your ultimate outcome.

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Whew!

You now posses priceless information if you have made it to the end of the post. Seriously, you now have the road map on how you can crush any goal on the path to achieving massive success and your dreams!

What Went Well?

WT completed!

Settling into our new lives here in China and finding more pockets of time to devote to LYP. 

What is something we can improve? What actions can we take next week?

Worrying about what others think. It is crazy to think WE try to control what others are thinking, yet we spend hours of our time trying to do this very thing. It just takes us down a rabbit hole, which does not have an end.

I want to repreat the phrase that "No thought in another person mind can harm us...(it is true you know)" when I get caught up thinking about what others are thinking.

What is something to avoid next week?

Worrying about what others think or what I think they are thinking...ha!

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PLANNING (Implementation Intention):  You will follow through 2X to 3X more likely to complete your weekly task than you normally would just by filling in the following statement.

I plan to complete the weekly task [day] at [time] in [location]. 

A reminder you might have to use multiple Implementation Intentions in order to follow through.

EXECUTION (strategies used):  From week to week, I use a combination of many strategies. There are always some which are used more than others depending on what comes up, but I wanted to offer a link to all them at once. 

My advice is to identify the I CAN'T statement you tell yourself during the most. Then find a strategy below the statement which resonates with you, and then start using it. 

Enjoy!