Here we are again—JANUARY. My 2020 calendar was in the trash back in April as the days began to blur together so it feels great to have a new one up! If you haven’t checked out our Champions School Podcast this week, do that now! We dive into a great goal setting exercise to get you right for the start of the year. With that, I wanted to include a few tips to help you achieve your goals in this amazing year we have ahead! First, the Do’s:
Do Dream Big.
Everyone had setbacks this year, they were almost unavoidable. The one thing we can’t do is tell ourselves that our lives are in a downward trend! We are always getting better, so make sure you shoot high on your goals! Writing the big ones down can feel really daunting and, honestly, a little improbable. The thing is, the more you talk about them and write them down, the more likely they are to come true!
Do Be Specific.
Just like visualization, we want to be as detailed as possible on our goals. If I want to write a really good book, I should put down I want to be a published author and sell X number of books. If I want to learn Karate, I should put down I want to be a black belt in X number of years. When the goal is specific, it becomes a little more measurable. Not only that, but the “X” on our treasure map becomes much more clear.
Do Know Why.
Reasons come first, answers come second. Tony Robbins says this and I can’t agree more. When we know exactly why we want something, we are much more likely to make it happen. When we are doing something and we feel we don’t have a strong enough reason to get it done, we become lazy or stagnant. The drive to achieve that goal begins to fade. We must know the real reason WHY we want something in order to help get us there.
Do Be Consistent.
This is likely the biggest one on the list, after dream big! Consistency is focusing on the little victories. If we look at the big goal we can sometimes see slow progress and get frustrated. If we are not happy with the small victories and little gains, it becomes very hard to enjoy the journey itself. The goal may be to write your first novel, but we need to get excited when we really nail the first chapter!
Do Track Progress.
I have set many-a-goal and failed to track my progress. It is important that our goals have checkpoints. There is always a logical order for us to progress to our goal. We can’t skip to step C without conquering A and B. Be sure to mark down in your journals or spreadsheets how you are progressing towards your goals. Halfway through the year we may need to bump our goals up even because we are ahead of pace! Now let’s look at some things we should avoid.
Don’t Set Impossible Goals.
We want to dream big, but we don’t want to set goals that are impossible. I am undersized, twenty-nine years old, and terrible at basketball. For me to make a goal to be in the NBA next season at this point in my life might be out of the question. This is a fun activity, but remember, we want to set ourselves up for success
Don’t Set Immeasurable Goals.
As mentioned before, we want to be able to track our progress. If we set a goal to write the best book in California this year… well, that’s pretty hard to track. If it is to become a New York Times best seller, on the other hand, you can track that. When the goal is to throw a better curveball, let’s get some numbers such as spin rate and axis so we can begin to really track progress.
Don’t Drown in Goals.
Goals are important, but the journey is equally as important as the goal itself. Sometimes we want to accomplish so much that we lose sight of the progress. If your goal is to make a million dollars, don’t hole yourself away hoarding all your money and miss the joys in life. If you make $900,000 and spend a little time and money on yourself, you will enjoy it much more.
Don’t Get Bored.
Sometimes the process can get stale. Sometimes, guys don’t feel like sitting there shooting free throw after free throw in practice. We must make this fun. We have to make achieving our goals feel more like a game than a chore. When it becomes a chore, we are no longer going to push ourselves to achieve big things.
Don’t Lose Focus.
Our subconscious is always trying to feed us excuses. “You don’t need to work hard today, you worked hard yesterday. You can take some time off, you have earned it.” Remember, every minute you take off is a minute you aren’t using to achieve your goals. Delayed gratification is only for the mentally strong.
Those are the Do’s and Don’ts of goal setting in 2021! Please share your goals for 2021 with me at rmcintiremlu@gmail.com. We would love to help you all in any way possible. Together, we can move mountains. See you soon!
