Hustle hard, stay humble and CRUSH YOUR GOALS!

Ahhh January – ironically, it’s one of my favorite times of the year!! Yes, it is winter, usually cold and melancholy but it also comes with a fresh new canvas of white (sometimes in the form of snow). That bright white canvas being a NEW YEAR in our lives. The painter in our mind is given a clean slate and we can fill it with all kinds of goals, plans, dreams and ideas. We can reflect on the previous year – ask ourselves what went right and wrong, what we are proud of and what we learned. Many people in life are not goal “orientated” and that is okay but I do feel if we don’t make goals, plans or visions for our life we are just a “feather

in the wind” letting the gusts of life blow us around where it may. I have been creating and managing yearly goals now for about 15 years and I wanted to share a few insights on the topic and what has really worked for me and what I have learned over the years:

• The most basic and fundamental rule of thumb; write your goals down and as the old technique goes be S.M.A.R.T about them; specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. I am not going to cover much on this as google has a ton of documents discussing the S.M.A.R.T goal strategy.

• What has worked for me is creating an excel spreadsheet with subsections for labeling the goal, its priority, effort required and its importance. I then color code each of the sections which makes the “high priority and high importance goals really jump out for me”. A lot of people miss the “priority” step in making goals – many people are good at making lists and task sheets but the all-important PRIORITY label is almost just as important as the task itself. See the attached picture of "your goals here" for how this could be set up.

• Some other fun things we have added to our goal sheet to make it more personal is a theme song, a favorite quote or two, maybe a theme word and a theme material or vision for the year. My vision for 2021 for example was “MY LIFE IS LIKE A 6 CYLINDER ENGINE WITH ALL THE MACHINE PARTS CREATING THE ULTIMATE ENERGY AT THE SAME TIME IN PERFECT RHYTHM”.

• DAYTIMERS!! Myself and my wife use a daytimer by Timanager Blueline called “The Action Planner”. We meet at the beginning of each month to review our goals from the previous month and make new targets for the coming month. All the goals are smaller subsets pulled from our S.M.A.R.T yearly goals spreadsheet that we have printed out and carry in our daytimer. These are monthly incremental, smaller step goals to get our bigger yearly goals completed. We write all of these goals down in the monthly objectives section of the daytimer and we prioritize all these monthly goals with numbers and a highlighter. During the week and weekends, I constantly refer to these monthly objectives to steer me in the right direction of my vision and bigger goals for the year.

• Time blocking; In a day where I have lots of goals and tasks I am trying to complete I put a timer on my phone to create a sense of urgency and a boundary on how long I work on a particular task. It works like a charm and is one of my favorite tools for working on lots of different goals and tasks at once.

• We typically overestimate what we can get done in a day but underestimate what we can get done in a year….basically what I am saying is it will take longer than you think so plan for that and manage your expectations with your goals.

• Celebrate your milestones and successes!! Many of us with big dreams sometimes don’t stop to reflect on what we’ve accomplished on our journey and simply move the goal post farther along. Take some time to toast what you’ve crushed to date as that is what makes the ride so sweet. The monthly daytimer review really serves well for this point as a person can see goals being progressed forward as you reflect monthly on them.

• “100% commitment is easier than 98% commitment” – when you have a 2% option to get out of committing it changes your whole level of focus, energy, drive and momentum. Be like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and do everything “100% ALL IN” and don’t give yourself a 2% option to fail.

• Momentum – action creates more action. If you are in a rut or struggling to move a large goal forward just take the next SMALL step, don’t think about the bigger goal and before you know it you’ll be well into it and working towards the goal building positive momentum towards it.

• Get rid of the clutter in your goals. In the book “The Art of Not Giving a F$%k”, the author elegantly explains we should do what we love, what we naturally want to put time and energy into as those are strong indicators of what we truly enjoy. Don’t waste your time on chasing goals that you think you should do or what others tell you, you should do....basically don't give a f#$k about anything that doesn't bring you joy, happiness or you care about.

• Contrary to what I mentioned above about the “feather in the wind” it is healthy to let the wind of life blow you around a bit every now and then, relax and find a balance between the rigid pull of goals and the natural rhythm of nature and life

• Some of my favorite quotes relating to goals that may inspire you as well:

  • Is what I am doing today and right now getting me closer to what I want tomorrow.

  • Complexity is the enemy of execution – keep it simple!!

  • What will give you the bigger life? This is a great question that will always tell you the choice you “should” be making when faced with a big or small decision.

  • Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good

Stay in tune and stay in touch,

Kent