Here we are. At the end of the year and the start of a new one.
If you're actively checking your social feeds over the next week, you'll likely see familiar & unfamiliar faces stating what they're going to achieve in the next 12 months. If you took all the data from their statements and analyzed what people said, you'd have a dot chart that could make your head spin. The goals would stretch into endless categories such as family, career, fitness, hobbies, language, and travel (among others).
All this talk about goals, dreams, and achievements make us wonder, what are we going to with our own lives? Should we make wild statements and hope nobody notices, or can we systematically approach our futures? Before we all promise ourselves that we'll have our own Netflix series by 2030, let's take a look at how to decide what our goals should be.
I started to build this system for myself at the start of 2017 and have made tweaks along the way. This process has been inspired by Noah Kagan's WWPP system, Mitchell Harper's Yearly Productivity Outlook, numerous books, podcast episodes, and even a few thoughts of my own. I'm hopeful that the information below will serve you as an additional data point in figuring out what best works for you.
Above all else, this is a living process. There will always be potential additions/subtractions. There isn't an estimated time limit on how quickly you should complete it in terms of timing. But from a personal perspective, I've always found that I can get the best results if I carve out at least 2-3 hours for it.
Phase 1: Recap the Previous Year
To find out where we should go, it becomes helpful to understand where we are right now. Regardless if you set goals for the previous year or not, reviewing the current year will give us a foundation base to work from.
To keep things simple, we can put the recap in bullet point form and fill out three specific categories: Good, Bad, and Missed the Mark. If you need a reminder of what happened during the year, be sure to check your calendars, email inboxes, photos taken during the year, financial statements, etc.
Good - In this category, mention everything that happened that you achieved, enjoyed, and were grateful for. Since there aren't any subcategories, this will cover all sections of your life.
Bad - As the title suggests, this is the category where you write down things that didn't go well, missteps, lousy luck, and items you weren't proud of.
Missed the Mark - If you were able to set goals at the start of the year, this section is for everything you didn't achieve (from a numbers perspective). Be sure to understand why didn't you accomplish these tasks.
Phase 2: Setting the Stage This Year
Phase 2 houses the core of this entire exercise. In this section, we'll be able to outline what we want in 2021. To make it concise, we're only going to write 1-3 points for each category. These categories are:
Habits - tendencies we want to change in ourselves
Mental / Emotional - things we want to learn/improve on, change in our existing relationships, or how we control our reactions towards others
Fitness - physical well-being goals (amount of exercise, type of activities, etc.)
Capital / Investment - earnings from our jobs, savings for retirement, savings for rainy day funds or large future purchases, etc.
Travel - places we wish to travel, experiences we want to have away from our homes
Philanthropy - how much time or money we want to dedicate to causes/organizations we support.
Materialism - acquisition or upgrades of items we want. It can be home/vehicle/clothes/ tech/subscription services/etc.
Others / Extra - everything else that doesn't fit in the above
For the final step, we'll open up our calendars and schedule 1 hour every week to review each section and the actions we're taking to achieve our goals. This review will help with accountability as well as keeping everything on top of our minds.
Phase 3: Forward Outlook
In this final phase, we're going to concentrate on planning for the future. Since we have our 1 Year plans completed, let's look ahead to a 3 Year Plan and a 5 Year Plan. Each new level can be listed out in a bulleted form.
1 Year - Everything is covered in Phase 2. No additional work is needed.
3 Year - List 4-6 goals that we'd like to achieve within 36 months. These can be increased numbers from our 1 Year Plan, different travel spots/experiences, or anything we want it to be. The items listed in this category will move from the 3 Year Plan to the 1 Year Plan over time.
5 Year - For this level, make it more of a 'bucket list' of dreams & achievements. If something doesn't fit in the previous two plans for any reason, go ahead and record it here. Limit the list between 5-8 points. Eventually, these items will move up to the 3 Year Plan.
From a noise standpoint, you may hear that you should set 10-year goals. And while that might appear to be a good idea, that advice operates under the false assumption that you'll be the same person ten years from now. Over the next decade, your thoughts will differ. Do you expect to be the same person if you experience massive change along the way? For example - school degrees, new jobs, weddings, funerals, children, change of beliefs, change of location, etc.
Skip the 10-year plan for now. If we can consistently hit our marks in the 1, 3, and 5-year plans, our original 10-year goals will appear on the radar sooner than we think.
Bonus Phase: Harsh Reality Questions
Are you still looking to clear out the mystery in your life? Or are you having trouble deciding how to rank all of the ideas that you have? As a bonus section, I've included some of the questions I continue to ask myself year over year. The intention of these questions is to help you figure out what matters to you the most.
I'll admit that some of these are a little on the darker side, but if you open your mind and play along, you'll quickly find out where your thoughts go in dire situations.
What are you living for?
What is the proudest moment of your life?
What is the biggest regret of your life?
The moment you'd re-live in an instant (assuming you can't change it, only experience it again)?
If you only had six months to live (all healthy until the last day), what would you do? What if it were only 2 months?
You can send one final message to your family & friends. What do you tell them, and what message do you leave behind?
What players do you need on your "life team" to substantially improve your life? Do you have everyone in place? Who is missing?
If you were down to your last $500, how would you spend it?
On the flip side, if you were forced to spend $10,000 per month to improve your life dramatically, what areas would you focus on, and how would you spend it?
If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about your life, what would it be? & why?
And that's it! By now, you're all set for 2021 & beyond. Use the above information to help you decide where you want to go, what you want to achieve, and what matters most. And to stay on track, be sure to keep your answers from years past to see how your success compounds and thoughts change.
Since this process is a very private and introspective journey, I'm not going to ask you to share what you've written. However, if there are ways that I might able to help you achieve any of your targets, feel free to email me directly: john@quaylecreative.com.