How to reach your 2017 New Year’s Goals

– This is a practical step-by-step guide for how create a plan to reach your goals.

So it’s time for part two of this three-week series in this goal setting process of 2017. Last week we made sure to come up with the goals we want to peruse this year. So, if you haven’t seen that video, make sure to do that first (https://youtu.be/U9nYoDhizuQ). Or if you feel eager to get started, make sure you have one goal and apply the process I present. Because this videos are going to be all about HOW TO SET UP A PLAN FOR REACHING YOUR GOALS. Spoiler, it’s not a long to-do-list, because that’s not what’s going make you reach that goal.  Next week will be all about anchoring our plans, taking first actions and having our first weekly goal evaluation process.

To give you a brief idea how that process actually looks like, here’s condensed plan:

• Review all the goals
• Prioritize them in order of importance

Starting with the most important one

• Define the conditions of the goal
• Create an action plan; outline all the relevant alternatives for how you could reach the wanted outcome. Break it down to multiple progressive goals with clear measure points/milestones.
• Among all these alternatives, decide upon the one strategy that (and fits your personal preferences best) will take you towards that goal in the most efficient way.
• Set milestone goals; Every week, 30 days, 90 days, etc.
• Define the first three actions & schedule when you’re going to do them
• Schedule a review & planning session during the weekend and make it holy
• Take the first step on you plan!

“…never leave the site of setting a goal without first taking some form of positive action toward its attainment.” – Tony Robbins

So here we are, we have our 8 defined goals that we feel excited about. Because if you don’t, don’t even bother. So that’s why I really want you to ask yourself one last time before you get started, why did you really chose these goals? Be honest. Be truthful. Remember this is all for you, no one else but yourself is going to make this happen. Can you deeply relate to these goals, to you truly believe them. Can you visualise yourself in one year standing there having achieved them. Are they daring enough? If this would be your last year you had the freedom to set your own goals, would they still be the same? Maybe this is the year when you actually make the leap to follow your true dreams. True motivation and drive from within – clarity with your why – is absolutely key.

Setting goals is the easy part, but to actually follow through and start to move in a direction towards them, that’s when it could get really tricky. But it doesn’t have to be! First, you need to have a vision of what direction you want to go, the clearer the better, but that’s not a must. The big picture goals may be vaguer naturally, because you haven’t figured everything out yet. Faith can take you long, but it’s not enough. That’s why we’ll use progressive goals to incrementally take us towards the direction we want to go. Weekly, monthly, every 90 days; measuring points – milestones – to check our progress. One big goal one year away without checking the pulse until that date, that’s dumb goal setting.

And that is also why it’s so important to have a second look at the goals you’ve determined to follow. Because before you get started, I want you to review your goals and prioritize & rank which are the ones that is most important to you. At least to a quick overview ranking in your head. And then start this goal planning process with the goal that top that list. Perhaps “starting to dance” is a funnier and easier goal to focus on, compared to “Boost social confidence and be able to talk to anyone anywhere”.

8 goals are a lot of goals to give weekly attention to, and you’ll have to divide your time and efforts among them. Perhaps the easiest goal isn’t the goal that will take you closer to who you really would like to become. I’m not saying you can’t have multiple goals; I’m just saying be aware of how you divide your available time – give the most attention to what needs it most. A prioritization which only is possible if you take the time to sit down and think about your life areas and rank your goals thereafter.

What we need to remember is that the goal itself isn’t what will matter, to be able to say that you’ve read 52 books, to walk up on that scale and get a confirmation that you’ve dropped to X amount of kilos, to have earned X amount of dollars – that’ just one euphoric moment that will pass as quickly as a fart in the wind. What will matter is the person you become in the process by perusing these goals, how it is going to shape you and all the possibilities you’ll have when you reach that point. That’s what matters. That’s the real outcome. Logically, what then is equally important is how you choose to peruse that goal.

Let’s get started!

So we now have peace in mind and a bunch of goals, that means it’s time to strategies in how to make that happen. Firstly, you have to realise that there are tons of ways for you to reach your goals, and this is key. You can drop x amount of kilos by restricting your diet and basically eat nothing, you can also keep eating just the way you have been but just add enough exercise to lose that weight. There are many ways of reaching a goal – but the path we choose will determine how we feel about doing it.

So how do we now what way to choose? Well this is trickier, but if we start with defining some sub conditions we need to fulfil, it will thin out the selection some. If we say we have to “drop x amount of kilos and enjoy the process of doing so”, the focus becomes different in contrast to “I’m going to drop X kilos”. If we choose to create a positive association to what we want to accomplish, it will greatly increase our chances of succeeding. Maybe it will exclude jogging as an alternative since you find that to be the most boring activity in the world, a direct violation of your sub condition. Luckily there are other ways to move around! We want to outline a plan that makes us enjoy the process – it may sound foolish and banal, but it’s a detail many oversee or even consider to be an option.

There’s still tons of way for us to reach our goals, so now your task is to write down all the ways you know for how you could go about reaching that goal. And this phase may actually be to plan to plan – that is planning to research for how to lose weight. If you don’t write them all out; WHAT WAYS ARE THERE FOR YOU TO REACH THAT OUTCOME? And try to open your mind, because you’ve properly already locked yourself in one way – but ask yourself first if it really is the best way to go about it? Remember to think in terms of your preferences and context, you may not be work the same way as the person you got the advice from.

But so let’s say you have a bunch of different alternatives, go through them, think about them and decide on one way to take – the path you believe at this current state is the path that suits your context the best. Take in consideration the time you have available, what resources you have, support from others, and how it should be prioritized in relations to your other goals. Remember your amount of time will always be the same, what really matters is how you chose to spend it. SO, spit it all out, and then choose the direction you want to in.

REFLECTION: I first put up a goal of doing meditation every day for a year, but then I realised that what I’m really are after is to be more at peace with my inner self, to able to distance myself in any situation and keep calm. To be able to reach a relaxed state even If had no possession of anything. I know mediation is one way of reaching that state, but I’m sure there are tons of other ways. And to break it down further; there are thousands of different ways of meditating. So what I’ve done is that I’ve said that I have to do some kind of meditation for at least 10 minutes every day for 30 days.

Creating habits that takes us towards our goals and connect emotion to the goal; asking myself at the end of every meditation session – what can I be so grateful for that it almost brings me to tears; 50 minutes after every meditation – how do I feel right know? This may seem fluffy, but it actually shapes a habit with an emotional reward that gets deeply rooted within us if we do it continuously. If you don’t get some kind of affirmation of result of what you’re doing, if you’re not anchoring an emotion – a reward – you’ll quit the habit, unless the reward is very obvious and has that clear connection. So think about what habits you can shape that aligns with your goal, maybe 10 minutes of meditation each morning on my morning commute, or it could be to always take a 30-minute window every evening at six o clock to practice the guitar. Learn about how do design habits that stick (watch here, or read the power of habit), have a que, could be the alarm going of every evening, do the routine (play the guitar) and then have a reward, (the reward can be generated by the routine itself; the feeling of nailing a song, but it it’s a struggle in the begging, create an external reward; maybe one-piece sweet fruit, you get to have dinner or some other emotional release.

Because we need to brake our goals down, “never set one single goal” ( -Brendon burchard). Have progressive goals, we can’t wait one year with actually doing some kind of pulse checking; we need clear milestones and part goals. Not only to keep sight of what we’re going after, but to make it able to course correct if we’re doing something that isn’t’ working. Maybe the training exercise program you’ve chosen doesn’t fit your working ours, maybe the morning meditation is just stressing and would suit you better after lunch since you’ve been at it for quite some time and feel the need for a moment of unplugging from the world. So just to get started, at least write down a 30-day goal, and for this week: creating a plan and taking one action.

Because before you get started you need to realise that having goals like these requires continues follow up. And that won’t happen unless you take the time – PLAN – to have a sit down and do a review of the week that has been, and plan for the week that will come. So sometime through the week, preferably Sunday, you make sure to schedule in a review session in your calendar and make this holy. I’m telling you, all your plans will start to fade away. You may be able to have one or two simple goals clearly in your head.. but that’s it. Also this weekly process will act as a reminder for you, some week’s you may actually haven’t moved ahead on some goals, we all have those week’s! but that why it’s’ so important to constantly review our goals and remind ourselves of them – super important – read through, don’t miss your WHY: remind yourself of why your pursing the goal.

I know this is a rather complex matter at first sight, and I don’t claim to be any expert myself, I’m but a student to the great teachers like Tony Robins and Brendon Burchard, and it’s there work I have presented here.  however, I have toons of experience of applying this, and I’ve learned by so many mistakes. And I’d love to discuss the matter with you. So the idea is that throughout the week you will create a plan for each and all of your goals in the 8 key areas and take one action on one of them.

SO now you’ve got all you need to get ready to create an amazing plan for how to reach your goal!

Here’s the sum up:

• Before getting started on the plan, get clear with your current situation; will you have time to peruse your goals – how can you make time? Are your goals more important?

The plan:

• Taking one last look at why your pursuing the chosen goals
• Ranking your goals in the order how they should be prioritized

Working on one goal at the time, in order of importance:

4. Define the conditions of your goals “lose 20 pounds” vs. “Lose 20 kilo and enjoy the process”.
5. Create an action plan with all the ways – adjusted for your conditions and capabilities – for how you could reach that goal. Write a list of all alternatives that are relevant to you! Think in terms of multiple progressive goals to use as milestones/measuring points – one goal in one year is too distance to get excited about! There are 1000 of different ways to implement a meditation practice – or the bigger goal; to reach mindfulness.
6. Pick one strategy to start with and break it down a few first actions that you could start with right now; “google training centres close by me” “go buy a pair of jogging shoes”. Set clear measuring points / milestone so you will know if you’re progressing or not. Every week, 30 days, 90 days.
7. Design/find a suitable habit that relates to the goal and decide exactly when you are going to incorporate regularly.
8. Write down your three next actions in detail and plan in your calendar when you’ll do this. Always make sure to have a next action defined, never leave it open-ended.
9. Have a weekly evaluation & planning session (Preferably Sunday)
   1. Check how you’re doing on the measuring points you’ve put up. If not, fine tuning and adjusting to do so. But remember, implementing new habits takes at least 30 days and some results doesn’t show immediately, so have patience and don’t give up too quickly! Don’t draw the conclusion that the goal is wrong just because you’ve chosen the wrong strategy or lacked the effort to make it happened!
   2. Plan the week! If it’s not in your calendar, it’s not going to happened. Put reminders that will go of, plan. If you don’t mark time out for you to progress on your goal, everyday life and other things will happen.
10. TAKE ACTION – do one small action that will get you started on moving towards your goal!

SO THAT’S THE PLAN! The objective of the week is to create this plan for all of your eight goals. Now I know that’s a lot to ask of you, and kind of goes against my mantra of keeping the challenges quick and easy, but this these goal setting workshops are the expectations. It’s just the foundation of the so much and will determine how we chose to play the year that is to come.

Beside creating the plan, you will also take one first little action on each goal, it may be super small, but just something to get you started!

In order to help you as much as I can, I am going to do a longer livestream on Tuesday, we’re I’ll be working on my own goals, so I thought we’d just sit together in silence and work on creating these plans and if any questions come up, we can try to straighten them up right away.

Also, Make sure you by now have it in a planning program of your choice, I recommend OneNote 2016 (included in the office package, but OneNote APP o preinstalled on Windows 10) also Evernote should do the job ( https://evernote.com/intl/sv/).

Hope you feel excited, and if you have any questions, hit me up!

It’s going to be a legendary week!

/Alexander