On today’s show we’re talking about what to do during this holiday period. If you’re like most people, you are hitting the shops to take advantage of the post Christmas sales. But you’re not like most people, that’s why you listen to this podcast. You know that saving $2 on wrapping paper for next year isn’t your path to wealth. That’s small minded thinking.
For many, this time is sometimes used to catch up on reading. Taking the time to invest in yourself.
Some people use it to set goals for the coming year. I definitely do this. I take the time to reflect on the past year. There are numerous goals that I had set for this year that were not achieved. I could feel bad about it. But that’s not the purpose of the retrospective.
The idea here is to learn, to improve. The first step is to check if you actually had written goals for 2018. Dig them out. Take the time to write the actual results. There will almost certainly be a gap between the goals you set and the actual results.
What were the themes that ran through the year? Did you suffer a setback, or were you overly optimistic? Did you procrastinate or did you fail to plan? Whatever the root cause, that’s what you want to extract from this exercise. That’s where the gold is hidden, in understanding the reasons behind why things fell short.
If you didn’t set goals, the question is “Why not?” Many people don’t set goals because they can’t handle the emotional upset of falling short. They’re going to fail anyway, so what’s the point of setting goals that you won’t achieve?
There are two types of goals. The first type of goal is an attainment goal. This is where you set a big goal like “I’m going to climb Mount Kilimanjaro this year”. That’s an attainment goal. The second type of goal is a habit goal. This is something that becomes a daily practice.
In my experience, it’s the second type of goal that is actually more powerful. For example, I set a goal in 2018 to create a new piece of quality content each day. You’re experiencing that with this podcast. If I had set a goal of launching a podcast and achieving, say, 100,000 downloads, I don’t believe the result would have been anywhere near as good.
By making the focus of the goal the creation of quality content, I believe that I’ve accomplished far more than if I had set a big attainment goal. The feedback from the listeners has been awesome, and quite frankly, it was the commitment to a daily practice that caused the greatest improvement. If I had set a weekly goal, or a monthly goal, the result would not have been nearly as good.
I want you to think about the 6 roles in your life. In each of those roles you may have goals.
- Self
- Family
- Business
- Community
- Spirituality
- Friends
One of the biggest and most frequent mistakes I see people make is setting too many goals. The key to achieving is focus.
When we talk about goal setting, people often think we’re talking solely about business. In my experience, creating a goal and achieving it in one area has a cascade effect on other areas of your life.
Only a small percentage of people set goals. Of those, an even smaller percentage even look at them throughout the year. By the end of January, the vast majority of people have fallen off the wagon and abandoned their goals.
But here’s the beauty. When you set a habit goal, you have hundreds, thousands even, of opportunities to get on track. You can recommit to your goal on a daily basis.
Choose one or two goals, not more. Choose to commit to the practice of working on a daily goal.
