Defining your goals for the new year is key if you want to have a great year. One of my mentors once told me that the best way to be happy in life is to make progress. Progress brings satisfaction and meaning to our lives. We need progress. When we are stuck, our self-image gets diminished. Conclusion : don’t go in the new year without a clear direction. This direction is defined through the set up of goals. Just by setting goals for this new year, you are going to be in a better place at the end of 2022. Conclusion :
Rule #1 : Go in this New Year by setting Goals
These goals need to be holistic and touch all areas of your life. Set only financial targets or work out targets and you run the risk of being frustrated at the end of the year. Yes, you may have achieved a specific goal but along the way, you may have made painful sacrifices in other areas of your life. Don’t settle. You don’t have to. You can have it all. Body, Mind and Soul are the 3 areas that I recommend to the people I coach, to look at. The body entails your shape, your weight, your health, your strength, your physical accomplishments. The mind involves your work, your side hustle, your company, your finances, your knowledge, your learning. And finally the soul engages your relationships with your special one (or future special one), with your family, with God, with the Universe. All these aspects of your life are important. Conclusion :
Rule #2 : Set up Goals in the 3 areas of your life : the Body, the Mind, and the Soul
You cannot set up goals if you don’t understand where you are now. The first step I have done when setting up my goals for 2022, was to spend a couple of hours about 2021. Did I achieve my goals in 2021 ? What have been my successes ? What have been my failures ? Why did I fail ? Why did I succeed ? why, why, why ? This introspection is so important. Understand the true root causes of what happened in 2021. Based on that, it gives you a clear guideline about what needs to change in 2022. Conclusion :
Rule #3 : Before setting goals for the new year, analyze the Prior Year Successes and Failures
Once you have defined goals for the new year, then you need to develop strategies. Goals without a clear plan to achieve them are just dreams. There are nice to think about but there are not reality. The Goals are the “What you want achieve”. The Strategies are the “How you are going to achieve these goals”. The “What” has little chance of becoming reality without the “How”. The Strategies should be time based. That’s when you start to take your planner and define when each strategy needs to be implemented, so that you eventually achieve your goals by the end of the year. Conclusion :
Rule #4 : Have time based strategies defined for each goal, that answer the question : “How am I going to achieve my goals?”
Once this road map is defined, then you need to get in the habit of defining your tactics every month. At the beginning of each month, review the strategies to be implemented this month. Split these strategies into weekly small tactics. Then every Sunday, define your activity to be accomplished every day of the week to come to achieve the tactics of this specific week. This process of splitting these yearly strategies into monthly tactics, and then weekly ones to finally ending by daily activities is a key secret to achieving Big Goals. Goals and big strategies need to be challenging. But the issue behind challenging goals and strategies is that they seem unachievable. That’s why you need to cut them into small pieces (the weekly and daily tactics). Conclusion :
Rule #5 : Cut your strategies into monthly, weekly, daily tactics. Focus everyday on achieving the daily tasks. The compound effect of these daily tasks will make you reach your Big Yearly Goals.
Set yourself accountable. Everyday, review : Did I accomplish my daily tactics, yes or no ? If no, why ? What do I need to adjust ? Accountability is key to discipline. If my kids know I will not check if they have made their beds, there is more chance that they will not make them. Why ? Because there will not be any consequence for not making the beds. You need to develop that system for yourself. Of course, having a coach is ideal and highly recommended for high achievers. But you can simply develop that process by yourself by reviewing your accomplishments at the end of every day, at the end of every week. Conclusion :
Rule #6 : Set a system of accountability by working with a coach or by reviewing systematically every day and every week if you have implemented the planned tactics.
