As the New Year approaches, one topic that is considerably popular amongst my clientele is, GOAL SETTING!
Yep, you read that correct.
Usually in the past when you start a discussion with those two words, you might be greeted with exaggerated sighs and yawns seeing that everyone has discussed goal setting at some point or another ever since they were first asked the question, “what do you want to be when you grow up?”
Indeed, it definitely is not the most exciting, thrill-seeking, adrenaline pumping topic to discuss, but it is most certainly the most valuable to those who value personal growth.
Our bodies are like cars that require a driver who knows where they are going.
When setting goals for the new year, majority of the time we know WHAT we want to achieve, but forget two other important questions that are the key difference makers in whether or not we reach our destination without our cars running out of gas.
Before we address the two other questions, let’s dive into the most common one.
The WHAT
What do you want to achieve or do? Usually the easiest question out of all as we have an idea of the person we are striving to become and WHAT is required of us to become it. When identifying the WHAT, we may go overboard and list too many goals but don't have the sufficient energy and drive to accomplish them all.
To start, identify your long term WHAT and make it a single sentence, for example, I will represent my country in track & field in the 2020 Olympics, or I will run my own personal training business in 2019. This WHAT, is WHAT you want to accomplish in the long term (1-10 years). Once you have your WHAT it is time to ask yourself the next question.
The WHY
Once you have the WHAT, it is time to ask yourself, WHY is it important to you? If it is truly important to you there is no reason why you will run out of gas driving towards it. This is the question that we fail to address when setting goals for the New Year, as we know WHAT we want to accomplish but don’t always know or remember WHY we are doing it in the first place.
List the most important reason WHY this WHAT is important to you, and continue to dig deeper until you arrive at your core WHY. For instance, I will run my own personal training business in 2019:
WHY, I want to be self-sufficient and provide a service that can help others.
WHY, I want to provide for my family and lead a business for my children that can provide for their children.
WHY, my family.
Using the example above, we now understand WHY it is important to them and that will be the key motivator in working towards their WHAT.
Once you have the WHAT & WHY, you have done most of the hard work but there is one last question to be answered.
The HOW
By now, you should know WHAT you want to accomplish and WHY it is important, but now it is time to recognize HOW you will work towards it.
Now this is where you need to get really specific and can list several action-oriented steps that you need to take throughout each day and week of the year to get closer to your goal.
For example, using the same example above:
WHAT, I will run my own personal training business in 2019
HOW, I will research all the requirements for creating a business by the end of this week.
HOW, I will use the Internet to learn more about creating incorporation, and I will call my friend tomorrow who created their own business to learn more about what steps they took.
The HOW & WHAT are vital questions that you can ask yourself every night before you go to sleep when reviewing HOW you got closer to your goal during the day & WHAT you will complete tomorrow to get even closer.
Let’s Get to Work!
As we truly want you to succeed this year, starting today for one week, you can schedule a free 30 minute goal setting session with one of our consultants & receive our goal setting handout that will help prepare you for long term success.
