Let's make 2020 your year to smash your goals!

 

Welcome to 2020! A new year, new decade, and new goals! Like many people, you’ve probably stepped into the year vowing to stay committed to your new years resolutions and goals. But here’s something scary – research shows that around 92% of people don’t end up achieving their goals! I don’t want to dishearten you… it’s good to be aware so you are in the 8% of people who smash their goals.

My final episode of the Entre-pod-neurs Journey for 2019 was focused on a goal setting exercise to get you ready for this year. Hopefully you watched it, done the exercise and set your goals for the year. If you haven’t already, watch it HERE, it’s not too late! This episode will be a continuation of episode 7 with a focus around goal setting. Just so you know, not every episode will be around goal setting, but these two are linked together.

 

Let's get started!

Now I’m going to show you a way to keep track of them and stay accountable. First things first - set up Google Docs if you haven’t already got one. Not sure how? Read below!

1. Sign up for a Google account (a @gmail account) HERE
2. Fill in your name, username and password to create an account. If you have another email that isn’t a Gmail, you can link it in this section if you’d prefer not to create a new email
3. Verify your phone number
4. Provide a few more details and you’re ready for the next part!

 

Copy my goal tracking template

Here’s a link to my goal tracking Google Doc template. Make sure you create your own document and copy my template over as a lot of people will be accessing this particular document and you won’t want all your information saved on there. You can do this by clicking File –> New –> Spreadsheet.

 

Filling in your goals

I’ve split my goals over business, family and personal because I try to balance my goals in different pillars of my life. This doesn’t have to be the same for you, you may have all personal or all family goals. Feel free to make whatever changes you want to your own document; this is just how I like to structure mine.

Now list your core values which you would have created in the exercise from episode 7. It’s a good reminder for when you have to make a decision, as you can refer to your core values and determine which decision resonates with your core values more. I also list some reminders, which can be anything from a quote to a reminder that gets you back on track. You may find that you edit, add and delete these throughout the year.

Now onto your goals. List your 3 main goals that you created in the last exercise. You need to get really specific here so you're not questioning whether or not you achieved your goal in the future. Again in the actions section, you must be specific and be able to break your goals into a daily/weekly basis. If you aren’t breaking it down into smaller chunks, you can get to the end of a month and realise you’ve run out of time to achieve your goal or rushing it and not giving it your full effort.

I find it useful to write feelings that are associated with achieving your specific goals. It can be really powerful listing your feelings to keep you on track and remind you how good it will feel achieving that goal. You should also write some resources that you will use for each goal, whether it be a website, an app or even a book.

 

I've finished my template, what now?

Once you've done this, your document is set up and ready to go for the year! Be sure to set a specific time to check this spreadsheet once a week - if you have to set an alarm to do this, do it!

As you go through this every week, be sure to write what exactly you did to work towards your goal and date it, and if you miss a week, write the reason why (e.g. lack of discipline, sick). This is super important to keep track of as you may start to see the same excuse pop up and you’ll know that there’s something you need to change.

Highlight the weeks that you’ve achieved your weekly goal in green, and weeks that you’ve failed your weekly goal in red. Again, this is all part of keeping track of your goals. If you didn’t complete your weekly goal on the specific date/time that you set but still completed it that week, highlight it orange as the goal was still met, just not when it was supposed to be.

 

Keeping track of your document

One of the most important things with this document is getting it in your face every day. There are several documents and websites that I check daily and the best way to do this is to have all these tabs automatically open when I launch Chrome in the morning.

To do this, open up all the tabs that you want to open when you launch Chrome -> click on the three dots on the top right of your Chrome –> click settings –> scroll down to the section that says ‘On startup’ –> Make super ‘Open a specific page or set of pages’ is selected -> Click ‘Use current pages’. This will open all of your tabs every time you launch Chrome. If you don't use Chrome, I highly suggest using it, otherwise you can set this up on any other browser.

Don't feel like you have to write something in this document everyday, it’s just good to have it as a daily reminder. Honestly, 80% of keeping on top of your goals is checking this document and one of the biggest mistakes you can make is not doing this. Doing this will make it nearly impossible to fail your goals!

 

This document isn't enough...

So now you’ve got your goal document – but don’t stop there, it isn’t enough! Put little reminders everywhere. I have a vision board with photos of my biggest lifetime goals which I have in my office and bathroom at home. I constantly have alarms going off to remind me to do things. I have sticky notes and reminders posted everywhere. Some people even write a full sentence about their goal as their password so that every time they write it they’re reminded of it! I don’t go to this extent, but I love the idea. All this might sound crazy, but it seriously helps keep your goals at the front of your mind to achieve them.

 

Think you don't have enough time for your goals?

I worked out that my 3 goals take up about 2 hours of my week. Goals don't have to be this massive thing that takes up all your time, with enough planning and tracking it is actually super easy to break your goals down into manageable daily/weekly tasks that lead you to achieving your big end goal.

If you feel like you don’t have enough time to achieve your goals, there is something wrong and you need to take the time to reflect and see what you need to change in your life. Maybe you need to get rid of your TV, deactivate or restrict your social media or just look at things that are a waste of time. It may sound brutal, but it’s true!

This is probably information overload for a lot of you, but I want to see you all smash your goals and kick ass this year! If you have any questions or just want to chat some more, you can either comment below, email or call us, or even better post in our Accountability community which I am highly engaged in. If you aren’t already a member, you can sign up HERE

 

Links

Sign up to ACCOUNTABILITY COMMUNITY here

Download Goal Setting template here

 

Be happy,

Toby Strong (aka The Podfather)

Founder & Customer Happiness Specialist