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Good day. My name is Neen James and I'm a leadership expert. And this morning, I was
chatting to one of my clients about how do you make this year even more impactful? One
of the conversations we had was really around the way that you set and achieve goals. People
who set and write down their goals make more money. It's really simple.
When you think about your goals, I wonder if it's just a wish list in your head, some
things you'd like to do, maybe you have a bucket list. But really, when it comes to
goals, there are some specific things you can do that will help you make more money,
be healthier, have more fun. There are so many ways that we could help you in really
ensuring that you achieve your goals this year.
So what I'd love to do is just share with you a couple of things might help your goal-setting
process be more productive. You see, as a leadership expert focusing in productivity,
I like to help people get stuff done so they can go on and create more significant moments
in life that matter.
In one of our books, Folding Time: How to Achieve Twice As Much in Half the Amount of
Time, we talked through this process of five areas of focus. When it comes to your goals,
think about maybe your five senses. We all know we have sight and smell and sound and
we have all these senses. Well, think about setting your goals in five specific areas.
So grab a pen and let me give you the five that we set out our goals, and this might
be a way to guide your conversation around goals.
The first one is spiritual, whatever that means to you. It could be faith. It could
be meditation. It could be some way of looking after your spiritual well-being. So what I
can ask you to consider is the first one is spiritual.
The second one is relational. Think about a goal when it comes to your relationships.
Maybe you want to schedule a date night with someone that you really care about or I schedule
dates with little people in my life like my adorable goddaughter. Think about relational
goals and what that might mean to you.
The third area is financial. Your financial goals might be to pay down a credit card debt
to save for a house. It might be around a particular amount of money that you want to
make in your profession or a bonus that you're working towards. Think about writing down
a third area which is financial.
The fourth area when it comes to your goals is educational. What are some things you can
do to enhance your education this year? Educational goals might be attending a conference. It
might be getting certification in your industry. It might be about reading a certain number
of books. One of my goals this year happens to be to read 50 books.
Now before you have a heart attack, think about that's about a book a week. And with
what I do as an expert, I really need to know what is going on in my industry, what are
the New York Times bestsellers. And so for me, reading a book a week, yeah it's a stretch.
But I travel so much for my job that I'm always in airports and in hotels. It kind of makes
sense. But what's your educational goal this year?
And then the fifth area is around the whole idea of physical. So what is it that you can
do to look after this one body that you've been gifted on this planet? Now, physical
might be about food choices. It might be about exercise. It might be about habits that you
have that you want to break. It might be about increasing the quality or frequency of your
sleep. But think about the body that you have and really looking after it.
So those areas again are spiritual, relational, financial, educational, and then lastly, physical.
Those five areas give you a more well-rounded way of thinking about your goals. What I'd
suggest that you do is a process that we follow and that is schedule time. Schedule time in
the next week to sit down for 15 to 30 minutes to really think through those five areas and
what would be one goal you might have in each one.
The second thing that I would say is once you've set those goals, apply a filter to
those goals. Now, the filter that you've probably heard about is what's called a SMART goal.
So you may want to write down for a moment, SMART. Let me tell you what those words stand
for.
A SMART goal, the first S stands for specific. Can you think about making your goal more
specific? The M stands for measurable. Is there a way for you to measure the success
of the goal once you've achieved it? The A stands for attainable. Is this goal something
that you can do? And the R which I really like is, is it really realistic? Is it a realistic
goal in the lifestyle that you have? And the T stands for time. Do it timely. Can you put
a timeframe on your goal?
So when you think about creating a goal, it's one thing to have a physical goal that says,
"I want to lose weight." Well, that's all a great goal but the reality is there's no
way to measure it. So you might say, "I want to be a 125 pounds by the 30th of June." And
that is a way to have a look at what you're actually going to weigh, what the date is.
And you might say, "That means I have to lose 20 pounds." Whatever your goal is, see if
you can make it a SMART goal.
So the first step is schedule time. The second step is to set the goal. But the third and
I think one of the most important things to do is to write it down and share your goals.
You see, when you make yourself accountable for your goals, you're much more likely to
achieve them. So find a way of making yourself accountable. Public accountability will make
you do it. I call it telling the truth in advanced.
I have a girlfriend in my life and every Monday, I send her a list of what I'm going to achieve
that week. And I can tell you, by Friday when I have to send her the list, I don't want
to tell her that I didn't do everything I said I would do because it's about personal
integrity for me. So I'm suggesting maybe what you could think about is what's your
way of telling the truth in advanced?
If you're in a sales meeting, can you declare the account that you're going to win this
week? If you are in an opportunity with your one-on-one team, suggest to them that they
tell you what it is that they want to achieve this week.
So, schedule time, set your goal, and write it down and then share it with someone else
that you trust who can keep you accountable to that. We all know that if you want to get
healthy and you join a gym, you have the best of intentions to go to the gym. I know that.
But as it gets colder and you're really more tired, you hit the snooze button. But I bet
you, if you had to meet a friend at the gym, you would get your butt out of bed and then
you would be there because you don't want to let the team down. So, schedule time, set
your goal, and share it. That's the key.
And when it comes to your goals, celebrate the success. Celebrate the little steps along
the way and break down your goals from big things to daily things that you can achieve.
So that's the way that we set goals our office in those five areas. We make sure that we
schedule time. We set them. We write them down. That's the key. And then we share them.
The other thing that we do on a regular basis is I carry my goals with me everywhere. And
yeah, they are written on index cards. I also have them, if you could see my office, above
my desk. I also keep them on my iPad. They are also on my iPhone which sounds crazy I
know. But you know what? Goals become a filtering system. What you're able to do is you're able
to make sure that you're spending time on the right things, that you're hanging with
the right people, that you're reading the right books, attending the right conferences,
and it helps you to be a filtering system. Now, that's productive.
The other thing that I would say, my final tip is this, every day I grab a Post-it note
and I write, "Today I will." And I write three things on that Post-it note. These are the
three not negotiable activities that I need to get done today. Consider it a little mini
goal-setting session for the day. And then before my head hits the pillow tonight, I
want to make sure that I've achieved what I said I would do today. This is my personal
accountability to myself. And by the way, I carry this Post-it note with me everywhere
that I go.
So hopefully that gives you some ideas on how you can get more productive when it comes
to your goal-setting process. Schedule time, set your goals, write them down, and then
share them with someone else. And then celebrate your success.
I hope this has been helpful. Now, for those of you who want more information, please free
to check out our blog on NeenJames.com. You can follow me on Twitter as well. My Twitter
handle is @NeenJames or you can jump across to Facebook and like our page, Neen James
Communications. I'm really looking forward to hear how do you set your goals, what are
some challenges that maybe you experience when it comes to goal-setting? I'd love to
hear from you.