This is by far the most common time for people to sit down and set goals.
There are hundreds of articles about why you should set goals, including by highly respected mentors and successful people.
But what if setting goals was a negative thing?
In a fast paced world, our ability to predict the future has never been more difficult.
Goals need to adapt based on reality which is challenging as it’s difficult to tell the difference between stifling a goal and changing it based on a new reality.
One of the most successful companies on earth, Google, don’t set corporate goals as it decreases their agility – the ability to respond to what the market is doing.
There’s also the problem of judgment.
Many people’s goals lists look like Page 18 of Cosmopolitan.
“I want to make $1 million and lose 10 kg”
They’re goals that you’re told you should have to meet some ideal of success rather than owned by you.
Rather than a goal I have an overarching vision. A description of what I want to achieve in different domains of my life. Within that I have three guiding principles.
For 2018 my vision is clear:
I will help 5000 businesses be successful with leveraged products and predictable inbound leads.
To fulfil that vision there I ask three simple questions:
What gives me the most energy?
What experience do I need to deliver?
What do I need to earn to make it happen?
This gives me a true north. Allowing me to move closer to the goal while doing it in the right way.
Why those three?
Energy is everything. Working in your zone of genius, doing the things that you’re great at and eliminating the tasks, people and situations that suck it out of you are essential to not only make progress, but also enjoy it along the way.
For me, this means making my education available to more people while giving more personal access to the people I can help achieve spectacular results.
Having the best product or service is not enough. Feature differentiation is dead as everything is easy to replicate. You have to deliver the best experience to your customers and clients across all domains.
Transparency and community are the best game in town to deliver this.
Money is power. To operate a high growth business you need more than hoped but less than you think. Defining what you need to earn and what the business needs to earn to grow rapidly are essential to giving you the peace of mind while having a war chest large enough to fuel growth. Some business models are far more expensive than others and you must choose the right one for your personal vision.
Anything that doesn’t move you closer to your overall vision or betrays you energy, experience and earnings needs to be killed.
What’s your vision for 2018?
