Monday Inspiration: New Year's Resolutions in May
How you can get a fresh start in the middle of the year
Happy Monday! I hope that wherever you are in your career right now that you look forward to Monday’s. I know that I do, but it wasn’t always that way. We’ll be talking about how to be happier at work on Wealth Building Wednesday’s, so stick around!
Today, though, I want to take a step back and look at our overall goal-setting patterns, why they don’t work, and how to fix them. I’ve learned through asking some friends and family that following through with goals is a huge problem with setting them.
What I’m about to show you will help you set and accomplish your goals.
Last week I revitalized my goals and ended up losing 1.5 lbs, moving forward with three potential new clients, and building better family and spiritual habits.
I worked harder in that week alone than most individual months this year so far. Now I’m on track to nearly double my income, lose nearly 20 pounds before August, and find more joy in my spiritual, family, career, and health efforts every day.
So what did I change?
My pattern of thinking about and planning goals.
A couple of weekends ago I read the summary for a book called The 12 Week Year on Blinkist*. The main idea of the book in three points is this:
Annual goal-setting and planning doesn’t work, which I’m sure you already know. How many times have you set a new year’s resolution to lose weight, only to give up mid-February or earlier? The 12-month cycle is just too big to work.
Instead of planning for 12 months, set goals and plan for 12 weeks at a time based on a vision of where and who you want to be. For me, this means living according to the 4 pillars of life and setting goals within each of these areas.
Track daily key “lead” indicators, or what you do to accomplish your goals, like 30-minute exercise sessions completed. Also, record weekly key “lag” indicators, or your desired result, such as weight lost. Account for your key indicators each night in a planning session, and use that time to plan for the next day.
For this to work you have to both change your thinking and set a plan in motion to make it something you can handle. I recommend checking out the book summary on Blinkist* as the fastest way to understand these principles. I hadn’t even read the whole book when I began to see all the benefits of following this pattern.
My method of doing this for myself involved creating a new Google Spreadsheet document in which I’m tracking each of my indicators:
If you’d like a copy of your own, click here to get my template. To save it and make it editable for yourself, just click on “File” then go down to “Make a Copy.”
The cells with an orange background are the ones you’ll need to modify with your own goals. You will also need to enter what you accomplished each day, under the “Daily Actual” section. The spreadsheet tracks daily and weekly percentages of key indicators completed. When you start a new week copy the tracking cells and paste them above.
If you need help, have questions about how to use it, or would like something added, just hit reply and let me know, I would love to hear from you!
Now, I know it may seem daunting at first, but just start! I was nervous at first because I didn’t want to be frustrated at myself if it failed. But I know that if I just keep going, this can yield great benefits like it already has! I hope it can do the same for you.
Actionable Advice: Click here to see my template then click “File” and then “Make a Copy” to create your own editable 12-week year tracking spreadsheet! Fill it out with your own goals and indicators and start working and recording what you accomplish.
*That’s an affiliate link. It means that if you choose to subscribe to Blinkist by clicking on that link, I get a small commission from Blinkist. It’s a nice, completely free way for you to help me keep this newsletter free and say thanks if it’s been helpful to you.