The Art of Manliness - Prepare Now to Have Your Best Year Ever

00:00:00.000 Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast. Now, how did

00:00:11.140 your 2021 go? Did you accomplish less than you wanted to? Are you hoping to have a more

00:00:15.080 successful run at your goals in 2022? Well, my guest today has got your plan for making

00:00:18.760 the coming 12 months your best year ever. His name is Michael Hyatt. He's the CEO of

00:00:23.180 the leadership consulting firm Michael Hyatt & Company and the author and creator of your

00:00:26.620 best year ever book and course. Today on the show, Michael takes us through the five-part

00:00:30.260 process he believes is key for successfully making and keeping goals, starting with the

00:00:33.980 importance of adopting the right mindset and doing an after-action review of how the previous

00:00:37.920 year went. We then discuss how Michael has modified the standard SMART goal model to make them

00:00:42.060 smarter, why your goals should feel risky, and the number of goals you should set per year.

00:00:45.960 We then discuss how to stay motivated and working on your goals throughout the year, whether or

00:00:49.320 not you should share your goals with others, and why you should tackle your goals by doing

00:00:52.160 the easy stuff first. We enter a conversation with the importance of reviewing your goals

00:00:55.740 on the regular. After the show's over, check out our show notes at awim.is slash best year ever.

00:01:14.360 Michael Hyatt, welcome to the show.

00:01:16.600 Thanks, Brett. Good to be with you.

00:01:18.280 So you've had an interesting career. The first half of your career, you were a CEO of a multi-million

00:01:22.660 dollar publishing company. And in your second act of your career, you've turned into a teacher.

00:01:28.720 You are teaching individuals, organizations, how to be better leaders, how to be more productive,

00:01:34.200 how to set effective goals. Basically, it seems like you're just trying to help people

00:01:37.620 live better lives, more effective lives. And you've got a course coming out called Your Best Year Ever.

00:01:45.240 And then you've based a book, you wrote a book based on this course called Your Best Year Ever.

00:01:49.160 And I thought it'd be great to bring you on the podcast now because we're coming to the end of

00:01:52.920 the year. People are thinking about how 2021 went. They're thinking about goals they want to set for

00:01:58.800 2022. So I think we've got some, you've got some good insights to help people through this process.

00:02:04.280 So let's start off with where people mess up with their New Year's resolutions, like where they get

00:02:10.040 derailed. Do we have numbers on how many people create resolutions and then like the percentage of

00:02:15.020 people that actually follow through? Have you figured that out?

00:02:17.060 Yeah. You know, I've seen a variety of stats on that. I mean, basically almost everybody sets

00:02:23.040 resolutions. Very, very few people follow through on them. And partly it's because I think more of a

00:02:30.560 resolution like an aspiration. It's just sort of this general but vague desire to achieve or to

00:02:37.320 accomplish something. But unless it gets reduced into an actual goal, and I've got a very specific format

00:02:43.020 for how I coach people to develop their goals based on the latest science. And unless it's put in that

00:02:49.720 format, and you've got some sort of system that, you know, is the foundation for the whole thing, you're

00:02:56.800 probably just going to be, you know, petering out by the third or fourth week of January. In fact, usually when I go to

00:03:02.360 the gym, I used to belong to a gym, and now I've got one in my house, but I used to go to the gym. And always

00:03:07.040 after the first of the year, I hated it because parking lot was full, couldn't find a parking place,

00:03:11.700 go into the gym, couldn't get on the equipment in a timely manner because the place was packed.

00:03:16.120 But I finally learned that if I would just wait a couple weeks, all that would take care of itself

00:03:20.680 because all the people that were, you know, the people that had made resolutions but didn't really

00:03:24.940 have a plan for following through, they would just give up and go back to their normal life.

00:03:28.540 So you got to have, you got to have a system. And that's what I try to offer in your best year ever.

00:03:32.980 So yeah, it's, it's, the problem is that a lot of times people set goals, it's very

00:03:36.260 ethereal and very vague. And you're saying you got to make it concrete.

00:03:40.360 Absolutely. The more specific and measurable and concrete that you can make it, the better it's

00:03:44.880 going to be. Cause you gotta, you gotta really kind of step into the future. And I mean, I think

00:03:48.740 this is where people get tripped up and where people don't get the clarity they need because they

00:03:53.640 don't think about it enough. But I think deciding what you want for your future is the hardest

00:03:58.200 part. Once you decide that, trying to visualize that in as much detail as possible, and then

00:04:03.520 reduce it to writing, you know, is critical to the whole process.

00:04:07.120 Well, before we get to writing down goals, there's stuff you got to do before that. And

00:04:11.060 you walk people through this process, it's a five to five part process. It's field tested with

00:04:15.840 thousands of people you've done this over the years with. And you start off with basically

00:04:20.600 before you even write a goal down is you have to talk about people's mindsets when it comes

00:04:25.380 to goal setting. How do our beliefs about ourselves and the world around us influence

00:04:32.420 whether we'll achieve our goals or not? Like, what do you see the mistakes people make there?

00:04:36.640 Yeah, this is like the biggest thing people have to get past because their ability to visualize

00:04:41.300 the future, their ability to change is really dependent upon the way that they view the world.

00:04:47.760 I call it limiting beliefs. So we have these beliefs about the world. They don't actually exist

00:04:53.500 out there, but they're just in our head. And we're often unaware of these, but they shape our reality.

00:04:59.380 So let me give an example. I don't know, about a decade ago, we had an English setter. His name was

00:05:04.620 Nelson. And he was a great dog, except that if we put him in the backyard, we didn't have a fence at

00:05:11.720 the time. He would often, you know, wander away. We'd have to go chase him down. And it just wasn't

00:05:17.000 very, you know, good use of our time. So we invested in an invisible fence and it was amazing

00:05:22.680 because, you know, they put a perimeter wire around your property. And then if the dog tries

00:05:28.340 to transgress that perimeter or go past the perimeter, then they get just like a vibration,

00:05:33.960 but it's unexpected. So it kind of shocks them and they avoid that sort of surprising,

00:05:38.420 you know, little vibration. And so it doesn't take long. I mean, they got, you know, he got trained

00:05:42.940 in like, I don't know, probably less than an hour. And he was so trained that I would have

00:05:47.980 the grandkids on the other side of the invisible fence and try to coax him with treats to come

00:05:53.160 over it. And he couldn't do it. He wouldn't do it. He always stayed on the inside of the invisible

00:05:57.440 fence. It was a great, great solution. In fact, I had to get a sponsorship with them because I tell

00:06:01.360 this story so much. But regardless, the thing is, is that his view of reality had moved from the

00:06:08.180 physical world to his head. The only thing that was keeping him from going past that perimeter

00:06:14.420 was his belief that something bad was going to happen if he did so. And that was it. But all

00:06:20.280 of us developed these over time. You know, maybe it was because it was the way that we were raised or

00:06:23.900 we had some negative experience. And, you know, years ago, back in the early nineties, I went through

00:06:29.080 a bankruptcy with a business that I had started and it was horrific. I mean, it was one of the most

00:06:34.420 humiliating things that I ever went through. But one of the things I discovered years later was

00:06:39.620 that I had a belief that I developed around that experience that basically said, I'm not very good

00:06:45.940 at starting a business or I'm not very good at running a business. And man, I had to shake that.

00:06:50.860 I went on to become the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, one of the largest book publishers in

00:06:54.720 the world. But I had to do some serious mental work before I could even begin to think about that

00:06:59.620 and break myself free from the past. So that's where people have to start is really

00:07:04.940 develop their mindset and ask themselves, what is it that's keeping them from getting the life they

00:07:09.900 want? Is it, is it really out there or is it between their ears? And I would say probably in

00:07:14.900 my experience, some of it's out there for sure, objective, but most of it's subjective. And it's

00:07:20.080 just a belief that we have about the future or about the world.

00:07:24.320 When you've worked with people through your course and your program and your coaching,

00:07:27.460 what are some common, you know, beliefs that people have limiting beliefs that people have

00:07:31.660 you seen over and over again? Yeah. I would say some of the most common ones have to do

00:07:36.080 with themselves. You know, they'll say, for example, I'm not very good with money or I'm too young

00:07:42.520 or I'm too old. You know, I get that all the time, especially from entrepreneurs. I coach a lot

00:07:47.240 of entrepreneurs and they'll say, well, I'm not, I'm not sure I should start this business because

00:07:50.880 I'm too old or I'm not sure I should start this business because I'm too young. And so then I just

00:07:55.260 have them look at some examples of people that were really young when they started businesses

00:07:58.900 and were highly successful or really old when they started businesses and were highly successful.

00:08:03.440 But those would be some of the most common ones. It could also be though beliefs about other people,

00:08:08.560 you know, like, you know, whenever you hear somebody say, you know, all women are, or all men are,

00:08:14.240 or all children are, or all, you know, pick your ethnic group are, you know, those are limiting

00:08:19.480 beliefs that have very little to do, if any, with reality out there. And then there's, you know,

00:08:25.900 beliefs about the world where people say something like, you know, it's just, people are just evil

00:08:30.700 or they're just bad or conversely, you could say they're good. I mean, these are all beliefs.

00:08:35.580 Nobody's going to, you know, be able to empirically prove that one way or the other,

00:08:39.660 but they're beliefs that shape how we behave. And that's the key thing. So we got to be careful

00:08:45.340 about what we believe. I've got a sign in my kitchen that says, don't believe everything

00:08:49.500 you think. No, yeah. It's really true. Yeah. You bring in cognitive behavioral therapy

00:08:53.260 in this. They have this idea of limiting beliefs. They call it learned helplessness. I think they

00:08:57.500 actually did an experiment with dogs like your dog, where they basically shocked a dog so much,

00:09:01.920 they stopped jumping over a fence and they could just take off the shock and the dog wouldn't jump

00:09:06.220 over the fence anymore. But yeah, one of the problems that can lead or the bad thinking patterns that

00:09:11.340 can lead to limiting beliefs is, you know, catastrophizing, you know, thinking the

00:09:15.320 worst could happen or universalizing. It's like, well, it didn't work out for me in this one

00:09:21.160 instance. So therefore it will never work out for me. You're exactly right. Catastrophizing,

00:09:24.720 universalizing, personalizing. Those are all ways that we take the stories that we experience

00:09:31.020 and then we try to apply them in a broader sense. And sometimes that's helpful. I mean,

00:09:34.880 that's, you know, kind of the foundation of wisdom, but it can also be the foundation of limiting

00:09:38.640 beliefs that hold us back. And another limiting belief that people can have, especially around goals

00:09:43.520 or resolutions, like, well, I've never followed through on my resolutions. So there's no point

00:09:48.080 in trying now. And I think that's, that holds a lot of people back. Oh, it definitely does. Or I'm,

00:09:53.080 I'm not very good with deadlines or that goal is just too big, or I've never done that before.

00:09:58.280 And I think we have to be careful. And here's one way to access what those limiting beliefs are

00:10:02.700 is pay specific attention to the language you use. So for example, if you say to yourself,

00:10:09.440 gosh, I'm just not very good with money or I never follow through. My daughter says this,

00:10:14.940 she says, well, if you say so, yeah, because, you know, not only our thinking, but our words determine

00:10:20.660 the reality that we experience. It shapes and structures kind of our cognitive experience

00:10:25.900 and enables us to process it and make meaning out of it. So we got to be careful about what we say.

00:10:31.000 This is very helpful, by the way, for people that may be listening, that may be coaching

00:10:34.480 or a therapist or whatever, but just listening to the language that people use

00:10:39.320 can be really helpful in helping you to access or understand their thoughts.

00:10:44.260 All right. So the first step is just figuring out what are your limiting beliefs,

00:10:47.040 your negative thinking patterns. How do you reset those to something more positive and abundant?

00:10:53.040 Yeah. I tell people, you know, the first thing you got to do is get it out of your head.

00:10:57.680 So go ahead and write it down just as it appears in your head. So usually limiting beliefs,

00:11:02.700 their sentences in our head. And, you know, so if we can just get those on paper, just write down

00:11:08.660 what you're saying to yourself. There's this inner narrator that just, you know, exists in all of us

00:11:14.620 that's constantly explaining, interpreting, and making meaning. So get it on paper. That's number one.

00:11:20.960 Number two, ask yourself the question, is that belief empowering or not? Now, if it's not empowering

00:11:28.580 and you want to change it, then what you have to do is transform it into a liberating truth.

00:11:33.260 So from limiting belief to liberating truth. So for example, you might say to yourself,

00:11:38.900 I'm not very good with money. That would be the limiting belief. You say, that's not really serving

00:11:42.260 me because I said, because of that belief, I find myself not very good with money. But a liberating

00:11:48.240 truth might be something like, you know, I'm learning to be more proficient with money

00:11:53.180 or I'm learning how to invest or something. It needs to be true, but it needs to be the aspect

00:11:59.880 that you're missing or you're not emphasizing. So all of us can learn, right? We just got to

00:12:06.220 transform it into something more productive and more helpful.

00:12:09.300 Yeah. It's reframing. I mean, one useful thing I've read, this comes from cognitive behavioral

00:12:14.220 therapy. You know, if you find yourself universalizing, like, well, I'm not good at this.

00:12:18.900 Well, you can add in yet at the end. Like, I'm not good at this yet. So it's the idea is that you

00:12:23.460 can, this isn't permanent. You can actually do things to improve the situation.

00:12:27.920 Yeah. That's a good way to do it. And that's a good way to hack our language. You know, another,

00:12:31.340 another example of that exact same thing is when people say, I have to go to the gym

00:12:36.180 and if they can just change one word from have to get, I get to go to the gym. Then all of a sudden

00:12:41.640 you start focusing on the positive aspects of going to the gym instead of sort of the negative part of it,

00:12:46.540 the drudgery part of it, the part of it that you're trying to avoid.

00:12:48.900 Yeah. You talk about in the book, a lot of people, especially when you get in middle age,

00:12:51.880 they're always complaining about, I'm just tired. I have no energy to, to do things. But like you

00:12:56.680 said, reframe it. It's like, oh, you have enough energy to get done what you need to get done.

00:13:00.400 I've caught, I've caught myself doing that. I, when my kids are like, what's wrong? I'm like,

00:13:03.540 I'm just so tired. And it's like, I'm not really tired. I mean, I'm able to do, I'm able to

00:13:07.880 function. I'm able to go down and do a workout. So I'm not tired. I got to quit telling myself that.

00:13:12.380 Totally. Cause you will manifest that behavior. And one of the things I say to myself,

00:13:16.380 one of my affirmations with regard to energy, which is important, is that I say I have more

00:13:21.660 than enough energy to achieve the things I need to do. That's all you got to do. And besides

00:13:26.400 reframing, you also recommend after you've done that is you have to sort of reorient yourself to

00:13:31.480 that new belief. Kind of, you have to kind of tell you, talk to yourself in a way, kind of do,

00:13:35.640 I mean, I wouldn't call them affirmations, but you have to change the way you talk to yourself so

00:13:39.580 that you start believing this new reality. Yeah. Brooke Castillo, who has a great podcast

00:13:44.920 called Self-Coaching School, you know, she calls this self-coaching. And I think that,

00:13:49.680 that for all of us, you know, I think coaching is a great thing to, to get involved in. Therapy is a

00:13:55.080 great thing to, to get involved in, but you can do a lot of self-coaching. Just talk to yourself,

00:13:59.360 coach yourself. What would a coach say to you in this situation?

00:14:02.060 Yeah. I always do that when I'm being hard on myself. It's like, would I talk to my son this

00:14:06.000 way if he's having a hard time? And the answer is usually no. So. Yeah, that's a good one.

00:14:10.940 All right. So the first part is, is figuring out your limiting beliefs and reframing them and

00:14:15.560 reorienting them to a more abundant, more positive view. So if you have this view of yourself that you

00:14:20.440 can never accomplish goals, well, maybe not now, but you can, you can change that. The next process is

00:14:26.540 before you even start setting or writing a goal down is reviewing your past. Why is it important to

00:14:32.440 review your past before you start thinking about goals for the future?

00:14:36.000 Well, first of all, I'm not, I'm not recommending that you do a deep dive into this. You know,

00:14:42.120 that may be time better spent with a therapist. And frankly, I really believe in therapy and have

00:14:47.120 had quite a bit myself, but what I'm talking about here specifically as it relates to setting goals

00:14:51.500 for the new year is look back over the last year. You know, if there, by the way, if there was trauma

00:14:57.440 or something, you know, really significant, that may be helpful to process with a therapist too.

00:15:01.780 But, but here's the thing I'm after. I don't want you to drag the worst of your past, especially

00:15:06.440 the last 12 months into your future and make your future toxic or ruin it before it starts.

00:15:13.060 So it's important to get clear on what happened in the past, do what I call in the book and in the

00:15:19.080 course, an after action review, which is something I learned from the U S military,

00:15:23.340 but just asking yourself the question, you know, simply what did, what was it that you wanted to

00:15:28.780 have happen? And then to acknowledge it, you know, don't pretend, don't try to blow it off.

00:15:34.560 Don't try to dismiss it. Don't make it bigger than it was. Don't make it smaller than it was,

00:15:38.740 but acknowledge what actually happened in as objective way as you can. And then,

00:15:43.580 then go ahead and learn from it. And, you know, what are the, what is the wisdom that you can

00:15:48.520 distill still from it that you might still find useful into the future and then adjust your

00:15:53.340 behavior. So literally those steps, if you go through those steps and processing the past,

00:15:58.920 and in the course, I have people actually write these things down. There's a, there's an exercise

00:16:03.180 for this, but write this stuff down and just make sure that you've processed it and you're not dragging

00:16:09.200 it into the future. Yeah. I mean, in the book, you have a few questions to ask yourself in this

00:16:13.300 after action review. I mean, one of them is what were your plans, dreams, and your concrete goals? If you

00:16:17.560 had any, sometimes you forget what they were. I like this one. What were some of the two or three

00:16:22.280 specific themes that kept reoccurring throughout the year? I think that's interesting because I

00:16:26.240 think every year has a different theme based on a different part of your life. So those are a few

00:16:31.000 questions. Let's say you do this after action review. So you write down how the year went and

00:16:34.800 you're trying to not get too emotional in this. You're trying to be objective, talk about the

00:16:39.880 successes, talk about the losses, but let's say you look at it and you're looking at the losses and you

00:16:43.720 start feeling that twinge of regret. It's like, oh man, I just wasted another year.

00:16:47.560 You actually make this case that you can use that feeling of regret, kind of do a judo move on it

00:16:52.680 and actually use it to spur you for positive change. What does that look like?

00:16:57.380 Yeah. There's been a lot of research around regret. And the thing about regret is it usually

00:17:03.000 indicates, and I kind of see it like as a Geiger counter that is revealing buried treasure.

00:17:07.940 Whenever you feel regret, that's oftentimes where you have the opportunity to really grow

00:17:13.140 and to really achieve something significant. And it's called in the research, the opportunity

00:17:17.560 principle, but to look for that regret and don't see it as something negative or something shaming,

00:17:23.380 but to kind of embrace it and say, oh, I feel some regret about whatever it was that, that loss,

00:17:29.200 that thing I didn't fully achieve. So maybe that's an opportunity that I can focus on. And if I could

00:17:34.240 just persist this next year, I could get the breakthrough that I'm after.

00:17:37.480 Sure. Okay. So look, look for those, instead of seeing regrets, I guess regret. Yeah. I like

00:17:42.160 that. It's a Geiger counter to figure out where you can make improvements. You also, besides not

00:17:46.740 analyzing your regrets, look for opportunities to be grateful. Why is that important in your goal

00:17:51.160 setting process? Well, before you ever begin the process of setting actual goals, you've got to get

00:17:58.420 yourself at a position where you're thinking abundantly about the future. And this is also kind of

00:18:03.700 another limiting belief that people have. If they have scarcity thinking, then they're not going to

00:18:09.220 think as expansively as they should about the future. You know, their world is going to be very

00:18:14.460 small. What they think they can accomplish is very small. But if you can get to a place where you feel

00:18:19.140 abundant, all of us have felt this way, where you, you know, you wake up grateful, maybe on a certain

00:18:24.260 day and you think, man, I could take on the world. It's because you're having an abundance mindset.

00:18:28.540 And so why not be intentional about that? I mean, it's a good practice to do every day,

00:18:32.020 but especially when you think about planning goals for the future, to look back over the last year,

00:18:37.540 even if it wasn't a great year, what are the things that you could be grateful for? And just to

00:18:42.380 remember, life is not just a single dimension. It's not all work. You know, maybe things didn't

00:18:48.120 go so well at work, but maybe your marriage or your relationship with a significant other

00:18:52.500 is amazing. Or your relationship with your kids is great. Or you picked up a new hobby. Or,

00:18:58.360 you know, you've got some friends that you didn't have before. Whatever it is,

00:19:01.880 try to find those areas where you can be grateful. And I find, Brett, to write those down is also

00:19:07.720 very helpful. Helpful makes it more concrete. And it also gives you a list to refer to on those days

00:19:13.940 when you wake up and you don't feel so grateful. It's just a way to prime the pump.

00:19:17.500 And I think, yeah, it's important to be grateful because as you said, gratitude is just a virtue. So you

00:19:22.820 should do it in and of itself, right? But also it's good to do before you set goals, because as

00:19:27.400 you said, whenever they've actually done research on this, and you've highlighted the research in

00:19:30.940 your book, whenever people are in a scarcity mindset, when they start thinking about the

00:19:35.980 future, they start thinking scarce. They have very limiting beliefs. But if they have, if they're

00:19:40.140 more grateful, they're more optimistic, and they're more open to possibilities when they start

00:19:44.240 thinking about the future. And that will help you when you actually start sitting down

00:19:48.060 to write your goals out. Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, I literally, I believe in this so much

00:19:53.980 that I begin every day with it, you know, initial gratitude, what am I grateful for from the previous

00:19:58.520 day? And then I do it in my weekly preview, what I'm reviewing the past week. I do it in my quarterly

00:20:03.520 preview when I'm looking at the previous quarter before I plan the new quarter. But it's just a good

00:20:08.300 exercise that frankly kind of helps you bring closure. And in this case, we're talking about step two,

00:20:14.180 the past, bring closure to the past before you begin the process of designing the future. Just

00:20:19.620 a great way to do it and set you up for success. And another point you make that oftentimes we think

00:20:23.980 of gratitude as a mood, that it just, we feel grateful whenever the mood strikes us. But now

00:20:28.380 you say like, no, gratitude is a practice. You have to be intentional with this. It doesn't just happen.

00:20:32.180 You don't want it to just happen. Yeah, this is, this is true really for a lot of emotions,

00:20:36.440 but sometimes people think gratitude is an emotion and indeed it can be an emotion,

00:20:40.740 but we can get to that emotion. One way to hack our way there is to begin to act grateful,

00:20:47.040 to begin to say grateful things. True for love too. You know, I learned this a long time ago. Thank

00:20:51.420 God I've been married for 43 years, but I wouldn't be married if I was just depending upon sort of this

00:20:57.280 elusive feeling that we call love. Cause sometimes I don't feel that, but if I act in a loving way or I

00:21:02.780 speak loving words, guess what? My feelings follow my actions. So that's an important, I think life

00:21:08.500 principle is to remember that our feelings are always going to follow our actions and we can act

00:21:13.580 our way into a new way of feeling. We're going to take a quick break for your words from our sponsors.

00:21:19.720 And now back to the show. All right. So we've looked at our limiting beliefs, reoriented them,

00:21:26.000 reframe them. We've done the after action review. Now we're actually going to start thinking about

00:21:29.580 our goals and writing goals down. And I think pretty much everyone who's listening to this podcast

00:21:34.180 has probably heard of smart goals. These are goals that are specific, measurable, achievable,

00:21:39.600 relevant, and then time bound. You've modified the smart goal process to create smarter goals.

00:21:45.720 What does a smarter goal look like? Well, let me give you the acronym and it is an acronym just

00:21:50.720 like smart. Before I get to that, I want to just say that it's critically important to write down your

00:21:55.140 goals. This is where, where a lot of people don't achieve what they want to achieve. And this is the

00:22:00.000 case with resolutions because it's something vague. It's in their head. It doesn't live on a piece of

00:22:05.120 paper. I really believe, Brett, that the first step in making something, that aspiration or reality,

00:22:11.160 the way to begin to manifest that and make it part of your experience is to begin to write it down.

00:22:16.940 Certainly you can speak it and that's helpful too. But the thing about writing is it helps you clarify

00:22:22.580 your thinking. And there's this old saying that I picked up somewhere. I'm not even sure who said it,

00:22:27.160 but it's that thoughts disentangle themselves passing over the lips and through pencil tips.

00:22:32.920 Sometimes things are a jumble in our head, but as we begin the practice or the act of writing it down,

00:22:37.520 we start to get clarity. And it's almost magical how it happens because I can be really vague on

00:22:43.200 something. And I learned this as a writer, but if I start writing, I'll get clear because that very

00:22:48.600 act forces you to get clear. Okay. So let me give you these seven attributes of smarter goals. First of all,

00:22:55.880 attribute number one, do you want me to give you an overview and then we can go back and unpack it?

00:22:59.380 Yeah, let's do overview and then kind of unpack it.

00:23:02.200 Okay. So attribute number one is specific. Attribute number two is measurable. So far,

00:23:08.220 no difference with the SMART framework. Attribute number three is a little bit different in my

00:23:12.980 system. It's actionable. I'll come back and talk about what that means. Attribute four is where I

00:23:17.600 really depart from the conventional wisdom. And that is attribute number four is risky. And a lot of times

00:23:23.440 in the traditional framework, that stands for either relevant or it stands for realistic.

00:23:29.280 And I contend that realism is overrated. I'll come back to that. Attribute number five is that

00:23:34.980 they're time keyed or time bound. Attribute number six is they're exciting. And attribute number seven

00:23:41.360 is that they're relevant. So smarter.

00:23:44.660 Okay. So what does a specific goal look like?

00:23:47.660 Well, this is a case where the more specific you can make it so that it's not vague in general,

00:23:53.500 but the more specific that you can make it, the more likely you are to achieve it because it's

00:23:58.180 going to help you to visualize it. It's going to help you actually pursue it and make it concrete.

00:24:03.880 So, you know, I've had goals in the past. I've, I've written, I think 12 books. And if I just had a

00:24:09.780 goal, like write a book, you know, that's directionally right. I mean, at least it's getting me

00:24:14.340 pointed in the right direction. But if I say, for example, like my new book is called,

00:24:18.400 it's all in your head and it's all about brain science and how we can apply that to goal achievement

00:24:23.240 and productivity. But if I, if I literally say like I did last year, that my goal was to write a book

00:24:29.920 called it's all in your head, that all of a sudden is more vivid. I can visualize that. I know what to

00:24:35.660 do with that. Writing a book that sounds big, ambiguous, and scary. So make it as specific as you can.

00:24:42.640 Okay. And then the next one is measurable.

00:24:46.040 Yeah. The great thing about this is if you can make it measurable, first of all, you can plot

00:24:50.380 your progress. So for example, if I've set a goal that I want to lose 20 pounds and I've been specific

00:24:56.640 and measurable and put 20 pounds in there, then I know how I'm doing toward that goal. It also helps

00:25:01.880 me to recognize the win. I'm defining the win in advance and I'm trying to reduce it if possible to

00:25:07.380 a number. Now I fully get that not everything that we want to achieve in life can be measurable,

00:25:13.320 you know, and there's, I just distinguish in the book between what I call achievement goals,

00:25:17.700 which is what I'm talking about now and habit goals, which are often useful in those situations

00:25:23.500 where we can't measure. We're going to just take up a habit that we know is going to move us toward

00:25:27.600 what we want. So for example, if I want to have a better relationship with one of my kids,

00:25:32.040 you know, I could pick up a habit goal, like, you know, having lunch with them at school every week

00:25:37.900 that would move me toward, you know, that kind of connection that I desire that may not be able

00:25:42.620 to be measured. But I would say when you're doing an achievement goal, you, if at all possible,

00:25:48.400 reduce it to a number, include something that quantifies it. It'll help you mark your progress

00:25:54.440 and it'll help you know when you've won. Well, even with a habit goal, you can make it measurable

00:25:58.480 by saying, well, I'm going to do X once a week. Totally. That's a little hack for, for a thing

00:26:03.380 that where you want something that's an aspiration, but you can't, I have a goal can get you there.

00:26:09.400 Yeah. Okay. So we got miserable. The next one, this is where you change instead of achievable,

00:26:14.360 you have actionable. Why the, why the difference? Well, goals are essentially about taking action.

00:26:21.920 And so I don't even know what achievable is. I don't even know what that means because the reason I

00:26:27.260 don't know what it means is because I've been able to accomplish, you probably have to things that on

00:26:32.020 the front end, I didn't know if they were achievable. And I just, you know, I know that if I set a goal

00:26:36.500 that's right, I probably got a good chance of achieving it, but I call this actionable because

00:26:42.100 it needs to be a verb. It's about the actions that I can take that are going to move me toward

00:26:47.140 this new reality that I want. And it's very simple, but just make sure that every goal starts with a verb,

00:26:52.820 but it's an action verb, not a to be verb. So I don't want to get too grammatical here,

00:26:57.660 but for example, if I, if I said, you know, something like, you know, I want to be a better

00:27:02.920 writer, you know, that's a to be verb instead of saying like, I'm going to, you know, write 500

00:27:10.240 words a day, which would be a habit goal, or I can make an achievement goal. I want to write

00:27:14.280 this manuscript called it's all in your head. Okay. Makes sense. That makes sense. All right. So make

00:27:19.200 actual, avoid to be, make it an action verb. The next one you added this, it's the R it's risky.

00:27:25.360 So this is a lot of times smart goals are like, you want them to be realistic, but you're saying,

00:27:29.240 no, you want the goals to be risky. Why is that? Yeah. And I'm doing, I'm doing this

00:27:32.840 based on the research. So in goal, there's a whole field of study called goal achievement research.

00:27:39.080 And the people that, that have done work in that area basically found to their surprise

00:27:43.420 and counterintuitively that when you set a goal too low, it doesn't really command your attention.

00:27:49.580 It doesn't ignite your imagination. There's nothing about it that pulls you forward because

00:27:54.480 it's only an incremental gain. It's nothing that, that is inspiring. So what you've got to do is you've

00:28:01.080 got to make this something that's risky, that's in your discomfort zone. And that's the key thing

00:28:06.640 is to put it inside of your discomfort zone. So the way you know that you're in your discomfort

00:28:12.900 zone is when you begin to feel a little bit of fear, a little bit of uncertainty, or a little

00:28:20.120 bit of doubt. FUD people call it, but I'm looking for those three emotions that indicate that I've

00:28:25.520 passed from the comfort zone where nothing really good happens. You know, you just maintain the status

00:28:31.140 quo to the discomfort zone. And if you really think about it, this is where every great thing happens,

00:28:35.860 but it doesn't usually start out that way. We feel a little bit of fear, like the possibility that we

00:28:40.740 may fail. So we got to dial up the goal in terms of what we're trying to achieve to the point where

00:28:47.620 we feel a little bit of fear. We know we could fail. It's not a certainty. And then that brings

00:28:51.540 us to uncertainty. You know, we're not sure if we can do it. You know, we've never done it before.

00:28:56.400 And then finally doubt. Maybe we wonder, do I have what it takes to pull this off? And those are

00:29:01.200 actually good motivations and talk about reframing. I reframe these as positive indicators that I've

00:29:07.000 now just moved beyond the comfort zone into the discomfort zone where great things happen. If you

00:29:12.480 look back over the course of your life, probably every significant, important, meaningful thing

00:29:17.980 that happened to you began in the discomfort zone, right? You were out of your comfort zone,

00:29:23.020 whether it was that new job you took or starting that new business or marrying that girl or marrying

00:29:27.100 that boy or having those kids or whatever it was, it was all in your discomfort zone. And it created

00:29:32.120 that fear, uncertainty, and doubt. So you don't want to dial it up so far that you're in what I call

00:29:37.760 the delusional zone where, you know, it's just impossible. Like for example, if I said, um, you

00:29:43.720 know, at my age, I think I'd like to start a third career as an NBA center, you know, that's in the

00:29:52.000 delusional zone. But if I, but there's a lot of things that would be in the discomfort zone. But so I

00:29:57.520 just want to make sure that I don't go too far over into the delusional zone. I want to dial it

00:30:02.400 back a few clicks so that it represents something that, that achieves that fear, uncertainty, and

00:30:07.720 doubt, but not where I'm terrified by it or have no clue about how to proceed. That's the delusional

00:30:13.220 zone. All right. So the next one in the T is time keyed. And that's just, it makes sure it's kind

00:30:17.140 of similar to time bound, like have a deadline associated with it. Totally. And the only reason I

00:30:22.260 call it time keyed is because when it comes to habit goals, you know, you, you might not be

00:30:26.400 talking about a deadline, you won't be talking about a deadline, but you might be talking about,

00:30:29.780 for example, the time of day that you're going to do it or the days you're going to do it. Is this

00:30:33.820 going to be a Monday, Wednesday, Friday activity, or is this going to be, you know, an everyday

00:30:37.300 activity, or is this going to be at nine o'clock in the morning, or is it going to be at, you know,

00:30:41.620 noon? So it needs to be time keyed. There needs to be a date or a time associated with it.

00:30:47.300 Or the next one is E and that's excitement or exciting. What is an exciting goal? And why is that

00:30:51.800 important that you feel excited about your goal?

00:30:53.260 Well, it's important because if you're not excited about the goal and, you know, there's a lot of

00:30:58.920 times we put things on our goal list that we feel like we ought to do, maybe because our boss is

00:31:04.180 asking us to do it or our spouse is asking, but it's, it, it really is something that's extrinsic.

00:31:10.640 You know, it's, it's external to us. Somebody else is motivated by it, but we're not that motivated by

00:31:14.480 it. Those goals you will not accomplish. Not usually you'll, you'll, you'll, when you get to the messy

00:31:20.080 middle, you'll quit on the goal. And that's an important concept to be aware of too, is that in

00:31:26.100 every goal pursuit, you're going to encounter a time when it's the messy middle, when you're too

00:31:31.560 far in to quit, but you're not sure you've got what it takes to finish. And that's when you want

00:31:36.540 to quit. And that's where a lot of people quit. So if you don't have something that's really exciting

00:31:40.080 that you actually want to accomplish, it's going to be easy to bail at that point.

00:31:44.020 Yeah. I want to talk more about that, like staying motivated on your goals throughout the year,

00:31:47.220 because you have some more insights there. That last letter in the acronym of smarter is

00:31:51.720 R and that's relevant. What does a relevant goal look like?

00:31:55.360 Well, there, there's a couple of different things that it means, but let me just give you

00:31:59.240 two of them. First of all, it means that they're relevant to the season in life that you are right

00:32:05.580 now. You know, I'm an empty nester. I've got more discretionary time than most people. And I've got

00:32:11.860 five grown daughters, some of them with very small children who have very little discretionary time.

00:32:16.200 It wouldn't be appropriate for them to try to set a goal in some area. Like I might set a goal,

00:32:22.040 like for a hobby or something, because they don't have the time right now to pursue it.

00:32:26.240 So it's got to be relevant to your season in life and your life circumstances. But the goals also need

00:32:32.840 to be relevant to each other. And what I mean by that is they need to, they need to fit together.

00:32:38.960 You can get into the delusional zone by having several giant goals that on their own makes sense.

00:32:46.200 Yeah. They're in your discomfort zone, but they're not in the delusional zone.

00:32:49.180 But if you put too many of those together, you're going to be in the delusional zone.

00:32:53.340 So you've just got to have some balance there and make sure that there's some kind of internal logic

00:32:57.700 that makes sense for all the goals as they fit together.

00:33:00.680 Well, let's talk about the number of goals. Cause I think that's a thing that people struggle with.

00:33:04.220 I know I've had in the past where I've set resolutions because you just want to do all

00:33:07.340 the things, right. In a year. So do you have any insights on like, what's the ideal number of

00:33:13.180 goals to pursue throughout the year? Or is it like you haven't, like, are you setting goals a quarter?

00:33:18.340 Are you setting goals for the entire year? Like, what does that look like?

00:33:22.260 Yeah. What we recommend is seven to 12 per year. Okay. No more than that, but no more than three.

00:33:30.360 Sometimes you can go to four, but three goals per quarter.

00:33:32.800 So spread your goals out evenly. Don't make them all do on December the 31st,

00:33:36.800 because what happens is to people as they procrastinate and then they're trying to jam

00:33:40.020 them all in the last quarter of the year. So have them spread out, but also no more than seven

00:33:45.520 to 12 for the whole year. I may say seven to 10 in the book, but the latest research shows about

00:33:50.260 seven to 12. Okay. But you're not doing, I think the key is you're not doing it all at once.

00:33:53.600 I think that's what causes people to get overwhelmed and just stop because they try to do everything at

00:33:57.160 once. Totally. And that'll, that'll, you know, that builds into it failure. So seven,

00:34:02.800 to 12 and that's a, that's a much more, you know, realistic number to manage. If you think about it

00:34:09.460 this way, Brett, you think, you know, a goal is kind of outside the whirlwind of daily activity and

00:34:14.940 you're, you've got a life that requires certain maintenance and those are things that are already

00:34:18.980 in place. And so it's not like, you know, you've got 40 hours a week to pursue these goals of things

00:34:24.560 that don't exist. You've got things that are already in place that you got to maintain. So you want

00:34:28.820 to make sure that you don't, you know, have more goal than you've got resources to accomplish.

00:34:33.840 And do you have any insights on the type of goals, like domains of life that people should make goals

00:34:37.360 for? Absolutely. And in fact, we've got an assessment called the life score assessment

00:34:43.000 that will enable people to take that. And it's a free test. Maybe you could link to this in the show

00:34:47.300 notes. But what the life score assessment does is that it gives you an opportunity to self-assess

00:34:52.940 progress against the 10 major domains of life. And I do this every year. In fact, I do it every

00:34:57.840 quarter so that I can evaluate just how I'm doing in each of these areas. So I know where I need to

00:35:02.560 focus because for example, if I'm, if I'm really suffering in the domain of my social life, my

00:35:08.740 friendships, then that may be something I want to build a goal around for this next year.

00:35:13.280 Okay. So let's talk about, uh, we set our goals, we've written them down, we get started on them.

00:35:17.820 And as you said earlier, at the very beginning, a lot of people, they set that fitness goal. And so the gym

00:35:22.360 is crowded. And then about a month later, it's back to normal. So a lot of people where they get

00:35:27.020 hung up, they get going strongest, start out, start out the gate really strong, but then they

00:35:30.340 just sort of peter out any insights from research that you've done and just working with people on

00:35:34.940 how to stay motivated throughout the year on your goals. Yeah. One of the things that I encourage

00:35:41.120 people to do is to get really clear on their why find their why, what is it that's motivating you

00:35:46.680 or you find motivational when you frame that goal up and we'll never be, you know, more inspired than

00:35:51.360 we are at that moment when we begin. I mean, I can think of, you know, running several half

00:35:55.420 marathons and everybody's pumped up at the beginning of the race. You know, you think,

00:36:00.460 oh my gosh, I've got so much energy. I've got 30,000 people out here. You know, you, the,

00:36:05.040 the excitement's palatable and a lot of people start off too fast. You know, they don't pace

00:36:09.320 themselves because they have that exhilaration from having a goal. But the problem is what's going

00:36:14.420 to keep you going when you hit, you know, mile number 10 or mile number 11. And that's where

00:36:19.720 you have to identify your why. I think if you can do that on the front end and get crystal clear

00:36:25.020 on why you want to accomplish this, that's important. You also want to make sure that

00:36:30.520 it's something that's internally motivating you. Like I said a few moments ago and not something

00:36:35.200 external. This is not something that merely, you know, my spouse wants or my boss wants or society

00:36:40.800 expects, but this is something I really want. If I'm honest with myself, I look in the mirror

00:36:45.920 and I say, you know, why is it that I'm motivated to achieve this? That's what you got to get to.

00:36:52.020 And I find that if you can write those down and identify at least three and rank them in priority

00:36:58.100 order, you know, like what's the most motivating, what's the second most motivating, what's the

00:37:01.700 third most motivating. That's a list that you can pull out from time to time when you want to quit

00:37:07.340 or when you're tempted to quit, pull it out and say, oh yeah, that's why I wanted to do that.

00:37:11.880 That's what this is going to make possible if I achieve this goal. So kind of back to,

00:37:16.640 you know, book writing. One of my first books was my book platform, get noticed in a noisy world.

00:37:22.720 And so I had just left the big corporate world and was starting this new business,

00:37:26.880 this new career as a speaker and a author and a business coach. And so, you know, writing a book

00:37:31.960 is hard and there are many times when you want to quit. And I can remember in that specific book,

00:37:37.960 I got, I was like a week away from the deadline and I'm reading back through the manuscript and

00:37:42.180 I'm thinking to myself, this just is not very good. I don't, I, this needs a lot more work.

00:37:47.660 And I started to kind of panic and then I reminded myself why I needed to stay with my nose to the

00:37:52.860 grindstone and finish out the project. And I said, you know, one of the things that I'd written down

00:37:57.280 back when I'd identified that goal is I said, you know, if I can publish this and it could be a

00:38:02.420 success, this is going to produce the, or this is going to serve to be the groundwork

00:38:06.700 of my whole future of my whole business. So if I can get this done, right, then this is going to

00:38:12.400 make so much that I want to accomplish, whether it's speaking or coaching or whatever, it's going

00:38:16.900 to make it so much easier if I've credentialed myself with this book. So that got me through

00:38:22.200 that very messy middle, what I wanted to quit, wanted to bail on the goal, but I was able to go,

00:38:26.960 go through with it because I pulled out that list and looked at all the reasons why it was important.

00:38:31.500 Another tactic that I found really useful to keep yourself motivated when you're working on your goals

00:38:35.420 is you got this from a guy named Dan Sullivan. It's a, whenever you're feeling down and dejected

00:38:40.480 about your, the progress you're making on your goals, it says, you said to measure the gains,

00:38:44.260 not the gap. What does that mean? Yeah. Dan's got this great concept and, and he's my coach,

00:38:51.240 but he says, measure the gain, not the gap. So what that means is that let's just say you get to the

00:38:57.520 end of December or let's actually, let's say we get to July, you got a goal to lose 20 pounds.

00:39:02.680 You've lost 13. Okay. So now you got a choice. You can either focus on what you've gained. You can

00:39:08.860 say, Holy smoke, I've lost 13 pounds since the beginning of the year, or you can focus on the

00:39:15.660 gap and you can say, gosh, I'm still seven pounds away from my goal. Well, if you focus on the gain,

00:39:22.580 that's going to fill you with confidence and a sense of possibility about the future. It's going to

00:39:27.060 re-energize you to keep in the race and keep going. If you focus on the gap, that's where you get

00:39:32.540 overwhelmed and want to quit. So Dan says, always focus on the gain, not the gap.

00:39:39.720 What about groups? How can other people help you stay motivated throughout the year?

00:39:44.140 Well, you know, life is, is better lived when we do it as a journey with other people.

00:39:49.660 And I found accountability groups and not even accountability groups, but just people that

00:39:54.360 share similar interests, similar goals are, can be a huge motivation for one another.

00:39:59.860 These are the people that you can brainstorm when you get stuck. You can get feedback to

00:40:04.800 your goal. Initially, you can get encouragement when you want to quit. And frankly, these are

00:40:09.300 people that can kick your butt when you're slacking off. So it's got, you got to be very 0.99

00:40:14.020 careful about the peer group that you choose for this, but the right group can make all the

00:40:18.260 difference. And I experienced this when I was running, you know, my first several half

00:40:21.700 marathons. I tried to do it kind of Lone Ranger style and it was hard. And once I joined a group

00:40:27.680 and I knew the group was counting on me to show up and I was counting on them to show up,

00:40:32.000 it made it so much easier. And then when we were out there running, it also made it easier because

00:40:35.760 I wasn't just doing it on my own alone with my thoughts. I was having conversations with people

00:40:40.140 that were pursuing the same goal and it was inspiring.

00:40:43.120 Something you talk about some research that I've read before is you don't want to tell your goals to

00:40:48.540 people because you're less likely to fulfill them. Because basically when you tell someone the goal,

00:40:53.660 you get the satisfaction of like that you accomplished the goal because people are like,

00:40:56.720 oh, wow, it's a great goal to have. And you feel good and it causes you to not work on it.

00:41:00.680 But then you dug deeper into this and it's not completely the whole picture. How can you tell

00:41:06.320 people your goals so you're held accountable, but in a way it doesn't decrease motivation,

00:41:10.780 actually get started on it? Yeah. So the two extremes are that, you know, I'm going to announce

00:41:15.980 to the world that I'm going to achieve this thing. And what the research says that if you do that,

00:41:20.240 your brain actually thinks it's accomplished it. And so then you just kind of take your foot off

00:41:24.260 the pedal and you don't pursue it. On the other hand, the other extreme is I'm not going to tell

00:41:28.320 anybody. And so that's kind of the lone, lone ranger approach where it's just you and your goal.

00:41:33.060 And what the latest research shows is that, that there's a middle ground and that is you want to

00:41:37.540 selectively share your goals with that peer group. And again, a small group, you know,

00:41:43.660 not 30 people, not 50 people. I'm talking two, three people that, that, you know,

00:41:49.240 are going to be an encouragement to you. They're not people that are going to tell you that,

00:41:52.840 you know, you can't achieve that, achieve that goal, but people that are going to encourage you

00:41:56.880 on when you want to quit, that's a group you want to share it with. And that's perfectly,

00:42:01.020 perfectly fine. All right. So be, be picky with who you share your goals with.

00:42:04.380 Be picky. All right. So the final process in your best year ever process is just getting started,

00:42:10.340 taking action. That that's for a lot of people. That's the thing that holds them back.

00:42:13.580 They make the goals in the new year, but they actually don't do anything to get going on it.

00:42:17.360 How do you overcome that inertia after you've set your goals?

00:42:21.900 Well, the simple thing is just start. And I'll tell you how not to do that.

00:42:26.160 One things that people sometimes do is that they over plan. You know, they want to identify

00:42:30.540 every single step to get from where they are to achieve that goal. Now that may be important if

00:42:36.620 it's going to demand a huge number of resources. Like right now we're about to do a renovation to a,

00:42:41.840 to a house that we own. And so we're getting a very detailed fixed bid step-by-step from the

00:42:46.980 contractor because we want to know what we're signing up for. And we want to make sure that,

00:42:51.400 you know, we have the resources to cover it. But for most of us with our goals, that's just kind of

00:42:56.340 a fast fancy way to procrastinate. Right? So we, we decide we're just going to have all these steps

00:43:01.780 and we get the project just right. And just perfect. We do a little bit more research than we'll

00:43:06.240 start. But here's the problem. If you've got a goal that's set in your discomfort zone,

00:43:11.500 you're not going to clearly understand what's required until you get into the process and you

00:43:17.400 just got to start. So I, I even have an acronym for start, you know, schedule the action required

00:43:24.200 today. Schedule the action required today. That's how you start. What do I need to do first? Forget

00:43:29.400 about step two, forget about step three, you know, but focus on where do you need to start first in

00:43:36.000 order to get in motion and begin to build momentum. And one of the ways you can build momentum you

00:43:41.160 talk about is do the easy stuff first. And that's kind of counterintuitive. Oftentimes in the self

00:43:45.840 development world, you hear like eat the frog. So like do the hard thing first, but you say, no,

00:43:49.860 actually do the easy things first. Yeah. So let me give you a practical example that everybody can

00:43:54.980 relate to, you know, if you go to the gym, if you walked into the gym, walked right over to a bench

00:44:01.620 and picked up bigger weight than you've ever lifted before, because remember this is going to be in your

00:44:05.940 discomfort zone and you just decide to lift that without warming up. That's a good recipe for an

00:44:10.840 injury. Well, the same is true in life. You don't want to tackle something without warming up and without

00:44:17.180 moving up. And so here would be another example in, I've used book writing a lot, but there's a lot of

00:44:22.220 people want to write a book, but you know, if I said to myself, okay, I'm going to write, I've never

00:44:26.300 read a book before, but I'm going to write the chapter that I think is going to be the most

00:44:29.640 difficult because if I can eat that frog first, then everything else is going to be easier. Here's the

00:44:34.760 problem. You're going into it with no momentum. You're going into it with no sense of success. And you're

00:44:41.620 trying to write this hard chapter without the momentum and it's almost impossible. And you quit

00:44:47.740 before you start. Instead, what would be the easiest thing to write? Like, I'm going to tell

00:44:52.420 you, this is like stupid, simple, but here's how I start writing every book. First thing I do is I say, 0.98

00:44:57.760 okay, today, you know, let's just assume I've got a book proposal. I've got an outline, so I know where

00:45:01.600 I'm going. And I say, okay, I'm just, today I'm just going to write the dedication next day. Okay.

00:45:08.900 I'm going to write an annotated table of contents. So just a little descriptive copy on, on each item in my

00:45:15.040 table of contents. Next day, you know, I feel really good about chapter three. I've done a lot

00:45:20.140 of research. You know, I've got some stories for that. So I'm going to start on that one. That's

00:45:23.640 the easiest one. So I did this with my book, Living Forward, which is all about developing a life plan.

00:45:29.100 And I was in Colorado for 30 days up in the mountains with my wife in a cabin. And my goal

00:45:34.840 was to write this book. So I did exactly what I'm saying. I started with the easiest thing first.

00:45:37.960 So I finally got to this big, hairy, gnarly chapter on day 30. So we were supposed to fly

00:45:45.100 out the next morning. And I had this one chapter that what I'd been putting off, the one that I

00:45:50.320 knew was going to be the most difficult to write. But guess what? That was the, I had all this momentum.

00:45:55.180 I'd written like, I don't know, 10 chapters. This was the last one that I had to write to finish the

00:46:00.440 book. And then I could go home and say it was behind me. I was extremely motivated, extremely confident.

00:46:06.140 And I said to myself that morning, as I began to work on that chapter, I've got this.

00:46:10.820 So that's the difference. Start with the easier stuff and give yourself a sense of momentum.

00:46:16.040 Yeah, I've done that. I've noticed I've done that with my writing and just even other projects that

00:46:19.700 I've done. I always do the easy stuff first to get that momentum. But the other thing I've learned

00:46:23.720 whenever I start with easy stuff is I start figuring out the hard stuff in the process,

00:46:28.520 right? Like when you start writing the easy stuff, you start, I don't know what's going on,

00:46:33.000 but like, by the time I get to that hard stuff, I kind of have it figured out by then because I've

00:46:37.200 sort of sorted stuff out with the easy stuff. I don't, does that make sense?

00:46:40.940 Yeah, totally. And I mean, you know, book writing would be a good example. You, you know,

00:46:44.340 you're going to become a better writer in the process of writing a book. You're the last stuff

00:46:47.740 you write is going to be better than the first stuff you wrote because you just got some, you know,

00:46:51.800 mileage under your belt.

00:46:53.380 You also talked about another thing to do to help you get started. You have these things called

00:46:55.900 activation triggers. What are those?

00:46:57.340 Yeah. An example of that is, you know, is there something where I could kind of stack

00:47:02.600 the habit on top of something else that I I'm going to be doing anyway, that's a normal habit.

00:47:07.640 So an example, if I'm wanting to run, if I've decided this next year that I want to develop a

00:47:12.840 running habit, or if I want to run in a race of some sort, but I find myself getting up in the

00:47:17.880 morning, kind of groggy. It's a little bit too cold out. It's 23, by the way, when I got up this

00:47:21.280 morning here in Nashville, Tennessee, and I think, Oh, you know, the, the weather's bad. I'm just going to

00:47:25.660 wait. But if you do an activation trigger, what that might look like is you make it as easy as

00:47:30.420 possible to get into the pursuit of that goal. So setting my running clothes out the night before

00:47:36.500 so that when I walk into the bathroom, boom, there they are. It just makes it that much easier to

00:47:42.420 follow through.

00:47:43.340 Nice. All right. So we've, we've set our goals. We're working on them. Do you have a review process

00:47:47.060 that you use throughout the year to stay on track with your goals?

00:47:50.420 Yeah. One of the things that I want to review my annual goals, I'm going to review those

00:47:55.340 every day, just scan them every day for the first 30 days and make sure that I'm aware of them,

00:48:00.180 that I'm going to focus on the goals for that quarter, but I've got to get connected to those

00:48:04.160 every day. And partly because that's, what's going to inform my task list. In other words,

00:48:09.520 when I'm trying to think of what I need to get done today, one of the things I want to consider

00:48:12.920 is what could I do today that would move me toward the completion of a goal that I have for this

00:48:17.800 quarter. This takes like literally 30 seconds, no more than 60 seconds, but you got to maintain

00:48:23.100 visibility. And too often people set a goal or resolution that's not written down. Or even if

00:48:28.360 they set a goal, they put it on a document on their hard drive or they write it in a journal

00:48:32.860 somewhere and then they lose visibility. And the loss of visibility is one of the biggest reasons

00:48:37.760 people don't complete goals. They're just not reminding themselves of what it is that they set

00:48:42.100 out to do.

00:48:43.340 Okay. So review your process, constantly keep them top of mind. Well, Michael, this has been a great

00:48:47.580 conversation. Is there any place people can go to learn more about the book and the program,

00:48:51.460 the course? Yeah. The best place to go is bestyearever.me. Bestyearever.me. You can get

00:48:59.040 the book on Amazon or wherever better books are sold, as they say, but I really do recommend the

00:49:04.740 course. The course goes deeper. It has a lot of exercises and it gives you a group to do it with,

00:49:10.500 but that'll be launching soon. And again, it's at bestyearever.me.

00:49:14.880 Michael Hyatt, thanks for your time. It's been a pleasure.

00:49:17.200 Thanks, Brett. Appreciate being with you.

00:49:18.540 My guest name is Michael Hyatt. He's the author of the book, Your Best Year Ever. It's available

00:49:22.640 on amazon.com and bookstores everywhere. You can find more information about the course,

00:49:25.960 Your Best Year Ever, at bestyearever.me. Also check out our show notes at aom.is slash your

00:49:31.240 best year ever.

00:49:38.900 Well, that wraps up another edition of the AOM podcast. Make sure to check out our website

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00:50:10.700 this is Brett McKay. Remind you not to listen to the AOM podcast, but put what you've heard

00:50:13.900 into action.

The Art of Manliness - December 08, 2021

Prepare Now to Have Your Best Year Ever

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