Did you know that about 80% of people give up on their new years’ resolutions by the end of February?
Yep, that’s right. And, since the year is almost up, I decided to give you some quick advice on how to avoid falling into this category.
Today, I’ve got an early holiday gift for you – an in-depth look at my very own method for setting and achieving goals for 2023. Now, when it comes to goal-setting, there are tons of methods and frameworks out there, and, to be fair – most of them work just fine out of the box. However, the thing that prevents most people from achieving massive success is the human factor.
Because, here’s the main thing about setting and achieving goals – you have to actually put your back into it. You can study fancy frameworks, write detailed plans and put hours into building up your process, but if you don’t take action, you’re just wasting your time.
Method for Setting and Achieving Goals for 2023
And this is why today I’m giving you an actionable list that you can take and start using immediately. This is a part of my personal success methodology, and its advanced version is something that I teach to all of my students. Of course, there’s no way for me to cover the entire thing in a single post, but this short version will help you find areas to improve.
Here’s what we’ll be covering:
The Why
The first and most important part of setting long-term goals is knowing exactly what you want. Yes, this can take a bit of thinking, but it’s absolutely crucial. The secret to successfully setting and hitting your goals for 2023 is knowing exactly what you want and why you want it. And, funny enough, about 70-80% of people fail at this. So instead, they just dive right into the planning and scheduling. Then the second week of January comes around, and they’ve already given up.
On the other hand, successful people always know what they want and why they want it because it allows them to set up their schedules, lives and entire mentality around achieving their goals.
Here’s how to do it:
Step 1 – Paint a Picture
Take a moment and imagine your life as perfect as it can be. There are no limits here – you can have all the money, connections or assets. You can be and do anything. Just paint the perfect picture in your mind.
Step 2: Examine Your Picture
What does your professional life look like? What sort of work are you doing? How much are you earning? Who are you working with?
Take a moment and write things down if you want, just don’t get lost in the details. Again, we’re looking for a general outlook here because it’s what you’re going to use to answer the following question: What’s the first step you would need to take today to start moving in this direction?
I can’t give you an answer to this question, but don’t worry, because I’m willing to bet that you already know it. Your mind has already answered it for you. This is because, somewhere deep down inside, we all know and understand what our first step in a positive direction has to be.
The Personal Side
Now, I want you to think about family and relationships. Go back to your future scenario and think about
What sort of relationships do you have? Family situation? Lifestyle? Do you have children?
Feel free to write it all down if you want and then ask yourself:
What’s the first step?
Your Health
If your life was perfect, what would this mean for your health?
Think about weight, exercise, and energy levels. Would you have more free time? Would you use it to exercise?
How would this affect your health, weight and energy levels?
And, of course, don’t forget to ask yourself –
What do I have to do to make that happen? What’s the first step?
Your Finances
If your life is perfect, that means you’ve got much more money to work with. So here, I want you to think about the financial side of things:
How much would you be able to save? Where would you invest your wealth? How would this change your prospects down the line?
Ask your mind about the first step, write it down and let’s move on.
A simple trick that will help you figure out what you want right now
Now, take a piece of paper and write down three things, three goals, that you’d like to accomplish in the near future. We’re not talking 20-years-from-now sort of things, just achievable ideas and plans for the next couple of years.
But here’s the catch – you don’t get any time to think about it. Just take your paper and write out the first three “most important” goals you’ve got right now.
Put It on Paper
This step is all about making a mental commitment. You want to write down your goals because this makes you feel more dedicated to achieving them. Essentially, it’s a simple trick to give yourself a little bit of extra motivation.
It’s also essential to make sure that your goals are clearly written and straight to the point because you’ll be referencing this list in the future. Here, I’d recommend using the SMART system or at least some variation of it. By this, I mean that you want your goals in 2023 to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely. You want to make them clear (what exactly do you want to achieve?), measurable (set exact numbers or criteria for what you want to achieve), reasonable goals and time periods (you can’t get become a millionaire overnight!) relevant to the bigger picture (how they help you move forward in live) and timely (by when do you want to achieve this)
And here’s a fun fact: Less than 4% of adults write down their goals. So, by doing this, you’re already placing yourself in the top 4%!
Break It All Down
Now that you’ve got your goals written down, you want to break them down into smaller segments. This achieves three big things: it makes your goals for 2023 easier to achieve and helps you track your progress better. In addition, if something comes up, it’s much easier to adjust your schedule when you already know what you’re supposed to be doing for the next week, month, etc. Finally, as an added benefit, each time you hit a mini-milestone, you’ll get to enjoy the sense of pride and achievement for sticking to your plan.
Big Goals Are Not Scary!
Don’t be afraid to set long-term goals for 2023. As a matter of fact, I encourage people to do just that. Want to become financially independent? Want to run your own business, be your own boss? Go ahead and plan it out! Of course, if you’re being realistic (and you don’t secretly have a few billion stashed under your mattress), achieving a goal like this would take many years. But as long as you break it down into reasonable, measurable and timed segments, you can absolutely achieve it.
Get the Obstacles Out of the Way
Before you can really start working on achieving your goals, you need to find and eliminate the obstacles. And there are always obstacles. Because if there weren’t any, if there was nothing stopping you, then… You wouldn’t be sitting here looking at this post. So, there’s something stopping you from achieving your goals. And don’t worry because the method I shared above also works here. All you have to do is ask your mind. I’m willing to believe that you already know the answer. It might not be an answer you like, and it might be difficult to accept, but it’s one of the most important things to work on. For some people, it might be simple inefficiency or lack of time management skills. It could be negative habits or hobbies. It could even be that some of the people in your life are holding you back in some capacity. Whatever it is, you need to identify it and start working on it immediately. The best part here is that regardless of your current goals, chances are that removing these obstacles will make your life better in the long run.
And how do you go about overcoming the obstacles? You just apply this same framework to the problem! Dealing with them is a goal on its own. So, just ask your mind the questions, figure out the approach, and you’re done! If you’re struggling or need to introduce major changes to your life (which isn’t all that rare, really), you can even break it down into smaller, more manageable segments.
Relationships and You
If you really want to “make it”, you can’t do it all on your own. You need other people. Depending on your current situation and goals, this could mean anything between just talking to the right people and putting a team together.
To do this, you need to make a list of all the people that you’re going to need. This could be people you’ve already connected with, people you barely know, or even people you’ve never met.
When people come to me for advice about business and entrepreneurship, I always tell them they need to connect. Even if they’ve already got a substantial network of contacts, it can always be better. And, get that – they already know who they need to connect with and why that is. Because, as usual, your mind already has the answers. While you’re going about your daily life, your mind is already categorising everyone you meet based on their interests, jobs and hobbies – that’s how you are able to pick out potential friends, partners and social circles. Now, it’s time to put this to good use and make a nice long list of all the people who can help you achieve your goals.
Start with the people closest to you – your partner, family, and dear friends. Then, expand the list to your co-workers, boss, and team members.
Don’t Listen to “People”
Now that we’ve discussed all the positive sides of networking and relationships let’s look at the possible negatives.
Because, here’s the thing about people – there’s always going to be naysayers. If you go up to someone and tell them, “Hey, I decided that I’m going to start a business in a couple of years”, there’s a good chance they won’t take you seriously. That’s because most people are used to not achieving. Essentially, most people are not used to planning; they’re used to settling.
And, of course, letting these kinds of people get to you will hurt your motivation (and possibly even your ability to achieve your long-term goals). So, my advice is this: don’t listen to negative people full-stop. Just do your thing, follow your plans and associate yourself with happy, positive people who are willing to bring you up. Of course, you can’t just cut out everyone from your life, so instead, don’t discuss your long-term goals with people you know will react negatively.
Identify the Skills That You Need
Whether you’re starting something completely new or just trying to get “better” in a field you already understand, you’ll need to work on your skills. You’ll need to learn new things and get better at what you’re already good at. This is something that successful people do all the time, and it’s at the foundation of self-improvement. Business leaders, managers, investors, industry-leading experts, and athletes have this in common. And that’s exactly what allows them to remain successful. Because if they stopped working on their skills immediately after meeting the original goal, you wouldn’t hear their names, and you wouldn’t see them in the papers and on TV.
Put It All Together
Now, take that list that we talked about in the beginning and add everything that we covered:
Your goals, followed by your “why” (along with the explanations), the people you’d need to work with and the people you’d need to avoid.
Then, take your steps and break them down into smaller segments, detailing every step –
- How is this step getting you closer to the end goal?
- How are you going to achieve it?
- When’s the deadline?
- Who can help you?
- What are you going to need to learn?
- Do you have everything necessary, or would you need more resources or connections?
If something’s lacking, work out a way to get it – maybe you need to go out and talk to some people, get back in touch with an old friend, find more capital or pick up some courses for the skills.
Make the Plan
Take a moment to sort your tasks in sequence and organise your list by priority. Remember the 80-20 rule – 80% of the results will come from 20% of your total work.
The easiest way to do this is to just take your steps and categorise them – take each goal and lay out the steps you need to take from beginning to end. Personally, I like planning everything – I plan my days, my weeks, my months, my quarters and my years. And don’t worry, because it doesn’t take nearly as long as it sounds. I usually dedicate about thirty minutes each week to planning, and I find that everything goes much smoother.
This is because every minute spent in planning saves ten minutes in execution.
So, my advice here is this: plan each day. Plan each week. Plan each month. Plan each year.
I usually plan each month at the beginning of the month. Then, I plan each week from the weekend before. And each evening, I quickly review my schedule for the following day.
You’ll be more organised and less likely to forget important things like deadlines or meetings. And, if you plan well, you’ll realise that you’re no longer in a rush… As long as things depend solely on you. But, as we already discussed, things rarely do. You usually need to work with or around other people. And this is exactly where the biggest benefit of planning comes in – flexibility.
By planning things ahead of time, by prioritising and sorting everything you need to do in neat categories, you gain a massive advantage over 97% of people.
Because if something outside of your control happens, you will know exactly how to move things around to minimise the lost time. You can adjust and carry on with your plans without worries or major setbacks.
Time Management and Priorities
Identify the most important things you need to do and focus on them. Then, you can apply this to each step of the plan to really optimise your time.
Just ask yourself – “Which of the things that I have to do would contribute the most to achieving my goal?”
And again, your mind already knows the answer.
I do this every night when I go through my schedule for the next day so I know where I really need to focus my time and energy.
Doing this ahead of time lets your mind work on the task in the background, so sometimes you’ll find yourself waking up full of ideas and solutions.
To take this method one step further, you can apply it to the entire list:
Take your list, find the most important task and mark it as number one. Then, look at the remaining tasks and ask yourself the question again. Repeat until you’ve got your top five tasks organised by importance.
Mindset and Discipline
Now, if you’re a regular here, you’ll know I spend a lot of time talking about mindset and self-discipline. And that’s because these two things are actually 100% crucial for your success in the long run.
Essentially, if you don’t approach your goals with a winning mindset or lack the discipline to work on them in the long run, your plans won’t do you much good.
You can think, sort and plan all you want, but if you never take action, you’re simply not moving forward. You’re not making any progress.
And that’s precisely where most people get stuck, really.
Because, for most people, once they get started, the planning process feels good. It reminds them of their dreams and encourages them to strive for more.
And everyone likes that feeling.
But do you know what most people don’t like?
You guessed it – it’s doing the work.
It’s taking action.
But you’re not most people, are you?
You’re watching this video precisely because you don’t want to be like most people.
You want to set your goals in 2023 and achieve them.
Now, I’ve developed an entire framework for this, but since there’s no way for me to fit it in a single post, I’ll give you the next best thing – a quick and simple trick I’ve been using for years that will help you get in the winning mindset. Here’s how it works:
Every morning when I get out of bed, I quickly review my schedule and set my mind on the most important task for the day. And once I start working, I focus 100% of my effort, energy and attention on that task until it’s done.
That’s it.
What this allows you to achieve is it teaches your mind to focus on one thing at a time and give it everything you’ve got. No distractions, no looking at your phone, no reading emails.
And, yes, it can be a bit difficult at first, and you might feel a bit exhausted from going “all out” at the start of your day. But you’ve already taken care of your #1 priority, so it’s all good. And in the long term, this will change how you look at hitting your targets. It will change your entire approach. It will teach you self-discipline.
Because once you make a habit out of it, you’ll realise that you’re able to complete tasks much quicker and much easier than everyone around you.
Visualisation
And for our last point today, we’ve got visualisation. So here’s how it works:
Close your eyes and try to picture in your mind the end result of achieving your goal. For example, visualise yourself being a business leader, visualise driving your new car, visualise walking into your new home, and so on.
It’s important to get the image as clear as possible and include as many details as possible. Adding sensations, sounds and smells really helps here.
Now, why is visualisation important?
On the surface, the main benefit of visualisation is that it allows you to put your mind to work on the task in the background, similar to what happens when you plan your day from the night before.
However, there’s something much more important here that most people miss. And it’s the fact that visualisation allows you to reprogram parts of your mind that you can’t usually access. And this changes your entire perception and mindset. As a result, visualisation can boost your confidence, make your goal feel “less scary”, and help you feel like your goal is realistic and achievable. And, believe me, that makes all the difference in the long run.
Now, keep in mind that this is a bit different for everyone, and people aren’t equally as good at visualisation. For some, forming a clear picture can be very difficult at first. But don’t let this get you down. Just start with small, simple images and work your way up.
And with this, we’ve reached the end of the basic goal framework. I’ve been using this approach (or a bit more complicated version of it, really) for years now, and it’s really helped me take my life to the next level – both in the personal and the professional sense. I’ve got another bit about this in the works that I’ll share with you soon.
If you have any questions about this framework, or if you’re interested in the expanded version, just drop me an email.
Ebooks:
https://lifestyletipsbyantoaneta.com/ebooks/
Seminar:
https://lifestyletipsbyantoaneta.com/business-online-masterclasses/
Recommended books for further reading:
- GirlBoss
- Keys to Success – Napoleon Hill
- Secrets Of The Millionaire Mind – Harv Eker
- How to Be Brilliant – Michael Heppell
- Rich Dad Poor Dad – Robert Kiyosaki
- 24 Assets – Daniel Priestley
- Not Just a Cleaner
- Change Your Life by Antoaneta
- How to live a minimalist life
- Wealth: How To Get It And Keep It
- How to build a successful online store from scratch
