I’ve read just about every psychology/self improvement book out there, earned a Masters in Psychology and read probably hundreds of articles on goal setting, what works, what doesn’t and why.
Early in my life I would sit down and make a list of goals for the upcoming year. Usually that list was 10-20 goals. Sometimes more.
When I implemented this approach…January started out strong, full of enthusiasm and excitement.
By March I would look at them and get discouraged because a few were taking hold, but the others started to feel overwhelming because there’s only so much time in a day and only nine more months left in the year.
I can’t remember exactly where I read about the 3 Goal Approach, but it changed everything for me and will do the same for you.
Three goals doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you map out what you have to do to accomplish them, they are a LOT.
How to do it:
Pick a goal for each of these 3 categories:
- Personal – this can be something you want to do or improve. It can relate to yourself, family or friends.
- Health – this can be anything. You want to ride a century on your bike, run a marathon, lose x pounds etc…
- Professional/Business – anything related to your professional career or business. It can be revenue goals, get a promotion, get a degree of some sorts etc…
Key to being successful here is being specific and mapping out your plan for each one.
If you want to ride a century when is it? Now work backwards on how many miles you need to ride a week up to it.
Want to lose 10 lbs.? Work backwards. There are 3,500 calories in a pound. That means you need to be negative 35,000 calories over whatever your time horizon goal is. What is your plan to get there?
You can see from just these two examples how one goal isn’t all that simple. Imagine trying to tackle 10 of these!! It’s unrealistic and will become overwhelming come March and April.
Here’s the cool thing…
If you achieve one of the three goals before Dec 31, 2024, you can replace it with a new one for that category. BUT…
You can’t replace one goal with a new one until you’ve achieved your original goal.
Give this approach a try in 2024 and see how much more successful you are in hitting your goals than the “long list of goals approach”.
Your move
If you liked this post you’ll ❤️ the…PRODUCTIVITY Podcast I host where you get a daily dose of productivity in LESS than 4 minutes a day.
- Listen to the Productivity Podcast on Apple Podcasts
- Listen to the Productivity Podcast on Spotify
- Listen the Productivity Podcast on the web at the official website.
Or Search “Productivity Podcast Brandon” in your favorite podcast player