I had a two-year plan, in which I’d hoped to achieve 34 goals. This year, I have already achieved 18 of them, much to my surprise. Some of them I never expected I could come near, but I did. So if I can do it, you can too.

If 2009 wasn’t great for you..

…in terms of getting a step closer to your life goals and dreams, even though you set goals, I’m going to intimate it’s because you didn’t apply a simple science to it.This is why most people who set New Year’s resolutions tend to give up come mid-February. This is also why I decided to publish this post this week, though initially I had intended it for the 2nd January, because now that everyone is back into their normal routine, this is where this ‘science’ is going to matter most.

In actuality, it doesn’t matter what approach or method you use, as long as you use something that helps you monitor your progress. Any mechanism that holds you accountable is good. Setting yourself a set of New Year resolutions is pointless. We all know you’re going to stop using that gym membership come mid-Feb, and ultimately when you apply the right science to your goal setting and planning you might find that the gym isn’t something you want to do anyway. There’s no compulsion in being unnecessarily hard on yourself; that’s not what this is about.

I know all this can sound very heavy especially when it’s a new year, the weather is still cold and the future seems a little uncertain. But believe me, getting pen to paper was one of the hardest things I did last year, and as silly as it may sound, that is the one thing that made all the difference. So I’m going to share what I did and how I did it in one post, so you can save yourself the time spent reading multiple blog posts and websites, attending seminars, and watching videos on YouTube to thread the whole philosophy together about how to do this. I spent most of 2009 experimenting and trying different things, so you don’t have to.

Note: Setting deadlines for goals, in my personal opinion, is a complete waste of time. If you don’t achieve your intended goal, in the time frame you allocated yourself, you’re only going to disappoint yourself and give yourself an excuse to quit altogether. That said, I’m not saying be totally without a time frame. You should at least have some idea about when you would like to achieve a certain dream by, as this helps you focus, but don’t beat yourself up over it.

Before you start, let me point out to you, that it’s better if you spread out the tasks below over a few days rather than trying to attempt it all in one go. It can be very overwhelming to do all this in one fail-safe swoop.

Most of all, don’t punish yourself if you can’t make a decision or think you’re doing it wrong. For that, there are two remedies.

a) Remind yourself there is no real right answer and you can always correct when you learn the right answer for you, as this is a continual and evolving process.

b) Feel free to connect with me and I will be happy to share further insights with you on what worked for me (You can connect with me in the comments or catch me on Twitter)

So let’s get started.

The simple science

The very first thing you want to do is:-

Step 1

Get Pen and Paper.
Seriously, don’t try to use anything more high tech than paper. Just trust me on this.

Find a quiet place, where you know you won’t be disturbed or distracted for a good 20 minutes. Switch off your mobile, iPod, TV, etc.

Start writing every single dream, ambition, goal and idea that comes into your mind. Don’t stop until your mind goes completely blank. Try to keep going for at least 20 minutes.

It’s important to think BIG at this stage, no matter how impossible that dream may seem. If you would one day like to become the next Michael Jackson, write it down. Seriously. I kid you not. You can’t understand the liberating effect this has on you, till you do it.

Also write down all the silly stuff too, that you know you just want to do, even if it seems silly or weird to others. One thing for me was “To be more comfortable with Video Blogging”, which I achieved with my QuickTips site part way through last year.

Once you have written as many goals as you can. Give yourself a pat on the back. You did well. Have a rest, and agree to yourself to come back to them a day or two later, and just let the goals further formulate and refine themselves in your mind.

Step 2

Now, at this point, when you actually go through your goals list, you’re going to find a fair amount of goals that are similar to each other. At least I did. (e.g. “I want to earn X a year” , I want to “have financial freedom” a “fat bank account”). If you were writing as soon as something came to your mind, then you should have similar goals. I wrote down about 50 initially, found some were extremely similar and then combined them together.

So combine your goals (where necessary) and trim the list.
Don’t worry if your number is much smaller or larger than mine. I’m not a benchmark, and there is no right answer.

Step 3

Once you have combined the goals, at this point I would recommend you open up a Word (or Google or similar) document, and write down the complete list in digital form.

You’ll probably notice some categories of goals emerge at this point, for example, financial, health, love, etc.

Write down (separate to the goals) all the categories that you see emerging. Make your categories into ONE word only. So don’t name it, for example, ‘health and well-being’. Just call it ‘Health’. I’ll explain why, further down this post.

Step 4

Then draw a mind map with the top nodes as the one word category that you had. Under these list (as one word) each of your goals pertaining to that category.
Below is my Mind Map from last year. I’ve expanded only one branch (some of it is very personal) just to give you an idea.

One of my goals was related to my health, as I want to be as ailment free as possible, which in turn required me to purify my environment in terms of water, air and the food I eat etc, so I listed all the things I needed to do for that.

Click the image for a larger picture.

If you don’t know how to Mind Map, here is a video I posted to my Posterous that might help you: How to Mind Map by Brian Johnson.

Brian recommends that you do Mind Maps on paper. Which I did initially too, but I like to keep electronic records of things, because I tend to lose paper (eventually). Tony Buzan’s Mind Mapping philosophy is also worth checking out, where he explains why you should only have one word for each node. (It’s essentially to do this with the way the mind works).

For Mind Mapping software, I use Tony Buzan’s iMindMap, because I like the layout, but you can also find free alternatives such as FreeMind, xMind and MindMeister that are pretty good.

Once you have created the Mind Map. Take a step back, and be proud that you just organized all the white noise and mess in your head. now you have an organized and clutter-free mind with which to being your journey. I remember having a certain calm come over me, when I completed my first Mind Map. It really helps.

Step 5

Now go back to your Mind Map and pick the two categories that are most important in your life for this year, or for the short-to-medium term.

Under each of those nodes, pick as many or as little of the goals that you feel you can start working on right away. That might be just one goal, or it might be 10, as long as it’s an amount that you are comfortable with in all aspects of the word.

Then, get a separate sheet of paper for each of the goals, and write down the things you need to do to get closer to this particular goal. For example, for me to improve my health, I had to contact some people who knew more about health than I did, and then find out what they did to improve, and then follow a similar course. In doing so, I was recommended two books to read, which in turn created a set of tasks for me. So, initially I listed the first set of tasks to get me started, and then, once those tasks were complete, I came back to my goal notes, had a look at where I needed to go next and followed through. (The tasks were created as I continued to read the book).

I used OneNote initially to keep an electronic record of my ‘Goal Notes’, but now I’ve moved over to Evernote, because it’s free and can sync across multiple computers.
Below, is my initial exercise plan that I put together, as well as the name of the book I wanted to read to improve my health.

click the image for a larger picture

A quick note:

If you don’t know what it is that you need to do to move one step closer to the goal, then write down what it is that will move you one step closer to finding out, and form that as your task. (This is a common problem, and another reason people tend to quit very early on).

So ask yourself: 1) Who can I speak to or ask? 2) What book can I read? (See my blog post on Why I’ve Stopped Reading Books)

Often you find that you need to do a whole load of learning about a particular subject before you can even begin working on the goal in itself. That’s still good! At least you’re still moving a step closer, even if you have to read a 300 page book. In my book (pun intended), that’s still a positive, contributing action.

I spent most of my year reading books and watching relevant videos on YouTube. For me, it was still worthwhile, because at least for 2010, I’m clearer on what action I need to take.

I picked 2 categories and 5 goals in total; that’s as much as I felt I could comfortably deal with.

Step 6

Now make a note in your calendar, for WHEN you are going to perform the action for that task (remember, you’re not planning to complete the task, just perform the action).

A lot of people often get confused about how much time to spend on each goal, and how many to work on at once. I don’t recommend that you try to work on all your goals at once. I’d pick a handful from your most important categories and work on those.

Secondly, when doing the actual tasks, I would recommend to just use your intuition as to how much time you think you should dedicate to each goal. You might find that what you thought was a good idea this week, is not so good in practice next week. At that point you can review the situation and adapt accordingly. As long as you are doing something, that is good enough. Poor planning is still better than no planning.

I read so many posts and came across methods about how you should create pie charts and spider diagrams as to how you should apportion your time. This, I assume, works for lots of people, but didn’t work for me. I just found it much easier to just specify fixed days in the week as to which goal I was working on, but even then it wasn’t particularly rigorous. Circumstances change, unexpected events happen etc, so why create yourself the opportunity to be frustrated. Besides, it’s ultimately about the journey, not the destination.

Step 7

View your calendar each night, or at least a few times a week, and make a note of what you should be working on the next day. Prepare anything you need to in advance, so that when you are performing the task, you don’t give yourself any reason to give up.

Goal Tracking Software

I want to point out that, I’ve been trialling many different pieces of software to over the last year to help me with Step 5 and 6, but didn’t find anything that addressed my needs comprehensively. Either the software was too simple. i.e. a ToDo list, or it was too big like a Kitchen Sink solution, or just didn’t have the right work flow.

I also wanted something that would allow me to monitor my progress more visually, something that would do some of the ‘thinking’ for me, and I wanted something that would allow me to journal my progress. The only piece of software that i have found that comes close to this, is GoalsOnTrack.com. So I did a QuickTip Video on it this week, where I’ve highlighted its features and feasibility in light of this blog post.

Let me know what you think of it and if it was of use to you.

Final Notes and Inspiration

There is one final step that you should consider very seriously. It is as important as all the steps above and that is, get yourself an accountability partner. It’s important to have someone that you can talk to in regards to your goals. This doesn’t have to be one person for all your goals, but it might be one person for each category of goal that you’re working on.

I strongly advise against immediate family and long time friends, but go with someone you haven’t known too long, even a complete stranger, as you are likely to get a more objective opinion on your progress without any taint of your history of friendship.

Some quotes for you

“Compounding logic is the most powerful force in the universe.”
-– Albert Einstein

“Goal setting is not a guarantee of success, it’s  just a way of helping you focus in the moment. Success comes to those that are success conscious. This is just one way of making you success conscious.” – Anon

“When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates.” – Thomas S. Monson

Have you ever done any goal planning?
How did it go?

What different pieces of software do you use?
I’d love to hear from you

Anything I’ve missed?
Tell me!

Any questions? Concerns? Insights of your own?
Talk to me!