Transformational New Year

Organize Your Goals into a Grid

About four years ago, I had breakfast with a CEO. I had recently returned to Columbus from Atlanta and was in the final weeks of finishing my undergraduate degree. It was just a few weeks before Christmas, and his advice was a gift that transformed my life.

“Calvin,” he said. “One of my mentors gave me this valuable piece of advice that changed my life. And now, I’m giving it to you." He pulled out a pen and drew the grid above on a napkin.

He said that every year, he set his goals into this grid and committed to achieving them. This is an organized way of focusing on all aspects of your life, in order to be a more well-rounded person.

Some examples of specific goals that I put in my grid that year included “Increase company revenue by 10 percent,” in the professional-financial quadrant, “Put aside x dollars per paycheck for car down payment” in the personal-financial, “Have dinner at mom’s house every Sunday,” in the personal-non-financial, and so on. Every year since, I have filled out a similar grid. This has had a great impact on my life and the lives of the people around me.

For instance, my personal non-financial goal to create the habit of having dinner at my mom’s every Sunday has brought me closer to family. Before setting that goal, I would go weeks or months without seeing my family. After that, we now have a family tradition that has brought us closer together. This has been very rewarding.

This Year, Innovate Your Life

A number of cognitive scientists have suggested that over 95 percent of our lives we think on automatic pilot. In his TEDx talk, scientist and organizational development specialist Paul Rulkens spoke about achieving extraordinary results and thinking outside the box, noting that only about three percent of people are able to achieve extraordinary results. This is because most people when they hit a wall, either do more of the same thing, or less of the same thing. Only about three percent of people are inclined to do different things. This is as true in our personal lives as in our professional lives.

This year, commit to being one of the three percent who try different things, and achieve extraordinary results. Don’t just make cliché aspirational New Year’s resolutions. Get creative, and think deeply about who you are and what you will achieve in all aspects of your life next year. Stick to your goals, and strive to be in the top 12 percent of people who stick to their resolutions by changing the habits that are the building blocks of life.

First Published in Quorum Magazine Jan 2015