What a $1bn app founder figured out about reaching goals on a plane from Hawaii
Matt Anderson
The highest level of referral strategy for financial service professionals - and equally proven ways to get out of your own way so that you achieve what you want!
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Since ‘tis the season, I was working through my 7 Steps to 10X Your Potential process with my client, Adam (not his real name) last week in the financial district in London. I decided to start with Step 3 which is: Set Inspiring Goals Based on How You Want to Feel.
Adam found it easy to identify inspiring goals for 2024; that part went brilliantly. But what took me by surprise was that every time I asked him to pinpoint how achieving that goal would make him feel, his responses were variations of: ‘good’, ‘really good’ and ‘pretty damn good’.
At first this stumped me. ?With no disrespect here intended whatsoever, it reminded me of talking to my 10-year-old son who usually has a feelings repertoire of ‘good, great, sad, mad, and bad.” Now, I know this doesn't have anything to do with describing Adam and is I suspect more a function of – and I’m about to stereotype here – being a busy male who probably sees defining really positive feelings as a luxury he doesn't have time for, but I wasn’t quite sure how to politely say: “Can you come up with something more precise and inspiring than ‘really good’?”
In the end, he did. He identified that by the end of 2024, he wanted to feel “delighted, free, complete, and like an achiever.”?
I’m sharing this unexpected experience from last week because as you think about what you want to achieve in 2024, I want to make sure that you have the same precise clarity and inspiration because it will speed up your journey. When you feel happy and purposeful, you take more action. And you know full well that when you take specific positive action, you get better results. And you get them faster.?
This goalsetting process was developed by Classpass founder Payal Kadakia when, after three years running a quickly growing business, admitted to herself she was unhappy and alone.
1.????Think ahead 12 months: What do you hope will have happened?
List out all those outcomes.
2.???Identify the feeling behind each one.
How will you feel if you can increase revenues by x% or get back in good shape again?
Select the top five from this list of feelings.
Pick the most inspiring word you can use to anchor to your goal, e.g.,
1.????Prioritise the top 5 areas you want to focus on in the next 12 weeks.
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This is a smart idea. You can’t work on everything at once. This helps you prioritise your time, money, and energy. And not spread you too thin. List all the different areas of your life. You can add areas that don’t exist but that involve important things you want to start. Often excluded areas are passions, hobbies, friends, and self-care.
You can also add more than one role in an area if it really needs the attention, e.g., two roles at work, two areas of health, family, or finances. Then score them all on a scale of 1-10 “in terms of whether or not that specific part of your life is currently moving you in the direction of your dream words.”
2.???What could you DO in the next 12 weeks to start feeling that way?
While your dream words are the focus and targets for the 12 months, the focus areas and goals might change each quarter. Brainstorm some ideas.
e.g., Launch a new marketing campaign, swim more, start meditating, call your family more, promote product A again etc.?
3.???Make the goals measurable.
Pick no more than three 12-week goals per area. Make them SMART Goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-Bound
I earn $x by Dec 31, 2024
I weigh x lbs./kg b June 30, 2024
I enjoy x date nights with my partner/children per month
This is the first part to setting inspiring goals based on how you want to feel. I hope now you have that target list of feelings – keep it top of mind - and some short-term goals to get you aiming in that exciting direction.
To feeling on fire, buzzing, electric (you get the picture!)
Matt
Copyright Matt Anderson, 2023