Accomplish Your 2021 Goals in Nine Simple Steps [LNIM207]

Make this year different. Accomplish your 2021 goals in 9 simple actionable steps.

Show Notes

Some things make us feel good about where we’re headed and there’s no better way to do that than to set and accomplish some goals. But how do you do that? How can you do it effectively? How can you optimize your chances to be successful? Here are straightforward steps that will dramatically improve the probability that you’ll achieve your goals this year.

1. Acceptance of the year that was 2020. I think we all need to take a deep breath and just accept 2020 for what it was. Maybe it was great for you, maybe it wasn’t. Let’s allow ourselves a little grace, no matter how well we handled it, or maybe how poorly. Standing around and talking about how terrible 2020 was doesn’t get us anything in 2021. Let’s put that behind us.

2. List things that we would like to have, do or change. Take a moment to imagine a long-range plan for the next five years. Don’t just state that you are going to make up for last year by catching up this year. Choose to imagine where you’d like to be in the next five years instead — what you’d like to be, what you’d like to see or what you’d like to have. have. Influence change over the next five years and give yourself the freedom to imagine all of the many things that you might want to do. Write down 50 things that you want and don’t worry about being selfish. Don’t worry if it’s unrealistic. What that will do is surface things that you want that are underneath the surface. It’ll bring those top of mind.

3. Pick three meaty, substantive, big goals to accomplish in 2021. From that substantial list, pick three things that you want to accomplish in 2021. These three things do not have to be just about your business, it can be health, spiritual, etc. Simple goals that sound more like habits, such as taking the trash out every week for your wife, should not be included. The kind of goal that we want in that list is in the lines of releasing a new product or generate $15,000 worth of revenue or triple the number of subscribers.

4. Have clear documentation of exactly why you want to do these goals. For each of the three goals, brainstorm why you want to do them. Take a blank sheet of paper for each goal and write down the reason why you want to do it. Write as many things down as you can, keep this, and look at it on and off throughout the rest of the year. It’s essential that you understand why you want to do something because if you don’t, you could be in trouble when the going gets tough.

6. Create quarterly steps. For each one of these three goals, imagine the four major steps to get it to fruition. After that, brainstorm three action items in each of the major steps, giving you 12 things to do in 2021. Then, assign quarters for each of these — spread it out during the year, if you jam everything into the first quarter, you’re not going to get things done in a way that makes sense.

7. Assign tasks in quarters and place quarters two, three and four aside. Set everything that’s not happening in first quarter aside (these are 9 out of 12) and just work on the steps that should be completed this quarter. A technique that you can use is from the book called The 12 Week Year. You’ve got 12 weeks in the first quarter, break down each one of these things into about 12 steps or at least look at the quarter in 12 increments.

8. Break these tasks down and do them every week. Every Sunday night, ask, “What’s my goal for this week for this project? What do I absolutely need to get accomplished?” Have a goal for the week, every Sunday night and every morning, wake up and ask yourself, “What action am I specifically going to take to advance that weekly goal?”

If you miss a goal for a week, you can work a little harder and catch up the week after because it’s just a small increment.

9. Track your goals. Pick a way to organize all of these tasks. You can use project management tools such as CilkUp, Asana or Trello as these tools have features that can help you break these items down, assign due dates and track progress.

Links Mentioned In This Episode

Michael Stelzner’s article on Social Media Examiner: Why Clubhouse App Might Be the Next Major Social Media Platform
Cliff Ravenscraft
Full Focus Planner by Michael Hyatt
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