If you want to reach your goals this year, pay close attention.
What I’m about to share has made a huge difference in my life and gotten me out of the ghetto of my own mind so I could start living my dreams.
If you set goals like everybody else, you are NOT going to reach a single one this year.
Why?
Because most people don’t understand that “goals” and “outcomes” are NOT the same.
How To Tell The Difference
A lot of people get confused about the difference between goals and outcomes.
Look at it this way.
If I say…
I want to make $100,000 this month.
Is that an outcome or a goal?
That’s an outcome because it’s focused on a result you produce.
Compare that to…
I will walk 30 minutes and eat a sensible diet daily.
That’s a goal because it’s wrapped around one of the very few things you can control in this life…
Your actions.
In this life, you can only control two things:
- What you think;
- What you do.
Everything else is outside of your control.
You can’t control the government, the weather, the economy, other people, or any external circumstance.
Sure, you can potentially influence other people and external circumstances, but you can’t control them.
This is something I want you to remember…
You can always control the goal.
You can’t control the outcome.
Taking specific actions is your goal, not the outcome those actions lead to.
How To Apply This In Real Life
There is a simple 3 phase process I go through to keep my life under control and achieve what I want.
- Write out ONE primary outcome;
- Write down the actions I must take to produce that outcome;
- Decide how I’m going to take those actions on a daily, weekly, monthly basis and get them on my schedule.
Phase 1 – Choose ONE Primary Outcome
In this first step, you should write out ONE outcome for each major area of focus in your life, such as: financially, spiritually, family, physically, etc.
Two tips on this:
-
- Do NOT list every possible outcome in every aspect of your life.
- Instead, write down ONE “big domino” outcome in each area that brings a whole lot of other stuff along with it.
- Do NOT list every possible outcome in every aspect of your life.
- Phrase your goals in the positive, NOT the negative.
-
- If you say, “I really need to lose these 50 pounds.”, you’ll never lose those 50 pounds.
- Phrase your outcome as what you want in the present tense, such as “I am living at my ideal weight of 190 pounds.”
Phase 2 – Actions To Produce The Outcome
My next step is to focus on the actions I need to take to produce that outcome. This is often a rather large list of all the things I need to do in order to accomplish that outcome.
If we take “I am living at my ideal weight of 190 pounds” as the outcome. I 
would come up with lots of actions like:
- Buy exercise shoes;
- Find a place to exercise;
- Hire a coach;
- Exercise every day;
- Walk every day;
- Sleep well;
- Get my heart rate up.
Even though we have identified all the actions we must take to achieve our outcome, we are not done yet. There’s one more step.
Phase 3 – Sequencing & Scheduling
While “I live at my ideal weight of 190 pounds” is a great outcome and we know what actions we need to take to produce that outcome…
We DON’T want to sit there with a list of 100 action items you’ll get to later.
Instead, we focus again on writing out the ONE “big domino” goal (action) that would wrap up the whole list.
For example, when I wanted to lose weight, my goal was a specific, daily action, “Wake up every morning at 4:30 and go walk for a minimum of 30 minutes.”
Setting my goal as a daily action I could control is how I lost the weight.
That’s what built the momentum.
That’s what went on my calendar as a DAILY action.
That’s what got me unstuck and finally able to get my weight under control after struggling with it for years and years (and years).
What is the ONE action you can take daily that will make your outcome a sure thing?
Conclusion
If you set goals like all the people are going to tell you to, you aren’t going to achieve jack squat. THIS is how you do it. THIS is how you change your circumstances.
- Write down the outcome you want (stated in the positive);
- List out all the actions you need to take to achieve that outcome;
- Boil down those actions into a single hourly, daily, weekly, monthly goal (action) that you take consistently.
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