Teri Holland (00:02.018)
Hello and happy new year! Welcome to the first episode of 2024. Let's talk about goal setting. Now this was going to be last week's episode but I got so sick over the holidays that I could not record last week. I was so sick. I was coughing so much. So it was a crummy holidays for me other than the fact that I wanted some downtime to rest and I got it.
It was a good reminder and careful what you wish for because I got it in spades, but I didn't get to accomplish any of the things I wanted to do over the holidays with my time off and, and I missed recording an episode, but here we are and it's a new year. So let's dive in. Let's talk about goal setting and how you can achieve your goals this year. You're listening to Success in Mind.
The show for high performing leaders, change makers, and entrepreneurs ready to take your life and business to the next level. If you're ready for whole life success, keep listening. Now a lot of people talk about goal setting, especially at this time of year. This is the goal setting time of year. And many people have mixed feelings about that. Some people think that you shouldn't set your goals at the beginning of the year. That's setting up for failure. And I think that's counterintuitive.
I think you should set goals at the beginning of the year because it's a natural time to be thinking about what you want for the next year. The beginning of anything new usually triggers us to start thinking about what we want to achieve. You might find that happens around your birthday, the new year, often September because of the school year. That often signals people to set goals and think about what they want.
beginning of a new quarter, the beginning of a new season, these are all reminders for us to think about what we want and think about setting goals. So I think it's counterintuitive to tell people don't set goals for the year at the beginning of the year or at the end of the previous year. I think it's counterintuitive because naturally this is a time when we do spend some time reflecting and we do start thinking about what do I want this next year to be. So instead of
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resisting that urge. I say we lean into it and use this time of motivation to get some momentum going and to build on what it is we want. So let's talk about how to set goals. But not just any goals. Let's talk about how to set impactful goals for the year. And even more importantly, how do we achieve those goals? Now there are many different strategies for goal setting. We're going to talk about some in this episode.
I think the most important thing though is are you achieving your goals? Because if you set your goals and you never achieve them, then you need to look at how you're setting your goals. Maybe you're not setting yourself up for success at the beginning. But if you're setting your goals and you're achieving them, then it's probably working for you. However you're doing it is probably working. So we'll talk about some different strategies for goal setting and I want to share with you what I find works the best with my clients and what I find works the best.
for me as well. So first let's talk about why would you want to set a goal? You need to have a direction, something to aim towards. And I know there are people out there who say they don't set goals because they don't want to set themselves up to fail. But if you don't have a goal, you're already setting yourself up to fail because you're not giving yourself anything to strive towards. And if you have anything to strive towards, then in my
humble opinion, you're already failing. Because whether you actively sit down and set a goal or not, I'm going to guess there's probably things that you do want in your life. I talk to people all the time and they'll say to me, oh, I don't set goals. I don't believe in goal setting because then I just fail at it. And they say, what do you want? They go, I want to make more money this year. I want to have better health. I'd really like to improve my relationships.
I'd like to buy a better car. So they have goals, they're just not structured in their goal setting. And they're probably not doing anything to reach towards those goals because they're afraid that they're going to fail at it. But it doesn't mean they don't want stuff in their life. And in fact I think that you should want things in your life. We should always be looking forward and striving for what's next.
Teri Holland (04:46.642)
I heard Jordan Peterson speak live last year, and one of the things he talked about was that if you don't have goals, if you don't have a vision for your future, that is a recipe for depression. Now, whether you love Jordan Peterson or you hate him, I don't think any of us can argue with that. Have you ever met someone who has an exciting vision for their future, who has clear goals defined for them?
someone who's striving towards something who is absolutely utterly depressed. Maybe you have, but I can't think of anyone in my life who's like that. I was rocking my brain trying to come up with an example of someone who is highly motivated, achieves their goals, always has a vision they're striving towards and is completely depressed. I couldn't think of one. Maybe you can, but I can't think of a single person like that.
And I know for myself, the times in my life where I have felt depressed are times when I look back at it, I didn't have a goal. I had nothing to work towards. You need to have a purpose in your life and having goals, having a clear vision helps give us purpose. Okay, so I think we can all agree that you ought to have a goal, something to work towards. Now sometimes people say, I don't set goals, I set intentions.
Same thing. Same thing. A goal is just more specific. But if you want to call it an intention because you have weird feelings about goals, that's fine. But just make sure those intentions are very specific. We'll talk more about specificity a little bit later. But you've got to be specific. Sometimes people say, I don't set goals for the year, I set a word. And I like having a word for the year. I do.
It sets a theme for the year. It sets a focus, but it's not a goal. It's not specific enough. So for example, you might set a theme or a word for the year, like joy. What does that mean to you? What specifically would bring you joy? And that's what gets us into the goals. Joy is a wonderful thing. Joy is a state of being.
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State you can have at any time and a lot of times people confuse states and goals. Joy you can feel right now. If you know how to get yourself into a state of joy you could feel it right now. In NLP we have tools and techniques that we use to help elicit states that we want to feel. Joy you could feel right now. You don't have to strive for it. You don't have to do anything to achieve it. But if that's something that you want as a theme for your year that's great. However
You still need to be specific as what that means to you. You need to set goals. Maybe under that theme of joy, you set goals of what that means. What does that mean to you? Does joy mean that you spend more time each week, more intentional quality time with your loved ones every week? Is that what joy is to you? So then the goal is how much time each week are you spending with your loved ones?
Maybe joy to you means that you're going to spend more time on your personal hobbies and things that bring you joy. So if that's the case, how much time are you spending on your hobbies every week? How much time do you want to allocate to that? That would be the goal. Maybe joy for you is making a shit ton of money this year. Then you need to get specific. How much money is a shit ton?
million dollars that you want to make? Is it a hundred thousand? What is it? What to you would represent that amount of money that would make you feel joy? So I love setting a theme for the year, but let's not confuse that with a goal. A theme or a word is not a goal. Mine this year is an acronym. My word for the year is an acronym. B-E-E.
And for me, that stands for big expert energy because I'm planning to go big this year and I want to embody big expert energy. So everything that I'm doing, all of my goals for this year lead me towards that big expert energy. So what is that for you? So if you have a word of the year or a theme for the year, then that should really become a representation for all the goals that are underneath it. But do not confuse.
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a word of the year as a goal. A word of the year is not a goal. A vision board is not a goal. I see a lot of people setting vision boards and can I get it? They're fun. I like vision boards. But a vision board should represent your actual laid out written goals. Your vision board should not be a replacement for goal setting. It should just be the visual representation of what your goals are.
There have been studies done that show that people who write down their goals are more likely to achieve them. I say write down your goals, write them down specifically, write them down clearly. If you want a tool to use, by the way, I'll link it in the show notes, you can grab my goal achievement blueprint and it'll take you through a process of how to write your goals really specifically. And that's the process I do every year. And it's one I guide many of my clients through as well. So
Go through that, download it, print it out, fill in the blanks, write out your goals and get really specific. And then if you want a visual representation to remind you every day of those goals, then you make your vision board. But here's the thing with vision boards is you still need to be very specific. I have seen people put things on their vision boards that are close to what they want and they put it on a vision board.
and then they get what's on the board, not what they actually want. I'll give you an example. I had a friend who wanted a very specific car. I think it was a Range Rover. I don't remember. I think it was a Range Rover. And she couldn't find a picture of a black one that she wanted. So she put a picture of a white one and she ended up getting a white one. And it's not what she wanted. She wanted black, but she ended up getting white. And she was like,
I put a white one on my vision board because I couldn't find a picture that day of a black one and so I just took the picture I found in the magazine. And then she ended up with the white one because when she went to go buy one at that time that's what was available in her price point and so she's like, okay, I'll get the white one. Only put on a vision board exactly what you want because that vision board is a representation of your goals, what you want.
Teri Holland (11:55.326)
and that becomes a signal to your unconscious mind. And so if you're looking at that every single day, you will only strive towards what's on the board. So make sure that those visual representations accurately represent what you've written down, but it doesn't mean you don't write your goals. The vision board is not the goals. I wanna make that distinction really clear. The vision board is a visual representation of what you've written as your goals. I've done it differently this year.
after having Darren Jaclyn on the show a couple episodes back, he talked about how on his phone he has his phone programmed so that every hour the wallpaper on his phone switches to a different picture that represents one of his goals for the year. That's what I've done this year and I love it. So every hour the image changes and so far I only have three images on there. I have a few more I need to curate but I won't put it in there until I find the exact image that represents the goal.
So what I have on there, I'll tell you what I have so far. So I have a picture of me when I was at my absolute fittest because that's part of my health goals is getting back to that level of fitness. I happened to have a picture of me back when I was at my peak fitness level. So I put that picture on my phone. If I didn't have that, if I had never had that level of fitness, I would find a picture of somebody who represented the level of fitness I'd want to be at.
and someone who either looked close enough to me that I could say I could see myself in the picture, or I would take a picture of my head and put it on someone else's body to make it the most accurately me. I have another picture of me speaking on stage at a conference because I plan on doing a lot more speaking this year. A picture of me at one of the biggest conferences I have been a speaker at that I delivered a keynote for.
And so that's one of the pictures on my phone. And the third picture is from when my podcast was number one in self-improvement on iTunes. It's a picture of that, but my cover art and my name has changed since then. So I have taken a picture of my cover art now and I put that over top and I took a, I don't know, I went into Canva and I changed the text.
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under it from the Empowered Life, which was the original name of this show, to Success in Mind. And I put that as one of my photos because that's I'm striving to grow the podcast this year. So those are the three I have so far. And then other ones, another probably the biggest goal I have this year is to finish a book that I've started writing. And so I have a mock-up that I'm currently creating of the book and what it will look like with my name and the title and stuff on it.
and I'll turn that into an image that will be on my phone. So these are all just meant to be visual reminders of what it is that I'm striving towards this year. So that every time I look at my phone, I'm reminded of one of these goals. A vision board should be the same thing. If you're gonna do a vision board, they should be reminders of what your goals are and always be really specific. They should be as, the image needs to be as specific as the goal that you've written down. Look at your goals every single day.
So once you write them down, put them somewhere where you see them every day. I always have my goals right underneath my computer monitor because I come in here to work to record the podcast, to coach my clients online. So they're in front of me every single day and I take time to look at them multiple times a day. So put them somewhere where you're going to see them constantly as a good reminder. Now in setting your goals, we want to look at
long-term and short-term goals. So there's different types of goals you're going to be setting and they differ. Long-term and short-term goals differ primarily because the time frame involved in achieving them but there's a few differences that are important to recognize. So when you're setting your goals some of your goals may be short-term and these are goals that can be achieved in the near future. So maybe in a few days or over weeks or maybe even a couple months.
And short-term goals are often pieces of your bigger long-term goals. So they're the stepping stones towards getting to those long-term goals. Your long-term goals have a much broader timeframe in mind, usually spanning several months to even many years. So these are more about the big picture and they require sustained effort over time. What I like to do is start with what are my big goals and then break that down into pieces.
Teri Holland (16:39.554)
So for example, one of my goals over the last couple of years has been to write this book. And first it was writing the book, which I'm in the process of doing. I scrapped it a couple of times and started over. But I have a really good run on it now. So the first thing is writing the first draft of the book. So that is the first goal for the first half of this year, is to finish that first draft.
And then for the second half of this year, the goal is to self-publish that book, to edit it and self-publish. Taking the bigger goal and then broke it down into pieces. Those range and complexity and scope are short-term goals. These are generally more simple and they're straightforward. And these goals need to be very specific. So they're more immediate. These goals involve tasks.
that you might be doing every single day. So in terms of my writing the book goal, one of my tasks is to spend two hours each day writing. So I do that early in the morning because I know that's when I'm the most creative. So I have time, block off my calendar every day. That is writing time. And that's all I do is I come into my office, I sit down and I write. And some days are gonna be more productive than others, but...
my goal is two hours spent on writing every day. So that's the short-term goal, the longer-term goal is being first draft completed by the end of June of 2024 and self-published by the end of 2024. So our long-term goals, they're more complex. They require more planning, there's multiple steps or strategies involved in achieving those goals, and they often
They often include a significant life achievement or encompass our broader aspirations in life. And these short-term, long-term goals, they have a different purpose and impact. A short-term goal, the purpose is often to accomplish an immediate task or to overcome a short-term challenge or to build some momentum towards larger goals, but the impact is usually seen quite quickly.
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Whereas our long-term goals, these tend to align with our life's purpose, career ambitions, significant personal development. And their impact is profound and long-lasting, but they take time to manifest, to bring into the physical world. In terms of planning and adaptability, short-term goals, they require less planning. They can be more flexible, more fluid. They're adaptable to changing circumstances.
and they're easier to adjust or revise. Whereas our long-term goals, there's extensive planning involved and they can be flexible.
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But changes to a long-term goal typically have a more significant impact overall, and they require a higher level of commitment and resilience to stay on track. I like to compare this to if you're going, if you get into your car and you're just driving down the street to go to the store and pick up a couple things, the chances of you getting derailed on that drive, that something throws you off course, that you need to stop,
make an additional stop or go somewhere else instead. Pretty minimal. But if you get in your car and your plan is to go on a long road trip and you're driving, I'm in Vancouver, Canada, so let's say my plan is to drive to Toronto, Canada, which is a significant distance away. Canada is a big place. So if that's my goal...
There are a lot more things that can happen between Vancouver and driving to Toronto than say driving to the corner store. So the bigger your goal, the further away it is, the more chance that something can throw you off. And that's where you need to have a higher level of commitment and resilience in order to stay on track.
So here's, let's give you an example of long-term and short-term goals. So a short-term goal could be finishing a project within a week. It could be losing five pounds over the course of a month. It could be saving some money to buy a new gadget in three months' time. A long-term goal could be earning a degree in four years, building a significant business over the next decade, achieving financial independence by retirement age. So those would all be examples of longer.
term goals. So both of these are really important in terms of your personal and your professional development. Short term goals help us to maintain momentum towards reaching those bigger, broader goals. So you want to have both. You want to have both in mind. And you think of it as your long term goals relate to your life's purpose, the impact that you want to make in your life. And those short term goals are the stepping stones that will get you there. I think that's the easiest way to look at it.
Teri Holland (21:59.038)
Now I'm just realizing we are already over 20 minutes on this episode and I don't want to overwhelm you in one episode. So here's what I'm going to do. So we talk about different goal setting strategies. I'm going to put that into a different episode, but I'm going to record it this week so you'll still get it. You'll get it quickly. I promise. So next episode we're going to talk about the different strategies and then...
Yeah, so I'll do one or two more episodes on this because I really want it to be bite-sized tangible pieces for you, which I hope that you find helpful. If you want that tool for setting your goals, then download it in the show notes. It's a goal achievement blueprint and I'll take you through a process of goal setting that I use, I use with my clients as well. That'll really help you get clarity on your goals this year. And then tomorrow or
tomorrow's Wednesday. So tomorrow or Thursday of this week, I'll record another part of this where we'll talk about the actual strategies of setting your goals and how to set really well-formed, well-intentioned goals. How does that sound? So I hope you don't feel cheated by this episode. I just don't want to... I could talk about this for hours and hours is what I'm saying. And I don't want to give you too much in one episode where it's overwhelming.
So take this, do what you will with it, start thinking about your short-term and your long-term goals, chunking them out, and get really clear about what is it you want in life. And remember, write your goals down, whether you vision board, if you do a word of the year, that's all great too, but write your goals down. Thanks for listening today. I hope you found this valuable. If you did find it valuable, leave me a five-star review.
on whatever platform you're listening on. Those reviews help people like you to find the show so that I can help them as well. And if one of your goals this year is to launch a podcast, the five day Launch Your Podcast challenge begins in two weeks. Sign up in the show notes. The link will be there. Right now, this week, it is only $67. It'll go up after this week. So if you want to launch your podcast with me this year, this is the time to do it. It's only $67.
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and I will walk you through step by step over the course of five days. It's a five day launch your podcast challenge. It's in the show notes, click it, join us. Let's launch your podcast this year. All right, thank you so much for listening today and for joining me and I hope you have a fantastic day. Bye for now.
