Set goals at the end of November and do a year end review at new year. All goals must fall under one of the top 3 focus areas of life: money, health, and interests. Use the following structure to lay out the steps to accomplish the goal.

Goal

All goals are written in the form of self-talk. Interrogative self-talk focuses on questions instead of statements. Asking ourselves a question “Will I” as opposed to saying to ourselves “I will” increases intrinsic motivation for action, resulting in goal-directed behavior.

Action Plan

Goals and dreams are different. When the goal-setting is done correctly, we should be able to break down our goals into an action plan. This helps us reach our goals efficiently and successfully.

Failure Scenarios

Failure is inevitable. We all have failed to achieve our goals at some point in our lives. We get lazy, have setbacks, or simply fail. I try to come up with 3 failure scenarios and mitigation strategies for each goal to anticipate and prepare for failure in advance.

Progress Tracking

The top motivating factor that drives our productivity is a sense of progress. It is important to set measurable goals and track our progress, which improves our self-discipline and self-control.

Plan B (Optional)

Goals should be flexible and adjustable to adapt new challenges. Consider what our worst-case scenario could be and forget about perfection. Perfectionism interferes with success. We need to overcome the habit of perfectionism and increase self-compassion. There is absolutely nothing great about being perfect.