Welcome to 2018, it can be a good one if you’re willing to do the work.
I don’t make any resolutions for the year, though I do use the regular downtime during The Holiday’s to plan what my year is going to look like, and to start a new notebook. Along with that new notebook is a look at my big plans to make sure I’m on the right track, and they’re still where I want to be.
The first number of pages of the journal are set aside for:
- 5-Year Life Essay (2 pages)
- 4 Quadrants (2 pages)
- Antigoals (2 pages)
- Roadblocks (1 page)
- What is my biggest Challenge (2 or more pages)
The further you get from doing this work, the more likely it is that your “projects” are wish lists. They have drifted away from where you want to be. Those documents above act as your filters. You run everything you do through the filters to make sure that the tasks/projects fit with where you want to be.
While you may not keep the long term copies of this work in hand-written form, It’s crucial to do the first iterations by hand. This is not some task you should be banging out as fast as possible. You should be taking time to think hard about each part. Dream big. Slow down, and think about what you’re writing.
If you want to go deep into each section join me for The 8 Week Business BootCamp. We cover this work in module 1.
Let’s take a quick look at what each section entails.
5-Year Life Essay
The 5-Year essay, is just what it sounds like. A long form essay which talks about where you want your life to be in 5 years. Dream big, and talk about what your clients will look like.
What type of vacations do you take?
How many kids (if any) do you have?
BootCamp has a bunch more questions to help walk you through where you want to be.
4 Quadrants
Here you take a sheet and divide it into 4 sections. Make a title at the top of each section which represents a big main area of your life. Then under the title you list out in bullet point the things you want to accomplish in 5 years in that area.
I’ve written at length before about your 4 Quadrants.
Antigoals
This is a list of what you never want your day to look like. All the things you hate get listed. For me a bunch of meetings are on the list. Out of that you make some rules about what you’ll never do, like I don’t do meetings except on Friday.
Roadblocks
Here I take a look back at my bigger goals and start to write out the items that can stop them from happening, along with a plan to deal with any issues. You won’t get everything down, but you will be much better prepared for the ways that life will throw you off.
My Biggest Challenge
Finally, I dig into my biggest challenge in the business. This is a component of setting out the goals for my next quarter and is something I do every quarter. I set out the biggest challenge and then write about it and the solutions that I could employ to solve the challenge.
One of the key questions here is: “What would it look like if it was easy?” So what would the solutions look like if they were effortless? This helps me control any possible bad ideas, like planning to do something that has meetings every day of the week. For me that wouldn’t qualify as easy, so it doesn’t get on my list.
I go through this full process over 4 – 5 hours during the holiday’s and a shortened version of it starting each quarter to make sure I’m working on the best projects for my business.
The 8 Week Business BootCamp is open for enrolment right now if you want to get your Q1 on track so that you can accomplish your goals for the year. BootCamp walks you through this process, and if you get one of the 5 seats, you get to join me and get coached through it.
Have an awesome day!
Curtis
PS: If you want to get your year going well, join me for BootCamp and we’ll walk through this exact process together.