JANUARY 2020
NEWS
A New Year and a
NEW DECADE
WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO NEXT?
or many people, the start of a new year, not to mention a new decade, represents a time to plan. They’re setting goals and establishing a framework for the year. There are countless questions to answer and details to hash out.
When I set goals or help others set goals, I look at it backward. I want to start at the finish line and work back to figure out exactly how I’m going to get there. When you figure out where you want to be, you can look at the next important question: How are you going to get there? Think about where you want to be 10 or 20 years down the road. What future do you envision for yourself? How do you want to live? What does your business look like? Are you retired? When you answer these kinds of questions and when you know what you want, it becomes easier to work backward to figure out how to accomplish your vision. Looking at the big picture — 10 to 20 years out — can seem daunting at first, but it can help put things into perspective as you work back and set five-year goals or one-year goals. It can even be helpful for quarterly and monthly goals. One way to help put a 20-year vision into perspective, or to set long-term goals, is to write yourself a letter. Try this thought exercise: Put yourself in your own shoes 20 years from now. Write down the details of your day to day, your career,
your family, and anything else going on in your future life. How do you spend your time? What kind of home do you live in? What kind of people do you surround yourself with? How do people perceive you? How do you perceive yourself ? There are many different questions you can ask, but these are good starting points. It’s about answering the question, where do you want to go next? Presumably, in 20 years, you will have accomplished many of your goals and will be living the life you dreamed of. Write from that perspective. This exercise can help you determine what many of those goals will be. Again, work backward to create the framework. As you establish goals, long-term or short-term, it’s also important to determine your capabilities. Many people think they are capable of handling it all. Realistically, however, when you try to handle it all, it can push you to the brink — and closer to burn out. We all have so much energy, both physical and mental. The better we are at utilizing our energy, the better we’ll be in the long run. Consider these questions: What are you good at? What do you like to do? What are your strengths? Weaknesses? One way to determine your capabilities is to create a love-hate Punnett square. In the top left quadrant, write what you love to do and what you’re fully capable of doing. In the top right, write something you love to do but aren’t capable of doing. In the bottom left, write what you
hate to do but are capable of doing. Finally, in the bottom right quadrant, write down what you hate to do and have no talent for. Let’s say one thing you love to do is painting, but you lack talent for it. You put it in the top right quadrant. You can shape a goal around it and approach it as something you need to work on. Maybe you need to practice, or perhaps you need to find an instructor or coach who can give you pointers as you work on improving. Or maybe you hate developing spreadsheets for your team, and you’re not particularly good at it either. It might be something worth delegating to someone who would put in a “love” quadrant. This is all something to consider as you set goals. This Punnett square can be applied to just about anything, personal and professional.
As we set off into the new year, here’s to setting goals that take us to where we want to go.
–Jeff Barnes
P.S. If one of your goals is to expand your circle of influence, consider joining our Inner Circle. It’s a great way to introduce yourself to successful people who are further along on their journey. It’s one more step you can take to branch out into the wealth atmosphere and make incredible connections!
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