How To Finish The Year Strong (And Crush Your Goals In 2016)
It seems like only a few weeks ago we were setting our audacious goals for 2016 - from business revenue to new personal bests on the bench press.
Alas, the final quarter of the year is upon us and as such it's time to ensure we finish the year strong and crush those goals, time waits for no man.
Here's my simple, no BS process for auditing and crushing my goals progress throughout the year...
List All Of Your 2016 Goals On A Single Piece Of Paper
Don't leave them in your head, in an EverNote document or scrunched up in a journal somewhere.
Get a fresh piece of paper and list all of the goals you set at the beginning of 2016.
Cross off only the goals you've completed in their entirety.
Remember, all goals must be measurable and specific "I want to lose weight" is not a tangible goal.
"I want to cut down to 12% body fat" on the other hand is both specific and measurable.
Make Dot Point Notes On The Outstanding Goals (What Have You Done Thus Far?)
Take inventory of the remaining goals and make dot points next to each of these goals...
- What progress have you made?
- What's the next 'checkpoint' towards this goal?
- What can you do today to get yourself on track to crush this goal?
Prioritize Your Remaining Goals
Assuming you may have 2, 3 or perhaps 4 goals remaining on your 2016 list it's time to prioritize.
No, we're not leaving all but 1 of your goals dead in the water, but in the name of blast & cruise we must only focus on one goal at a time.
Number your goals in order of importance next to your dot point notes.
Blast & Cruise Where Necessary
Identify the highest priority numbered goal.
Dedicate your free time to achieving this goal with absolute focus. Your other goals?
Put them on the back burner for now, we’ll get to them next – chasing too many goals at once is a sure-fire way to end up with paralysis by analysis when you become overwhelmed with the hefty endeavours you’ve laid out for the year.
Instead of working on those remaining 3 or 4 goals we're going to build momentum by crushing 1 and using the snowball effect to propel us forward into the other remaining goals.
“Energy goes where attention flows. In the early days of your endeavours branching out and attempting to multitask is extremely counterproductive, focus your attention on the one particular task at hand and I guarantee you will notice an immense increase in your overall productivity and quality of workmanship put into that task. Just imagine you were drilling for oil, you initially begin to drill down for an extended period of time, eventually once you’ve struck the oil you can begin to branch out in any directions”
Blast: Shift your priorities to hone in on 1 specific goal at a time.
Cruise: Maintain your progress upon completion.
Rinse and repeat the above.
Start right now and finish the year strong my friend.