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Begin the 2021 preparations the right way
Well, well, well welcome to December!! The year is almost over, and I think a lot of people can’t wait for it to finish. I’ve actually liked some elements of 2020, there have been some sad and testing times, however, I’ve spent more time with my family, learnt some new things with a great team at work and also I’ve spent more time on self-improvement than I have at any other time in my life.
If you take the time to think back, then I’m sure you’ll also remember some good times or an area of success you’ve forgotten
Hopefully, you will get some time over the coming weeks to relax, meet up with friends and family (responsibly) and reflect, then at some stage you’ll swap your focus to 2021. If you’re like many people you’ll set a new years resolution, maybe it will be to get fitter, reduce your alcohol intake, change job or learn the guitar
There are a few problems here, firstly, the goal is too vague so you can’t really measure progress and secondly, it lacks the tie to a greater goal or purpose. Quite often they are also a knee jerk reaction to waking up on new years day with a hang over and tight clothes from the holidays.
What I believe you really need to do for successful change is dig deeper into what you want to achieve in life, then use goals and habits as the building blocks to get there. Now some of you might point out that in Newsletter #26, available via the archive at the end of the newsletter, I spoke of the issue with goals, however this was due to the goal having a finite end. What I’m talking about here is the goal being on the path to a vision you have for your life
Between now and the end of the year I want to take you on a step by step process to set a vision and mission, build the various goals and then the habits to start to achieve everything you want and more. This will mean you go into 2021 with clarity of thought and a clear vision of where you want to get to
I suggest creating a word or excel file for this and document the steps and results as writing a goal down increases the chance of achieving it by 42%, it also provides you something to review when you’re struggling, and there will be struggle if you go after what you truly want, and it allows you to reflect and adjust where necessary as you will change over time
For this week the task is to write our vision and mission. Now this sounds big and scary but lets put on our big boy pants and realise that this is for our benefit, we should spend the time but also again this is for us, so you don’t need to be worried about what others think. It will develop over time but it starts to give you a north star to aim for which will make other decisions in life that little bit easier in the future as you can ask ‘am I being true to my mission’? Feels powerful even to ask yourself that question
A vision statement is the dream of what you want to achieve. It addresses the question ‘What is my long-term goal?’
A mission statement is how you plan to achieve your vision. It gives a sense of direction as you move towards your big goal.
So, here goes, please take the time at each stage to dig deep into the questions and process, however, don’t get so caught up you don’t progress. If you’re not 100% sure, then move forward as often the later stage will make you go back and reflect on the earlier stages. Like I said this will develop over time
1. Identify your past achievements
Think about 7 to 10 big achievements you’ve had in the past few years. Include both personal and professional ones, and ones in a group and as an individual. This helps show your strength and what is part of your capabilities
2. Work out your Values
List out your values as this will help you with the following steps. To get the questions to discover your values, check out
3. What difference can you make to your family, company, world etc.
How can you contribute to the following in an ideal scenario?
Family
Personal life
Friends
Work
Community
World
4. Set an uncomfortably big goal
Set a goal that is aligned with what you want to do (values and differences) but is so big that it makes you feel it’s almost unobtainable but you’d love to be able to achieve it and see the huge benefit to you and others when you reaching that goal. I’ve seen it called a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal)
"A true BHAG is clear and compelling, serves as unifying focal point of effort, and acts as a clear catalyst for team spirit” — Collins and Porras, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies
When setting it out it needs to be big, quantifiable and emotionally compelling
Now write down your priorities and what you’d like to achieve in the next 3-5 years and ideally the next 10-15 years. Remember to check your past achievements as they predict future success e.g. If you’ve tried 10 diets and never lost weight, your goal for the next 3-5 years shouldn’t be to ‘help 100 middle aged men lose weight and feel great’
You now have your vision statement!
For those interested, mine is just updated after refollowing my own steps 😊
‘To be the best dad and husband I can be, while helping 100,000 people achieve the life they deserve’
5. Create your mission
Now you have your vision you can work on your mission statement, this is ‘how’ for the vision goal. Review the other steps again to help with inspiration
Visions and missions should be short and to the point, it should be easy to understand and explain to people, shows your core values. Be bold yet realistic
Review it against the following:
Am I passionate about it?
Does it align to my core values?
How does it differentiate me from the rest of the world?
It should also inspire you when you read it
Once you’ve created your vision and mission, I suggest you review it a couple of times and also share it with people who know you well and want to see you succeed (many people don’t want you to succeed)
Next week we will go into the goal setting progress to start you on the path to the successful life you want
Don’t skip the steps or avoid the process, growth feels uncomfortable until you’re moving and then you’ll feel amazing.
If you want to have a call about the topic, please message me on social media and we can set something up
For a little inspiration, here are some mission statements of some CEOs you might have heard of
“To be a teacher. And to be known for inspiring my students to be more than they thought they could be.” - Oprah Winfrey, Founder of OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network
“To have fun in [my] journey through life and learn from [my] mistakes.” - Sir Richard Branson, Founder of the Virgin Group
“To use my gifts of intelligence, charisma, and serial optimism to cultivate the self-worth and net-worth of women around the world.” - Amanda Steinberg, Founder of Dailyworth.Com
and mine for those interested
“My mission is to lead though encouragement and trust to empower people to succeed in both business and life, while injecting a little fun. I shall develop networks of IT individuals to help guide them through complex problems, build careers, have a fantastic life, full of fulfilment inside and outside of work, and have a group of trusted advisors they can rely on for help, guidance and accountability. I want to build well rounder people who can deliver greatness at work while feeling fantastic and achieving even more in their personal life.
I believe when you’re feeling great, focused and working on things that inspire you and aligned to your passion, you will have an abundance of energy, you’ll look forward to work and get where you want to be in life!
Remember, we work to live, not live to work"