Achieve Your 2025 Goals: The Science of Success in 2025

Hey. Hey. Happy New Year. I am so dang excited to be here with you, kicking off another year and diving into our business plans together. In this series, we're going to walk through some of the key steps that you need to have in place in your business plan, or frankly, your life plan. Anything you dream, anything you want, any goal that you have that you would like to bring to life sooner rather than later. The steps that we're going to walk through in this series are absolutely going to help you with that. We're going to take the first step in this series today, and I want to help you build out an action plan to achieve these business plans, bring these plans to life in the year ahead. So let's take the first step. And I'm so glad that you are here because not everybody spends the time and attention you are spending right now. So props to you on that. In fact, a University of Scranton study from 2013 shows that only 8% of people actually hit their New Year's resolution. But there is a catch to this. People who actually set a New Year's resolution, they define what they want to accomplish, where they want to be going, they set a goal, are 10 times more likely to reach this goal. So when I hear people around this time, I don't send you resolutions. They don't work. There's a reason they don't work. It's because they set the goal and ignore it. But that's not you. I'm going to show you how to keep that goal front and center all year long with a simple strategy and then break down the steps that we need to take to make sure we bring that goal to life. Because there's a method to that process as well. In fact, in one such example, a Dominican University study hosted by Dr. Gail Matthews in 2015 identified, if you write down your goals and share those goals with a friend, 76% of people who did that in this study reached their goals versus only 46% of people reached those goals when they did not write them down. So, number one, we want to set the goal to know where we're going and align our action steps with where we want to be going. Got to set a goal. Otherwise we're going to end up somewhere who knows where. Maybe you'll end up somewhere great, maybe you won't. You're going to walk the path, but what path are you walking to get where you want to have clarity on where you want to be going? So we want that clarity, but you're going to increase your results if you write it down and share it with a friend. Now, there are some strategies around sharing it with a friend that we'll break down later in this series, but we've got to have clarity on that goal and we've got to write it down. Which brings us to the action step for today. All you're going to do to take this next action step is have a simple piece of paper. It could be just a basic piece of paper that you fold in half. It could be a note card. I have mine on a harder note card. It actually got bent and I pop this up in front of me all year long. So we're going to write down this goal. This is a process that I've been using to, to reach my goal since 2008. Been writing down a goal card every single year since 2008. And here's what you're gonna write down and put on that goal card to help you reach and achieve your goals, too. Number one, what are we working towards? What is the goal that you have in mind? Is it profitability? Is it revenue? Is it launch your side hustle? Is it hire a team or expand and grow your business into new markets with a team? Set the goal. Again, this can apply for any life goals that you may have as well. We want clarity on what am I working towards, but we're not going to stop there. The second step is to set a deadline associated with this goal. Now, you may have some things in your life. You're like, I don't know. I'm just going to do it someday. It's on my bucket list. It's on my someday list. It's in my million dollar parking lot. I've got those, too. But if we actually want to accomplish that goal this year, let's set the deadline. It's going to happen this year. And we're going to align your action steps in support of that. Number three, I want you to identify what you're going to give to receive, what you're going to do to attain this goal. Now, when we're running businesses, you're already giving on a regular basis. You're giving your products, you're giving your services, you're giving your time, right? Your. Your team is giving of their time, right? So what is it that you will give? What is it that you will do to receive the revenue, the sales, and attain this goal that you have in mind? This kicks off the law of reciprocity, and it allows us to set our goals in a really beautiful way as well. And finally, the last Step that I want you to take when you're writing down your goal is to identify the measure of success, meaning how do we know when you've actually reached this goal? Typically, this comes with setting a number. Let's say your goal for the year is profitability. You may have a percentage or a dollar amount for profitability. Let's say your goal is community growth or list building. You may have a number of people that you want to connect with this year and invite into your community as represented by them being on your list. So it could be a list goal. Now, might you have a goal that doesn't actually have a number? Yes, absolutely. That could still be measurable. Let's say that you want to do four launches this year. You want to have four new marketing campaigns or four new products launched this year because the sales will follow or because you're just getting started, you just want to step into action on it. And that's the key goal. Then you could say, I want to have four product launches this year. And once those are done, I know that I have completed it and achieved this goal. You could have four marketing campaigns go live. You could have, right? So anything that you can identify and say, yes, I did that. Yes, we accomplished that goal. We want it to be something that you can clearly point to and identify so we can say, yes, we did it, goal achieved. Those things are going on your goal card, and you're gonna keep this goal card in front of you all year long. Why? Because we want this goal to be so ingrained and top of mind for you that when distractions arise, when requests of your time, your attention, your company, or your team's priorities pop up, you're easily able to say, hey, I got a goal I'm working towards. Does this request, does this ask? Does this new shiny thing that I might be considering pursuing align with where I want to be going and to be able to ask that question. You very quickly and easily want to be able to recall and identify and keep your goal front and center. Because otherwise I know, you know when someone calls and says, hey, you want to meet for coffee? Hey, you want to be a part of this event? Hey, can you. Will you. Do you want to? Yes, Yes, I want to. This would be awesome. I want to do that trip. I want to go on that coffee date. I want to go here, I want to go there. However, does that align with where I want to be going and the goals that I have set for this year? And we're going to have to make some sacrifices sometimes to new shiny objects, to new marketing campaigns, to new strategies, to new product offers. But that discernment is going to benefit you immensely in the long run. So keep that goal front and center so you can easily recall, wait a second, does this fit? And you'll start to filter and you'll start to align your actions with where you want to be going. Now, there's another trick to this. You can't just set this goal card and put it in a frame, put it on a stand like I have, put it laminated to your desk and leave it there. Because what happens, we forget that it's there. We just don't even see it anymore because it's so in part of our environment. Like the holes on my wall right now that haven't been patched yet from a picture frame I took down. I don't see them. I don't pay attention to them. Usually they're just there. I'm kind of walking by. I really need to get those fixed. I will get that. I will get that done. I'll get that done this month. I'm going to commit to it. I set a deadline. So you want to move this around so it stays in your front of your top of mind. So you can't just set that there and leave it periodically, move it so that it pops back into your line of sight again. In fact, my daughter, I got a new wall calendar and my daughter said, oh, why don't you put it right there in front of your desk? Like, oh, man, great idea. It changed my whole frame of reference and it reoriented my focus by having that calendar and the key dates that I have in mind, the key actions that I have in mind aligned with my plan right in front of me. And it reset my entire focus and my entire energy. By the way, if you are someone who creates a vision board, you also want to move that vision board around periodically, too, so that it stays top of mind and in your frame of reference. So with that, we have taken the first step to building your business plan for the year by setting your goal and identify where it is that you want to be going. Of course, as we move through this series this week, we're going to look at how you are going to get there. We're going to map out how to maximize and optimize your time so that you get where you want to be going with more clarity and more focus and more speed and more ease. And then we are also going to look at what to do when things don't go as planned. Because we know that's the reality. Because I want to make you achieving your goals practically inevitable. And then lastly, I'm going to share with you what I am working toward this year year, what I have top of mind and go behind the scenes because I know when I go behind the scenes in someone else's world and someone else's business, it unlocks so much for me. So if that's you, you're going to want to watch this whole series. In fact, click on through to the next episode where we're going to dive in immediately to building out your plan to get where you want to be going with that. Thank you so much for participating in our business planning and being here with me. It is so much more fun to do this together. And if you want a download that breaks down everything that we're going to walk through this week and gives you a template for each step, go to amber mchugh.com forward/goals plural done. Amber mchugh.com forward slash goals done. Let's make it happen.