The BEST way to create goals

The thing about personal development and high performance is you can grow into the person you need to grow into to achieve that thing. You can learn your way into the greatest achievements of your life, even if you didn't know how to achieve them. Now, just like we had to learn to land on a moon, we had to know how to do that. Those big aspirations you can learn your way into. That's the growth mindset. That's that forward lean and assertiveness into life that says, I can figure things out. The most important thing is, can you dream it? You'll figure it out today. I'd love to help you think about your goals in a bigger way. This might be a little bit controversial, but I've always been somebody as I teach high performance to so many people around the world. I get a little criticism because I don't like the smart goals framework. Now, I know a lot of people love the smart goals framework. You've heard it before, right? Set smart goals all the time. Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time bound. I'm like, that's an amazing framework. If I'd come up with a framework, I just wouldn't have called it a framework for goals. What do I mean by that? Too often we enter our Mondays and our weeks and we're thinking about implementation, we're thinking about the checklists, the to dos, the smart goals, quote unquote. And the challenge is, while that always has its place, which is really implementation, the smart goal is really just thinking of like, oh, what's the specific thing I'm going to do? How do I measure it? What is the time that we're going to allow for it? Is it realistic, all of that? I really believe that limits a lot of people's ambition and, and their desires and their dreams. And they're not starting the week in the inspiration, the insight, the, the innovation, the mindset that is thinking of bigger ambitions that you might not know how long it's going to take you to do. You might not know specifically how to do it. You might not know if it's realistic. You might not know, is it going to be done a week from now or a year from now. Those bigger goals, those bigger dreams, those bigger ambitions and desires, that has to be part of your Monday. Often you wake up and you just look at your inbox. You wake up, you're scrolling, you're looking at stuff and what you're doing is you're placing yourself into reaction mode at the beginning of the week. Immediately you're just reacting, you're going what's everyone saying? What's my inbox suppose was due to? Or you're doing the things like got to get the kids ready, got to go do this, got to do. And you're just into life, into reaction mode without clear higher intentions for what's the life you're trying to build? What's the bigger dream, the bigger desire? And so I often offer an alternative framework to thinking about not just your weekly goals, not just your monthly goals, but maybe even your yearly or life goals. And I call it dumb goals. Stick with me. The smart goals framework is, it's specific, it's measurable, it's attainable, it's realistic, it's timely, that's wonderful. But dumb goals is different. And I'll give you a metaphor to land this idea to you. You know when we landed on the moon before that, John F. Kennedy's famous speech talking about we will go to the moon because it's there, because it's hard, and we'll be doing it by the end of the decade. That was not a smart goal in any way. It wasn't that specific. Some people say, yeah, it was specific. Benny said, we're going to land on the moon. I'm like, the moon is like a planet. That's not specific at all. It's like saying, I'm going to go to Europe. Where are you going to go to Europe? What's your vehicle going to be like? What are you going to do when you're there? That wasn't specific. It was, we're going there, we're going to try this thing. It, was it measurable? We didn't even know how to measure anything other than the distance between the two planets. Are you kidding me? Was it attainable? No, it wasn't even technically feasible at all at the time he called the shot. Was it something that was, you know, time bound? Not really. I'm going to do it in the next. I know within the decade. Within the decade is not a very specific thing thing. Is it within a 10 year time period or whatever. I want you to think about this, that sometimes when we think about things in smart constraints, when we think about what's attainable, what's realistic, we cheat ourselves from those higher dreams and goals. So the dumb framework sounds like this. The D in dumb is dreams driven. A dream is something you don't know how to achieve. You might not know when, you might not know how, but. But it's important to you. It's an aspiration. Did you connect with your dreams? It's Monday. What's the dream you have for your life, for your career, for your business? That dream might seem so far away. To be strong, flexible, mobile. That dream might be so far away to be in your 70s, 80s and 90s, and still strong and fit, still taking care of yourself, still feeling vital. That might be so far away for some people. But I want you to have those dreams. I want you to have great dreams. In your health, in your business or your career, with your family, with the abundance you want for this generation and the next generation, for the contributions you're going to make, for the achievements that you'll have, for the joys that you'll experience, for the adventures you'll have. Big dreams. Don't worry about always knowing exactly what to achieve them. Listen, it's Monday. You probably already have plenty of to dos. You already have a Google calendar full of stuff you're going to do this week. Great. Maybe you reviewed that on the weekend and you're just in implementation mode this week. That's great. But if you're just in implementation mode all week and you detach from a higher dream, you don't feel that vibrancy that, that galvanizing force of energy so that when things suck this week, or you get, you know, in mundane tasks, or you're bored, or it's a struggle, you don't have anything. You don't have a bigger thing to connect to. So then you just struggle in the struggle and you quit and you lose your discipline. You need that bigger dream to connect to that bigger why, or that bigger who, or that bigger what in the future that will pull you through the mundane and difficult times. Dream driven goals, big aspirational goals. It's okay to have that. And I know a lot of people won't tell you that all they want you to be is so specific because they don't want you to be disappointed if you're unable or incapable or unsure of how to do that. But the thing about personal development and high performance is you can grow into the person you need to grow into to achieve that thing. You can learn your way into the greatest achievements of your life, even if you didn't know how to achieve them now. Just like we had to learn to land on a moon, we had to know how to do that. Those big aspirations you can learn your way into. That's the growth mindset. That's that forward lean and assertiveness into life that says I can figure things out. The most important thing is can you dream it? You'll figure it out the you. In my framework of the dumb goals, if you will, the you is uplifting. You gotta have goals that are uplifting. I always criticize the smart framework because it doesn't say anything in the smart framework about it being a positive, uplifting and inspiring goal at all. I think that's a prerequisite. If you don't feel like getting out of bed in the morning, if you don't feel like uplifted by your ambitions and your goals and your opportunities in life, then that's just because you haven't set those bigger goals yet. You haven't allowed yourself to dream. And sometimes you're setting goals that are responsible but you don't have any. They're uplifting for yourself and get this, for other people. A lot of goals in the smart framework are for you, for yourself, self smart goals. But in the dream framework, in the dumb framework, I want you to have those uplifting goals for others. A lot of the goals I have in my life have nothing to do with me and whether or not smart for me, they're uplifting for others. I know if I uplift others then I find new motivation. I, I feel like I'm being useful. I'm feeling called, I'm feeling like I'm leading and being a role model to other people. I want your uplifting goals to be about lifting others up. It's why I celebrate everybody who's a leader or a team builder in this world, everyone who cares about their cultures, everyone who really wants to make a difference. Because when you lift others up, it's just, it's a different galvanizing goal in life. Lift others up. And I promise as you do that more of your goals will be achieved. Have you thought about that today? It's Monday. Who are you lifting up this week? Who needs you to champion them this week? Who needs some of your coaching, your mentoring, your support you're cheering on this week, that's uplifting. The M in my favorite framework here is about a method driven approach to success. What I mean, method driven? Well, as you all know, in like yoga as an example, you don't have to have specific measurable goals. Like I'm going to do a headstand, that's fine too. But in real success in that category, it's about the practice, isn't it? It's about showing up for the practice diligently, with presence, with real intention to show up and do the practice. See a lot of people, they're all focused on the tasks, they're all focused on the checklists, but they're not focusing on, on a mastery process, a method. They don't have a method or a mastery process that they're on. So it's always random tasks, but they're not deepening their mastery in anything. If you're going to have a goal, develop the mastery or the method. Let the outcomes take care of themselves. I'll give you an example. A dumb goal in my life was I wanted to be able to speak on arena stages, meaning audiences usually of 5,000, 10,000, 20, 30, or 40,000 people in arenas. Now I was terrified to do public speaking. So having a goal to stand in front of 30,000 people sounded completely insane. It was not a smart goal in any way whatsoever and at all. It was a dumb goal. It was like, okay, that's so far out there, that's a dream, I don't know. But I'm going to master that method. I'm going to start learning to develop mastery and communication. And so I started studying how to do public speaking. I started studying how to communicate, studying how to unlock my own mind. So I wasn't so caught up on getting every word perfectly. I don't know if you know this about me, but everything you've ever seen from me, ever on the Internet, this is spontaneity. This is extemporaneous speaking. I have a card over here with three bullet points and I'm doing this with you coming up with the words. I had to unlock my mind to stop editing myself so much so I could just do this. That's a method. I had to learn that method of extemporaneous speaking. That got me to the outcome one day. So I worked on the method of extemporaneous speaking. And that unlocked more doors, and more doors, more mastery and more mastery. And then one day I was getting the invite to all the arenas. Now I'm one of a handful of people in history who've keynoted every arena, I should say every major arena in all of North America. There's like four or five of us in the world. And so that was because I decided and dedicated myself to the mastery or the method of extemporaneous speaking. Does that make sense? Just like you dedicate yourself to, to bar or to yoga or to hit training or whatever style of workout that you prefer. It's a dedication to a practice. I call it a method. And that leads to results later on, even if you're not super focused on one given result. Last part of this framework is behavior triggered patterns. What does that mean? It means instead of worrying so much about, you know, a one time experience, one singular goal, the goal being something you can achieve by habit stacking or behavior stacking or behavior tricking, it means, hey, you want to get more healthy? Okay, great. That means maybe you take the kids to school. After you take the kids to school, you go and you get healthy food. Great, you already taken the kids to school. Tag on or stack a positive habit after that. So what you try to do in your life to become more successful is you say, what are the things I'm already doing? And how do I bolt on or tag on another habit that's healthy for me right after it? Right. Some of you might, you wake up, you brush your teeth, you work out. That's just the behavior stacking that's positive, right? Well, as you think about your bigger goals in life, how can you stack on habits or behavior stack so that you're more likely to achieve it? How can you do that? So for example, I said, every single time I go to class, I'm going to volunteer to give a presentation. When it's, you know, the end of the quarter, I said, every single time I'm at work and they say, who wants to present this? I raise my hand. I said, every single time something happens, it's sort of the, if this happens, then I do that framework. If I'm doing this positive thing, I'll stack this on. For example, when I travel, when I land, I get to a hotel, I unpack, I put on my workout shoes and outfit and I go work out almost every trip ever in my life. I just stack that. See, the goal and the outcome was to have health, vibrancy, endurance, the strength, mostly for me, the energy that I need to build up to serve all day long. Because believe me, this is like my 10th hour of filming today or something like that. So I had to learn to build up the energy and endurance to do what I do uniquely. And so I thought, wow, I'm on the road a lot. It's a lot of presentations, it's a lot of conversation. I gotta be mentally in a place where I can just go and unlock. So I gotta make sure my body is energized. So land, unpack, gym or for a run, it's so simple, right? Of course you're going to unpack when you go to your hotel. Unpack, workout. That's habit stacking. So think of the outcome. That outcome for me in that basis is I want to be healthy. Great. Land, unpack, workout. I think you get the Idea. Another one I always do is like, I want to be an amazing husband. So when I come home, when I pull up to the house, instead of just like showing up the house, just wandering in with my crazy energy, instead of say, okay, I'm going to pull up the house, I'm going to kick the chair back in the car, I'm going to close my eyes, I'm going to do a release meditation where I'm just repeating the word release. We call it the release meditation technique. And I'm going to release all the tension in my body and in my mind. Then I'm going to set an intention to be positive, amazing, supportive husband, set that intention. Then I'm going to go into the house and that little stacking of pull up to the house. Great. I'm going to do that anyway. Go into the house. Going to do that anyway. Let me bolt on this little activity, this little 2, 3, 4 minute release meditation set intention, go in the house. That's that behavior stacking that's going to lead me to the outcome that I want, which is having a great quality marriage. Y' all follow? So maybe it's dumb and I get it and I just like to do it, to juxtapose, but there's a difference between smart goals and. And dumb goals. I would love for you to enter this week ambitious again. Could we change what it feels like to enter the week? A lot of people enter. Mondays are like, ah, here I go again. Because they're only in tasks and they're only in reactions. If you can just carve out a little bit of time, just a little bit of time on a Monday to dream and to think, to really want something that's uplifting for your life. To know that each day at some point this week, you're going to be in a mastery process. They're going to do good thing after good thing. I promise that adds up to a good life.