Setting Your Goals for 2020 | Jack Canfield

Hi. You know, it's that time of year again when you get to look back and see what you accomplished this previous year and then look to what you want to set for goals for next year. And one of the big things that comes up for a lot of people when they look back at the previous year, they often go, oh my God, there's a lot of things I didn't accomplish. And a tendency when you do that is to feel bad about yourself, you know, and to ask yourself, should I even have these goals? Am I going to commit to them again when I didn't accomplish them this year? And so on and so forth. So I'd like to introduce a concept to you. It's called the gap. But I learned this from a guy named Dan Sullivan at the Strategic Coach Program. It's one of the things that really helped me a lot. And the idea is that when you are setting goals and when you're reviewing your goals, there's three areas you have to look at. We're going to call it actual one. That's where you started out. Maybe you're making $50,000 a year and you set a goal to make 150,000 a year. And however, you only made $98,000 a year. Now you've got a gap between the 98,000. You got a gap between the 98,001 and 150,000. And if you focus on that, that 52,000 difference, you feel like you failed. But if instead you look at, compare actual one to actual two, you increased your income by $48,000. Now if you look at it that way, you were successful. Maybe you didn't achieve the goal, but think about this. All the goals that you make up, they're just decisions you make in your mind. Your ego usually is deciding it and you just pull out of the air. Like I often ask people, what's your financial goal now is to make $1 million? No one ever says $925,000. It's always a million. So it's just a number you pull out and then you go and you make 600,000, 800,000, whatever. You didn't get to a million. You feel like you failed. When you do that, you end up with low self esteem. You end up feeling like you didn't make progress. You end up often depressed, unwilling to like set goals again because you don't want to have that experience. However, if you don't focus on the gap, but you focus on the actual progress, that leaves you feeling well. So what I want you to do when you look at the goals that you didn't achieve this year, in terms of how much by win, what I want you to do is ask yourself a couple of questions then, did I make progress? Can I celebrate that progress? I usually set about 21 goals every year, three in the seven areas that I talk about, which we'll mention in just a minute. And I often will get 15, 16, 17 of those goals. Some years I might only get 12 or 13. However, by the next year, many of those that I didn't achieve this year get achieved that year. So sometimes it just takes a little longer than our intellectual mind put down on paper. And that's okay, you're still making progress. So when you look at each of the areas where you set goals, ask yourself, did I make progress? And if you did, feel good about it. And the second thing is to ask yourself, is this goal a should like? It shows up year after year after year after year. I remember I had a goal to stop drinking wine. And then I realized because I wanted to lose weight. And then I realized I actually like drinking wine. I don't mind being 10 pounds overweight if it means I don't have to give up wine. And so I made a decision. Now, the reality of that is that I would rather weigh 10 pounds more and enjoy the wine. Now I've made a recent decision. I'm drinking a lot less than I did before, but I didn't have to beat myself up for what I was doing in the past. Some of the goals we put down on our to do list or our goal list are things we think we should do, but we really don't want to do. So really ask yourself, is this a should goal or is it something I really want? If it's something you really want, commit to it again. Develop more skill. Use the principles we teach of visualization and affirmations, having a support team and accountability partner, taking action, responding to feedback, and never giving in. If you make it important enough and you have consequences, rewards for achieving it, consequences for not applying all those principles, having a coach, having a mentor, etc. You can achieve that goal if you make it a high priority. Now let's look to making goals for this coming year. As you know, I want you to look at seven areas of your life. You have your job and career. You have finances. You have relationships. You have health and fitness. You have fun and recreation. You have personal, which means personal growth goals, as well as also things you want to own, like you want to buy a car, a certain house, a New watch, any possessions, things like that, but also experiences you want to have. Maybe you want to go on a safari, maybe you want to take a vacation with the family in Michigan in the summer, whatever that might be. And then finally, contribution goals. What, what difference do you want to make in the world? So you want to set a goal for each of those seven areas. So my advice is look at one thing in each area you'd like to improve or one thing you'd like to accomplish. Now you have seven goals. If you achieve those seven goals or you make progress in have a much more balanced life than if you only focus on your career or only focus on money. So you want to make sure you have all these areas fulfilling in your life. Now remember, when you set a goal, it has to be how much by when. So it has to be measurable in time and space in a way that a third person could come and say, so many square feet, so many clients, so many dollars, so many podcasts, whatever it is that you're doing that can be measured so your goals are measurable. And then also I want you to set at least one breakthrough goal. Now if you remember, I define a breakthrough goal as a goal that will quantum leap your life. Not just like a 10 or 20% increase, but a quantum leap in your life in one area that would make your life totally different. So an example of some quantum leap goals that people have set in the past breakthrough goals would be to double your income. It could be to get Uber as a client. It could be to open up China as a market for your downline in your multi level marketing company. It could be to write and publish a book. It could be to, you know, become cancer free. It could be to lose £50. It could be to, you know, get your children scholarships in college. But somebody will be a major breakthrough goal for you in some area of your life. It might be to get a major certification, to get your Realtor's license, or get your MBA degree or get your massage license, or become a ICF certified coach. So think of something that would be a quantum leap and commit to that. So you've got this one overarching goal, the one thing that would pretty much change everything if you accomplished it. Breakthrough goals are very powerful. Now then make a commitment to do five things a day for the achievement of that breakthrough goal. Make sure you write your goals down, make sure you tell people about it, post it on your website, let people know in social media you've committed to these goals. And also make sure you have an accountability partner someone to hold you accountable to progress. Whether it's every day or once a week you're reporting your progress on your breakthrough goal, or if you want all of your goals. Those three things are going to increase your likelihood of success based on research by a minimum of 33%. And if you do those things the way I just talked about, you're going to have an amazing year. Remember this one last thing. Have a high intention but low attachment. What does that mean? Intend to do everything you can to make your goal come true. And don't be attached to it, because not everything happens at the time and the way you want. So be open to things changing and evolving and be open to may not all happen immediately, but if you have a high intention, low attachment, you're going to make a lot of progress, and you'll be very happy in the process.