5 INSANELY POWERFUL Goal-Setting Strategies for Entrepreneurs

If you can think of a time in your life when you were making ten times less money each year than what you are now, you've already 10 xed. You've already got the programming up here, you've already done it and so can you. 10x again? Yes. My question to you is, will you 10x again? Hey, look, we're going to have a lot of fun together and we're going to talk about more in 2024. So we're going to talk about how to set goals and actually achieve them. This is a process that I personally, I go through each and every year. And I've been doing this since 2008. And I've literally achieved everything that I've set about to achieve. And it may not necessarily all happen in that upcoming year, but it certainly sticks with me until I get it done. Let me know if you've ever set a New Year's resolution. I don't wait for New Year's. I'm going to encourage you not to wait for New Year's either. When you think about 2024, I have a thought provoking question that I just want you to take a moment and I really want you to process this. We're going to provide you with a couple of minutes to actually think this through and really process it for yourself. But if we were sitting down together on December 31st of 2024, if we were sitting down together, having a conversation, we were to look back on the entire year to today. What specifically would have had to have happened in order for you to feel remarkably happy about the progress that you made? So think about, put yourself there. It's December 31, 2024. You're reflecting on the prior year all the way back to today. What specifically would have had to have happened in your life, both personally and professionally, in order for you to feel remarkably happy about the progress that you made? Now, I give credit to that way of thinking, that approach, to my coach, to Dan Sullivan, who founded Strategic Coach. He's been coaching entrepreneurs the past 48 years. And there's a reason that he's so well known around the world, because he's very effective at what he does. And I will never be in a position where I don't have a coach. I'm always looking at getting better. There's always something new to learn. There's always something that I can improve upon, and there's always something new to learn. There's no such thing as having arrived in knowledge. And so I hope that you take away some great learning Tonight, I'm going to work on helping you by actually helping you. And then I'm going to talk to you about my Mentoring with J program. If you spend five consecutive evenings, not consecutive, meaning one evening per week. So over the course of a five week period, if you spend one evening, one hour of your evening with me, one time per week, I promise you that if you do exactly what I share with you to do, there's no way you can fail. You're going to achieve more in 2024. Without a doubt. This has been proven year over year with past attendees that have come through my program and who have been raving with me about the progress that they've made in their lives, personally and professionally. And for that I'm humbled and I'm very grateful. But I'm just the sum parts of everyone who's mentored me. And so I'm transferring a lot of great guidance and great wisdom to those who attend those sessions with me in the new year. But prior to the new year, you're going to have some homework to do and I'm going to share with you exactly what that is here tonight. Presumably all of you have had an opportunity to think about, to process that question that I asked you, and you're starting to think of what December 31, 2024 is going to look like and everything that's happened to you throughout that year. One of the primary reasons why I get people to think about it this way is I want you to be in specificity. I don't want you to be thinking vaguely about next year. I run into this all the time with people that I coach and mentor and I ask them the same question and they say, well, I want to be healthier, I want to be wealthier, I want to have more abundance. Your brain has no idea what to do with that. That's too vague. The human brain is incapable of dealing with vagary. You've got to program the brain with specifics. So thinking along the lines of that same example, I want to be healthier versus on December 31st, 2024, I'm going to weigh 223 pounds. I'm 259 pounds today. I'm going to weigh 223 lbs. By December 31st, 2024, the human brain understands that specificity and can immediately get to work on making it real. Meaning your brain's not going to do the work for you, but your brain knows what to set about making real. I want to be wealthier versus I want to create an additional $10,000 per month in passive income. By December 31, 2024, I presently generate 4,000amonth in passive income. I want to create an additional 10,000 so that by December 31, 2024, my monthly passive income is 14,000amonth. The human brain knows exactly what to do with that. In setting about to make it real, I want to create more abundance versus I want to inside of one of my existing businesses. I want to grow the profit margins from 3% to 6.35% for an additional 342,000 in profitable income. The human brain knows how to set about making that real. Like my coach, Dan Sullivan expresses to me often and to everyone that he coaches in this strategic coach Free zone program is that your eyes only see and your ears only hear what your brain is looking for. And so be very careful what you program your brain with, because sooner or later, your brain is going to buy it. Speaking of coaches and mentors, another coach and mentor is Joe Polish from the Genius Network. And he said something just most recently, we were down for his annual Genius Network Mastermind event where there were 400 entrepreneurs from all over the world, some of the best entrepreneurs that you'll ever come to know, some of whom you do know, and they converge for a few days. We get together, we mastermind, we learn. And the whole emphasis is on health, wealth and elf meaning health, wealth, easy, lucrative and fun. One of the things that Joe mentioned at the event is he said, hopefully today is the last day of who you used to be. But in order to build a bigger future, you have to design that bigger future. The great thing about that bigger future is that it's entirely your property. It hasn't happened yet. And so you get to design what 2024 is going to look like, being as specific as possible, because I'm telling you that goal setting, yes, it's the holy grail of progress achievement. But there's a method and a process of doing it effectively which has worked for me extremely well. I'm going to share it with all of you. I mentioned that obviously, goal setting is the holy grail of progress. It's the holy grail of your future. And if you want to accomplish more in your life, which would be a good indicator of why you're here, then you have to set big goals. And if you want to make 2024 your best year ever, I'm going to encourage you to be setting 10x goals. This is doing it in such a way that's going to change your life permanently. Not just over the course of a 12 month window. I've been doing this since I was 25 years young. And I learned how to put this process in place and manifest what would otherwise people might call dreams. I turn them into achievable realities. I'm telling you, when I reflect back, because I'm 49 years young today, when I reflect back on doing this, each and every I can see that I've achieved every goal that I've set for myself. And when I think about things like finances and health and giving and all of those things that align with my own core values, I want you to think about what are your deepest core values? How do your goals that you're thinking through align with those core values? And recognizing that it's all going to begin with this idea that you already have in your mind and some of you are still thinking about New Year's resolutions. I'll get started on that. January 1st, what the hell are you waiting for? If the goal is big enough and it's important enough, why aren't you working on it now? Most people that I meet with, they respond best to having a good mentor, a good coach, somebody who is responsible to them, not for them. Imagine yourself going to the gym. Your trainer's not going to lift the weight for you, but your trainer is going to make sure that you complete the movement without injuring yourself and that you're tracking your progress and that when you hit the guardrails and you fall off track, which you absolutely will, nobody's perfect that you have a mentor and a coach there to help you get back on track. And so if you're struggling to set and keep your goals, if you're quitting on your goals before you ever achieve them, I'm going to share some really important things here with you tonight that are going to help you set them, stick with them and achieve them. The number one reason for me that I set goals and I would encourage you to embrace this reasoning is to provide yourself with absolute clarity that begins with writing them down. What exactly is it that you want in your life in 2024? What specifically are you planning to achieve in your life in 2024? What exactly is it are you going to work for and why are you going to work for it? For most people, especially nowadays, with everything that's happening in the economy, with everything that's happening with inflation, with onerous taxation, for most people, they're just thinking about, hey, my best answer is, it's to put food on the table, it's to Pay the bills. It's to feed my family. If that's the only reason, then you really shouldn't stick around tonight because you're going to be disappointed. Sooner or later, you're going to get disengaged and you're going to get demotivated about work. And if all that your work does for you is provide you with food and shelter, then you're just not going to stay excited about it for very long. And so what you need is something to shoot for, and that's a target. And what is a target? Well, it's something that you hit. It's something that you move toward so that you're not satisfied with where you are currently and that you're setting goals that force you, literally force you to look at what you're not satisfied with. And to make change, you've got to have a form of measurement. I'll give you an example for myself personally. So last year, that's a picture of me with Joe Polish. And this is a picture of me in July of this year. The reason I'm sharing this is because when I'm talking about setting a goal and making it measurable, one of my objectives was 223 in 2023. I know I was heavier than 259.9 pounds because I didn't do my first weigh in until the end of January of 2023. But I started making change in December of 2022. This is my rhythm. I'm already at December 31st of 2024. And one of the things for me was health. I knew that I had to make some positive change and I wasn't going to wait until New Year's to do that. This is a pertinent example because that's what most people do. They wait until New Year's and they say, okay, once I get over my hangover, January 1st, I'm going to get in the gym and I'm going to start working out. I'm going to be fit, I'm going to be healthy. I'm going to eat better. I'm going to exerc more. Do you see how there's no specifics there and what happens in just a few short weeks? Your brain goes, I don't know what you wanted me to do with that information. So we're going to go right back to the way things were. Well, I started chipping away at it. And not only did I achieve my goal of 223 in 2023, but I reset a new goal to be below 220, which I'm a couple of pounds now away from achieving. That would not have been possible if I didn't program the brain with some very specific measurements. What did I want my waist size to be? My biceps, my chest, my hips, my thighs, my calves, my forearms, my neck. And the brain got to work on making that real. And you would be shocked at how this is translated, because through the mentoring with Jay last year, so many of our attendees went through their own weight loss journey. And I keep getting messages saying, wow, you were an inspiration to me, and you led by example, and that was motivating to me. So you can see the importance of having a good coach, having somebody who can mentor you, but equip you with the right tools that are going to increase your probability of success a multiple of what it would be otherwise. If you just continue to do things the way you've always been doing them, how are you going to track your progress? And then you've got to focus on the actual activity that's that it's going to take to achieve the goal. The goal drives the target. The target drives the activity. And so for me, my goals and targets drive who I connect with, who I spend time with, who I contact, who I invest in, and what I do day in and day out. My goals and targets drive all of that. And then this fifth one is absolutely the most vital, and that's accountability. I can promise you that. You've all heard someone talk about accountability at some point. The fact of the matter is, is that most people, and most of you, the truth is, is that most of you are going to give up on your goals before you ever achieve anything big. You're going to quit, you're going to give up. And when you look at the new year, by midway through the month, just call it somewhere between January 15 and January 20, most people will have already given up on their New Year's resolutions. Why do people do that? It's because they feel defeated. They feel like they just didn't have all the tools they needed, so they just throw in the towel. More importantly, if you're not experiencing small victories along the way, then that might be what tips the scale for you to throw in the towel again. I think back to what was happening with me in my own circumstance. I was consistently burning 1 to 1.2 pounds of fat every week, and that is a perfectly healthy degree of weight loss. Strength training three times a week, drinking three liters of this stuff every day, walking eight to 10,000 steps most days, and making sure that I ingest the right amount of protein and then I come in at a calorie deficit. That's it. But I had a coach, and still do. His name's Mitch Calvert. And once a week, every Monday, I would check in with Mitch and we would evaluate my victories. He wasn't coaching in the sense that he was sort of standing over me going, give me 6,500 push ups in the next 40 seconds. Like, he wasn't doing anything like that. He was helping me to celebrate those small, incremental, gradual victories and to make sure that I stay on track. When I fell off track, he would help me get back on track. But he was supportive and he was coaching. He was helping me understand why that was happening and helping me get back on track. Isn't that what a good coach and mentor does? And so that's what kept me from throwing in the towel. And so when you look ahead to 2024, if you want someone who's going to be there to help keep you from throwing in the towel, you're looking at them. You're going to have every opportunity to spend just one hour once a week with me for five consecutive weeks. And I promise you, it's going to be five of the best hours you've spent with anybody in a long time. And it's going to help you and equip you to have a very successful 2024. But again, don't take my word for it. The proof's in the pudding. People who have attended and gone through this process with me will tell you firsthand that they've achieved a remarkable change because they were equipped in the right way to go about doing it. But make no mistake about it, if I'm going to coach, I'm responsible to you, not for you. I'm not taking responsibility for you, but I will certainly be responsible to you, that's for sure. What I want to dive into and spend a few minutes on is just how to do it. So how to set and achieve those big goals. You've got to. And I know that for some of you this is going to sound ridiculously obvious, but I promise you, if you get your hands on one of these and one of these and you actually write down those goals, you write them down with as many specifics as possible, then your brain's going to get to work on how to make it real. I would encourage all of you because what works well for me is I begin that process. I try to just really take the time to process the things that I can be grateful for. And although going back to that example From December of 2022, when I was thinking about 223 pounds in 2023, I was still grateful for the fact that, look, I had both arms, both legs, all my fingers, all my toes. I had everything I needed to get going on making positive change from a health standpoint. I was reminded of something that Joe Polish said to me back in November of 2022, and he said, show me an entrepreneur in good health, and I'll show you an entrepreneur with a thousand dreams. Show me an entrepreneur struggling with his or her health, and I'll show you an entrepreneur with only one dream, and that's to get their health back. And so I want you to think about all the things that you have to be grateful for in your life, and I want you to take a moment and just write them down. What you can be grateful for today in whatever aspect of your life, your health, your wealth, your giving, write it down. There's something that I want you to do next. What I want you to do next is I want you to, just for a moment, just write down if you experienced some form of crisis, who would be the first person that you would call if you needed $25,000 tonight, and they would be able to help you out with that, no questions asked. And now I want you to write down who are the people in your life that you would die for? And then think about the people in your life who would have written your name down. That should serve as inspiration as. As to who you should be making progress in your life besides yourself. One of my friends in the Genius Network, his name's Darrell Sutherland. He's a wonderful guy. And he found himself in a pretty bad situation. He was struggling with consuming a little bit too much alcohol, and that was draining his energy. And he showed a picture of him tobogganing with one of his children. He looks entirely different today, much like a transformation similar to my own. And he said what motivated him was he put a note and he taped that note to his bathroom mirror. And it was the first thing he saw every morning when he got up to get ready to do what he needed to do for the day. And that note read, stop killing your children's father. And that was his inspiration, and that was his daily motivation to set about achieving that significant change that he needed to achieve in his life in order to make significant progress in his life. And so I want you to think about these things as you're looking ahead and thinking through what 2024 is going to look like for you now when you write down the goals, write them down like I, I shared with specifics, but I want you to make sure that you're writing them as though they've already been achieved. So think about it in the present tense, that it's already done, it's already happening. This sounds like you're deceiving yourself, but what you're doing is you're writing down the future as though it's already happened. And that is rocket fuel for your brain, because the human brain is incapable of doing anything extraordinary. It has to be programmed with specifics. I cannot emphasize that enough. And then you're going to want to make sure that your goals are much bigger than you believe is possible. So when I talk about 10x, Dan Sullivan, my coach says that it's much easier to 10x than it is to 2x. So if you have a business doing a million dollars a year in revenue, it's much easier to grow that business to 10 million a year than it is to 2 million a year. Because when you think of growing it to 2 million a year, all you're thinking about is more of the same work. Double the work, double the effort, double the time, double the energy. Whereas if you're thinking 10x, you're forced to innovate, you're forced to do things differently. And so I want you to think about setting goals that are bigger than what you initially envisioned. Here's why. If you can think of a time in your life when you were making ten times less money each year than what you are now, you've already 10 xed, you've already got the programming up here, you've already done it, and so can you 10x again? Yes. My question to you is, will you 10x again? I know how I have created multiple 10x leaps in my life. And that's when I had a coach, when I had a mentor, when I wasn't going at it alone. Go big or go bigger. There's nothing wrong with thinking big. That doesn't cost you anything. Revenue Canada certainly can't tax you on thinking big. I am always going to be thinking a minimum of 10x bigger than what I think is even possible, because I need that to keep my focus. If the goal isn't much bigger than what you think is possible, then you're not going to think of the payoff as being big enough, meaningful enough, significant enough, game changing enough, and it's certainly not going to maintain your attention. People give up on their damn goals because they just aren't meaningful enough. They're not significant. There's no life changing result. Do you think that going from 260 pounds minimum, because I was heavier than that when I started this journey, but I didn't do my first weigh in until the end of January, you think going from that to just being on the cusp of being below 220, do you think that's significant? I do. I had to go and buy a whole new wardrobe. I sleep better. I have far more energy, if you can believe that. I'm already pretty high energy. I'm more present, I'm more focused. And so whatever your goals are, remember, thinking big is one thing, but committing to goals that are much bigger than you think are possible. That's the whole premise behind what I'm setting the stage for. Because I don't want people coming in to mentoring with Jay who have goals that are not significant, meaningful or life changing enough. Don't even bother enrolling for the program. If, if that's where you're at, I, I would encourage you and hopefully serve you with some inspiration to just think bigger. Because when you've got goals that are really, truly going to change your life, then with the right coaching and the right mentoring, you're going to stay focused and you're going to take massive action and you're going to embrace accountability. Speaking of taking massive action, you know my dad, sadly, who passed away when I was in my early 20s, my dad used to say something to me often. He would say, son, don't ever be convicted guilty of giving up on yourself. You can get discouraged, but don't ever be convicted guilty of giving up on yourself. You can get disappointed, but don't ever be convicted guilty of giving up on yourself. And so whenever I feel like giving up and I'm human, we all experience it. I can hear my dad's voice whispering in my ear. And I always think about my kids. What example would it set for my own kids if I were to just throw in the towel and give up? I'm telling you flat out, don't give up on the possibility even that you can achieve goals that are much bigger than what you thought possible. The next piece of advice I'm going to give you is really important. Surround yourself with the right people. Anybody whose energy draining you got to cut them out of your life and you got to do it despite what's going on, despite whatever's happening with you. Surround yourself with people that you know who believe in you and believe in your goal. As long as you don't quit on it. You may have seen this meme that's out there where Denzel Washington says, look, you know, if. If you find yourself in a room surrounded by five millionaires and you're the sixth person in the room, sooner or later you're going to become the sixth millionaire. If you find yourself in a room surrounded by five really ambitious, goal driven, perseverant people, then sooner or later you're going to be the sixth one and there are a few more. And then he goes on to say, if you find yourself in a room full of five idiots, sooner or later you're going to end up being the sixth idiot. The way to cut someone like that out of your life. Of course you want to approach it with just a degree of being candid, but you need to speak your truth. Because all progress begins with telling the truth. That's where it all begins. It requires a little bit of courage because it's a crucial conversation. It can be difficult and you've got to tell the truth. Here's how I'm feeling about the current state of our association with each other or our relationship with each other. I've decided for my own bigger future and my own well being, that things are changing. And one of those things is this relationship. And it's not easy to do because there's emotional sensitivity, right? That person might resort to telling you everything that's wrong with you and why you're the one to blame for the relationship being in that state, whatever it is, you have to just let that be water off of a duck's back and don't get emotionally sensitized and just stay focused on the fact that you're going to build a future that's bigger than your past. And the great thing about building that bigger future is that you get to decide what comes with you from your past and your present into that bigger future and what you leave behind. But make no mistake about it, you control all three elements. You control your past, your present and your future. Be very, very careful what you're feeding each one of them. And when I look ahead to an upcoming year, I begin with if I'm sitting, when I'm sitting down on December 31, 2024, and I look back on the year to today, what specifically had to have happened in order for me to feel remarkably happy about the progress personally and professionally. And I'm writing down specifics and I'm communicating them, and the first thing I'm thinking about is what aspects of those things that I want to get done next year. Do I need a coach for? It's all about who, not how. The who is the coach who possesses the unique capabilities to help me get that how done, and then I go out and get the coach. You may have heard the best investment you can make is the investment in yourself. Well, what does that mean? That's not specific, but if you reference your goals. And for me, I needed a fitness coach. Every year I crush my wealth goals, I crush my giving goals. But I was struggling with my health goal, and then finally I just slapped myself in the face because I was like, you've got a coach for all aspects except health. Go and get a coach. And so I did that, and, boy, am I sure glad I did. And Mitch is going to be collaborating with us at Ascendant. We're going to be offering a health program for our clients starting next year. So stay tuned for details on that. It's going to be pretty amazing. And you'll be able to go through the very same journey that I did. I'm not going to ask anybody to do anything that I haven't proven can be done myself. If you want to go on that same journey, you're going to have an opportunity to do that next year. We've already, among our team and among people who are close to me and who have been mentored by me, we've shed hundreds of pounds this year. It's absolutely incredible. I was just speaking with a gentleman here a couple of days back who told me, he said, hey, I'm 62 pounds lighter than I was when I last spoke to you, and you were my inspiration. I look, I followed you on Facebook. I followed all the posts you served as my inspiration. Wow. And so for you, think about your situation as you're making measurable progress in your life. You just never know who you're going to inspire, even from a distance. And so the key there is to share it. Talk about it. Talk about your small victories and share them. It's not to brag, it's to express progress and that you're proud and that you're happy to share that. And you're happy to share the how and you're happy to refer the who, people who have helped you achieve what you've achieved. And if you wait until New Year's to get going on what I'm describing to you here tonight, you've really done yourself a disservice. I want to get a head start. I've already got my goals written down for next year. I've already done that with a very high degree of specificity. And my brain is already setting about making it real. The reason that you should be in Mentoring with Jay is because it's going to mean progress. It's going to mean more health, more money, more giving, more resources for you, the ability to take control of your life and to en. Truly enrich your life and the lives of others. So you want to be in the Mentoring with Jay program because of those reasons. Here's something that I shared last year. This is pretty amazing. You know, when you think about how quickly the time flies, if you think of the tool that we're on right now, Zoom. Do all of you know that 12 years ago, Zoom was just an idea on somebody's whiteboard? Do you realize that? Which turned into a goal, which turned into a target, which turned into a team, which turned into a company, which enables all of us to zoom ahead in our lives right now. So just think about that for a second. Think about that big idea you've got that you haven't gotten onto your whiteboard yet. And with the right coaching and mentoring, that could be the catalyst you need to making that a reality. Take the word dream and make them achievable realities. With the right tools, the right coaching, and the right mentoring. If you use your brain in a capacity and in a way that you already have the capacity to do, then you can now experience this creation of this bigger future in a really, really transformative way. And. But we got to put a deadline to it. That's why I took you to December 31st of next year, because you're thinking about these future results as though they've already gotten done. And then you got to work backward from that and make it measurable, write it down. You might even want to capture all the obstacles that are currently preventing you from achieving that future, that bigger future, and then just put them in the order of priority. And you've got to be accountable. It cannot be a growth process that is self contained. And when we do these Mentoring with Jay sessions, they're group sessions. Everyone is on Zoom. And I promise you, the relationships, the insights, the. The questions that other people are asking that become your best answers. It's no longer a self contained growth process. You're among a group and you get to take advantage of everything that I have to offer to you, and you get to stay away from negativity or any of that other crap in your life. And you can really be surrounded by a group of people that are all ambitious, perseverant motivated, and you get to bypass all of that other stuff that's just going to be an obstacle for you. For me, it's the future. The future is always exciting. And when you think about it, it's going to be here before you know it. The new year is just right around the corner.