How has the start of a new year, a new decade been for you?
I have a massive sense of excitement and energy and expectations coming into this new decade!
No doubt you are seeing all sorts of articles on goal setting and new year’s resolutions at this time of year.
According to research from the University of Scranton, a staggering 92% of people who set New Years resolutions never actually achieve them.
Over the years, I’ve discovered why I personally didn’t always achieve goals I set.
I looked at research, science and studied successful people and started applying what they did to ensure they followed through on their goals.
In this video and article, I share five essential elements of a success plan you can use to achieve your goals in 2020.
They can help you choose the right goals and follow through to the end and achieve them.
Here are the 5 elements:
1. A Why-based Vision
The first thing you need for your success plan is a why-based vision. What’s the vision that you hold yourself in your mission? I recommend your vision has a few elements.
The first one is the identity of the person that you want to become. A lot of people set goals about what they want to have and what they want to do.
But if you want to do and have the things you want, you first need to be the person that does and has those things.
Instead of starting with what you want to have and the things you want to do, think about the person that you want to become.
What type of characteristics do you want to have? Who do you want to be known as in 2020? That’s the “Why Based Vision” I recommended you grab a piece of paper, title your three columns Be, Do and Have, and brain dump.
I’ve been doing this task with my clients this week and there were some truly inspirational things they wanted to be- Thought leaders, authority figures, experts, courageous, trustworthy, brave, masterful at marketing, coaching, or presenting.
So ask yourself, what type of person do you want to be and build this vision of your self-image. Not just the material things you want but the vision about who you want to be and what type of person you need to be to create that vision.
Most importantly ask yourself why…. Why do you want this? Why do you want to be successful? Why is it important to you?
Think about the words that you want to resonate with 2020. What’s your intention for 2020? What would you want want to declare and put there as your words for 2020?
Last year my three words were discipline, fun, and courage and I look back at the last year and I was all those things. I was disciplined, I did have fun and I was courageous.
Set your intentions and build those goals from your why based vision from your identity of who want to be and the words that you want to put over the year and visualise it.
I’ve been working on my vision board with a couple of friends and I’m still building it out, but I have five words for 2020 that I want to focus on. Don’t just write down your goals and put in your draw or in a spreadsheet and forget about it.
Start with that vision of who you want to be and what you want, and then start building the plan based on that.
2. An Up-levelling Mastermind
This is one of my favourite things to have and this an up-levelling mastermind. The purpose of a mastermind is a small focus group that is designed so that everyone up levels, everyone grows, everyone goes into the best version of themselves.
Everyone knows what each person’s vision is and the goals they have. I was working with one of my masterminds today on setting our intentions. We started creating a manifesto for the group, we looked at things that we want to do together as a group.
We discussed what each of our strengths and weaknesses is so that we could collaborate and bring the best out of each other. We then had one person in the hot seat getting coached by three other people, and each person was given suggestions and advice.
When you spend time with people who are going places that are reaching for the heights that that’s going to rub off on you. Look at your surrounding influences, are they high achievers? Do they want to push themselves and hold you to a higher standard?
Do they consistently meet you, not just random meetups but are they committed to showing up, being reliable and want to help and support each other because have a supportive group is such a game-changer.
3. A Focused Game Plan
The third element to a successful plan for 2020 is having a focused game plan.
It’s just like in sports. The players know what they plan, they’re clear on it and they need to execute it. There are five things I recommend in your game plan.
I recommend you start with your annual priorities. Brain dump the priorities that you want to do for the year. It could be networking, presenting, workshops or skills like copywriting or sales that you need to build as a business owner.
Maybe you have goals for the year that you want your business to accomplish. Break it down into actual numbers, for example, I said I wanted to do 50 articles in 2019 and I chipped away at that goal and ended up doing 53 articles last year.
Every week I showed up because I wanted to give original valuable content that could really help people. It was amazing to have one strategy in place and committing to that goal with an actual number in place.
Your game plan could be that you want to write 50 blog posts, or you want to launch five new freebies. Break it down into actionable steps and create quarterly goals for each step.
For quarter one, what do you need to achieve by the end of February? It could be a webinar or a workshop, or launching a funnel, that’s your one big bold move for the quarter. Once you’ve got that as your goal, then you go into bite-sized goals.
Under that one big bold move. Let’s say it’s a webinar, you might say, I want to enrol 100 people to the webinar, knowing that maybe 50 will turn up, out of those 50 people, 10 people take me up on my offer for a discovery session and I close five of them.
Set clear number goals, those are your outcome goals. But then you need to set actual tasks. So under the webinar, you have all the different action steps you need to take in order to run a webinar.
There is so much to it. But once you’ve done it, it’s an incredible asset. But what a lot of people do is they put a project on their to-do list, and it mixes up with their habits and skills and the action gets confusing and overwhelming, causing your brain to say no, this is too hard.
Make sure that you separate your habits, your skills and your projects. Make sure on your action list, you take one step at a time. That’s your game plan- your priorities, goals, quarterly goals, and your one big bold move for the quarter.
Under that, you’re going to have goals, and your bite-sized action steps so that each week you know exactly what you need to do to get your result.
4. A Strong NO Commitment
A strong NO commitment is something you’re going to say no to.
I’ve realised that this year, that if I just keep piling things up on top of my existing schedule, goals and to-do lists, I’m going to get massively overwhelmed.
I realised that I need to decide what I’m going to say no to and it was a massive relief when I decided what I was going to say no to. I can actually achieve the goals that I have because I’m clearing things out of my schedule instead of pouring and piling things on, and creating white space for myself.
I was reading back diary entries from 2016 and writing that I needed more space, I need to create more margins. That was my goal for 2016. That was four years ago and I’m still saying the same thing!
This year, I’ve decided what to say NO to and I’m going to choose a new NO every month.
In order for you to have a successful life and achieve your goals, you’re going to have to clear stuff out of your life. It could be a relationship or friendships, it could be things that you’re wasting time on.
I was coaching one of my clients last night, and he was telling me, I don’t have time to study. I don’t know how to put it in without sacrificing my lifestyle. I asked him to open up his phone let’s have a look at your screen time. It turns out that his screen time was five and a half hours average per day.
We worked out that over seven days he was spending 35 hours on his phone. This is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s what most people do – hours and hours on the phone.
Can you imagine just one decision, a strong no commitment to eliminate your time online? For me, I said no Netflix in January, and no social media before 12pm and now I have all this space and energy that has opened up.
It’s incredible. I’ve been writing my goals and reading more books. I never thought that I could commit to something like that. But in order to get your goals, you’ve got to say no to things.
So what would you like to have as a strong no commitment?
5. A Monthly Habit Focus
And then number five is to have a monthly habit focus. Focus on one habit for a month. If you nail one habit, every month, by the end of 2020, you’ve got 12 brand new successful habits.
Remember, it takes time to build a habit. Some people say 21 days, 30 days, some say 60.
It really depends on you and it depends on the goal. Personally I like 30 days. I like using a month because it’s just a pure focus month on one goal.
Last year I had this app called streaks where you can add your goals. Last year, I had 12 habits I was trying to do; Daily meditation, daily journaling, daily exercise etc. and I did it for the first quarter and it was going really well, by quarter two I started dropping off and by quarter three I hadn’t even looked at the app.
Now what I’ve done is I’ve got two things on there, but my focus is daily journaling for the month of January. I know that if I write every single day it brings you back into mindfulness. It’s like that one Domino that knocks over the other dominoes in the chain.
If I can daily journal, it helps me stay present focused on my goals. It helps me brain dump, it’s like a cleanse at the end of each night. It helps me plan and do planning in my journaling. I write out my visualization and I write my goals. It’s just one habit that covers so many for me.
Charles Duhigg, in his book ‘The Power of Habits’, talks about one keystone habit that if you get that one thing, it’s going to affect every other area of your life.
It might be every morning going for a walk, and that one walk is going to set you up for success because of that one habit.
Set one habit that knocks down all the rest of them like a domino chain.
To recap, here are the five essential elements of a 2020 success plan…
1. Have a why-based vision, keep it in your face, and make sure that you include your identity, your words for the year, your intention for the year, and exactly who you want to be.
2. Have an up-levelling mastermind. A mastermind where you meet regularly in person with these people. These people are all about growth, up-levelling, supporting each other, holding each other to account and holding you to a high standard.
3. Have a focused game plan. in the game plan have your priorities, your goals, quarterly goals, bite-size goals, action steps.
4. Have a strong no commitment. What are you going to say no to in 2020 to allow all this space to the things that are most important and meaningful for you?
5. Have a monthly habit focus.
Draw a line in the sand for 2020, make it a priority to leave it all behind in 2019 and know that you can achieve anything that you set your mind to.
Put the action steps in place and check it off as you go. It’s not just about dreaming, it’s about having your head in the clouds but your feet on the ground.
P.S Want to know how to attract and sign up more clients in 2020?
My next full-day client attraction workshop is happening on Saturday, 1st February 2020.
? In This One Powerful Day You Will Learn:
? The BEST methods to connect instantly with your audience and INFLUENCE them to your ideas
? How to become a master influencer and build authentic trust and a powerful connection with your ideal clients
? How to use neuro-marketing to influence the SUBCONSCIOUS mind in your written and spoken content
? The MOST effective way to design your marketing plan so that you nail your message, and attract the right clients
? The BIGGEST mistakes Coaches make in their marketing and how to avoid them
? A proven, effective marketing plan that you can tailor to your business
If you want to grow a profitable coaching business, this workshop is a must.
2020 is the year to finally let go of what’s holding you back and create the life you dream of!
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