#1850 Goal Setting Simplified - Harps

all you can be journey. And part of that is of course being able to have a structure and process, set goals, be analytical and strategic to an extent about what is working in our life, what is not working in our life, and at times turning down the emotion, turning up the logic so that we can consciously and intentionally create a future plan plan for what we want to do be create change and become moving forward from now and my so what I'm sharing with you today

just my really fundamental thoughts around creating change in a strategic way, a way that is more conscious, process driven, logical,

and intentional. And we are while we all think we are that, my experience anyway is that we are not so much that we are more emotional and reactive than we are, you know, living out or trying to consciously, day to day, week to week, year to year, execute some plan that we've created to build the situation, circumstance, environment, life, lifestyle, habits, body that we want to live in the middle of.

And so while we want to have room for fun and spontaneity and intuition and distinctiveness, of course we want to have that. We don't want to lose that. But how many of you, if we're really honest, how many of us, if we're really honest, have woken up one day metaphorically and it's five years or three years later, and we're still doing the shit that we said we wouldn't do three or five years ago. We're still having the same dumb conversations about the shit that we're not changing.

We're still living in a version of groundhog Day. We're still making decisions which aren't optimal for us. We're doing things which aren't optimal for us. We are self sabotaging, we're overthinking, we're underdoing. And some of you have listened to hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of these episodes, and remember all of this is self awareness, not self loathing.

But I'm sure that some of you have made decisions and been inspired and got a bit in the zone, and then sometime later got out of the zone, got uninspired and stopped doing the thing that you started that does make you bad, weak, flawed or broken, that makes you normal and human, just like me, I've done exactly that, And I guess for me, it wasn't.

For example? Good question. So it might just be like one of my goals might be I want to have a component or an aspect to my life that is more spiritual, more about giving than getting, more about having a purpose bigger than me. And then the next thing I would say, is all right, Well, a question I would ask is, well, all right, Craig, what does that mean?

What does that mean to have a purpose bigger than you, greater than you, so that you're not selfish, so that you're not completely self absorbed, so that you might be giving more even than you're getting. Who knows, and there's no hard and fast rules about any of that. But the truth is that whatever the goal, or whatever the intentional or the desire or the dream, unless there's some kind of strategy wrapped around that, it's very unlikely that the person who says, I want to be much healthier

in twelve months, I want to be much healthier. I want to be leaner, stronger, more functional, better immune system lower. You know, that person who wants that but actually doesn't have a plan or strategy to create that. We can't execute a plan or a strategy we don't have. It's very unlikely that the person who wants to create that outcome but doesn't have any kind of goals or specific structure or plans around that idea, The idea being I want to in one year be a much better version

physiologically of me than I am. Now, that's a nice idea, that's a nice intention, that's an understandable desire, but it's not a goal. It's not a goal and tool there's a structure and a timeline and accountability and process and all of those things. And while, as I said a few minutes ago, I'm all for instinctiveness and intuition and you know, at times flying by the seat of my pants and being in the moment and figuring shit out

in real time. In fact, if I'm being honest, that's my that's my jam, that's what I'm the best at. I'm great at making shit up in the moment. I'm great at figuring shit up, figuring shit out, I should say, in the moment, that intuitive instinctive being in front of a group of people and just figuring it out in real time and all those things is probably, you know, something that I'm I want say I'm great at, but

I think I'm not bad at all of that stuff. Right. So, so for me to be really organized, to be really structured, to have accountability, to have a process, to have timelines, to have some kind of template or to do list that I follow consistently and keeps me kind of grounded and aware and accountable. For me, that was something I really had to develop and learn and incorporate into my life over time, because that isn't my natural kind of

default set. So without giving you a set you know, plan or set rest a set formula, I'm going to give you some some thoughts and ideas. I did do a version of this, I don't know a few years ago on the show, but let's just develop it. So for me, there are some just simple questions that simple questions and or steps that I work through with people. So I'm going to work through these with you. And so the first thing is like what do you want? Like, what is the thing that you want to change or

do or be or create or overcome? What is the thing that you want? What's the outcome that you want? And that thing that you want that that could be. I mean like when I did a goal sitting session last night with my mentor group, So I'm recording this Tuesday morning. We did it Monday night, and even within that, I've shared a framework with them which is a little lot more developed than what I'm sharing with you right now.

But you know, when we talk about different types of goals, for example, so there might be outcome based goals or action based goals, or lifestyle goals, or health goals, or financial goals, or fitness goals or career goals, or spiritual goals as I said before, or learning and or professional development goals, or academic goals, or relationship goals, social goals, giving service goals, and there might even be goals that

are built around having fun and playing just having downtime. Right, So, when we think about the totality of our life, I mean, it's multi dimensional thing, isn't it. We know that, for example, we could be earning great dough, we could be making lots of money, and in the middle of our money stuff, and so you know, in the middle of all of that, we're not particularly happy. And that's no revelation. You know that this is no kind of light bulb moment for anyone.

And so it's trying to factor in as much as we can without doing our head in, but trying to factor in, well, what does success look like for me from a holistic perspective, taking my entire life and existence and experience, my situation, my circumstance, my career, my emotional health, my mental health, my physical health, my social interactions, my relationships, my family. Like when I look at all of that stuff, because that is the stuff that kind of builds my existence,

it's not who I am it's what I do. But that's the stuff that forms the basis of my life and my existence. What are the things that I want to do better? Or what are the things that need to change? What are the things that are going right? So when I say to you question one, what is it that you want? I guess it could be a

bunch of things. It could be internal, it could be external the thing that you want, Like one of the most common goals that I hear from people, once we get through all the kind of smoke and mirrors, what they really want is to be less anxious. It's an internal shift, isn't it. They're not saying what you know what I really want? Want a faster car. You know what I really want? I need a bloody bigger telling. You know what I really want? I want that pair

of jenes. Nothing wrong with wanting any of those things. But what we really want at our core is most of us want to be calm. Most of us want to be joyful. Most of us want to be able to sleep, most of us want to be able to have meaningful relationships. Most of us want to have a life that is full of purpose. Okay, so number one is just what do you want, and when you here's the thing. I know clearly you know that I'm freestyling

as I do this. So here's the thing. If you attempt to do what I'm sharing with you in this little kind of extravaganza here in twenty minutes or ten minutes, it's not going to work. My advice to you is if you are serious about really changing the quality of your life, the direction of your life, what you're doing, how you're being, the outcomes you're producing, potentially your situation or circumstance or career or environment or whatever it is like,

this is not a five to ten minute thing. Last week when I last night, I should say, when I gave the group this framework that I've designed, I said to them, this is at least a ten hour process. And it is because you think about what do you want the next thirty years, or what do you want the next year, what do you want the next three or five years of your life to look like? How

important is it to you to change this stuff? And then and then how much time and energy and focus and brain power do I need to invest now or in the near future, And how much am I willing to invest to create something that I really like being in the middle of for the next one, three, five, ten, twenty, pick your number years. So back to question one, what do you want? Question two is why do you want it?

And you've heard me say this before, but the why, that's your real goal, that's your reason, that's your driver, that's your underlying motivation. That's the thing that is driving

number two. The why is driving number one the what because I believe I have a belief somewhere you and I have a belief that when I achieve the goal question one, the thing that I want, that will give me my why, that will give me the joy, that will give me the ability to be able to you know, when I'm earning more money, There'll be less arguments in the house. When I'm earning more money, I'll be able to sleep at night. When I'm earning more money, I'll

be happier. I'll be this, I'll be that. So there's the external achievement in this case money, the external achievement, and what we think will be the correlated internal shift or outcome. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. And also when we realize, look, what I really want is I just want to get on better with my partner and always having blues about money, or I just want to be able to sleep at night and not worry about money, or I want to be able to, you know, have

a better car and the money will do whatever. It is, none of those bad goals, by the way, or bad reasons. But sometimes when we hit the pause button and we say, is it really is that really going to? Is the reason that we're fighting really just money? Is it only about money? Or could it be something about the way that we think about money? Could it be something about your personality and mind together. Could it be something about our beliefs. Could it be something about fear? Could it

be could it be all of that? And maybe money Maybe it is the solution, by the way, but maybe it's not in some particular instances. So this is my point, is to really understand the underlying psychological and emotional drivers that push us towards wanting a certain goal or outcome. So knowing what you want, of course, is important. Knowing

why you want it is more important. Number three on our little kind of process here is for you to once of s it, maybe do this after you've set a bunch of goals, but then to go through those goals. Let's say you set ten goals that you want to achieve, do be, create, change whatever become over the next year. For example, let's say you've set ten goals. Now, what is a really good idea to do is to go through each of those goals and rank them from five

to ten, not one to ten, five to ten. Now, I'm assuming that they are all somewhat important because you've set a goal. So that's why I start at five. I don't start at one. One would infer that it's unimportant. And if it was unimportant, you're not setting a goal. So I'm going to say in this little kind of Craig scale that you may or may not want to use, but my thinking is five means look, I really I want to do this. I want to change that thing.

But it's not the top of the list. It's not paramount, it's not urgent. But yes, And an example of that might be I would love to do a certificate for in fitness one day. I would love to I'd love

to do the qualification to become a personal trainer. And maybe I want to work in the industry, maybe not, but I'd really love to learn about how the body works and how to lift, and a little bit about nutrition, a little bit about psychology of exercise, a little bit about anatomy and physiology, and so yeah, that's I'm going to put that on my to do list. I would like to do that one day. That is a goal, but it's not a ten goal. It's a five, and I'll get to it eventually probably, but if I don't,

it's not life and death, but a ten. A nine or a ten might be I want to reduce anxiety. As I've said before, a nine or ten might be I want to get physically healthy. And my why is because I don't want to die. My why is I want to have a long health span. Why is I want to be able to play with my kids or grandkids. My why is because I'm in pain all the time and I'm fucking exhausted. Okay, So our why is powerful.

And so with that particular goal, that would be a nine or ten perhaps in this hypothetical that I'm presenting to you. So my point is this, once you've set

your goals, then go through them. And the reason that we can kind of ascribe a number between five and ten is because then it makes it easier for us to action plan moving forwards, so we can prioritize, so I know that my anxiety and my getting in shape, or let's say, in my instance, one of my important goals and commitments is that I look after my mum and dad and as much as I can, I support them, love them, protect them. Whatever that looks like, how important

is that to me? That's a ten. So that's the top of my list, right in terms of just stuff that I want to do over the next one two, five years, right, And so you'll figure out what is a five, six, seven, eight, nine or ten for you. You'll figure that out. And by the way, there's no right or wrong, there's just your right or wrong. So number one is what do you want? Number two is why do you want it? Number three is figure out

how important that is to you? And by the way, you know, the chances of you doing something and creating real shift and real change and an amazing outcome by starting something that for you isn't really important, the chances of you creating a great outcome and next and next to zero, So these things want to really matter to you. Number four is where we get into the really the strategizing, planning operationalizing stage, And that's just how are you going

to do it? You know what you want, you know why you want it, you know how important it is. The Next one is your how cool? So what why? How? How are you going to do it? Like? What is your strategy? What is your plan or of what do you need to do less of? You know what does that look like? So? How will you do be? Create? Change the thing that you need to address or become? What is your plan? What is your strategy? What is the protocol? What needs to become normal for you? And

so on and so on. Number five is your timeline? Cool? You know what you want to do, you know why you want to do it. You've now created a plan about how to do it, how to execute it, how to create it? Great? What's the timeline between where you

are now in the intention dimension? The intention dimension? Do you're like that where we're thinking about it, we're about to start it, but we're not doing it now between right now listening to me in this theoretical stage of this and when you are going to you have actualized that plan or maybe maybe it's an ongoing thing, But

what's your timeline around that? I like having a timeline because it gives us a level of if we do it the right way, it gives us a level of momentum and pressure, a good kind of pressure, so that we will We are more likely to perform if there's no timeline, if there's no KPI, if there's no date my experiences, we are far less, far less likely to get shit done. Number six is two more on this little kind of simple process or framework, whatever you want

to call it. Number six is what's your first step? Like, what is the first practical thing that you are going to do other than set the goals and do this stuff right now? But beyond this stuff that you're going to do, what's your first step? What's the first action? So that might be back to the example of giving of saying I want to do a sert for I want to learn how to be a personal trainer or whatever. Maybe the first step is today, I'm going to make some phone calls. I'm going to ring a couple of

course providers. I'm going to talk to people. I'm going to get an idea of how it works, how it works face to face, how it works online. Is there a hybrid model of that? How much does it cost? How long does it take? Is there anything that I can do in terms of pre prep that I can increase my chances of creating a good outcome? Blah blah blah. So my first step is I'm going to inform myself

educate myself. Maybe it means I'm going to jump l online and have a look at some websites from course providers. Maybe I'm going to talk to Diane or Dave at Australian Fitness Academy or AIIR for whoever it is, right, I'm going to go and I'm going to talk to someone. But what I'm doing is I'm starting the process. I'm starting the process. And number seven is what's your accountability system? In other words, what is your when I'm not motivated plan?

How will you stay proactive and productive and effective when maybe the motivation, the inspiration, the excitement, the focus has disappeared. What is the thing that will keep you doing the thing that you need to do irrespective of the peaks and troughs of emotion and excitement and focus and attention and commitment that you might feel day to day. So how do I you know? So, for example, part of that for me is part of my accountability is that

every day I train with someone else. Every day I train with one of my mates, I train with the crab, as most of you know. And so apart from the fact that I'd probably turn up anyway because I've created a habit, but the fact that I'm going to meet someone, the fact that somebody is going to be at the gym at four o'clock or three o'clock or five o'clock today, that guarantees that I'm going to be there. So the willisle won't I For me personally, it's never really an issue,

But for a lot of us, the will i'le won't. I. Well, my back's little sore, or I'm a bit cold, or it's raining, or I'm a little tired. But if you know that you are going to meet someone and in order to get out of it, you know you've got to ring them and tell them that, then it's much more likely. Research and observation and anecdote tells me that people are much more likely to keep doing the thing they need to do to create the outcome they want

to create, in other words, achieve the goal. They achieve the goal they want to achieve. When there is accountability and Accountability can be anything from keeping a food and exercise diary to seeing a psychologist or a counselor or a coach or a dietitian or a personal trainer on

a regular basis. It could be a walking partner. It could be somebody that you meet a certain number of days a week at a certain time, and that's locked in, and you guys just do that whether or not that is you know, every day or some days you know, and it's flexible, I guess, But it's just means that you have a level of commitment that is going to be harder to break than to actually complete, because you don't want to let someone down, you don't want to

be embarrassed you, and so on and so on, and so I think this is I'm not going to bang on too much longer, but I think this is not a bad place to start. And I think in a world of an ever increasing social media and media world and audiobook world of and written hard copy book world of how to be better, how to think better, how to do better, how to reach your peak, how to be all you can be, and all of that stuff is cool. It's all cool. But here's what I know.

I know that we have never had more inspirational, motivational, educational, get your shit together stuff. We've never had more than we have now. And my observation is that I think

generally people are struggling more than ever. Not everyone and not all the time, of course, but I am speaking to more and more and more people who's the wheels are falling off their life and their sanity and their physical health and their you know, and things are hard, and things are things are not easy, and so this

is no judgment or criticism. This is just an awareness that I have had, and I just now, whatever protocol you follow, whatever you know, you might you might come up with your own version of what I just said, or you might follow something completely all completely different altogether. It doesn't matter. But you are not going to accidentally end up great. You're not going to stumble into high levels of physical, mental, and emotional health. You're not going

to accidentally get there. You're not going to accidentally build an awesome career or business. You're not going to accidentally resolve all the problems. You're not going to accidentally undo all those things that you did or deal with that habit without any conscious effort and So knowing is good, informing, being informed is good, education is good. Podcasts are good some of them. And that goes with everything, right, books, everything,

But it's up to you even with my stuff. Don't believe it because I say it, don't believe it because you perhaps like me or enjoy listening to me, but rather just say, well, that seems to make sense. I'm going to take it for a test drive. I'm going to try it out. But there needs to there needs to be a point in time where all of us, me included. There needs to be a point in time where not that we stop listening, or we stop reading,

or we stop learning. I think reading, learning, listening, you know, upskilling personal growth. I think this is this is for me. It's been an ongoing classroom for me, you know. But at the same time, if we wait until we're comfortable or certain or you know, all the planets have aligned, if we keep waiting to actually step into the process, we look up and it's five five years down the track.

We look up and we're like, oh shit, and now I'm sixty, Now I'm fifty old shit, And now it's two thousand and thirty not twenty twenty five, and five years ago, I was talking about this, I was thinking about this. I was listening to Craig's podcast. I started this, I stopped that. I started this, I stopped that. I almost did it, then I undid it. I got excited, then I got unexcited. I was in the zone. I

was out of the zone. And this, for many of us, is just a fucking cycle of frustration, pointlessness, and wasted time and talent and potential. The only person that can make your life awesome as you, the only person that can overcome toxic thinking and destructive habits and start to create better outcomes as you. And yes, you can be supported and encouraged, and you can have you know, the Cheersquad, and you can all of those things, and they're not bad,

they're good. But ultimately it comes down to you. Ultimately, it comes down to what you do with what you know. Ultimately it comes down to your resilience and your courage and your ability to just keep doing the things that you need to do.