I love the beginning and end of the year more than any other time.
As a strategy-obsessed and goal-oriented person with countless projects, ideas, and ambitions, only January and December present an opportunity where I feel that I can truly breath, think, reflect, and plan. For me, the rest of the year is for executing the plan and adapting. Without the process I follow every January and December, I don’t think I would be able to accomplish a fraction of what I’ve been able to over the last decade.
So, whether or not you are like me in this regard, you likely have things you want to accomplish, and I thought it might be helpful to share with you what my process looks like.
This is the blueprint for how I plan my year.
Overview
This is the outline for what I do each year.
I’ll break each of these down and give examples.
My Three Words
I start out the year picking my three words.
Instead of resolutions which tend to get abandoned, these three words are themes that I keep in mind throughout the year. I’m not resolving to do anything. I’m thinking about who I want to be and choosing three words to remind me of these commitments.
These words are something I tend to think about throughout the previous year as I notice areas I’m falling short, places I need to grow, or ways to enhance what’s already working. As I think of words that may work for the upcoming year, I’ll add them to a note for future reference.
This year the three words are Author - Reduce - Delegate.
I make myself a phone lock screen wallpaper so I see these everyday.
Once I have my themes, I move to Goals.
Goals
While themes are meant to color and flavor my year, goals are tangible outcomes I’m hoping to accomplish. These are generally S.M.A.R.T goals with the time aspect being by the the end of the year, but occasionally with more immediate due dates.
I break these goals up into 3 categories:
Once I have all of my goals written down, I later go back and break them into action plans and spread it across my calendar for the year with due dates and milestones.
Personal Goals
Personal goals include, but are not limited to:
Examples: Get my weight under 175lbs, save $10,000 for my daughter’s college fund, see my parents in person, get together with each of my closest friends at least once this year.
In my personal life, I try not to be too goal-oriented, as I tend to have so many professional goals.
Professionals Goals
This is the largest category for me as it relates to Goals. The main reason is that there are multiple sub-sections and sub-sub-sections that I think about.
Revenue Goals
Because I have multiple streams of revenue, I set a dollar amount that I’d like to earn broken down by revenue stream.
For example: $150,000 in solo consulting revenue, $300,000 in Super Productive Revenue, $50,000 in speaking & training revenue, and $15,000 in content, affiliate, and online product related revenue. I always set attainable but ambitious revenue goals.
Content & Marketing Goals
I have a lot of content & marketing projects.
There’s Becoming Superhuman, which is content that is available as a blog, newsletter, and