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“My definition of success is to look back at the end of your life and say, ‘I have used my time on earth well.’” – Jeff Hoffman
People feel the need to assign meaning to certain dates and events. For example, January 1st feels different than most other days, even though it’s actually just another day. Much of the western world is engaged in setting resolutions, and some are taking the extra step of turning their resolutions into goals. In a company this may be an update of the strategic plan or a commitment to one BHAG (big hairy bold goal) that will inspire and motivate the team.
Then, predictably, you get busy. Life happens. The business happens. Goals become good intentions – when you don’t have a system to keep them at the forefront of your thinking and business.
In December, I spent three days with a client’s executive team developing the most robust strategic plan they ever had. The whole team felt great doing it. Then, within the first two weeks of January, one executive left the company, another took extended leave for personal reasons, and the CEO was stuck out of town due to unexpected travel restrictions.
While the remaining executives instinctively went into maintenance mode, pausing any forward-looking initiatives that weren’t urgent or had no impact on the customer, they didn’t. They made the difficult decision to stay on course and continue to devote resources to what is most important for long-term business growth, rather than just meeting urgent needs.
Take the time to actually think about your thoughts.
You know those moments when you’re chatting with a friend, listening to a podcast, or just taking a few minutes’ rest in the car or shower, and you have a thought. Maybe it was a quote, a snippet of something someone said, or a blinding flash of the obvious that seemed to come out of nowhere but sticks with you.
It might be a passing thought, but instead choose to linger for minutes or days and it will change your perspective. It affects how you think about a particular situation and can even cause you to take action that you otherwise would not have taken.
I call this a “driving thought” because it’s a subtle nudge that drives a different perspective or behavior. Capturing these ideas and framing them around an annual theme is a powerful way to keep track of your goals over the course of the year – especially at times when you have excuses to prioritize day-to-day challenges over the future.
After all, it is your thoughts as a leader that drive the company.
Choose your driving thoughts.
While I love business books and inspirational quotes as much as I love the next growth junkie, I’ve found that the aha moments can go away as quickly as they come. Choosing some of these as my driving thoughts for the year is one way to keep the inspiration alive.
Here are some driving thoughts that have helped me focus on my goals over the past few years:
- “Determination of goals is the starting point for all performance.” – W. Clement Stone
- Put money where it grows, not where it shows.
- Seeking satisfaction, not pleasure.
After making my own list of driving thoughts for a couple of years, I started asking my clients to do the same. Here are a few examples they shared with me:
- Large doors swing on small hinges.
- The grass is greener where I water it.
- I didn’t get this far just to get this far.
Keep the aha moments alive.
As you can see, many of these driving thoughts are quotes or simple sayings that we have heard somewhere that we can adopt as our own focus. It doesn’t matter whether it comes from a film, book, podcast or conversation. It is relevant how these thoughts or sayings apply to you and your goals – personal, professional or both – for the coming year.
When the time comes to write down my goals for the year, I usually pick three to five driving thoughts that I know will guide me in pursuing my goals and write them down at the top of the page. Then I set a recurring reminder on my phone to review my goals weekly, along with individual recurring tasks for each driving thought so that one or two pop up randomly each day.
Every time I see a memory, it offers a five second mental reset. This helps me meet my annual goals year round, and it has even contributed to how I make decisions and what opportunities I take or turn down during the year.
From there I take the goals I wrote down and my list of driving thoughts and formulate a theme for the year.
Determine the subject.
Now that you have goals and driving thoughts to guide you, try condensing them into one overarching topic that can be your mantra for the year. For me, the theme of the year is often just a single word or a short phrase.
Your topic is unique to you and your current goals or priorities and needs to ask “What do you want this year to be about?” respond. Another way to ask yourself this question is, “When this year is over and I’m celebrating all the progress I’ve made, what’s the best word or phrase to sum up how it was for me?”
Again, I’ll give you a few examples, both from my own topics over the past few years and from some that my clients have shared with me:
- renovation
- Create space
- transformation
- Celebrate the progress
- Say yes to adventure
Three years ago I set myself the topic of “creating space”. This was one of the most challenging and helpful topics I’ve ever chosen because it meant letting go of good things to make room for even better ones.
This is one of those ideas that sounded awesome on paper. However, when the time came to say no on good opportunities, reality set in and space creation wasn’t as easy as it sounded. Sometimes I began to question myself, overanalysing my goals, or even questioning my own sanity, but my subject was a powerful reminder that I was working toward something bigger.
In retrospect, I can see that “creating space” was a real gift because it helped me focus on my goals and control my emotions when it came to critical decision points. Because of this, the whole process of identifying your goals, brainstorming and the annual theme is well worth it.
What driving thoughts would you like to shape your decisions and behavior in 2021? What topic would you like to have this year? The nice thing about it is that regardless of outside factors, you can decide what should be for you in 2021. When it’s over, I hope you can look back with satisfaction, knowing that you lived it well.
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