In 2023 I was at a video conference called Vidsummit sitting in a crowd of thousands of people waiting to see Tom Bilyeu's keynote.
Tom had built and sold Quest nutrition for a billion dollars and went on to create the wildly successful media conglomerate Impact Theory. I had my pen and notebook out ready to absorb every word this man said. Tom charismatically walked on stage, grabbed the mic, and said "If I could tell you only one thing today, it would be this..."
"Only do and believe that which moves you toward your goals."
A simple, yet profound philosophy that taught me two things about how billionaires think:
Setting goals is the cornerstone of achievement
All your behaviors and actions should be based on your goals
Goal setting is the single most important skill in achieving your dream life, and yet, people are terrible at it.
If you're like 43% of the population, you will give up on New Year's Resolution by February. If you're like 91% of the population, your New Year's Resolutions will fail.
After many hours of reflection, analysis, and studying wildly successful individuals like Tom, I've created an 11 step framework that turns goal setting from a guessing game into a science.
Here are the 12 steps you need to finally achieve your New Year's Resolutions.
Start with why (Set goals based on intrinsic motivations to not quit when it gets tough)
Take inventory of your current reality (social media followers, bank account, etc.)
Identify your bad habits and potential roadblocks
Set 10 year, 5 year, 3 year, 1 year, and quarterly goals (set a vision, then get hyper-specific)
Set SMART goals (specific, measurable, actionable, reasonable, timebound)
Invert your goals (what would guarantee that you would fail?)
Set Anti-Goals (what are you not willing to do to achieve your goals?)
Set output goals (results and numbers) then set input goals (what you can control)
Map out a detailed plan with microsteps along the way
Track and measure the data that shows progress or digression (track all data rigorously)
Use data to reflect on your progress and adjust your inputs based on results (study data rigorously)
Look at your goals on a piece of paper every single day (remind yourself of your goals daily, why you want them, and what you need to do to get them.)