Do you ever wish you owned a crystal ball and could see what the future holds for you? In this episode, Jimmy shares several strategies and ideas to help you create the future you desire and how to eliminate the distractions that rob you of your goal achievement.
Episode Keys
- The four-step process to implement changes in your life that will take you in the direction you wish to go.
- Why the writing of your goal is the most effective means of creating urgency to achieve it.
- How to think about your goals in a framework that gives you clarity.
- What you must do to own your future!
- Jimmy’s proven method of setting, reviewing and accomplishing your big, hairy audacious goals!
Podcast Transcription
JW: Good morning! This is Jimmy Williams with Live a Life by Design. Your Monday morning moments of motivation are right here at your fingertips. One of the things that we wanted to say to you is, Happy New Year! We trust you got your new year off to a great start. I don’t know about you, but I’m looking for a year that we don’t wear masks, we don’t have COVID issues, and don’t laugh, but I can go sit down with my friends and just have a nice dinner without worrying about health issues. But those days will come soon enough. In the meantime, how did your year turn out last year? Did you feel like you achieved your goals? Perhaps you just set them all aside when your life was disrupted. Well, today we’re going to talk about something most important to you, and that is how you can still predict the future. And I have joining with me today, a very, very special guest star. This person is not just a guest, this is a guest star on this podcast. She’s one of the brightest talents I’ve met in my entire life. And I will tell you, she’s going to bring a whole different side to this podcast episode, and I’ll introduce her in just a moment. But predicting the future seems to be out of touch for everyone. I mean, who would have predicted in 2020 that we, in the month of March, would shut down the world’s most industrious country, that’s it. We shut down restaurants, theaters, museums, businesses, airlines. It was travesty. Did that derail you from meeting some of your goals that you had set so eagerly back in January of 2020? Well, I’ve got to be honest, it did derail a few of mine because I had some trips planned to travel to Europe. Well, we’re not going to Europe in 2020 during the middle of a pandemic, but you have to make adjustments. You have to find a way to still seek out the life you wish, the one you crave and desire, because you know at Live a Life by Design, every day is a gift. So I want to give you a quick story about how you can predict your future. President Lincoln, even though it’s falsely ascribed to him, was supposedly have said that you can predict the future by creating it. Now, his premise is valid, even though he wasn’t the one that originated the statement. And today, we will provide you the tools and tactics to create your future in the manner you desire. Goals often receive a bad rep as a waste of time or life is simply going to happen, I have no control. Well, one of the best methods of helping yourself live the life you desire is to be an active participant in the process. You know those lazy rivers we see at the water parks, where you just basically lie down on that air mattress and go which way the wave takes you? Well, that’s not what we do in life. We set the sail, we put that sail up to which direction you wish to go, and from there achieve what you call greatness. Jim Rowan, one of my mentors, often said, “It is not the blowing of the wind, but the setting of the sail that determines your direction.” So join me today, and I want to recognize this wonderful talent, she’s a podcast guru and a marketing manager of Compass Capital Management, Ashley Stieb. Welcome Ashley.
AS: Hi. How are you tonight? Or this morning?
JW: See? She’s so confused already, folks. I’ll tell you she works 24/7 at our place. I can’t get her to take a day off. Oh my gosh.
AS: … Really messed it up for me.
JW: Well, tell me a little bit, Ashley, about what’s been going on in your world so far, in 2021? It’s even hard for me to say that, 2021.
AS: Not much really. I actually don’t think I’ve left the house. I don’t think I’ve left the house this year.
JW: Oh, no. Well, the good news for Ashley is she’s not having to wear a mask because she’s at home. So, there you go. No. So let’s talk a little bit today, I wanted Ashley to join us because she has a different spin on some of this stuff. She’s going to be asking some questions of me, I’m going to ask some questions of her related to goal setting and achievement. So hey, let’s just get started.
AS: So why do you view goal planning and creation to be important in your life?
JW: That’s a very simple question, but here’s the very simple answer. If in fact we wish to change trajectory of our life, perhaps increase our livelihood, enhance our relationships, to me, it all begins with setting the determination to do so, that intentionality that requires us to get up every morning, seek out those relationships we desire, those that we wish to enhance, but it also begins with, where do you want to be a year from now? And so to me, the whole purpose of goal planning is to set my life where I wish it to be. How about you Ashley? So let me ask you this question. How did you determine to set the goals you set for 2020 and achieve some big ones? And she did folks, she got a lot done. She may not realize it, because she was battling COVID on one side, a new career on the other, moving her family across the state, graduating with her degree in undergrad school and on top of that, had a very sick kitten in her household. You had a lot going on, so how did you set your goal planning?
AS: Oh man. Honestly, last year I really feel like we did kind of just roll with the punches because the whole year… 2020 was going to be our year. We were going to buy a house. We were going to start a family. I was graduating and Kevin was going to start his second year working and it was just going to be amazing. And then March felt like we hit a wall, and so I think at that point it was kind of just day by day, making little goals to get through the day and to get towards the light at the end of the tunnel that is COVID, which we’re now approaching. So yeah. I don’t know. It just took a lot of… I really don’t know.
JW: Well, you seem a little bit… Kind of shell shocked, everybody would be, but you realize you graduated college while working full time, started a new career with our firm and you’ve just been knocking it out of the park. She’s the most creative person you’ll ever find, folks, I can tell you that. And a technical genius on all these software items. You know, I come up with ideas and I send them to her and she goes, “Hey, that’s great, but let me give you one better.” So I love that attitude. So let me ask you this, what is your number one goal for this year? And in what domain of life? Is it your personal, financial, avocational? What is it? Your number one goal for this year.
AS: I think my number one goal for this year, apart from getting the vaccine, is going to be buying a house. So personal and financial, that was something we almost did last year, as you know. We were days away from closing when we made the very difficult decision to just drop the whole deal, because we didn’t feel like we were where we were supposed to be. So now we’re in a rent house, we decided we should rent for a year instead of just moving someplace new and buying, because you never know what could happen, you think you’re going to end up one place and then life says, “Nope.” So we’re definitely looking forward to buying a house this year. That’s going to be the one thing that I’m going to look forward to because I feel a little traumatized, I had so many things last year, got like one.
JW: Folks, she was already picking out furniture and all that good stuff, so that’s still there. So one thing we learned is we learned a P word, right Ashley? In 2020, just pivot, you got to kind of go with it. So you and your husband said, “Hey, we’re going to a new area.” He’s starting a new career area with a new company, and he’s an optometrist, so I’m saying he’s got to start with a new patient base and so forth. So you said, “Hey, let’s just lease a home for a while. And then we will build the home we want.” And I think that’s excellent goal planning though, too many people think that’s not what that is, but what you said was, “Okay, we got thrown a curve ball, we were almost in a house within literally a week or two, and now we’re back to leasing a home again.” But what you did is you pivoted and now you still got that goal, you’re going to buy the house and now we can focus on it, knowing we got new facts to work with. I just think you’re making good decisions. And to me, that’s what goal planning does, gives you a chance to reflect where you are. So let’s talk about the four step process I use. And Ashley, you just gave me a great opening, even though you didn’t know you did that. Here we go. One thing you do is called an after action review, the military uses this in all missions. Now I say that because Ashley’s dad is retired military, so I’m sure he’s heard of this. But what you do is you write down what’s happened, so Ashley would actually sit down and say, “Okay, here was our goal last year, it did not happen.” You then evaluate what could have been different, what was your experience? The third step of that is, is then you sit down and you write, “Well, okay, now that I know these facts, I can use this as a new decision.” And the fourth step is to engage. So to me, you’ve done that, you may not have known that’s what you’ve done, but you did an after action review and you made this big family move, everything’s going great. And it’s much better now because she has a dog, everybody. And Joey is such a light of the world. He’s a little bit of a speedster though, we can’t seem to catch him in the backyard she says, but anyway.
AS: Got away from me, he be going.
JW: He’s a track star in the making.
AS: Absolutely. So many people say that goal planning is not an enjoyable exercise for them. Can you explain to our listeners how you establish your goals for your life?
JW: So it’s like any other habits. So let me ask you, Ashley, something kind of personal here, because we’re an open book on Live a Life by Design, but do you have a habit of brushing your teeth every day?
AS: I do.
JW: How did you get started in that habit?
AS: My mom told me I had to.
JW: Someone helped you create a habit that said, I see the toothbrush sitting in the stand there every day. When I get into the restroom or the bathroom, you go brush your teeth, and so the same thing with the goal planning exercise. What I did is I set up a habit, every day I do the same thing, when I first get up, I get ready and during what I consider my work day start-up, I look at my goals that I have and my big three for that day. And so the exercise to me is real simple, once you’ve been through it and learn the habit, it kind of automatically takes place. Just like you don’t have to think, I’ll bet, which leg you put in your pants when you get them and put them on in the morning, Ashley? Which leg?
AS: Probably my right leg.
JW: She said probably her right leg. So let me ask you folks, how many of you think about what you’re doing? No, you just put them on and that’s the way goal planning will be once you eventually embrace it. And we’re going to share a tool with you on our website that Ashley and I are going to put up there for you, that’s going to help break this down into a real simple step-by-step process that will create, monitor, and execute on your goals. So be looking for that in the show notes.
AS: So what does a person do if their plan gets derailed, as we’ve seen with COVID-19?
JW: You know, that’s another great question. So I will be very honest, during 2020, I had, as I said, some pretty lofty goals. I wanted to spend a month in Europe, had all these plans and places I wanted to go, the research I wanted to do for the new book, those things, and it just got set aside. So we got derailed, but do you just stop, fold your hands and say, “I quit”? I mean, at the end of the day, you cannot do that. As I said earlier, every day is a gift. So what I did, Ashley, is I just pivoted my goals, changed some of the goals we had, maybe from the domain of avocation, which was my hobbies, the things I want to do, the travel. And maybe I put it in another life domain, such as, I don’t know, reading perhaps. So at the end of the day, I still can build my database of knowledge, I can build myself a background for what I want to do in the book. I just may not have those nice photos that I wanted to put in there, or the actual research from the sites that I would attend. So at the end of the day, the best thing for me to say is, don’t let the derailment cost you the entire goal, just pivot and work in another area of your life. And we see that a lot happening in COVID-19, but we see it happen in a lot of lives. So for example, this will never happen to Ashley or me, of course, we married perfect mates. I don’t know how we did it, Ashley, but we just got the perfect people. But anyway, some people are going through life and they have difficulties with their spouse, or their mate. And they may separate. Well, that is a very disruptive time in their lives and I’m certain that their goals as a family would be derailed, but you still have to find a means to pick yourself up and keep moving forward through the process. We just don’t give up. So that’s kind of my thinking. What do you see is the best way to pick yourself back up once you get derailed? What do you think about?
AS: I think you just kind of have to lay all the cards out on the table and look at them and if you’ve got to move some things around, you just have to move some things around. You just have to… Like you said, you can’t just fold it, you just got to go, decide what your next move would be.
JW: At the end of the day, I want to give a little plug, Ashley and her sister have a podcast, for example, and their lives have been a little disrupted for their podcast because her sister works a different time shift than Ashley’s available, and it’s just been very, very overwhelming with all the holidays and the work. And so she and I were talking and she said, “Well, we haven’t even had an opportunity to sit down and record our episodes.” And the one thing I said to you, do you remember what I said to you? I said, “Hey, it’s all right. Find some common time in the very near future and get back on the saddle.” And you just have to do that in life, like you’re doing with your house. So you’ll be going through looking at plans, looking at builders, finding lots and so before you know it, you’re back on track, getting that goal accomplished. And, as I say, buying a house is a big, hairy, audacious goal to accomplish. So I know you can do it.
AS: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we were so close before, so I know we can do it too.
JW: Yeah. Just keep focused, that’s the key. Keep focused. Right?
AS: Exactly. So you mentioned about all the domains in life, how do you achieve balance among all the domains with your busy lifestyle?
JW: Well, I’ve got to be honest with you, I don’t do this balancing act as well as I’d like, but do you recall the gentlemen, when you go to some of these entertainment areas where they have the gentleman that’s sits these sticks down on the ground and spins these plates, and he puts it on the stick and he’s got one stick going, now two sticks going, now he has to come back and push on the first one again, get it going again a little bit more. He adds a third or fourth or fifth, sometimes up to six, seven, eight sticks with plates spinning on them. Now these are nice plates that will crack into pieces if they hit the ground, what does he keep doing though, to keep each plate on its appropriate stick? He goes back and gives it a little attention, if he sees that it’s starting to wobble too much, he keeps that stick going just a little bit longer. And that’s the key to me. I can look at my life domains every week and see if I’ve spent a little too much time in the vocation or work side of it. And maybe not enough time on the family side. And I will tell you, that’s happened a lot in my career because I just love what I do and work with the people I enjoy. And I’ll tell you, Ashley, one of my challenges today, during COVID, was to find time not to work because we were working from home. I mean, if your office is only eight feet away from where you sleep almost, mine’s a little bit further than that, but my point is, it’s right there handy, it is hard to fight the urge to say, “I can spend just another hour and get that project done,” or, “I can get this done and start this project.” So what do you see in your life domains? Where do you think you spend the most of your time trying to balance?
AS: I guess just keeping in touch with people. I think that would be the one part of life that I have the hardest time balancing, especially with everything going on and being stuck at home and not being able to see my friends and family. And I kind of get a little sad about it and then I just want to curl into a ball and sleep through it so I don’t have to feel sad about it, but then I’m taking that time being sad and not communicating with my friends and family in the only way that’s really possible right now. So I would say that, that’s probably the area that needs the most re-spinning on the little things.
JW: Get the stick moving, get the plate spinning some more.
AS: Yeah, absolutely. So what system do you recommend for someone to monitor and strive for reaching their goals and how do you track your performance?
JW: So I use a hybrid system, Ashley, and you’ve probably heard too much of this in your time just being with us for a year. I use the Full Focus Planner, by Michael Hyatt and Company. And I’m saying that as a free plug to them, they have a great planner. I bet I went through a dozen or more trying to find the right one to fit my needs and that one works. But what I did is, I basically list my annual goals at the very front of each quarterly planner and then I work on a piece of those goals each quarter. So I may have 10 or 12 goals for the year, but I don’t work on all of them at the same time, so I prioritize which of those is most important. Now, Ashley, here’s my secret to success, I work harder at the beginning of the week because I can take off Fridays at noon, right? So we leave office noon and maybe some days I take off a full day Friday and have a three-day weekend. So if we reach our goals early, then we get a little bit better of a break at the end, but I do the same thing with goals. So my top three goals of those 12, I will try to hit in the first quarter, the first 90 days a year, and get those done. And the way I track those, is through my planner. I look to see if I’ve not worked on that goal for at least a week or two, I’ll know I’m getting out of sync again and I have to come back and I can track that in my planner by having just basically, don’t laugh, something as simple as check boxes. So I set up boxes and say, “Did I work on this project this week? How far did I get?” And I give myself a percentage. And at the end of the day, that really helps keep me focused on what’s most important without getting distracted and, don’t laugh, Ashley, I got this thing called distraction with action, anything happening around me, I get to looking at it. And so if I don’t have my eyes on the prize, I will lose out on my goal for the quarter, if you will, and then ultimately for the year. So how are you keeping track of your goals, Ashley? What do you write them down in? Or how are you keeping track overall?
AS: Yeah, so I also have a planner. I don’t use the Full Focus Planner, I use the Erin Condren planner, which has a bunch of different formats that you can choose from. And they actually just recently came out with a Focused line. I did not get that one, I stuck with what I know, because I feel like I just need something that I know right now. And so every day I have where I can put my main tasks and then it has a little section where you can kind of do a to-do thing, so what am I going to do today to make sure… So then I kind of do the same thing, I just do check boxes next to what I need to get done. And then it has like the monthly calendar laid out in the front, so I can look at the whole month, kind of get an overview, look at the week. And then I even have a bunch of inserts that I’ve added into it to keep me on track. So I have an insert that shows my weekly menu for dinner because I plan my dinners on Sundays and we go and get all of our groceries for the entire week, and that’s how we do it so we know we’re not going to buy a bunch of random stuff that we’re not going to use.
JW: Then you wouldn’t want to shop groceries with me. I’m the guy that runs down the aisle and goes, “Hey, that looks really good.”
AS: That’s where we were pre-COVID.
JW: Got you. Got you. That is funny.
AS: Now we don’t go into the grocery store, so it’s a little bit better for us.
JW: But the point we’re making, folks, is she has a system and you can’t just think, well, I’ll keep this in my mind, to me, you lose clarity where it doesn’t fall out the end of the pen or pencil, you’ve got to write things down and then you can focus and show intentionality by reviewing what you’ve written down and tracking your progress. So it’s just like any other goal. If you’re wanting to lose weight, for example, at the end of the day, you can’t say, “Okay, I’ve gained this extra 40 pounds in my 40 years, I’m going to lose it in three months.” It just doesn’t work that way, but you can track it to lose a small amount every week. And that’s just by eliminating a few calories per day, so you turn it into bite-sized pieces. So Ashley’s done the same thing I like to do, is check boxes, show some progress, check it off. And I got to say, Ashley, does it make you feel good when you check the box?
AS: Oh yeah.
JW: Now, I’m going to ask Ashley kind of a personal question and she has to answer this honestly, but have you ever done something during the day that you didn’t have listed, and you wrote it down and put a check box by it just so you could check it?
AS: Oh yeah. So I have a calendar on my wall, this is where I do this most often. I have a calendar on my wall and it’s one of those dry erase ones, so I erase it at the end of the month and fill in the new month. I’m always a few days late. So I will go through and I’ll write things down. I think I probably filled in this months on, I think maybe last Friday, to be honest. And I went through what I wrote back and I wrote down, “One year at Compass Capital Management,” checked it off. On the following Monday I put, “One year evaluation,” and I checked it off. It’s already happened though, I just put it down because I was like, “Yeah, I did that.”
JW: So scientifically, what are you telling yourself when you have to go back and list what you’ve done, and then put the check box there and check it after you’ve done it? What is that telling you, scientifically?
AS: I guess, like you always say, I’m just closing that tab in my brain.
JW: Yeah. So you’re closing the file, right? And the other thing about that is, is that you actually, subconsciously or otherwise, achieved a goal and you’ve got to close that file because when you do, that releases the endorphins in the body, man, you feel like, hey, I got something big done. I put up with Jimmy for a whole year! She’s laughing now, folks. She was crying big tears the other day, I’m telling you. No, I’m just kidding.
AS: Never. So why would anyone want to plan for the next five to 10 years of their life?
JW: So I’ve got a quick question for you. When you were a little girl, did you ever have big dreams of wanting to be a dancer or the president or anything like that?
AS: All of the above.
JW: You bet, you bet. Well, I got to say this, let’s go back and visit President Kennedy’s goal, he had a very big, hairy, audacious goal for our country. And what he did is he set about in 1961, now that was way before Ashley was born, but on May the 25th, 1961, President Kennedy did something in goal setting that serves as the standard for all of us on a longterm planning basis. He went before a joint session of Congress and then charged the Congress and his administration to safely send a man to the moon and return him to earth within the decade. Now, let me tell you, we hadn’t gotten a man even into orbit at this time and he wanted to go to a moon that circles around the earth, and he wants to land someone on it. This was a big, big goal. And what happened though, Ashley? Do you think it really happened or do you think that he said, “Well, I set the goal and we’re not going to worry about it?”
AS: I think it happened.
JW: It did happen. So President Johnson, of course, after the horrific assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas, Johnson picks up the mantle of this goal. So what President Kennedy had done was set a why in motion. “Why is this important?” And he related the importance of sending a man to the moon and safely returning to the earth, how it would change life for us in the United States and mankind as a whole on the planet. So the good news is, is July the 20th, 1969, just eight years later, the dream became a reality and the goal was literally accomplished. So those astronauts that touched the actual surface of the moon were Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong. And both of these men… Now, Ashley, let me ask you this, how many years do you think they had goals to be astronauts? Was it six months?
AS: No. They probably had it from the day that Kennedy announced he wanted to put a man on the moon. I would.
JW: Absolutely. Or before, right? So they have been training all of their life for this one goal to be accomplished. And it’s not like you just go, “Hey, you know what? This year, in 2021, I’m going to become an astronaut by the end of the year.” Now for Jimmy, I want to talk about the framework we place these, but for me, that wouldn’t be a realistic goal, Ashley. Now for you, you’re much brighter, you’re a millennial, you might can get that done.
AS: I don’t know about that.
JW: Yeah, but not me. So what happens is, the goal that was set for them by the president, they had already been training for those types of flights and things to get prepared for all of the details that would have to take place, and they got it. And so let’s talk a little bit, Ashley, if you don’t mind, about those frameworks. Let’s talk about how to set a goal that will actually help you achieve the end result you desire. So there’s a framework out there, they used at IBM a long time ago, called SMART Goals. Well, I adopted what Michael Hyatt has and I give him credit for this, but it’s called SMARTER Goals, that’s S-M-A-R-T-E-R. So the S stands for specific goals, you want them specific and focused enough that you’ll know that it’s easy to start and easy to transition to finish. So you want such clarity as you’ll know when you’ve reached your goal, that it’s that specific. The second thing is, the M is measurable. So after you write your goal, you need to know, what are the markers I have to make to show that I’ve actually reached the goal? Make it measurable. So when it’s in weight loss, a lot of people go, “I’d like to lose 10 pounds.” Well, that doesn’t do it for me. I say stuff like, “It’s already happened.” I wish to weigh 190 pounds by March 31st, 2021. Now, if I only weighed 200 pounds, Ashley, that might be achievable, but I don’t think that’s going to get there for me at this stage of life, that’s a little too aggressive. But the A in SMARTER stands for actionable. So we want to use action verbs, like I said, I wish to be, it’s not that much action, but how about if it said like this, “I will lose five pounds per month for the next 12 months to achieve my goal of 60 pounds total weight loss.” That takes action. And now let’s go to R, risky goals. Ashley, let me ask you something. Do you think it was risky for you to make the move all the way across our state to start a new position in his career and so forth? Was that risky for you guys?
AS: Absolutely.
JW: Yeah. So it takes you out of your comfort zone. That’s what a good, defined goal will do. It’ll take you from your comfort zone, because I always say, you cannot be your best self if you reach your potential. So you want those goals to be risky. And then the last one, the T of the word SMART, is time-bound, I’ve got to set some time on it. So Ashley said she and her husband wished to live in this home that they’re going to lease for about a year, and then they’re going to buy a home in 2021, this is their goal, or build a home. And so they put a timeframe on it, so they’ve got a SMART Goal. It’s specific, it’s measurable, they’ll know where they have it done, it’s actionable, she can start picking out furniture, ain’t that right?
AS: Yep. Can’t wait.
JW: And it’s a risky goal. It takes money. It takes time to build homes and so forth, and it’s time-bound. This year, they’re going to get it done. But here’s the ER, Ashley, the E is for exciting. Building your first home is exciting, you get to do exactly what you wish, you pick out the colors, the floor tile, the trim, you get the design you wish. Everything you want is exciting about that goal. And then the last R is relevant, so it is relevant that you have a home. So the SMARTER, S-M-A-R-T-E-R, framework would define her goal for building a home as one that is specific, measurable, actionable, risky, time bound, exciting and relevant. Does that make sense?
AS: Absolutely. It does.
JW: So I’ve got to ask you a hard question.
AS: Oh no.
JW: Here it goes. Here it goes. How do you know what type of home you wish to build? And how do you know you can build that style of home that you wish?
AS: The internet.
JW: The internet. She’s a millennial, folks. The internet said so. I love that. That’s pretty funny. Let me ask you a question, which domain of life is the toughest for you in terms of goal-setting, Ashley?
AS: I think that it would be… It’s kind of changed recently, I guess. The toughest domain for me, I guess, would be my own personal health, like losing weight and exercising, which has become very difficult since COVID and everything has started, but that’s still fairly new for me, just last year that kind of started. And so before that it was money management, before Kevin was working and we were both in school, one income. So that was the hardest thing for me to do. I was like, “I’m going to save $2,000 this year.” Did I ever save $2,000? Nope.
JW: But you survived, that’s the key. So you survived.
AS: I did.
JW: You know, it’s one of the funny things in life, when you look at the different domains of where we live our lives and how we live as individuals, we want to find out that we’re not just singular mindset. We want to know that we have a well-rounded life and so forth. So that, to me, is the importance of… And the toughest thing you can do in goal setting is trying to balance all of this within reason. So when I set my 12 goals for the year, I actually try to set some goals and then I work on habits, achievements in those different domains during the quarter, so that I don’t get out of balance. Now we have something good in our lives called spouses, Ashley. And they’re very good at identifying when you and I probably get out of our balance, wouldn’t you say?
AS: I would say so, yeah. So if you could leave our listeners with one word of advice, what would it be?
JW: Oh man. So here it is. I would highly recommend that you sit down and take just a few minutes, even if it’s 30 minutes of quiet time, put the headsets on and get all the noise away from you and just dream on paper. So don’t laugh, I do this every December when I’m writing my goals for the next year, I just sit down and literally dream and say, “If money and resources were never limited, if they were just unlimited to me, what would I do and why?” And that’s how I come up with my goals for the next year. Now, I don’t assume that I’ve got unlimited resources, but I do work to exploit, and I hate to use that term, that’s what I do, the resources I have to gain the most benefit I can to get that well-balanced lifestyle. So one thing I would say, go take 30 minutes to yourself or an hour someday that you’re not at work, you’re not around anyone, just sit down and just write down what your dreams and goals would be. Have you done that, Ashley?
AS: Not that big, but I write down my goals and everything every year, in my planner.
JW: That’s good. And we’re going to put Ashley’s planner manufacturer in the show notes, as well as the Michael Hyatt and Company. We’ll get those in there so you can look at those again. We get nothing out of that, we just want to give you some good guidance and hands-on help if you need it. So, Ashley, any last word from you about goal setting? Did this help at all?
AS: I think everything always helps when it comes to goal setting, listening to how other people are able to achieve theirs. And if something isn’t quite working in the way that you are doing your goals for yourself, you can say, “Hey, you know what? I might try that.” So, yeah. So that’s kind of what I want my last words to be for this, is be open to change and change the way you achieve your goals.
JW: Boy, she had to use the C word on an old guy that’s not a millennial. Change. Oh my gosh. Ashley, thank you for joining me this week on Live a Life by Design. This week, our challenge to all of listeners is take a few minutes and simply write down what you wish for in 2021, and what you want the year to be when the calendar days run out this year. The easiest thing to do is to keep doing what you’re doing, but something tells me that our listeners aren’t happy with that because they are people that have potential to be realized. So get up, get started on some goals, even if you only write down two or three, do something today to move you forward in your potential. And with that said, join us next week here, on Live a Life By Design, and until then, go out and make the world a better place by living your life by design.
