If you need a boost (and let's face it, most of us do), here are four quick actions you can take to reset your plans and hit your full goals for the year while there's still time to make it happen. And if things are cruising along already for you, read through these to aim even higher.
Let's dive in and ensure the final quarter will be the highlight of your 2025:
1. Review and recommit to your BHAG
It all starts with WHY.
Even if you haven't made a conscious choice about why you work the way you do, how you choose to spend your time, and what you've set as your overall aspirations, you have an underlying reason.
To make significant progress towards your goals, it's important to not only want to achieve them, but to think through your motivations. Is it to spend more time with your family? To provide help to others? Or even to have more fun at your next high school reunion?
You get to choose, but it should be something so compelling that you feel the driving desire to be the kind of person who will deliver on that promise.
And out of that reflection on your reasons, you can refine down to your absolute top ambitious goal (and don't aim too low). This is your BHAG or your Big Hairy Audacious Goal. I detailed how to focus in on your BHAG in this Wednesday Win.
Reflect on your WHY
Consider what goals of your best serve that priority
Refocus and recommit to achieving that goal to serve your WHY
You know it's focus time when the Big Hairy Audacious Goal monster shows up.
2. Start with one focused action
Once you're clear again on your priority and the reason for pursuing it, your next priority is to get started immediately. Our transition from idea to first action must be absolutely as fast as possible (think: minutes not hours or days). Otherwise, our motivation will fall off a cliff and it'll be forever pushed into tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.
The key to making this action stick is to start with something that's enjoyable, that you can immediately put into action, and that you can continue consistently. For example, if your BHAG is to get fit and improve your health, your first committed action shouldn't require you to first buy any equipment, but instead focus on food choices or a workout you can do at home.
Pick an action that will be fun, meaningful, and easy to do consistently
Use existing resources and access; don't pick something that you can't do with what you already have at hand
Start and repeat consistently; don't skip
3. Leverage habits
The reason we start with a repeatable task that feeds our priority goal is to build up our capability for creating new habits. No major conscious change in our life is possible without creating new, positive habits to drive the results we want to see.
The 30th day in a row you keep your promise to yourself to write for fifteen minutes is automatic and easy compared to what it was like to get started on day one or two. Making great food choices at a restaurant is a breeze once you've been doing it for a couple of months. Don't depend on your limited daily well of willpower, but instead, use that willpower to create new, positive habits to make good decisions nearly automatic.
Free your mind to power great outcomes, not just get you to the starting line
Good practice today makes tomorrow's positive actions even easier
Focus on adding one habit at a time; once it's in place, add the next
4. Build your concrete action plan (and stay on it!)
Focused direction and consistency of effort is more important than each day's specific progress. From your primary goals, identify the key milestones and identify which you can complete in the next three months.
Take those interim goals and reduce them to the required tasks and take note of the sequencing. For example, you can't publish your new website until the graphics have been prepared and the content is written.
Schedule those tasks by week for the full twelve weeks and by day for at least the next two weeks. Commit to that plan and don't skip, don't postpone. Some days will be easier than other, but each will drive you to your priority goal.
Focus on the next 12 weeks as your commitment period
Do the planning work now so you can focus on just the work later
Break down your action steps first into weeks and then days
Don't break your commitments to yourself; you'll be amazed at the results
Action Summary
We all need a refresh now and then. It's easy to lose sight of our priorities and the actions we need to be doing to make those desired results real in our lives.
Refocus on your priority and the driving reasons. Then take some immediate action and think through what kinds of habits you need to build.
Build your twelve-week plan to supercharge your results.
Keep focused on your reasons for seeking your goal
Build habits
Work from goals to plans to actions to results
Enjoy the process
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What do you think? What works for you when you need to re-focus on your priority goals? Reply to this email and let me know.
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To your success,
Christopher
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Looking for a deeper dive on these topics? Connect here and reach out:
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