For a long time, I got off the New Years resolution train. Why?
Only 25% of people actually stay committed to their resolutions after just 30 days (Source: Columbia University).
They say a goal without a plan is a wish. But a plan without a rhythm to make sure you stick to it is still a wish.
But let's face it... the New Year is an opportunity to attack the changes you've wanted to make in your life (but haven't) for months, quarters, or years.
So here's how I set New Years goals that are impossible to fail (GIRA):
- Goals: Where do you want to take massive action?
- Inputs: What would make those goals impossible to fail?
- Rhythms: Where do they fall in your calendar?
- Actions: What are you going to do this week?
If you're a leader, this is a special activity I like to run with my teams to kickoff the New Year to get to know their personal and professional goals. Let's get into it.
Goals: Where do you want to take massive action?
Do not set a million goals. I have two this year.
This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of everything you are doing in your life.
First, define the buckets of your life that are most important. For me, I use Friends, Love, Health, and Work. Whatever you use, make sure it reflects your values.
Then, set goals where you want to take massive action beyond the ordinary. IE: I care a lot about my health, but I don't have a health-related goal because I don't need to think about going to the gym everyday. But I do need to actively go out of my way to keep building community in NYC because it's easy to fall into my stable crew of friends.
From there, I start writing goals as "things I'd like to be able to say" in 2025. Here are a few examples from me and others:
- Friends: Build a community that makes NYC feel like home.
- Work: Turn the Club Pass into a $1M ARR business in one year.
- Sales: Make President's Club by hitting 150% of quota.
Hot Take: Goals don't have to be measurable, but the inputs do (that's next). This is similar to the OKR framework where the Objectives are often qualitative statements and the Key Results are things you can measure that make the Objective true.
Inputs: What'd make those goals impossible to fail?
This is where you need to answer the question:
What would make those goals impossible to fail?
Here are two examples, one personal and one sales:
- Goal: Double down on my NYC crew and create hilarious memories in 2025.
- Input: Connect 2 new people to each other every week.
- Input: Attend 1 community activity every week.
- Input: Plan 1 outrageous trip per quarter.
- Goal: Make President's Club by hitting 150% of quota.
- Input: Hit 200 dials per week (Goal: XX pipeline)
- Input: Set a timer on every discovery call to run the 5 minute drill at 00:25.
- Input: Map the path to power for every stage 2 deal each week.
Notice there are two parts of the input: the activity and time horizon. What do you need to do (200 dials) and how often do you need to do it (per week, on each discovery call). Keep in mind that you're much more likely to forget about a quarterly or monthly input goal versus a daily or weekly one (weekly is my favorite).
Again, a few MASSIVE inputs are better than a million small ones. This is not an exhaustive list of everything you are doing. Pick the biggest rocks you need to move.
Rhythms: Where do they fall in your calendar?
This is the #1 place where people fail. They set a goal, create a plan, but then they fall off the plan because there's no rhythm that holds them accountable to doing the inputs.
Assign a rhythm, or explicit place in your calendar when you will do the inputs.
If your input is to connect 2 people per week....
Your rhythm might be doing that on every Sunday during a weekly review.
If your input is to make 200 dials per week...
Your rhythm might be making those dials every day before 12pm.
If there's no natural place for the rhythm, I stack it all on one day (Sunday for me), which is also when I review every goal and share it with my accountability buddy.
Here's what the complete list looks like in table form:
Actions: What are you gonna do this week?
This is the final piece that holds it all together.
Every week on Sunday, I do 3 things to make sure I'm actually moving on my goals:
- I add a column to the spreadsheet above (ie 01/05 Actions)
- I write down one thing I can do that week to progress the goal
- I screenshot it and send it to my accountability partner
And then I either do it on the spot or put it on my calendar in a rhythm.
If you can find a partner who's really willing to call you out, it really... really helps.
Forward them this newsletter and see if they'll join you. You'll be amazed.
You just might make President's Club in pairs this year 👊
