In our final newsletter of 2015, I talked about this great holiday we were planning to have over the New Year in Kent. Well, it was a wonderful experience. I know it sounds a bit strange to say, but I actually recharge best when I’m able to think about the big picture in my life and business, rather than staying mired in the day-to-day.
So while we were in Kent, Suzanne and I mapped out goals for the new year. For those who don’t know, the goal map is a visual display that’s broken down into the different areas of our lives. The map needs to be placed in a prominent place where you cannot help to see it every day. Mine is on the wall of my office:
- Work
- Family
- Finance
- Leisure
- Community
- Health
- Spirituality
What we do is start with a category, and from there, break it down into more specific activities that we’d like to accomplish in the new year. We brainstorm a bunch of things for every single category and write them all down.
Not sure what I mean? Let’s take the ‘family’ category as an example. Say you have an aging relative, and you realise she might not be around forever. Connected to ‘family,’ you might write down ‘take my aunt out to the theatre,’ because it’s her favourite thing to do. Then, during the new year, as you revisit this goal map, you’ll be reminded that it’s a priority for you to see your aunt sometimes — and all of a sudden, that vague thing you ought to do becomes a concrete goal.
My wife and I talked about each of these areas and what we want to work on over the course of the new year. We’re adding another feature to this process: sticking a reminder in our digital calendar that will pop up and tell us to check our goal maps one day per month. We’ll review these goals we’ve mapped out for just 10 minutes each month. We’ll cross things off as we accomplish them and see how we’re progressing — otherwise, 2016 will be gone before we know it, and what will we have to show for it? We need to review the goal map on a regular basis or it’s just a piece of paper on the wall. As John Lennon said, “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans. So take control of yours.”
We like to schedule things in the diary for holidays — going to the theatre, going for walks, going to football games — so that it’s not just work, work, work. Every once in a while, it’s also nice to schedule time to do nothing, to just put our feet up or read a book or something. We get it all in there.
I think a goal map is a great thing to work on. You may not end up doing everything from every category, but at least you can think of the things that matter to you and write them down. And if you keep these goal maps going year after year, you’ll be able to look back on what you sought out to accomplish before, see how you did, and discard or carry over the items you didn’t manage to finish that year. Goal mapping is a fantastic way to move closer to the life you want in every area. I hope you give it a shot!
Before I close out this piece, I just wanted to acknowledge the 5,000 homes and business that have been flooded out over the past month or so. I’d like to send all my best wishes to them for a speedy resolution and to get back to normality as quickly as possible.
Have a wonderful 2016!
Best Wishes,
Steve Lazarus
