My Goals for 2019

My yearly goals didn’t go as bad as usual in 2018. I’m a bit more hopeful about 2019. I still credit the meager success I got in 2018 to the fact that I’m more in control of my schedule. And maybe more in control of my mind.

In the past, not reaching a certain milestone was extremely frustrating for me. Maybe because it was happening all the time? It’s hard to live in a constant state of frustration. It was easier to give up on my plans.

 

I won’t articulate this as a specific point, but my prayer and relationship with God is still my overarching goal. If I lose this one, I’ll lose them all. I’ll just keep doing the things I’ve been doing that provided good results. And I’ll keep my ears open to the advice of those wiser than me. With God there is hardly ever a status quo to maintain.

 

Here go the four specific goals (and you will see they are not so specific after all) for 2019.

1. Communication in My Marriage.

I need two components to reach that goal: to actually spend time with my wife and communicate better. I worked on the first for the past two years with some success. Now I need to overcome my anxiety with communication. You see, our marriage was going so bad (at least for me!) that I withdrew. I hope I got strong enough to survive a few hot arguments.

As with most fears, I’m discovering that my concerns are empty. We talk more and more and it’s not like we get into fights every time.

Working from home, and with my new entrepreneurial flexible schedule, I have plenty opportunities to spend time with my wife. This year I also commit to have at least one hour of deep conversations with her a week.

2. Build A Business.

So far, I ran my business by the seat of my pants. Thus, it’s really not a business, but rather a nice job where I’m the boss (and my 20 customers too!). I need to build a business out of it – an entity which will exist separately from my person. Of course, I mean my Resurrecting Books service. It has all the necessary prerequisites to create a robust venture. I can see how I may take myself out of the center of the business spinning all the wheels.

I already have had some great business education, I went through the Business on Purpose program a couple of years ago. Now, I need to put it into use. The first quarter of 2019 will be dedicated to creating the vision, mission, values, processes, job roles and training procedures.

It’s the 9th of January when I’m writing these words and I’ve already hammered out the vision and worked on the next steps. I’ve always thought building a business wouldn’t excite me to the degree writing or coaching excites me. Well, I proved myself wrong. By hammering out the vision I can see how I can instill my business philosophy into my business. Since day #1 of my transformation, I always wanted to change the way business is done, all over the world. Now I have the chance to put some of my ideas into practice and actually change the way of doing business.

For this quarter, the goal is to work at least five hours a week on the business, instead in it. Once I put some systems in place the goal will probably evolve.

3. Implement 12-Week Year

I’m very good at following my daily priorities. I rarely miss any of my dozens of daily habits, and some of them are pretty robust, like writing for half an hour a day. But I suck at setting goals, even short-term ones.

On the other hand, one of the millionaires from my mastermind has a big problem with breaking down his lofty goals into daily actions. He is a big vision man, so he is generally satisfied when the vision is outlined. He doesn’t do daily actions. And his goals are always a work in progress.

12-Week Year is a concept from the book of the same title. The basic premise is to set goals for 12 weeks, not for an entire year. The short time horizon forces you to break down your goal into actionable steps. You need to plan week #1, #2 and all the others in order to reach your goal at week #12.

I joined a coaching group for the 12-week year at the beginning of the year. It’s the middle of the second week and I already see how it helped my focus. I’m still are unable to plan even one whole week ahead, but this weekly structure of my schedule forces me too look ahead for longer than today. I am more productive. I get more things done. What is more, I’m getting the right things done. Priorities, not just putting out the fires.

See the goals #1 and #2 above? They are done according to the 12-week year concept.

I want to stick to this framework for this year and make it a new habit. Once I’m able to plan my weeks, maybe I’ll learn to pursue even longer goals.

4. The Big Potential.

I wouldn’t have been myself if I didn’t set a vague yearly goal 😀

The Big Potential convinced me on the intellectual level, but I still don’t feel it in my guts. I resist. I’m an introvert.

I have no idea how to put this idea into use, but I know one thing: I have to. My mission is huge: change the world. I cannot achieve it with small potential only. I badly need the big one.

It won’t be a point of focus this quarter, I need first to put some systems and processes in place in my business. Choosing The Big Potential over that goal would be like trying to study books in the burning house. I need first to stop the fire of chaos in my business, which will quiet down the chaos in my life. Then I can ponder how to implement The Big Potential in my life.

However, it doesn’t mean I do nothing in this regard. In the first 10 days of January I already had two business propositions and two networking calls and more are scheduled down the road. I’m getting better at recognizing the right opportunities to connect. I’m just not proactive with that. Out of those several things only one was my initiative.

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That’s it. Three overarching goals and a vague one. I won’t repeat my mistake from 2018 and will visit this post once a month to remind me what are my goals for this year, so hopefully, I’ll tackle implementation of The Big Potential sooner than later.