Did you know that people who have clearly defined goals are ten times more likely to succeed than those who don’t?
And since we’re all about your success at the Founders Fund, we wanted to let you in on our goal planning process so you can walk into the new decade feeling prepared, motivated and ready to take on the world.
We created this an interactive guide to help you do just that. If you'd like to follow our process in your own journal or notebook, feel free to keep reading. Or you can download the interactive version of this guide by clicking here! This interactive version has space for you to map out your goals, either by editing the PDF or by printing the guide and writing directly in the pages. It also features examples to help guide you as you set your own goals.
Before we start, here are a few ground rules for determining your goals:
Get uncomfortable. These goals should feel out of your comfort zone, and that can be scary. The idea is to set goals that will lead you toward the life you want — which might look a little different from the one you have now.
Make it big. Anything that you preface with a ‘maybe one day I could…’ or ‘well, in a perfect world…’ belongs on the goal list. Make these goals big, make ‘em life changing.
Get the receipts. By this, we mean, make sure you choose a goal you can quantify by an end result. For example, ‘I want to grow my business’ doesn’t have a receipt, but “I want to increase my revenue by 30% by March of 2021” has a clearly defined, quantifiable success metric.
Refine, refine, refine. A lot of this work is continually breaking down and refining small goals under the big umbrella. Refine and add clarity around your goals as much as possible. Think you’ve refined enough? Try some more, see what happens.
We’re going to be breaking down goals into 5 categories in this worksheet:
Long Term: These are your 3, 5 or 10 year goals. The big fish. The legacy builders.
2020 Goals: You’ll take these from your long term goals. Want to have $10,000,000 in 3 years time? Great! Now how much can you aim for this year to be on track for that long term goal?
Quarterly: Break that 2020 goal down into four quarters. A little less daunting now, isn’t it?
Monthly: Every month goals should have a direct link to the quarterly goals. Aim to acquire 100 new client units this quarter? Great, that means you’ll need 34 to be on target.
Weekly: Now we’re at the micro stuff. The everyday habits and mini goals that will build towards your long term vision. What can you do today to take a step towards those big goals?
The hardest part about goal setting isn’t actually the goal setting itself (or even the work that goes into the goal), it’s oftentimes accountability. The best accountability partner comes from connecting with someone else with goals at a similar level meeting consistently (monthly if you can) and workshopping what isn’t going right when you get off track.
Hot tip: The Founders Fund peer mentoring program will be an excellent place to get this support and accountability!
Step 1: Before we get into quantifiable goals, we need to scrap the logic for just a moment and take some time (10-15 minutes is perfect) to reflect on what you want your life to look and feel like long term.
You can decide if ‘long term’ means 3, 5 or even 10 plus years from now, depending on what feels right for you.
When you do this, we want you to write everything that comes to mind (Where do you live? What work are you doing? What do you look like? What does your body feel like? Who’s with you?). Try not to get too caught up in whether or not your vision “makes sense” with goal planning. Go based on what lights you up.
Step 2. Now that you have all your ideals for your life written down, take a moment and re-read what you wrote down. Notice any patterns? Pick out 3-5 common themes (business, partnership, health, family...etc.) and write them below.
Step 3: Next write 3-5 notes under each theme outlining the specifics of the ideals within the theme. Now quantify them.
Step 4: Now that you have your long term goals quantified, we can get your goals in order for 2020. Take a long term goal and break down what the smaller goals you would need to accomplish in 2020 to put you on track toward that goal.
Step 5: Once you have your 2020 goal set, keep breaking down the same goals over and over, until you have micro goals that can be accomplished daily.
Keep your long term vision, 2020 goal and quarterly goals somewhere that can be easily seen and reviewed from time to time.
Come back to this guide as often as possible to remind yourself of your goals, and to rework your plans as things inevitably shift in your life and business. And feel free to use this guide as many times as you’d like to map out all the different goals you’re setting for 2020.
Happy goal-setting, from our team of entrepreneurs to you! 2020 is your year — you’ve got this.
Click HERE to download the interactive version of this guide!