Post # 5: A Simple 12 Month Plan

We are all guilty of setting goals and letting them fall by the wayside. When I was starting joyloop, it was easy to let things slide since I wasn’t accountable to a board/investors. I needed a better system. After some trial and error, I came up with a template and some tactics that have worked well for me so I wanted to share.

12 Month-Plan

Put together a one-page document (nothing longer) that lays out the following:

Sample 12-Month Plan Template

• Core Values — The things that guide your decision making process on a personal and professional front. Starting with these will help inform your goals. Some examples include health, family, respect, flexibility etc.
• Goals Over the Next 12 Months — No more than 3–5 big goals that will drive your next year. They should make you a little uncomfortable but not so painful that you’ll give up on them after a month. Which brings me to the next section…
• Top Reasons to Hit These Goals — If you can’t think of 3–5 compelling reasons to hit your goals, then pick different goals. These reasons need to be compelling since they will serve as your motivation to press on when everything seems to be going wrong. Some of my reasons have been “I want to become a world-class leader”, “I want to have the credibility to invest in food startups”, and “I want to build a team of amazing people.”
• Goals Over the Next 90 Days — 12 months is a long time. Being incremental forces you to think through the key milestones that are critical to your larger goals. Also, as you keep nailing these shorter-range targets, your confidence will grow.
• Key Behaviors to Develop — These should be somewhat aligned with your core values and goals. Some of mine have been “a consistent meditation practice”, “a stronger ability to say no”, “reaching out to one high-impact person per week” (see post about that here).

Tactics

There are few ways I hold myself accountable to the document above:

• Sign it. This takes it from a casual, to-do list to a contract with yourself. Seems simple but it works.
• Read it out loud. At least twice/day — in the morning when you wake up and before you go to bed. Something about hearing yourself say the words does wonders towards actually making things happen.
• Make it public. Share it with friends, family, advisors, partners etc. On top of that, send a monthly update letting everyone know how you are progressing. Put some negative incentives in place (i.e. for every 90 day goal you don’t hit, you owe a friend money). Once you share with others and have some incentives in place, things get real, very quickly.