My Process for Making 2018 the Best Year Ever

It’s that time of year when people set their goals, post pictures of themselves at the gym, and list the books they read or are going to read (guilty of two of those three). I know some people love goals and some loathe them. Admittedly, I am a goal nerd and have a very specific process at the end of the year for taking inventory of the past year, thinking about the upcoming year, and setting goals. With that, I thought I’d hit some keystrokes and put it down in writing.

A Warren Buffett parable

As I looked back on 2017 and ahead to 2018, focus and discipline emerged as the big theme. Realizing that I can achieve more if I focus on less. That’s when I remembered this parable of Warren Buffett and his personal pilot.

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The story goes, Warren told his pilot of 10 years who had also flown for four former U.S. Presidents, “The fact that you’re still working for me tells me I’m not doing my job. You should be out going after more of your goals and dreams.”

Buffett than told his pilot to follow a simple 3-Step Process.

1. Write down your Top 25 goals in life.

All of the dreams and accomplishments you want to achieve in your life.

2. Circle your Top 5 goals.

Buffett made sure to confirm with his pilot, “Are you sure these (top 5) are the absolute highest priority for you?” His pilot now had two lists — List A of his Top 5 goals in life and List B of his next 20 goals.

3. Only focus on the Top 5

When Buffett’s pilot told him he would focus on the Top 5 on List A first and spend some time on the 20 goals from List B, Buffett replied, “No. You’ve got it wrong. Everything you didn’t circle just became your ‘avoid at all cost list.’ No matter what, these things get no attention until you’ve succeeded with your top 5.”

The moral of this parable is clear.

Decide what you want to accomplish in life and don’t let anything get in the way of achieving those goals.

This story resonated with me after reflecting on a 2017 where at times I felt lost or undisciplined. I knew I could use Buffett’s story to zero in on what is most important to me.

My Five Buckets

I applied this parable to my life and decided to come up with the five buckets I wanted to focus on in 2018. These aren’t five life goals, but the five areas of focus I will ONLY work on this year. This exercise left me with the following five buckets of focus:

1. Lemonly — My day job. My source of income and the people I love working with the most.
2. Fabric — My new project with Co-Founder, Rosalynn, to help other companies build great cultures. I’m definitely passionate about this new and important work.
3. Learning — As you’ll see in my goals, focusing on learning, growing, and developing ME in 2018 is a priority. My learning bucket includes reading books, having interesting conversations, getting my hands dirty, and getting uncomfortable.
4. Fitness — See above about improving myself. Fitness is something I’ve let slide since I became a father two years ago and it’s time to change. If your physical, mental, and spiritual fitness isn’t in line, you won’t be able to achieve any of your goals.
5. Community — I love Sioux Falls and no matter how many things I have on my plate, I can’t quit being involved in this community. I am trying to carefully select the community projects I’m involved in. For 2018 this includes the two non-profit boards I serve on (REACH Literacy, Sioux Falls Arts Council), organizing 1 Million Cups to build the entrepreneurial community, and a new role I accepted with the Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce to lead the Small Business Committee.

Here’s me intensely describing my five buckets.

My Four Words

Now that I know where I want to focus in 2018, I moved along to my annual exercise of determining “My Four Words” for the year. These words serve as the themes of my year and constant reminders of who and what I want to become in the year ahead.

This is the ninth year of setting my four words, and it has become a ritual. I post these words somewhere I will see them every day (my bathroom mirror or on my office desk) and they are my compass to a successful year.

My words from past years

• 2010: Focus. Awareness. Sharing. Personal.
• 2011: Deliver. Question. Value. Power-Up.
• 2012: Scale. Ask. Commit. Professional.
• 2013: Today. Systems. Sponge. Alignment.
• 2014: Transparency. Develop. Empower. Simple.
• 2015: People. Lifestyle. Finance. Outlier.
• 2016: Authentic. Gratitude. Communicate. Decisive.
• 2017: Discipline. Clarity. Elite. Moments.

My 2018 Words

What do these words mean to me?

• Systems — Last year discipline was a word and in the past I’ve also had focus. As I shared above, I want to focus on my 5 buckets, but you can’t rely on willpower to have discipline, you need to create systems and processes to easily replicate, optimize, and scale your workflow. In 2018, I want to create a process for all of my work. Be consistent and efficient.
• Learn — This word is so important that it is a bucket in itself. I shared my reading list from 2017 and I want to increase that by 50%. But learning also means having conversations with interesting people who can teach you, trying new things that force you to be uncomfortable, and remembering to listen more than talk. I’m confident I will be a smarter person at the end of 2018, and I hope this can be said at the end of every year of my life.
• Fitness — Another word that has its own bucket. Granted, I eat relatively healthy, I get some exercise here and there, and make sure to get as much sleep as I can. But I haven’t had a plan or goal with my fitness. At 32-years-old, I want to create a foundation of wellness that I can rely on for the rest of my life.
• Big — Last year I had the word Elite. It served as a reminder to believe in what I know and be confident in my ability. It was the evolution from Professional to Elite. This year, I want to go BIG. The hope is, if I’m sticking to my 5 buckets and focusing on the things that matter the most, then those things should be great! Do more with less, but make that more big. Add value and make an impact in the world. Let’s go BIG!

Now, the goals

The planning for a great 2018 starts with reflection on year prior and a vision of what I want my life to look like at the end of 2018. The Warren Buffett parable really helped crystallize the importance and emphasis of focus, and thus emerged my 5 buckets. As ideas started to emerge, I stepped back to write down my four words and themes for the year. With this foundation, writing down actual, measurable goals for 2018 became much easier. Each year I set goals in the categories of Personal, Professional, Faith, Fitness, and Finance.

Personal

1. Read 36 books
2. Write 52 blog posts (1 per week)
3. Take a trip to Norway with my wife

Professional

1. Grow Lemonly revenue by 20%
2. Effectively manage budget and maintain profitability targets
3. Add a new storytelling service (more on this later in the year)

Faith

1. Daily prayer or meditation
2. Read all 366 days of The Daily Stoic (loving this book so far)

Fitness

1. Establish a weekday exercise routine (do something 5 days a week)
2. Run in 5 road races throughout the year
3. Run a marathon (fall 2018) in under 4 hours

Finance

1. Manage household budget on a weekly basis
2. Increase investments by 15%
3. Fund the construction of our new kitchen

With some wisdom from Warren Buffett, four words to serve as the pillars to my year, and goals that roll up to the five buckets and the four words, I believe 2018 will truly be the best year ever!

If this process inspired or helped you at all click the 👏 button below or share your four words for 2018 in the comments.