Here’s how I set my 2019 Goals

Setting goals is a tough process.

In 2017 I wrote out my first list of goals. Looking back now it was great, but it resembled more a bucket list than goals. It was a mixture of specific goals and vague goals as below:

• First Class Honours Degree — Achieved
• Gain Weight — Not Achieved
• Sell a product online — Not Achieved
• Read 35 books — Achieved

What’s striking is that the goals I actually achieved were the ones which I made specific, I had a clear target and they were also measurable, I knew how close I was to getting there. The two I didn’t achieve didn’t have any specifics, so unsurprisingly they were never achieved. This was the first lesson I learned about goal setting, if they’re not specific, they cannot be measured so essentially you don’t know how close you are to getting there, so you barely even make a start!

I then started making my goals specific and measurable but learned more about what to measure. The book The Four Disciplines of Execution talks about dividing your measures into lead and lag measures. Knowing the difference is so important.

• A lag measure IS a result.
• A lead measure CREATES a result.

My next mistake when setting goals was measuring only the LAG measure. My goal became to weigh 80 kg, a gain of 4 kg. So week after week I would step on the scales and wonder why the needle would move from one side to the other, one week getting closer to the goal, the next week moving away from the goal. I had no idea why I was getting this result.

Then I started looking at the LEAD measure. What was CREATING the LAG measure result. I found it to be my food intake, if I set a target here each week and hit it I would then know WHY my lag measure was getting close to my goal.

So with those lessons learned I’ve set out my stall for 2019. I divided my goals into the following categories; business and physical. There is a goal for each category and then the goals are split into their lead and lag measures for this year.

Business

Goal 1:
I will create and build an online goal-setting coaching business this year.

Lead Measures:

• I will have 10 products available by the end of this year. These will be both paid and free products.
• I will publish 50 pieces of original content per week across all platforms by the end of 2019.

Lag Measures:

• Followers/Email List
• Income

Physical:

Goal 1:
My body composition will match that of Danny Care (England rugby player) who is a similar height to me. I’ll weigh 84 kg with a body weight of 9%.

Lead Measures:

• Calories
• Protein
• Gym Workouts

Lag Measures:

• Weight
• Body Fat

Goal 2:
I will run my first marathon on 30th November 2019.

Lead Measures:

• Myofasical Release (minutes done weekly)
• Pilates (sessions done weekly)
• Runs (distance done weekly)

Lag Measures:

• First 10 km run
• First 20 km run
• First 30 km run