Preparing for 2021 Is as Easy as 1–2–3 and 5
By: William Mcpeck
Tags: 2021, New Year Resolution, William Mcpeck, Goals, Goal Setting

mcpeckmentoring@gmail.com

The end of the calendar year is a time when we typically reflect on the year ending and start thinking about and planning for what we want in the year about to begin.

Many create New Year resolutions. But we know from both personal experience and research that resolutions generally don’t work.

Since resolutions don’t work, some people create New Year goals. But, again, we have also learned that setting goals, even SMART, SMARTER or SMARTIE goals is often not enough.

While setting goals is good, I would suggest that success and achievement preparation are about more than just setting goals. Success and achievement are about having a success or achievement system in place.

I would suggest that such a system consists of the following components:

Desired outcomes

Goals

Having a plan (strategies and tactics)

Taking action

Monitoring, measuring and evaluating

Desired outcomes are your dreams or your BHAGs (big, hairy audacious goals). But what we know from the achievement and motivation sciences is that the larger the desired outcome or goal, the greater likelihood it will overwhelm us. Dreams and BHAGs are too big for our mind to wrap itself around. Therefore, we tend to become immobilized or quit because we are overwhelmed by the anticipated task.

The solution is to break the desired outcome or BHAG down into manageable chunks by setting quarterly, monthly, weekly, or even daily goals using the SMART, SMARTER or SMARTIE goal-setting models. There is no one best strategy to do this. The best goal setting strategy is the strategy that will best work for you and the one that delivers the most success for you based on your uniqueness and circumstances.

But setting goals is simply not enough. Goals need to be implemented and this is where a plan comes into play. A plan is simply the strategies and tactics you will use to implement and achieve your goals. The strategies and tactics contained in the plan must be aligned with the desired outcomes and written goals.

While it is nice to have dreams, goals and plans, they mean little if you do not implement them. Change requires taking action, even if it is only a little step forward each and every day. Part of taking action includes being prepared and ready for the barriers and challenges life will no doubt introduced during the take action phase. The actions you take must be aligned with the desired outcomes, goals and the plan.

Since dreams, BHAGs, and goals have an end state or end point, we need to monitor and measure our progress towards them and to evaluate both our implementation progress and our end results. As the saying goes, you can better manage what you measure.

Mentor and productivity author Charlie Gilkey has introduced me to the 1–2–3 process and the five project rule. His 1–2–3 process stands for 1 annual theme or overall priority, two annual personal goals and three annual work-related goals.

The five project rule means that any one point in time, you should not be undertaking any more than five individual projects. Charlie describes a project as anything that requires your time, energy and attention.

As I listened to Charlie describe his 1–2–3 process, I was struck by how I could combine his two concepts and apply them to my success /achievement system outlined above. Since I use the term goals more narrowly than Charlie, I adapted his 1–2–3 process to represent the following: one annual theme or overall priority, two personal projects and 3 work-related projects.

One of the most frequent complaints I hear from people today is that they feel overwhelmed. Feeling overwhelmed is simply a reflection of being overloaded. Being overloaded can be addressed. I see my adapted 1–2–3 and 5 framework as being one strategy to address overload.

In today’s accelerating change and do more with less environment, society and workplaces, reducing overload will not be an easy task nor is it an easy conversation to have with yourself or the leader/manager in your workplace. But they are conversations we do need to have.

©2020. William McPeck. All Rights Reserved.