Read Time: 3 Year Minutes
I hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving with your family and loved ones. There’s 32 days left in 2022. How are you getting ready for 2023?
Annual Planning doesn’t have to be a long, drawn out boring process that takes months to complete. It also doesn’t have to suck.
Last week, I introduced the 5 components to Annual Planning on daily IG live sessions to simplify this long and painful process.
Here’s what I came up with:
- Celebrate your Wins
- Set a 1-Year Vision
- Shift Goal-Setting Mindset
- Create an Execution Plan
- The Support Squad
In this week’s newsletter, I’ll break down the process and then give you a template in Notion/Google to complete the exercises on your own.
Setting a Vision
If I only had an hour to chop down a tree, I would spend the first 45 minutes sharpening my axe. - Abraham Lincoln
Take out an axe…i mean a journal. It’s time to get sharp AF.
Before we jump into the new year, it’s critical to spend time sharpening the axe of our lives. Before hacking away at every tree in our path, it’s time to Celebrate Our Wins so we can get in the zone.
What are the epic achievements we had this year personally and professionally?
List out your top 10. If you want to really get in the groove, expand the list to 20, 30, 40 wins. Celebrate like its freakin New Years baby! As you list out the big wins, your brain will start to release the endorphins and all those woo-woo chemicals that will create good vibes.
Now that you’re grooving, it’s time to set a 1-year vision.
Create a new section in your journal
Where do you want to be in a year from now?
Put on your Captains hat and set A YUGE VISION
Spend 3-5 minutes journaling on this two key questions. There’s plenty of other journal prompts you can find on the internet if you want to dive deeper into this.
Now that we have a vision for where we want to go, it’s time to for the 3rd step in our Hell Yeah Year Planning Process.
Driving Execution
As entrepreneurs, we are all control freaks (that’s why we work for ourselves!)
With Planning and Goal-Setting though, there is an important distinction I wish to point out.
- I don’t believe that we can control the results.
- We can only control our own actions, a “process goal,” versus the “results-based goals” that entrepreneurs usually set.
- When the results don’t manifest, a potential negative spiral begins to form as we find fault and blame.
This could be a whole other blog post, so i’ll get back to the axe sharpening for our Hell Yeah Year.
For now, choose 3 areas in your business and set a Process goal, versus a Results Goal
Area | Process | Results |
Marketing | Post 20 videos | Have 50,000 followers |
Clients | Reach out to 100 prospects on LinkedIn | Work with 20 clients |
Ops | Implement Feedback System | Increase Referrals |
Here’s a list of Results based goals that you can choose from.
Take 5 minutes to write out 3-5 Process Goals that align with your 2023 Vision
Now that you know what action to take, its time to put together your Execution framework.
Although the vision is for the year, Execution is only for the next 90 days.
What actions will I complete in the next 90 days
Create a To-Do List. Use Apple Notes, Notion, a paper, whatever.
Just create the to-do list for the next 90 days.
If it’s not obvious, this to-do list aligns with the goals for the year.
At the end of the 90 days, you would theoretically be closer to your goals.
If you achieve your goals in the first 90 days, set bigger goals.
However most people don’t work as effectively. The reason?
People don’t have drive, accountability, or support when working alone.
The answer? Find a Support Squad
Accountability through a #SupportSquad
Before grabbing your axe and heading into the forest, look for a group of friends, colleagues, or fellow axe-sharpeners to collaborate with.
Having a group of people will increase the odds of achieving your Goals by a whopping percentage amount (too many conflicting stats on the internet to choose 1)!
Meet on a bi-weekly basis, share where you are at and discuss how you can overcome challenges.
Who will be in my support squad?
You’ll thank me later
If you don’t have a Support Squad, or you wish to join a group of people who share a language and culture around getting shit done, I invite you to join us at the Vision n Vibes Workshop on December 11th.
At the event, we’ll dive deeper into Mindset, Goals, and Execution Planning.
Announcements
- I’ve decided to shift event to a donation-based sliding scale event as this is my 1st Virtual Workshop
- If the workshop changes your life, I anticipate you’ll come to the next one.
- If it’s terrible…well, I at least I will learn how to improve it for the next go-around.
- Come along if you want to have some fun!
Thanks for reading, Ernesto
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