Of course you don't like setting goals. You haven't tried this yet.
Dec 26, 2023
Matthew Warren, Drew Powell
You might not think it, but talking about goals and goal setting is a polarizing topic. Some leaders love goals, and others loathe them. On this episode Matt and Drew talk about two new ways to think about goals as we prepare for bigger impact in 2024.
You might not think it, but talking about goals and goal setting is a polarizing topic. Some leaders love goals, and others loathe them. On this episode Matt and Drew talk about two new ways to think about goals as we prepare for bigger impact in 2024.
Speaker 2:
So, matt, 2023 has come to a close. How was your 2023? If you had to frame it in a word or a sentence, was a good year.
Speaker 1:
For you, it feels the word I used for the last like probably year and a half, feels like a desert. Yeah, Like in an okay way. Okay, like I'm moving from a season of life that was predictable but not as ideal as I wish it would be Right, and I've got a future that I really want to create, you know, a family life, my business life, my hobbies, my golf life. You know, but it's not there yet. So this feels like this season of kind of wandering, trying to get to what's next.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, is that exciting for you when you think about it?
Speaker 1:
Oh, yeah, I think so because I think if you stay on the path, you get out of deserts.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I mean when someone asked me the day was well, how do I think about 2024? I have so much hope, man.
Speaker 1:
That's good.
Speaker 2:
Like looking into next year and I've had a good 2023 too, but like looking into next year, I'm like I love new beginnings, blue ocean.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, there's something about the turning of a year for me and I know like there's so much schools of thoughts on new years, resolution and all that stuff 100%. But there is something about the calendar year turning over that just makes me take another like fresh look at my life, my business. What could be where I did well last year? What do I need to adjust? Like I kind of I'm all in on looking back and evaluating. So we know this is a busy time of year for people, so we're intentionally going to keep this episode as short as possible, but I did want to kind of show up at people's feeds today and just talk a little bit about and just goals and resolution and kind of how you look at 2024. So, for the leader that's listening, what kind of advice or encouragement would you give to them, especially if they're looking back over 2023 and, like man, I don't know that I hit my goals that I was hoping for. Yeah.
Speaker 1:
It's good. It's not easy because people are wired very differently. You know a lot of type A driven personalities are goal oriented, you know. So they write stuff down and they look at it every day, and I think that's a one fantastic way to do it. Then I know some other really successful people that they just intuitively know what they want to do and how they want to get there and they just go do it without writing it down.
Speaker 1:
And this isn't going to be prescriptive as much as it is. Hey, I just think this is a great time of year to just look backwards and go okay, then I accomplished what I wanted to do. I succeed in the areas of life that are most important, with family, personal relationships, with my business and everything else. And, gosh, when you look back and maybe it didn't meet your expectations, it's on you to do something different. So if you don't do anything different moving into next year, at best you're going to get the same results you did this year.
Speaker 1:
But life is uphill, Business is uphill, leadership is uphill and everything is difficult. So you're always kind of swimming against the current. So if you don't do something very intentional, at best you're going to get the same results. So I think for me, you know, when I look at goals. I learned this. You guys know I'm a golf nut and I've probably read seven or eight books from the sports psychologist. His name is Dr Rotella and he is adamant about process goals, not results goals. So when he's coaching a golfer, you could put on your list of goals I want to win the Masters next year, but that's a result goal. So you go okay, right, you've got a field of 120 other players, you can play your best four rounds ever and an ant could come out of the green and stop your ball from going on the hole Like you're just not always in charge of the
Speaker 1:
results. Somebody could play a lot better than you, Right? But what he said is, like you're not always in charge of everything on the results goals, but if you set process goals, you're 100% in control of those. So here's the amount of hours I'm going to practice my short game. Here's the amount of hours I'm going to practice with my driver. Here's the amount of practice rounds I'm going to play with my partners. Like, if you set process goals, then you can look back at a year and go. I did everything I was supposed to do based on my process and, man, I got most of my results goals because if you are smart about your process goals, you'll probably achieve a lot of results goals, at least the ones that you can.
Speaker 2:
You know stack up, Dude, I love that process goals versus results goals, because what that does for me, when you say that, I immediately feel my like the my pressure valve kind of like go down a little bit. Like because when you look at 20 people are like, okay, here's what I want to achieve, here's a financial goal or whatever it's like, yeah, there's so many factors that I'm like I don't know. That it's why I'm not a big goal guy. Sure, Because I'm like they just seem to like by January, February, they're kind of going away. But if it's like, even if it's personal, if it's like, okay, here's what I'm going to do in the gym, I'm, you know, I'm going to show up this amount of time, like whatever the process, or like here's how many you know sales calls I'm going to make a week, you know, and you're not. It's not based on results. I'm not saying I'm going to close this many deals, I'm just going to make this many calls and I know. But the process I'm going to dude, that is, that is goal. That is great advice for our listeners out there, Because I just think a lot of business owners out there are looking at 2024, like man, what I do next.
Speaker 2:
And I would say and I love your take on this perspective, right, Like I think, when you get to that place and maybe you're closing out your year and you're like man, I'm not where I want to be and I don't necessarily know how to how to get there. That is when you call in people you know like us, like fraction, access, what we exist, to come in and to help with perspective. And it could just be a degree off, it could be small things that you're not thinking, you're not seeing, but I know so often in my life I've needed people to come in and just kind of look, audit, kind of be with me in it and then just help give like some some practical steps forward. So talk a little bit about that and kind of how we could show up for leaders in this year.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, when I try to teach teams about perspective. You referenced this on our first podcast. My very, very, very former life was in the music business. I used to be a touring guitar player and I'll never forget this one example I was. I was on an elevated platform. You know, I've got my amp and my guitar and my effect pedals. I knew the songs, I knew the transitions. Nobody in that room knew more about what I was doing on that platform than me. What I couldn't see was that under my platform was a giant mess. There's like cables and tape everywhere, and a leader who was sitting in the front row could see oh, that's not exactly coming off the way. He means for it to like someone with a different angle to look at what I was doing could see something I couldn't see.
Speaker 1:
Right, no one could play the way I could play, no one could be as prepared as I was. But someone looking at my position from a different angle see something I never would have seen before.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that's so good.
Speaker 1:
So I think it's just imperative that you have people look at what you're doing from different angles. So that's what fraction X can really do.
Speaker 2:
Well, I think to say true to our word, I think we wrap it there. Is there any other advice you would give to leaders or entrepreneurs looking into this next year?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I think I learned this from another leader. I wish it was mine. But even if you don't hire us, if you just want to set out and start some goals for next year, obviously think process, not results. Yeah, the other piece of advice I would get is also think about being goals before you think about doing goals. Okay, what does that mean? It just means am I the type of leader who can accomplish this and sometimes you have to go is my character, the things that's internal? Are those parts of me prepared to achieve that kind of success? So is my honesty on point like is there some development I should do when it comes to keeping my word? Is my reliability where it needs to be? Am I showing up and doing what I said I was going to do first? So try to look internal and set some B goals first, like I want to be this type of leader, want to be this type of dad and want to be this type of business owner, before you set your results goals.
Speaker 2:
So let me just recap for us process goals over results goals and B goals over before. Do goals and the process goals really really work for the B goals? So those, those goals hand in hand, right?
Speaker 2:
It says saying I want to be honest person. Why don't you schedule one coffee a week with a friend that you can be honest with? That's great, and then that's a process goal, but it's going to force you to be honest or whatever it is. So, matt, this was a really solid under 10 minute episode. Thanks, man. Short and sweet.
