The Importance of A Vision, Strategies for Your Personal 2023 Vision & Goals​

John: You’re listening to The Present Professional.

Tony: Where we explore the intersections of personal and professional development.

John: To change your experience of life and work with every episode.

Tony: So tune in, grab your notebook, and let’s go. Let’s go.

John: Welcome to another episode of The Present Professional. Today, We’re following up on last week’s episode on 2022 in review and what your year in review looks like. And we’re moving into planning for the year ahead. So looking at 2023, your vision ahead, setting goals, putting some structures in place to start setting yourself up for meeting, accomplishing, and maybe even moving past. some of the goals because they get so realistic here in the planning process that you may surprise yourself where you get in the following year. So we want to share some of our tips and strategies that have been working for us over the years as avid goal setters and vision and visionaries and planners. It’s not just something that is inherent within us. It’s a process and there are things that we’ve put in place or things that we’ve learned over the years that we are super excited to share with you guys. So with that being said, I want to go into the first thing that I think is really, really necessary looking at your life in the future, your following year coming up. And it’s around having that vision. And because it’s setting goals just for their own sake, without having a picture of what the end looks like in sight, I feel is kind of directing us in so many different ways that we don’t know where we’re going to end up. So I think being intentional about where we want to be and what that looks like, even describing it down to the smallest details of what the vision looks like, where you’re living, who you’re with, who you’re spending your time with. And then I like to divide my vision into a few different life areas first and like looking at what is my, my wellness vision? How do I want to be taking care of myself? What are some things that I want to have in place for my health and wellness? What are some things that I want to have in place for my career, my business? Where do I see myself at the end of the year? Where do I see myself 10 years from now? What do I need to get done to start making that happen within the next five years? And now what do I need to get done to start making that happen within next year? And I like working my way back from the vision or dream that I see for myself out there 10 years out. And that doesn’t have to be what you choose. You could choose any number that works for you. Seven years out, two years out, stick with one year. But as long as you’re sitting down to spend some intentional time dreaming, some intentional time visualizing what your future is going to look like, Because that’s what we can work back from in a lot of the goal setting activities and material here that will present with you guys. But you gotta start with the vision and I’m going to put a plug there that will be putting a bonus episode out there for a visioning meditation. So kind of a visualization of your future meditation that you’ll be able to listen to on its own. So plugging that in here for for you guys and then I’ll let Tony go to his first strategy now. And we’ll go back and forth on just setting you guys up for the new year.

Tony: Yeah, I mean, you know, first strategy, we already did that in the previous episode. So you kind of you really do have to look back first, because if you don’t do that, then you will be missing goals to bring into the next year. Because sometimes you don’t get things done in the year that you had a plan for and you have to roll things over. So just want to remind you, don’t forget to look back. But with that, you want to look at the categories of things that you see as important to you. Like John mentioned, life, wellness, health, career, relationships, people. It may even be even things that are, I don’t know, whatever else may be important to you. It could be a hobby, you know, I have a goal of being a better golfer so that I can, you know, get out there and build more relationships on the golf course because, you know, that’s where you get a lot of networking done, a lot of conversations that can lead you to more impactful things for you, your family, your community. So, you know, don’t forget to categorize things as well. But, you know, when you talk about vision, you know, what is vision? What does vision even mean? And, you know, you described it superb. I just add, you know, make sure that you can feel it too. Make sure that you can feel the things that you want to happen in your life. Like sometimes, you know, I may be laying down and before I go to bed, I may be thinking about something I want to accomplish or something I want to do soon. And I’m just literally, visualizing it, but I’m also feeling it. I’m feeling the emotion. I’m feeling what it’s gonna look like, what it’s gonna be like when that thing is done or when that thing is happening. The reactions that I’ll get from the people that I know, the people that I love. What’s my legacy gonna be once I’ve not only accomplished this goal, but once I’m at the end of my life and I’ve accomplished different things that I’ve wanted to achieve. For goal setting, that sounds intense. That sounds like it’s a lot of Things that you’re doing at once, but in reality, you’re really painting a picture of your entire life and you do it by visualizing and then you break that down incrementally year by year, month by month, quarter by quarter so that you can accomplish those things. So for me, you know, having those categories matter. having it categorized, putting it in a place that you can get to it quick and easy. I’m a big whiteboard kind of person. I used to have physical whiteboards everywhere. Now my whiteboards are digital because I’m in 2022. And I try to make sure that I have my notes at my disposal. So I have several notebooks. Some of my notebooks are for the bigger picture. And some of my notebooks are for the daily journal or the daily picture of how I get things done. And then in my phone, I keep my goals on a record and I’m looking at them all year long. And what I’m trying to do is make sure that I hit those things that are actually attainable within the time frame that is a reasonable time frame. You know, for me being a dad now and, you know, just going through life of creating a lifestyle for someone else, which is kind of what I’m doing as a parent, you do have to sacrifice and put things aside and more so be realistic about the things that you can accomplish. So, you know, that sometimes makes your goals stretch further. Like it may be a simple thing, like, you know, one of my goals 2023 is to get back to running, right? Because I used to run all the time, avid runner. But I have a certain place I like to run, and it’s a little further than from where I live now. So what does that mean? That means I have to get up earlier. I got to make sure that the family is taken care of in different ways before I go and run. But that doesn’t mean that I won’t be able to do what I want to do and run where I want to run. but that just means I have to set up my structure a little bit better and maybe even wake up a little bit earlier. So, you know, all those goals break down into smaller, bite-sized, realistic, attainable goals. So don’t forget to, like, really make it plain and simple. Like, when I say, when I want to run, more and more effectively and just more on a regular basis. That means I need to have my shoes at a certain place. I need to have my bag at a certain place. I need to have it pre-packed the night before. That’s habits. That’s routine. Like I have to redesign the way that I get up in the morning and go so I’m not spending as much time like thinking about things that don’t matter because I have a real goal to set. So, you know, don’t forget to categorize it and make it plain. I just add that too.

John: Mm-hmm. And I love what you added to the visioning exercise like really feeling your way into What that’s going to feel like when you’re there. I think that’s super essential. So I’m really glad you brought that up and the moving from the vision into the categories like Tony just mentioned is like really getting specific about what goals are going to lead to creating your vision, right? And that’s like, that’s why I like to work backwards from the end and start setting larger, larger goals that could be in some interim step, like five years instead of 10 years, right? Where do I need to be in five to be where I want to be in 10? Or that can look like, you know, where do I want to be by the time the summer comes around, in order to be where I want to be at the end of the year. It’s kind of like having that signpost that helps you check in. And another thing that you mentioned, Tony, was checking back in periodically, making it very much part of a process that reminds you to check back in with those goals throughout the year. And I think that’s super essential. So setting up that signpost for you to check in, Say six months in for a big review, but then also having maybe a weekly check-in Yeah, you have to coach yourself at least a monthly gotta coach yourself.

Tony: You know you that person that’s gonna be holding yourself most accountable. So Be your own coach, right?

John: Right? And then, uh, and exactly how, when it comes to the setting those goals, right? We set them as specific as you can and set them in the present tense. Like you are already doing that thing, right? You know, I am running three times a week by February. Right. I’ve completed, you know, or I’m, I’m completing a, I’m completing a meditation retreat by March 30th and like really putting something more specific out there. And that it’s like, you’re already doing it as opposed to like, I will, I’ll do this, you know, I’ll go complete the meditation retreat. It’s like, will you though? Mm hmm. But then I like writing things as I’m I’m already there like I’m completing this meditation retreat by March 30th. Right or something along those lines and language is really nuanced in the way that it impacts you and impacts your psyche. So I would recommend writing things in the first person present tense as you write out your goals even for. any interim step. If you want to do the full nth degree to create your vision, if it’s, you know, 10 years, five years, something farther along, still same thing. I am doing this by 10 years from now or nine years from now, some kind of gap between their same thing within the interim timeframe, whether it’s six months, five years, what you’re looking at. And then for the current year for 2023 goals, same thing I am doing or I am completing X, Y, or Z by. September by June. Set yourself a signpost out there and as you check in with it. Week to week you can start. Letting those timelines like feel into the how realistic it is with what’s going on in that season of life right there. And there’s one thing that I heard actually from Emmanuel H.O. was about the about using the word objectives over goals. I thought that was interesting. Right. I think it’s has something to say about everyone’s mindset as well, whether it’s like more of a growth or fixed mindset, but in more of a fixed mindset, it’s. Not meeting a goal can be pretty, pretty disheartening. And, you know, if you’re more in the growth mindset state of things, you can say, you know, you notice, OK, what went wrong? Let’s learn and move forward and apply it going forward. But what he said was changing that word to objective. It kind of takes away the pass fail nature of it and really just sets it out as your mission to complete by this this month. And it’s an objective, right, not a physical outcome signpost. So play with that. I’d say if that resonates more with you, I mean, maybe, maybe objectives is the way to go for you, but I’d say it’s around the same thing. But again, that little nuanced language in, if that helps you show up for yourself a little bit more as you move forward into the new year, take it, run with it and set some goals.

Tony: Mm-hmm. I like objectives too. It makes me think of Tom Cruise like some Mission Impossible stuff Like, you know, then you’re waking up with purpose as you know where you’re trying to get to, you know Don’t forget to I would add to think about who you’re becoming as you accomplish these goals and why you want to accomplish these goals and Is it fun? Are you enjoying not only the process of achieving that goal, but are you going to enjoy it when you get there and when you have said goal? When I think about the running example, I’ve ran a half marathon, not bragging or anything, because it was definitely an experience. It was very real. But When I think about my running goal, I’m not trying to run another half marathon right now. I want to run to feel better. I want to run to have that dopamine hit in the mornings, that extra boost that I get from running in the morning and then going into the office and just the feeling that nature brings by being around all the trees and the bright morning sun. So make sure that when you are setting up your goals for the year that you either hit it right where you want to be and where you’re going to appreciate and enjoy the goal, or know that it’s a stretch goal that’s gonna stretch you, like I wanna run a marathon, I wanna run a half marathon, and why you want to accomplish that. Because a lot of times, and I fall victim of this a lot too, is when you achieve something and you get something that you really, really wanted, and you’re sitting in it and you have it, it’s almost like you forget to appreciate what you have because you got it now, but now you gotta look back and remember when you didn’t have it, How bad did you want it? And then once you got it, how did you nurture it? How did you appreciate it? How did you show that what you achieved was really your desired goal or was it more of how you wanted to be viewed by others or how you wanted to maybe scale up your material possession of some sort? I mean, whatever it may be, and that’s okay if those are your goals, but just know your why behind everything that you write out in your goal list and try to find a deeper meaning and deeper appreciation for it.

John: And that’s where the strong internal motivation comes from. Like we can say that, you know, it’s the grit and determination, like pushing through, but pushing through with grit and determination only goes so far. Right. But when you’re tapped into your why, when you’re tapped into what’s important to you about that goal and going deeper and deeper, and this is something that I do almost by session with clients is going into the deeper of like, what is even important to you about making this change? Like really, really deep down. And it usually starts as some surface level thing, right? You know, I want to feel better. But then it’s like, well, I mean, just, just for yourself, like now tell me really what, what does feeling better do for you? What life are you living then? And then it gets a little deeper into, I have more energy to play with my, to play with my kids. I have, um, I’m going to be, I’m going to be healthier. I’ll live longer. I’ll be there for them. Like, okay. So it’s tied to the ones that you love. So it’s like even the small goal of, you know, Getting out there, being a little bit more active, maybe changing the diet, something like that can be tied down to the deepest level of importance to you on, you know, a soul level. And like, that’s when things become and that’s that’s when it becomes easy. And yeah, there’ll be challenges. Life will happen. Things will get in the way. There’ll be things that come up that you have to meet in the interim. But then as long as you’re able to come back to that core and what’s really important to you about that goal, that’ll keep driving you forward. And that’s something that I do with clients all the time, all the time, all the time. So I have a spreadsheet. This is totally towards my personality here. So I have a spreadsheet that tracks all of the roles and commitments that I have. And it can be related to your goals, and I choose to have it connected to the roles in my life and some things that I’m committed to. So I’m committed to being an entrepreneur. I’m committed to being a coach. I’m committed to being a son, a friend, a yoga teacher. Right. So many different roles and commitments. And at the same time, I have them labeled as. What does, and I ranked each of them one through five, right? And I just check in with myself every week and rewrite myself. And I look at where in my life am I not balanced with my commitments. And that helps me one, keep my energy and balance and to use that same time to check in with my goals. Because that’s another thing is I don’t want my goals to take me away from my values. I don’t want my goals to take me away from the things that help build my energy and my character, like those roles and commitments that I stay committed to no matter what I’m actually doing in this world. So checking in with those roles and commitments and goals at the same time weekly really helps me stay in balance and move on a trajectory to the vision I want to create. in a way that’s sustainable, in a way that keeps me whole and complete. So as I’m ranking these roles, you know, I can look like each one of them. The five can mean something different, right? So what being a yoga teacher can look like for me right now, a five is teaching one class a week and being prepared for that class two days beforehand. Right, and that may have looked like three classes a week two years ago. Right, but it’s. Checking in with is the five realistic towards you know how I want to be committed to that goal. Right, same thing with being, you know, being a son. What does that look like? How often do I check in with my family, my mom, my grandparents, things like that? How often do I check in? Just say hi. You know, just see what’s going on. How often do I visit? And then I check in and say, man, I haven’t. And what it helps me is, you know, I look at sometimes maybe the friend part and I’m like, man, I haven’t talked to I haven’t talked to a couple a couple of guys that live in another state in almost a year. Like, man, that’s there’s a hole there. Let me put it on my calendar this week to give them a call. It just helps me check in with those things that are important to me and presence them in my life and then take action on them. So it’s like everything that you’re going to be doing here in this process is all about creating awareness in your life. So as you check in with things on a more macro scale and micro scale, you’ll be creating this greater sense of like, where is this feeling coming from? Like there’s, you know, there’s a void in my life right now. What might that be? You know, is it because I’m just chasing goals and forgetting about the things I’m committed to or is there just one part of something that I’m committed to that I’ve been forgetting about? So that’s my process for checking in. It’s weekly with my roles and commitments, and then my goal is just to keep everything in balance so I can move forward step by step.

Tony: Man, that’s some heat, man. I hope people caught what you were saying there, because that’s the way to constantly keep yourself balanced is by knowing what you mean to other people in the roles that you play, and then using that to kind of set your goals around that. I love that, man. That’s really good. I think we talked about that a few years ago at some point. So it’s great to see you even diving deeper into those roles and making your goals sustainably match the roles that you play and the hats that you wear.

John: Right. And the roles can, you can, I mean, you can drop a role and new roles can enter, right? Like for you, think about where your roles and commitments and what that five may have looked like before your son, you know? Yeah. And then right then, you know, you have then you have your son. It’s like, OK, maybe maybe a five looks like for these other things a little bit different now because this new role entered. And now what does a five look like for me as a father? Right. It’s like that. It’s dynamic. It can change with you.

Tony: Constantly evaluating and reorganizing has been the theme in this last year, but it’s been great, man. It’s been really refreshing to acknowledge that the things that I do and touch has to be very timely. It has to be super authentic to my core because my time is a little bit more strange. I won’t even say limited. I think it’s just the podcast is present professional, right? I have to be a present parent. So that matters to me. So when I’m with him, I’m on the floor playing, I’m playing with cars, I’m getting jumped on, I mean, whatever, in my phone, I’m trying to usually have it away from me or just really be in there for him. That means that that hour, that 30 minutes, or whatever amount of time I’m with him, I gotta give him all I got on top of my patterns that I’ve set with my wife, so I kinda do the same thing, which is we try to be with each other when we’re with each other and focused. It’s just all good to hear you say that with the roles. I was gonna add in for people who are really hitting your stride with your personal goals. You know, you got your life, your wellness, your career, your finances, all these things in order. You know, I challenge you, something I’ve been kind of studying lately is the Barrett’s value model, which it has seven models of leadership, going from crisis manager all the way to visionary leader. And people who are visionary leaders are the ones that really expose themselves to the world and make things happen and make their goals even around others and others that you don’t know. You really are leading from a world level or world class level even. And so what I would challenge you to do is three things when you’re making your goals. If you are kind of hitting your stride, is to create a goal, at least one, that gives something to the world. Like you make something that is not designed for self-benefit. Sure, people will know you did it because you are the one who probably put it together or your name will be on it. Make this thing for the world, not for self. The second thing I challenge you to do is to make a goal for something that gives back to your community. When I say community, you choose what that means to you. For me personally, that means people that don’t have, that are in my reach, right? So that may be volunteering. That may be helping people that are less fortunate in some capacity. People who may be oppressed in some capacity. Children that are maybe in adoption agencies. The list goes on and on. Find a way to, make the community important to your goals that you’re setting. And the last one I would say is give to someone specific or even a mentee. So if you have someone in your sphere of influence, or even if it’s a family member, a community member, whatever it may be, whoever, whomever they may be, Find a way to build capacity or build relationship so that they can be impacted by the high level of productivity that you are producing with your goals. So if you’re flourishing and doing well and you’re kind of hitting your target, you’re in that 80th percentile of being exceptional in the things that you have set, pass that on to somebody else and don’t just hold it for yourself. That’s how you transcend into visionary leadership is by giving to others.

John: That’s exactly right. That’s something that is so needed. And when you’re giving back to your community, your world and someone specific, like that’s going to give back to you, not even just, you know, talking about karma or accolades or anything like that. It will give back to you immediately. Like there’s no, there’s no better positive emotion that’s going to hit you with the right sensations and even the right dopamine release than just being with other people selflessly. That’s huge. You can’t, I feel like, I feel like no one has ever left a volunteer event in a bad mood. Like I’ll just go ahead and say if you’re giving your time selflessly and you’re watching how it impacts people, you’re going to feel what that does for you right away. And there’s in the example that it sets example that it sets in your circle. It’s huge. So thank you for bringing that up, Tony. That’s, that’s a huge part of what we want to contribute to with our goals. And with that, I want to leave one last strategy here that I used. It’s been, It’s been one of the most impactful things in my life. And I started doing this my senior year of college, I believe, when I was, I was looking for and, you know, trying to understand what my first job would be and trying to get a lot of prospects out there and spend my time, you know, getting to know a bunch of companies and fields and things like that. And I saw something that suggested it was a alleged interview with Jerry Seinfeld. And it asked, so how did you become the most financially successful comedian of all time? And apparently, he said, I had a dry erase calendar. And every day that I wrote jokes for two hours, I put a slash mark on it. And once you get going, like you just don’t want to break the streak. So I wrote jokes for two hours every day and that’s where now here I am. And I heard that and I was like, what? Like so simple, yet so beautiful. Like it plays on our psychology in such a wonderful way. So I immediately bought a full year and view dry erase calendar. I had it on my wall. And I remember that every day that I applied for something or went to an information session or something like that, I would put a slash mark on it and I never wanted to break the streak. And then I was kind of traveling out and flying out from state college at the time, you know, sometimes, sometimes twice a week for interviews and things like that, just because of the consistency. Man, you talk about wanting to manifest something in your life. It comes from like believing that it’s happening and it comes even more from when you’re actually like doing the thing. Right. So I took that, I took that calendar and I’ve been doing that every year for almost 10 years now. And it’s another part. I sit at the beginning of the year and I pick out, you know, a couple of those goals and what’s something that I can do in incremental daily practice. to meet some of those goals. And that’s what I associate one of four colors for that year and view dry erase calendar. And it’s been on my bathroom wall behind the mirror for now for almost 10 years, like I mentioned. And man, it is so powerful. And you know how I, when I met you, Tony, at that, at the volunteer event, I had on my dry erase calendar that year that I would do at least one philanthropy event every quarter. So I put like P on the marker and everything on each of the quarters I was going to do. And I ended up doing more than one per quarter and then ended up meeting you and being on the board of your nonprofit. Right? It’s like when you put something on there intentionally and you see it happening throughout the year, man, like you will notice such profound progress. You have no idea how much 365 days can give you if you just take even 20 minutes, 30 minutes. You get upwards of an hour, you can create something magnificent. It’s about keeping that in front of you and understanding, again, why it’s important to you. Why do you want to do this day in and day out? That is my movement from the vision down to the goal setting, to the weekly roles and commitments and goal review, and then to the daily incremental progress calendar and may seem like a lot. And it’s so built into the process and the way that my life unfolds now that it’s just, it just is. It doesn’t, you know, yes, the time and effort to take, you know, to take the time to do it, man, the benefits outweigh that so much tenfold. Maybe more.

Tony: Man. Drops mic. It’s nothing to say after that, man. That’s real. And, you know, you’ve definitely been consistent with that. That’s something that we talked about. I think you showed that or expressed that when we first met that calendar has been a true gold mine, I’d say, even for you and your success and who you’re not only, not only who you are today, but who you’re becoming. So kudos to you for that consistency and not breaking those streaks, man. And you know, I can’t wait to see what 10 years from now looks like in the streaks that you set, you know, in 2034, 2033. So it’s gonna be great. Oh my goodness. Well,

John: 2023 is going to be great as well for all of us, for all of the present professional community. Again, thank you guys so much for being listeners. It means a lot to us. For those of you that show up every week, give us feedback on the podcast. And also for those that rate us and review us anywhere that you get your podcasts, it really makes a difference. And you can connect with us at the present professional podcast.com. And look out for more information there. Look out for some of these tools in the show notes and we’ll have you set up going into the new year. So we’re excited for the planning. We’re excited for the process. Let’s make it happen. Take care of my friends.