A Goal Planning Sweet-Spot

The transition from Q3 to Q4 seems to always be the best time to start thinking about goals for the upcoming year.

• With 75% of the year completed, you’re probably seeing where you are going to “net out” with your current pursuits.

• Q4 is filled with shorter days and holidays. It’s not the peak season for accomplishing; but it is great for rest, reflection, and planning.

• Knowing that a new year is on the horizon, you’re more prone to think about what could be accomplished. Ride the wave of inspiration!

Take this T+P entry as your friendly reminder that you need to plan some goals! By doing so now you also gain extra time to review, reassess, and change your mind before the new year is upon you.

Allow me to encourage and equip you with 3 Pro-Tips…

3 Pro-Tips

• 😵‍💫 Don’t Set Too Many - Once you go beyond 3 Primary Goals you’re accomplish rate drops by 30%.

  • Choose 2-3 meaningful goals!

• ✅ Convert Big Goals into Lead Measures - Lead measures are the things done that “lead” to the bigger result that you are wanting.

  • Not only will the pursuit of these actions give you real traction toward your goal, they also keep you encouraged while you don’t see results yet. You’ll at least be able to “check the box” and be encouraged by an accompanying sense of progress.

    • So instead of a 2026 Goal “Get More Healthy” it should be:

      • A) Go to the Gym 3 Times

      • B) Set a Standard Fasting Window

      • C) Tweak Weekly Diet

    • You don’t want to go wild with too many lead measures (since it will virtually turn them into separate goals… transgressing Pro-Tip #1). Through experience you’ll know the sweet-spot for how many are helpful, versus what constitutes a separate goal all together.

• 🔁 Choose Goals that Become Patterns - There is a compounding effect when goals become patterns that persist in future years. You work toward finding and establishing these patterns in one year, and then you maintain them seamlessly while pressing on to future endeavors. Not to mention that if you target mental sharpness and physical health initially, those results will impact the other goals you pursue in the future!

  • Here are a few examples of how old annual goals for me are now staple realities. I don’t plan for them anymore, I just do them.

    • Days at the Gym per Week → Scheduled in the Calendar

    • Fasting → Pegged to Specific Hours of the Day

    • Annual Reading Goal → Regular Rhythm

    • Personal Finances → Budgeted and Reviewed

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For a deeper-dive into goal planning and some resources, check out the essential summary for Goal Planning HERE!

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In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty - Proverbs 14:23