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For the longest time I've wavered between two different perspectives of how to create goals. I find merit in both of them, but it's hard to bring them together because they're on opposite ends of the spectrum.  

One perspective is to "dream big" because "if you shoot for the moon, at least you'll land among the stars." You've heard this before. The idea that you need to get clear on those big, juicy, audacious goals that might not come true, but definitely won't if you can't even imagine it.  Jim Carrey's 10 million dollar check story is a prime examples of this big, bold, law-of-attraction style goal setting.  

The second perspective on goal setting follows the more practical approach of setting S.M.A.R.T. goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely). As the acronym suggests, this is all about being super specific about the goals you set so that you can make clear progress in a timely manner, and that they're reasonable enough that you don't let yourself down. 

I actually love aspects of both of these approaches, but they don't really jive together. What tends to happen for me is that I'll set big, dreamy goals (the first approach), and then I'll break them down into a million little goals (attempting to integrate the second approach) so that I can understand what I need to do to achieve them. There's an excitement about reaching my big goals, but in order to get there my plans have to include working from sun up to sun down and going 9-0 at all times (even when I'm relaxing, relax hard! More yoga!). It starts out being invigorating and quickly turns into massive overwhelm as I try to figure out how to "have it all" without killing myself in the process. 

I couldn't figure out a good solution to balancing the two approaches because I didn't want to give up on the big dream approach and truly opening to possibilities, but I also knew that there needed to be some structure and discipline to achieving these goals. (I found some good traction for my business in the approach outlined in the book Scaling Up, but it didn't factor in the rest of my life.)

Enter some great insight from a new mentor of mine, Rob Hanly, which has changed everything. This is based on work from Craig Ballantyne's The Perfect Day Formula and Mark Ford's writing (read more here).  

Energy Management. 

The concept is basically that while I'd love to win triathlons, have the body of Victoria's Secret model, bank million of dollars each year, raise a beautiful family in the mountains, travel the world perpetually, speak 4 languages fluently, and live on a sailboat half the year...

I can't achieve all of these things at the same time. It's impossible. I don't have enough hours in the day, let alone the mental bandwidth or resources to do it all. 

Instead, Rob says, it's all about adding layers to the four major areas in your life—health, wealth, relationships and personal development. The idea is that you only have ONE GOAL in each area at a time, for a total of four goals. Of those four, only one is really massive.

Initially, you might think that if you can only have four goals, they'd better be good. For me it might look something like this:

• HEALTH: Compete in an IronMan triathlon each year, finish top 10 of my age group
• WEALTH: Build a million dollar coaching business
• RELATIONSHIPS: Have the best marriage possible while maintaining deep relationships with friends around the world
• PERSONAL: Become fluent in two foreign languages

Nope. Not happening. I'd need a WHOLE lot more time, energy, and resources to make that happen, even if I Tim-Ferriss-4-Hour-Work-Week the sh*t out of it. 

Instead, I'd want to focus my efforts on a big goal in just one area, while maintaining the other areas. So it might look something like this: 

• HEALTH: Compete in an IronMan triathlon each year, finish top 10 of my age group
• WEALTH: Maintain business growth
• RELATIONSHIPS: Date night once per week with Scott
• PERSONAL: Do 1 hour of Spanish language practice once per week

or

• HEALTH: Maintain strength and endurance with 4x gym training sessions per week
• WEALTH: Build a million dollar coaching business
• RELATIONSHIPS: Date night once per week with Scott
• PERSONAL: Do 1 hour of Spanish language practice once per week

You get the idea. 

This is all about shifting your focus to one specific bigger goal, while ensuring that other important areas of your life don't slip. A healthy life balance while also pursuing big things. 

Watch the video for an example

This lays the foundation for giving you S.M.A.R.T. goals for the areas you need to maintain, while also pushing you towards a big, juicy goal in one particular area. 

Now, clearly there's more that goes into all of this as far as "how" you then execute the big goals (and even the small ones). There's a lot to be said for schedules, automation and discipline, as well as clarity on your desires and alignment with your true talents. I'll take that big goal and break it down into smaller goal for the next 90 days (using a combination of tools like SWOT, The Chalkboard Method, and daily tracking). 

But the important thing here is that the primary focus stays the same. I don't aim to do an IronMan in Q1 and then switch to achieving perfect fluency in Spanish by the end of Q2. The big goal has to stay at the forefront for a while if you're going to make traction. 

Simply shifting how you think about goals into this framework is a great first step to getting clear on which area will get extra attention...because not every area can get extra attention.

Ready to give it a whirl? Download the worksheet below!