I love this time of year. Aside from the holidays and my younger son’s birthday it’s also a time of year to spend time with friends and family, reflect and plan for the next year! Each year I spend time at the end of the year to review my goals from the prior year, see what I did well and where I can improve. I also spend time reviewing my 3 Year Vision. I actually review this every week as I prepare my Action Items for the week.

Build your 3 Year Vision

This is the first step in the process of creating your goals for the year. This should be a focused, introspective activity. If you’ve never mapped out a vision like this for your life, I suggest taking a day (or better yet a weekend) to spend thinking about what your ideal life would look like 3 years from now. In this vision, I would include:

• What does your health look like? How much do you workout and what do you do? Do you compete in any events?

• Your ideal schedule: What do you do each day?

• Your career and business.

• Financial: What is your net worth? How much do you make each year in active and passive income?

• Who do you spend time with? Romantic relationships, family, friends.

• Where do you live?

• Travel: Where have you travelled?

• Things: Have some fun with this! What kind of car do you drive?

When you finish your 3 Year Vision it should excite you to read it. When you share it with others it should be easy to visualize your perfect future life!

Once you have a firm anchor of where you want your life to be in the future, it’s time to move on to your annual planning. I spend time thinking about what I would need to accomplish to answer the following question a year from now:

“Last year was amazing because I accomplished . . .”

I map out 4 areas of my life with a big goal (I specifically put health first because without it, it seems everything else takes a backseat):

1. Health: How much do you weigh? Bodyfat? How often do you workout? Types of activity?

2. Wealth: What is your net worth? Your active and passive income?

3. Social Self: Your personal relationships; family, friends, time with children, date nights, etc.

4. Personal Enrichment: Travel, education, toys? Where are you going to travel?

Under each of these goals I have 3 Action Items. For instance:

Health: Weigh 175lbs at 9% bodyfat

• 3 strength workouts per week of 1 hour each

• At least 2 bike rides per week of 60-90 minutes during the week and one long ride on the weekend

• Wake up at 5AM everyday

Your Action Items should be easy to understand. If you gave them to someone else they should be able to follow the same basic plan.

Now you are ready to map out your year! I actually review my annual goals quarterly as the year evolves. The first thing I do is block off time for vacations and time off. Life is a game of energy. You need to be fresh mentally and physically to attach your big goals! I also find it helps give me something to look forward to during tough times. Research shows that vacations improve physical and mental wellbeing. Even before and after the vacation! 2 years after my 3 week adventure in the Grand Canyon I still enjoy reminiscing. After vacations, add any professional training or coaching blocks. You want to make sure that you have time set aside to continuously “sharpen the axe”. Next plan your weekly time to be with your family (Saturday is reserved as a family day in my household) and friends. This can include weekly date nights with your partner! Then block out time for physical wellbeing; workouts, self-care etc. Perhaps you meditate every morning? Daily Peloton workouts? Weekly yoga classes? Put it in the calendar! All of the above are important to block time for before life gets in the way. And it will!

Planning out each week

Now that you have all of these very important times on the calendar, you can move forward confidently with your weekly planning. My favorite time of the week to do this is Sunday morning, before everyone gets up. I make a cup of coffee, read my 3 Year Vision, review my Quarterly Plan and spend 30 minutes determining what will be the most high-value Action Items for my week. These days, I get to work first thing each day on what’s most important for me to achieve my big goal. This might be writing (like this article for instance), reviewing a real estate project, or reading a particular book. I usually spend the first 90 minutes of my day on this. I’ve found that I can accomplish in 90 minutes at 5AM what most take an entire morning (or even day!) to accomplish. It’s almost unfair! For you, the most important thing may be a workout, sending emails for your side hustle or listening to an educational podcast. I urge you not to check email, read the news or hit the snooze!

 That’s it! With the above 3 steps, I’m confident that you can achieve your biggest goals! If you haven’t, listen to the Next-Level Income Show Ep. 1 with Craig Ballantyne. You can get a free copy of his “The Perfect Day Formula” to learn the same time management system I used to build my schedule, transform my business and train for races even when I was working 80+ hours while on call 5 days a week. You can also get a copy of my book, “Next-Level Income” at our website and get Craig’s book, “The Perfect Day Formula” here. All of these will help you to make 2021 your Best Year Yet!