Howdy 🤠
Many psychologists say spring is the best time to start New Year’s Resolutions because the weather is better and we associate the season with the budding of new life.
That’s why I’ve asked my friend Sarah Lee to write about her unique approach to tackling goals harder than Jadeveon Clowney.
As the previous COO at New Story, Sarah knows how to get stuff done. She also knows how to have fun doing it. She once put together a chocolate cake competition at New Story…and made herself a judge.
You’re in good (and chocolate-covered) hands.
Enjoy and be encouraged!
Post by Sarah Lee
Writing about goals in January… snooze-fest.
Writing about goals in April… magic.
We’re four months into the year. It’s far enough that you might have a realistic picture of how your year is going, yet it’s far enough out you can still shape how you want to evolve in the next 260 days.
Some people live and breathe discipline. They accomplish much in life adhering to mind over matter. I like to pretend they have a higher amount of robot in their DNA than the rest of us.
I am currently in a season of needing to double down on my goals to ensure I get some major things accomplished. I would describe myself as highly goal-oriented, yet not disciplined. As I am pushing my own goals, here are two ways I am helping increase my odds of success AND (maybe as important… ) have fun while doing it.
Put something on the line.
Each month I get together with a few friends and we set our goals for the month. Sometimes these goals are highly ambitious and sometimes they’re mundane tasks that we’ve been putting off.
For many, the simple act of telling others what you want to do then having to report back on whether or not you did it is enough to push you into action. Others might need more.
After about six months, our group found we had about a 50% success rate on our goals. Sure, we were making progress. But we wanted more. We made a bold decision. Don’t hit a goal? Pay $100 to the group “penalty pig” which is being used for a group trip to the Grand Canyon later this year.
Since implementing our penalty, we’ve increased our success rate to about 90% and we’ve accumulated about $1,200 for our trip.
Whether it’s your word, reputation, or cold hard cash… Putting something on the line with your goals gives them more weight.
Fun tip: Just having to pay $100 might be enough, but doing it with friends makes it far more likely you’ll look forward to it. We push each other to do more “working out 2x per week is what you normally do - if this is going to be a goal, it should be 4x.” AND keep ourselves grounded in reality “You just had a baby - why don’t you push two of these to next month?”
Surround yourself with your goals.
We’ve all been there… You finish a reflection session or get motivated by a piece of media that hits you in all the right places and you are READY TO GO. And then… a few months, weeks, days later you’re not nearly as motivated.
Part of the reason this happens is you don’t have enough accountability (see tip one), but for many of us we also just get distracted. Maybe it’s my ADHD or maybe it’s the reality that we have tens of thousands of messages coming at us every day. Regardless, you need to keep your goals front and center.
Habit stacking, good old post-its, daily trackers, your phone background, and an accountability buddy can all help keep your goals in the limelight.
Fun tip: Align it to something you already do or love. Walk your dog every day? Use the first 5 minutes to check in with yourself. Love Taylor Swift? She doesn’t slack on her goals. Every time you listen to a song you have to do a quick check-in. Treat your goals like a fun drinking game but instead of poison, you get progress.
The older I get the more I am saddened by how adults lose our connection to fun. Everything is so serious. Goals included. Relationships, finances, careers… these are all serious things that deserve attention. AND, they’re never going to stick if you don’t enjoy them. While robots might not need a hit of dopamine, I do. So the more places I can align the future Sarah I want with the current Sarah who wants fun… the better.
✌️
— Sarah
P.S. Sarah’s currently consulting other teams and deciding which big mission to join next. So if you’re looking for a rockstar leader, hit her up.
P.P.S. I’m taking David Perell’s writing course — hence the more guest posts these days. My first prompt for the course was “What’s a rule you live by?” Paid subscribers are getting my 500-word response below. Enjoy!
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Luke's Essays to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.