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In this episode, Allan discusses his strategy for creating a vision, and setting goals in seven different areas of his life; spiritual, family, mental, physical, professional, financial, and social. Allan answers a few commonly asked questions that will help you as an entrepreneur set goals, not just for 2022, but for the next five and ten years.
Hey, everyone, welcome to the show. I’m Allan. I’m a family man and attorney and an entrepreneur. Each week, we provide resources and advice to help build your business. Are you ready? Then let’s go.
Hey, everyone, welcome to The Business Growth Pod. I’m your host, Allan Draper. And I’m flying solo today. And today we’re talking about goals. If you guys liked this episode, and you know you’ve heard your friends, or someone in your family, or somebody that has been talking about goals and how you know, they’re really going to focus for 2023. And moving forward. Go ahead and share this episode with them. If you think it’s going to help. And as always provide feedback, let me know what you think about this episode. But let’s get right into it. I’m super focused on goals. I look at my goals every single day, not every day, but five to six times a week. And for me, they’re not just goals, I actually call them visions. And I submitted a request inviting people to ask me questions about goals recently. And one of the questions was, hey, is there a difference between goals and visions? And this is a really good question. And I don’t think there’s a difference except in the approach. And I’m going to kind of get into that in a little bit. So I have goals for seven different areas of my life, starting with the most important my spiritual goals, my goals with God, or you know, the universe or creator, whatever you consider it. So spiritual goals, then with my family, then my mental goals, like how I’m challenging myself mentally, and progressing mentally, fourth, is physical. Fifth is professional. Six is financial. And seven is social. So the goals that I have with my social connections and interactions, and my network and things like that. So those are the seven different areas that I set goals in, and that I focus on. And it sounds like a lot. And it is and the reason why I do that is because it’s really difficult to have success, or to live a successful life. If one area of your life is out of balance, there was this quote from a religious leader, and he said something like, no success outside the home can compensate for failure inside the home something to that extent. And I’ve taken that seriously and applied it to my goals and my focus. Because let’s say I have a really successful career, I’m making a lot of money. You know, I’ve got four or five of these, you know, areas down pat, right, everything is going great, and I’m focused on them. But let’s say that, you know, my marriage is a disaster, right? It’s not something I work on, it’s not something that that I’m focused on, then, can you imagine what my life would be like, that’s a very significant portion of my life, or let’s say that I’ve got everything in line, but you know, I don’t eat that. Great, I don’t work out.
I’m not in great shape, I’m having issues with my body, I have a lot of pain in my back, I, you know, all these things, which are normal struggles for people. But if they’re not doing something about those things, then it’s really going to get in the way of them achieving their goals in other areas of their life, they’re gonna have a really hard time focusing on their career, their profession, if, you know, they miss so much work due to medical visits, or and if you think about it, you know, with the large scope in mind, like kind of zooming out, you think, well, if I’m talking about my goals over the period of my lifetime, not just one year, five years, and I’m not taking care of my body, then I’m going to be able to achieve less because I’m going to live less I’m not going to live as long. And so my you know me developing relationships with my network or with my family, that’s going to be cut short. If I have medical conditions that could have been prevented by exercise or visiting a doctor or addressing them and focusing on them. Now, obviously, there are things that come up, there are things that happen in all areas of our life that throw us a curveball, including our health. So we have to definitely adapt to that. But that’s the main reason why I focus on so many things. But here’s the kicker, I don’t focus on a lot of things within those categories. So yes, I focus on seven categories, which is a lot, but I only focus on, or I have two or three goals within each category. And so I’m able to kind of break them down into bite sized pieces, and things to focus on. So, you know, going back to that question, is there a difference between goals and visions? Well, there isn’t how I approach it, because I don’t set goals I set visions. For me, Vision doesn’t mean like, I’m seeing like heavenly bodies or something, right? Like I’m seeing angels, it means that I visualize my quote, unquote, goals. So every morning, I start at the top, and I start with my spiritual goal. And I even have a picture of my top level spiritual goal that I’m focusing on for that period of time. And what that does is that picture sets my mind, right. And with my visualization, what I’m trying to do is, I’m trying to create this palpable, and real thought process and feeling of what it is like to obtain or achieve the goal. So I’m not sitting there, you know, with my eyes closed, visualizing, you know, myself right now, and I might visualize different, you know, stages of achieving the goal. But one of the most effective tactics, and this has a lot to do with the law of attraction is going through this process of visualizing what do I feel like, when I achieve that goal? What does it look like? Where am I sitting? You know, I have goals with where I want my relationships with my children to be, I have a three year old daughter, and seven and nine year old sons. And, you know, I have 10 year goals of where I want my relationship with them to be. And what I do when I visualize those goals is I imagine, you know, I’m sitting down talking to them, and I can see myself I can see that I look a little older, right, few more wrinkles, maybe some gray hair, maybe not. I don’t actually I don’t know if someday I’ll get it, but I haven’t yet. And my wife, borderline hates me for it. But you know, I imagine myself being older. I imagine, you know, so my nine year old, he’ll be 19. And so I imagined him as a 19 year old. And I imagined having this conversation with him, I imagined talking to him about things that a 19 year old would be talking to their their father about, you know, talking about his career or where he is religiously, or you know, possibly getting married or whatever, you know, goes through, you know, you kind of imagine what would be going through his mind. And then I imagine how we feel like how are we interacting? Am I Am I listening to him with love? Am I Am I listening to him and wanting to you know, sympathize with him? And is he trusting me? Is he telling me these things, because he values my advice all you know. So there’s a lot of different ways you can take it. But that’s how I visualize and I do it with every single category. I review my goals almost daily, five, six times a week. But I focus and I do a visualization exercise for just one category a day, and then I rotate it. But that is the biggest difference for me between a goal and a vision. The vision has that visualization aspect, which again includes that opportunity to go back and focus on what it feels like and what it looks like to achieve
the goal. So I was trying to go through a few other questions, and I had the question come up. Are goals allowed to change? Are you allowed to alter your goals? And that answer is a resounding yes, you can. But I think what you need to do to determine if you should update or alter your goals is whether you’re doing it to quote unquote, give up or quit because it’s too hard. Or has your perspective changed? Let me give you an example. So I had a goal in 2021 to have 100,000 followers on Instagram Okay, and it was looking really good like it wouldn’t have been a problem at all there’s lots of ways to kind of work that out use influencers and stuff in which I was doing. But what happened when I was going through this process is I realized that I was getting followers that I’m not the right voice for them. Right I wasn’t the right fit. And that’s not what I wanted. Basically what I’m saying is I realized that the you know, followers that were you know valuable that found value in what I was producing in my content that I was actually able to help that we’re focused on business or money, things that I talk a lot about, I would rather have fewer followers that I was able to actually add some value to versus more followers that I wasn’t able to add value to. And so about, you know, three or four months in, I realized this, I realized, like, Hey, I, I’d rather be able to help fewer people in a deeper way than just, you know, have people view my content or whatever, that it doesn’t apply to them. Right. So for example, I’m not going to spend a lot of time looking at, you know, swimming videos like competitive swimming, that’s not really my thing. I’m in a football, baseball, basketball, golf. So those are the pages that I like to follow. And what I realized is that people were following me because of one influence or another, that, you know, didn’t really jive with my brand and what I’m trying to accomplish and the things that I’m good at. So I shifted gears. So keep in mind that if you’re reviewing your goals, once you get into them, and you’re wondering if you should, you know, take a different path, ask yourself, Well, number one,
why am I wanting to take a different path? Did I plan on running a marathon and I realized, you know, what, I’m not getting the time in or whatever. That’s not a good reason. But if your ambitions and your process has changed, and you realize, hey, I actually need to alter that goal. Because it’s not getting me to where I actually want to be absolutely change that midstream, change it right now, and focus on something that will get you to where you want to be. Another question I got was, how do I increase the likelihood that I’m going to be able to achieve a goal or keep a good habit going. And I think you have to schedule things and put your goals in context of your circumstances. For example, I go to the gym at a weird time, I go, usually, nine 930 in the morning. And the reason why I do that is because there’s a couple of reasons. One, first thing in the morning, I’m able to do quite a few things and get my day going, get my kids off to school, do some things, I have a conference call with one of my business partners every morning at 830. And so there’s basically what I’m doing is I am working my goals around other people’s schedules, which is kind of a weird concept. But my wife goes to the gym every day for this class that starts at 930. And I just ride with her. And it’s created this thing where we hold each other accountable. And so I’d much rather go super early. But I know that because of the schedule, and because of the accountability, I’m going to go more often, if I go at that time, and so I I schedule things around that time. So if you want to achieve your goals and build these habits, give yourself an opportunity to make it work, right, going back to the gym goal. If you’re wanting to lose a bunch of weight, or go start going to the gym a lot this year, clear the path a little bit for yourself, don’t just say, Hey, I’m gonna go to the gym every day, I’m not going to the gym right now, I’m going to start fresh, and I’m gonna start at 4am or 5am. Well, you just as opposed to clearing the path and making it easier for you, what you did is you made it harder for you. So now, not only do you have to go to the gym every day, but now you have to wake up earlier to do it. And not that there’s anything wrong with waking up earlier. And for some people, they can flip that like a light switch. But if you’re trying to ensure that you develop these habits, pick one or two things at a time, and then build on it. And that’s the thing with habits and goals, especially at the beginning of the year, you’ll notice like the gyms and this happens with everything. So this is just an analogy. But the gyms are just very easy to see. Because all of a sudden, it’s packed. And then halfway through January or you know, into February, a few people die off, right, they stopped coming in as much and eventually stopped going to the gym altogether. So if you want to create a habit that will help you achieve your goals, clear the path, one of the things that I do, and I like the gym because it’s a really easy example. It’s something that I do, and it’s really relatable. But when I wake up in the morning, I immediately put on my gym clothes, even though I’m not going to the gym for about three hours plus. And the reason why I do that is because I’m mentally saying, Hey, I just made a commitment to myself and I do it while I’m still kind of tired. Like I brush my teeth, put my gym clothes on every single day. Right then I’m going to the gym five, six days a week, and I’ve already made the decision. Right and I’ve already done that small thing that gets me closer to going to the gym. So that’s my way of clearing the path and do that with whatever If you want to learn a new language, and you have an app, put a reminder on your phone that goes off and have the app installed and a lesson ready to go. If you’re wanting to read more, if you’re wanting to save more money, do things that are automated to help you so that it’s just that part is easier. You know, when nine 930 rolls around, and
it’s time to go to the gym, I don’t have to think, oh, man, I have to put my clothes on like, and it seems like a small thing. And it is relative to the larger picture. But the more small things that you can do to get you yourself closer to that habit or that goal, the better off you’re going to be. I’m gonna go through a couple more questions real quick. And then we’re gonna wrap up here. If you have any questions, we’re talking about goals today. This is the Business Growth pod. I’m your host, Allan Draper. If you have any questions about goals, make sure to follow me message me on Instagram. It’s Alan R. Draper and go to my website, Allan draper.com. Schedule an appointment with me there, I have a calendar link. And we can just chat through it. There’s no cost or anything. I just, you know, I’m passionate about this area of my life and just go ahead and let me know how I can help. So yeah, let’s get through a couple other questions. Somebody asked, Do I need to write my goals down? You know what, if you’re not willing to write your goals down, then, you know, let’s probably skip this thing altogether. Because that’s, that’s such a basic thing. But 100%, you need to write them down. Not only do you need to write them down, you need to review them frequently, almost every day, when you see them, it changes your brain. And again, that law of attraction comes into play. I wrote down a goal this year that I wanted to acquire at least two additional properties. And into November and even the beginning of December, it was looking like Hey, I didn’t know if it was going to happen and will be under contract. My goal was to be under contract with two properties. I closed on one property about a week ago. And just yesterday, this new commercial deal popped up, I put a story on my Instagram about it. But that popped up. And it looks like that’s going to be under contract in the next couple of days. I’m recording this in the second week of December. And what do you attribute that to right? Of course, I’m always looking for opportunities. But I think I’ve reviewed my goals so much. And they’re just ingrained in my head that, you know, the law of attraction comes into play, where you’re looking and where you’re focused, is what you’re going to go after, right? I remember this story of this raft guide. And for years, there was this place where, you know, on this particular river, where he would tell his people like hey, there’s a there’s a area over here by a tree and some rough rocks with rough water that you want to avoid. And for some reason, they would they just keep paddling right into that area. Long story short, he realized that he was bringing their attention and what was happening is they were focused on that area. And so they paddled right into it. So after a while as he caught on to this. He told them to focus on the other side, like hey, you want to paddle right toward the tree, you know, on the opposite side of these rough waters and everything. And what do you know, they started paddling away from the danger. And that’s exactly how it is if you want to paddle right, proverbially paddle towards your goals, write them down and review them frequently. I think that has a powerful, you know, there’s this magic effect that comes from that. So make sure to write them down. My final thought and this is very important. Make sure you hear this if you don’t get anything else out from this episode, take this and make sure you share this with somebody don’t just set goals for one year. I use timeframes because it allows me to measure myself and what gets measured gets improved. But the timing of the goal is less important than the impact and the effect of how it changes and how it helps us grow and progress. Set goals for five and 10 years. I see this quote a lot from Tony Robbins. I love it. He said something to the effect of people overestimate what they can accomplish in one year and they underestimate what they can accomplish. And five, spend time focusing on things that are five and 10 years down the road and don’t beat yourself up. If you don’t achieve a goal in one year. Don’t beat yourself up. Keep that focus on the tree that is five years right down the road. Keep your focus on that and you will paddle to it and you will achieve it and make those five and 10 years goals really big and be really kind to yourself about the one year goals don’t let your one year goals ever, ever. Get in the way A lot of your longer term goals. Don’t let you know your failure to achieve them or to develop a habit or a mistake or whatever. Don’t allow those things to stop you from those bigger, longer term goals. Those are my thoughts for you today. I hope this does something to help you in 2023 2028 2031. Hearing those numbers sounds crazy, but those are the things that you should be focused on. And make sure that you go through these cheesy aspects of writing your goals now and sharing them with others spending a significant amount of time investing in yourself and focusing on your goals. And I guarantee that you’ll get results. So again, any questions reach out to me on Instagram or LinkedIn? You guys know where to find me or on my website, Allan draper.com And here is to a prosperous 2022
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