Do THIS Before Setting Your 2024 Goals.
A Unique Approach to Setting Goals Inspired by the book ‘The Gap and The Gain’
Have you ever felt overwhelmed when setting goals for the new year? Do you tend to compare your journey to others', leading to self-doubt and a sense of failure?
If you’re feeling this I totally see you. As a work-from-home parent aiming to build a content based, one-person-business, I’m a little ashamed to say I experience this pretty much all the time!
I’ll often look at creators on LinkedIn or YouTube that I perceive to be “successful”, and immediately start comparing myself to them, without knowing all the hurdles and challenges they’ve overcome on their journey to get to where they are now. More importantly, I do it without appreciating the hurdles and challenges I’ve faced to get to where I am now.
Why am I starting from zero?
And then, when it comes to setting myself goals and thinking about the things I want to succeed at, I’m starting from a place of zero. I’m beginning at the bottom of the ladder, looking up at the insurmountable task ahead of me.
But what if I told you there's a way to flip the script?
A practical approach to goal-setting that starts not with an idealized future or comparison to others' successes, but with your present situation and comparison to your past achievements.
In this article, I'll reveal a unique insight I got from chapter 4 of the book "The Gap and the Gain" by Dan Sullivan & Dr Benjamin P. Hardy (affiliate link *), which involves reflecting on your current achievements before setting future goals.
By the end, you'll have a set of action steps to help you get a clear snapshot of your successes, which you can use to measure yourself against. This will help give you a renewed sense of confidence.
I’m giving you my practical journaling exercise to guide you through the entire process.
Next Actions:
So, it’s that time when we put the kettle on, brew a cuppa, grab our journals and fave pen, and get into introspection mode 🙂
This exercise will take 30-60 minutes, I broke my session down into three 20 minute sprints.
I’m gonna code name this “The Gains to Goals Method”. Let’s go…
In the book The Gap and The Gain*, chapter 4 (Always Measure Backward: Increase Your Hope and Resilience) emphasizes the importance of reflecting on past achievements to maintain motivation and avoid burnout. The chapter suggests that hope and confidence come from acknowledging progress..
Chapter 4 also highlights the significance of journaling and self-review to recognize personal growth. We’re encouraged measure success by comparing the current self to the past self, rather than an idealized future self.
Here’s how I decided to do it…
The Gains to Goals Method (Version 1.0)
Inspired by “The Gap and The Gain”
Step One: Start by listing your successes from the past 12 months.
Open up a fresh page in your journal (or a fresh sheet of note paper), and write down everything you've achieved in the past year, no matter how small.
This could be anything from launching a new product, to simply maintaining a consistent work schedule, to having quality bonding time once a week with each of your children individually.
You just want to quickly bullet list your wins and learnings.
My Experience: I found I started off slow, struggling to think. It was like trying to spot things in a darkened room as my mind trawled through my memory banks for 2023. But once I got going the victories poured in and I manage to fill a page and a quarter in my Leuchtturm1917 A5 journal - line after after line, simply listing off all my ‘Gains’!
I have a little cheat code I used to help me on this…
At the start of 2023 I had written a goals list in the front of my journal. As I achieved things I dated them and ticked them off. So when it came to reviewing my year I was able to look back at the list to get the ball rolling. My 2023 goals list had 23 items in total of which I achieved 12 - wait until I tell you what happened next.
Step Two: Review your list of current successes.
Once you feel like you’ve logged all your ‘Gains’, read back over your list, can you spot any recurring themes, things that surprised you or maybe even missing links?
There’s no right or wrong way to do this review, we’re in introspection mode so the “right” way for you to review your list should become apparent if you allow yourself to be guided by your intuition.
My Experience: I decided to grab a highlighter and tick off items relating to personal development, that included: relationships, health, mental well-being, and education. Items that weren't ticked off were things that related to business development.
My list had 35 items in total: 16 were personal development; the other 19 were business development. This showed me that despite me thinking I was falling behind and not improving in the key areas of my life, I actually was, and it was a fairly even split.
Further more, I’d managed to nearly 3x my achievements from the original list of successfully complete goals in my 2023 journal - that’s what happens when you get into ‘Gain’ thinking!
Step Three: Now list your goals for the next 12 months.
Again, you want to quickly bullet list your goals so you don’t get bogged down with the “how will I do this?” mind-trap.
You can use your successes from the past 12 months as a starting point for setting your future goals. This helps to avoid comparing yourself to others and instead compare to your past self. This process will not only help you see your progress clearly but also set relatable goals for the next 12 months.
Another bonus from starting with your current wins and learnings is that you're already in a mindset of being specific because you most likely listed your achievements using specific details. So when you come to list your future goals you’re more likely to be clear about exactly what you want to achieve.
HOWEVER, I think there is value in having vague goals!
Let me explain…
Yes, you want to have clarity when it comes to want you want to succeed at, therefore some of your goals should be written in a way that is very specific, including facts and figures (details that answer: who, what, when, where, why, how many).
But some of your ideas might not be fully formed yet. You might have a hunch on something, or your intuition prompting you towards something, a seedling of an idea that hasn’t yet sprouted.
That's where you can set a vague goal. The key thing to remember here is that you've had a spark of intuition, so your mind is tuned into spotting where you could potentially plant that seed of an idea, a place where you can nurture it and enable it to flourish.
Final Thoughts:
By using this key insight from the book "The Gap and the Gain" by Dan Sullivan & Dr Benjamin P. Hardy (affiliate link *), you’ll start actively reflecting on your current achievements before setting future goals, so you can tap into a positive mindset that’s open to the possibilities of what success can look like for you and no one else.
Now that you're equipped with “The Gains to Goals Method”, I encourage you to carve out some time, grab your journal, and get started.
Reflect on your achievements, big and small, and let them guide you as you set your goals for the future.
Don’t forget, there's no right way to do this - it's about what works for you.
You can share your experiences and insights along the way using the comments section below. I'd love to hear about your journey, and I'm sure others in our community would too. After all, we're all here learning and growing together.
Before you go, remember, success is a personal journey, not a race. So be proud of your ‘Gains’, celebrate them, and use them as a springboard for your future goals.
I’m cheering you on Planner Friend!
Chloe x
Additional Resources
Listen or read "The Gap and the Gain" by Dan Sullivan & Dr Benjamin P. Hardy (affiliate link *)
Follow Benjamin Hardy on Medium, where he regularly publishes articles.
Paid members of Planning with Chloe can access my book notes and chapter summaries here.
* Please note: I personally found and purchased this [Audible] book, but as an Amazon Associate I earn from any qualifying purchases you may make after clicking these links.