The blogosphere is currently flooded with information on goal setting and New Year’s resolutions, but lets be honest, goal setting is not enough to be successful…you need a plan. At the beginning of 2011 I wrote about my 2011 Personal Success Plan.  I had a many wins and some losses in my 2011 goals, but overall, I am a better person and I achieved a lot more because of my plan. This year I have made a number of changes to help guarantee a successful 2012. The changes are not just aesthetic, but in how I manage my success, execute on the goals, keep motivation, track progress, and hold myself accountable.

Ben Stein beautifully said, “The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this:  Decide what you want.” This image to the left serves as the basis for stating what you, “want out of life”, or more specifically, what you want out of the year.  I value this document because it serves as a singular focal point to all I want to accomplish in the year (Read on to receive a template for yourself). Each of the parts are important to the success of the whole. I suggest you open up the image in another window to lok at as you read.

The Success Plan

The first part of the success plan is this success plan document. This is a Microsoft Word document that holds everything that is important for defining my goals. I will not use this document for tracking, but for defining and planning. Tracking comes later. Here are the parts of this “defining” document:

1. Annual Vision

I debated on what to call this section, but ultimately decided it was almost like a mini BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal). It was not a definite goal, because goals ultimately define what your overall success looks like.  It is a statement that is meant to define what I will become and what I will look like when I complete all my goals. It serves as the inspiration to WHY I’m doing this and WHAT I will become when I am successful. It is written as if it already happened, setting the mental image and motivation for the hard-work ahead.  My vision statement for 2012 is “2012 was a launching-point for a better future and a better me. I have set positive habits for the future that will make me a better father, a better husband, and a better friend. I have strengthened my professional reputation as an innovative, solid, and proven leader and I have become more spiritually in-tune and financially stable.”

2. Mission Statement

Developing a personal mission statement takes some time, but once you have it, it will serve as a guide for all your actions. I feel it is important to state this on the personal success plan because it is my “code of conduct” and guides me as I execute and as I come to problems throughout the year. Leaving this out leaves a big hole in the plan. My personal mission statement is, “I will not accept status quo and as such will seek after that which is efficient and effective in all areas my life, but never at the expense of my relationships.  I will focus on that which is important versus that which is critical.  I will be teachable and will strive to always learn new things that will help me reach my full-potential.  I will act with Integrity at all times and will treat others as they would like to be treated.  I will look for the good in all I experience, and remember all the blessings that I have been given.” Take the time to develop your own, it will be well worth it.

3. Values (Areas of Focus)

My values are actually listed in 2 places, for 2 different reasons. In my mission statement I actually list values that are important to me. You do not have to do this, but you can. These values are more guiding to my life. Right above my mission statement I list the values that I will be focusing on in 2012. These could be called my areas of focus. My focus’ for 2012 are: Relationships, Spirituality, Intellectual Stimulation, Financial Success, Physical Wellness, Professional Growth, Giving Back, & Renewal. These help me to categorize my lower-level goals into groups that are easier to track and help me to see how everything fits together. The image is meant to remind me that everything contributes to the whole of who I am and who I want to become.

4. Lead Measures (Goals)

Lead measures are something I talk about in detail in my book. But basically they are smaller goals that predict the success of a higher goal. In my case, the higher goal is my annual vision. The beauty of a lead measure is that, assuming you set the right lead measures, when you complete them, you will have accomplished your goal. My lead measures are organized according to my areas of focus. They are all written as if I was in the future looking back. They are positive and stated what I have accomplished, not what I want to accomplish. Kind of the same thing but a mental difference.

5. Vision Board

Below my lead measures is a small vision board with images that remind me why I am doing these goals. I did not change this over last year, because my focus areas are the same. I know a lot of people put a crazy amount of effort into this part alone, but for me it is a mental reminder of the what is important in this plan.

6. The Reward (The Clincher)

This is probably the biggest change to the plan this year. One of the problems I saw with this plan was motivation. The thrill of achievement sometimes just isn’t enough, even for those like myself that are motivated by achievement. So the reward concept was brought in. It took me a while to come-up with a reward that would be motivational enough to keep me going, but a trip to Europe or Asia is what did it for me. There was one other problem with the reward. You see the vision accomplishment could be subjective. I don’t necessarily have to complete ALL my lead measures to accomplish my annual vision. So I am going to have to prove myself to a board of 4 people. I am going to have to keep records and track my progress. My “board” will consist of a financial expert, a business expert, a relationship expert and one other wild-card.  Only a unanimous decision will result in the reward. This is a kind of kick-in-the-rear, motivation also. I have to be a success in others’ eyes, not just my own.

Some Important Steps in Creating Your Success Plan

1. Take time to make sure the goals are right for you and what you want to accomplish. It took me over a month to nail down all my goals.

2. Talk to others about your goals. I have a personal performance partner that spent loads of time questioning me and helping me to narrow and define my goals better. The best thing I did was have a meeting with my wife to talk to her about my goals and get her feedback. Some of my goals changed because of that meeting and she is now vested in my success and we worked out some details to the execution that I had not thought of. Depending on who your goals touch, will determine who you should talk to.

3. Push yourself. I told a friend the other day that I felt like a very small person about to climb a very big mountain.  I am scared of my goals. Once that fear came on, I knew I had pushed my goals far enough to make me a much better person. I know they are all achievable as well. If you are not scared of your goals, you are probably not reaching far enough, and therefore you are limiting your capacity to grow.

Execution & Tracking of your Success Plan

I spent a lot of time setting up the processes to make sure that nothing will prevent me from hitting the ground running when I start. I am using a service at http://www.sendrecurring.com/ to schedule emails and text message reminders to myself and to my wife for certain things we need to remind ourselves to do. Until everything becomes a habit and second nature I want to be bugged about it.

The next and most important thing is I let my personal performance partner or accountability partner know about my goals. He will push me, make sure I am on track and not let me waiver. I will be sending reports to him on a weekly basis and we talk on a weekly basis via phone on the goals.  We also email each other on a daily basis regarding important weekly and daily goals or things we are struggling with. I am doing the same for him. This type of relationship is really important to the success of a plan that pushes your comfort level.

The last thing I needed was a system of tracking and measuring my progress. Everyone has to do what is best for them on this.  Some people like to track things on paper, not me. I am in front of the computer most of the time, I prefer typing and I like charts and graphs and percentages and other hard data to look at. I thought about using Excel, but it was going to be too much of a pain. I use Outlook all the time, and while I will be using it for task management and calendaring, it is not good for managing goals and running reports. I ultimately settled on a software program called Goal Enforcer (http://www.goalenforcer.com/).

Goal Enforcer is a mind map based program that’s sole purpose is Goal Management. There are a couple reasons why I chose it. First is because it allowed me a quicker method of inputting (or really importing from excel) my goals. When all my goals are broken down into daily tasks and weekly tasks and unit based tasks I had 3,448 tasks for the year just involving my success plan.  That does not include other things I do. Using excel I was able to knock all the goals into a spreadsheet in a couple hours and import that into Goal Enforcer.

Goal Enforcer  integrates with Outlook tasks and beautifully setup all my tasks for the entire year on the appropriate days. It also imports from Outlook, so I can complete my tasks in Outlook and it will update Goal Enforcer.  It also allows me to email a report from within and save it to a remote location, which is good for me as I travel a lot.

Because I have some sub-goals that are daily, resulting in 366 circles under a task, I will not be using the mind-map very much. Instead I will be using the tree view. The tree view allows me to quickly click tasks that are done, update the percentage, if it is that type of goal, and easily add notes or logs to the task. I will be using this daily and weekly in my planning sessions. I can also attach files or website links to a task if I am using another type of log or agenda for something. It is reasonably priced and you can get a free demo and purchase it from http://www.goalenforcer.com/.

Another thing to prevent barriers was I systematized and created processes and checklists for various tasks such as my daily planning agenda, my weekly planning agenda and my social media strategy.

This was a long post and a lot to take in, but I believe there is not anything more important to do for your success, than to develop your own 2012 Personal Success Plan.  I would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section.

If you would like a blank 2012 Success Plan to work your own plan, subscribe the the Slice of Leadership list on the top-right side of this page. I am happy to provide my Daily Planning Agenda, Weekly Planning Agenda, and Social Media /Personal Branding Checklist for those that would like a copy. Just subscribe and request it in the comments below.

I hope that everyone has the most successful year in 2012 that they have ever had.