The DAD4 Masterclass 3

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So we have the DAD4 Daily, DAD4 Weekly and DAD4 Quarterly. Now we’re jumping from Daily, over to Quarterly, and skipping Weekly for now. The reason is, Quarterly are your goals, and you build your Weekly “to do’s” from these goals. So we work in this order.

First. About goals. Every business or self-help book out there focuses really strongly on goals. They lock in on them and don’t let go. In fact, pretty much the entirety of what kids are taught in school as far as success or life skills goes is just GOALS. “Set your goals, then achieve them! You can hit goals if you want to! You’re the only one in the way of achieving your goals! Okay, let’s do algebra now.”

But it’s not so simple. In my Dad Formula lesson on habits, I show you how to optimize for the starting line, instead of optimizing for the goals, which are the finish line. Because while goals are, of course, critical, they’re hugely misused.

It’s because goals have to be SMART. S, M, A, R, T.

That’s:

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Realistic

Time Based

Every goal you make needs to have these.

Here’s an example goal, using SMART:

I want to finish a Half Marathon in under 2 hours this coming June at the City Classic Marathon.

versus:

I want to become a professional athlete someday.

Specific: We listed the actual event. Versus the vagueness of “professional athlete”.

Measurable: To finish in under 2 hours.

Attainable: Anyone in decent health absolutely CAN train for a half marathon. Almost no one can really become a professional athlete.

Realistic: Say you’re married with kids. Yes, you can train for a half marathon. No, you can’t just now in your life start training to become a professional athlete. It’s not realistic.

Time Based: This coming June. We set the date, so now it can happen. Versus, “someday”.

This last one is so important, and people really hit this one wrong. Even if they do set a timeframe for the goal, they usually set it way too far out in the future, and when they do, one of two things happen:

• They lose momentum

• Their goals change

Losing momentum. People that set their goals far out end up feeling like they never make progress – because they see so few results. When you limit your goal to just 3 months, you keep the momentum, and you can do it over again with a different goal.

Secondly, their goals change. This is my big one. I used to write out goals all the time – one year, two year, retirement. But my entrepreneurial life takes sharp twists and turns and the goals become null and void. I mean, unless it’s a life goal like making it to Heaven to spend eternity with God, or the fact that I hope I leave my knowledge and gifts to my family behind me… okay, those are life goals. But as far as what I want to achieve in 5 – 10 years financially or in business for example, those things just change, big time.

One last piece of advice on goals before we get into the DAD4 Quarterly Goal instructions is this:  Identify your baseline first – where are you NOW, so you can find out where you want to go.

Remember, like everything else, once you start seeing results, you get inspired and motivated and you improve faster. So for goals, we need to hit a few easy ones fast. It’s like going and cleaning your car, or cleaning your desk. It gives you a little tiny accomplishment and immediate satisfaction. So set a few easy goals, hit them, then grow to some harder ones.

Here’s how.

Each Quarter – that’s every 3 months – You want to hit a goal in each of the DAD4 categories. This works phenomenally well, and the reason it does, is that three months flies by pretty quickly, so this timeframe forces you to keep your goals small and stay on point.

You know the whole bucket list thing? BAD! That’s how most people do goals. “Someday, I’ll…” Forget SOMEday. You want to see improvement in the short term. You probably already do this at your job – quarterly goals are common in the workplace, especially in sales and retail. But people overlook this system in their personal lives – It’ll work as well for you personally as it does for Fortune 500 companies that set their quarterly goals too.

Now remember, these are goals, not “to do’s” or tasks that you need to do.

Let’s look at a few examples, just to give you some ideas.

Faith – Examples might be:

• To read, or listen to, one spiritual or business self help book (or audiobook)

• To do a one day retreat

Family – Examples of goals here could be:

• Take an overnight trip with my wife

• Teach my daughter to play the piano and have her complete book #1

Fitness – Good examples would be:

• To be able to run a mile in under 6 minutes

• Hit 20 miles total per week

• Lose 10 pounds

Finances – Here I’ll use the example of developing your Dad Hustle, and you really should get this blueprint plan and do it! Examples using this and other things would be:

• Build the plan and outline for my membership site and be ready to write content

• Get two modules written and ready to record audio or video

• Cut down my debt by $500

• Consolidate my debt into one loan

• Do an audit of everything I’m spending per month and see if there’s any waste

So there you go. And remember, don’t set them out too far in advance – remember the “T” in SMART. The quarterly goals are where you need to focus, and you can work on those longer life goals later when you have this down and clicking along smoothly.

That leads me into the final part – how to actually find your goals.

You might have several ideas right off the bat, but sometimes you come up short. In fact, some people have absolutely no idea what their goals are. If this happens to you, the best way is to ask the five closest people to you in your life what they think they are for you. Give them the four categories. Tell them what you’re doing. Sometimes they know you better than you know yourself. You’ll be amazed at what you find.

Take some notes here on this page, fill out some comments, and let’s hit the final lesson – the Weekly DAD4.