bulletproof goal setting: the 5-step jackednleen goal setting method

2️⃣ How badly do you want to accomplish it? Do you believe you can?

3️⃣ What are the necessary actions, behaviors, thoughts, & resources it’ll take to get there?

4️⃣ What is the biggest source of friction keeping you from nailing those components?

5️⃣ What is a trigger that will remind you of your goal when you get off track?

There are many possible reasons for why goals fail. In my experience, that’s because effective goal setting goes beyond merely setting a “SMART” goal. This is just one component. Goal setting must be a PROACTIVE and INTROSPECTIVE process. It must account for not just where you WANT to go, but where you are NOW. What sources of friction/resistance you have, your current belief systems, and how you react when things get tough.

You must consider not just the avenues of goal attainment, but what is also trying to throw you off. If you do not anticipate and create awareness of these disruptors and have strategies to combat them, you are sure to fail.

The good news, I’ve compiled all the questions you’ll need to consider to reach your goals into this 5-step framework so get your pen and journal ready because it’s time to dive deep.

1) identify your goal - what exactly do you want to accomplish?

Goals must be “SMART - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound.” You've heard this before.

I won’t bore you with the details here but I do want to highlight the SPECIFICITY aspect. You must clearly define your end goal.

You must know as clear as day what you want to accomplish. In fact, evidence has shown that if you practice vividly imagining your goal, you are 2x more likely to achieve it.

Case in point: exercise adaptations are specific, meaning what you train is what improves, so how will you know what to train if you don't know what you want to achieve?

MEASUREABLE gets an honorable mention here too since it links closely with specificity. In my opinion, if your goal is specific and measurable, you can reverse engineer anything. Achievable is a little less “relevant” (see what I did there?), because honestly, who's to say your goal is not achievable? Reach for the damn stars!

THE MORE SPECIFIC THE BETTER - focus on specificity and measurable. Don’t let anyone tell you what’s not achievable. The only limiter is YOU.

2) how badly do you want to accomplish it? Do you believe you can?

This is a commonly missed piece of goal setting. You must CRAVE the outcome first as this is the fuel to begin the goal-setting fire. Sure, you can enjoy the journey, but if you crave the outcome, there is a whole lot less that can stop you.

This ties in closely with a 2b component if you will. BELIEVING you can accomplish something is a SUREFIRE way to success. You must believe before you can achieve!

If you don’t believe you can achieve the goal, you need to skip to step 4, and have an honest conversation with yourself as to why the f*ck not.

Why do you think the best athletes are usually a bit cocky? Because above all else, they think they are, and therefore they are. Have some swagger.

3) What are the necessary actions, behaviors, thoughts, & resources it’ll take to get there? List them out specifically IN DETAIL, Then IDENTIFY where you are in relation to those right now.

This is part of the reverse engineering process. Once you know what the goal is, want to succeed as badly as you want to breathe and you BELIEVE you can achieve it, then you need to identify what that end state looks like. How do you need to walk, talk, act, and think to get there?

For example: if you want to be a professional bodybuilder, how do you need to eat, sleep, train, supplement, and THINK?

BE AS SPECIFIC AS POSSIBLE.

Once you have determined those components, compare your current status against those. Where are you in relation? Where are you exceeding expectations? Falling short? Is there now something you realize you need to do but don't want to? If so, fine. That's not the right goal for you right now.

Now reverse engineer the game plan to get there. And to accelerate the process, HIRE A COACH!!!!!

4) What is the biggest source of friction keeping you from nailing those components?

This is a central piece to my coaching of others through their goal setting and achievement process. Awareness is everything. You can have the most awesome and achievable goal, but if you have a ton of friction (something that is fighting you or making your goal harder to achieve) along the way, good luck achieving it!

As a coach, my job is to help you identify those sources of friction and overcome them since they may not be things you always consider. And sources of friction don’t have to be big things either.

For example, you want to lose weight, but you have a cultural obligation every week that leads to binge eating and drinking. How will you overcome that?

Or you want to workout, but don’t know what to do in the gym and that limits your workout or ability to get into the gym entirely.

Identify the biggest sources of friction and determine how to knock them out one by one. Again, BE SPECIFIC in identifying and solving these.

5) What is a trigger (auditory (song), mantra (verbal), visual (picture or tattoo), tactile, etc) that will remind you of your goal when you get off track?

No matter how perfect the goal, how much you desire the end result or how perfect the plan, there will ALWAYS be a time you feel the urge to get pulled off track. Sometimes it is a conscious decision (like going to a party), other times it is subconscious (you’re so stressed you find yourself in the pantry with a bag of Doritos).

The only key to success is not ever getting off track, it’s how quickly you can get back ON!

Having what I call a ‘trigger’ can provide just enough to right the ship. Triggers can come in various forms:

They can be auditory (song), verbal or language (mantra), visual (picture or tattoo), tactile (like an object) etc.

In my experience the most successful goal achievers have a number of triggers. Personally, I have mantras, songs, and visual cues like my tattoos and pictures of my girls to help keep me on track.

The only rule is they need to be deeply personal to you. Something that sparks some emotion and drive you to action. You might feel a bit corny at times repeating a mantra to yourself, but that’s just because you’re not used to speaking positively to yourself like that. Practice and it will improve..

CONCLUSION

To wrap this up, remember - goal achievement starts with good goal setting, and good goal setting is more than just saying you intend to do something. If you are a person of your word and respect yourself enough to care about accomplishing the things you say you will, then carve out a little time to go through the list of questions above, and you will see how much easier it is to achieve the goals you desire.

And if you’re having trouble identifying your goals still after working through these questions, then please reach out!

At JackedNLeen, helping clients set and achieve a wide range of goals from big to small, long term and short, crazy and realistic is sort of our thing. Apply for coaching here .