Goal setting, personal SWOT analysis and social accountability
How to focus on what matters
By focusing on where you want to be in the future
By now you must have heard the credo ‘focus on what matters’ from dozens of different sources; your parents, your partners, your teachers, your therapist, your mentors, your bosses and the list goes on and on. So much so, that even complete strangers are now telling you to focus on what matters!
So clearly people think it’s important (and we 100% agree with them). However, what each of these tweets and missives are missing from their statement is the most important part, which is ‘focus on what matters to YOU’.
But with so much going on and so many options to choose from, it can be tough deciding what it is that you want to focus on.
In order to help out, we’ve prepared a guide:
1. Start visualising the future you want
Outcome: 10 year, 3 year, 1 year and one quarter goals across the key categories of relationships, professional, financial, health and leisure.
EXERCISE: Start with your 10 year goals and answer the following questions in as much detail as possible:
- What will my relationships look like?
- What will my professional life look like?
- What will my financial situation be?
- What will my health be like?
- How will I be spending my leisure time?
After you have completed your 10 year goals, work backwards and repeat this process for your 3 year goals, 1 year goals and one quarter goals.
TIME: If you are starting for the first time and looking to do it properly, this exercise should take a couple of hours to complete.
We recommend doing a first draft of all your goals, then leaving it for a little while, then coming back to it later and editing it again.
2. Identify the risks and opportunities
Outcome: An audit of your current situation.
Exercise: In light of the goals you have set, complete a personal SWOT analysis.
By identifying your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, you can begin working towards mitigating the threats, optimising the opportunities, leaning into your strengths and strengthening your weaknesses. Pretty neat, huh?
TIME: In total, a personal SWOT analysis should take you about 90 minutes to complete. As with the goal setting exercise, we recommend doing a first draft, leaving it for a little while, then coming back to it later.
3. Refine your goals with a little help from your friends
Outcome: Get feedback on ways you can improve your goals, and get encouragement and buy-in on where you’re headed.
Exercise: Research has shown that humans can really only maintain an inner circle of about five people. Any more than this, and communication starts to break down and trust erodes.
With that in mind, choose one, two, three or four of your closest friends to share your goals and SWOT analysis with.
In order to rope them in, your message to them might look something like this:
If your friends are committed to creating goals of their own, you should consider getting together via Zoom or at somebody’s house, and presenting and capturing feedback in a live setting. Not only will you get ‘in the moment’ feedback, it might even be fun!
[We’ve heard stories from users who choose to rent an Airbnb for this part — which sounds like a pretty good excuse to get away!]
TIME: Requesting feedback should be quick. If your friends decide to set goals of their own (great!) allow an hour of your time to review their goals and SWOT analysis, per person.
If you decide to present your goals and SWOT analysis to each other in a meeting of some sort, allow 90 minutes per person for the presentation and discussion.
Once all discussions and presentations are complete, make sure you set aside at least an hour to review your goals and SWOT analysis to make any changes that you think are necessary.
4. Start reporting and supporting
Outcome: Remain on track, accountable and connected.
Exercise: Research has shown that by sharing your goals with friends, and providing updates on your progress on a weekly cadence, you’re much more likely to achieve your goals.
Elephants is a purpose built tool for sharing progress on your goals with friends, but lots of groups of friends choose to stay on track via a combination of Google Sheets, Google Docs, Discord and Whatsapp messages (just like the group below on Reddit):
Alternatively, go to www.elephants.group, sign up, add your goals and add your friends. It’s super easy.
Time: Weekly reporting on your goals should take you no more than 30 minutes per week.
If your friends are reporting on their goals as well, allow another 30 minutes to provide feedback and encouragement on their updates.
By looking ahead to the life you want, and taking stock of where you currently are, you are making a deliberate effort to begin focusing on what matters to YOU, and ensuring that the life you are living today is consistent with your values and ambitions for tomorrow. So when somebody next says ‘Focus on what matters’, you know exactly what they mean.
Elephants (www.elephants.group) is a private place where small groups of close friends share goals, chat freely and celebrate achievements.
Follow us on Twitter @Elephants_Group
