A Framework for Achieving Big Goals

1)Target: what are you trying to achieve?

First, decide whether working on the project is what you really want to be doing and you’re doing it for the right reasons. One of the exercises I quite like to do here is the Odyssey Plan,
The idea is that you answer the following 3 prompts –

1) Write out, in detail, what your life would look like 5 years from now if you continued down your current path.

2) Write out, in detail, what your life would look like 5 years from now if you took a completely different path.

3)Write out, in detail, what your life would look like 5 years from now if money, social obligations, and what people would think, were irrelevant. Which helps you to figure out the question of what you actually want to do with your life. If the project doesn’t align with the Odyssey Plan, then maybe you should think about doing something else.

2)Time: have you made time for the project?

If you’ve decided that the project is a good thing to work on, you need to make time to actually work on it. The most effective method I’ve found for doing that is to time block. This means grabbing your calendar and blocking out specific, non-negotiable, time slots throughout the week where you’ll be able to work on the project without distraction.

3)Tasks: what are the specific actions you need to take?

Now you have time to work on the project, you need to decide how you’ll be spending that time. My recommendation is to write a list of next actions that will help you move the project forward and focus on just the most important item on that list each day. So, if you’re just starting out, I’d probably be thinking about my niche, target audience, and doing a competitor analysis.

4)Troubleshoot: have you identified the barriers to success?

Things rarely go to plan, so it’s worth doing a pre-mortem at this stage. This involves identifying any potential obstacles that may hold you back and finding ways to overcome them. For example, A friend mentioned that video editing was a huge time sink for him. So, one potential solution here is to outsource it to someone else. This would save him time and it’s exactly the sort of thing someone who’s treating their channel like a business would do, because it isn’t a high-leverage use of his time given that he isn’t an expert in video editing.

5)Transparency: are you being accountable?

If you want to significantly increase the likelihood you’ll make progress and stay on track, find a way to stay accountable. One way to do this is to find an accountability buddy, where you regularly check-in with each other to discuss your progress and challenges.