The Mindset of Success: How To Set and Achieve Goals

Read time: 4 minutes 27 seconds

Welcome to Building Balance, a weekly newsletter where you'll get actionable strategies to help you build balanced construction companies, careers, and people.

Today's Highlights:

• The Goal: Give you 6 questions to help you set meaningful goals that you LOVE and actually achieve.
• Most people don’t achieve their goals because they’re either not clear on why they’re important or they don’t give themselves any meaningful way to measure success.
• Use this guide to get clear on what you want, why you want it, and how to achieve it. You won’t want to miss it! 

The Mindset of Success: How To Set and Achieve Goals

Goal-setting is one of those skills — like accounting — that should be taught in every high school.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case, and most of us grow up not knowing how to properly set or achieve our goals (or how to do our taxes- thank goodness for TurboTax).

If that sounds like you — the goals part, not the taxes part! — then this newsletter is for you.

I will lay out 6 simple questions that make goal-setting easy and clear. I first learned them from Dan Sullivan’s Strategic Coach and then adapted them for the Construction industry. They are super helpful.

Use these questions to get clear on your goals, find the right motivation to achieve them, and change your attitude from “I don’t know if I can do this” to “I got this!”.

Are you ready?

Ok good.

Ask yourself these 6 questions before you set your next big goal:

What do I want to achieve?

First thing’s first:

Start off by getting clear on the goal you want to achieve.

Then, give some context around the final product.

Example:

Goal: I want to start a newsletter. I want it to be the best newsletter for AEC professionals on the internet.

Simple enough. Let’s move on to the next question.

What are my intentions?

Last year, I was listening to a speech on influence in sales when the presenter gave an analogy. He said:

“Learning how to influence someone to buy is only evil if you use it for evil. Think of it this way.. if you buy your wife flowers because you cheated vs. if you buy your wife flowers because you love her. The flowers aren’t inherently good or evil. It’s your intentions for giving the flowers that make them good or evil. Intentions matter. Start the sales process with good intentions.”

That has stuck with me because I believe intentionality matters in everything we do.

In goal-setting, it helps us start our goals for the right reasons.

Example:

Goal: Start a newsletter for AEC professionals.

Intention: I want to help people like me (in construction, architecture, or engineering) who struggle with stress and work/life balance. I want other people to have better careers for having read it. I want it to help people.

If you can’t come up with good intentions, then don’t chase that goal.

What difference will this make?

The next thing you should ask yourself is “What difference will this make?”

You want to show yourself how things could be different for you and others if you went through with pursuing this goal.

Example:

Goal: Start a newsletter for AEC professionals.

Difference: This will make the AEC industry a better place for people to work. It will create a space to have conversations about growth and mental health that doesn’t exist. It will also make me feel more fulfilled by helping people like me through career and life challenges.

Goals get much more exciting when you start to realize you can make a difference.

Now the vision is getting more clear, so we ask ourselves…

What does the outcome look like?

Write down all the attributes of your completed goal.

Paint a picture of it for yourself so you know exactly what you need to do make it a success.

Example:

Goal: Start a newsletter for AEC professionals.

Outcome Looks Like: It will be professional. It will cater to all AEC professionals- from Jr. PM to CEO. It will hit inboxes every week at 7 am because the people that read it crave weekly advice and value consistency. There will be tons of examples. It will be actionable and truly helpful. It will be true to me.

Every week I strive for those attributes. It’s been powerful to have them as guiding force. Do the same for your goals.

What is the reward?

Now, even though you have good intentions, that doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be a reward.

That’s how value creation works!

So whether it’s attention, money, or just good vibes, make sure to show yourself the reward you want for all this hard work chasing your goal.

Example:

Goal: Start a newsletter for AEC professionals.

Reward: I will feel fulfilled. I will build a network of like-minded people who are driven and believe in the same things I believe in. It will help me achieve other personal and professional goals by meeting good contacts, building up good karma, and learning how to really create value for people. It will also give me credibility as a leader in the AEC industry.

When you’re losing faith in your goal, come back to the rewards and remind yourself why the payoff will be worth it.

What specific results will make this a success?

Ok! This is probably my favorite question from Dan Sullivan’s Strategic Coach Framework.

“What specific results will make this a success?”

This question allows you to set targets so that eventually you can MEASURE if you completed your goal.

Instead of working on it for months and thinking to yourself, “Did I ever really get that goal done? Or am I still working on it?”

Example:

Goal: Start a newsletter for AEC professionals.

Specific Results: 1. It will be the perfect next step for following me on LinkedIn 2. There will be 1 issue released every week 3. Each issue will focus on helping people 4. There will be actionable tips in every issue 5. People use the issues as guides and share them with others because they work so well 6. I will have fun writing it- it will not be a point of stress 7. It accelerates my reputation as a people leader and thinker in the AEC industry 8. It inspires people to create a better AEC industry for all people

Now, you know exactly what needs to happen to consider your goal a success!

And once you have that?

You have completed your goal-setting process!

FREE TEMPLATE

I was terrible at goal-setting until I started using this process. And I'm telling you it really works.

So next time you are thinking about a goal, make sure to run yourself through this process.

And to make it easier, here's a template you can download and use: 

FREE GOAL-SETTING TEMPLATE

Once you have your results, reply to this email or tag me on LinkedIn and let me know what you learned.

If you enjoyed this, share it with your friends!

🧠 Matt's Mental Health Corner

Last month, I posted on LinkedIn about a new feature of Building Balance.

Starting this summer, we will host live Mental Health Sessions focused on creating a safe space for mental health conversations in Construction.

This is going to be the most impactful thing we have done yet and I can't wait to get started!

If you're in your 20s, passionate about mental health in construction, and would like to help make this happen, apply to join the team here.

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