Step 4 – Define One Year Strategy and Top Goals for each DOL

Earlier in the framework – we hit upon the need to clarify the vision you have for yourself and a blueprint for your soul.  Once this was established the follow on steps involved establishing your core values and then transitioning this grand thinking into much more tactical statements and priorities that are no more than 12 months out.

LINK — Step 3 was all about succinctly stating where you envision yourself to be in 12 months, and establishing which of the DOLs you were going to engage upon intentionally over the next 12 months.  I had suggested if you were unsure which of the 13 you could utilize – to start with all 13 of the DOLs – you can always remove some along the way if needed.  This is a framework for your usage, so you get to choose.

The EAF is a six stage framework that you can use to flexibly arrange your intentions, energy, and actions across all 13 Dimensions of your life.

In Step 4 – we nail down what exactly we want out of the next 12 months.

In terms of time horizon, 12 months has worked very well for me and others that have used this framework to set direction and some audacious goals.  The execution framework that gets us from your “Day One” definition of goals/direction is broken into 4 quarters of time, each spanning approximately 12 weeks/3months.  It is during these 3 month chunks that true deliverables are established, targeted, and delivered upon – each quarter building upon the prior quarter’s success.

Now onto the actual meat of Step 4…

You will identify the priority ranking of each DOL in this stage, you will author a mission statement for each priority DOL at a minimum that will be used to guide your approach over the next 12 months, and finally you will have established a number of primary goals (no more than 5 goals) for each priority DOL.

To keep this simple, and to get a first cut of a draft – I strongly recommend you select 3-5 primary DOLs only to exercise in this stage.  Selecting your priority DOLs for the year will likely be easy given your OYM that was identified in the prior step. (LINK)

Once you have selected this primary (or perhaps initial) set of DOLs – take some time, perhaps 5 minutes for each DOL to craft a 1-3 sentence statement outlining what you are committing to.  Each DOL statement will start with the phrase ‘I shall…’ and then be followed by the desired outcome or three that you envision for yourself 12 months out.  These statements can include specific deliverables, although I recommend you keep these statements directionally oriented as opposed to a tactical deliverable focus.  The tactical delivery statements aka GOALS will be the next step.

Some starting questions you can ask yourself regarding any DOL are listed here to help you jumpstart things:

• For this DOL – what went well in the past few months?
• For this DOL – what did not go well in the past few months?
• For this DOL – where and when (with examples) did I actually do my best?
• For this DOL – where and when (with examples) did I really not do my best?

These questions will require some honesty with the person in the mirror, and they are intended to trigger some real self examination – as you are a product of your prior choices.  Taking a fresh look at what went well and where you poured your heart out – and where you didn’t – will undoubtedly help you frame a sentence or two aimed at the ’12 months from now version of you.’

Once you have your primary DOLs identified and a corresponding 12 month out, vision for that DOL of yours – it is time to set up to 3 goals on each of the primary DOLs you’ve selected.

The goals are best if they can be stated in one succinct sentence.  How you specify the action that is also realistic in nature is the key here.  Specificity for the goals is key, and don’t worry about capturing every single nuance of a given goal.  I strongly recommend you take no more than 5 minutes to jot down the first few goals that come to mind.  You will come back to these DOLs every three months at a minimum, likely much more frequently if you are living towards your OYM each day.  The goals will morph and multiply and consolidate throughout the year as you gain greater experience with the Framework and with your own mindset shifting.

The goals may be captured first on a piece of paper or within a trusted system online or just a simple Evernote outline.  Whatever you need to do to trigger the flow and to capture the goals output – go with it.  This is brainstorming at its core, and it should flow freely without any self judgement.  A minimum of three goals per DOL should be targeted, although in some DOLs where you have a lot of fire, you’ll likely exceed 10 goals coming into focus during this exercise.

My strategy has been to pound out goals for a given DOL for 5 minutes, take a break of 5-10 minutes to clear my head, then come back and jot down any additional ideas regarding the DOL I was just thinking about.  Flush those from your head, get them down on the proverbial paper, and then move onto the next DOL for a focused jam session of 5 minutes aimed at goaling up for the next year – in accordance with the commitment statement for that given DOL.

At the end of this step, you will have a complete roster of DOLs you are targeting for the year in a roster of priority order – based upon your OYM from Step 3.  You will have a mini-vision statement aimed at articulating your commitments for that DOL, and a corresponding set of specific, actionable, and relevant goals for each DOL.  The goals themselves are not to be prioritized just yet, priority is set on the DOLs themselves for the entire year, specific quarterly plans for a handful of DOLs and their underlying goals is the next step.

I’ll be providing some example DOL statements and a few goals for each DOL in a future post to help you jumpstart this step, as it can be overwhelming.  My overarching guidance for this step is to spend the time on the commitment statements for those DOLs where you have the most clarity, and build into either goal setting for that DOL.  Once you have one DOL knocked out, you will find that the next one will be a bit easier.  Be loose with this exercise, and be open – as you will learn as you go forward, that’s also part of the EAF.

Until next time.