Speaker 1: 0:00

Yo yo yo. Welcome back to the further your lifestyle podcast conversations on lifestyle passions and hustles. My name's Chris, i am your host and I'm super excited to be back here having the conversation with you Episode 121 today, and we're actually at a very important milestone within the year of 2023. There's two milestones actually. The first one is we've just finished the financial year for FY23, which is a really good place to be when you want to start from zero again, and the other milestone that we've just hit is the mid-year milestone of 2023. And also another crucial point where we can come together and reflect and see how we're progressing. Now I'm not going to be talking about finishing up a financial year today, but that is a really good conversation to have with yourself, as if you're doing business or maybe you do track your goals on a FY basis, it's a chance to start from zero. Like when we start a new year, people have new year's resolutions, people get excited and motivated by this year. I'm going to have a better version of myself or I'm going to be a better version of myself, similar to that. That's what people leverage for a new FY, but the conversation we're having today is around touching in on how we're actually progressing for the goals that we've set for this year, which is 2023. Now, if you're listening to this in the future, where it's not 2023, you can still follow this process regardless. And that's what we're touching on today, a process that I like to go through in essentially just keeping myself honest, checking in, seeing where I am doing a bit of a pulse check with the progression that I'm making through this year. Of course, there's going to be some areas where we are actually thriving And there's going to be areas where maybe we need to do some work or maybe we need to make some tough decisions of whether it makes sense to continue to progress with those goals or not. Now, i love to leverage these moments because it keeps myself honest And it also makes me check in and see if these are the things that I want to be doing, and that's why I'm having the conversation with you. So there are a few steps that we're going to go through today. I'm going to take you through it. I'm going to do some of my own reflecting so you can get to hear this real time and live, appreciate you being here. Let's dive in. So the first thing that we want to do is we want to understand where you are, and what I mean by that is what are you actually trying to achieve this year, like, what were the goals that you said And how are you tracking towards them, without any additional context or thinking, really just checking in and seeing how you're going.

Speaker 1: 2:31

Now, for me, i've set a lot of goals for 2023. And I've got them up here on my upper screen. I wanted to run 2000 kilometers. I wanted to do 12 half marathons. I wanted to do my second 50k ultra marathon. I wanted to do $100,000 in revenue for my business And then, after hitting that, go for 160,000. If I hit 160,000, go for 250,000. I want to raise $10,000 for backpack for the kids. It's a charity that I help work with and volunteer for. Read or listen to 12 books, complete six video games, push the podcast this podcast to over 10,000 downloads, outsource parts of the podcast and take the YouTube to be over 2000 subscribers and then start working towards 5000 subscribers. So that's the goals that I wanted to do And, as I check in and have a look and see where I'm at, there's areas here where I'm absolutely thriving in, like I'm ticking them off.

Speaker 1: 3:25

I'm probably on pace, just ticking them off. There's some that I'm a little bit behind but I'm not concerned about. And then there's ones where, okay, i'm behind you. A good example of this is run 2000 kilometers At the moment. This is a little bit behind, so I've probably done a bit more, but basically I've only done about 730 kilometers. We're halfway through the year. That math doesn't add up. If I wanted to be on track, i should have done a thousand kilometers. So there's definitely some wiggle room that I need to make there. Where there's other ones where I'm on pace to do really close to the 160,000 dollars in revenue. I've already done the $100,000. Like, i'm definitely going to meet that milestone for this year. Like on track to do that. So I'm more closer to the 160,000. So there's swings and roundabouts, there's areas where I'm going well And there's areas where I need to do a lot more improvement. So now that I know where I'm at, i can see I've got it all written down.

Speaker 1: 4:18

You might track this, whether it's through Google Sheets or maybe you track it in a journal. However you track it, it's important to track it because now you know where you're at And that's why I like to track things, to keep myself honest. But step number two is now that we know where we sit. How does this actually sit based on what we know? So we know that there's a gap. So, for instance, for the, for the running, i'm yeah, i'm, i've got a lot to go. So there's a big gap between where I need to be and where I'm actually at. And there's also then thinking about well, okay, if I wanted to compare this, what am I going to compare it to? One thing that I will just quickly move to the side and talk about is When we set goals, we're either setting them based on what we've done before and we're trying to increase them, or we're doing them to keep ourselves honest, like we're just doing them again, just as a routine, or we've never done them before.

Speaker 1: 5:15

And that's really important to understand. Because going through this process, like based on what we know and how we're tracking, we also need to have a look and see well, have we ever done this before? If you've got a baseline, and let's say, last year I did 2000 kilometers and this year I want to do 2000 kilometers, i can have a look and see okay, how am I comparing to last year? Where have I slowed down? What's been going on. I've got a baseline to compare to Now. If you do not have a baseline, that's actually really good, because it means anything you're doing means you're ahead, you're doing better than you've ever done before.

Speaker 1: 5:47

If you do have a baseline, you can then actually leverage that to help you have the conversation with yourself of what are the things that I need to be doing to get back to where I was when I was doing it and I was ahead of where I needed to be, or on track to where I needed to be, and look, you can then start to look okay, am I behind at the moment? Are I ahead of my previous baseline, or if the baseline didn't exist? And then we can start to have some conversations. So, if you're behind, why are you behind? Right, and I'm not here to help you make excuses. I'm here to help you understand what's going on.

Speaker 1: 6:20

So, for the running, why am I behind? Well, i had an injury this year. I had to take a few weeks back, pull back and I had to slow down. I also have probably slacked off at the start of this year, knowing that I haven't got time to do it, which is what I did the year when I did do 2000 kilometers. So there's things there where we need to understand is like we have assumed something. Obviously, expectation of reality has sunk in and the reality has sunk in that that's not going to be the case. So we need to then weigh up okay, this is the reality of it, what am I going to do about it, which we'll get to? we'll get to that shortly. So understanding where you're at and comparing it to a baseline of what you've ever done before is key, because if you do not have a baseline, you are in the prime position because it means you're thriving ahead. Maybe you're not on track to hit the 2000, but if you've never done more than 1000 and you're on track to hit 1500, hey, you're winning, you're winning. So these are some of the perspectives we need to be looking at, which actually leads to step number three.

Speaker 1: 7:22

But before I get there, this is the same thing in other areas, having a look of like how am I on track to do books? How am I on track to do video games? For my books, i aimed that I'll do one book a month. At the moment, i'm on my six books, so I'm one month behind, but I know that the next 10 weeks. I know I'm going to be doing some of my longest runs in the training plan, which is where I listen to a lot of my books. Therefore, i'm pretty confident I'm going to get back on track. So having that perspective and understanding helps me realize is this a bad thing or a good thing? Like am I? am I going to be okay? So, coming back to step three, which is perspective and understanding, we have the context, we have the data and we have ongoing results. So are there things that we need to start to address? Are there outlier situations? Are there out of control situations And are there anomalies that we need to be weighing up Again, not trying to help you make excuses, but you really do need to start to look at okay, why are you behind in areas?

Speaker 1: 8:23

This is purely a conversation, more so now, of if you are behind, what are you doing about it and how can we help ourselves get comfortable with it. I personally get very frustrated when I don't see the progress, or I'm not making the progress or the goals aren't turning up to where I want them to be. Obviously, we can look at this and say, okay, well, am I doing the work? If I'm not doing the work. And same thing if you're expecting a goal but you're not doing a work doing the work, well then that's on you. But we need to ask ourselves why are we not doing the work? Is it because we're not motivated? We're getting too many blockers? Are we just lazy? What's the reason, right? So that's why I'm saying, if we have the conversation around other things that we need to look at and see, were there things out of our control? Were there outlier moments Meaning, for instance, last year I had one of my worst years in terms of progress in some areas because I had COVID, and I had long COVID, and that meant I was out of action for about 12 weeks.

Speaker 1: 9:19

I had to slow down and refocus how I was going about doing what I was doing. The same thing applies with this year. Maybe you had a goal to lose weight. Maybe you have a goal to do something for your business. Maybe you wanted to start painting. Maybe you wanted to run more. Maybe you wanted to start a collection. Maybe you just wanted to spend more time with friends.

Speaker 1: 9:39

Again, if you're tracking this and you've got some data, you can start to now reflect and say, okay, well, why am I doing well and why am I not? And a lot of the time it comes down to are we motivated? Have there been things that have pulled us out? Maybe you've had to work longer hours. Now we always have a choice, but there are things that force us into situations. This year, there's been a lot of financial stress as well. We've seen interest rates rise, rise, rise, which means people's ability to spend has come down, which means maybe you're not in a position where you can go do things because you need to work more to be able to cover responsibilities and accountabilities that you have as an individual. Whether you're an adult or not, circumstances change, so really go through and have an understanding of what's been going on.

Speaker 1: 10:28

For me. The big one that I look at is my running. Why am I behind in my running? I can put it down to well, i wasn't putting in the extra load at the start. I then had an injury which has pulled me back even more, and now I'm playing catch up. And the question I have to ask myself is which we'll get to in a minute is like do I still want to do catch up? But the other thing is is like look at situations. Maybe you've had a change of plans. Maybe you've had new opportunities rise And maybe those goals were because you didn't have those opportunities. So maybe there's situations here that which it's okay, maybe if you don't actually hit these goals, but if you want them, if you want them, you need to really be willing to work on step number four, which is room for improvement. So we know where we're at And we know what we want. So how do we assess the growth?

Speaker 1: 11:16

And I like to follow a little process called Rose Thorn Bud. Rose equals good, thorn equals bad bud equals opportunity. And the whole process here is we go through this and actually start to reassess where things are at. So again, if I look at my running situation, i'm behind by about 1200. No, is it 1200? No, it's not 1200. I'm behind by about 300 kilometers in terms of where I should be at this. You know time of day or time of the year.

Speaker 1: 11:45

Now, if I look back and say, okay, well, what's been working? what's been going really, really good, rose, well, i've got a consistent routine in terms of I'm doing my training for my 50k, i'm doing these regular. I'm now back to a position where I don't have an injury So I'm able to just move forward in full force. Thorn, what's a bad thing? Look, there's probably a little bit of laziness when it comes to I'm not doing the extra work, meaning you know the cross training, the things that's going to further enable myself And obviously I had a bit of a slow start, which was a which is a bad thing.

Speaker 1: 12:22

Now, opportunity this is where it gets really important is what can I be doing going forward? What's an opportunity that's going to enable me to get me to where I want to be or to help me continue to thrive? And it's like well, looking at this, i know there's areas where I can improve. Could I increase a run Or could I do another run? Can I add in some additional activities around cross training, strength building and stretching and agility? Are there opportunities there? 100%. So the question is am I going to take them? And as we go through this process, we can start to ask ourselves what we're enjoying and what we're not.

Speaker 1: 12:56

If I was to look at actually, i don't think there is any goal, maybe around the podcast. Now, the podcast I want to hit 10,000 downloads. I've hit that already this year, which is really, really great. It's not 10,000 in this year, it's 10,000 in total. But there's other areas of the podcast where it's not growing, like I'm not seeing an increase volume outside of YouTube. Youtube the growth has been great.

Speaker 1: 13:17

But if I did the rose, thorn and bud process on this and this is, you know, getting real, real Rose is look, i've got consistent. I'm doing these episodes weekly, i'm getting the content out there. I'm seeing the level of growth that I would love to see on the YouTube, the audio net not necessarily, but I'm not seeing anything slingshotting me. I'm not seeing anything pushing me as a huge push in the right direction. So the bad part here the phone is I'm not actually putting in any extra work. I'm just doing the episode, releasing it. You know, obviously talking to you, the community, answering questions, having the conversation, and that's it. Now I'm not doing an additional marketing or pushing out content of the podcast. So that's bad because I'm not doing it. I can't expect to grow if I'm not willing to do it. Now, why am I not doing it? Because I was doing.

Speaker 1: 14:07

I felt like I was just dropping stuff for the sake of dropping stuff, like you know, sharing a Quote or some tick tocks or whatever. I want to make sure I'm doing this the right way. Now, the opportunity here is I wanted to outsource some of this, get some help, someone that can Come in, take what I have as a vision and turn it into something as a routine basis and gives it something a bit more fresh. So I'm not getting frustrated when I'm not being able to see what I'm expecting to see and I can have someone else help me Make that happen. So that's a big opportunity and again, Well, i do it. that comes back on me, but I can see the opportunities.

Speaker 1: 14:43

As we go through these goals, as we go through these different things that we want, we can start to assess Okay, what are you doing good, where have you been a bit slack and what can we do about it? And we move on to step number five. Now I've brushed over that a little bit, but step number five kind of wraps all this up, and it's called wrapping it up with alignment. So the question we need to be asking ourselves is if the year stopped today, would you be happy with how you have progressed? So if you're happy with where you are, where you are for the year like, let's say, it was mid-year This is where you've gone to are you happy? That is the question you need to ask yourself. If you're not happy and you want to get to the end of the year Now with a better result whether you're tracking to that result or Tracking, or you want to track beyond that result Well, now is the time that we need to make the adjustments, we need to make the alignments for ourselves and set them all realistic Expectations and goals.

Speaker 1: 15:37

And this is where you have to have a hard conversation. If there are things that you were doing that do not make sense, because maybe your priorities have changed, maybe your minds that have changed, and You don't want to be doing them, now's the time to change them. Now's the time to adjust them. Now's the time to maybe think, in Making a change of what we're doing and charging on, maybe you've started a project and I'm not saying to give up. What I'm saying is like what's going on in your life Have you had to put a back burner on and make a change of plans? or maybe you were working towards getting a Certain job and then someone's come along and offered you a different job Which actually meets all the same alignments to what it is that you want your values, your bigger long-term goals, your aspirations. So maybe you've worked or maybe you've got that opportunity and maybe that means you shelve the other thing.

Speaker 1: 16:27

But at the same time, if you want these things, if you want to see the growth, if you want to see growth in your business, you want to see growth in your hobbies, in in your you know personal areas of life, whether it's you know Exercise or building your skills to speak or like in public speaking, or maybe you're trying to gain some additional skills for your career. If you want those, well then you need to do the work about them. So you need to again change what you're doing. Do you need to increase the load? Do you need to spend more time? Do you need to sacrifice something else? less Netflix, more study, what is it right?

Speaker 1: 17:01

What you need to decide is has anything changed at this point in time which has limited your ability to do these goals Right Now? if nothing has changed and it's really coming down to you not being motivated, you need to ask yourself okay, why are you not motivated? And maybe you need help. Maybe you're frustrated, or maybe you're just doing it to please someone else, or maybe you still do want these and you just need a bit of kick in the butt. You need someone to come along and say, hey, what are you doing? And that's why I really wanted to have this conversation, because me, looking at all the things here that I want to be doing, i know what I want.

Speaker 1: 17:38

One of the most important ones to me if I don't finish 12 books this year, it's not the end of the world, it doesn't impact anyone, it's not going to harm me, but I'm trying to put those in place to enable myself to grow. I want to do six video games because I want to slow down. When I say slow down, i want to make sure I give myself rest, but at the same time, i want to grow the business to bigger than it's ever been any other year. So you know, it's the best of both worlds. So I have to work out what makes sense. So we have to build in the right routines and the right priorities into our life. You have the opportunity to make a change. You are responsible and accountable to these. No one else is. I have all these goals. At the end of the day, if I disappoint anyone, well, that's a more of a problem with you than it is with me, because the only person that I feel like I can disappoint is myself, and I feel like if I'm not hitting these goals, i let myself down, because they're usually a stepping stone to something bigger that I'm working towards.

Speaker 1: 18:32

Maybe not reading books, maybe not playing video games, but I think with the business, I think with the running and I think with the podcast, there are three areas which are super crucial and they all funnel into my YouTube and the content that I'm creating and the platform and, i guess, the branding that I'm trying to build as an individual. They all work towards my longer term goals. So if I slack out on those, no one else is going to do them for me. I am responsible for them. So I need to be chipping away at those, looking at the books, the video games They're things that and elements that help make this happen, help myself grow. They also help myself find balance. But then there's other goals, things like raising $10,000 for Backpack for Big Kids.

Speaker 1: 19:16

That one I really want to hit And I've got a plan to hit that certain amount every week. We have to do $600 on average each week for the next 12 weeks And I want to do that And I think we're more than capable to be able to do that. It's something that I didn't start at the start of the year. I started at, you know, only a couple of weeks back and we're already at $3,000. So that's really, really encouraging, and we've got about 12 weeks to go on that one.

Speaker 1: 19:42

Again, understanding where it's at. Am I going to get there? And if we're not on track to get there, what do I need to do to change that gap? The other one that I was talking about was my 50K trail run. So I'm training for that. That goes into me hitting 2000 kilometers. As I'm training, that plan alone gets me a thousand kilometers, but then there's a delta. There's a gap of another thousand kilometers that I have to do on my own outside of that training plan, and that's across the entirety of the year. So again, why do I want to hit 2000 kilometers? Because I feel like it keeps myself fit, it keeps myself healthy, it pushes me to get outside my comfort zone And I need to do a lot of volume anyway for a training plan. So it's two birds, one stone.

Speaker 1: 20:23

We need to understand why we set these goals in the first place. Are you doing it to please yourself, to make yourself be a better version of yourself, who you want to be in one year, two years, five years, 10 years? Or are you doing this to please someone else? Well, because someone else said I should do it or you should do it, you need to ask yourself the tough questions. I'm not here to say stop doing your goals, not here to give you an excuse to stop doing your goals. I'm here to tell you have a conversation with yourself, be realistic And if you don't want to do these goals but you want to do something else, do something else. Set the same expectations in terms of what is it going to take? What do you want? Why do you want it? How are you going to get there? You can go do that. Stop stuffing around, get yourself back on track and work towards what it is that you want. No one else is going to do it for you.

Speaker 1: 21:08

I've had some really good conversations with some people over the last few weeks John the reseller and Drew Trott from Look Mum, i'm Hustling podcast And with those conversations I've challenged myself. I've been challenged by them because they've called things out to me saying, oh what? if you want this, you need to do that, and I was reflecting in the sense like, well, when I've spoken to them about things that I'm dealing with, it's funny because if it was them, i would be telling them exactly the same thing They would be telling me in order for myself to grow. So sometimes we get so frustrated. We've seen other people not work towards what they want, when really that's just a projection on ourselves. So my encouragement here is you know, don't try and solve other people's problems. Yes, be there to help them, be there to encourage them, but make sure you look after yourself and you give yourself just as much as advice. If you were giving someone else advice of how they should, you know, make their next steps, how they should move forward, why aren't you doing the same for yourself? I'm talking to me right now as well, and anyway, that really did challenge me. And the same thing.

Speaker 1: 22:16

I've had people ask me something and they say, oh, you know, i don't want to do this because of this reason, and I'm like, well, that's a silly excuse, because you've said exactly the same thing to me, just in a whole different you know industry or different category of conversation. And then they'll realize, oh yeah, that's a stupid excuse. We make excuses for ourselves, but when it comes to someone else, we tell them what they need to hear, not what they need to hear. We tell them in terms of you know how it is the truth, the reality of it There's like this is what you need to do, not what they need to hear. Don't confuse that. But when it comes to ourselves, we tend to oh, you know, we get a little fluffy, we bit around the bush of beard and you know, until someone comes along and really rips off the bandaid. And that's why I'm having this conversation For two parts.

Speaker 1: 23:01

It's okay to make a change, but at the same time, if you've got a goal, stop mucking around and just get back to it. Figure it out. What is the, the, the, the obstacle you need to get over and then start to work through it. And it might mean you need to bring down the goal a little bit, or it might mean you need to increase it, so it pushes you to work harder. I don't know. You've got to find what works for you. But the whole purpose of this process is to give you that reality check and help you set the understanding between what's happening now, where you want things to be, and that way, when you get to the end of the year. There isn't this surprise of expectation versus reality, because the reality is you are in control of this, most of it, and you get to make the decisions. Don't put the blame on anyone else but yourself and take ownership of the things that you want, because no one else is going to do them for you.

Speaker 1: 23:54

Appreciate you being here. Look, i've brushed over some of my goals. If you're curious about the goals that I have set for this year, actually have a newsletter that I share each week And you can go to wwwclferlongcom and actually share. You know how I'm progressing And I put a lot out in those in those newsletters. Now, if you wanted to continue the conversation, more than happy for to drop a comment down below. Tell me how you're tracking for your goals for 2023. Are there any goals that you're working towards that you need help with? I'd love to continue the conversation, or you can reach out to wwwspeakpipecom for your lifestyle and leave a voicemail. You can leave a message and I can integrate that into this podcast. Again, really do appreciate you being here. You have a wonderful day, cheers.