Turning Dreams Into Plans

A gentle guide to setting meaningful goals in your Annual Review.

Langkawi Island in Malaysia, one of my favorite places to retreat and plan. 📷

Previously in this series: The 2024 Annual Review
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Once you understand the basic framework of the Annual Review, you can move into what I consider the most important part: setting meaningful goals for the year ahead.

Remember, this isn't about creating New Year's resolutions or a rigid plan you have to follow perfectly. Instead, you’re designing a flexible roadmap that helps you do more what matters most to you.

Let's break it down step by step.

Categories: Your Life's Building Blocks

I structure my goals around major life categories. Over the years, I've experimented with different numbers of categories—sometimes as many as 12-15—but I've found that keeping it simpler works better. My current core categories are:

• Health, Fitness, and Wellness

• Relationships

• Writing

• Creative

• Business Development

• Community & Service

• Learning

• Travel

• Fun

(Yes, I recently added a category for fun. I didn’t always prioritize it, and sometimes it takes years to realize the obvious … we should plan for fun just as we plan for anything else that’s important.)

You might choose different categories, and that's perfectly fine. The key is to identify areas that reflect what truly matters in your life.

Setting Goals That Work

For each category, I set 3-5 specific, measurable goals. Here's the crucial part: each goal needs to be concrete enough that by next December, you can clearly say whether you achieved it or not.

Let me show you what I mean. Here are some actual goals from my past Reviews:

Instead of "exercise more":

• Run my third marathon in the spring

• Maintain ongoing schedule of running at least 40 miles a week

• Continue weekly yoga and strength training program

Instead of "travel more":

• Visit 25 countries, including 15 new ones

• Complete round-the-world trip focusing on remote locations

• Take a big trip with my friend Stephanie

See the difference? These aren't vague aspirations—they're specific targets you can track and measure.

Set Required Actions for Each Goal

Here's where most goal-setting exercises fall short: they stop at declaring the goal. In the Annual Review, each goal gets a corresponding "Actions Required" column. This is where you spell out the concrete steps needed to achieve each goal.

For example, if your goal is to write and publish a book, your required actions might include:

• Complete first draft by March

• Get feedback from three trusted readers

• Research literary agents

• Send query letters to 10 agents

• Complete revisions based on feedback

Think of it this way: goals without actions are just wishes. The "Actions Required" column turns wishes into plans.

A Word About Metrics

On a separate tab of my spreadsheet, I track various metrics from year to year. These help me see long-term progress and patterns. Some examples from previous years include:

• Countries visited (new and total)

• Books read

• Major projects completed

• Financial savings milestones

• Reader meetups held

Your metrics will likely be different, but the principle remains: measuring what matters helps you improve it.

Setting Yourself Up for Success

A few key principles I've learned over the years:

Aim for a success rate of around 80% . If you're achieving 100% of your goals, you're probably not dreaming big enough. Meanwhile, if you're achieving less than 70%, you might be setting unrealistic targets.

Include some "possible additional goals" at the bottom of your plan. These are things that might become priorities as the year unfolds.

Plan to review your notes quarterly. I schedule "Spring," "Summer," and "Fall" reviews to check my progress and adjust as needed. This doesn’t need to be a big thing—it typically takes less than 20 minutes each time.

The Power of Iteration

One last thing: this process gets better with practice. My first Annual Review was much simpler than today's version. Each year, I've refined the process based on what works and what doesn't.

In the next post, I'll share how I'm approaching this year's Review and walk through my personal goal-setting process in real time. For now, I encourage you to download the template and start thinking about your categories and potential goals.

Remember: we underestimate what we can accomplish in a year. Give yourself permission to think bigger than feels comfortable. You might just surprise yourself with what you can achieve. 🪄