One Life Changing Day
—Chelsea B. Ashworth
After the waking nightmare that was 2020, I wanted to enter 2021 focused and ready to reclaim some feeling of control in my life. If I learned anything from Covid-19 and months of quarantine, it is to be grateful for each day that I wake up in good health with the power to determine my own destiny. I graduated college and law school, but as I haven't won a Nobel Prize or a MacArthur Genius Grant (yet), I reckoned there was more I could learn about goal setting - so I decided to check out Achievement 21: Goalapalooza on January 2, 2021.
I was instructed to shut off outside distractions and dedicate the time on a Saturday to planning out 2021 on Zoom with Apochromatik and participants all over the country. There were achievers present from the legal, entertainment, and financial industries, and even one employee of the National Park Service. The people were interesting and had all manner of goals, such as: becoming a licensed mediator, taking songwriting classes, winning a world salsa championship, working remotely from scenic locations, and having a child. What we all had in common was the shared realization that a lot of our old goals seemed insignificant in light of the last year, and we all wanted to set and achieve new goals more in keeping with our shifted priorities.
Before jumping into strategies for goal setting, we spent some time reflecting on 2020. We asked ourselves questions such as:
What went well?
What didn't go well?
Did we have or achieve goals?
What held us back?
With those answers in mind, we then had to evaluate 8 distinct areas of our lives - such as our careers, personal growth, and fun and leisure - and rate our levels of satisfaction. I've tried a life wheel exercise before and didn't really get much out of it. However, on this day I realized a life wheel is a great place to start if you feel some simmering irritation you can't put a finger on. Sometimes it's not until you are forced to assign a numerical value to your satisfaction with your home environment that you realize how excited and motivated you might be by a move.
Apochromatik's Achievement Framework is based on the research and writings of scholars and achievers like Steve Jobs, Dr. Gail Matthews, Michael Hyatt, Mel Robbins, and others. Amy and Keith have distilled the myriad of information on goal setting into a "reality-based method" that they believe can be the catalyst for change in your life. The formula involves creating goals using the "SMARTER" framework and then leveraging an incremental approach and accountability to achieve success.
The Goal Achievement Formula also incorporates results from research studies showing that providing yourself with a reward for meeting a goal actually trains your brain to try to achieve more, but the type of reward that is motivating differs from person to person. Some people might be incentivized by something they want to buy, while others would be more inspired by an experience or a donation to a charitable cause. If your goal is to plan a vacation, the vacation can be the reward, or you could choose a reward that is unrelated. The point is, when making a goal, plan a reward at the finish line that will keep you going when you want to quit.
The part of the formula that really surprised me was their idea that a goal needs to be exciting. They differentiate between "projects" and "goals," stating that the end result of a goal has to be exciting, otherwise it's just a project. Here's an example: Setting a family budget is a project. Using a family budget in order to save for a Disney vacation is a goal. We complete projects because they are required of us. We try to meet goals because they bring fulfillment and joy to our lives.
In the process of trying to write out our goals within the SMARTER framework, we made some discoveries. I realized that by not fixing a time frame for accomplishing my goal of compiling a family cookbook, I'd burned through my passion and the goal had become a project I just wanted done. Another person realized that they needed to reframe their goal from watching less television to something exciting, like a regular bike ride, that might have the natural effect of lessening their tv time.
Once we had taken time to write out our SMARTER goals, we were instructed how to employ incremental strategies and regular practices to achieve them. A recurring theme was building in internal and external accountability. We can keep ourselves accountable by really digging down and focusing on our "why" - our deepest purpose and motivation - and then keeping that "why" on our minds with daily routines like phone reminders and post-its on the bathroom mirror. We can practice external accountability by hiring a career coach, or finding a gym buddy.
Apochromatik's message is that accountability is not about beating yourself up - it's about learning and implementing what works for you. If you don't specifically set out to work on a goal that will make you happy, chances are your free time will be frittered away on doom-scrolling or consumed with projects that won't bring you a sense of satisfaction. If you have your goals planned out and the right strategies in place, then you know what to turn to in your free time in order to advance your goals and happiness.
It didn't happen in the first quarter, but my husband and I have now signed a contract on a new home. My future goals are to decorate the home in a way that brings me joy and peace, to plan a house-warming party, and to keep working on newer, SMARTER goals.
If you are interested, Apochromatik is offering Achieve22! Goalapalooza again January 2, 2022. I hope to meet you there. Apochromatik also provides 1:1 career coaching, attorney masterminds, team and leadership development, and an online course in executive presence. To learn more go to www.aposignup.com/achieve22.
Chelsea B. Ashworth is currently a licensed attorney in Nashville, Tennessee. When not lawyering, Chelsea uses her writing and editing skills to chase the greatest high she can think of: being understood. She is looking for new opportunities to bring clarity to messaging and deliver content that is clear, concise, and conveys confidence. Watch for future posts from Chelsea as she continues her career exploration.