by Erich Sachs and Kim Brown

Kim (often referred to here as the Wife) and I typically spend a few evenings during the last week of December reviewing the year that has passed and setting goals for the coming year. We’ve found the long winter nights just after the holidays are a good time for us to sit down at our dinner table in front of the fire with a giant sketch pad and write down what we want to do, how we want to feel, and who we want to become.

We start at a macro level—we take a little time to put our values into words (family, personal development, and joy are a few of our values).

And then we get incredibly specific. We set targets—specific and measureable goals—and articulate the steps we will take to reach them.

Here’s a look at the process in one particular area:

Kim and I both value personal development. For me, rock climbing has been a superb discipline. It acts as a guide for how I view the world, and how I can deconstruct other challenges in my life and achieve what I might otherwise think of as impossible. It’s a physical and mental challenge, an infinite game with endless opportunities for improvement.

Within the area of personal development, in the subcategory of rock climbing, I’ll select a project that stretches my limit. It can’t be too easy, and it can’t be too difficult. It has to be within a narrow range so that I can push myself without burning out or getting bored.

Fortunately, I have several routes that I’m excited to try that meet this criteria.

As we zoom in to the specifics of each goal, we create a strategy for how to get there. When do I plan to send a project? How will I train? How many days per week of what sort of workout?

And then I execute. When I set the goal and lay out the path to accomplish it, I don’t spend my precious energy second-guessing myself. I have made a plan and I follow that plan until I reach the goal or it becomes clear that I need a new approach. Because I’ve done this before, I trust the process. I know it works for me if I let it.

Kim generally focuses on personal development in the area of education. She selects a few classes that she wants to take over the course of the coming year and determines how much, if anything, they will cost. This helps us to budget for those classes.

We also talk about when would be a good time for her to take the classes so that she can give them the attention they deserve, without conflicting with any other major events or activities.

One of the great keys to success that we have found is to start really big, and funnel it down to one small step forward that can be accomplished in the next day or two. Momentum is invaluable when it comes to goal-setting.

Goal setting is a fun activity for us. One that strengthens our commitment to our goals and sets us up to support each other in the pursuit of those goals.

Successful goal setting is about being incredibly clear and specific with yourself. The clearer you can get on all of this, the easier it gets to focus your attention on getting you where you want to go.

Note from Kim:

Here’s the crazy-cool thing about goal setting: We write down our goals and may not look at them again for six months or a year. I rarely think about them. But when we review them at the end of the year, they are almost all successfully completed. Just writing them down (with a pen or pencil on paper—somehow this helps our brains really believe it) sets us on the path to achievement. I have found lists of goals and dreams from a decade ago, things that I haven’t really thought about since I wrote the list, and I have done almost all of them.

Just identifying what you want is a huge leap toward getting it. So go get it!