Michael Hyatt is a well-known leadership expert, former CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, and creator of the Full Focus Planner. He’s widely recognized for teaching high achievers how to set goals, avoid burnout, and manage their lives with clarity. His main premise is to design your year–or your year will design itself. At this point in his life, he’s created a lot of freedom. Hyatt’s yearly goal-setting method revolves around intentional, holistic planning that recognizes all domains of life—not just career.
James Clear is another influential leader and the author of Atomic Habits, one of the best-selling personal-development books of the past decade. If you haven’t read it or re-read it recently, now is a good time to do so. His work focuses on the psychology of habit formation and long-term achievement. His main premise is that you don’t rise to the level of your goals but you fall to the level of your systems. Clear believes that you must build systems that make goal achievement automatic and sustainable. I outline some of my simple systems in my book Power of After. They work!
I continue to be inspired by both of those leaders and believe strongly in the power of planning, especially as we face the year ahead. Every strategic plan begins with vision. The big picture answers the deeper questions such as: Where am I going? What kind of life do I want? Who am I becoming? What matters most this year? Use the free download-brainstorming worksheet that comes with this (podcast and article ) to make a note of your answers. This doesn’t have to be a difficult task, but you should put some time aside to think carefully about the year ahead. It will pay off! We focus here on four main steps to help you move ahead.
Step One: Define the Big Picture
Step One: Define the Big Picture
Step Two: Review the Previous Year
Before you set new short-term goals for the year, evaluate the year behind you. Reflection ensures you don’t repeat mistakes and helps you build on momentum that already exists.
Here are some good questions to ask:
- What worked? List successes—big or small.
- Did you launch something new? What was the process and how successful was it?
- Did you build better habits? What were they and what was the outcome?
- Were there new boundaries you implemented? What were they and how successful were they?
- What relationships were strengthened or became too difficult to continue?
- Did you increase your knowledge or skills? In what area(s)?
- Did you save money or overspend? On what?
- In what ways did you prioritize health?
- What activities filled you with energy?
Here are four takeaways from those questions: First, identify the main activities, people, and projects that energized you. These should point toward alignment with your purpose and strengths.
Second, identify what felt draining or misaligned. This is your warning light. Anything that consistently drains you may need adjustment, delegation, or elimination. This can include projects and people. There are those individuals who will drain our energy if we let them. They don’t need to be in our close circle of contacts, even if they are a colleague. We can keep them emotionally distanced.
Third, what did you learn? Growth often hides in challenges. Identify key lessons so they become strategic tools, not forgotten experiences. This involves adapting a healthy mindset with a lifelong learning focus.
Then lastly, what on this list deserves to continue? Carry forward what is working well—systems, rhythms, habits, relationships and commitments that support your next chapter. Taking the time to do this will be one of the best uses of your time for the coming year.
Step Three: Look at the Year by Quarters
Quarterly planning is the bridge between big-picture direction and weekly execution. Instead of overloading January with unrealistic expectations, divide your year into four focused segments. Quarterly planning is a good place to determine short-term goals, which are the building blocks of long-term success. These steps are designed to be achieved in a relatively short timeframe. They should be immediate and actionable, providing a sense of focus and direction.
Here are some reasons why Quarterly Planning Works:
- It creates natural checkpoints for evaluation. You can divide projects into small increments to accomplish step by step. It also creates freedom to move whatever isn’t accomplished to the following quarter.
- It prevents overwhelm. The steps should be small and measurable.
- It increases momentum through focused seasons. This has become important for my music products as some of them are seasonal, like Christmas, Easter or Valentines Day.
- It aligns effort with energy cycles, personal commitments, and travel rhythms. Quarterly planning helps in scheduling activities around family, whether that includes kids, grandkids or even aging parents.
Here are some ideas for a Quarterly Breakdown. If this is new to you, a great way to get started is to identify a “theme” for each quarter. For our example here, the quarterly breakdown I have defined starts in January.
Q1: Foundation & Focus Theme: Ideal for establishing systems, routines, health goals, or beginning new projects. With this focus, create very small steps that are measurable. Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg is a great resource for implementing this.
Q2: Building & Momentum: This can be a strong season for expansion—launching programs, developing deeper work, and executing projects. This can be a great month of accomplishment, especially if building on what has been strategically defined in Q1.
Q3: Renewal & Strategic Creativity: This quarter often includes travel, rest, and creative resets and that stems from our background of planning travel during time off of school in the summer months. It’s perfect for reflection, reading, planning, and slower development work.
Q4: Completion & Celebration: Here is where we close open loops, finish projects, refine systems, and prepare for the next year with new and renewed goals and objectives.
Quarterly rhythms ensure your goals match real life rather than a fantasy schedule of starting “someday.”
Step Four: Set Measurable Goals for Each Quarter
Once your big-picture vision is clear, and your previous year has been evaluated, it's time to choose measurable goals. These goals become the milestones that turn your vision into reality. Make sure you download our free goals worksheets that provide helpful reminders.
Your goals should be:
- Measurable: How will you know you’ve accomplished a goal? You should have a way to clearly evaluate your progress with date(s) for evaluation and completion.
- Aligned with your purpose and lifestyle. This is important to review yearly as health, financial and life circumstances often change.
- Realistic within the quarter’s energy and commitments. It is extremely rewarding to cross even small accomplishments off a list. Don’t overwhelm yourself!
- Strategic in building toward your year-end outcome. This should align with your “big picture” goal.
Examples for Step-by-Step Goal Setting per Quarter aligned with the previous quarterly breakdown:
Q1 Goals: Focus on strong starts with systems, routines, health goals, or new projects:
- Establish routines: exercise, reading, or planning rhythms. By rhythms, we mean those routines repeat and cycle again and again.
- Build systems: financial organization, business workflows, content calendars. The goal here is to create a system that can be repeated. This saves time and energy.
- Begin foundational projects. Remember a foundation is just that: a solid and sturdy base.
- Strengthen mindset and clarity. I strongly suggest making time for a devotional, journaling and reflection. This is not a waste of time and can be life-changing!
- Prepare for launches or expansion in Q2. The end of this quarter should come with a time of honest evaluation and moving items not accomplished off the list or to the next quarter, depending on their importance.
Q2 Goals: Build on Q1:
- Launch new offers, initiatives, or creative projects
- Grow your audience or client base. For entrepreneurs this should include your email list.
- Increase revenue-generating activities–these can be live or virtual.
- Deepen skills through strategic learning. This can include both virtual and live courses.
- Strengthen partnerships or collaborations
Q3 Goals: Shift into creativity and renewal:
- Schedule travel, rest, or creative retreats. (Some of this scheduling should occur in the previous months)
- Revisit the big picture: What’s still aligned? What has changed?
- Reevaluate systems and simplify
- Begin planning for Q4 and the next year
- Engage in slower, deeper work like writing, research, or restructuring
Q4 Goals: Finish strong:
- Complete major projects.
- Assess revenue goals.
- Refine business or personal systems
- Prepare content, plans, and materials for the upcoming year. Q4 is a great time to plan a get-away to plan and evaluate before moving into the year ahead.
- Celebrate wins and acknowledge growth
I encourage you to spend some time thinking through your main quarterly goals. Without thinking time, most people drift instead of lead their own life.
Conclusion: Your Year with Intention
I’ve included this in a downloadable guide with the article. Here is a brainstorming worksheet to get you started: (Get free download here)
A new year doesn’t automatically create new outcomes—your choices do. With a clear big picture, meaningful quarterly goals, purposeful reflection, and alignment with your values and lifestyle, you create a year built with intention instead of reaction.
This framework helps you design a life you want, not merely manage the one you have. It is an important step to take as most of us don’t want to look back with regrets. As you step into this year, commit to clarity, focus, alignment, and consistent evaluation. Your future self will thank you.
Additional Resources
Goal Setting Worksheets-free download!
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
Power of After: What’s Next Can Be Your Most Purposeful Chapter by Deborah Johnson
Stop Circling: Steps to Escape Endless Roundabouts by Deborah Johnson
Tiny Habits: The Small Changes that Change Everything by BJ Fogg PhD
When you know the overarching direction with a big picture, the smaller goals you set have purpose and intention.
deborah johnson
Thought Leader, Keynote Speaker, Author
If you are interested in growing and learning, check out our online courses here: Online Learning
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