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1-Page Summary of Your Best Year Ever
Overview
In his book, Your Best Year Ever: A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals (2018), Michael Hyatt examines goal setting and how to achieve one’s goals. He also discusses work-life balance, relationships, productivity, and happiness.
Goal setting is about more than just professional aspirations. It’s also important for your emotional, intellectual, and physical lives. You should spread goals across those areas to make sure that nothing gets too much attention or is ignored altogether.
Hyatt’s five-step plan is to first examine the ingrained way of thinking. If it doesn’t work, you should change the habits and challenge them if necessary. Many people have doubts about their ability to succeed that makes those self-fulfilling prophecies come true, so they are better off being optimistic and generous towards others on a daily basis. People often assume that there aren’t enough resources available when in actuality there are more than one can possibly need; therefore, assumptions about yourself and your surroundings shouldn”t be taken at face value since they distort reality.
The second step in improving your work is to examine what failed last year and why. You should take time to analyze the differences between expectations and outcomes, as well as congratulate yourself for anything that went right.
The author suggests that people should set goals to motivate themselves. They must be specific and written down, and they should be habitual as well as one-time goals. People’s motivations vary; some might want to lose weight before their wedding or get healthy for other reasons, while others might do it because of personal values or interests. External rewards can also help people achieve their goals; for example, someone who wants to go the gym every day could use a calendar tool like Google Calendar to keep track of his streak. Social networks are also powerful motivators: if you have friends who work out with you regularly, then you’re more likely to continue going.
When you have a goal and know why you want to achieve it, the next step is to start working on it. You should celebrate your small victories as they come, but don’t forget about your long-term goals. List all of the tasks that will help you reach your goal every day so that you can stay motivated and focused throughout the process.
Periodic reviews help keep goals on track. If a strategy isn’t working, it’s acceptable to try something else. Two people with the same goal will pursue it in different ways. Goals are fixed, but strategies are flexible.
Key Point 1: It’s important to be as detailed as possible when formulating a goal.
Specific, measurable goals are more likely to be achieved than vague ambitions. It’s important to use the SMARTER system (specific, measurable, actionable, risky, time-keyed, exciting and relevant) when setting a goal because that will ensure it’s specific and can be measured.
It’s important to be specific when setting goals. In this case, a woman who wants to watch more movies should specify the type of films she wants to see, whether they need to be seen in theaters or at home, and if any particular genres are acceptable.
Her next step is to make the goal measurable. It’s not a good idea to say that you want “more films” because it’s vague. You need to be specific about how many films you want, so that you can measure your progress. Perhaps she wants to see five films, or fifty.
The third step is to make the plan actionable. This means that you have to identify steps that will help you reach your goal. For instance, if she’s going to watch more movies, then she may want to get a subscription for Netflix or create a list of movies she wants to see. The next step is making the plan risky. This means challenging yourself out of your comfort zone in some way. Perhaps it’s watching documentaries instead of romantic comedies or going alone instead of with friends when going to the movie theater. It could also mean watching foreign films in order to improve her language skills.
