A Tactical Approach to Strategically Crushing the New Year

The Time Value of Happiness & Success

In finance, we talk about the “time value of money” like it’s the bible. Meaning that $10,000 invested at 5% interest per year for 30 years becomes $45,000.  At 10%, it turns into just under $200,000. Not bad, right? A 20x return and you didn’t even add a single dollar more. Now, consider adding $100 per month, just that extra push, every month for those 30 years – and we’re at $425,000. By throwing in the extra ounce of effort you more than double your investment. Now, a 42x return.

What if you could approach health, happiness & success – by YOUR definition – the same way?  Imagine you being a 40x better, happier, stronger, more successful you?

5 years ago I built a simple process that I get excited for every year at this time and has allowed me to do this. Funny thing is, your finances follow suit too… If the below process / outline resonates with you, grab 3 hours between now and mid-January (ideally this coming weekend), download my OTBM New Year Planner, and have at it.

A Simple and Scalable Way to be 10% More Successful Each Year

I mean, we all live, breathe, compare and judge ourselves & each other by our financial success.  So it’s an easy, obvious, and perfect analogy.  

As I noted in my previous post New Year’s Resolutions Are a Scam, after years of mediocrity, reading & research, I finally started taking the tips & tricks of my favorite virtual mentors and started a new path to feeling happier, more fulfilled & successful day by day & year by year.  

And over those years, I also crafted a simple, seamless & scalable model to drive 10% increases in “success” by MY definition each year. And if you’re interested, I invite you to try it out. Guarantee it will work.

So download my OTBM New Year Playbook and follow the 6-step process below to start quantifying where you are today, creating & crushing your goals for next year, and kick-starting the path to 40x improvement a few years down the road.  I guarantee it will work.  

Before You Begin, Keep in Mind…

1. There is no wrong answer – Be truthful to yourself & keep the pen moving.  Nobody is watching over your shoulder, you’re doing this for yourself.  
2. Remember that life is more than just work – This isn’t for your boss or your company’s stock price.  This is your stock price. Think about ALL components of life (noted below).

Step 1: Put Yourself In Your Own Shoes

Goal: Look back at where you “were” 1 year ago today (30 minutes).

Where was your head?  How was work, your relationships, your family?  Where did you struggle?  Were you happy? What did you want?   

This is absolutely critical. There is no sense in thinking about progressing yourself & creating change if you don’t have a comparison point.  Grab whatever plan you created for yourself a year ago (or find some old emails, texts, notes) and take a look at what you were saying, doing, thinking and wanting.

When you run this process this year and come back again next December – it’s incredibly powerful & really starts the multiplier effect. You’ll have everything in one place (on just 2 pages) and easily able to do a quick look back.

Step 2: Cross Things Out

Goal: Quantify success of previous year’s goals (15 minutes). 

To me, the only thing better than crossing things out on a to-do list is crossing out my biggest goal of the year.  Well one way to top this is crossing out your 10 biggest goals of the year.  When you actually take the time to write down a goal to hit by the end of the year – something SO important it needs a year – and then cross it out, it’s the most rewarding feeling on earth.

So go through your goals from the year before & cross out those you hit and circle those you missed.  Quantify your success rate for your top 3, top 10 & all goals to see how you did.  Again, considering the lack of a comparison point, you’ll have to settle for memory or old notes.

Step 3: Get 2020 Out of Your Head & Into the Vault

Goal: Reflect on wins, losses & improvements from last year (1 hour).

Go to top of page 1 on the Playbook noted with .  OK get ready to have some fun & grab a drink, coffee & some good tunes.  So let’s think.  Where did you really WIN this year?  Some great memories?  Where did you laugh your ass off (who doesn’t love this?)?  Besides COVID, what were some of your other challenges – but also, developments & new skills created?  What were you grateful for?

Fill out the lists & answer the questions on page 1 that are designed to pull out every last ounce of 2020 from your noggin.  I call this a “Brain Dump”.  Get weird here.  Lay it on the table. Be honest.  Get it out of your head & in the vault!  Use a template designed to extract the results of the past year, good and bad, and lay them out in a constructive, orderly way. 

Step 4: Define Your Future 

Goal: Determine top goals for the new year (1 hour).  

Go to page 2 of the Playbook noted with .  For anybody that’s read my stuff before, they know I live & die by writing things down.  For me, I learned 5 years ago that half the battle for me hitting my goals was just writing them down on paper – then I was committed.  In fact, research shows that writing down goals is LITERALLY half the battle (42% increase in success).

Fill up your glass for round 2.  What do you want out of this year?  What have you been putting off that you are ready to take on consistently throughout the year?  What are some of the reflections on the past year that you can improve on?

So pull up the “9 components of life” list noted above & lay your goals on the table.  Do your best to come up with some chunky ones, but don’t make them broad.  Put enough meat on the bone to direct the traffic where possible.  And please, don’t make them all so ridiculous that you you’ll burn out or feel total lack of success at end of year (example: if you haven’t worked out in 2 months, don’t write “go to gym 6x per week”).  At least for your top 10, throw a general timeline in there & few thoughts about your “plan” to achieve (i.e. smaller steps you could take to achieve the bigger goal).  

Bottom line, let’s aim for 10% improvement, right?  

Step 5: OK… Now Summarize It All

Goal: Statement that defines who you’re becoming (30 minutes).

Go to step 5 of the Playbook noted with . You’ve done the hardest part.  Now, imagine somebody sent you an email & said “Hey <name>, how would you describe your previous year and what do you want to do in the next year to be 10% more successful by your standards?”  In other words, try to come up with 2 or 3 sentences that essentially summarize your step 3 (reflection) and step 4 (response) at a high level.  It’s not about re-writing bullets from the above list, but a building a defining statement that will guide you through the year.  Don’t overthink it but this will be your proudest moment.  

Step 6: Print, Hang & Take Action

Goal: Make it happen (15 minutes + 30 minutes / week this year).  

All done. Sweet.

Well, 42% of it is done.  Now we’re at the 2 minute bonus plank at the end of a workout (god I hate when this happens).  

So what’s the best way to actually manage yourself & take ownership?   For starters, type this up and print / hang it somewhere you’ll see throughout the year (i.e. office, desk, wall, etc; I even create a “wallet” version).  But coming up with a plan to keep you accountable & focused is on you, and everybody is different, but it doesn’t take as much time as people think. 

What works really well for me is taking 30 minutes at the end of each week to a) reflect on the week at a high level and b) set 3 goals for next week (i.e. smaller steps from the “plan” section to achieve a bigger goal).  I also do this each month.  

Think about it.  This is nothing more than doing a consolidated version of the OTBM New Year Planner process for 30 minutes a week.  

Curious, can you trade 30 minutes of Instagram / TikTok time per week for some deep thinking about feeling better for yourself?

Now Have Fun

One you’re done, go celebrate that you did this for yourself & reign in the COVID new year… however on earth you plan on doing that. I’m thinking pizza & a fire if it’s not pouring rain.

Look, you did this because you wanted to make yourself happier, better & more successful, not because somebody asked you to.  That means, when you actually start doing these things – the intention is to feel better, not worse.  So get it out of your head that you need to do work here and just do it. Have fun with it.

I’ll say it again, you only get one rip at this life – so have at it, make an impact, be kind and create the change you desire for yourself. 

If we can all make ourselves 10% happier & more successful, imagine how much better this world, and your life could be?