I speak to loads of people each year about running businesses and trying to get ahead and the topic of goal setting comes up often.

But still, most of them don’t get around to setting goals properly.

Instead, they just turn up each day, do the job needed to get them through the week and keep the business running. 

There’s nothing wrong with that. 

But it does guarantee unpredictable results.

I'm not going to regurgitate goal-setting techniques today. You can ask ChatGPT anytime for that. 

Instead, I thought I’d share a different approach that might help light a fire in your belly and motivate you to set goals in the first place.

And it starts by identifying things that piss you off about your world.

Because when:

• You feel stuck
• Your business isn’t growing 
• You’re not getting the results you want

When those negative emotions reach boiling point, they can be turned into huge motivators for achieving success.

This is especially true at the start of a new year when you’re naturally ready for change. 

So let’s look at how to turn your funk into a fist pump.

It starts by asking yourself three questions:

1. What’s wrong with your world?

Zoom out for a moment and look at each aspect of your life. 

Start listing all the things that aren’t going as well as you'd hoped.

Problems you wish you didn't have.

Results you wish were better.

Relationships you want to repair.

I start with all the obvious things first:

• Relationships
• Health and wellbeing
• Personal and business finance

Things that aren’t where I want them to be right now.

(remember to be realistic and not be overly hard on yourself)

Then ask…

2. Why did it get this way?

What caused it and when?

Keep in mind that blaming other people or circumstances won’t help.

Instead, look at the things YOU had control over and identify the role you played in the crappy outcomes. 

• Bad habits
• Wrong behaviours 
• Lack of knowledge of key topics
• Absence of positive action or consistency
• Tightly held beliefs that don’t serve you well

When you self-reflect and take 100% responsibility, it can be incredibly powerful for identifying the root cause. 

For example, when I first did it for my finances, I realised I was expecting to have more savings but wasn’t actually sticking enough savings aside. I was just ‘hoping’ there’d be more left over. 

Similarly, I wanted to be fitter this time last year but I still wasn’t consistently prioritising training or educating myself on nutrition.

Here's how that looked using this framework:

What's wrong: I didn't like the way I looked

What caused it: Lack of structured training and accountability.

Once you know that, the next step is to ask…

3. What are you going to do about it in 2025?

By now, often it’s clear what you should be doing about it. 

Start writing those ideas down

The actions you’ll take and how often.

The experiments you can run to test.

The people you need to ask for help.

The education you’ll seek out.

The mental baggage you’ll drop.

Some of you might let your mind slip back to things you’ve tried before and tell yourself a story about not having the time, money, resources or self-discipline…

That’s more of point one. And in that case, go back do the exercise again to ask why and what you’re going to do differently this time.

These three questions are a brilliantly simple framework for solving just about any problem you have. 

In business, personal life, finding a purpose, 

What’s wrong with…(the world, your results, your relationships etc)

How did it get like this? (why, when, what caused it?)

What are you going to do about it? (actions, behaviours, tests)

It’s so simple and for that reason, I use it most weeks. 

I hope it helps you too.

Have a great week.

Take care.

Jarrod