The Confidence Guy

Wired into Truly Confident Living

Jan 01

The No-Goal Guide to an Extraordinary 2011

Goals & productivity

No Goals HereHappy New Year to ya.

Now that 2011′s here (and just where is my household cleaning robot and hoverboard by the way?) and judging by the volume of articles and tweets I’ve seen, it’s that time time of year when you might be thinking about setting resolutions and goals.

Stop right there!  Put the goal down and slowly step away.  I don’t want any trouble.  That’s it, easy does it now.

See, I haven’t hidden the fact that I’m not a fan of goals or resolutions.  Much of the conventional wisdom about goals just isn’t true, and slowly I think other people are seeing the problems with resolutions and goals and are coming to the same conclusion.

So this year I’m giving you an alternative and a great way to kick things off – a way to an extraordinary 2011 without using goals.  And I’m giving it to you at no cost.

I might get strung up by other coaches for this, but you don’t get something extraordinary by working towards something fuzzy at some point in the future that you think you might want.  You get something extraordinary by getting in the game right now, today, and having that contribute towards something that matters to you.

The link below gives you this approach in a short PDF – just click it to open it up or right click it to save it to your computer.  There are also links in there which will give you more detail on some of the topics if you want to dig a little deeper.

Click here for your free copy of “The No-Goal Guide to an Extraordinary 2011″

Let me know in the comments how you get on – it would be awesome to hear what your 2011 is all about.

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10 Comments »
  • http://www.jessilicious.com Jess Webb

    Hi Steve!

    Wow, this guide is awesome! Just read through it, and now heading off to print out the worksheet and spend some time on this today. I’ve always struggled with “goals” and “planning”, but I think doing it this way will make a big difference for me! :)

    Thanks so much for sharing this!

  • http://theconfidenceguyonline.com Steve Errey – Confidence Guy

    @Jess: You’re more than welcome m’dear! Holler if you have any questions and let me know how you get on.

  • http://www.hattiehorn.com Hattie

    This is terrific, Steve! Thanks for making it easy to figure out my priorities in 2011. It will be much easier to take a leap of faith.

  • http://theconfidenceguyonline.com Steve Errey – Confidence Guy

    @Hattie: It’s a model that works well for me too. I work on my game plan throughout January – adding to it and tuning it if something doesn’t quite work or ring true. Let me know how it goes!

  • Angie

    Goals make me think of football (no interest whatsoever) and games make me think of school sports (aaaargh!) so your idea of THEMES is brilliant. As soon as that word popped up my head filled with all sorts of great ideas for 2011. Goals and games had me forging a sick note! Thanks again Steve for inspiration and motivation -invaluable!

  • http://twitter.com/wilsonwrote Angela Wilson

    Steve:
    Thank you (again) for your work.
    As I read your piece, I was reminded of capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art and dance form. Instead of saying you were going to spar or fight with someone, you say, instead, that you’re playing. The idea of playing conjures up that excitement, wonder about and responding to the moment and the world I had as a kid, truly “being here (versus that goal-directed other place) now.” Very different from the “gotta grind it out for the future payoff” focus of so much self-mgmt teaching.
    Oh, and do let us know when the Maid-O-Matic arrives…

  • http://theconfidenceguyonline.com Steve Errey – Confidence Guy

    I’m no football fan either, but I do talk about games a lot when I’m coaching. I totally get your point about school sports (gah!), but to me games are something you get into and play at your best ability right now. If you want to be the worlds best tennis player you have to make a choice to play tennis and to learn to be the best darn player you can be.

    Some of it’s semantics, the important thing about a game or a theme is that it’s here, right now.

  • http://theconfidenceguyonline.com Steve Errey – Confidence Guy

    I didn’t know that about capoeira – love it! I’d love to learn capaoeira actually, it looks amazing and must be just about the best workout you can get.

    You’re so right, it’s about responding to the moment and getting stuck into what matters (and what’s fun) right now.

    No Maid-o-Matic yet. Tsk.

  • http://theconfidenceguyonline.com/2011/06/world-domination-summit-quiet-roar-change/ World Domination Summit: The Quiet Roar of Change | The Confidence Guy

    [...] people about my “No Goals” approach to coaching at the opening party, then having Leo Babauta and Danielle LaPorte say the [...]

  • David Sena

    I plan to use this with my board of directors and also my key leaders at the Nonprofit I work for.