SUMMER REPLAY: 4 Categories of Powerful Professional Goals

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Marissa: So just like everything in life, some episodes get all the attention, and others don’t. And we think that’s really a shame. We feel like every episode, well, within reason, should- … have its moment.

[00:00:23] Joel: That one we did, I remember that one, was not very good.

[00:00:27] Marissa: We know that one.

[00:00:28] Joel: We know that one.

[00:00:29] Marissa: Yeah.

[00:00:29] Joel: Well, the problem is, though, that we can’t rely, at the end of the day, on these mechanical systems, these algorithms, to, like, sort out what is great from what is not, the wheat from the chaff.

[00:00:45] Yeah. Like, a human has to go through and decide, like, to curate, to carefully select, and that, friends, that’s what we’ve done for you.

[00:00:54] Marissa: And this episode that you’re about to listen to truly deserves a second life and a second listen.

[00:01:01] Joel: The truth is, if you trust us enough to listen to us every Monday, you should trust us enough to listen on this Monday because while this episode is from deep in the archive, it stands out from the archive because it’s just that good.

[00:01:18] Marissa: So don’t sleep on it. We hope you enjoy this episode. We think it’s great, and we’re excited for you to hopefully learn quite a bit from it. Enjoy.

[00:01:32] Blake: Let me, let me do this. Uh

[00:01:36] Verbs: What, what’s happening?

[00:01:37] Blake: Hang on. Jeez. We got a special guest for this one.

[00:01:45] Verbs: I’m gonna be on the

[00:01:45] Nick: podcast.

[00:01:47] Blake: All right. It’s the first time.

[00:01:48] Verbs: Oh my gosh, it’s happening. Oh. Felicity once- Felicity … wanted to be on the

[00:01:51] Blake: podcast. So what we do is we talk into there, that fuzzy mic, and we can say, uh, happy Monday That’s something that we say. We also, you can say hi. There’s Verbs right there, Mr.

[00:02:07] Verbs, and that’s Nick.

[00:02:10] Nick: Hi,

[00:02:10] Blake: Felicity. Ooh, they’re waving at you.

[00:02:12] Verbs: Hello.

[00:02:13] Blake: And you wanna introduce them to this? Who’s this? Who

[00:02:18] Speaker 6: do you have

[00:02:20] Nick: there?

[00:02:21] Speaker 6: Who is it?

[00:02:22] Blake: Who is that in your hand?

[00:02:24] Speaker 6: It’s a special friend. Does she have a name?

[00:02:27] Nick: Is that a cow?

[00:02:29] Blake: What? Is it a cow?

[00:02:31] Speaker 6: No,

[00:02:33] Nick: it’s Lamby. Oh, it’s a

[00:02:34] Verbs: lamb. A lamb. Lamby. I thought that’s who that was.

[00:02:38] Blake: Oh.

[00:02:39] Nick: Did Lamby have a good morning?

[00:02:41] Verbs: Yeah.

[00:02:43] Nick: Yeah.

[00:02:43] Blake: Mm-hmm. That’s it. Lamby had a good morning. Um, oh, I know what you could do. Why don’t you do your dinosaur character? Yeah.

[00:02:51] Nick: Rawr. Oh, so scary. Wow. Oh my gosh. She said

[00:02:56] Speaker 6: hello.

[00:02:57] Nick: Well, this is, this’ll be important, um, historically for her first podcast appearance.

[00:03:03] Blake: Yeah, this is her first- There you go

[00:03:04] podcast recording. Lamby’s waving goodbye?

[00:03:08] Nick: Bye, Lamby.

[00:03:09] Blake: You, what, what is Felicity gonna say? Are you gonna say

[00:03:12] Speaker 6: hello? Rawr.

[00:03:20] Verbs: Welcome to another episode of Focus on This, the most productive podcast on the internet, so you can banish distractions, get the right stuff done, and finally start loving Mondays. I’m Burbs, here once again with Blake Stratton. Happy Monday to you, Blake

[00:03:41] Blake: Happy Monday to you, Verbs. Thank you very much, sir. Sadly, today we, we, we are without, uh, my friend and yours, Courtney Baker. Uh, she can’t be here today, but you listening, I know from the bottom of her heart what she would love to say to you more than anything, is that today’s a great day to buy a subscription to the Full Focus Planner.

[00:04:00] As our chief marketing officer, I’m sure there’s nothing else she could wish you this happy Monday. But Verbs, we are here. I’m excited, uh, to talk with you about today’s topic. What are we diving into today?

[00:04:14] Verbs: So today we’re gonna be talking about setting professional goals, and there’s a couple of categories that we’re gonna walk through that, uh, to consider when we are setting those professional goals.

[00:04:24] But just giving some, um, some kind of framework around the ways to experience a more enriching and fulfilling life, uh, professionally, but then also make sure we’re catering to the other areas of life as well.

[00:04:37] Blake: So we’re gonna talk about setting professional goals, but you’re saying when we set professional goals, we’re gonna do it in such a way to, so as to protect our personal life?

[00:04:48] Or are we also talking about personal goals?

[00:04:50] Verbs: Well, mainly how to s- really dial in those professional goals that we do want to set. Mm-hmm. Um, just so we’re clear on those, ’cause again, maybe the, the year started off on a sluggish foot for some, and you’re still feeling drained from just that, that Q4 dash.

[00:05:04] Um, or, you know, maybe there’s distractions or obstacles that are kinda coming at you from all, all sides, and there’s things that you wanna do to develop or grow professionally. And so we’re gonna talk about what those could look like, ’cause some of them may go outside of your normal, your normal professional work hours, some of them may not.

[00:05:21] But how do they all fit into whatever it is that you wanna accomplish, or how you, how you want to, uh, frame up that professional goal?

[00:05:29] Blake: Uh, I, I’m excited for this for myself because usually you can… If you’ve been at your job for any length of time, uh, especially m- you know, more than a couple of years, maybe you start to feel like, “Oh, okay, so basically we’re gonna do the same thing but a little bit more.”

[00:05:45] Or it just sort of has like a little bit more and maybe it’s feels a little dry, or maybe goals, quote-unquote, were handed to you by your-

[00:05:55] Verbs: Exactly …

[00:05:55] Blake: uh, you know, your executive team or your supervisor or whatever. And I think it’s really powerful to own our professional goals for ourselves. So what we have for you is four different categories to n- not just keep professional goals in this box of, “Okay, I’m trying to make X number of sales to, so that my boss doesn’t fire me

[00:06:19] and, like, maybe I can get a promotion or something like that.”

[00:06:23] Nick: Right.

[00:06:23] Blake: But actually dive a little bit deeper into professional goals to liven them up for you, to clarify them for you, and to get you on a path towards the actual working life and career that you really wanna have.

[00:06:41] Verbs: So let’s hop into, uh, category number one, which is accomplishments. Now, there’s, you know, many companies who have their employees set professional goals for the year, and department heads and their managers are tasked with assessing business needs, as you mentioned, Blake, and then determining how the contributors will play a role in pushing those things forward.

[00:07:02] But if that’s you, then this is a perfect opportunity to connect with your manager about what those professional goals look like, and it’s likely that goals will be assigned to you, and that’s normal, and that’s to be expected, and we’re just gonna consider an area or two where you would like to accomplish something and present that to your manager.

[00:07:21] So Blake, I know there’s some thoughts you probably have around this as far as what is it when we know that there’s something that’s expected of us as an employee or as a team member, and maybe that is– that could be a little bit different about something that we wanna do that we can present to our supervisor or manager or boss or whoever that will help us grow professionally, but isn’t exactly explicitly stated in the goals that they’re expecting us to accomplish.

[00:07:46] Does that make sense?

[00:07:47] Blake: Yeah, it does. So this first category i- We have four categories to share with people. This first category is probably the most obvious because so often this is the only way that we think of professional goals, is the big- Right … accomplishment, the big finish line, and oftentimes it’s handed down to us, uh, as you just mentioned.

[00:08:05] So let’s just s- let’s just say this, um, so that if, if you’re an employer or a leader, we’re covering our bases here. Your first priority when it comes to goals is to achieve what you’ve been charged to achieve, right? Right. I- if you’ve been given a goal to s- for a certain accomplishment, what we’re not saying is, “Oh yeah, you know, take it or leave it, but go ahead and write your own goal of what you wanna accomplish.”

[00:08:30] That’s not what we’re saying. What we are saying is to embrace those accomplishments that have maybe been handed down to you. And you know what? If those accomplishments, if you have 100%, uh, alignment and excitement and feel like you’ve got a whole plate for that, then that’s great. Your work is kinda done.

[00:08:50] But there may be some of you that go like, “All right, yeah, I’ve gotta im-improve my, you know, increase ac- you know, my sales or increase this thing by 15% and, yeah, I kinda got that, but it doesn’t really get me excited.” Maybe you wanna think about other accomplishments, those, the big projects that you may wanna do, uh, throughout the course, uh, of the year or a quarter, right?

[00:09:14] So, uh, you know, I’m in sales, so I’ll, I’ll, I’ll think in terms of a sales metaphor. I’ve got specific revenue numbers for categories that I’m supposed to hit. That’s my goal. But perhaps I wanna have another accomplishment. Like maybe, um, uh, you know, I really, it, it’s important to me to have a, you know, a certain just number of, uh, conversations that are totally, you know, I, I’m– they weren’t handed to me, but they were new conversations that I generated from LinkedIn or something.

[00:09:46] Mm-hmm. And that would be something that I could show my boss to say, “Hey, you know what?” I was, uh, generating new conversations i- totally on my own. I took initiative. I had 500 new conversations this year that were completely, uh, self-generated conversations.

[00:10:04] Joel: Mm-hmm.

[00:10:04] Blake: Uh, and, and that, and here’s how that played out in terms of, you know, playing into the goal that you set for me.

[00:10:10] So that would be an example of taking ownership of your goal, um, but looking at it a little bit closer and maybe finding something that would still bring value to your team and to your company, um, but that you can get excited about as well.

[00:10:24] Verbs: Yeah.

[00:10:24] Blake: Does that make sense?

[00:10:25] Verbs: Yeah, no, absolutely. Absolutely. And I think, um, you know, depending on what type of business you’re in, it may look a little bit different obviously for some of us.

[00:10:33] So if we’re with- inside an organization or we’re running or leading the organization or maybe we’re even a solopreneur, but whichever way it looks for you and your business, it still means assessing what the business need is, writing down the desired goal to achieve it, and then breaking those tasks down, uh, that you need to complete to accomplish the goal by whatever the said target date is.

[00:10:56] So it could, if you’re a solopreneur, it could mean you’re setting a goal for a new product launch by a particular date. Uh, it could be a launch of a new website or a company branding. Uh, it could be a goal to transition to a new integration for your online store or developing something just for a smoother customer experience.

[00:11:13] So there’s a lots of different goals that you could set that, that’s gonna develop you or your business, uh, to whatever degree that you’re, that you’re hoping for.

[00:11:23] Blake: So I think to wrap this first category of verbs, what I would challenge, uh, the listeners with is to examine what accomplishment goals have already been set for them if, if they have.

[00:11:34] If, if they haven’t, then, uh, you know, obviously connect with your supervisor and collaborate on, “Hey, what, what would be a great outcome?” Or, “What’s, what’s really my goal? ‘Cause I want to make sure we’re on the same page and have alignment here with that accomplishment.” But regardless of where you’re at in, in terms of the having management or being on your own or whatever, I, I wanna encourage you to focus on the, the E of the SMARTER framework when it comes to an accomplishment.

[00:12:02] Think of– Start with what would be really exciting for me to achieve this year professionally.

[00:12:08] Joel: Mm-hmm.

[00:12:08] Blake: Start there. Start with what would really excite me, and then work on connecting the dots logistically with the timing, with what the business needs might be, or, you know, how logistically you could accomplish that.

[00:12:22] So that’s kinda my advice, I think, for this first category to think professionally is what accomplishments would be really exciting?

[00:12:36] Verbs: All right, so moving along to category number two, which is habits. Now, we talked a little bit about this in a previous episode, um, when we were talking about workday startup shutdowns, morning and evening rituals. Uh, but the fact of the matter is we all have habits that we already have in play in our lives.

[00:12:54] Now, whether or not those habits are working, uh, to our benefit could be the question and is the question we should discuss. What kind of habits can we establish to really help us achieve these professional goals? Or what are some of the bad habits that we’ve kind of accumulated that get in the way of us really dialing in and knocking those goals out?

[00:13:14] Blake: With this category of goal setting professionally, I like it because it gets– it, it shifts us from the destination-

[00:13:22] Verbs: Mm-hmm …

[00:13:22] Blake: into the mindset of the process. Mm-hmm. So you’re thinking, you know, in the previous category, you’re thinking, “Where do I wanna end up?” With this category, you’re thinking, “How do I wanna get there?”

[00:13:33] And focusing on the system that you’re developing in your professional life can bear huge returns in the long term. What we know about habits is so much of our life is, uh, dictated by our unconscious habits, just the things that we do without even thinking.

[00:13:52] Verbs: Right.

[00:13:54] Blake: So consider for yourself what would be awesome to just do unconsciously?

[00:14:00] Like, if I didn’t even have to think about, uh, doing this habit, it would make my work life way more successful, or it would keep me from the distractions that, uh, divert me from the most important things in my workday.

[00:14:15] Verbs: Sure.

[00:14:16] Blake: That’s a way to, I think, get excited about habits, is to, to, to shift out. Sometimes we go, “Oh, I really ought to do more of this,” or, “I really ought to not be in my email all day long.”

[00:14:25] Verbs: Right.

[00:14:26] Blake: But think about it and go, “Hey, I already have habits. How can I edit my current habits to make success inevitable?”

[00:14:35] Verbs: Yeah.

[00:14:35] Blake: How can I edit my habits to make success inevitable? Virbs, are there any habits that you’ve intentionally installed or edited in your working life?

[00:14:47] Verbs: Yeah. No, and I think it’s good that you mention that, um, that I think commonly we always think of habits as bad things that we do that we need to eliminate from our lives versus establishing these good habits or these, um, habits that are gonna help us grow, help us be more productive.

[00:15:02] One of the things that I’ve, uh, started doing is if I know I’m looking at my day, I’ve set my big three, that’s established, and I know that, hey, this is gonna take a certain amount of focus, then I’m gonna have to mentally say, “I can’t allow myself to be distracted because it’s gonna break up the momentum of what I’m trying to do.”

[00:15:19] And then having, once that momentum is broken, then, you know, it takes a little bit of time to kinda get back into the flow of whatever the project is. And so, and I don’t, I don’t do this consistently as I probably need to, but normally when I know focus is definitely, uh, needed to accomplish something, then I’m shutting down a lot of the open windows that I have on my computer as far as the applications.

[00:15:42] So that’s Slack, that’s email I’ll just clear all of that stuff out of the way because I’m always gonna be tempted if I know if I have Slack open that something’s gonna pop through that I think I need to attend to or at least have, you know, kind of considered. But I’ll just send a message, uh, to our team in Slack and say, “Hey, I’m gonna be off the grid for a while.

[00:16:02] I’ll check back in at lunchtime, then I’ll check back in at the end of the day.” That way, you know, there’s nothing that they’re waiting on. There’s no expectation there, and that really helps me to also mentally make a mark that everybody knows, you know, what I’m do- I’ve, I’ve notified the team. Everybody knows what I’m doing, what I’m working on, where I’m at, so there’s no expectation there either.

[00:16:21] So I shut that down. I shut down email. Even my phone, I’ll just go take that and put it into another room somewhere so I’m not tempted to, you know, pick that up and, you know, enter into ano- another thread or a mode of work of some sort. So that’s been helpful for me just to maintain the focus that I need to kinda knock out whatever I’m trying to accomplish, uh, for that day that’s gonna just give me the momentum that I need.

[00:16:44] Blake: Yeah. I, I think, uh, a challenge sometimes with the habit thing is the, it’s like a delayed gratification, and y- the first time you do a habit it’s like, “All right. Sure. I guess that was fine.” And until the, it’s fully installed and it’s been running for a while, you may not see the fruits of it.

[00:17:04] Speaker 6: Sure.

[00:17:05] Blake: So that’s a challenge.

[00:17:07] I, I started making that point, Virbs, just now, and I don’t even know that I have, uh,

[00:17:12] Joel: Have

[00:17:13] Blake: a habit … a great way around it, you know, for people. Yeah. But I was just thinking like, what habits have I started to create? And I think the It’s such a different mindset from the accomplishment thing, because when we think about the accomplishments, we go, “Big 10X, big moves, let’s go fast and do it now.”

[00:17:28] Yeah. And habits, it’s the exact opposite. It’s what’s the smallest thing that if I were to do that just on autopilot for the next year-

[00:17:37] Joel: Mm-hmm …

[00:17:38] Blake: would, would probably, y- you know, like, have this compound interest, uh, in my professional life. A small thing that I started doing last year was just in my follow-up when I would have a, a sales call with somebody.

[00:17:53] Speaker 6: Mm-hmm.

[00:17:53] Blake: I would just… And I made it part of my workday startup ritual. I would look at the previous day, look at the calls I had, send them a message, connect on LinkedIn, and that was it. It, it did not take more than three minutes maximum probably in any given day. It also didn’t result in, like, a huge, uh, tidal wave of sales or something a week after doing it.

[00:18:17] Right. But sure enough, uh, the end of last year, I had quite a few people reach out to me and say, “Hey, you know, we talked about this a year ago,” or, “Hey, we talked about this four months ago.” Mm-hmm. “I’d like to open the conversation back up.” And they had my contact information. Like, it was easy for them. Yeah.

[00:18:35] They had seen me posting, right? It’s just- It’s like- … those small things, you gotta be patient with a habit.

[00:18:41] Verbs: Exactly. It’s like those habits are those small little variables that contribute to these little Easter eggs that you discover-

[00:18:48] Blake: Yeah. …

[00:18:49] Verbs: the rest of the year. It’s like, hey, I didn’t expect it, but it was there, and it was a pleasant surprise.

[00:18:53] But it was because you’ve established those little practices throughout, uh, throughout your process.

[00:19:12] All right, so category number two was habits. Moving to category number three, which is growth

[00:19:18] Blake: Growth. I love this habit. I love this habit. And I’ve got good news for you listening. You’ve already established a growth habit, which is you’ve downloaded our podcast and you’re listening to it. Maybe you’re on your way to work or something right now, and maybe when I’m yammering on about…

[00:19:34] Hey. Yeah, let’s give it up. Thanks, Nick. Let’s, let’s, let’s put the applause in for you. Maybe it doesn’t feel like professional growth when I’m yammering on about, uh, ’90s R&B music or some off- … topic thing, but it’s helpful. Sometimes I listen to… I’ll listen to a podcast or an audiobook, and it’s not even about the stuff that I got out of it that day.

[00:19:54] It’s just, it puts me in this mindset of growth. It puts me kind of in that- Hmm … head space of like, yeah, self-improvement. So what we’re talking about with this category is what would it look like for you to set a goal that wasn’t about a one-time accomplishment, wasn’t even a habit necessarily, but was specifically for you, an investment in the account of your skill set and the- Mm-hmm

[00:20:20] uh, of your professional development? And I, I said when you introduced this, I think this might be my favorite one. I get really excited about personal- Why is that? … growth and professional growth. Yeah. You know, you know why I think it is, is, Vurs, is that investing in your skills-

[00:20:40] Speaker 6: Mm-hmm …

[00:20:40] Blake: is, uh, a recession-proof investment So if I invest in real estate, uh, you know, real estate’s maybe a bad example ’cause it’s, it’s, you know, it’s, it’s one of the most secure typically, uh, investments that, that you could make.

[00:20:53] You know, where there’s not new land being invented, but, you know, the market can go up and down.

[00:20:59] Verbs: Crypto. You invest in crypto.

[00:21:01] Blake: Let’s go with that. Yeah, y- let’s say crypto. Right? If I buy an NFT of- … Michael Jordan dunking over Patrick Ewing, you know the one where he, like, starts going down the baseline and turns around and turns back around and dunks on Pat Ewing, like, that’s, that’s gotta be worth a million dollars.

[00:21:16] But let’s just say it takes a turn-

[00:21:17] Nick: Introducing, new Focus On This, NFTs.

[00:21:21] Verbs: So,

[00:21:21] Blake: yes. Oh, there it

[00:21:21] Verbs: is. Air horn

[00:21:22] Blake: right, right there, Nick. Why aren’t we doing this? Pause everything. Let’s… Wow. Uh, but investing in your skills is recession-proof.

[00:21:33] Speaker 6: Mm-hmm.

[00:21:33] Blake: I like the idea… Now I’m employed, uh, but, and, and I enjoy that, but I like the idea of creating almost, like, building equity or, or, or adding to this investment that can grow and grow and grow, and no one can really take that away.

[00:21:50] Right. Like, let’s say for instance, um, you know, you are, uh, working in, uh, accounting or something, but you’ve always wanted to get into marketing. You know, you could set a goal to say, “I’m gonna take a copywriting class- Sure … and just ’cause I’ve always wanted to do that.” Well, guess what? The skill of copywriting is going to pay off, um, all the time.

[00:22:15] Mm-hmm. E- even, even if you’re not even in the marketing role, but you can build on that. Or I think, uh, in sales, like I said, I’m in sales. Uh, investing in becoming better at sales, yes, it’s gonna help me now, but it’s also gonna help me for whatever other chapter of my life is gonna come. Like, that skill set is something that no one can take away from me.

[00:22:35] Right. So when you’re investing, if it’s a course, if it’s a book, if it’s a new area of study or just going deeper in your main skill set, it’s amazing because, uh, those types of goals, uh, are built and, and they compound in, in value over time.

[00:22:53] Verbs: Yeah, and I think I agree with you on this one. I think this is probably my favorite category as well.

[00:22:57] Uh, the one thing I love about our company is continuous growth is actually a value. Um, at our company. So when we come onto this team, we understand that this is how much this company, um, considers growth important because it’s an actual value. And so you kinda come on board it, on that. And not only that, but they’re creating opportunities for us to, providing resources for us to grow professionally in whatever areas that we kinda see we need to grow in for our specific, uh, roles that we play here.

[00:23:25] So I love that. But the fact of the matter is, you know, if we don’t grow, then we stay stagnant and we never g- we never go anywhere. I mean, whether it’s professional, whether it’s personal, I think any opportunities that we take to contribute to our own growth is gonna benefit not only just us as humans, but then also, uh, benefits any arenas that we kinda come in contact with, whether it just be relational and obviously professional as well.

[00:23:51] So the importance of, of taking on, uh, the opportunity, like you said, it might be a book, it might be a podcast, but it’s… What, what do, how did you describe it? You said it’s res- you’re, you’re recession-proofing yourself?

[00:24:03] Blake: Yeah. Uh-huh.

[00:24:04] Verbs: Yeah.

[00:24:05] Blake: You’re recession-proofing yourself.

[00:24:07] Verbs: So you’re doing that, and then you’re just, you’re, you’re making yourself more of a valuable asset to your team as well in a professional sense of, “Hey, you guys hired me ’cause, you know, you understood I had this skill set, but I also need, know that this needs to continue to grow while I’m here so I can stay a contributing member of our team and making sure that we’re offering our best creativity, our best ideas, our best innovation, because we’re continuing to upgrade our skill sets and taking, taking the time to do that.”

[00:24:33] Blake: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. This is, this is a great category because it is, uh, has guaranteed, I think, positive outcomes for you, really. Uh, even if you, uh, uh, you know, maybe it’s very direct. My sister is getting her master’s right now. She’s a-

[00:24:51] Joel: Mm-hmm …

[00:24:52] Blake: uh, a teacher. When she gets her master’s, she also will qualify to be paid more, right?

[00:24:58] So that’s a very clear and obvious direct connection to that professional growth goal that she has. But I’m telling you, even if you Even if it’s not that direct, I promise you, it will have, it will bring value to you.

[00:25:14] Verbs: Absolutely.

[00:25:15] Blake: And it can be as small as, “Hey, I’m gonna find a mentor in this area and just be with that person once a month,” or, “I’m going to, uh, go deep in a topic.

[00:25:26] I’m gonna look at Amazon and go, ‘What are the top 10 books on- Mm … sales? What are the top 10 books on, uh, management?” You know, conflict management or something like that, “And I’m going to read all of those this year.” Yeah. Just go deep in that topic. It’s w- it’s just guaranteed returns. And- Yeah … and don’t get, don’t get too worried, by the way, of, is this the right course?

[00:25:49] Is this the right book? Is this the right mentor? The way that growth is, it, it’s almost impossible. When you set the intention to grow, even if you choose the, quote, “not best path,” you still grow because it’s just a lesson you weren’t expecting to-

[00:26:01] Speaker 6: Absolutely …

[00:26:02] Blake: to learn, right? If you read a book and you kinda disagree with it, or you try a method and it didn’t work, guess what?

[00:26:07] That’s still growth. It’s still learning. So this one is a great category ’cause it’s hard to get it wrong, and when you get it right, it’s gonna bear results and, and fruit in your life- Yeah … uh, for years and years to come.

[00:26:19] Verbs: Blake, before we move to the next category, is there any professional goals that you have set maybe for this year, or maybe one that you recently completed?

[00:26:27] Blake: For professional growth?

[00:26:28] Verbs: Professional growth, yes.

[00:26:31] Blake: Yeah. Well, uh, last year, I, um… Th- this probably toed the line of, of professional and personal growth. Mm. Uh, it certainly helped me professionally. Uh, but I, I, I found this author in December of last year, um, and I, I really liked it. It was kind of this, um, j- just a book about, um, kinda the, the mental and emotional game of real productivity.

[00:26:58] Mm-hmm. Which, shocker, like, I was, I was attracted to that. I was into that. And I found out he had a coaching group, and so I signed up for the coaching group. Um, it’s not super high commitment, but I’ve had a number of conversations with him over the last year.

[00:27:13] Joel: Mm-hmm.

[00:27:13] Blake: Um, it was my best year ever, uh, in my life from a, inter- just in terms of, uh, you know, a, a professional standpoint, I would say.

[00:27:22] It was, it was one of my most successful ever, and financially my, my most successful ever. And e- e- even in other ways it was, it was really successful, and I would attribute that to just not overthinking it. Yeah. I, I got value out of the book. I took the next step to say, “Okay, I’m going to actually get some, some coaching really in this area,” and it was extremely, extremely helpful to me.

[00:27:50] Verbs: So that was category number three, growth. Moving to category number four, opportunities. Opportunities. This is probably one also that people, uh, enjoy the most because there’s a newness to it. There’s a fresh effect, as we talked about a couple episodes ago, about a newness of a possible opportunity or possible new adventure that could be ahead of us, but then kind of setting a goal around it.

[00:28:15] And, um, the interesting thing, I think, just over the last couple years that we’ve seen is people seeking new career opportunities because of what’s been going on with shutdowns and pandemics and all these things, is they said, “Hey, you know what? I actually don’t enjoy doing what I’m doing as much as I thought I did, and this is a perfect time- Mm-hmm

[00:28:35] for me to seek out a new opportunity.” I don’t know if you have any thoughts around this, Blake, but, or have seen it just in some of the calls that you, uh, have with, um, with business owners and how that’s, these opportunities have impacted either negatively or in a positive way. But just, uh, any, any thoughts you have on goals with opportunities, uh, specifically in new professional careers and those sorts of things.

[00:28:59] Blake: Mm-hmm. I love that we’re talking about this category last because in a lot of ways, it is an outcome category of successfully pursuing the other three categories of professional goals, right? Hmm. You, you-

[00:29:13] Verbs: I see what you did …

[00:29:14] Blake: reach certain achievements. You establish great habits and, and build longer term wins for yourself.

[00:29:20] You’ve invested in your personal growth. You’ve increased your value to your employer and in the- Yeah … marketplace. And category four is opportunities. If, if you try to pursue I think a lot of these types of opportunity, “Hey, let’s, you know, grass is greener over there” type of goals without- Mm-hmm … paying attention first to the other three, it might be tough sledding.

[00:29:45] But let’s just assume that, yeah, you’ve- You’ve got aspirations. I think one win for having goals in this category, Virbs, is hope. Mm-hmm. Maybe you find yourself in a challenging work environment. Yeah, “Ugh, I don’t like…” You know, you’re, you’re driving to work right now and you’re, and you’re kinda dreading it.

[00:30:05] Um, having a goal for opportunities can spark hope, and the cool thing about hope is that it doesn’t… Hope is not very tidy. It doesn’t stay in its lane. It bleeds into other areas of your life in a very awesome way.

[00:30:22] Verbs: Right.

[00:30:22] Blake: So maybe the opportunity is just, “Hey, I’m going to…” Let’s say you want to change jobs, ch- change companies or something like that.

[00:30:31] “I’m going to start, uh, making, building connections with people at this company or, or at, at a handful of companies. I’m gonna write a list of my top 10 dream companies to work for, and I’m just, every day just going to, before I go to work, I’m gonna reach out, send an email, read about that company, do something in that direction.”

[00:30:51] Speaker 6: Mm-hmm.

[00:30:51] Blake: You will naturally find yourself in a better mood and, and having more energy because you’re having hope. You’re cultivating- Sure … hope for a better future. And then when you’re at your current job that you don’t like, people are gonna be like, “Hey, why are you so happy?” And it’s like, ” ‘Cause I’m getting out of this joint.”

[00:31:08] Well, you probably wouldn’t say that. I’ve plotted an escape route. But, but have you experienced that, Virbs, where it… And maybe it’s not about leaving your job, but even just those, “Hey, it’s not here yet, but I’m going to sow into new opportunities”- Absolutely … can give you, can spark that hope and that energy where you’re at in your

[00:31:23] Verbs: present.

[00:31:23] Absolutely. And I think you’re right, it’s just, just allowing that hope to kinda break through, um, and let- allowing your mind to shift into what is possible. Like you said, if somebody’s driving in the car, they’re already dreading to get to their work situation today, then you’re already starting to feel stuck, and you’ve kind of shut down what could possibly be.

[00:31:43] And so just getting that exercise of, like you said, letting that hope out, exercise that hope a little bit. What is, what could be possible beyond where you are currently? Um, this is just a, a quick example. This is many years ago. I was 19 years old, moving to Nashville to kind of establish myself in the music industry, and there were jobs that I would have to take on just to, you know, sustain myself until I could get to that point.

[00:32:07] But the one thing that I remember back then was there was opportunity that I had moved here for, that was totally possible, and whatever I had to do in the moment, whatever job I had to take on, the thing that kept me from being discouraged or the monotony of the day-to-day of what I was doing at that time was the fact that there was hope outside of that, that I knew I could get to if I just established and worked the plan.

[00:32:31] So yeah, I think what you’re saying is, man, just allowing that hope to kind of bubble up and, and see where it takes you through these small little steps that you could do, whether it’s sending an email, whether it’s hopping on LinkedIn, whether it’s starting a conversation, is gonna be helpful.

[00:32:43] Blake: Yeah, I know if Courtney was here, maybe she would share her own story in this, which she had a, an opportunity goal to become an executive, to, to be able to be at that, uh, chief marketing officer level.

[00:32:59] Joel: Mm-hmm.

[00:33:00] Blake: And y- you know, maybe that feels impossible. I know when she had written that down, it was like you know, obviously she’s not shown that or, you know, to everyone on the, on the team or something like that.

[00:33:10] Joel: Mm-hmm.

[00:33:10] Blake: But it was a goal, and it was exciting to her, and the ef- the effect that that has, maybe it, that opportunity seems far away or it seems impossible, or you wanna ascend in your own company, but you can’t see a path because, well, so-and-so is there and they’re, they’re doing a great job, and I don’t wish them to, to not have what they want.

[00:33:28] But by writing that down and cultivating that hope and that excitement- Mm-hmm … I know for Courtney, what that resulted in was she crushed it in her current role. So I, I think that’s the effect that you’re looking for. When you set an opportunity goal, you start to then go, “Okay, if I wanna end up there or end up at a new position or a higher level or a different industry,” whatever it is, the power of setting a goal in that direction is that you can then dial it back to today.

[00:33:56] So then how then do I conduct myself today? And, and that is, uh, a topic for another podcast, right? How to connect all the dots to your goal. But if you need some energy and some excitement and some hope, I encourage you to set a goal in this category of opportunities.

[00:34:17] Verbs: So the good news is you don’t have to settle for a professional low or remain stagnant in your career. You can pursue professional goals through project-oriented accomplishments, instilling habits, being intentional about growth, and remaining open to new opportunities. Blake, any final thoughts for our Focus On This listeners?

[00:34:37] Blake: Verbs, do you have a final thought?

[00:34:39] Verbs: You know what? I don’t, but I would like to kind of refer back to what you said earlier when we talked about the opportunities and just how-

[00:34:48] Blake: Mm …

[00:34:49] Verbs: uh, you mentioned if you’re not doing those other three ca- categories as far as accomplishments, uh, tackling the habits, and committing to growth, that you’re not necessarily setting yourself up for an opportunity when or whenever that may come.

[00:35:02] Um, it may be, you know, this year, it could be two years down the road, but just getting into the flow of really committing to growing professionally in whatever ways that you can and, and taking those, those opportunities or those moments now is really gonna help you, uh, prepare yourself for an opportunity change, again, when it, when it comes down the pipe.

[00:35:23] Blake: Absolutely. Verbs, we did it. People at, at the top of this episode, they’re like, “Well, Courtney’s not here. I wonder how this is gonna go.” Should I listen? “Should I even listen to it?” Should I continue? Uh, we made it. Uh, thank you very much for listening to Focus On This. Uh, it’s an honor to be in your headphones today, uh, or through your car speakers.

[00:35:45] You know what they say, Verbs, people, the kids on the street, they’re, they keep saying this is the most productive podcast on the internet, you know? I hear it. I, I, I’ve heard the scuttlebutt.

[00:35:56] Nick: The what? The kids also say scuttlebutt, so…

[00:36:00] Blake: Yeah, they, they definitely, they definitely say that.

[00:36:06] Verbs: Um, yes, it’s definitely, uh, the most productive podcast.

[00:36:08] Blake: This is why I don’t try to take your line. This is your part.

[00:36:12] Verbs: Now I’m totally thrown off just from the scuttlebutt mention, but- Uh, but it is true, the streets are talking. This is the most productive podcast on the internet. So make sure you take an opportunity and share it with your friends. Also, hop into that Full Focus Planner community right there on Facebook, and we’ll be here next week with another great episode.

[00:36:32] So until then, stay focused.