Your Career Journey

Unlocking Your Potential with Goal Setting | Insights from Keith Abraham

• Emma Graham

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In this episode, I’m joined by Keith Abraham, a globally recognised speaker, author, and one of the most passionate voices on goal setting you’ll ever come across.

Keith shares his unconventional path from leaving school early to building a successful career helping leaders and teams achieve clarity, focus, and meaningful momentum.

So what really sits behind effective goal setting?

 ✨ Creating emotional and mental connection to your goals
 ✨ Getting specific (much more specific than you think!)
 ✨ Building the right habits and support systems
 ✨ And choosing a mindset that actually helps you move forward

Keith breaks down his ‘how formula’, offers practical tools you can start using straight away, and shares powerful stories from his own journey that will leave you feeling inspired and ready to take action.

If you want clearer direction, stronger confidence, or a way to bring your next chapter to life, this episode is full of insight and encouragement.

To connect with Keith:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithabraham/
Website: keithabraham.com
Tools: https://mygoaldriver.com/

Can you also find episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EmmaGrahamCareerCoach/videos

Your host, Emma Graham, Career Coach and ex-recruiter, is here to help you with:

💡 Gain clarity on what’s important to you
💡 Confidently communicate your value
💡 Build a personal brand and a strong network
💡 Take a strategic approach to your next move
💡 Navigate the job market effectively
💡 Build career confidence with a repeatable success blueprint

🌐 Explore my coaching programs and free resources:
Website: https://www.egconsulting.au/
LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/emmajgraham
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emmagrahamcareercoach/

🎁 Free Resources:
📄 CV Development Guide: https://www.egconsulting.au/cv-advice
📄 LinkedIn Profile Optimisation Guide: https://www.egconsulting.au/linkedin-profile-guide

📅 Book Your FREE Career Strategy Discovery Call:
https://calendly.com/emmagrahamconsulting/discovery-call

Emma:

Hello and welcome to Your Career Journey, the podcast designed to be your compass through the twists and turns of career development. Today I'm joined by Keith Abraham, Global Speaker, Author, and Goal Setting and Goal Achievement Expert. Want to know how to set better, more meaningful goals and actually achieve them? Keith shares the mental and emotional foundations that make goals stick, as well as his formula for achieving what matters. So I am joined today by Keith. Keith Abram, welcome.

Keith:

Thanks, Emma. Great to be with you.

Emma:

Thank you. Great to be with you too. I'm really looking forward to this one. And as my my final guest of the year, I think this is a great topic to be to be rounding out the year on and looking forward to next year. So really interested to get into it with you. But before we start talking about goal setting and the framework to be doing that with more impact, I'd love to understand a little bit more about your own career history, Keith, and your own career journey and how you came to be traveling the world, helping people to set better goals and have greater impact.

Keith:

Well, on a traditional career path, I not really. Yeah, I wasn't very good at school. In actual fact, I dropped out of school in year 10 and I went and got a job with a guy called Klaus. He was a six foot four German bricklayer. He was a man mountain, blonde peroxide head, flat top, spoke very little English, but what he would yell at me continuously is, yeah, more mud, which means go and get more cement, go and get more bricks. And so I did that for about six weeks until I got to know Klaus really well. And I found out that back in Germany, Klaus held the German record for laying the most amount of bricks in a day. And so I all of a sudden realized that this was not the guy I needed to work for. I needed to work from probably the slowest guy from Germany, not the fastest guy. And I tell I took the easy road and I went back to school. And I repeated year 10, did year 11, got through year 12, and you know, halfway through year 12, my mum came to me and she said, Son, you and I got to have a talk. And you know when your mum has that type of, you know, that type of language and that emphasis, you go, This is not going to be good. And so she sat down with me and she said, Look, I haven't seen a report card. I've never seen you do homework, I have never seen you read a book. And she said, I don't think school's for you. And she said, What do you want to do? And I said, I don't know. And my mum, probably like your mum and everybody listening to this podcast, true problem solvers. And so she said, I'll get you a job. And now my mum worked for the local council on the Gold Coast, and she had the prestigious, she had the role of, I suppose you can call it Grafton Corruption, Emma, you know, not at the highest level, but she she was a tea lady. And so what she'd do is she would walk around in the morning with the two urns on her trolley and give people tea or coffee and a couple of biscuits. And so she knew everybody in the council. And so she asked people, you know, have we got a job for my son?

Emma:

Yeah.

Keith:

And if somebody said no, you know, they they didn't get tea and coffee for a week. And if somebody said yes, you know, they got Tim Tams on a Friday. So it was and so I started my work with the city. In court motivation in in local government. I started in water supply and sewage, but I was motivated to get out of sewage and I worked my way up to the prestigious position of noxious weed inspector. And I used to travel down the Gold Coast Highway at 60 kilomet, you know, 60 miles an hour, 100 kilometres an hour, looking for noxious weeds and didn't find too many. And uh my boss came to me one day and he said, We'd like you to go on a week-long leadership program. And you've got to understand that I didn't think I was a leader until he said to me, You get a week off work with full pay. I thought, you know what, maybe I am a leader and I don't know it. And so, you know, that that was when I got first introduced to goal setting at 24 years of age. And I just said, There's got to be something more than doing what I'm doing. And I just started developing myself and uh reading books and going to seminars and and doing workshops, and and my next role was an operations manager for a security business, and uh, you know, we grew that from four people to 20 people in about you know 20 months, and and then I on the Gold Coast, and I decided to move to Brisbane and I looked after a couple of donut stores and then got a job working for an organization called Radio Rentals, and I was their Brisbane area manager. I looked after nine stores, about 65 staff, and about 25,000 customers and a $15 million budget. And that was my first real sort of, you know, you know, that was my first serious, you know, corporate role. And then from there, I I sort of really sat down and I went, you know, I they sort of said to me, Look, you're going great. We're gonna ch restructure things. We've got a role for you in Sydney. And I really sat down and I went, you know, is this what I want to do? Because I, you know, originally at the leadership programs, I want to be a CEO of a company. That's what I want to do. And I realised that I just love developing people. So I ran a uh youth development program for for corporate companies where they sent us their emerging leaders and we'd take them out in the bush for a week. And and that's when Suncorp approached me to come and work for them and and still run that program. And uh and I did that for about six years until I decided that I'd like to be a professional speaker. So I'd done management, I'd done training, and I thought, you know, and I I had a couple of my people that approached me and said, Oh, could you run a workshop for us, you know, on a weekend? And I said, Yeah, I'd love to, no worries. And they said, Oh, we want to pay you. And that's what I you know, and didn't know what to charge, you know, didn't know what to do. I started out, you know, charging uh, you know, my first job was a thousand dollars for the day. And and the only reason why I, you know, pulled that number out of my, you know, out of mid-air was we had consultants in at Suncorp at the time that were charging fifteen hundred dollars a night, and I thought I've got to be half as good as them. And then my fast, you know, the fast food industry kicked in and said, Well, it's all about the upsell. So I said, I'm gonna do the one day, I'm gonna actually do a 30-day follow-up, and that's gonna be the thousand dollars. And and they say, Okay. And they said, What else can you do for us? And that started me on a journey. I I went home to my wife and I said, you know what? I might, I might do this. I might give this a go. We didn't have kids, we had a mortgage, we didn't have kids, and uh I thought, what's the worst thing they can do is I'll go and get a real job. Well, I haven't had a yeah, I haven't had a real job in the last 30 years.

Emma:

It's it it's such a quite a counterintuitive question, I think. But what's the worst that can happen? I think is actually a great question to ask in those scenarios, because you know, often once you kind of name the fears, once you kind of go, well, you know, actually the worst thing that can happen is that maybe it doesn't work and maybe I come back and as you say, get a quote unquote real job, and and neither of those things are that bad. And also, what if it does work? Like, what might that look like? You know, what amazing things.

Keith:

Here's what it's looked like, you know, you know, for me, yeah, you know, Hall of Fame speaker, best-selling author of five books, just about released my sixth one in March next year. Spoken to 1.7 million people in 43 different countries and have been, you know, successfully, you know, I've you know, I've spoken to audiences as lar as large as 10,000 people and as small as six. I flew to Mexico City uh a couple of years ago, 2019, to speak to 16 people because they asked, you know, for that I was an authority in in this area of you know business growth and goal setting. And but the the the 16 CEOs that were in the room, I was the only person that f flew in on commercial aircraft, everyone else flew in on private, and everyone else flew in with security. And I just just jumped on a plane and turned up in Mexico City.

Emma:

That sounds like a fascinating room to be in.

Keith:

Oh, it's a good it was a great room to be in, you know, you know, billi billion-dollar, you know, like a few billion-dollar companies in the room. And so, and and I go, gee, we're he's just a little old, uneducated, noxious weed inspector from the Gold Coast. So that's been the journey so far.

Emma:

Great story, man. And I love it.

Keith:

And you know what, Evan? I'm just getting started. I'm just getting started. So and I I I love what you said there before about that question. You know, I I think a lot of us or a lot of people don't ask the question around, you know, uh, I think we always need perspective. And so, you know, what's the best thing that can happen? What's the worst thing that can happen? What's the most likely thing that's gonna happen? You know, often we we look at things and we we look at it from what this is gonna be fantastic, this is gonna be the best thing since sliced bread, or we look at it, oh, you know, that I don't know if I can do this. And I I just think you have to give yourself perspective.

Emma:

I totally agree. I think it's one of the actually probably one of the most important things, and and that sort of context, I guess, as well, around around perspective. And as I said, I think it's almost quite a counterintuitive question, but I think we tend to shy away from asking it or and I think when you do that, the potential fears grow. They they can kind of take on a life of their own. Whereas if you actually kind of bring them into the light, as it were, and and name them and look at them and go, that thing's actually not that bad. And if that is the worst case scenario and that happened, what would I do? Well, I'd do X, Y, and Z. Well, well, that's okay. That that no longer feels like such a huge risk because I've I've kind of thought through it and got a bit more clarity on on what it may or may not look like. Goal setting, Keith. Simple, simple thing, goal setting sounds so easy. Talk me, talk me through it, talk me through your approach. And also I think perhaps sounds a slightly silly question to ask, but why is it so important? Like, why does it matter that we that we get it right?

Keith:

Well, well, firstly, the thing that I've built my whole you know career around has been how do we the the one question that I've asked continuously is how do we help people set and achieve goals faster, easier, sooner? Because what what's the opposite of that? Slower, harder, never. And so the the real key around it is not so much goal setting, but goal achievement. And if you're gonna achieve any type of goal, firstly, just some some methodology around this. If you're gonna achieve any type of goal, you need to have an emotional, a mental, and a physical connection. So see, most people, Emma, they just go, Oh, my goal is X, and I need to do this to achieve it. And and I sort of come from a different approach. I I use what's called a how formula. And and lots of people, you know, you know, or you, you know, you should start with why. And and my thought around this is don't start with why. Why's too hard. You know, for you to find your why in your life is you've got to go and sit on a rock in the middle of rainforest for two weeks to work it out. Yeah. But but I can ask you right now, you know, let's talk about your career. So if you're listening to this, you're watching this podcast, and I'm saying in 2026, how do you want to feel about your career? Of the 135 different emotions you and I can experience as adults, 64 of them are positive. Of the 64, they break down to what I call eight goal drivers. People want to feel successful, people want to feel purposeful, people want to feel inspired, people want to feel happy, people want to feel organized, people want to feel respected, people want to feel confident, and people want to feel relaxed. So if I say to you, or if you're listening to this, of those eight, how do you want to feel? Oh, Keith, I want to feel, I want to feel purposeful. Great, fantastic. What do you need to achieve in your career in 2026 for you to feel purposeful? And that's the goal that you should pursue. And it should be a big, bold goal. It should be a goal that is year-defining. It should be that catalyst for something that's bigger, better, and you know, for you. Which means you're probably gonna have to be braver, you probably have to be gonna have to be bolder, you probably have to be better to accomplish it. And so now you know how you want to feel, what you want to achieve. Now you ask yourself the question, why is this goal so important for me to achieve? So I feel that emotion. And you need at least five reasons why. Because unless you've got enough reasons why, any excuse will do. Too hot, too cold, too many, too few, too little, too much, too hard, too easy. And any excuse will do. And so once you've done that and you've dug deep and you found the real reason, why it's important, why it matters, why it's gonna make a difference to you and to the people who mean the world to you, then you ask the final question, which is who? Who can help you achieve this goal? Because who's accelerate accomplishment. When you uh tap into, when you humble yourself enough to, you know, read the book or to find the talk to the mentor or to listen to the podcast or to watch the YouTube tutorial, all of those are who's. You and I are who to somebody listening to this, watching this today. You and I are who. And so when you combined those three components, what happens is you start to become committed, compelled, and connected to that goal. And when you are committed, compelled, and connected to that goal, you will do the uncomfortable, the inconvenient, and the unknown. Because that's the the that's the the chasm you have to go through to get what you want. And on the other side of every goal is abundance. Is because if you think of it, a goal gives you more of something. That's abundance. So whatever you want more of in your life, what's the goal that will precede that? And so that's the formula I teach people. And depending on, you know, how long a time I have with them, that can be a four-part formula, it can be a six-part, or it can be a nine-part. And we've used that process with billion-dollar businesses and with sporting, you know, professional sports people and people who are trying to be professional sports people and and you know, and organizations and sales teams, you know, all around the globe. And that's you know, that's the that's you know, my take on on goal setting. You know, the the whole, you know, the whole smart goals just doesn't work because it doesn't have an emotional connection to it.

Emma:

So you know, this this is Yeah, that's the bit that's the bit that really resonated for me, that that emotional component as you were saying it, that was the kind of the the light bulb, if you like, of that sort of moment of ah, that's why some things, like you said, you'll walk through fire to achieve, and others you're like, maybe not. It's not that important to me. And and that's as you said it, I was like, ah, that's actually what it's coming down to. It's the the ones that you've got that emotional connection to that you will do the uncomfortable. I forgot the other two that you said.

Keith:

The uncomfortable, the inconvenient, and the unknown, you know, like that that's what you have to walk through to get, you know, the the the goal that you want. And and you've got to build, you've got to build an emotional connection to it because that that will you know help sustain you through the through the difficult, you know, through through the the things that you have to do to be able to accomplish that goal. And so, you know, when I when I talk to people, you know, if if we really are thinking about how people accomplish infinite possibilities, then you have to you have to create unstoppable velocity. That's your drivers, that's your emotional connection. You you have to have, you know, un you know, you have to have a mindset that there is a l unlimited abundance for you. And and and that's really about making sure that you are really crystal clear on what you really want more of in your life. And then what are the goals that precede that? And then of course you think about having unwavering determination because setting the goal and writing it out and everything like that, that's all great. But then the one thing I do know is that as soon as you set a goal that's important to you, you the universe is a funny way of saying, Are you serious? And and that's the test, you know, it's the it's the classic. You know, I'm I'm I'm gonna shed a few kilos, you know, I'm gonna start Monday morning. That's Monday morning, it's raining, you know, Monday morning, you know, I you know, I and then I, you know, what I'm gonna eat healthy, and that's the day somebody has their birthday at work and they bring in cake. Yeah, you know, and so you, you know, it's the universe saying, Are you serious?

Emma:

So true.

Keith:

You know, let's just give you a bit of a test.

Emma:

I'm I'm yeah, I'm laughing as you say it, because it's so true. I can think of so many, so many examples of that. Yeah. I'm really interested, Keith, when you take people through this process and and you talk about that emotional component and and you've sort of started with, okay, what's the what's the big goal? And and then you go to that, what emotion do you want to feel? Do people find that question quite easy to answer? Do people find that quite hard to answer?

Keith:

See the the emotional side. So if I say to you, tell me what your purpose is, oh geez, I'm I don't know, sure. I have to think about that. But I would say to you, well, how do you want to feel? Yeah, pick any area of your life, pick your health, pick your relationships, pick your career, pick your, you know, pick your you know, pick the connection with family, p pick any area of your life. And I say, well, how do you want to feel? And people go, Oh, I want to feel successful in this area, I want to feel happy. I mean, it it is it is a less than a 20 second response to the question. It might be a little bit longer in an answer, it could be well, I want to feel happy and I also want to feel successful. Okay, okay. And then you and then you say, Okay, now that you know that, tell me what do you think you have to achieve to feel that? Wow, I Well, I I I'd I'd have to be, you know, I'd I'd have to hit my target at work. Okay, great. Well, what so so what you've just told me is, you know, I think there's four types of goals you're gonna set, by the way. You're gonna you're gonna set a vague goal, sorry, a vague goal, a fuzzy goal, a specific goal or a detailed goal. And so the the the vague goal is I I sort of I I I need to achieve in my career. What does that mean? Yeah, or people go, well it's a fuzzy goal. I think I need to I think I need to be able to do this, or it could be it could be this. And it's so it's a bit fuzzy. And people tend to stop at a specific goal. Oh, I hit I need to hit my number by the 30th of June, and and I need to, you know, I need to be able to accomplish this and deliver on this project. And and I mean that's pretty specific. But but the difference between a specific goal and a detailed goal is that the detailed goal is the story. It's a story that that you read to yourself, that crystallizes your intention, it uplifts your frequency, and it creates this vibration of accomplishment. And and what that really starts to do for you is it just builds up a a head of momentum and and more importantly, belief that this is this is accomplished, I can accomplish this. And that detailed story could be I will be the number one salesperson in my organization. I will achieve that by hitting, not only I will achieve that by hitting my target one and a half months prior to my deadline, which will give me the opportunity to do either a plus five or a plus ten more of my budget. I'll be recognized at our national conference as an outstanding sales leader, and I'll receive this bonus from my organization. But on top of that, I will be I'll be the person that will be able to share these insights with colleagues around the country and will be looked upon as a go-to person for working with high-valued clients moving forward. And for this, I will be able to, with the bonus and the accomplishment, I'll be able to celebrate with my family on a trip to Fiji where I'll reset what I need to do differently to be able to move forward because I have spent this year working on better relationship skills, utilizing AI to assist me with my back-end admin, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I build a story. That's detailed.

Emma:

So much more powerful. Yeah, even just listening to it. You can, there's there's texture to it, you can you can feel it actually, but you can get a real sense of of what that looks like in the real world. Yes. Yeah.

Keith:

Yeah. And so this is the these are the small distinctions, Emma. You know, people go, Oh, I don't seem to be able to achieve my goals. Well, you're probably not using this formula. And understand this, you know, I've spent the last 30 years researching and and studying what and using myself as the guinea pig on what do we need to do differently to accomplish our goals? Because, you know, I you know, I'm, you know, befuddled when I sit down and I look at and I talk to people and they're smart and they're intelligent and they're, you know, they've got everything going for them, and they're not achieving. Why is that? Well, it's not because they're not doing the work, or it's not because they're not smart enough. It's because they don't have the connection to the goal. You have to build a relationship with your goal. That's why you you write, you know, you have to have a detailed goal that you that you read, you know, that you that you build a relationship with.

Emma:

When when you're having these types of conversations, and uh I think back to to something you said at the beginning there around having that kind of abundance mindset, that that sense of anything is possible, I can achieve big big things, probably bigger things than you ever ever realize. How how does that message land sometimes? Is there can there be sort of inbuilt blockers for people where they hear that message and think, oh, I'm not sure that that's for me? 100%. Can I actually do that?

Keith:

Yeah, well, the blocker is belief. See, you you know, you can't outdream your self-esteem. If you don't think you're worthy, deserving, capable, or you won't pursue it. So, well, do I need to build my self-esteem before I go for the goal? Do I need to go for the goal to build my self-esteem? Well, well, the one thing we do know is you set a result, you take action, you get a result, and your belief is built, which means you set better goals, you get take better action, you get better results, you have better belief. And this is this this spirals upwards. And the the what always holds most people back is belief. And the belief is: am I worthy? Am I deserving? Am I capable? Am I good enough? And and what we have to change is our internal dialogue, Emma. We have to move from am I to I am. See, when you when the little voice in the back of your head goes, you know, am I good enough to be able to achieve that? Am I am I capable enough of that? We have to choose the am I to I am. Because what would happen if you started saying to yourself, well, I am good enough, I am worthy, I am deserving, I am capable. We move from questioning ourselves, and questioning builds doubt to affirming ourselves, and affirming builds belief. And so we get people to not just talk themselves into it, but we get them to take that action that then starts to go, well, you know what, I I could do this. And the the the best way to build con you know self-confidence, self-belief, self-love, self-esteem, the best way to do that is to is to feel like you are moving towards what you want and moving away from what you don't want. And and and and also to pick a mindset. You know, lots of people, you know, go, oh, I just need to be positive. Well, you know, I've been now doing this for 30 years, and another 10 years before that, you know, reading books and going to seminars and stuff like that, and people saying you've got to be positive. Well, be positive is a blood type. It's not a mindset. You know, you it this is about you, this is about you picking a mindset. And if you're listening or watching this, for the next 30 days, pick a mindset. It could be that you're courageous. What why should I have a mindset of courage? Because it takes courage to change. See, we often think of courage as the person who does something that's brave, you know. But what we need to do is we need to be brave enough to do something different. Or it could be tenacity. You know, you have a tenacious mindset. In other words, you just have a mindset, I don't have to finish first, I just have to finish. You know, I think my only superpower is that I am more tenacious than most people. That's how that's how come on I've had longevity in my career, because I've I'm I'm tenacious. I I hang in there, I just hang in there, hang in there, hang in there, hang in there. But it could be that you, what if you had a mindset that you're unlimited? I've got unlimited opportunities, I have unlimited energy to take advantage of. Well, what would happen if you had a if you had greater self-love, if you're no longer your harshest critic, your worst enemy, but all of a sudden you became your super coach, you become your greatest cheerleader. And what would happen in your life? What would happen in your life if you if you were empowered? If you're no longer waiting for someone to give you permission to step into your potential, you were no longer waiting for the pat on the back from somebody to say you could do it. What if you did that for yourself? And what if you had a mindset of of gratitude? Still, I think it's really easy to be grateful when everything is great. But you have to be grateful when it's crappy. Because when you find the gratitude in the disappointment or the or when it all goes pear-shaped, that's where you learn. And if you can find the learning, you can move on from the disappointment. You can move on from feeling like you were shafted or or whatever it was. You know, how many people do you know, Emma, or for people listening, that are still bitter and twisted about something that happened 10 years ago. They've never moved on from it. And that whole scenario situation still owns them because they haven't learnt from it. I'm not saying this is not about forgiveness. You don't have to forgive that person who did the wrong thing by your, but but you have to find the learning so you can move on from it. And and so the the mindsets I've just talked about there, what I'd say to people is pick one of them and for the next 30 days, from the soles of your feet to the top of your head and every cell in your body, be that mindset. And if you were, what would happen? How would you turn up? How would you walk? How would you talk? How would you think? What would you say to yourself? What would you say to us if you were empowered or had greater self-love or were courageous or tenacious? How would you turn up? So the thing I'd say to people is pick a mindset.

Emma:

The the thing I particularly love about that and and and really resonates as well is that you've got a choice there. Like just because it is a certain way, or you're built a certain way, or your mind runs a certain way, doesn't mean that that's how it has to be going forward. That you you've got a choice. You can choose to do something differently, you can choose to ignore that critical voice in your head, or reframe that critical voice in your head, or change the words that that voice uses as you said, I am instead of am I, or and and you have that ability, you have that power, if you like, to make those choices for yourself.

Keith:

Everybody's got a choice. I I think you know, people go, Oh, there's nothing to be grateful for. Yeah, yeah, there is. You can be grateful because you have choices. You know, there was something about a month or so went pear-shaped with us, and and we were, you know, talking about it, and we're going, This is, you know, shit. You know, this is, you know. But then we went, hold it, hold it, hold it. What are we grateful for here? Well, we're grateful because we've got other options. You know, if you feel like you've never got another option or you've got another choice, well, then you're gonna be pretty, but you've always got another choice or another option. And sometimes you just have to take a step back so you can see that, so you can move forward, you know, towards it. So, you know, I I just you know, you know, you know, part of this process is that if you want to develop your determination to be able to, you know, apply the right mindset and everything like that, just think of three things. Have monofocus, you know, starve your distractions, feed your focus. Um, the second is make sure you have micro wins. Micro wins are the little habits every day. I I feel great because I've already I've already took ticked a couple of things off my you know schedule already. You know, I feel, you know, the habits that I have, and and I just I look at habits and I go, what are the habits that'll give me that will have a sense of accomplishment, but help me be joyful, help me be, you know, in a position where I feel like I've accomplished already. And so, you know, you need those micro wins, those, you know, daily habits, because people, you know, people create, you know, people create habits and habits form futures. So, so really getting clear on that. And then, of course, what's the momentum mindset? You know, what's the what's the mindset you of those six I just shared with you? What do you need to do? You know, what mindset do you need to focus on? And when you accomplish the the momentum mindset and the the micro wins, and then that mono focus of what's the one thing I need to focus on, what's the one thing I'll then need to let go of? Then all of a sudden you you you accelerate yourself towards what's important, what matters, and what's going to make a difference to you and to the people who mean the world to you. So you can be the best version of yourself, not the second best version of somebody else.

Emma:

Yeah, very, very true. Is that the best place to start, Keith, with those with those sorts of daily habits? I'm just thinking, you know, someone who's listening or or watching this and and what you've said's really resonated, it's really hit home from the for them, and they're thinking, yeah, absolutely. I I want to take more control if you like. I I want to make those choices for myself and want to move towards, you know, X, Y, and Z goals. Where where do they start? Like what are the first things they should they should do?

Keith:

Well, well, I think you've got to start with how you want to feel. And so it's because if you say to yourself, and this is where we complete the loop, Emma, because if you go, well, I want to feel successful, great. What's a daily habit you need to do for you to feel successful? I want to feel I want to feel happy, great. What's a daily habit that you need to do so that you feel happy about who you are, what you do, and how you do it? I want to feel purposeful, great. What's the daily, you know? So it comes back to that. But where I'd where I'd start is I'd go big picture. I'd I'd get people to start writing down a list of a hundred things they want to do in their life. And if for those people, if you want to go to my website, keithabraham.com, if you go to resources, there's some there's the worksheet, actually. Oh, I could never write down a hundred things I want to do in my life. Oh, yes, you can. Because all I have to do is ask you 25 questions. Because if I ask you 25 questions, you'll come up with four answers. But in reality, you'll I'll ask you 25 questions. Some of the questions you'll write down nothing, and others you'll write down 10 answers. And so I'd start there, I'd start with a big picture. Then I'd then I'd come to thinking about right, what do I want to accomplish in 2026? How do how do I, and and go through the four areas of your life? Personal, professional, physical, you know, profitable, sticking with all the Ps. And that's I'm not a company key, no, personal profitability. You know, what you want to say, what you want to invest in, what you want to, you know, what you want to, you know, uh purchase. And and then I just, so then once I pick that area, then I just go through that how formula and go, how do I want to feel professionally? How do I want to feel personally? How do I want to feel, you know, physically, how do I want to feel, you know, about my finances? And and don't be surprised if it's the similar type of emotion in, you know, two or three out of the four. And if you if you're not quite sure how you want to feel, you can always go to another one of my websites, mygolddriver.com, and you can do a little diagnostic tool there that will actually tell you what your emotional driver is to the to the area of your life that you want to focus on. And uh pretty, you know, about 90% accurate. So it's really up there from an accuracy point of view. And uh you can do that for free. And then and then I just I'd then just go and say, okay, what's the one goal that I need to achieve professionally? What's the one goal I need to feel, you know? And and once you've looked at those goals, then sort of just go back through and go, you know, why is that goal important to me? And then who can help me achieve it? And just just start there. Because out of that, you'll go, okay. And then, you know, from there you go, okay, so if I if I want to feel successful, and this is the goal I want to achieve, well, what do I need to feel? What do I need to do every day to, or at least five out of seven days, or four out of seven days, or seven out of seven days, what do I need to do to feel to feel that emotion? And that's where, you know, that's where people should start.

Emma:

Do you think the sort of annual approach? I mean, I said it at the top of the episode, didn't I, about you know, coming to the end of the year and invariably we all start thinking about what do I want to achieve next year or what do I want next year to look like? How do I want to feel about next year? Is that actually useful using that sort of annualized approach? Do you think it's the best way of doing that?

Keith:

I tend to, so I what I tend to do is is obviously have, you know, I've got long-term goals, I have, you know, yearly goals. But then what what I tend to do then, Emma, is my my planning process is I tend to work in threes. And so every day, what are the three things I need to accomplish? Oh, Keith, you know, I got 23 things I need to accomplish every day. Well, but what are the first three? Because you're never going to do all 23 unless you do the first three. So I I tend to, you know, the the night before workout, the the three I need to do the next day, I tend to do this week for next week the three things I want to accomplish for the for the following week. I tend to do the three things, you know, I sit sit down and go, what are the three things I need to accomplish next month for the month? So I just, I just, if it would, depending on the time frame, it it will be I just tend to work in three. So I go, what's the three things? If these are the three goals I want to achieve this year, what are the three things I need to do for the quarter? And everything has a cascading effect. So it so we have alignment with that. And then, you know, but Keith, you talked about four areas. Yeah, I I then tend to have, Emma, the big bold goal. So the big bold goal is if I could achieve nothing else this year, what would be the big bold goal that I would sit back at the end of the year and celebrate? And so I've had an absolutely unbelievably fabulous, fantastic, sensational year. What would be that big bold goal? Because what we tend to find is when we are trying to do lots of little things, there is always lots of little things to do to achieve lots of little things. And if you have a big bold goal, then what you do is I just need to accomplish this. This will be the catalyst, this will be the first domino, this will be the rock that that cascades into everything else. And uh, and so that's you know, that's the so you know whether you do that annually, whether you start right now, you know, well, why wait? You know, we we've got almost a month to go before the end of the year, you know. So why not start now? Well, well, what could I accomplish? Here's the question I'm asking myself right now is what do I need to accomplish? The next month, six weeks to set myself up for 2026. And I just created a list yesterday of going, oh, these are the things, these are the projects I need to nail down in my business that will what's set me up for a for a for a fabulous 2026 where I'm, you know, where it just catapults me into the next, into the next level, in the next, in that real transformational shift.

Emma:

There's almost a potential for kind of inbuilt procrastination there, isn't there? Because whilst there's the positives of, you know, how do I want that year to look? What what's the big bold goal of the year? The kind of underlying subtext is, oh, well, I'll just wait till next year.

Keith:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Emma:

What can you do now?

Keith:

Yeah. Well, look, you know, procrastination is the greatest robber of self-esteem and self-confidence. If you know you should do something and you don't do it, it eats away at you. So, you know, what what's the easiest way to beat procrastination? Just take the first step. Forget about finishing and just spend all the time on just taking that first step and make the first step really easy. Because if you if you take the first step, you're more inclined to take the next and and then the next and then the next and then the next. But for people, it's just, you know, it's always starting is the hardest thing. Just think of here's what I'd say to all your listeners and watchers in your podcast, Emma, is take the next four to six weeks and think of it as an on-ramp to 2026. So when you get on the motorway, on the freeway, you don't come to an intersection and then turn onto it. You always go on an on-ramp. Treat the next yeah, treat the next four to six weeks as the on-ramp and be able to start 2026 after your Christmas break, going, I've got things in place so I can accelerate into that into the onto that highway, onto that onto that motorway, onto the towards my goals a lot faster.

Emma:

Great analogy. I really like that. Yeah, that's awesome. Final question, Keith. It's always the the final question here, and that is what do you know now that you wish you knew then?

Keith:

Well, you know who's accelerate everything. Humble yourself enough to rely on mentors, coaches, on you know, whether it's a a great book or a great podcast or an audio book, you know, just in invest in yourself. You know, I love that quote. If you don't invest time, energy, and money in yourself, you're a poor judge of a good investment. I would I would have invested in a lot more experts in my business rather than trying to do stuff myself. You know, I'm I there's certain things that I'm very, very good at, there's other things that I'm not that good at. I would absolutely have delegated more of them. And I've done that a lot in my you know, second half of my business career, but I would have done that a lot earlier and sooner. So that would be the advice I'd give people.

Emma:

Thank you, Keith. So much in there, really, really helpful and a lot, I think, for people to take away. You you mentioned a couple of resources as we were talking there. One was your your main website and the other was a tool. Could you just mention the name for people?

Keith:

So uh KeithAbraham.com, K-E-I-T-H A-B-R-A-H-A-M.com. There's heaps of resources and videos there that people can access for free that'll help them in that goal setting process. If they want to understand their diagnostic, you know, to what really drives them. And we've spent nine years of research around this, worked with a PhD in psychometric testing, a PhD in statistical analysis to create a diagnostic tool, which I call goal driver. They go on, they go online, they pick the area of their life, they choose a goal they want to achieve in that area, and then it just asks them 10 sets of words, and what pops out the other end of it is a six-page report. It's got gives you about 12 insights on what what's what will speed you up, what's slowing you down, what are some of your fears, what's the best mindset for you along those lines. And and so that's my goaldriver.com. And of course, if somebody is looking for a speaker for their event, you just go to my normal website and what I do is I talk about two things. You know, one is how to help people achieve their goals faster, easier, sooner to accomplish infinite possibilities. And then the second is around being a commercially conscious leader. So, how do we build leaders that are are growth, have got a growth mindset around them? They don't have to be in the sales, you know. Growth is about making money, saving money, helping people become more productive. So always happy to chat with people and see if I'm the right fit for their business.

Emma:

Great. Thank you so much, Keith. I really personally really enjoyed that and found it very, very interesting. And hopefully the listeners did too. But yeah, I really appreciate you taking the time. Thank you.

Keith:

Thanks, Emma. Appreciate the opportunity. All the best.

Emma:

Before you go, I've got a quick favour to ask. If you enjoyed this episode or something in it resonated with you, I'd love it if you could leave a quick review or rating on Apple Podcasts. It's one of the best ways to help more people find the show, and I love to hear what's landing with you. Just scroll down in the app, tap a star rating, and if you've got 30 seconds, leave a few words too. Thanks again for listening. I really appreciate it.

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Emma Graham

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