All Around Growth
All Around Growth — reflections on faith, freedom, and finding purpose through Orthodox Christian living, formation, and the long work of becoming.
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All Around Growth
Ep. 73 - Goals
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At the end of the year, goals are on the minds of many. Join Rob today as he discusses how he works on his own goals and shares some resources with you so that you can improve on yours!
Goals are an integral part of the All Around Growth lifestyle and today we discuss two important components in the goal setting process - Best Self Co and Dan Miller.
I spend a *significant* portion of a day working on both 2021 and quarterly goals.
Resources:
- How To Set SMART Goals (Plus A Free SMART Goals Template) - Best Self Co
- GOALS WORKSHEET - Dan Miller
- https://www.48days.com/goals/
- FREE Workaround for those in the Telegram Group:
- DON'T SHARE THIS LINK IN THE PODCAST: https://www.48days.com/goals-thankyou/
- Goal Setting Quick Guide By Best Self Co.
Half a day / Many Hours invested in the goal setting yesterday
How to Set SMART Goals - good resource to learn about how to set goals
Dan Miller - GREAT resource, more on that in a minute
Goal Setting Quick Guide - a good resource, worth spending time on and following steps if you're stuck
Each was good exercise, especially GOALS WORKSHEET by Dan Miller
Each exercise spurred creativity allowing me to focus
Eventually changed a couple goals to things more aligned with my bigger picture
The GOALS WORKSHEET allowed me to gain some clarity...
...and understand that I've been making more progress than I give myself credit for.
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We're going to talk about something today that's often on many minds at this time of year. I'm going to share with you how I work on my own goals and give you some resources on how you can improve the work on your own. Woo wee! It's a chilly morning this morning, everyone. And welcome to episode number 73 of the All Around Growth Podcast. This is a show where we talk about how and why we build the lives of our dreams utilizing a particular type of personal growth and development referred to as all-around growth. My name is Rob Keiser, and I am your host. If you were unable to tell, today we are back in the truck. Today is Tuesday, December 29th, 2025. And uh indeed we are talking about goals. Bear with us for the drive down the driveway. I'm hoping that uh by the time we get to the end of the driveway, defroster will be operating. All right, so yesterday I spent a significant portion of the day working on working on my goals, both my goals for 2021 as uh a year in its entirety, and also the first quarter of 2021. Um there are three things that I used in large part to frame my goals and get myself in the right mindset to choose my goals yesterday. Now, I had been thinking about goals for quite some time, and normally I do this, I think about it and then I'm late to setting them, and uh I don't really accomplish what I want to or what I think I'm able to because I am often not on point with my goal setting. So I'm hoping to change that this year and really focus on my goals and the work that I put into them. Okay, so I have three different resources, like I said, all are linked to in the show notes, and the first one is called How to Set Smart Goals plus a free smart goals template. And that's cool. Um, it is a short read, it claims to be a seven-minute read, and basically it just provides some bare bones and basic information on what SMART goals are. And for those who don't know, SMART is an acronym that outlines how to set goals you can actually complete. The first known use of the acronym was by George T. Duran in the November 1981 issue of management review. And you can read more and get more details about the history of that there. But like I said, SMART is an acronym, and the letters in SMART stand for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. And you can get a breakdown on how and what these are used for in the goal setting way that we operate within, but it is typical old school corporate uh goal setting verbiage, and it is very helpful if that is something that you are not all that familiar with in your um in your own you know goal setting practice. So there's also the goal worksheet by Dan Miller, and that is without a doubt one of the best resources I've ever used. I will talk more on that in a minute. And there is also the goal setting guide, the goal setting quick guide by the best self company, which I also used yesterday. And this breaks down the components in goal setting as outlined in the best self journal. And these two articles by the best self company pair nicely with the best self journal. And I think it's worth pointing out that you may be able to get a deal on the journal if you go to bestself.com, or if you if they aren't offering anything right now, I have a special VIP code that I am willing to share with you that'll give you 15% off your first order. That code is YMF, like York Meadow Farm, the name and location of the homestead on where I and my parents live in the one in which we are building. But this breaks down the goals as the the result goals, progress goals, actions and tasks, and uh milestones and all the different things and ways that best self breaks down goals for us. Now, all of that is uh is great, and I don't want to discount or dismiss any of the work that is provided to us by uh best self, but um like I said, the information and the form that allowed me to benefit the most was this guide, like this 15-page guide that was put together by Dan Um Dan Miller, and I'm going to see if I can't access this uh on my phone here, and if I cannot, um I am going to revisit okay. I I wasn't sure if I was able to get that on my phone or not. Um But you know what? I did check that. I do have it. Um I had the printed out version, but that's got all of my notes in it, and I'm going to read a couple things off of this goal setting worksheet because it really um it really hit home with me. This is a 17-18 page workbook on how to set your goals. And what is definitely something worth pointing out is that um there the way that Dan Miller breaks out goals, okay, is he's got them broken out into seven categories and explains that we aren't necessarily living a balanced life if we do not set goals in all aspects of our life, and in his opinion, those different aspects of life are broken down into financial, physical, personal development, family, spiritual, social, and career. Okay, and I think that this is interesting because as I've talked about before, I go about doing priority work in one of three ways most days of the week. And that is health, wealth, and purpose. So we've got those three definitely covered in these seven with you know, health being physical, uh, wealth being financial, and purpose maybe falling under that personal development category. Um in my own personal task and project management software, a few years ago, I tried to categorize everything that fell into that management system in one of seven categories myself. And those were personal, career, my side hustle projects, health, finances, York Meadow Farm, and then a separate project called home and DLS office, where I was housing everything that was related to construction and my own uh my own, you know, the the the components in my life. So I may switch gears and assign the seven topics that Dan has outlined in his goal procedure to the way in which I operate within my own life, but what Dan talked about is um I'm convinced we can create a massive ripple effect to contribute to the solutions for a better life for ourselves, our families, our countries, and ultimately the world. Bold statements by Dan when it comes to talking about goals and the reason why he says to even though this worksheet is a little bit intimidating, he suggests to just work through it with quotes indicating that indecision is the greatest thief of opportunity. And remember, goals are not written in concrete and unchangeable terms, but they do give you a starting point and a destination. Now, what's nice about goals and the way that they are outlined in the best self journal is that we have our goals and we set our goals in a way for the year, or at least we get started with them. We have three goals or a space for three goals in the best self journal, and those goals are quarterly, okay? We work through those goals and have 13 weeks to document the progress in those goals before setting additional quarterly goals at the end of that three-month period, and by the time we get to this point in the year, towards the end of the year, as we're closing it out, if we follow this type of protocol, we've got 12 different goals for ourselves that we work on throughout the course of the year broken down into easily manageable quarters, and those 12 goals can align with our annual goals that we set for ourselves if we do that. And if you don't, I really want to challenge you to think about why not. Because you're missing out. You are definitely missing out. In order for your purpose in life to be fulfilled, you must set goals in multiple areas. Success is not just career or financial. Family, physical, and spiritual are equally important areas of achievement. They are part of the same whole, a part of the same balanced person. This concept, okay, this concept of balance is something that Dan Miller talks about in his work and his book, 48 Days to the Work and Life You Love. Now, these, oh, it's unfortunate. I'm driving through town this morning, and it looks like the signs are coming down. We are wrapping up the holiday season, and that's unfortunate, everyone. I am still off this time. I've got some running around and some errands to do this morning. But I will be back home attacking my project management and task management software so as to continue going through all of the various projects that I have open, make progress on those, close them out, and get myself prepared for a productive 2021. And also productive uh 2021 and beyond. That was a nice and interesting new perspective as well in working through the goal worksheet by Dan Miller. What we do is we begin working on and setting three-year goals. We begin outlining that um on this sheet. Three years out, okay? I've never done this before, but I think in doing this, it's going to provide me with some very interesting insight into my thought processes and what I'm doing, where and how. Okay? It's also encouraged me to reconsider physical exercise as a part of my own wellness program, part of my goals. Do you know physical exercise is a cleansing process that can dramatically increase your creativity? Well, this is something that I have been struggling with. My creativity. How, you know, how and what I'm doing with my life. So if I can take some additional steps to improve my health, including but not limited to physical exercise, then I am looking at the potential for increasing my creativity, which is something that I want and need. So I am just about here at my destination. This worksheet is full of great content. Okay, I just don't have enough to say about this particular worksheet. It is fantastic, and I spent hours on this yesterday. Hours. Now this is a great resource. And I want to point out that each of these exercises spurred additional creativity that allowed me to focus with greater intensity than I ever have before with regard to setting my goals. So setting aside the time to do this was very beneficial for me and I realized that just like the journaling, the more I continue to do this and the more consistent I am with everything, the better I understand the bigger picture. Now, this goals worksheet that Dan Miller puts together, you do need to put down your name and email information in order to obtain it. Now, I can share it with you since I've already gone through the process of downloading it, and if you're not willing to download it, I will give it to you. But you've gotta contact me offline, and the best way to do that is either at allaroundgrowth at gmail.com or better yet, check us out on the Telegram group, send me a message there at t.me slash allaroundgrowth, and I'll give you a little insider secret, okay? But the bottom line is go to the show notes, check it out, download it for yourself. It's definitely worth it. I'm not gonna send you someplace where they're gonna bombard you with spam and junk. It is definitely worth it. And uh I would just suggest that you try it. You may just be surprised with and for yourself. So hopefully this episode was a valuable use of your time. And if you think it was, and you found some benefit in it, I would encourage you to go to the show notes where you can click to rate and review the podcast. That'll take you to Apple Podcast where at this point in time where the most listen is being generated from a five-star review goes a long way there. And if you like it, you can take the time to leave a written review as well. And it does a lot of people if you have any questions or feedback for me, you can send it my way. Finally, last but not least, you can join the community over all around the world.
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