6 Step Blueprint to Achieve All Your Goals for 2025 (Proven Method- Don't Skip This)
In this episode of the On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast, Shetty shares a methodical 6-step blueprint for achieving personal and professional goals. He guides listeners through visualization exercises to solidify their aspirations, emphasizing skill development and a growth mindset. Shetty stresses the importance of forming sustainable habits, tracking progress, leveraging external support systems like mentors and communities, and overcoming challenges through dedicated effort.
The episode offers actionable advice on topics such as identifying key abilities to develop, implementing small but maintainable habit changes, and seeking guidance from those who have achieved similar goals. By combining elements of mindset, planning, and accountability, Shetty provides a pragmatic framework for actively working towards one's objectives.
This is a preview of the Shortform summary of the Jan 3, 2025 episode of the On Purpose with Jay Shetty
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1-Page Summary
Goal-setting and visualization
Jay Shetty guides listeners through vivid visualization exercises designed to solidify goals and self-belief:
- Describe personal and professional goals in emotional, narrative form to cement them as real, achievable experiences in the present moment.
- Focus on one key personal goal and one professional goal for maximum clarity and specificity, applying the 80-20 rule.
Skill development and growth mindset
Shetty emphasizes identifying and methodically developing essential skills as part of a growth mindset:
- Pinpoint abilities or knowledge lacking that are blocking your progression.
- Create a concrete plan to systematically learn and practice those key skills over set periods of time.
- View each year through the lens of learning, experimenting, performing, and struggle - with visible "thriving" built on those preceding stages.
Habit formation and progress tracking
To build sustainable habits and gauge growth, Shetty recommends:
- Implement small, maintainable changes as high priorities and expect setbacks.
- Make new habits easy through planning and preparation.
- Measure progress daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly using tangible metrics rather than solely emotions.
Overcoming challenges through external support
Shetty emphasizes leveraging external support systems:
- Seek coaching from mentors who have achieved similar goals to accelerate progress.
- Maintain consistency through a dedicated calendar for uninterrupted skill development.
- Surround yourself with a community that shares your aspirations to positively influence habits and mindset.
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Counterarguments
- Describing goals in an emotional, narrative form might not work for everyone; some individuals may find a more data-driven or pragmatic approach to goal setting more effective.
- Focusing on only one personal and one professional goal might be too limiting for some people who thrive on managing multiple goals simultaneously.
- Pinpointing lacking abilities or knowledge is important, but it can also lead to negative self-perception if not balanced with recognition of existing strengths.
- Creating a concrete plan is useful, but it should be flexible to adapt to changing circumstances and opportunities that arise unexpectedly.
- Viewing each year as a cycle of learning, experimenting, performing, and struggling may not capture the non-linear nature of personal and professional growth for everyone.
- Implementing small, maintainable changes is a good strategy, but some situations may require more significant and immediate changes to achieve desired outcomes.
- Making new habits easy is helpful, but it can oversimplify the complexity of habit formation, which often requires significant effort and self-discipline.
- Measuring progress with tangible metrics is important, but it should not overshadow the value of qualitative insights and personal satisfaction that may not be easily quantified.
- Seeking coaching from mentors is beneficial, but it's also important to develop one's own decision-making and problem-solving skills to become self-reliant.
- Maintaining consistency through a dedicated calendar is a good practice, but over-scheduling can lead to burnout and should be balanced with downtime and spontaneity.
- Surrounding oneself with a community that shares aspirations can be motivating, but it's also valuable to engage with diverse perspectives to challenge one's thinking and foster innovation.
Actionables
- You can visualize your goals by creating a vision board with images and phrases that represent your desired emotional states upon achieving them. This makes your aspirations more tangible and can serve as a daily reminder of what you're working towards. For example, if your goal is to become a confident public speaker, include images of a crowd clapping or a person standing confidently on stage.
- Start a "skill swap" with friends or colleagues where you exchange knowledge on topics you want to improve. This can be a cost-effective way to learn new skills relevant to your goals. For instance, if you need to improve your public speaking, find a friend who excels at it and offer to teach them a skill you're proficient in, like graphic design.
- Create a "habit tracker" app on your smartphone using a simple spreadsheet or a free app like Habitica, which gamifies your daily habits and progress. This can help you stay accountable and provide immediate feedback on your consistency and growth. For example, you can set daily reminders to practice a new language for 15 minutes or to review a professional skill you're developing.
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Goal-setting and visualization
Shetty guides listeners on an exercise in goal-setting that involves visualization techniques designed to cement self-belief and make goals appear tangible.
Describe personal and professional goals like a vivid story to build self-belief
Shetty encourages listeners to envision their goals as transformative experiences and recount them with passion and detail, as if sharing a pivotal year's life-changing events with a friend or interviewer.
Imagine and narrate goals as if recounting a transformative year to a friend or interviewer
Listeners should recount their personal and professional achievements as pivotal moments that brought joy and passion into their lives, transforming their trajectory in an emotionally compelling narrative form.
Use specific, emotional language to make goals feel real and achievable in the present moment
By using vivid and emotive language, listeners can deepen their connection to their goals, thus making them feel real and achievable in the present moment. Shetty provides examples such as describing oneself feeling "lighter, stronger, and better" when talking about personal health goals, or expressing self-discovery of capabilities in a professional context.
Prioritize one personal goal and one professional goal for maximum impact
For efficacious goal-setting, Shetty recommends focusing on a singular personal goal and a singular professional goal, hence ensuring specificity and clarity in one's ambitions.
The 80-20 rule - focus on t ...
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Goal-setting and visualization
Additional Materials
Counterarguments
- Visualization and vivid storytelling may not be effective for everyone; some individuals may find more success with practical, step-by-step planning and less abstract methods.
- Focusing on a single personal and professional goal might be too limiting for some people who thrive on multitasking and have the capacity to pursue multiple goals simultaneously.
- The 80-20 rule, while useful, is not universally applicable and can oversimplify complex situations where success is driven by more than just 20% of habits and skills.
- Emotional language can sometimes lead to unrealistic expectations or disappointment if goals are not met, which can be counterproductive to self-belief.
- Narrating goals as transformative experiences might lead to overlooking the small, incremental steps that are often necessary for achieving larger g ...
Actionables
- Create a vision board with a twist by incorporating a 'future box' where you place items representing your achieved goals. Instead of just visualizing, collect small objects, pictures, or symbols of your goals and place them in a box. For example, if your goal is to run a marathon, you might include a miniature sneaker or a route map of the marathon you want to run. This tangible approach makes your goals feel more real and attainable.
- Develop a 'goal narrative' by writing a short story about your life after achieving your goals. Craft a narrative where you are the protagonist who has overcome challenges to reach your personal and professional aspirations. For instance, if your goal is to become a confident public speaker, write a story detailing the standing ovation you receive after delivering a powerful speech.
- Organize a monthly 'goal circle' with friends or family where you share progress on your goals ...
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Skill development and growth mindset
Jay Shetty provides insights on the fundamental importance of identifying and developing key skills as part of a growth mindset necessary to achieving one's goals.
Identify the key skills needed to achieve your goals
Shetty emphasizes the identification of skills and knowledge essential to one’s professional and personal progression. For instance, someone aiming to build a business should immerse themselves in learning about the industry through books, podcasts, mentoring, or even shadowing industry experts.
Reflect on what abilities or knowledge are currently lacking that are holding you back
To achieve a promotion, he insists on pinpointing which sales, negotiation, or networking skills could be the barrier. He encourages a dialogue with one's boss to clarify which skills they should enhance to reach the next level.
Develop a specific plan to learn and practice the essential skills
Creating a concrete plan is pivotal – whether it is dedicating weekends or other substantial time periods to skill development. Commit to learning over a set time frame, advises Shetty, like allocating four consecutive weekends specifically for skill enhancement.
View each year as a progression through learning, experimentation, performance, and struggle
Shetty explains that thriving is a stage built upon earlier phases of learning, experimentation, performance, and struggle. Identifying the current stage you are in is crucial to setting the year's expectations. If you've spent the past year learning, this could be your year to experiment.
Understand that "thriving" is the final stage that requires laying the groundwork first
He ...
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Skill development and growth mindset
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Counterarguments
- While identifying key skills is important, it's also crucial to recognize that adaptability and the ability to learn new skills as demands change is equally vital.
- Immersing oneself in learning through various resources is beneficial, but it's also important to balance this with practical, hands-on experience.
- A dialogue with a boss for skill enhancement guidance assumes that one's boss is knowledgeable and supportive, which may not always be the case.
- Creating a specific plan for skill development is useful, but such plans need to be flexible to adapt to unforeseen changes or opportunities.
- Allocating weekends for skill enhancement may not be feasible for everyone, especially those with significant personal responsibilities or those who need rest.
- Viewing each year as a progression through set stages may be overly simplistic and not account for the non-linear nature of personal and professional growth.
- The concept of "thriving" as a final stage may create a false sense of an end-goal, whereas growth and development are ongoing processes.
- Success is not always the result of unseen labor and development; sometimes, timing, luck, or external factors play a significant role.
- Embracing the invisible growth process is important, but it's also necessary to ...
Actionables
- You can track your skill development journey visually by creating a "Skill Tree" similar to those found in video games. Start by drawing a tree with branches representing different skill areas you want to develop. Each leaf on a branch could symbolize a specific skill or milestone within that area. As you progress, color in the leaves to visualize your growth and identify areas that need more attention.
- Develop a "Skill Swap" arrangement with friends or colleagues where you teach each other skills in which you're proficient. For example, if you're good at public speaking and a friend excels at data analysis, you can set up regular sessions to teach each other these skills. This mutual exchange can be a cost-effective and engaging way to enhance your abilities.
- Create a "Learning Lab" in your home where you dedicate a space exclusively ...
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Habit formation and progress tracking
Jay Shetty offers guidance on building sustainable habits and tracking progress, emphasizing the power of acknowledging small wins and setting measurable goals.
Implement small, sustainable habit changes as high priorities
According to Jay Shetty, small, sustainable changes should be approached with high priority. These incremental adjustments can gradually lead toward greater achievements.
Expect setbacks and give yourself grace to get back on track quickly
Shetty acknowledges that setbacks are a natural part of pursuing goals. He encourages listeners to be lenient with themselves and rebound quickly after a misstep, maintaining motivation and a positive perspective throughout. As part of this process, it’s critical to acknowledge small wins, which helps one visualize the positive steps they’re taking towards a larger objective.
Make new habits easy to maintain through planning and preparation
To simplify the maintenance of new habits, Shetty recommends planning and preparing ahead. For example, to adopt healthier eating habits, it's beneficial to reduce the frequency of dining out or have a pre-established list of healthy takeout options, which can alleviate the pressure of in-the-moment decision-making.
Measure goal progress rigorously at daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly intervals
Shetty stresses that setting tangible metrics is vital to staying motivated and making iterative improvements.
Track tangible metrics to stay motivated and make iterative improvements
By mea ...
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Habit formation and progress tracking
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Counterarguments
- Small changes may not always be the highest priority if larger systemic issues need to be addressed first.
- Some individuals may benefit from a stricter approach to setbacks rather than a lenient one, as it could foster a stronger sense of accountability.
- Acknowledging small wins might not be sufficient for everyone; some may require more significant milestones to stay motivated.
- Over-planning can sometimes lead to inflexibility, making it harder to adapt to unexpected changes or opportunities.
- Rigorous tracking can become obsessive and counterproductive, leading to burnout or a focus on metrics over well-being. ...
Actionables
- You can create a habit tracker with personalized rewards to celebrate small wins and maintain motivation. Start by designing a simple chart where you log your daily habits, and assign a small reward for each week you complete all your tasks. For example, if you're trying to drink more water, you might reward yourself with a movie night after a week of reaching your hydration goals.
- Develop a "habit stacking" routine to make new behaviors stick by attaching them to existing habits. Identify a habit you already do without fail, like brushing your teeth, and stack a new, small habit onto it, such as doing a one-minute meditation right after. This links the new habit to an established cue, making it easier to remember and perform.
- Use a fre ...
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Overcoming challenges through external support
Successful achievement of goals often requires more than just individual effort; external support plays a crucial role. Jay discusses various strategies for leveraging external support to overcome challenges and achieve desired outcomes.
Seek out coaching from experienced mentors who have achieved similar goals
Jay emphasizes the importance of seeking coaching from experienced mentors who can provide valuable guidance. A mentor who has already walked the path you aspire to can help you avoid common pitfalls and accelerate your progress. Their hindsight can become your foresight, allowing you to learn from their mistakes and successes.
Tap into their guidance to avoid common pitfalls and accelerate your progress
Mentors possess the experience to identify and help you navigate around obstacles that you may encounter. They can point you towards resources and strategies that they have found effective, potentially saving you time and energy.
Maintain consistency in your learning and practice through a dedicated calendar
Moving on from the value of mentorship, Jay speaks about the need for consistency in the pursuit of one’s goals. To build skills effectively, it's imperative to maintain a consistent learning and practice schedule.
Carve out time regularly to focus on skill development without interruptions
Jay suggests the use of a dedicated calendar to carve out regular, uninterrupted time for skill development. This approach helps in creating a routine and allows focused energy toward incremental improvement, which is crucial ...
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Overcoming challenges through external support
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Counterarguments
- While seeking coaching from experienced mentors can be beneficial, it can also create a dependency on external validation and advice, potentially stifling personal intuition and decision-making skills.
- Mentorship may not always be accessible to everyone, and some individuals may achieve success through self-taught methods and personal trial and error.
- Consistency is important, but rigidly adhering to a dedicated calendar may not account for the need for flexibility in response to life's unpredictable events and creative inspiration that doesn't follow a schedule.
- Carving out regular, uninterrupted time for skill development is ideal, but it may not be practical for people with demanding schedules, such as those with caregiving responsibilities or multiple jobs.
- While surrounding oneself with a supportiv ...
Actionables
- Create a mentorship action plan by identifying specific goals and the type of guidance needed, then reach out to potential mentors with a clear request for assistance.
- By setting clear objectives for what you want to achieve through mentorship, you can communicate effectively with potential mentors. For example, if you're looking to improve your public speaking skills, you might seek out a local Toastmasters club member who has won speaking awards and ask for targeted advice on delivering speeches.
- Design a skill-building game with friends where each person commits to learning a new skill and shares their progress weekly.
- This approach gamifies the learning process and leverages your social circle for accountability and support. For instance, you and your friends could each pick a new language to learn and hold weekly meetups to practice speaking and share resources, turning it into a friendly competition.
- ...
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