The 90-day goal review – perhaps the most important tool for reaching your dreams

It’s already March and something like 94% of people has given up on their New Year’s resolution type of goals. If you don’t want to be part of that statistics then you should master something very simple and yet effective – the 90-day goal review.

Today we will look into the purpose of it as well as how to apply it in the best possible way.

You should keep reading if:

• You have abandoned your dreams but you want to get back on track and do it quickly;
• There is a 90-day meeting with your Goal Buddy and you want it to be a perfect one;
• You have done one of our workshops but you still want to go deeper in the matter J
• Or you have just started using our system.

It will be good to consider the following not widely appreciated piece of wisdom:

“Looking back”

All successful people do something very important – they reassess regularly their past experiences.

Unfortunately, our everyday life doesn’t leave us much time to stop and reminisce. We end up just coasting through life becoming far less pro-active in the end.

Instead, we have to take a break and find out where we are and where we are going. These few hours will spare us years of aimless drifting without a clear course.

Why do we have to do it?

There are two types of goals in our system: a long-term 30-year vision and short-term 90-day goals that we constantly advance through the small weekly steps.

The 3-month cut-off isn’t arbitrary.

It’s been proven that this is the average amount of time a strategy needs to work out (or not). It is also the moment when our motivation and energy begin winding down and therefore a recharge is required. That’s the primary role of the meeting with the Goal Buddy – to go over objectives of the past quarter and then set the next ones.

The benefits

Suppose we did put the effort into a goal for 90 days. Two things have to happen:

• First, not to stop;
• And second, finding out how far we got and if we are still on the right course.

The main purpose here is to evaluate progress and then get the much needed psychological re-charge so that we can keep going.

The best part is that in the end, we have much more clarity about the future. We regain the ability to manage effectively the whole process of achieving our objectives.

That’s quite straightforward, right?

It is.

How to do the review

We evaluate how things unfolded for the past three months:

• What worked well so that we continue doing it;
• What didn’t worked out so that we change it;
• What we failed in even if we had a good plan for it.

The last two could teach us the most valuable lessons. We learn most from failure.

Learning from the past

There is no such thing as failure. You either succeed or if you don’t then you try to learn from it which is still a win for you.

For example, even if you didn’t do anything for one of your goals, this, in itself, is a situation that badly needs to be analyzed closely. You aim at identifying the weak points in your behavior so that you can fix them.

Your Buddy is the one to ask “Why?”, “What happened?”, “How can you do better next time?”

In short, the whole idea is to dig into the past with the intention to outline a better direction for the next 3 months.

The “tune-up”

If we get prepared well, we will have everything in place for the next meeting.

There are exactly three things to focus on:

• Well-defined 90-day goals;
• Clear weekly steps;
• Weekly meeting with the Goal Buddy.

Let’s quickly discuss each of them.

# 1: A good definition of 90-day goals

A misstep here means a sure failure even if you worked hard and with dedication. Another risk is that you may get so discouraged in the end that you decide that the whole thing is not for you.

Therefore we want to emphasize the following:

The right choice of words in describing your goal is a must. These are the characteristics of a well-defined objective:

• It is tied to actions that depend entirely on us and which are not the result per se. For example, instead of “I will lose 5 pounds” you’d better have it as “I will go to the gym 3 times a week.”
• The reasons why we want something are rock-solid, i.e. they reflect the most important aspects of our lives such as health, family, career, personal growth, etc.
• And last but not least, it is written and stored conveniently (in the “GoalBuddy” app, in Google Docs, on our phone, laptop, etc.)

# 2: A step-by-step process

Let’s say we have a maximum of three 90-day goals for a quarter. Next, we set up one small step per week to advance each one of them.

It is better if we don’t try to plan everything. First, we do one step, then we decide on the next thus building on what was already achieved.

To execute the 90-day review smoothly and effectively, we have to write down a few sentences on how we did in each of these steps.

And finally:

# 3 The regular talk

The one tool that’s indispensable when trying to stay on track and not give up is the regular meeting with your Goal Buddy.

It could easily be just a 20-minute phone call Sunday evening. It doesn’t have to take much – just to share what we did last week and what the next steps we will be.

However, we mustn’t miss any of these. There are several good reasons for that:

The helping hand of your Buddy

First of all, you commit not so much to yourself but someone else. Sometimes Ivan might feel like he isn’t up to a given task. But when he realizes that it will be extremely difficult to justify this to Niki he finds the energy and will power to get it done. Yes, that’s how it works!

And a second factor is that the person next to you is an objective observer who can provide careful and meaningful feedback. They will be able to point out any potential problems. Questions like “Why this step?” or “How come?” will stop you from being distracted or led off-road.

While getting better at explaining something you gain a deeper understanding of the matter at hand and thus you can improve your behavior. The Buddy is like a mirror you get in front of to self-examine.

During these 3 months

So, let’s assume the quarter is over and we had up to 3 action goals. We worked on them every week advancing with small weekly steps, and we also regularly talked to our Buddy. And everything that happened was documented by writing it down.

By having this record available we are fully prepared!

The moment of truth

The 90-day goal review itself is done at the end of the period and takes just a couple of hours.

It is a simple summary of everything that I committed to three months ago, including the small weekly steps. These notes will help us to understand why we succeeded or failed. We have to analyze the approach employed so far and then we either improve on it or leave it as it is.

We strongly recommend you do this together with your Goal Buddy. “Two heads are better than one” as we all agree with the old saying.

But then why not as many more as possible!

The workshop

Twice a year, we do the “GoalBuddy” workshop for our friends and supporters, where we try to refine our visions and set our objectives in an atmosphere of positivity and incredible energy.

And now we have a surprise for you!

The event for those who have passed the first level of our workshop is already scheduled. It will be a special version of the 90-day review done together with many people like you. It will be a great opportunity to exchange stories and experience. If you have attended any of our previous workshops then we wait for you on the 29^th of March in Sofia.

Let’s go over it one last time

To avoid giving up goals we have to stop and have a look back from time to time. That’s how we can learn what’s needed for our push forward.

The formula for success is to set up no more than 3 action goals that depend entirely on us. We try to work on them while discussing any issue with our Goal Buddy. We also make a written record that will help us with the quarterly review of our goals. That’s how one takes control of the whole process as well as our lives and dreams. And that’s all that there is to it.