My 3-tier process for breaking down a year's worth of resolutions

As I suspected when I started this process…life got in the way.

I got sicker.

My headache got a lot worse.

I still had a birthday to celebrate for my 2-year-old.

I will never sacrifice my family for my aspirations.

That’s just a non-starter.

Besides, this is serious stuff.

I’ve begun to realize the power of professionalism in all aspects of life.

Go big or go home.

Presence is required to make the most of any action.

I’ve been using “prime your presence” as my working slogan for my true purpose.

I came up with an even better one as I was on the toilet with my headache pounding through my temples…

Project presence.

That’s what my theme will be.

Day 2 is all about SMART goals, so this issue will be focused on what I came up with.

Let’s dive in.

2024 - Project Presence

So here it goes…making SMART goals for the next year.

I’ve realized that this is the project I’ve been pursuing ever since I was young, and I actually started my journey shortly after completing my PhD in 2010.

It was one of the most challenging endeavors at every level up to that point in my life.

I went through blood, sweat and tears to get that degree.

• long nights of experimentation

• odd hours borrowing equipment

• struggling with sleep depravation and self-doubt

In hindsight, it was so easy.

There was nothing else that I faced except for that challenge.

Everything else was managed and taken care of.

• I had a stipend

• I had a solid support network of friends

• I had a car and a cheap apartment within walking distance

90% of the external stuff was all conjured up in my head.

With this endeavor…I want to continue this pursuit at all levels.

Strive for professionalism and depth of understanding in things I though I comprehended easily but really had no clue of the situation at hand.

If you’re a content creating, 9-5 working parent of children like me, then you are playing this game on ultra-nightmare difficulty with no ammo and no armor…

and if you got that reference, then I hope you stick around on this journey with me because you are exactly the type of person I want share this crazy experience with.

I’ve learned my lesson now, and what I pulled off this year is going to be unsustainable for the long-term.

I’ve fallen asleep behind the wheel at various points on the road far more often than I care to admit this year, and I came close to ending my life as a result…thankfully with no one else in the car with me.

I’m not proud of this.

So let’s start small and modest and work our way up.

Get SMART

2024 is the year that I’m going to attempt the following:

• X:

  • Specific and Measurable: 700 high-quality posts

  • Achievable and Relevant: about topics surrounding the power of presence mentally, emotionally, and physically pertaining to self-mastery

  • Time-bound: one year

• Medium:

  • Specific and Measurable: 50 articles

  • Achievable and Relevant: about the things that get a good response from X

  • Time-bound: one year

• YouTube

  • Specific and Measurable: 10 long form videos and 50 shorts

  • Achievable and Relevant: by expanding on the things that made it through X and Medium as scripts for video content

  • Time-bound: one year

• Publishing

  • Specific and Measurable: 4 short ebooks or 1 real book

  • Achievable and Relevant: about the ideas that make it through the vetting process from Medium and X

  • Time-bound: one year

• Monetization

  • Specific and Measurable: 1 low-, mid-, and high-tier offer

  • Achievable and Relevant: about the process of content creation and sharing ideas as I find what works for me

  • Time-bound: one year

That’s about enough ambition for one year, don’t you think?

I have no illusions as to what I just wrote…I think this is insane, but each of these areas is possible to achieve in and of themselves.

It’s not whether you get it all done in the time allotted in my opinion.

You have to dream big in order to face the possibility and the enormity of the attempt.

Each of these 5 pursuits is designed to build on each other over the course of the year so that they enable the growth of the next level up.

This is the content pyramid that I think is viable at first glance, but the sustainability of each part requires a flexible system that builds in R&R time.

I started achieving small bits and pieces of these recently before it all fell apart.

This is why today was so important.

It’s so I could get all that ambition out of my system and onto the page so that I could see it in its entirety.

It will evolve from this point.

Get SMARTer

Ok so now what?

Well…I need to break the year down.

I want to do this in quarters for 90-day sprints…then weekly goals…then daily actions.

I don’t want to do all that here, but I’ll go to the quarter level here for reference.

If you’re a fan of Dan Koe’s, you can see where I’m going with this. Again I’ve been using his Power Planner this year, so this is me taking a little more ownership of the process.

• X:

  • Specific and Measurable: 180 posts

  • Achievable and Relevant: about the topics I described but through personality, authority, and storytelling using what I’ve learned from courses this year

  • Time-bound: every quarter

• Medium:

  • Specific and Measurable: 12 articles

  • Achievable and Relevant: by fleshing out and expanding on the ideas that are of interest using stories and analogies

  • Time-bound: every quarter

• YouTube

  • Specific and Measurable: 3 long form videos and 15 shorts

  • Achievable and Relevant: using a combination of my own B roll and talking head content

  • Time-bound: one quarter

• Publishing

  • Specific and Measurable: 1 short ebook or 4 chapters of a real book

  • Achievable and Relevant: centered around my own experiences and how I pulled off learning so many skills from across a variety of disciplines

  • Time-bound: one quarter

• Monetization

  • Specific and Measurable: 1 offer

  • Achievable and Relevant: about the process of cultivating a presence that mattered and the level of impact it had on my personal and professional life

  • Time-bound: one quarter

Get really SMART

Let’s go down one more level…the daily grind is where the real challenges will take place, and I have no idea how that will go.

• X:

  • Specific and Measurable: 14 posts

  • Achievable and Relevant: personality, authority, and storytelling using Kieren Drew’s content schedule as a template and reference

  • Time-bound: every week

• Medium:

  • Specific and Measurable: 1 article

  • Achievable and Relevant: using the feedback from the week but also from some really great articles I’ve read on Medium so far

  • Time-bound: every week

• YouTube

  • Specific and Measurable: 2 shorts

  • Achievable and Relevant: using a combination of my own B roll and talking head content that will culminate in one long form video every 3 months

  • Time-bound: every week

• Publishing

  • Specific and Measurable: 3 pages of an ebooks or a chapter of a real book

  • Achievable and Relevant: centered around my own experiences and how I pulled off learning so many skills from across a variety of disciplines

  • Time-bound: one week

• Monetization

  • Specific and Measurable: one case study

  • Achievable and Relevant: about the process of cultivating a presence that mattered and the level of impact it had on my personal and professional life

  • Time-bound: one week

The details are getting a little fuzzy in the last two areas…I think those are going to need to materialize more as I take action.

Project presence

This is crazy…and yet this feels like a good approach so far.

In summary, today was about SMART goalsetting:

• metrics for the entire year

• metrics broken down by quarter

• metrics further broken down by week

The problem with such long-term planning is that the details are more likely to be fleshed out as I test them out. I can’t plan down to the day as each one is going to change…but I do know that I need to front-load a good bit to get it going.

I guess that’s what day 3 is going to push more towards as I work on my “persona”.

Knowing exactly what I want my presence to be like will further this process.

I hope this helps!

Vince

P.S. Try this on a smaller scale. This 7-day challenge was the result of this kind of SMART goal.

P.S.S Also, Happy Thanksgiving to all those who see this in the US…I’ll be up to my elbows popping a turkey in the oven.