#1 - What books are you going to read?
“In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t read all the time — none, zero.”- Charlie Munger
Plan to read at least 2 new books each month, 4 if you really want to level up fast.
#2 - What are you going to learn?
“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” - Albert Einstein
In addition to being devoted readers, the most successful are always learning new things.
Learning new things keeps you sharp and enhances your likelihood of success.
You should always be sharpening at least two skills each month, as well as spending time intentionally studying one or two new concepts or ideas.
#3 - What are your 30-day personal goals?
As a founder, YOU are your most valuable asset.
And any success you achieve with your business will ultimately flow from you and your well-being.
Take a few minutes to map out some personal goals.
They can be relational, spiritual, physical, or even hobby-related.
It’s important that you take time to look after and work on yourself.
#4 - What are your 30-day business goals?
Success never happens by accident, it’s always by design.
Every week I take time to develop my day-to-day action plan.
I start with my 30-day goals, work backward to my weekly goals and then develop my daily tasks.
Identify the most important leverage points in your business and map out how you’ll improve them.
Keeping a close eye on these numbers helps me ensure I’m actually growing.
It also allows me to accurately measure whether things I have done over the past week “helped” or “hurt” my growth.
#5 - What went well?
***“Success is a series of small victories.” -*****John C.**Maxwell
As founders, we’re often so focused on our big goals that we can overlook the small wins.
However if we only ever compare ourselves to our future goals, we’ll miss out on everything we have managed to accomplish so far.
It’s important to look backward and see how far you’ve come. And it makes the next step seem that much more achievable.
At the end of each week, I write down 5 things that went well.
It’s important to pay attention to what worked well so you can do more of it.
Take a second and be proud of what you accomplished.
#6 - What didn’t go well?
Pain + Reflection = Progress
You often learn more from your failures than you do from your success.
Take time to reflect on your past week.
Identify what didn’t go well.
Then ask yourself - why?
Could it be fixed with just a minor tweak?
Or does it need a major adjustment/or need to be scrapped completely?
#7 - What did I learn?
**“Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” -George Santayana
As founders it can be so easy to “move on” to the next thing.
And we can be quick to forget things.
However, if you have a major insight, but don’t ever implement it or take action based on it…
Did you actually learn anything?
Take time to write down 3 key learnings so they can guide you in future decisions.
from Matt Gary.