The book that made me love goal-setting

Pete Wilkinson’s book “Unstoppable” finally made visualizations and goals make sense to me. 

When I read the book, it made me understand the core problem I have with goals, and why I reject them automatically. Yes, even if I set the goal. 

The problem was that I rarely set goals that really resonated with me. 

Lose weight. I don’t care.

Eat better. I don’t care.

Save money. I super don’t care.

Stick with a hobby. But whyyyyyyy??

To borrow from another book (“You Are A Bad Ass”, by Jen Sincero): 

If you’re going to push through major obstacles to reach your goal, you can’t just want to want to…you need to have the audacity to be honest about what you really want to do, not what you should do…

(Underlined emphasis mine.)

Now goals make absolute sense to me. I used “Unstoppable” to create:

  • one vision for life (and another for my business),
  • three supporting objectives, and
  • goals under each objective.

At the end, I’ll share some of my “one-three-five” (1-3-5) items. But first! The book…

Part One: The Beginning 

Chapter 1: Why Develop an Unstoppable Attitude?  How it all works

One of the greatest characteristics of winners is that they develop the expectation of success way before there is any evidence to support that success is certain.

Wilkinson, Pete. Unstoppable (p. 5). Wiley. Kindle Edition. 

All by itself, visualizing success will not make you succeed.  To have a good chance at success, you have to deeply understand* that the specific goal that you’re working toward is possible.

Pet Wilkinson says this far more succinctly: “…you don’t even stand a chance…without realizing that your mindset can dramatically affect your attitude”.

Chapter 1 does a good job of showing us the premise and the landscape of the book. You can read this chapter for free, by the way, with Amazon.com’s “Look Inside” feature.

*Understand, or “resonate with”, or “grok”…pick your favorite.

Part Two: The Foundation 

Chapter 2: Becoming Effective is All About Your Habits!  

In this chapter: 

  • Habits and stretch goals
  • Strategy 
  • A habit-identifying (and correcting) exercise
  • A time-use exercise 

Most people have a notion of what they want to achieve, a vague idea of what success looks like and just start the process of delivering. … If you want to be successful in your business or even in general life, you need to get strategic!

Wilkinson, Pete. Unstoppable (p. 15). Wiley. Kindle Edition. 

Dr Tom Barratt (president of Business Life/Management, www.daretodream.net) says that we should not confuse busyness with business. … 
In business I believe we need to focus on producing a result. The clearer the result we want, the more likely we are to achieve that result. It’s the same with your life in general; most people don’t have the life they want because they are not clear what sort of life they want!

Wilkinson, Pete. Unstoppable (p. 18). Wiley. Kindle Edition. 

Chapter 3: Your Crystal Clear Vision

In this chapter: 

  • How to create your vision (and how to measure success)
  • A vision-creating exercise

…because of your active mind you’re not focusing on the things you do brilliantly and you’re not clear about exactly what you want. You have to be aware that you are being opportunistic…you need to be strategic about your crystal clear Vision.

Wilkinson, Pete. Unstoppable (p. 34). Wiley. Kindle Edition. 

Chapter 4: Your 3 Core Objectives

In this chapter: 

  • The criteria for objectives 
  • How to create your objectives to act on your vision 
  • An objective-creating exercise

…having a picture of what you want but not having a plan of how it’s going to happen can be very frustrating.

Wilkinson, Pete. Unstoppable (p. 52). Wiley. Kindle Edition. 

When I get asked to work with someone on a project that is not going to help me achieve one of my Core Objectives … I respectfully reply ‘I’d help you with that project if I could but my Core Objectives won’t allow it, I must stay on task.’ It’s only a bit of fun but it still amuses me how many people go ‘er, OK, Pete, I understand’ .

Wilkinson, Pete. Unstoppable (p. 61). Wiley. Kindle Edition. 

Chapter 5: Your 5 Goals

In this chapter: 

  • The criteria for goals 
  • How to create your goals to support your objectives
  • A goal-creating exercise
  • Using the 1-3-5 for more than work
  • Using the 1-3-5, period

Part Three: The Execution Skills 

Chapters 6 -10 cover key skills to support your plan.

Chapter 6: The Four Key Skills You need – “I have found from experience and from the results my clients have delivered that these four key skills will bring the best outcome for you and your business.”

Chapter 7: Leadership – “I had to build a clear picture of what I was going to achieve.”

Chapter 8: Personal Organization – “Organization. One of the major obstacles that you face when you are training for Ultra Endurance events or building a business/career is time.“

Chapter 9: Relationship Building – “Anyone who is in a relationship realizes that the negotiation of time and effort with their significant other is a critical step in deciding to really go for an Endurance Triathlon. Isn’t it the same in launching and running a business?”

Chapter 10: Key Strength Development – “I don’t mean physical strength development here … I mean the areas that I was naturally strong in.”

Part Four: The Next 12 Months 

In this part, steps 1 – 7 discuss the steps to “build on [the work we’ve done] and be absolutely certain that we have motivation to take action and the persistence to keep going…”

Step 1, What’s worked and what hasn’t?

In the past I’ve done things that didn’t work. I’m being honest here; until I actually stopped and reviewed my year I kept doing them for far too long.

Wilkinson, Pete. Unstoppable (p. 168). Wiley. Kindle Edition. 

Step 2 Success for the next 12 months

There are some key areas in your life that you need to work out what success looks like to you. … It’s vital here that you think strategically; don’t jump around from idea to idea.

Wilkinson, Pete. Unstoppable (p. 169). Wiley. Kindle Edition. 

Step 3 Product review

Here, I’m talking about the products and services that you deliver within your business.

Wilkinson, Pete. Unstoppable (p. 172). Wiley. Kindle Edition. 

Step 4 People review

Even as a self-employed consultant or one-man band you will still benefit greatly from support from others. These other people could be trainers, coaches, mentors or members of your family. So, let’s say you’re looking for a certain result from your business this year, are there any knowledge gaps?

Wilkinson, Pete. Unstoppable (p. 176). Wiley. Kindle Edition. 

Step 5 Time review

When I did my first year review and planned what I was going to do for the upcoming year I reviewed the things I spent the most time on. I realized that some activities had not produced a good enough result despite the time and effort I’d invested in them.

Wilkinson, Pete. Unstoppable (p. 178). Wiley. Kindle Edition. 

Step 6 Message review

…think about the messages that you communicate about yourself and your business. I believe we need to make a conscious decision about the messages we communicate.

Wilkinson, Pete. Unstoppable (p. 180). Wiley. Kindle Edition. 

Step 7 Actions

Thinking is good, talking is better, action is best! It all comes down to taking action. So, in simple terms and with the outcome that you can make a difference straight away, here are seven actions for you to take…

Wilkinson, Pete. Unstoppable (p. 184). Wiley. Kindle Edition. 

My own 1-3-5

My personal 1-3-5 is quite personal, but I’ll share some of it.

The vision: We have built a solid foundation of understanding ourselves and our world… We also understand our business, and run it successfully in connection with the tech community… The business has provided us [the things we want], and funds to help the kids. The kids are independent and secure in self, life, family, and friends.

This wouldn’t pass muster as a clear vision as is, but understand…I’ve removed a few details.

Objectives and goals:

  1. Self-realization. To accept myself, be comfortable, and have agency and grace.
    1. Guided meditation
    2. Writing [a specific style and frequency]
    3. Study [specific topics and books]
  2. Confidence and knowledge (regarding the world).
    1. Sales coaching
    2. Addressing one “procrastination task” per week
  3. Provide support, tools, and guidance so the kids can become secure.
    1. [redacted, friends!]

Remember that my 1-3-5 is just an example, and the goals are ever-changing. Pete Wilkinson also provides examples of his 1-3-5 throughout the book.

I hope, if you’ve read this far, you’ll read the book and let me know what you thought of it. Good luck!