December/January Newsletter
2021: Rethink Goal Setting
I think we can all agree that 2020 has been a uniquely challenging year (I have other words I would use to describe it but there are children around).
And most of us are repeating the annual ritual of making promises to ourselves in the new year. I am certainly guilty of making and failing to keep my new year’s resolutions, each and every year! BUT, what is comforting to know is that we ALL do this. It’s in fact a common psychological tendency called “temporal landmarks.” These important dates we use: end of week, quarter, year, birthdays, etc, make it easier for us to mentally separate from our past imperfections and failures. In hopes of moving and progressing forward.
Although this is an honorable attempt at betterment we all make, numerous studies have shown that 80% plus of all new year’s resolutions fail. To counter this staggering hill we must climb, researchers have looked at ways we can improve how we KEEP to the goals and commitments we set for ourselves:
Write down your goals somewhere you can see or come by them often.
Be specific; the more general, the less likely to be achieved. Therefore, center on goals that are far reaching in their impact, despite the surgical focus on a specific outcome. Ex- a promotion; very specific in the achievement, but far-reaching in impact.
Goals should be achievable and time bound, with measurable outcomes you can track. Its easiest to work backwards from a larger goal, to specific actions. Ex- a promotion that is 2 years out. Work back from the biggest achievements required, to specific actions you will need to take to get there.
Share your goals with loved ones. They don’t need to be mentors, just sharing this will help hold you accountable to yourself! However…
Find mentors to help hold you accountable. People who have done it before and can help you build your plan. Meet regularly and hold to the schedule. Come up with an agenda to discuss your goals and status. Establish an agreed upon framework for tracking to make it as productive as possible.
These are just a few tips and tricks to help you stick to whatever goal(s) you have this year. No matter what, here is to 2021 being an improvement to 2020! Good luck
2021: “The year of EQ”
With everything above, and you still reading, we humbly propose why not EQ as a goal in 2021??
The impact of EQ improvement is far-reaching:
90% of top performers are high in EQ
EQ is responsible for 58% of your job performance
Those with EQ report a happier and more fulfilled personal and professional life
The reason for the data above and why those with high EQ make more, are promoted faster and EQ is listed as a top skill set in the next decade is because it impacts so many soft and hard skills; time management, anger management, presentation skills, accountability, relationship management, change management and the list goes on.
So PFP has pledged to make 2021 “the year of EQ” for any of our members and followers who want to join us on the journey. For this reason, we have launched a completely free slack community. Without anything but an email address and basic info, we are providing regularly updated and curated content and resources to our community. From networking, podcasts, EQ guidance, AMAs and more.
What about full membership? Where you get access to mentorship, job placement services and more? Purchase “Emotional Intelligence 2.0,” upload your EQ stats from the book’s online 5 min EQ test and give us some details on your goals so we can align a mentor. That’s it. Your data is 100% private and will never be sold.
With the EQ development playbook provided by “Emotional Intelligence 2.0,” combined with the PFP community and mentorship, this can be the year you stick to a goal and keep it. A goal that can be measured (the book comes with a second test to track your improvements), the impact is far reaching, and we have a community here to help.
You can find the Emotional Intelligence 2.0 book here
Around the Web: How to Improve Your Decision Making Immediately | by Jonathan Bales
https://luckymaverick.substack.com/p/how-to-improve-your-decisions-immediately
While not a specific resolution, decision making is an essential skillset that ties closely to our Emotional Intelligence. I found this particular write-up, "How to Improve Your Decisions, Immediately (And Why *Almost* Nothing Matters) by Jonathan Bales, to be a great resource, and wanted to share it with the PFP community as well. All good decision making first starts with self awareness — understanding ourselves and our emotions. I have, and I've found that putting a few of the following principles in practice has already reduced stress, improved my confidence, and even sharpened my EQ by rationally thinking through my day-to-day decisions and increasing my overall mental/emotional margin.
According to Bales, the author of The Lucky Maverick blog, most of the time we should be flipping a coin and following that outcome, because most decisions do not end up mattering in the long run. In his blog post, Bales brings some interesting ideas to the table, summarized by this visual aid on decision-making:
Some of my favorite thoughts from the article are:
Some choices have far superior long-term EV (expected value), and it’s the single most overlooked component of decision-making. You should be at least considering long-term effects with almost every important choice you make.
When the consequences of a wrong decision are minimal, you should move with speed. This is the biggest way to improve decision-making, in my view: make more choices and quickly iterate upon them.
Just because you can improve a decision doesn’t mean you should, and in fact, you almost always should choose not to do so.
The only choices that matter are those that don’t have a clearly better option in terms of either long-term or short-term EV, aren’t easily reversible, have large consequences on your life, can be made better with more effort, and have a large enough payoff that putting in more effort makes mathematical sense.
Happy coin flipping!
- Jon
Dallas Update and Call to Action
Manifesting your reality is a concept that I often categorized as pseudoscience but in the past year, I’ve recognized the reality of one quote, “if nothing changes, nothing changes”. As the year comes to a close, so many of us have been excited for 2020 to end, but I encourage all of you to ask yourselves “why”... what have you learned about yourself in 2020 that you will use in 2021 to manifest the reality you want for yourself?
Like many I’ve fallen into the vicious cycle of failed New Year's Resolutions, false starts and the stress that we put on ourselves because we believe a new year, will create a new you. Again, if nothing changes, nothing changes. To that end, have you struggled with accomplishing lofty goals? Stressed yourself out due to perceived failure? or asked yourself how do I manifest the new year that will be better than my last year? if you said yes to one or any of those questions, I want to extend an invitation to the evolution of our professional community, PFP Online.
As Devin said, 2021 is the year of EQ and a 1 point increase in EQ has led to the necessary personal and professional changes that I’ve needed to live a more fulfilling life. I’ll challenge you to join a community of regular humans, looking to make an investment in themselves to manifest their ideal 2021… it all starts with you and at PFP Online we’re focused on curating Podcast from leaders in the industry, providing EQ guidance, building the bridge of networking to help usher in that “new you” as we enter the new year.
For our DFW members you’re in for a treat as we’ll be kicking 2021 with a PFP Online Launch Party. All of the networking and community building that we were accustomed to at the beginning of 2020 will return in a safe and digital format.
2 Calls to Action:
Subscribe to the People First Podcast: Remember that part on curated content, come listen to our short insightful podcast on tips, tricks and suggestions to start 2021 off on the right foot.
Join PFP Online: We’d like to offer an Early Registration of PFP Online, it costs $0 to get started and we’re here to build a better us, in the New Year!
