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What could go wrong?
Written by Jim Chaput
Jim's Blog
After a 19-year career in financial services, Jim left a leadership position to focus on health and fitness. Jim is a Master Practitioner of Applied Movement Neurology and holds Certificates in Applied Functional Science and 3DMAPS from the Gray Institute. His passion is empowering people to help resolve the pain, tension and insomnia that prevents them from living well.

This is the fifth and final part of my series to help you prepare for 2020. If you’ve ever set goals, you know there are plenty of ways to miss them. If it were easy, most of us would have achieved the life of our dreams. To increase your chance of success, use a pre-mortem exercise to identify where you might go astray.

Imagine you’ve arrived at the deadline you set and you haven’t achieved your goal. What knocked you off track? You can use a goal that you’ve set for the first 6-12 weeks of the year or use your vision of where you’ll be at the end of the year.

I’ll continue with my example of reducing debt. (While Trish and I lived in London, we got serious about finances and lived debt-free for a few years. It felt amazing and the return to living with debt is distressing.)

Goal. By March 31, reduce our credit card debt by 20%.

What could go wrong?

  1. A really cold winter significantly increases heating bills.
  2. I sign up for some training courses that “can’t wait.”
  3. I succumb to gear acquisition syndrome (new phone, new guitar, etc).
  4. I inadvertently use my credit card for things I could have paid cash.

What should I do about those things?

  1. I can’t control the weather. Accept that Mother Nature might overrule my plans. If needed, lower the heat in the house and put on an extra sweater.
  2. Rededicate myself to reviewing training resources I have. If I meet financial goals by end of March, budget for training in second quarter.
  3. Recognize that skill beats gear. Set increased revenue targets that must be met before any new purchases. (Cutting costs will only get you so far. Increasing revenue can make a bigger difference.)
  4. Put the debit card in the front of my wallet. Leave credit cards home if they might be tempting.

Do you know what could go wrong? What will you do to help you succeed?

Have a happy new year celebration! I’m looking forward to seeing you in 2020. If you missed any of the other parts, check them out here:

Part 1 – What a difference a year makes (reflect on the past)
Part 2 – Develop your vision of the future
Part 3 – Set SMART goals
Part 4 – Turn your goals into action
Part 5 – What could go wrong? (you are here)

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